Week 11 Encounter

This was a special week for me. I got a flue on Sunday in the early morning, but I didn't go to see a doctor hopping that I will be just normal. But on Monday I was so tired and I couldn't concentrate very well during the special needs session. Even thought I wanted to participate since I have my own experience with a special need student. Just before I came to Finland I had a student who has a walking disability. He had an accident view years ago and he now walks only with the assistance of handy canes. The problem is that in the computer department which is a three floors building where I teach there is no a single elevator. The class rooms are spread all over the floors and the teacher offices are in the third floor. So whenever he needs to meet one of his teachers he has to use the stairs. I have noticed this before I had him as one of my students and I talked to my collogues about it as a big problem. I am really surprise since it is a new building and it is common now in my country to have elevators in almost every building. Beside that it is an educational place where these matters are really taken in consideration. As Mrs. Irmeli has mentioned sometimes it differs from country to country the determine of a disability of a person.

By the end of day I had to go to the doctor and she advised me to take a rest for at least three days, so she gave me a sick leaf for three days. This is why I had to miss the Tuesday session. But by Wednesday I felt a little bit well so I decided not to miss the trip to the National Park, and I was happy that I didn't miss it. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the beauty of nature. Mrs. Irmeli was so generous and nice to us. She prepared many things for us such as her delicious pancake. But the problem that I felt sick again and had to miss the trip to Nokia company on Thursday. I consider this week as the week of resistant since I have been sick and in the same time I didn't want to miss any of its classes, but unfortunately I had to miss some classes.

Teaching Practice Part 2 (Week 10)

I had a lot of fun participating in the other group's teaching practices. Since our group was the first one to finish I had free time to enjoy the other's sessions. The sunshine group used a more fun style to explain their lessons. I have enjoyed the session so much I even participated in one of their games. I tried the scoring ball by throwing the ball inside the basket for two times in a row earning seven millions. The idea was to choose a line from one to eight which one is the closest one to the basket, but the far line from the basket the less chance to score and the more money you get. So I wanted to make sure that I earn something by not taking too much risk. So I chose line number four and I did score and earn four million. Then I chose line three to even be surer I earn more money and I did. The idea of the lesson was very good explained by such game. Also I like it when Mr. Maher represented his part of the lesson wearing our national Thobe. It was nice of him to show a little about our own culture.

Then in the second part of that day the Ocean team had a session to teach. Their subject was about reading and writing skill in learning English as a second language. They as group have done very well by choosing a very interesting and beneficial subject which was about the most ten dangerous animals in the world. It was like watching a movie while learning something new. I think it will be good idea to learn the subject while learning new information that is not related to the subject. In general they were more than English teachers. They made the session as if it was a natural science one.

In the next day of this week there were another two teaching practice sessions. In the morning the Falcon team started with its session. It was about budget. We have learned very useful information about how and when to budget. I also have participated by sharing some ideas about budgeting, and I even remember to make a joke about how someone can make a budget while from the first day the salary will be spent. Again the group members were well prepared and passed their lesson simply and easily.

In the next part of the day we participated in the session of group BLT. The special thing about this group was that they had three different subjects in one session. Mr. Aziz started the session with his topic which was related to his field of teaching. The topic was about spoiling food. He really was very prepared. He brought different kind of food to explain his lesson. He really has done well by simplifying it to us. Then Dr. Ibrahim and Mr. Abdul complete the session by representing their own lessons. For Dr. Ibrahim the lesson was a lot of fun which is one of his lovely characters. Mr. Abdul explained his lesson twice; Once when he simply gave the lecture and second when he showed us a clip from YouTube about his subject. So for me was a kind of repeating the lesson twice. One more thing to mention about Mr. Abdul is that he kind of treated us as if we were his students and participant, but in general his lesson was very good and beneficial. Finally I would like to say that all my collogues were really prepared and expert teachers.

Teaching Practice Reflection (Week 10)

Our group FEG was the first one to start practicing teaching. We started on Monday of the teaching practice week. Our goal was not only to practice teaching but also to represent something beneficial to the other groups. We thought of something that can use in their real life teaching when we go back home. Since we are considered engineering major teachers, we decided to use nowadays technology in our teaching as a method of teaching. As it is known that computers considered being the backbone of such technology and since I am a computer major teacher I had to be the main teacher in our group. My collogues prepared and planned the teaching practice session. The job was divided into parts. One was the theoretical part and the other was the practical part in the computer lab.

Instead of going in more detailed about the session itself, I would mention view important things about the session. First I would say that it was a great opportunity for our group member to learn new things while teaching. The choice was to explain SlideShare to the other group members, we as a group had to learn about it first since it was new for us to use SlideShare in teaching. So I think in fact we have learnt something exactly like when a group of students gather to study for an exam together, and one student explains some issues to the other students; this student is learning while explaining.

Second I believe that our major as engineer teacher had a very big impact of our way of teaching. It is known that most engineering lessons are practical. Practical lessons are explained in labs and workshops. So that is why our group needed the computer lab when practicing our teaching.

Third I would mention that our group members have prepared everything in advance in order to make is as simple as possible to be understood and practiced during the computer lab session. We have prepared the material for the lab exercise, so the participant teachers had only to practice not prepare in the lab since the time was so limited.

Finally, I would thank my collogues both the members of our group and the participant teachers for their efforts to that made our session very helpful and smooth. I personally liked the session a lot since I had to be the main teacher in the session while the other group members prepared everything before the class and during the class they were standing next to me side by side helping and sharing whenever their help was needed. And I would mention that I will start using SlideShare from now on when I go back home in my real life teaching.

Week 9 Encounter

This week started with one of the most boring classes I have ever taken since I have started the course at Haga-Helia. With all due respect to Mr. Yari, his classes were very boring since he was silent most of the time. The subject was about performance assessment in educational organizations. He was well prepared and the contents of the subject was very good. The problem was in the way of teaching and representing the lessons. I think that I have learnt something from these classes. I have practiced how to feel as a student when the lecture becomes so boring. I really, want to make sure in the future that I make my lectures as fun as possible to avoid this situation. I have nothing to say about the subject itself because there was not a lot of explanation rather than moving slides and keep silent for a while to read them and we as students comment on them.

But in the end of the week there were opposite situations where I have a lot of fun and really benefit from the last two days of the week. First on Wednesday, we had a very beneficial conclusion about learning theories and methods with Ms. Mari and Katri. I was the presenter of our group and I had to represent almost every aspect about the cognitive learning. I feel happy that I have discussed this theory with my colouges and summarized it to represented to the other groups in the class. I wish I have discussed the other theories since I felt that I have refreshed my information by such conclusion session.

Thursday  was the special day for me not only in this week but also in the entire program. It was the day of the trip to Omnia. In Arabic, omnia means the good wish. For example we say, my omnia to have such and such. Omnia we have visited was a vocational school where students are trained in different majors. The most interesting thing about it was using a method of learning called Mobile Learning. Students are given i-pads when they are registered to use during the entire period of their learning. I enjoyed it since my major is computer since and I like using technology in the learning processes. I think not only me but the entire group have enjoyed the trip to Omnia.  

Week 8 Encounter

Trip to Vierumäki

It was one of the most interesting trips to me. I really enjoyed the idea of sharing a cottage with some of my collogues. Also I have enjoyed the other activities such as playing golf and swimming in the lake. It seemed to be a relaxation trip even though we have attended a presentation session about Innovative Ways of Doing Market Research, and sport was the subject of it to make it more related to our trip type.

Trip to Jyvaskyla:

In the next day we have moved to Jyvaskyla. The main objective of this day was to attend an Orientation at Jyväskylä Business College. I liked the idea of students make their own business while they are learning. We have seen some examples of the student's productions. We have learnt some aspect of entrepreneur education. I believe that this visit was beneficial for most of us. It was related to our general major which is the vocational learning.

Team Academy

On the third day of this week, visited the Team Academy model at University of Applied Sciences. The main idea of that Academy is how to learn while making business with other students as a team. There are no typical classes, but instead there are meetings, discussions and more of businesses style.