Education Day ~ Touch the Future

 

      Last spring semester 2017's Education Day was one of a kind. Usually what happens on this day is having students display their academic achievements to judges and present their work orally in English of course. I'm the type who really enjoys such a day because it makes me feel competent to have come up with final products after putting all the hardwork on the tasks. For personal reasons, I was only able to present my Practicum I portfolio and luckily was granted the first place for it out of all the competitors. Dr. Anwar AlKawtharani attended the presentation and took a look at my work and commented positively on it. I believe such an event is necessary in having us students practice our oral communicative skills yet engage us in the challenge itself to seek satisfaction.   .

                             

Highlights of My First Observational Reflection

“Safety first” should be any educator’s policy when it comes to welcoming learners in an academic setting. The safe, fluffy and warm environment can be ensured once the learners feel aware about “what’s next”. Clearly, established classroom routines show up to provide comfort and productivity efficiently. The paper at hand aims to reflect my observation at grade 3, OMEC whereby I shed the light on “The Teacher’s Routines”.

 “Good afternoon class” said the teacher at 1:00pm. She told the class “we have a guest, Ms. Noor is here to watch you all, so you have to speak in English alright? I’m sure all of you will do well in front of her!” The suitability of this goes back to having the teacher set high expectations since the very beginning of the class. These words of hers were supporting and motivating enough for them to move on and speak English without hesitance. To tell you the truth, these words did have a great impact on students’ English performance. They spoke English most of the times, but there were these 3 students who always commented in Arabic. Usually the teacher recasted their words in English and praised their answer selection.

Next, the teacher told students “Hands up and down, hands up and down, hands up and down… now let’s take a deep breath… look at Ms. Eman… If you hear Ms Eman, clap your hands… If you hear Ms Eman cross your hands… Ms Eman wants to see if grade 3 students are polite, respectful and if they’re speaking English”. The effectiveness of this moment reflects the teacher’s choice of following the operational standard in managing the classroom environment and letting things flow neatly. Based add to this, I could sense that the teacher was comprehensibly aware of her area of performance since she followed a classroom management pattern professionally. What makes me believe this kind of professional knowledge belongs to the “pattern” superordinate title goes back to having the students’ performance framed and yet somehow observable (in terms of having a consequence; a quieter atmosphere). 

I could read between the lines that the teacher wanted her students to grow up in the learning process through the frame of neatness and organization not just in the space they’re in, but also in terms of the classroom performance through setting the foundation; different routines.

The Special Needs' Week

   The Education Department at LIU decided to have one whole week with activities for those of special needs. This was held during the fall semester 2017 whereby LIU hosted associations like  "Markaz AlBasira" in which its members with different visual impairments presented poems and a role play scene highlighting their struggles in the society. The second part of the event included a workshop for Dr. Nizar Ibrahim (whose visually impaired) about inclusive classrooms for the disabled learners and how teachers need to deal with such pupils. The best part of the week was actually visiting "Eyam AlRajaa" association in Zahle and viewing children of different ages with special needs and getting to interact with them. Such activities come to acknowledge and provide us as graduates and future leaders when it comes to dealing with the 

diversity in education with the best methodologies when it comes to proper pedagogy. 

                             

The Arab Women's Conference

      The conference was hosted at the Lebanese International University (LIU) during the spring semester 2017 in the support of women in terms of acknowledging them in the society. I was part of the organizing committee for the conference. I can't deny but the conference was a great chance for the LIU staff members and its president meet with intellectual speakers from Morocco, Saudi, Lebanon and even with Lebanese speakers residing abroad. Not to mention that the Lebanese "Female" minter Enaya Ezzidine was also present at the conference. The discussed topics revolved around the ideas of raising awareness towards looking at the Arabic Woman and appreciating her great identity in the society. Based on what I remember, it was agreed in opinion  that the women in the Arabic region is seen through the positive lens who tends to succeed in different domains. I'd like to thank LIU and specifically the education department for granting us this golden chance for looking into such topics.