Term 3 April - June 2020. VOL.7 ISSUE 3
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CREATING A BETTER EDUCATIONAL FUTURE POST COVID-19 CRISIS
USING TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT TEACHER AND STUDENT WELLBEING EFFECTIVE USE OF DIGITAL FEEDBACK REDUCING WORKLOAD FOR TEACHERS
THE AQUILA SCHOOL DUBAI EMBRACING THE INDIVIDUALITY OF EVERY LEARNER
MAKE STAYING AT HOME WORK FOR YOU!
A MOMENT WITH HENRY PLATTEN
THE MIDDLE EAST SCHOOL LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE OCTOBER 6-7, 2020 – DUBAI
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Planning Learning Spaces A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR ARCHITECTS, DESIGNERS AND SCHOOL LEADERS
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‘ A welcome and timely addition to the subject of school design at a time of great change ‘ PROFESSOR ALAN JONES President of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 2019-21
‘ Comprehensive but also very practical approach ’ ANDREAS SCHLEICHER Director of the Directorate of Education and Skills, OECD
‘ Any community building a new school should read this book ’ MICHAEL B. HORN Clayton Christiensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation t al free a ad journ lo n w o D es.com ingspac rn a le g plannin
‘ Builds a bridge from the simple to the extraordinary… awash in opportunity and inspiration ’ PROFESSOR STEPHEN HEPPELL Chair in Learning Innovation at Universidad Camilo José Cela, Madrid
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CON TENT 04
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C L A S S
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08 CREATING A BETTER EDUCATIONAL FUTURE OUT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS 10 INDIVIDUALISE YOUR TEACHING WITH THE HELP OF DIGITAL ASSESSMENT 12 SUPPORTING STUDENT AND TEACHER WELLBEING WITH TECHNOLOGY 14 ACHIEVING EQUITABLE QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL USING VIRTUAL SCHOOLING
26 NAVIGATING MATHEMATICS INFORMATION OVERLOAD 27 ASSESSMENT IN KINDERGARTEN 28 SMALL SCHOOL, NEW TECHNOLOGY, GLOBAL RESEARCH 30 BRING BACK HOME ECONOMICS TO THE CURRICULUM IN THE UAE 33 IS YOUR SCHOOL GRAPPLING WITH ELEARNING? 34 MEET THE EDUCATORS WHO CREATE CONTENT
16 LEVERAGING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TO MAXIMISE ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE
40 MIRROR BOOKS AND WINDOW BOOKS
18 DIGITISING VERBAL FEEDBACK AND REDUCING WORKLOAD FOR TEACHERS
42 BUSINESS FINLAND SET TO HERALD FINNISH EDUCATION AT EXPO 2020
20 TODAY’S STUDENTS NEED A GLOBAL OUTLOOK AS WELL AS TOP GRADES
44 SCHOOLS, OPTIMIZE YOUR COSTS AND RELEASE HIDDEN CASH WITH THIS PRACTICAL ADVICE
22 THE AQUILA SCHOOL DUBAI EMBRACING THE INDIVIDUALITY OF EVERY LEARNER
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A F T E R
T H E
B E L L
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A MOMENT WITH
HENRY PLATTEN
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48 A MOMENT WITH HENRY PLATTEN
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50 PORVOO THE CITY OF CHARMING MOMENTS 52 TAKING A HARD LOOK AT TEACHER WELLBEING DURING COVID-19 54 THREE CLEVER WAYS TO MAKE STAYING AT HOME WORK FOR YOU!
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PUBLISHER’S MESSAGE “Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.”
M I D D L E
ARISTOTLE
Teach Middle East Magazine®
Welcome to the summer edition of Teach Middle East Magazine. It is April 2020, the start of the summer term, but instead of being in school and picking up a copy of Teach Middle East Magazine in your staff room, you might be reading this publication from the comfort of your own home via our website www. teachmiddleeastmag.com or via the Teach Middle East free app which is available on all major app stores. The world as we know it has been turned upside down by the Covid-19 global pandemic and we suspect things may never be the same again. If you are reading this issue much later and things have gone back to “normal” We are sure there are many lessons that were learned and many adversities that were overcome. As this message is being typed, millions of children are out of school, with a few fortunate ones learning via distance learning platforms. Many parents are working from home and several countries are experiencing complete lockdown. Globally, we are being bombarded, on the news, with pictures of doom and gloom. The world economies are in free fall, health care systems are being stretched to their limits as never before and governments are scrambling to keep their countries afloat. But as its said, “every cloud has a silver lining”, we hope that this issue will be part of that silver lining for you, in a world that is currently filled with gloom, so sit back relax and enjoy turning the pages of your favourite education magazine. We have been overwhelmed by the kindness that education companies have been showing during the covid-19 pandemic. Many companies have opened their online platforms to offer complimentary usage during the crisis. Authors have made audio versions of their books available so that students could continue to enjoy
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reading and listening to their favourite books, teachers and education consultants have donated hours of free courses and webinars online, all in a bid to ensure that learning continues. We salute you all. In this issue of Teach Middle East Magazine we want to take your mind off all that is happening and bring you hope for a brighter future in education. We bring you helpful hints and techniques on how to make the most out of distance learning. We also look at what educators can do to balance on screen and off screen time. Keep turning the pages to meet the educators who are also content creators and make sure to check out their blogs, YouTube channels and podcasts. We also chat with Henry Platten, the co-founder of GoBubble, the first social media platform for children, to find out what inspired him to launch such a platform and what his hopes are for young people going forward. Don’t forget to check out the ‘After The Bell’ section of the magazine, where we bring you articles to enhance your personal lives and wellbeing. Later in the year we will be hosting the Middle East School Leadership Conference and the GESS EdTech Summit in Dubai on October 6-7, 2020. Keep checking www.schoolleadersme. com for more details. Remember that the best conversations take place online with like-minded, connected educators, so connect with us on twitter @teachmiddleeast and on LinkedIn and Facebook @ Teach Middle East Magazine, as well as on Instagram @teachmiddleeast. Download the free Teach Middle East App on all major app stores.
We are stronger together! The Editorial Team Teach Middle East Magazine.
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Administrator's Corner
CREATING A BETTER EDUCATIONAL FUTURE OUT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS BY: JAMES MACDONALD
I
t has been said over and over recently that we are living in unprecedented times. We are not sure how long the COVID-19 crisis will last, but with discussions revolving around ‘flattening the curve’, there is an acknowledgment that we will, eventually, come out on the other side. It is a question of when, not if. One thing I’ve learned by leading schools through campus closures twice before (first in Japan in 2011, followed by Thailand in 2014) is that, early on, it is important to think on two levels: dealing with the urgent and immediate (and being in crisis mode will take most of your time and energy) while also finding the headspace to think strategically. Regardless of which phase of the crisis
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your school community is in now, you need to be thinking about what educational future will be created post-crisis. There will be a future 'new normal'; it is just a question of whether or not you craft it. And to do so, you need a vision.
Creating a vision in challenging times Consider this idea: What if, back at the beginning of the school year, your school’s leadership team held a retreat and came up with the somewhat crazy idea to close the campus for four weeks in April and implement e-learning? Could you justify it? Maybe not fully, but I suspect you could find different reasons to support it: developing technology
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skills, improving independent learning habits, embedding digital citizenship, providing amazing professional growth for teachers, and last but not least, throwing off the shackles of the daily schedule. Whatever justifications you personally come up with, through this thought experiment, are your defacto vision. To help share your vision with others, a great technique is to create a ‘vision narrative’ by describing an hour-byhour day in the life of an individual student (or two) post-crisis. How do their routines and learning change? This exercise could also include teachers, leaders and parents. The vision becomes tangible pretty quickly when you have a narrative.
Administrator's Corner The core question to ask is ‘What will we have at the end of this crisis that we don’t have now?’ Think in terms of resources, capabilities and capacity. And be specific. Keep in mind that this applies to you as an individual professional as well as to your organization. If you don’t know where you want to go, how are you going to get there?
Practical advice for enacting your vision Maslow hierarchy meets ‘Snakes and Ladders’: As we all know, in crisis situations, people will naturally slide down Maslow’s hierarchy as their safety and human connections are jeopardized. Personally, I imagine Maslow’s famous pyramid superimposed with the game of Snakes and Ladders, and our job as leaders and educators is to build ladders (and remove as many snakes as we can) so everyone can move up to higher levels. Remember, you cannot enact a vision without self-care and care for others, and if people don’t feel cared for, they won’t care about the vision.
so, I would suggest you adapt/tweak what observation rubrics you already have in place, to create a modified one, as a tool for planning, professional dialogue and feedback. This rubric will also paint a clear picture of excellent teaching and learning. (We are piloting our own at the Al Futtaim Foundation, and if you would like more information, just message me – we would be more than happy to share our rubric and other resources.) New types of learning are now possible – embrace them! While physical doors on campuses are closing, virtual doors to new learning are now wide open. This is a great opportunity to enact technology learning standards like ISTE. With the shift to online learning, everyone will be using tech in new ways, so why not embrace and celebrate new learning possibilities and communicate to your community that e-learning has upsides, too! Students, teachers and leaders will be developing new 21st-century skills. Remember
that a crisis
amplifies
strengths and exposes weaknesses. For example, cracks in decisionmaking processes become fault lines, and already healthy professional relationships move to new heights. Get ready to have a SWOT analysis imposed upon you and your organization! Learn from experience as you go. Good drivers don’t just look forward – they also check their rear-view mirrors. Being able to look back and reflect is essential to learning, so actively seek feedback and be prepared to adjust your vision accordingly.
These are not easy times... As I write this, fatalities in countries around the world continue to grow, economic hardships are threatening some of society’s most vulnerable, and seemingly everyone is feeling uncertain. But I am reminded that while we cannot choose our circumstances, we can choose how we respond. Education will change as a result of this pandemic, and we all need to decide how we want to shape the change.
The future of education has never been about tech. Tech initiatives in education have a long history of falling short of expectations, largely because people wrongly focus on the tech tools rather than the underlying human behaviors. (The best tech integrators I know, have amazing relationships with others, rather than being the most tech-savvy.) Now with new behaviors being imposed upon us, through social distancing, tech must finally assume its proper place as our humble servant. So, don’t waste this chance to develop a process for thinking through what new normal human behaviors should be embedded post-crisis when things get ‘back to normal’. Do you know what great learning looks like? One of the best ways to define, visualize and communicate what great teaching and learning looks like is through a rubric. We all have classroom observation rubrics in our schools, but one for the online space are less common (partly because the asynchronous learning means a snapshot observation can’t work the same way). If you haven’t already done
Originally from Canada, James began his career as a classroom teacher before going on to lead two separate IB schools in Japan (Yokohama IS) and Thailand (NIST IS). James also led a large cluster of US & IB curriculum schools with GEMS Education (UAE), before taking on his present role of Managing Director of the not-for-profit Al Futtaim Education Foundation (UAE).
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Sharing Good Practice
INDIVIDUALISE YOUR TEACHING WITH THE HELP OF DIGITAL ASSESSMENT BY: KATIA AL-KAISI
students cannot keep up with their usual level of achievement.
K
atia Al-Kaisi spoke with Dr Kirsi Wallinheimo an expert in distance education to get her thoughts on how we can individualise teaching with the help of digital assessment.
friends and teachers, poses challenges for children. Even though the first reaction of many children towards school closures may have been a series of hurrahs, the reality is starting to set in.
As children are learning new ways to study, student assessment takes new forms as well, and that has an impact on teaching. This school term has turned out to be wildly different from what many of us – teachers, principals, students or parents – ever expected. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, we are suddenly forced into adapting digital learning and teaching with speed totally unimagined. And it does not help that this is happening in a situation that is likely to be stressful for many families.
“Children are used to getting feedback, encouragement and guidance from a teacher who is physically present,” explains Finnish education expert, PhD Kirsi Wallinheimo. “In distance learning, this is not always possible, and it may have an effect, especially on younger and more quiet students, who gravitate towards constant feedback.” This, in turn, can mean that some
Luckily, we do have the technology, which makes digital and remote learning possible. But as isolation and school closures are going to be in place for the rest of the academic year, the situation also has an influence on how students’ learning should be evaluated.
New Technology Brings Possibilities Studying at home, in isolation from
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But challenges can be overcome. Teachers need to learn to give personal attention to students, even in digital environments. It might not always be possible when the whole class has a meeting in Zoom or Teams. But there are digital assessment platforms, such as Qridi, Edmodo and Socrative, which may make it possible for a teacher to keep track of students’ individual progress. The information gathered with such technology could prove useful in group distance learning situations too so that the teacher can choose to pay more attention to students who are in need of it.
Wellbeing First Children’s motivation and capacity to study is very much linked to their wellbeing. As said before, we are living in stressful times. Isolation and uncertainty are hard on parents too, and emotions might spill over in families more easily than normal. Some children go through the current changes in their everyday life with a laid-back attitude, but for some, the burden might be almost unbearable. Digital assessment platforms collect learning analytics, and when the teacher has no possibility to meet with their students face-to-face, this