I laughed really hard when I heard someone believed the entire workshop we did could have been covered in two hours! I found that to be ridiculous to say the least. But, I do believe the workshop could be much better. Once again, the idea was to stir up existing resources (you) during the pre-workshop stage, then to do some very specific things during the week. We were never intended to cover anything to any great detail, just to start to establish some direction and introspection. Having said that, I believe there is room for improvement. From here, I will work with you all very closely (as will some new friends :), and you will also work with each other over the next five months. We will find some independent paths while not losing sight of each other. Keeping in mind this larger context, and after a week or so to contemplate, I would like to hear from you:
1) What worked well in the workshop?
2) What could have been better?
3) What topics or sessions could have been eliminated?
4) What topics or sessions could have been added?
Please comment with your feedback and understand that you cannot offend me :) I welcome your thoughts because I pray we will do this thing over and over again! Yahla, let's go.
1) What worked well in the workshop?
2) What could have been better?
3) What topics or sessions could have been eliminated?
4) What topics or sessions could have been added?
Please comment with your feedback and understand that you cannot offend me :) I welcome your thoughts because I pray we will do this thing over and over again! Yahla, let's go.
i just liked the workshop all 5 days long
ReplyDeletewe actually needed 5 whole days
although we didnt do much in the evaluation session, we needed that space to work on our presentations
i also liked the games since they were aimed at knowing ourselves and each other
it was really informative and fun
well, I spent two hours to think about my philosophy before I finally had one!
ReplyDeleteback to the questions:
1. Creating the culture, it was a big challenge to get us all connected this way, your culture extended to more than I expected.
2. need two hours to think about this ;) but maybe it is the place, that's all for me.
3. Nothing
4. Syllabus
as you said, we haven't finished yet and I think it will be fair enough to give you our feedback after five months!
i was looking for a scholarship to complete me phd. for more than 5 years .yet i attended a 5 day scholarship on teaching and learning and i think it really worth . I've got the great benefit .its not only the information which we got,though it was useful, but i feel that i'm newly born . there was sth. hidden that enlightened my vision toward my students, my school ,the students of UNRWA . i feel that i have a philosophy towards teaching . i hoped if there was much more information about intelligence and creativity. what i want to remember after all is the energy i got after the workshop to challenge all the difficulties which we face in our schools to get better teaching for our students because they are the spirit of our future.
ReplyDeleteHello
ReplyDeleteFirst I remember a comment I said to a colleague in the academy during the workshop( This course should be given in a semester not only in five-day-course!!!) That is because there are many things to discover & to go through!
Concerning things that worked well in the workshop
( many things I can mention: the interaction patters including( pair work, group work ,individual work,…) the communication styles, the memory techniques, the idea of the projects was wonderful . The most important thing is the research we are going to write. Besides, new learning techniques could be added( games to be applied in the classroom )That's my favorite.
:)
What two hours????????
ReplyDeleteThis course was very intensive, in fact we need a complete semester to have this course as it must be with details and with good practice.
Michael I was working and asking you about a lot of things concerning the academy until two or three in the morning and at half past eight we were meeting again in the academy to complete our work , Michael you made a great job and we all appreciate you efforts you were more than a professor you were and still our professor and our senior brother who we all love and respect very much.
Ahmad Al-Joghaime.
I think for a workshop like this we can set the ground rules and introduce each other in two hours which is, i think, a thing to learn too. If only we were planning to review the assignments that we did in the first phase, this will take us more than five days.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I really appreciate what my colleagues said about this post and i do still remember that some of them wished that the workshop lasted days longer. In a general evaluation, the workshop did make a difference as it added a lot by opening new horizons for all the members (teachers and education specialists). I, as an education specialist, have never thought about having a philosophy that might help me evaluate the teachers and help them improve their performance bearing in mind their own philosophies, instruction, assessment and evaluation. The idea of congruence, on the other hand, will facilitate the cooperation between teachers and their supervisors and I'm sure their HTs.
Regardless of the gained knowledge which, for me, was all new, I enjoyed the activities that we implemented in the training such as games, burning questions, group and individual work. I also liked the different ways of dividing the groups that allow us all to get to work with each other. Creating supportive and conducive classroom culture was one of the areas that I really liked especially when I lived the experience in the workshop (as you Michael have created this in the training). Moreover, I enjoyed learning about communication styles, flow theory, ZPD, assessment and preparing different types of tests in addition to a plethora of new terms that certainly we need months to grasp their meaning and integrate them in our teaching repertoire. However, I think that there are certain areas that need to be tackled more thoroughly such as philosophy and instruction. For philosophy maybe we should have dealt in depth with (Angelo, Rousseau, Plato, etc) to use their views of the world and human beings in a significant ways to our teaching philosophies (I'm not sure if this would help in one way or another). As far as instruction is concerned, more teaching and learning theories and methods should have been highlighted. It is important to mention that it might be your own way of training Michael in which you just throw the idea or the term and the trainees should find more information about it since it is not spoon feeding training.
All in all, this workshop needs even more than five days just to tackle we tackled..:)
Zeinab