Learning Support Program continues the work in 2016-2017

 29 teachers of Kochkor, Ak-Taala, At-Baashi regions are involved in the program from 15 pilot schools.

In 23-24^th of September coordinators of the project analyzed the results of the work in academic  year.  According to the successes and challenges, new recommendations were given from groups of directors, deputy directors, teachers of the project to make a project work sustainable.

 A plan for new academic year was discussed and approved by the Naryn Oblast Education Department and signed agreements with school directors.  In this academic year reports will be provided to Naryn Oblast Department, to Directors of the schools in order to analyze the work and to recommend best teachers to share their work experience and to motivate other teachers to succeed   in the work.

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Lsp2016 2017 from netki

Teachers in ongoing teaching process learn at the same time with the students and get new experience of work. There are different levels from Primary to Pre-Intermediate in English classes and 3 levels in Math (Beginners, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate). Students have to pass all of the requirements in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in order to get good assessment result that will allow them to get a certificate of successful completion or participation in the program during the academic year for English langauge and to complete successfully the test in Math for students who are studying in groups with Math teachers.

There are many requirements to teachers too.  For example, they have to provide interesting lessons, to involve students into the classroom and to motivate them for participation. Teachers work according to developed curriculum and they plan their lessons accordingly. At the meeting teachers practiced in tests and checked their own level of knowledge and skills when they passed English Cambridge test, and Math teachers test to solve the math tasks. According to the presented results, teachers organized the groups of students and continue their work to enrich professional knowledge and skills in subjects by providing lessons two-three times a week.

In October and November, according to our working plan coordinators visited 11 schools and observed 13 lessons. Each school is located on a big distance from another school, so it requires a lot of time and efforts to visit schools.

All teachers demonstrated their interest in teaching and students in learning. After each lesson a program coordinator Natalya provided a constructive feedback on the lesson and gave recommendations to improve it on different stages of the lessons.

Site visit 17 19.11.16 from netki

Mostly all of the teachers got textbooks to teach in the class and since January some of the teachers will get new books and some tape recorders that were already send to Naryn for English language teachers, Math, and IT. These sources were provided by the finance support of Aga Khan Foundation.

In December, our regional coordinator organized visits to all schools in order to organize interview with directors, students, teachers, to find out the progress of the work and share it in the form of brochure about each school achievement results.

At the end of December we have to reflect and analyze what was done well and what can be done better for the future plans which are –Training in January, Competition for the best essay and Math Olympiad, presentation of the Research work in February, Lessons observation in March and April, and Teachers’ Forum at the end of academic year.

There are so many interesting activities and events to improve professional development of our teachers and to support them in their teaching.

Teachers’ conference in Naryn, 18-21 of May 2016

        

Learning support program from netki

   The second Teachers' Conference in 2016 brought together 65 professionals for thought-provoking sessions, networking and plenty of practical new teaching ideas to take back to the classroom.

What do the teachers do at the lessons to motivate students? How can they teach well and use new methods of teaching? How can they give and take a constructive feedback? All of these and many other questions were discussed at the conference in three fully scheduled days of the conference.

 Representatives of Oblast, City, and Regional Departments in Naryn shared their opinion on the importance of this program for supplemental opportunity for students to get extra classes and to improve their knowledge and skills in English language, Math, and IT. Directors, teachers, and some of the students discussed and presented their demo lessons, poster-papers at the educational sessions.  The conference gives us opportunity to stop for a while, reflect on the achievements and evaluate values of the experiences in reaching a better quality of teacher education.  It promotes collaborative excellence between both academics and professionals involved in education.   

The conference was organized by Learning Support Program that is financed from AKES/AKS.  All participants discussed and presented the work that was done in outreach program in Naryn villages.  The aims of this program  are to support the teaching of English, Math and IT  at schools, as well as to encourage students to consider studying these subjects at UCA and other Universities.  This is a professional development program for teachers who want to improve their practice by connecting with experts and each other.  It’s for teachers who love their students and work hard to help them. It’s for hard workers and smart thinkers.  It’s for teachers who believe in inquiry and research and choice in the classroom. They share observations, ideas, and suggestions that they can bring into teaching practice.

Learning English, Math and IT not only requires a deep understanding of content, but also critical thinking, use of technology, and collaboration. It demands to move from a standard way of teaching   toward learner-centered classrooms and personalized instruction.  Learning Support Program promotes communication among teachers in schools in Naryn villages and provides an opportunity for teachers to share curriculum information and best practices. In Learning Support Program teachers get new knowledge and skills through different activities, face-to-face educational meetings, methodological trainings, inter-sessional discussions, feedback after the lesson observations, and a conference. One of the ways in which it promotes communication is to organize a teachers’ conference that will allow evaluating the results of the work in academic year.

15 English language teachers, 14 Math and IT teachers have worked collaboratively in two groups but shared their thoughts and ideas between each other at the reflection sessions. The observation/feedback is a continuous professional learning opportunity that enables them to work on improving their lessons. All of the teachers presented their demo lessons and got feedback from their groups.   Teachers recognized their strengths and areas needing improvement and planned their future work with their pilot groups of students.

SPCE instructors from Naryn, PDT trainers from Osh AKS and Khorog AKL schools, as well as best representatives from Outreach program in Khorog presented their educational sessions and organized short training sessions for teachers of Naryn villages. The work and discussion was productive and beneficial for everyone in the group. These observations can play a key role in gaining teachers’ confidence in sharing and developing practice, so feedback to teachers on what has been observed should help them to decide on their next steps for professional learning and development.

One of the significant moments of the conference was a visit to the construction site of UCA. The staff organized a tour for our teachers and they found out more about wonderfully built classrooms, computer labs, dormitory rooms for staff and students. All of the teachers were happy to be there and to plan that they will share their feelings with their teachers, students, and parents at school after the conference.

What’s more is that 12 teachers- participants of two-year academic program have got certificates of appreciation from Naryn Oblast Educational Department of Kyrgyz Republic and AKES. At the same time at the end of the conference all teachers were awarded by certificates of active participation and delivering of workshop and presentation.

This conference supported our teachers and professionals from both Outreach programs in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to share their working experience and to enrich it in many directions.

What we do

Support Learning program is a kind of project supported by Aga Khan foundation, where teachers of different villages in Naryn region can get a support in professional development, and in teaching their subject itself.  In some stages we organize and provide methodological trainings for teachers and between such sessions we observe their lessons and implementation of new knowledge and skills into the practice. Teachers use at their lessons textbooks that were distributed to them at the beginning of the year. They follow the curriculum developed for the academic year, according to the textbook and their additional sources of information. Thus, at this academic year it was organized the first meeting for all teachers involved into the project work. I explained the main rules and responsibilities of the teachers, their tasks, and the plans of our program for the goal of professional development and developing their teaching skills. We discussed their needs and opportunities to work with their students in pilot groups.

  For this academic year we continued our work with Math, IT teachers and teachers of English language.  As a trainer of Professional development I organized for them sessions where they could learn more about critical thinking, and different strategies of work in the classroom. We collaborate with Math teachers in Naryn and a trainer Klara Kazakovna -a math specialist, helped us to  share her expereince of work and preparation for Olympiad . At the training for Math teachers, many of them shared their working experience, presented demonstrative lessons to each other and some of presentation of their school activities with schools' kids.  AKES could support Klara Kazakovna to travel to Tajikistan, where she organized 7-days’ training for Math teachers in Khorog. It was unforgettable experience for her and for teachers there, because they could share their strategies of work in preparation of school' students to Olympiad.  She shared her thoughts and new methodology of work with our AKS teachers of Math and IT in Osh too. Such kind of positive experience gave to our teachers a good motivation to work in a team and to improve the process of teaching and preparing students to School Olympiad.

On the next stage we organized training for English language teachers. They could learn more about speaking, writing, and reading skills. I introduced to them several methods and strategies of work in teaching and shared different opportunities to learn English online and through some other courses. For this training we invited administration of the schools and it was very good dialogue between us and them about the strategic plan of work, developing the project for the next years, and the main reason for that is to improve the quality of education at schools and to give more opportunity for graduators to pass exams to Naryn UCA, and other Universities. Directors and deputy directors appreciated that we invited them to the meeting and discussed directly with them the role of the program and the stages of our work.

After these trainings we observed lessons of our teachers and provided for them a feedback in order to reflect and analyze the process of work and their teaching results that was shown in diagnostic tests and in Olympiad at schools than between the best students from our pilot groups. Students of English language teachers wrote essay and students of Math answered to the control work that was designed for them by Klara Kazakovna (a neutral teacher) from Naryn.  The result shows that teachers and we have to continue our work because in education the result can’t be seen immediately and this is ongoing process that gives  already good results in students’ motivation; their speaking skills; and knowledge in subjects that we work with. Teachers are very happy to meet for our meetings, to share their knowledge and experience of work.

At last academic year we organized successfully a methodological conference for our teachers in Naryn and in this year we are looking forward to organize it too. We have a lot of work to do in order to prepare for it, but we aren’t afraid of challenges, because it gives a great and positive effect for all of our teachers and for their development in all aspects. We a have a good team in our project and support each of us will get unpredictable result!