Aisha Al Ghufli’s Neighborhood

Here in this two day Iam Sick. I did not go to my workplace. I strated to work at home and collect all my data for need analysis report.

ALL THE BEST FOR ALL

ENJOY WITH YOUR PROJECTS ^^

On Wednesday I observed English + Computer classes and Physics class. It was the first time for me to attend to Mr. Shady class. He used an effective way to teach his students at the beginning of the lesson he showed students videos about gravity. Then he discussed with students about the theory and asked one student to act with him. I think it was an interesting method to connect between the theory and something real. Also, it showed how student were interested and focused with the teacher.

On Thursday: Today is my last day at SAIS I agreed with three teachers to give the survey to students during their lesson. Furthermore, I taught Miss Nada the basic skills to use Camtasia. First I started with the interface of the program and main tabs and menus. I was very excited to teach her because she was very interested in the program and it is interactive features. I was thinking about creating a workshop for teacher next semester about this application.

MY PROJECT +Thinking about a new survey for students (WHAT…)

Today I planned to attend to Miss Nada classes and suggested for her to use Camtasia for her classes as a new method in teaching. She was very interested when she attended to my teaching lesson with grade 7.  And we agreed to meet on Thursday to teach her the main skills to use Camtasia. I think using a new and novel ideas and strategies in teaching will enhance student’s motivation.   

Later on I set my schedule and attended to some classes as usual. Also, I arranged with Miss Maryan to visit me after 1 clock because mu monitor had a meeting. When she arrived to the school we sat with the monitor and discussed about my project for next semester.

At the end I thought about new questions for students to distribute to get more data from them.

On my final day, I gathered all of my data and I organized them in different categories such as: spread sheets, CDs, booklets and miscellaneous. This will help me on attaching my appendix when writing my Analysis report easily. I think that depending on the internet as a main source for the literature review and analysis report will not totally support the writing ideas. As a result finding other published sources from books, encyclopedias if needed when enrich the bibliography. The most important think is selecting the relevant recourse to read and refer.

On my final day I discovered one of the most important projects that will assist me on doing my action research. The project is about developing MOE website which started since 2 months by the Quality, HR, IT departments. I was surprised to know about the details of the project which supposed to finish on 2^nd of December.  Again this showed me the negative communication between the departments at MOE, so I believe that I have to plan for an alternative action research that would be related to communication in the ministry.

Dealing with technical issues is easy but solving organizing issues with others might be difficult. In this day, I noticed that organizing tasks, time and staff is important. Some of the employees might fall in mistakes and this is possible in everywhere. But solving any problem require diplomacy, patience and concentration.  

Furthermore, I found that most of the employees at MOE were so collaborative with me and they accepted to take the surveys. Some of them were very busy by doing their tasks, others were preparing for their workshops and training courses. This showed me that getting involved in different activities, training courses will expand my knowledge about various issues and topics. Moreover, it is important to be have clear instructions, tasks time table and deadlines to accomplish the work. Installing post it software on your desktop might be helpful. Post it the free software encourages the users to be organized. It has alerts to remind you of events, meetings, deadlines and it has a small digital writable posts to write your tasks on. Here is the direct link for post it software (link) download it and enjoy it.

 On the other hand, I thought deeply about the topic of my action research and I list them on a mind map which I created by a web basted platform and I think that I will decide on the suitable topic after I meet my mentors at the department to choose the suitable topic to take an action about it.

Sheihk Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum commanded MOE to celebrate the National Day of the UAE before 2^nd of December. This National event took place in every school, institute, college and university to give the students the chance of expressing their love for the country.

The schools held different activities for teachers and students to involve them all to participate and share their love of the UAE through their draws, photos, poems and stories. I think this will give the students the competence for challenging tasks to vie between each other. MOE on Monday was an effective model to pursue during the celebration since MOE was decorated with flags, draws, pictures and ribbons and it was incredible.

On the other hand, spending some time to look for video editing software was significant to produce the documentary film later. Searching for any free software require time and effort since there are several invalid websites promote for fake software. These fake advertisements and promotions might include spying files, hacking folders which make your computer at risk.

By the end of the day, I found a video editor and converter software which have lots of features and options to produce my documentary film. I saved my time so I don’t need to search for that again in my second semester. Finally, in my point of view, windows movie maker can be a good video software but trying a new one would be best.

The school start celebrating on the National Day at 9:30 today. Students were very happy and they dressed different cloth related to UAE culture. They brought their little brothers and sisters. Moreover, they song different music related to UAE  in the assembly and they were acting. Also, they were buying a traditional food and the school  ask women from outside to put Henna for students. However, I didn’t have time to see and attend everything.

I talked with my SST about the suitable topic for my Action Research. From collecting questionnaires , interviews and discussing with miss Maryanne I  suggested to my SST to choose Using Blog in English. She liked the topic and agreed to run this project next semester. Now, I’m relaxed because I will start searching journals and articles from library catalog about my topic. This will help me start writing Literature Review that leads to write Need Analysis Report next.

After that, I conducted an interview with miss Natalie about using technology. She saw the importance of technology is  adding in students learning, but if the traditional way works better technology is not necessary integrated in the classroom. Moreover, she let teachers use web quests after finishing from each chapter. Actually, she writes  web quests by herself for students and sometimes she takes a ready web quests from websites to use it in the class. Finally, I found that she would be interested in running sessions about how to set up class website and blog. Moreover, she preferred using blog outside teaching time.

Subsequently, I interviewed miss Bassma who is an English teacher. I found out that she integrates technology in the classroom because it enhanced her teaching and make the lesson interesting. Moreover, she used web quest once or twice each week for her students. Also, she would like to have training about using new software because it will help her to deliver lesson perfectly.

Finally, I distributed questionnaire for students, waiting , and explaining questions for them. I found out most of them used technology a lot. Also, they have Internet/wireless access at home that will help me next semester. Moreover, they are familiar to use different types of software especially Microsoft Office. Lastly, most of them used e-mail and MSN as communication tool.

Happy National Day and Aid Mubarak for all of you…

Today I met teachers that I will interview them to arrange the suitable time for them. I interviewed miss Hessa and miss Mariam only.

I found both of them used the same technology in the classroom such as multimedia projector, laptop, speaker and Internet. Moreover, they used web quests for their students that surprised me. Furthermore, teachers used the same software for their teaching which are Microsoft Office. However, I found miss Hessa used more software like Voc. factory which create and build vocabulary activity. Also, she used other software that she installed it in her laptop, but she did not remember their name.  In addition, both of teachers used email and messenger to communicate with their students at home and they would like to use communication tools in the classroom.

On the other hand, from my interview I noticed both of teachers faced the same problems while using technology. For example, multimedia projector doesn’t work and laptop stuck in the middle of the activities.

Finally, both of teachers attend different sessions in the school and out of the school. They believed training session to use new software is defiantly important for their job.

Tomorrow, I will interview miss Bassma and my SST miss Natalie. I hope that they have time for tomorrow’s interview because they will celebrating for the National Day.

After I had prepared for my action research and I was almost done. I spend my time on preparing myself for the Model United Nations “Definition” which would take place for the first time at American University in Kuwait. This is an important trip for me since I will represent the college and my country abroad. I would like to reflect on the MUN and my preparation for this conference. I was selected to join this trip after I had an interview with Ms. Rafeef, Dr. Christina and Ms. Gail who asked me and other 8 students several questions about debating and other social and political issues in the UAE and the world. I was so flexible and confident to respond on the questions and discuses topics and because of that I was selected to go to Kuwait.

 The college supported me by organizing several sessions to train and prepare for MUN. I was so pleased also to see that MOE and the curriculum department so co operative and supportive with the college where they allowed me twice to leave at 12:30 to attend me preparation sessions. I chose to be a delegate of DR of Congo and I think that I learnt lots of information of an African world.  Here are some valid sources (add some links here)which I looked through and gain benefit from them. The MUN has three section which are General assembly which I signed for, Security Council and the GCC. The General Assembly is focusing only at the millennium goals, social issues, environmental issues and women and children rights. Therefore, I looked at lots of websites and I searched for the previous topics and the general information of the country, the history, people and president. I wrote my position paper for the general speech and I think I am prepared now.

My flight would be at 11pm and I have to be at Dubai airport at 9pm, terminal 1 where I will meet Ms Rafeef, Dr. Christine and 7 other students from the college who are on their first year and studying business and IT. Wish me luck girls!

On this day I met Ms Mary to discuss with her the analysis and the case study which I had started from week 11. It was a positive meeting because I received an immediate feedback from my teacher and reinforcement which kept me motivated intrinsically. I came up with the following tasks to be focused on: Mind Map, literature Review, Moodle Module, Designing logo and brochure project. These projects will assist me to prepare the action research on the following semester. I think this is a good chance to practice my design and writing skills therefore to improve them and to spend the second semester working on the action research which will be done according the ADDIE system. This remind me of “”.

Furthermore, I had decided with Salama to work collaboratively on the needs are the curriculum department had mentioned before but we will implement it according to what we had learn from the college by using various knowledge and skills. This proved that I am able to work on challenged tasks since I has high competent to do so. I was pleased after the meeting with Ms Mary since she was helpful, organized and supportive and she wished me luck on my MUN AUK trip to Kuwait.

On this day I spend some time following some people on Twitter and I found some great websites which provide for you free java scripts to build on your website. The tutorials available are very simple and easy to use and implement.