My First Blog

Blog for Teacher Development Program

Last year when Mr. Waqar Ahmad Ahmedi visited Rabwah and held a 3-day seminar for teachers in Nazarat Taleem Rabwah. We decided to create a platform for the teachers to interact in a professional way and collaborate their experiences and methods in teaching which they have found useful and effective and to create a space where we can share our ideas to make the learning experience of our students more fruitful.

Here you can read Mr. Waqar Ahmad Ahmedi's blog about visit to Rabwah:

https://waqarahmedi.wordpress.com/2017/08/12/educating-rabwah/    

Here is a brief introduction of his diverse career:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/waqar-ahmad-ahmedi

https://www.amazon.com/Waqar-Ahmad-Ahmedi/e/B06XRWPSZM

So, first of all we would take a look at the topics we discussed in the seminar and I would like to invite the teachers who participated in the seminar to share their observations and experiences by implementing the ideas presented in the seminar, and then I would like to invite all the teachers to comment and suggest their views to make this blog a comprehensive platform, from which we all can benefit in way or another. You can send any useful information, articles or links as well to help your fellow teachers. 

Aims

·         In order to ensure personal development and individual progress at NTSS, we aim to create a climate in which we all work collaboratively, co-operatively and striving to achieve the highest possible standards in teaching and learning.

·         This will be achieved by creating a stimulating and positively managed learning environment in our institutes. An appropriate attitude to learning should be fostered by the consistently looking at our short comings and improving upon them.

·         We seek to inculcate a positive attitude towards learning, which will equip teachers and students with the skills needed for further learning and help them to develop into useful responsible citizens.

·         At NTSS we aim to create an inductive environment where all students will be engaged, challenged and given opportunities to develop, in order to enable them to reach their full potential.

Mr. Waqar shred with us in his presentation an inspiring Tedx talk by Amjad Ali: This talk explores the concept of being engaging in the classroom and whether it is necessary or not. Amjad dissects the notion of a gimmick and fad and present how his teaching has developed over time, which has in turn inspired generations of people.
 The overall message is to be yourself, do your best and never stop learning.

The first topic that I would like to present here from the seminar is Lesson Planning.

Lesson Planning.

Lesson planning is at the heart of being an effective teacher. It is a creative process that allows us to synthesize our understanding of second language acquisition and language teaching pedagogy with our knowledge of our learners, the curriculum, and the teaching context. It is a time when we envision the learning we want to occur and analyze how all the pieces of the learning experience should fit together to make that vision a classroom reality. In other words Lesson plan is a written description of education process in which it is shown what, when, where and with which method learners should learn and how they should be assessed. Lesson plan is one of the key factors in the educational process.

Here is a template for making a lesson plan which you can customize according to your requirements and needs:

Lesson Plan

Teacher		Class	Subject	SLO/Topic	Date
Context / Background(put the lesson in context by giving a brief background – e.g. what was the previous lesson about, link to exam syllabus etc.)
Student Learning Ooutcomes(what are the main objectives in this lesson? What do you want the students to know/understand by the end of the lesson?) Expected Progress All students will be able to… Most students will be able to… Some students will be able to…
Anticipated time	Learning activities Bellwork/Starter: Main: Plenary:
Progress will be demonstrated… (how will you know students have made progress?) In the first half of the lesson: In the second half of the lesson:
Differentiation and extension tasks - including provision for SEN students(what variety of activities will you set to make sure all students are able to access the content? Also, what additional tasks can you set to challenge the higher attainers and/or those who finish the main work early?)
Literacy (reading, writing, communication)				Assessment Opportunities
Resources (incl any use of ICT)( information and communication technologies)
Home Learning / Links to next lesson/ Homework/ Assignments

Please feel free to with us with your valued comments...