The "activities", this word which I like so  much,but my teachers at my schools do not like at all . I like it as it is the best way to make the student/participant involved in a funny ,interesting way . the time in which the lesson is sometimes turned to a workshop .Other  times to  thinking ,movement ,drawing, coloring.In this way Dr. Joy started the last session with a very simple ,but funny activity when she asked us to move to the center and tell the word or image come to our minds when we hear the word "writing ". Also when she asked us to think of a definition of" writing" individually then to form one final definition as a group..In this way she applied the process of "revision" in post writing strategies. I greatly like her activities and her way of applying them in class .During the next part of the session I expect Dr Joy to ask us to apply the strategies of writing -as she did in" reading "-,but she didn't,I don't know why ,specially that it was the only session for writing .I think"  Writing " is too large to be taught in one session.I think it needs more practice and more activities . 

     Again with critical thinking activities that make us think deeper and refresh our minds .Quickly we reached the mid -Semester with Dr.joy .Good times always runs fast ,but we still have six sessions. I enjoyed the past sessions so much in which we all feel comfortable and got much practical experience in teaching in general and teaching reading in particular, also how to move smoothly from one activity to another,how to fill every minute of the class with effective thing ,how to group and regroup the students to have different experience and relationships and be familiar in dealing with any person .I liked the evaluation of the semester and the instructor of the American university ,but what I liked more is the mid-Semester self assessment which remind me of what I already achieved and finished and what I'm still responsible for doing in time. I'm still worried about the project as  I lack this skill I need to read about project based learning and make steps to prepare for my work not to be late .  

      I have previously read about how to teach reading and also attended trainings talk about reading .Moreover, I trained a lot of teachers on the same topic of reading .But this time I think it was different with much more strategies and activities 

           Again I was fascinated with Dr joy method .her smooth way in transmitting from one idea to another ,from one activity to another .Another thing made me surprised and at the same time happy .Surprised when Dr Joy asked us "what does inquisitiveness taste?How taste,I can say what it looks or sound or feel ,but taste it is new for me ,so I was happy because it is obvious that Dr Joy insists to make us think out of the box ,to give us every chance to be different ,to see things that others can't see and to really  taste the meaning of inquisitiveness ourselves to make our students and teachers taste it as well .
           Also I liked the idea of the project although I"m afraid it will need much time and much research and a lot of other interviews with various types of students boys and girls ,but I ask God to bless our time to achieve our assignment on time . 

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 .