inspector'thoughts

       Really it was a very nice interesting session last Tuesday .What I admired is the discussion that happened about the interview each one of us did with our students about reading,and also the short presentation about each group article .As a result to these discussions and presentations I noticed very important things:

•      That we,most Egyptian teachers ,never think of reading this way .I mean that we never think of reading inside the class as a very important aspect related to the student's identity and his/her reading habits .Also I noticed how important and basic is the teacher's care about reading inside the class and that the more the teacher care about reading the better readers the students will be  inside and outside the class .That justifies why international schools students are greatly different from other students of public or ordinary private schools,.not only in their language ,but also in their thinking and characters -the issue of identity development -which is deeply related to what happen inside the class , particularly in reading and writing.
•         How important is the "Free reading " periods which is a part of the English language activities inside the school.As apart of my responsibility as an inspector and personally interest ,I always ask my teachers to give due care to the free reading (asking students to choose a book or a story from the library or from home to read freely and discuss in the class in a stress free atmosphere and apart from the heavy burden of marks and exams)  equally as school broadcast and wall charts ,magazines ...etc.but they ,specially governmental teachers ,never care about it thinking that it is a waste of time.I realized that those teachers themselves never care about reading or know its importance in building the students'identity . So the issue is the teachers themselves and how to change their attitude towards reading and towards the process of teaching and learning in general .

          Another thing I was astonished at is the two recommendations in our group article :First is the "recollection project" which is a book of essays written by fifth grade about themselves as learners and was celebrated at a recollection breakfast where they read their essays to audience of : family members ,teachers and peers .This gives them -as the writer said- chance to make a public statement about "who they are as learners " and affirm a public identity.How I was shocked at this sentence ,because I only start to learn how to reflect about my learning or about anything in this diploma and  after I joined TOT.training.Second is the "graduation portfolios"these portfolios that were unique for each student choosing 8 subjects ,then defend them before a panel of 2 teachers parents,  a community members and a younger peer.Again a great chance to make public a personal identity that combines aspects of home and school identities and interests .
       In this article "the case study "  I admired so much  the involvement of parents in every thing happen in school .How the school make link between the teachers and parents to see the complete picture and be able to deal with any shortage .This feature that most of our schools totally ignore and do not realize its importance . 

Last Tuesday Session

       It was a wonderful session .what attracted me so much  is the practical approach that Dr. Joy used through activities to teach us the right  method of critical thinking  in which the focus should be on the "process " of learning , the process u use to reason about the content not only on the content itself.As it is" collaborative "not competitive endeavor, she made us work out those activities in groups . And as it is a "mental habit ",she encouraged us to think about our thinking to improve thinking and make it a habit,that is what I admired so much.

       Another thing I admired is that she forced us to have a Skype and blog ,the Skype for discussing our reading and the blog is for reflecting on every session .in my previous courses I learned how to reflect through written essays,so it is new for me to reflect this way ,how to make blogger and Skype. 

      The only one thing I don't admire is that Dr.Joy just passed over" Bloom's Taxonomy"and didn't explain or ask about it in details .I myself,know it very well,but I mean if there is any colleague who doesn't know about it .Generally "Bloom Taxonomy" speaks about the Higher Order Thinking skills "HOT"skills .It contains six levels of thinking:

6-  evaluation :The ability to judge and evaluate the information .

5-synthesis    :The ability to combine parts tocreate the big picture .

4- analysis     : The ability to identify the details and discover or differentiate                             component parts of information

3- application : The ability to transfer knowledge from one setting to another.

2- comprehension : The ability to to understand,translate,paraphrase a material   

1- knowledge   :The ability to just recalling or recognizing the information .