ELC (283)
The ELC Professional Development Committee, Ibri College of Technology, organised a TES Talk programme on Tuesday, 19 February 2020 at 1 pm in the Lecture Theatre (Engineering Building). The talk was given by Mr Rashid Al Hinai (ADFA) and was about using TED in the English Language Teaching for Foundation Programme students. He emphasised that such platforms will give ELT practitioners and students a real opportunity for self-learning.
Mr Faisal Al Shamali presented the closing remarks. He congratulated and thanked Mr Rashid Al Hinai for his powerful, enthusiastic, and impactful speech. He added that the TES Talk programme would allow ELC staff to share their teaching experience in micro and macro cosmic teaching, learning, and atmosphere.
Mr Ahmed Al Mamari handed a certificate and plaque of appreciation to the guest speaker.
The ELC PD Committee, Ibri College of Technology organized a TES Talk program. The program was officially launched under the auspices of College Dean Dr. Hamadan Al-Manthari on 3rd December 2019 at 12:00 pm in the VIP room.
The overview of TES Talk program was presented during the launch. The program aims to give ELT practitioners the real opportunity to self-learning. It is a platform that caters to various ELT topics that directly touch the work of ELT teachers.
Faisal Al Shamali, Head of ELC PD Committee, stated “With the constant support and encouragement that we receive from the College, we are certain that TES Talk program will be able to achieve its fundamental goals. The success of the program would reflect positively on ELC Staff Development Program. Undeniably, teachers’ continuous professional growth contributes to students’ success.”
The highlights of the launch were the talks from Emilia Ibrahim and Rashid Al Handasi, the first TES Talk guest speakers. Emilia talked about “Joy of Teaching” while Rashid shared his significant achievements and teaching experiences.
Dr. Hamdan Al Manthari gave the closing remark. He congratulated and thanked the people behind the TES Talk program, ELC’s HoSs, Dr. Sultan Al Ghafri and Dr. Maryam Al Ghafri and the ELC PD Committee. He said that TES Talk program would allow ELC staff to share their teaching experience in micro and macro cosmic teaching, learning atmosphere.
In return for helping the launch a success, Rashid and Emilia received certificates of appreciation. Dr. Hamdan, together with Dr. Sultan and Dr. Maryam, presented the certificates to the guest speakers.
A training programme on the use of Turnitin software for checking plagiarism, as part of academic integrity, was an initiative taken by the Professional Development Committee of the English Language Centre. It was conducted on 15 October 2019. The presenter, Mr Abdullah Mubarak Al Shukeily, demonstrated the use of Turnitin to check the similarity of any document to find plagiarised text and generate similarity reports. The session was highly useful for the teachers who attended the session and was supplemented with tips shared to assess assignments and projects submitted by students.
Presenting information through official templates of various documents in an organized way, adds the touch of authenticity. Documentation is a prominent activity of quality assurance in the college and it strives to adhere to the strict standards of presenting documentation. As part of the process, the quality assurance coordinator, Ms Zahra Zohair Arab, conducted an awareness session on the documentation policy for English Language Centre staff on 8 October 2019, in VIP room. The session focused on different elements of templates to be used for different purposes. The objective of the session was to maintain uniformity in the documentation process across all colleges of technology using prescribed templates. She also took the staff through a series of guidelines on formatting, indexing, version control and revision while preparing a document. Ms Zahra highlighted the importance of the plagiarism policy and conveyed that deviation from the set rules is not accepted. The session ended with a description of a proposed layout of the standard document structure.
On 31st January 2019 the ELC Staff Professional Development Committee organized a training workshop entitled ‘How to Use ProQuest Effectively’ for its staff members to enhance their research activity and teaching methods.
The purpose of this training workshop was to create awareness among the ELC staff on ProQuest, its applications and how its resources support in research and learning. The training session was aimed at encouraging teachers to include ProQuest in their teaching methods so the students’ learning process can be more practical, innovative, and engaging.
Mr. Abdullah Al Shukeily, the Head of ETC, conducted the training workshop wherein he introduced the staff members to ‘ProQuest’ and its uses. Later he demonstrated the steps involved in registering oneself as a member and the subsequent process on how it can be included into one’s research and learning. He also demonstrated: how to register the students on ProQuest and utilize its applications effectively in their learning.
He urged the ELC staff to encourage their students to register and start using various applications on ProQuest and make their learning more practical and resourceful. It was very beneficial for the targeted audience so that they can indeed help their students, in learning and teaching and learning process. At the end, Dr. Sultan Al- Ghafri, the Head of ELP Section handed over the certificate to the presenter.
The ELC Staff Professional Development Committee organized a workshop on Tuesday 28 May 2019 in the VIP room by Ms. Rahma AlAlawi, the ELC Quality Assurance Coordinator on “Enhancement of Quality Culture at the College” as part of Quality Assurance Awareness Sessions. Ms. Rahma addressed many points regarding how ELC lecturers can relate their daily work with Quality Assurance and ADRI Cycle (Approach, Deployment, Results, Improvement) and how well ELC lecturers are aware of their roles and responsibilities as per College By-Laws. She also emphasized on the importance of documenting the work in a proper format. Ms. Rahma concluded the session by showing the staff how to upload files and folders in the ELC SharePoint. At the end, Mr. Basim Al Mushaifri, the head of ELC, handed over the certificate to the presenter.
The ELC Staff Professional Development Committee organized a training workshop by Dir. Victoria Tuzlukova (SQU) on “General Education Principles and Standards: How Can We Better Handle Differences in the English Language Classroom?” on Tuesday 22 January 2019 in the VIP room. Dr. Victoria addressed the needs to handle differences in the English language classroom. The development of student skill set is one of the perspectives that is of a significant value in the context of tertiary education in Oman. However, this is a very challenging perspective, especially when it comes to curriculum design and implementation in the foundation program English language classroom. How then the curriculum should be developed? What are the appropriate methods and approaches to keep on top of? What are the ways of doing things that work for us and our students? In addition to inquiring about these issues, the workshop engaged the audience into a search for meaningful solutions based on recommendations of the workshop facilitator and participants’ observations to address successful curriculum and syllabus design that involves principles and standards of general education. At the end, Mr. Basim, the Head of the ELC, handed over the certificate and token to the presenter.
The ELC Staff Professional Development committee, IBRICT organized a training workshop on Tuesday May 7, 2019 at 10:00 am in Room A 203 by Dr Aleksander Sawko. The title of the workshop was " From Perception to Application: English Proverbs in Language Teaching" It was about using proverbs as an effective way of teaching English. Why proverbs? They are concise, easy to remember and reflect national specificity. As a product of social experience, collective wisdom English proverbs can be used to facilitate in gaining not only a language competence but also in spreading the cultural knowledge. Mr. Basim Al Mushaifri (Head of ELC) as a token of appreciation, handed over the certificate to Dr Aleksander.
Professional Development is a continual process and crucial part of an educator’s life. How many of us truly understand and know what it takes to be a professional? This may sound easy and a subject that is widely discussed but sadly, 7/10 teachers in the Middle East do not actually know what is professionalism and how to achieve their goals efficiently. A training workshop titled “ The Essence of Professional Development” was conducted on 25.12.2018 at Ibri college of Technology and it was an initiative of Professional Development Committee of The English Language Centre. The presenter, Ms Fatmah A. Ali, (Vice-President of MEET-ATIS) discussed the core differences between a teacher and an educator along with the PD cycle, differences between traditional PD and visionary PD. She also threw light on strategies to enhance professionalism and myths associated with it. SWOT analysis was also a significant part of the workshop. The presenter shared some interesting tips with the teachers to encourage them to become true professionals.
The English Language Centre, IbriCT, hosted the 5th English Language Teaching Professional Development Workshop with a thought provoking theme “Strategies for Encouraging, Engaging and Educating Students(SEES-2)” on April 17, 2019 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at Ibri College of Technology.
The event commenced with a video of 2018 events. The welcome speech from Dr. Sultan Al- Ghafri, the Head of the ELC sections, extended a warm welcome to the guests, presenters and participants from various colleges and universities in the Sultanate of Oman and abroad. He stated that the English Language Centre at IbriCT has always been an active platform in providing opportunities to English language teacher, practitioners and trainees to share their expertise and motivate students to enhance their English language skills. Dr. Al Ghafri also assured that the ELC at IbriCT would continue to inspire and provide support to those who want to be part of a knowledge seeking and sharing society.
Dr Hamdan Al Manthari, Dean of IbriCT, heads of the centers and heads of departments graced the occasion.
Dr.Halima Benzoukh, associate professor from Kasdi Merbah University, Algeria, was the plenary speaker and her talk focused on “Musicality of Teaching English as a Foreign Language.” She mentioned that finding out strategies to push their learners forward in the learning process, should be the focus of teachers.
As the second plenary speaker, Dr Hashil Al – Saadi, lecturer at the Center for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), gave an interesting talk on “Student Engagement in the learning process” which emphasized on the significance of effective learning.
Lecturers from different universities and colleges shared their expertise through poster presentations, teaching tips, paper presentations and workshops. The workshops were scheduled for 45 minutes, paper presentations and teaching tips were scheduled for 35 minutes.
The teaching fraternity had rich takeaways from the elite gathering.
As a token of appreciation, gifts were distributed among the keynote speakers and presenters. The participants also received their certificates of participation. Mr. Faisal Ibrahim Al Shamali, coordinator of IbriCT Professional Development Committee, headed this year’s ELT Professional Development Workshop Organizing Committee.