Author Archives: Teachers' Resource Centre

Our library has a new set of Classroom Management DVDs! Nancy Morton wanted to use these videos for her workshop in July. The set however, was pretty bulky and she wanted to copy them on a CD, so she asked the company for permission to copy them. When Jo Lynne Jones, one of the co-owners of Fredric H. Jones & Associates, Inc. in Santa Cruz, heard that it was for a non-profit in Karachi (she visited our website), she donated the entire set of DVD’s on Classroom Management from their ‘Tools for Teaching‘ series. So Nancy got a slimmer package to carry … DVDs instead of the videos she had, and TRC got a new set of resources for classroom management. Nancy brought a small DVD player along and she donated that to TRC. Do call us and come along in a group to watch these DVDs. We have been in touch with Jo Lynne Jones, and if you are reading this Jo, Thanks again!

Nancy Morton and her team of teachers from the Little Rock district of Arkansas, USA came back to TRC in July this year. They so enjoyed working with TRC and its member schools last year, that they were determined to return. We have to thank Don Heath again, from Innovative Humanitarian Solutions USA, for making their visit possible. This year we didn’t need to spend loads of time on e-mail planning the workshops … the team had become familiar with and understood our needs and context.

This summer, Nancy and her team conducted four workshops: Developing Moral Values among Young Children, Maintaining Discipline in Secondary Schools, Improving Spelling Skills and Classroom Management. The workshops were full of learning, new ideas, warmth and energy.

The Indus Resource Centre (IRC) contacted TRC for the training of 49 teachers of Classes Kacchi to 2, of 13 newly opened IRC schools. The TRC team spent six days in Sehwan in early August to conduct this 48-hour workshop which introduced teachers to all the dimensions of teaching and learning in early years’ classrooms.

HOPE and Proctor & Gamble Pakistan, jointly requested TRC for training of HOPE’s community school teachers. At the end of April, TRC met the teachers over a three hour session to conduct a needs assessment and to motivate the teachers to attend workshops. In July, two 12-hour workshops on How Children Learn were conducted for 50 teachers.

In December 2005, the Education Development Centre (EDC), an ESRA consortium partner, based in Washington D.C. negotiated a project with TRC to build the capacity of selected school heads, in order to improve the quality of primary education in schools operating under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE). TRC agreed to undertake this ESRA Plus Initiative project, which entails working with FDE school heads and EDC consultants over a period of six months, to foster a new model of school leadership, through a series of workshops.TRC staff conducted the first workshop of this series in June 2006, in Islamabad. This 24-hour workshop titled”Initiating Change in FDE Schools through School Leadership” was conducted for school heads and deputy school heads. It aimed to develop the participants’ leadership skills and abilities, enhance their knowledge and understanding of school vision, mission and values, and change management, so that they could operate their schools effectively.

The second 24-hour workshop, for the same participants was held in Karachi in July. The topics covered were team dynamics and team building, managing staff and parent-teacher meetings effectively, children’s needs and active learning and school development planning. In groups, the participants made school development plans; as an assignment they will now make their own individual school development plans.

Classroom management, curriculum implementation, assessment and the principal’s role in all of these areas, were also addressed.

The last workshop of the series will be held in September.

UNESCO has commissioned TRC with a project designed to raise awareness of the importance of ECE, among local level decision-makers in the public sector in Sindh. The objectives of the project are: to highlight the need and significance of ECE, and to share information about innovative practices in the field of ECE.

The project entails the development of an ECE Advocacy Resource Book and workshops in two districts for district level decision makers. TRC will work in partnership with the Directorate of Literacy and Non-formal Education.

The second session of the Film Club, held on June 17, was the occasion for a viewing of THE SONG SPINNER, an allegorical tale that delights children and elders alike and presents many possibilities for in-school use.

The audience, though small, found the film “exciting”, “important”, and “stunning”, judging by their comments. The debates that followed were energetic and covered the use/misuse of laws, the importance of music in education, and the ineffectiveness of some teaching methodologies – certainly a lot to extract from a film. It is, in fact, these discussions that are the soul of these sessions.

A longer break until the holding of the next movie was decided upon, in view of the holidays.

Watch for the announcement of our next, very exciting movie!

The two screenings of CHEATERS (May 6 & May 20) elicited a very positive response, not just to the film that was unaimously considered of great value, but also to the idea behind this club.

Audience suggestions that have been noted are:
1. To extend the screenings to include Music Videos and other audio-visual material that students access, in order for teachers to be aware of the realities and help guide parents/students accordingly.
2. Provide members access to some of the rarer films shown at these sessions. Discussions are being held within the TRC on how best to address this issue.

It must be noted that the films shown at these sessions are used as examples of how such material can be used in education. Schools are in no way confined to, or even expected to, hold screenings of these particular films, although they may find the examples interesting and do so.