Introduction
School is one of the most fundamental pillars of communities development. Thus, it is essential that schools provide the suitable environment, facilities, resources and materials for students to have the opportunity to improve their diverse skills in various fields to serve their communities effectively and efficiency in future.
About the school
In this semester, I practiced my teaching in one of the best schools in UAE, which is Al Fujairah Islamic Scientific Academy School. It is a private school located in Al Fujairah city. It includes the stages starting from kindergarten to grade ten. This school focuses on creating a safe and supportive environment for students to learn and develop. Additionally, based on COVID 19, this school integrated technology into its learning environment where its curriculum delivered online using Microsoft Teams to enhance student learning process. It provided laptops and iPads for students so they can access resources and materials such as e-books, activities and assessments easily through the Microsoft Teams application.
Moreover, Al Fujairah Islamic Scientific Academy School follows bridge to success British curriculum, which is published by Cambridge University Press and printed by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education. The curriculum consists of diverse thematic units of study that include a range of objectives and activities spilt over three terms. Furthermore, Bridge to success provides an opportunity for students to acquire knowledge, improve their critical thinking and language skills through practicing. However, here are some information about the school including the timetable and my MST schedule.
This is the timetable of the normal periods that school used to follow during the face-to-face learning. However, periods time has changed during the online learning. They minimized the time of the class to be only 40 minute. In addition both teachers and students start their classes at 8:00 am and finish at 1:20 pm.
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This is my Mentor School Teacher schedule, Mr. Nagy. He taught only two grade six sections, boys and girls sections. Additionally, he had only two classes per day and he was teaching four days per week because Thursday was off day.
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Moreover, the school does not only concentrate on learning and teaching, it celebrates the important events online as well and invites everyone including parents and trainees. This table shows the most important events in school during the period of my teaching practice.
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Reflection on TP school
This was my first experience of online teaching and I think it was a great one. I believe hat Al Fujairah Islamic Scientific Academy School is one the best schools that I had practiced my teaching in. All teachers and administrative employees are qualified. They were working collaboratively and respectfully together. In addition, students were provided with the needed resources and materials that supported their learning process. Moreover, based on my observation of my MST and my colleagues' MSTs sessions, diverse approaches were being implemented with students. For example, my MST used to implement the inquiry-based learning and cooperative learning approaches.
This means that students had the opportunity to improve their communication, social, linguistic and cognitive skills. They were exploring various topics by themselves and sometimes as groups through discussing and sharing their ideas. Also, despite the difficulties and challenges imposed by COVID 19 on teaching process, it did not prevent the school from preparing competitions and celebrations for students that motivate them to learn. During the period of my teaching practice, the school celebrated the Flag Day online. Students were very excited and happy. Furthermore, students had the chance to participate in "Spelling Bee" competition, hence they had a valuable opportunity to improve their vocabulary skills.