"To be creative" In LSP

"To be creative" activity was organized at 29th of April, 2017 in UCA, Naryn.64 participants including teachers from villages of our pilot groups, and their best students were invited to Naryn for participation in this very interesting and new for our participant’s activity. We could get support from UCA and to organize it in the whole day in UCA. It was a wonderful chance for the students to see UCA by their own eyes, to listen the Professors and Leaders from English and Math Department about the  Curriculum and positive aspects of studying in UCA. They could "feel the atmosphere" of studying and learning in the classrooms, by participating in the Speech contest and in the Math contest.The goals of the contest were:   
   1.  To develop and enrich teachers’ experience and practice in presentation of creative work which reflects on the work in LSP; 
   2. To motivate teachers in developing students’ creativity, communication skills, and Logical skills;*     
   3. To engage and motivate students in studying and learning English and Math;    
   4. To present Learning Support Program in creative forms of presentations (which will be presented at the Teachers’ Forum later)      
 In the Speech Contest Students of English language groups presented topics on the ir choice during 5 minutes.   
       Storytelling: Project: The Speech to Inform
       Objectives:        Select new and useful information for presentation to the audience    
  Organize the information for easy understandability and retention
  Present the information in a way that will help motivate the audience to learn   To learn the elements of a good story
 To create and tell an original story based on a personal experience 
 Teachers were learning at the first time to use Rubric in assessing students' speech. We highlighted their level of preparation, content and the structure of presentation, and also the presentation skills of participants. 
 Congratulations to our winners!
We believe that our students could improve their speaking skills and presentation skills and teachers could see different presentations and to compare the level of English language of different speakers. In the Math Contest, students from Math groups practiced their skills in creativity, and then they demonstrated their skills in logics and their knowledge in Math.
        The contest's goals are to stimulate enthusiasm and a love for mathematics,        to provide a challenging, engaging mathematical experience [that] is both competitive and educational.
  to challenge students to use their math skills in new and creative ways;
   to develop mathematical flexibility in solving problems;
 to strengthen mathematical intuition;    
  Congratulations to our winners!
After the Italian LUNCH  in the cafe of UCA, we continued with the next activity to present a creative work by teachers and students. 
We took attention on the :
      practical focus of the project,   the quality,    originality and completeness of the work,
   the aesthetic design of the creative work,
    the economic efficiency of the creative work, the possibility of its wider use,    the level of creativity and the degree of teacher/student independence are taken into account.    
And presentation of the work :
    choice of the topic,

   the quality of the report (composition, completeness of work presentation, reasoning of conclusions),    the quality of answers to questions (completeness, reasoning, persuasiveness and conviction)
It was difficult to choose the best work, because all presentation and all of creative work was done so well! At the same time, by using our criteria there were selected finalist of theis presentation.Congratulations to our winners-teachers and Students! 

Reflective feedback shows us that it was organized well and very effective for our groups.

Learning Support Program in Naryn

Learning Support Program in Naryn

This is the third year when Aga Khan Education Service in Kyrgyzstan closely works from 2014 to the present time with Naryn Oblast and Regional Educational Departments. We collaborate with 15 pilot schools of Naryn Oblast in Learning Support Program. Our goal is to support teachers and students in professional development and in organizing Courses in English language, in Math, and IT in order to get better quality of knowledge and skills in these subjects.

The participants of the program activities are administration of the school, teachers, and students. In this year we work with 31 teachers and 580 students from the villages of Naryn Oblast.  We promote collaboration and a team work which help them to adapt to new situations, strategies of work, and opportunities to share teachers’ ideas. There are several steps which will help us to realize our goal.

                First of all, this is a professional Development for our teachers. We organize for them methodological trainings to improve the strategy and methods of teaching, to develop and enrich critical thinking skills, computer skills, and proficiency in subject area. Certified 12 teachers have passed 72 hours of PD and enriched their knowledge and skills by participating in two years’ program activities. After the training, teachers conduct classes three times a week with the pilot groups of students. A professional Development trainer from AKS observes their lessons, provides feedback to teachers in order to improve their approaches in teaching and learning. This is a kind of opportunity that teachers can’t get in their villages or on the Regional Level. It motivates them to participate actively and to share their ideas on the Oblast’ Level. At the same time we organize annual Methodological conference on the International Level where teachers and administration of our groups and other experienced teachers and experts from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan join our group and present their ideas. This practice is to enrich knowledge and skills in the subject area and to expand the Level of Professionalism of our teachers in Learning Support Program.

In addition, we organize for teachers and students activities from which they improve their writing skills, presentations skills, research skills, and critical thinking skills. For example, there were organized presentations of the research work, essay contests, photo-essay contest, Math Olympiads, creative work presentations and poster presentations. In three years we consider the students’ progress and their transmission from one Level to another in English course or in Math/IT. We observe and monitor the teachers’ and the students’ work and can see the real results in good achievement of our students and their motivation to study well. We certify the best students who achieve the high result in their studying. One of the students from the pilot group of At-Bashi region has completed the course last year and he is studying at the UCA, Naryn. We try to organize Tours and activities in UCA and to inspire our students to study there. These activities motivate students to learn English and Math better, to demonstrate their skills and talents.

Moreover, we organize several activities where teachers have opportunity to analyze the progress, to think about the challenges and to propose a strategic plan for our program. They give us suggestions and write analytical reports.  We are opened to new and innovative ideas which will empower our Work and influence on the sustainability of the project in Naryn Oblast. 

Photo-story contest March, 2017

According to the plan of Learning Support Program it was organized Photo-story contest in  March, 2017 for   Naryn villages’ teachers and students from 16 schools. As the result, 11 teachers and 30 students submitted their work.  This strategy provides students with an opportunity to take a photo and create their own story.  All chosen photos are fantastic. Photos generated ideas, inspired them, and participants wrote stories. Participants presented their ideas about the importance of learning in their life, the role of LSP for them, or some other things that are very important for them.  

All of the posts with photos and stories are published on site:  https://cluster.co/ which allows members to make comments, and to see and read all posted work. It was amazing to see comments of coordinators and our teachers on this site who share their ideas about the written essays. At the same time,  It was very difficult to choose the best work, because all photos and stories to them are exemplary of the excellent work. We used descriptive essay rubric and assessed all work. It helped us to understand better where the problems are and in which aspects we have to concentrate our attention at the training with teachers at the next time. We are going to provide to all participants the descriptive essay rubric with all criteria and the scores that they got. This is also a part of Professional Development  to teach teachers on essay writing. Some of the best work from teachers represented by Zhumakerimova Dinara Tokonovna from Kyzyl-Dobo school, Sharshenbek kyzy Asel, Murzakulova Anara from Beishenalieva  school, Ak-Taala,Manazarova Gulnara from Ak-Ychyk village, Osmonalieva Anargul from At-Baashi, Karibek  uulu Akmaatali school. They wrote about the Learning Support Program and the influence of it on them and on their students. In many stories students wrote that they are dreaming to study at UCA in Naryn and to get the best access to education. In this activity, teachers and students improved their writing and critical thinking skills, ability to use technology and to share their work on distance.

All of participants were very happy that there is such chance for them to be active, to write their own thoughts and ideas, to take part in the contest. This is also a new experience for us- coordinators and we had to learn a lot about organization of this activity on distance and publication of the best work. We are planning to continue such work "on distance" and "face-to-face" to improve writing skills of our participants in LSP.

Photo story contest from Natali Deryabkina

Reaesearch work, compare-contrast essay, Math Olympiad

According to the Learning Support Program working plan, methodological training was organized for teachers of Naryn villages from 15 schools in January 2017. They could get new knowledge and skills in organization and presentation of a research work, in compare/contrast essay writing, and in problem solving of Math tasks to prepare for Olympiad. In a month, teachers have worked with the students of pilot classes to implement their new learning experience into the teaching practice. They organized at 15^th of February competitions between the students of pilot classes and have chosen the best students to compete between the students of 15 pilot schools. As the following-up activity it was organized at 24 and 25th of February a competition in  Ak-Taala and in Kochkor regions. Students demonstrated their motivation and enthusiasm in work.  All teachers were responsible in monitoring of the students' work and presentation, and taking a decision on the best students' work.

In the research work presentations students have chosen technology and poster presentations. They shared research questions, hypothesis, analytical review of the literature, analyzes of the database, and their conclusions on the topics. Many projects were very interesting, connected to the social life, to the life of disable teenagers and if their dreams can come true, with the health issues and problems of smoking. These topics were very actual and valuable for learning and discussing.      

In the second group students were working with the form of compare and contrast essay. Students had to write structural essay with introduction, body paragraphs where they compare and contrast, and a conclusion. Students had to choose one topic out of  suggested  for them. It was really competitive, because some of the essays were really written well and it was difficult for the committee to make a choice on the best work.  The third group students had to solve Math problems and they were concentrated on their alternative solutions and description of the steps in solution of tasks. At the end, the best students' ideas were highlighted by the Committee and best students got certificates and books for prizes. This activity in Naryn regions was organized well, teachers and students liked it, and they will continue using research work and essay writing at English language course, students In Math' groups will continue polishing their knowledge in solving problems and Math tasks.

Research work, essay contest, math olympiad from netki

Training 8-11th of January

Methodological training was organized for English language teachers, Math and IT teachers from Naryn villages from 8^th of January to 11^th.

Teachers introduced their schools, project work by presenting it to each other. Teachers shared information and suggested key strategies to improve the work. Teachers discussed the role of the teacher in a modern society and the ways to strengthen the teachers’ position at school and for the project. At the same time, different styles of teaching and learning were differentiated through the role plays of groups. “What will be successful for the project and what kind of challenges should we expect?”- these questions were analyzed and described in pairs and shared in the group.

At the training teachers have gained knowledge and practiced many Educational instructional strategies for innovative methods of teaching. One example is resume writing. All teachers submitted their resume according to required form and structure. They have found that it’s different from the resume that they use and practiced. Some of teachers “published” their resumes for the group, while others commented and gave feedback to improve it.

In the first time at the training a research work process and principles were introduced to teachers. They had opportunity to work in small groups according to their chosen research question. Many teachers had difficulties in proposing a research question, hypothesis, or support in their inquiry according to the structure and in logical sequence. All of them presented their work to others and got feedback on their work.

In the third day, types of assessment with a lot of examples supported them were presented to teachers. Teachers in two groups enriched their knowledge in content knowledge by discussing in English language group the role of the Language and teaching practice of presenting grammar at the lessons, developing students’ skills in writing, listening, speaking, and reading. Compare and contrast essay structure was introduced to teachers and they could practice in writing the first draft. Teachers used peer-evaluation forms and after that they wrote the second draft, the last version was submitted to trainer for the summative assessment. Teachers will use these skills with their students after the training and prepare them for the competition and presentation of a research work and essay competition.

In the group of IT and Math teachers, new innovative methods of teaching also were discussed, induction and logics in Math were the key points in introduction of the topics. Teachers introduced mental math and that it can be implemented in the pilot groups.

After the training, teachers had a chance for the tour to UCA, Naryn where they got fresh ideas and emotions during the visit. They were very interested about studying, programs and courses for students at the University and opportunities for funding with scholarships for their students to study there.

Generally, it was very productive meeting where teachers were focused on their future work and preparation of students for the next competitions. 

Schools in the project