Our work placement for our last semester
was at Mushiref Model School in Ajman, and we spent 8 weeks at the school. Our
project was to create an electronic book for the English curriculum for grade
five. Our experience at the school we very
beneficial, because during these 8 weeks we get to be a part of the school’s
community and to work with administrators and teachers for the first time. In
addition, working at the school gave us a sense of what is the role of educational
technologist in the school. Working at the electronic book made us use
everything that we leant at the collage from the software that we learned to
how we can create something that engages
students and help them to be motivated and want to learn. Moreover,
I feel that the school’s administrators were very helpful and understanding of
what we have to do. They were constantly asking us if we need any help,
allowing us to attend classes and providing us with what we need to complete
our project. However, our main concern was time; we felt
that 8 weeks were not enough to complete our project, to collect data for our
action research and implement our project. Fortunately, we managed to finish
the electronic book and in the next days we will go to the school to implement
the project and finish our data collection. One major challenge that we faced was that
our SMT was always busy so we did not have enough time to discuss with her the
electronic book and show her the progress each step in a way. But at the end of
the 8 weeks we showed her the electronic book and she liked it and now we will
arrange with the teacher when we can come to the school and implement the project
in some class. Also, the principal want to attend the classes to see the
results of using the electronic book with students. We had many successes at the work
placement. One of these successes is that we created a product that the school needed;
the school never used an electronic book so implementing the electronic book will
be something new. Another success is that we worked collaboratively with the
administrators and we learned how to be a part of a community and work together
and help each other. In addition, we learned many things during
the work placement. One main thing was that we learned new software. We learned
how to use the quiz feature in Captivate and use different features of
Articulate. Another thing that we learned was we learned how to control
students. While we were at the school we had to watch some classes and we learned
how to control students, I think that watching these classes was very helpful
for us because if will help us a lot if we become teachers. Finally, I think that our work placement at
the Mushiref Model School was successful because we benefited a lot from
working in one of the best schools in Ajman. We worked with a staff that is
competent and helpful and we produce a product that will hopefully help the
teacher and students.
This week was our last week at Mushiref Model School and it was the
hardest. We were very stressed because we had to finish the electronic book and
try to implement it during that week. Luckily, we finished the electronic book
but we did not have time to implement it. So we have to arrange with the
teacher when we can come to the school and implement the project. Completing the electronic book was hard and it took a lot of work
because not only we had to create different activities, games and quizzes but
we had to understand what the lessons are about and include the explanation in
the electronic book. Also, to create an electronic book that is interactive we
had to learn how to use different software and learn how to use new features in
some software which was challenging because we only had 8 weeks. I think that, one of the most important things that we learned
from creating the electronic book is to use different software to create
activities, quizzes and games. Also, we learned how to research better for
different activities for the lessons. In addition, I believe that, the most
benefit that we get from this work placement was how to work with teachers and
administrators to create learning resources for them.
This week was a very
successful week for us because we managed to start to apply what we planned and
start to work on the electronic book. We started the week be attending a
presentation for one of the administrator, her presentation was very engaging
and it gave us some ideas for our own presentation. At the end of the
presentation there was a draw for a Hammer and I
win (this was the high light of my week).
Another successful thing that we are experiencing is applying what planned using computer. I learned that planning is a very good strategy that can be very helpful because it gives you an idea of how the product should look like. However, I leaned that planning is a thing and applying it is another thing, when you start to apply what you plan you get hit by reality because not everything you planed can be applied so you have to make major adjustments. I think that, now the real work started for us because now we have to look for ways that enable us to create an electronic book that is motivating, engaging and help students to learn.
Week 5 and 6 were the hardest for us because during these weeks the school were interviewing students to except them for grade 1 next year, so you can imagine how busy and stress they were. So we had to work in the library and for a couple of days there was a problem with the Internet connection so we could not continue our work on the electronic book. So we started to plan for our next unit and the activities and how they should they be used in the lesson, we learned that you should always have a plan B because you can’t trust technology and you should always be prepared for unpleased surprises.
Another issue that we faced during these two weeks was that we could not attend classes with our SMT because she was very busy and the students had exams during these weeks. I think that we should try to coordinate a meeting with the SMT so we discuss with her about when we can attend classes with her. It is very important very for us to attend classes with the teacher because it is very crucial for our AR to collect data and observe students before using the electronic book and after using it.
