On February 8th 2010, IC faculty and staff participated in a professional development in-service day organized by the Educational Resources Center. The main purpose for organizing this day is to build a sense of community between faculty members while sharing and learning about creative and innovative ideas in the different domains. Free from their usual teaching responsibilities, they took part in workshops targeting a variety of topics, both subject related and those addressing personal interest. The workshops were presented by IC faculty and administrative members as well as by specialists from various universities and organizations.
The first session of the day was dedicated to addressing in-school and departmental needs and interests. At the Pre-school and Elementary, teachers explored PYP standards and practices and learned more about the PYP exhibition.The seven highly interesting PYP sessions ran simultaneously and were facilitated by 17 PYP teachers and administrators. At the Middle and Secondary levels, teachers worked with their individual departments and school levels to share ideas and learn about new methodologies to impact classroom practices.
Workshop topics in Sessions 2 and 3 included education and leadership, health and education, the food pyramid, projets interdisciplinaires, histoire des arts, discipline with dignity, using blogs, handling science lab wastes and others relating to various disciplines. Going beyond the disciplines, teachers attended workshops designed to inform and have fun at the same time. The non discipline workshops addressed topics of interest to everyone. They included relaxation techniques, education through drama, laughter therapy, creative arts, environmental awareness, using songs and movement to improve learning, team building through PE, and so many more. Staff members also became involved in the activities of the day when they attended a workshop on effective communication.
It was clear that teachers enjoyed the opportunity to relax and have fun during part of the day. As one teacher commented, “This workshop was creative and relaxing. It’s good to be involved in non-academic activities.” As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”: check out those below.
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| Creating blogs with Mahmud Shihab |
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| Dagher Mehanna works with teachers on the uses of audio visuals in the classroom. |
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| Lama Khayr introduces discipline with dignity. |
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| Riad Chirazi and teachers look at education through drama. |
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| Getting involved with education through drama. |
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| No one sits very long when Riad presents a workshop. |
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| Paula Mufarrij and teachers look at histoire des arts. |
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| An animated conversation in Paula's workshop histoire des arts. |
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| Randa Sabbah and teachers explored how to use songs and movement to improve learning. What fun! |
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| There were no long faces in the Laughter Therapy presented by Liliane Akiki. |
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| Maya Tabbara and teachers use art to develop memory story boards. |
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| Dr. Rima Karameh worked with teachers on education and leadership. |
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| Lina Mouchantaf worked with Preschool and Elementary teachers on PYP. |
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| Teachers got down on the floor to relax with Suha Choueiri and Emma Ghanem. |
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| Sabah Saliba introduced some solutions to classroom problems. |
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| Khaled Tayyyara introduced staff to effective communication skills. |
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