Till now, I attended 11 presentations for my peers in the course. Since day one, I felt the excitement, the stress and the success of all the presenters. Still 8 to go, and I’m one of them, I didn’t do my presentation yet, but I feel as if I did. Thanks to our instructor’s idea, he made us feel as if we are one group. Consulting groups was a great idea, because whenever it was anyone’s in the group presentation, it was as if it’s our own. This made us feel as one family. Of course, I met many opportunities and challenges, but different experiences and various points of views, this is what teaches us. 

   One of the major opportunities that I met is learning new technological tools and strategies. When we started the e-learning at school, I had a very limited knowledge of technological tools. My students used to be very bored in the online session, and I thought of course if they’re not engaged in something, they must be bored. But now, I learnt that there are so many games, programs, forms, applications which were presented in a very simple way in the presentations. Like, Kahoot, Pawtoon, Screen Casto-matic, Padlet, google forms and slides, Quizalize, Random name picker and different websites for games, where you can personalise your own game to go with the topic, like www.ictgames.com. I believe that these tools help me as well as they help the students. They make me create my own activity to serve my lesson plan, and that will force me to work with the UbD (backward design) where I must set my goals and objectives before planning for any activities. 

      Another opportunity is self-assessment. I always want to self- assess myself to know where I stand and what are my points of weaknesses and strengths. I sometimes did, but they weren’t as deep as the one we did in this course. During self-assessing myself, I discovered that I didn’t have only one challenge. I discovered that I have a challenge in applying technology in my class, due to the limited knowledge of technological tools. I found out that during the inline session, I had a challenge in engaging the students and make them busy all the time. I realised that we are not applying authentic assessment as it should be, as we don’t have the enough time to tailor specific assessments to each student on his own. So, the self-assessment definitely helped me identify my weak points in order to work on them.

      Third opportunity and the best to me is learning about Critical Friends Protocol. Criticising is very hard as you want to say your opinion, but in a decent way so that you don’t embarrass your peer. This protocol always starts with “I like” which motivates the one you are criticising. Then comes “I wonder” where I can ask about something that I don’t understand and the last thing is “I suggest” is where I say my suggestion but in a respectful way. Then, there is a discussion made between all the peers. We’ve been doing this for the last 8 sessions and I’m loving it. Everyone is saying their opinion but in a way to make the presenter feel satisfied and proud of himself/herself, and at the same time they learnt something new to modify their lesson plan, as we always learn from eachother and that is the main goal for this course. 

      No learning comes without challenges, and of course throughout the session I met some challenges. My first challenge in this course is that it’s an online course. I like to interact with my peers and instructor exactly like I like to interact with my students. I find it easier and engaging more if we met face to face, but due to the circumstances, it had to be online. I always feel that during the online session there is a gap between me and my students, and being physically with them, makes them feel comfortable and more outgoing. They could even use the manipulatives we used in the class and they are used to it. Same happened in our session in the course, I preferred to be physically there, interacting with my peers.  

      Another challenge which goes under “online session” too is technical problems. Sometimes I find myself logged out or I have problems in listening or watching due to connection issues. I think this happened to most of my friends too, as most of them keep sending messages that they were logged out and couldn’t log in again, so we miss a lot which we don’t want to. But still this is out of our hands. 

      However, the course is going very smoothly as I can feel that I know everyone, although I don’t, everyone is friendly, willing to help and respecting eachother. Our instructor is very helpful, replies to everyone no matter how many questions we ask, and is always ready to support us. He gives immediate feedback, which is one of the keys to our success. Till now, the course is a great success, hopefully it will be the best finale to our professional educator diploma :)

Attending my peers’ presentations and checking their lesson plans was a huge learning opportunity. Despite our differences, in terms of the age groups we teach, the different subjects, and our teaching approach, I really learned a lot from each and every one.

Challenges: There were some challenges that aroused and those are the ones I am willing to work on; I believe I haven’t been tackling differentiation as should be and I have spotted this during my own presentation as well as. It is the grey area that I always avoided, but I am definitely planning to invade in my coming classes. Another challenge that aroused is giving my learners more time to understand and dwell on the information I discuss with them and this needs me to work on reducing my instructional time and giving more time for my students for understanding. 

Opportunities: I strongly believe engagement is key to knowledgeable learners and to leading successful classes. I have learned a lot from my peers’ observations especially tools that will allow me to upgrade my student centered classrooms. I have already started applying them with my 7 graders and especially with the online learning. Padlet; OH WOOW! Thank you Dr. Mohamed for this invention J. Quizalize for creating tailored quizzes for my students in a fun way that serves AFL and AAL. 

Another important opportunity is applying the questioning technique that helped me redesign my lessons, and allowed me to arouse the critical thinking of my students which was key to deep understanding. 

The Critical Friends Protocol was an eye opener on positive criticism. Even though I have always tried to achieve positive criticism, but getting to know more about it in details made the positive criticism process more meaningful and constructive for me and for others as well. It is a step forward towards my character development on a personal level and on a professional level as well.

I LOVED my experience as an online learner and I have managed to transfer most of my learning and understanding to my students, and I am passionately looking forward to transferring all my knowledge to colleagues in need and my kids at school. PED has been the hidden gem that I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to excavate :)

One of the best opportunities that I’ve encountered was engaging with other teachers that are teaching close age groups like me. I’ve learnt tremendously from each one of them, from teaching strategies to energetic attitudes and resources. Each teacher in this course is different and has her own way in teaching her learners, which was very enjoyable to watch and learn from. 

Another opportunity was the critical friends protocol. At first, I was a bit scared of the idea and how I’ll criticize my peers, but after I read the ones they wrote me, I learnt how important it is and how it really opens your eyes to things you may not have seen. I also learnt that we can criticize in a positive professional way using “I like”, “I wonder” and “I suggest”. 

Also, the peer observation forms we fill is extremely helpful for us to see the other side of the story. In my case, my presentation was in the first session so I did not have the chance to check the form beforehand, but for my peers they can use this form as a rubric to understand exactly what is expected from them in their presentation. 

An extremely helpful opportunity I met was the consultancy group. I did not expect it would be that helpful. I love how we help, correct and give ideas to each other. We take a chance for correction and performing better before our presentations, which does not happen in most cases in our lives. 

Adding a fourth opportunity, was the self-assessment we made to ourselves to uncover our challenges. It opens your eyes to challenges you never thought you had. I always knew I lacked in the technology part, but the self-assessment made me realize that it was time to change my way and incorporate more technology into my lesson plans. 

Of course, as there are opportunities there are challenges, like planning a learning session online. This was one of the hardest lesson plans I’ve ever developed. It was really tricky to plan this lesson not only because it was online, but because we had to teach adults, who are teachers too, not young learners like we are all used to. But honestly, besides finding it a challenge, I believe it was also an opportunity, because it pushed me to look for better resources and work hard to perform the best way possible. 

Another challenge I felt was, not presenting my lesson in front of my peers in real. I’m the type of person that likes to connect and bond with other people in real life better than online. I like to see others expressions, reactions and work hand in hand.

 Overall, I can say that till this day in the “teaching practicum” course, I’m extremely enjoying it and impressively learning. Thank you for such an opportunityJ

Along the past few sessions, we have observed a considerable number of presentations which is characterized by its diversities in presenting and delivering the ideas clearly without misconceptions. However on the other hand , we have also observed few presenters who did not manage to deliver the proper idea.

Undouablty , i have benified a lot from the presentations given by my classmates. Thus, from my prespective as a recipient, i have put myself in the shoe if the students so as to feel and and experience how would they react and perceive the delivered presentations and from other perspective as an observer and for the sake of avoiding repeated mistakes.

We truly should pay too much attention to the surrounding challenges and oppourtiunties from my own point of view my challenges could be demonstrated as the following 

A- Nowadays the use of technology in teaching has become an essential part of education system. Worth-mentioning that i have been more than 3 years out of the direct scope of interactions with students and as i have perviously refereed to the necessity of technology in educational system. I am very delighted and so happy to see my classmates using different applications and designing different activities in one session  that suits each student age; knowing that our course of study we have passed by technology subject however, when we get to applying different applications in real world things become more vivid. 

B- A good preparation on lessons is considered to be one of the crucial issues. Nevertheless the technique of raising essential open ended  questions as it is important for the student’s to practice critical thinking. It is really important to teach the students by raising essential questions rather than the huge information poured in students mind. As by this technique students will be able to reach the answers by them selves..

For the opportunities 

A- Despite the difficulties  i am facing in criticizing our peers and i am trying to be positively observe ,criticize and evaluate their presentations as it is not easy at all. Its really good opportunity to expose to such experience.

B-The added value that we have gained from different techniques that were applied by the presenters in showing the approach when dealing with different aged of students .

C-Teaching practicum looks like the last piece that completes the whole puzzle “diploma” And despite that the course is considered to be intensive but we have enjoyed the harmony between us and the instructor however I would have wished If the course had been face to face :)

The chance to listen to other teachers’ experiences and see how each and everyone has a different way of handling things is very fruitful. During our different sessions, teachers would share their stories and how they ended and other teachers would help by giving their constructive feedback and can give extra help as well. The Critical Friends Protocol is one of the new things that I have learned about and it was amazing honestly, it gave me a chance to know to see every tiny detail in the presentations and reflect on it, which was something I lacked a little bit. Knowing how to give constructive feedback is a something that everyone needs to acquire, CFP has enabled me to start to learn how to do that and this definitely helps me as a teacher in giving feedback to my students as well.

Another thing that I have benefited greatly from was student engagement; I have realized that learning and engaged are connected. When students are engaged in what they are doing and interest, learning is at its best. I also came to a realization that when students know why they learn a certain topic and how is this beneficial, they tend to try their best more and are interest to listen. Moreover, when students participate in their own learning, they take ownership and they retain the information better and are more responsible human beings, even at early years. Student engagement also helps a lot in class management, as engaged students are less boring and thus less disruptive of the class. Using the student engagement techniques has made my class more interactive and quieter and thus the learning process improved so much. 

Another great opportunity I have stumbled upon was feedback which is somehow related to the CFP, I have learned to give constructive feedback to my students that would help them improve their work. I learned to try to make them self asses their work and thus reflect on it and they say what needs improvement and what is great. This was actually a challenge for me at the beginning of the diploma, but I have managed to overcome it by hook or by crook.

This is a challenging period and each and every one of us, the challenge of designing an interactive and engaging online class especially for early years, is quiet a difficult one. Especially with the children’s exposure to technology and screens, they have related them to fun things, so it was hard to shift what they think and make a lesson plan that makes want to sit, listen and thus learn. However, we all managed to do and at the same time learn new and different ways of integrating technology in a positive way. I feel that all challenges lead us to opportunities and make you learn something new. 

Another challenge I have come across my teaching years and this diploma is to differentiate in the lesson plan (activities, process and product) and make sure that all students in the class have a fair chance of learning. I personally think that differentiation is always a challenge for me because each year the students are different and what works with a class might not work with another one, so it is always trial and error and you can change and alter the lesson plans to cater for your own class but it is something I always need to work on. 

Last but not least, the world we are living in is super dynamic and the kids are now more aware and advanced. So as teachers we always need to cope with their development and make use of their knowledge and develop ourselves to ensure the best quality of teaching.

Engagement is one of the main pieces of puzzle to complete the perfect shape of a classroom engaging students in the learning process increases their attention and focus, motivates them to practice higher-level critical thinking skills, and promotes meaningful learning experiences.

 

Self-assessment was a great part to overcome my challenges, to know what I need to improve as a teacher to have my dream successful classroom, knowing your weakness helps us to recognize more new techniques to overcome it and improve ourselves.  

 

Peer observation improves teaching and learning giving our self the opportunity to learn from each other, give feedback and gain new ideas. The peer observation protocol is an effective way on giving feedback in a constructive way. I really liked the way we used Padlet to give another feedback on what we liked the most from our peers presentation and to wonder as a question for us that will help and to suggest new ideas to help them achieve more of a new ideas. It helps us to share different ideas together and help each other, I believe that each eye sees in a different way imagine sharing together different visual eyes it will lead to success. Always make sure your voice is heard, every teacher’s voice must be heard and encourage other teacher to develop their own learning. 

      The most important thing I have to talk about is dealing with e-learning experience after the appearance of Covid-19. One day I found that I have to teach my students from home, it was a great shock for me as I didn’t know what to do or from where I should start. Through this course I got the opportunity to learn a lot on how to teach online using different online tools and with my friends presentations I got the chance to know how it works and if it is really engaging or not.

      Also making peer observations was very difficult for me at the beginning as I was confused and I didn’t know how to give my colleagues an effective feedback, but by time I found that it is really helpful and beneficial not only for our colleagues but also for me as well. Writing feedback and comments is a skill that all teacher must learn. 

      Consultancy groups was great idea, I got the chance to learn a lot from my colleagues, they were very helpful and revising your lesson plan increase your self-confidence while presenting.

      Presenting my lesson plan for my colleagues live on zoom was a great opportunity, it gave me the chance to learn how to teach online using zoom which was something that I didn’t do before but I think I will be obliged to use it next year due to the current circumstances. 

      As for my challenges I present one of them which was engaging all my students with their different abilities and learning styles, especially during online sessions. But I had the chance to present this challenge and learn ideas on how to overcome it.

       Presenting my lesson plan for my colleagues live on zoom was also a challenge, which was something that I didn’t do before but I think I will be obliged to use it next year due to the current circumstances. Passing through this experience gave me the chance to learn how to teach online using zoom.

Finally, Thank you Doctor Mohamed for your great effort, I really enjoyed this course, and I learned a lot from you. It was a great experience.

 

 

 

One of the major opportunities in this course was the consulting group. The amount of help and support was unbelievable. My group was absolutely amazing, at first I had A LOT of mistakes in my lesson plan and they really helped me by suggesting some new ideas and recommended a lot of websites to help me and thank God I was satisfied with my presentation although I made some mistakes but I’ve learned from them a lot.

 

Not only that but also, the use of technology. In my school I’ve never used these websites before; we used to get some videos from YouTube and work on the jolly phonics application and that was it, we focused more on the hands-on activities. Now I know a lot of websites that will make the sessions much more fun and more interactive since we will be doing zoom meetings next year as well.

 

Last but not least was the peer observation. Seeing others work really helped me come up with new and more creative ideas. It also taught me how to give a proper feedback and I liked the fact that others gave me feedback as well, it helped me learn from my mistake and enhance my skills.

Nothing comes in life with out challenges. One of the major challenges was the technical problems that comes out of nowhere. For me I struggled with the internet connection that made me miss some of the presentation and I had to catch up by watching the record. I kept logging in and out a couple of times that may have also distracted some of the attendees. 

 

Another challenge that the online sessions don’t build any kind of bond between us. When the sessions used to be faced to face It was much more fun and the more interactive and engaging. But it’s a worldwide crisis so there is nothing we can do.

 

The major challenge is, will the students be ready to be exposed to this amount of technology, also sitting for hours in front of the laptop, tablet or PC is really bad for the age I teach.  It can be hard for some students to stay motivated when they'd rather be doing something else; My students this year didn’t enjoy the eLearning at all, it was difficult for them to sit this entire time especially they are not used to it.