| Dates: 15th & 16th February 2019 | Time: 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM & 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM |
In the working and learning environment, a confident presenter is one who is able to convey information in an effective way and draw the attention of the audience. In order to do this effectively, one needs to be aware of the skills of public speaking, supported by Power Point presentations. This workshop will focus on ways to develop the art of public speaking.
| Dates: 8th, 9th & 10th October 2018 | Time: 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM |
Like any other evaluation tool, rubrics are useful for formative assessment purposes. However, they are used today without much understanding of the evaluation criteria and the specific assessment needs of one’s class. This workshop will not only help participants understand the role of rubrics in formative assessment but will also provide guidelines about how to create rubrics according to the needs of the students and curriculum and to effectively use them for providing feedback.
The October – December 2015 quarter saw the ECE-CP in process with the planned activities of Term 1, which included the three courses, Child Development (CD 0002), Learning Environment (LE 0002), Play Experiences (PE 0002) and the ongoing Field Education (F.Ed 0002) course.
Along with planned classes, the term was consumed with evaluations, concurrent assignments, presentations and group and class projects. An important highlight of Term 1, are the field visits to the students’ classrooms by the Field Supervising Teacher (FST). These visits are to observe them delivering a lesson and to see them interacting with the children within the school environment. Following each classroom observation, a post observation discussion is scheduled, during which the student and the FST meet to discuss the observation and ways on how the student can work on their skills and behaviours as an early years educator.
The quarter ended with conclusion of Term 1
Farewell to the Class of 2014-15
On Saturday, October 03, 2015 TRC-IECE hosted the graduation ceremony of its 9th cohort, which comprised of existing and aspiring teachers. The much-awaited event, which all the successful students look forward to, was attended by our beaming graduates and their proud family members.
The evening opened with TRC Director, Ambreena Ahmed who warmly welcomed the guests. Noshin Khan, Senior Manager, IECE, talked about her own journey which started from ECE-CP and took her to Canada for a full laddering programme and brought her back to TRC to lead the course. She also briefed the audience about TRC-IECE and its current work and future plans for the programme.
Following her presentation, some of the graduating students shared their feelings, thoughts and messages, reflecting on their ECE-CP experience and how they have been transformed into confident and able early childhood educators.
The ceremony concluded with the key note address by the chief guest, Ms. Seema Malik, former Director of
TRC and P
rincipal of PECHS Girls’ School. She awarded certificates to the graduating students and congratulated them and their families on this milestone achievement.
In the end, Director TRC thanked the audience for attending the ceremony and invited everyone to a scrumptious tea treat bringing the send-off to a cheerful close.
Orientation session
The Teachers’ Resource Centre hosted an Early Childhood Education Certification Programme (ECE-CP) orientation session on 9th of December 2015, at the TRC Office. The event saw a great turn out. TRC’s Early Childhood Education Certificate Programme (ECE-CP) has been providing trusted professional development guidance and opportunities to both in-service and aspiring teachers for nearly a decade now.
The orientation session was held to raise awareness about the programme and encourage more participation in the coming batch. Ms. Noshin Khan (Senior Manager ECE-CP) gave a power point presentation, highlighting the objectives and impacts of the programme and shared future plans for further enriching and strengthening the programme.
The orientation ended with a question-answer session. Each participant was given a feedback form to evaluate the orientation and let us know whether they found it useful.
The feedback received was very positive. Majority of the participants found the session informative and useful and said they would recommend enrolling in the programme to their friends and colleagues. Some of the participants also indicated interest to enrol themselves either for a full programme or for selective modules.
This quarter saw the end of Term 3 of the ECE-CP 2014-15 where students bid goodbyes and farewells to their peers and course leaders with promises of staying in touch. The programme’s closure kept the faculty busy in grading assignments and evaluations and in compilation of the end of term results.
Concurrently recruitment for the next batch was in full swing with applicants’ interviews and written assessments progressing side by side. The student handbook and the academic skills’ guide for the 2015-16 session were reviewed for the student orientation before commencement of classes.
The 10th batch is Onboard!
A student orientation was held on August 6, 2015. The orientation was well attended by the newly enrolled candidates. Ambreena Ahmed, Director, TRC formally welcomed the candidates and later Noshin Khan, Senior Manager IECE and Uzma Rauf, Manager, IECE provided detailed briefings about how the programme will be rolled out and expectations from students. The candidates were encouraged to ask questions and discuss any aspect which they felt needed more clarity.
At the orientation the enrolled candidates officially became students of the ECE-CP as they received their student cards, library cards, academic calendar, student handbook and academic skills’ guide. An informal chat between students and IECE management followed. Tea and snacks marked the end of the orientation.
Term 1 Classes Begin
The end of this quarter saw the beginning of the scheduled classes for Term 1 of the ECE-CP 2015-16. Along with the planned regular classes, both pre and in-service students were given orientations on the Field Education course. For placement of the pre-service students, the schools were contacted where orientation meetings with the school, field supervising teachers and the pre-service students were initiated to help the students settle into their field classes.
The third and final term of the ECE-CP commenced during the quarter. With the academic session coming to its end in early July, the faculty was busy with wrap-up tasks. The final field observations were carried out by the Field Supervising Teachers (TRC-IECE Academic Advisor and faculty members), which were in turn followed up by post-observation discussions with the students.
With the start of summer vacations in June, the class schedules changed and full day classes were organised throwing IECE students into a back-to-school routine.
The admissions formally opened during the last reporting period and follow up activities continued during this one. The first round of interviews and aptitude tests took place on April 22, 2015. Following the first round of interviews successful candidates were duly informed of the selection decision.
With admissions in progress, we are still accepting applications for the new and second round of interviews. For details, please call or email us.
The quarter marked the conclusion of Term 1 and beginning of Term 2 with a week’s break in between. Term 1 wrap up came with grading assignments and projects and preparing results.
An interesting highlight of the quarter has been the student project titled “Ancient Contributions to Childcare & Early Education” which was part of the History & Philosophy course (HP 0001). It kept students thoroughly occupied as they had to do research as well as creatively design the project for presentation.
Open Day – March 2015
To showcase its Early Childhood Education Certificate Programme (ECE-CP), TRC-IECE organised an Open Day at its premises on Wednesday, 4 March, 2015. Held in two time slots, from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., to facilitate both in-service and non-teaching (pre-service) candidates, the purpose was to introduce the ECE-CP in detail and facilitate interaction of potential candidates with the faculty.
A number of visitors, those mainly associated with schools; pre-primary, primary and secondary teachers, coordinators, headmistresses, principals, and some not related to the teaching profession, attended these sessions. Through a gallery of displays, the visitors were walked through the ECE-CP classroom giving them a sense of what to expect from the programme. Testimonials from some of the alumni proved inspiring to encourage potential candidates for registering themselves.
The Open Day was well received by all those who attended and provided insights into what the 10-month journey would look like in terms of its academic rigor, diversity of approaches and relationship with the faculty.
Alumni Reunion 2015
IECE Alumni were welcomed back to TRC for the third IECE Annual Reunion on 18 March, 2015. It was a fun filled event with lots of laughter, enjoyment, catching up and great food.
This year the turnout was tremendous; we saw the largest number of attendees … 49 to be exact. Maha Laka and Nazia Kashif (2012-13 grads) were the event organisers this year.
Academic Advisor, TRC-IECE, Mahenaz Mahmud, presented the idea of an Alumni Association which was met with great enthusiasm. An eight-member committee was formed and roles and responsibilities and scope of work of the committee were discussed in detail. The purpose was to further strengthen the programme and ensure institutionalisation and sustainability.
The organisers had prepared a game of Taboo based on the courses offered at TRC-IECE. It was an exciting game, which really brought out everyone’s inner child. All participants were on the edge of their seats to guess the word.
The scrumptious snacks which everyone enjoyed included red velvet cupcakes, devilled potatoes, chicken kababs, cheese samosas, and a lovely fruit salad.
PAC meeting
The Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) met on Friday, 20 March, 2015 for the second time since it was set up. The one-point-agenda of this meeting, which was led by Tanya Shah, was to create awareness and disseminate information about TRC-IECE and its programmes amongst stakeholders in order to boost enrolment.
The meeting started off with a concern raised by the members requesting TRC to also look into addressing Special Educational Needs through the programme. Following a useful discussion, it was agreed that TRC would develop a specialised course with the expertise of a PAC member who is a clinical psychologist.
A marketing plan was shared with the respective members highlighting how the key target audience will be reached through a mix of tested and new strategies. Timelines were also set and agreed upon. Members of the PAC offered their views and opinions in light of their experiences and made valuable suggestions for the way forward.
ECE-CP 2014-15: A New Beginning
TRC-IECE warmly welcomed its 9th cohort to the ECE-CP at an orientation session, which this time around was spread over two days, October 09 and 10, 2014. This session was to accustom the students with the ECE-CP protocols, get familiar with the environment and the people they will be interacting with during the ECE-CP and to meet their peers who will journey with them over the next ten months.
Being a mandatory event to attend, the sessions facilitated students in getting acquainted with the expectations of the programme and were introduced to the Field Education course since it features across all three terms. The differing requirements for in-service and pre-service students were highlighted.
The orientation helped students overcome discomforts of the unknown and eased the initial fears of joining a new setting as a student. Towards the end of both the sessions the students felt much more in control.
Regular classes of Term 1 officially started from October 13, 2014 with the course Play Experiences followed by Child Development and Learning Environment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The students met with their respective course leaders and were introduced to the Term 1 courses, which would carry on for the next thirteen weeks.
Term 1 progressed as per plan, with regular classes and activities held according to planned
schedules. Assignments and evaluations, which were due during the term, had students experience a mixed bag of emotions – anxiety and nervousness, which is mostly the case when deadlines and /or exams and tests are due.
Classroom observations of in-service students and follow up discussions were also undertaken as part of Field Education.
Having crossed mid term of Term 1, tutorials were planned for students facing difficulty in their understanding of concepts covered during any of the Term 1 courses. Identified students were then supported during more personalised sessions to help them overcome academic issues.
ECE-CP Activities
The recruitment process for the 9th cohort continued throughout the quarter and the staff kept busy with responding to queries and engaging with the potential applicants.
Concurrently the faculty was busy winding up the tail end of the last academic term which included preparation of results and getting ready for the new session. Preparations for the outgoing cohort’s graduation and orientation of the new batch were carried out.
For the new session the faculty was engaged in reviewing and enriching the courses and assignments. New academic calendar was prepared and student handbooks were reviewed and updated.
The 8th Cohort Graduates!
On September 27, 2014, the 8th graduation ceremony was hosted at TRC with the beaming 20 graduates and their families in attendance.
TRC Director, Ambreena Ahmed warmly welcomed the graduates, the guests and guest of honour, Ms Seema Malik, former Director, TRC. Mahenaz Mahmud, Academic Programmes Advisor, narrated the story of how TRC-IECE came to be and how TRC evolved as an institution through this programme. She highlighted the programme’s academic rigour and unique faculty-student engagements as the most notable features of the ECE-CP.
This year’s batch was a mixed group of pre-service and in-service teachers, some of whom spoke on the occasion and talked about how the programme changed their lives and their understanding of young children and their development.
Certificates were awarded to the graduating students much to their delight; they finally reaped the fruit of painstaking efforts which for most meant juggling household and professional responsibilities along with the course commitments.
Certificates were also presented to the eight participants of the ‘Leadership & Management’ course which was conducted by Mahenaz Mahmud.
In her address, the guest of honour, Ms Seema Malik talked about her association with TRC and her journey of learning and development with the organisation. She shared some of her personal experiences especially addressing the graduates emphasising on how we should be balancing personal relationships and work and prioritising each sincerely.
Concluding the ceremony TRC Director, Ambreena Ahmed thanked the graduates and guests and invited them for tea and refreshments.
ECE-CP term activities The quarter saw the end of last two terms of the programme which kept the staff and faculty diligently busy with wrap-up tasks. The final field observations were also carried out by the Field Supervising Teachers (TRC-IECE Academic Advisor and faculty members) and these were followed by post visit discussions with students. Recruiting students for ECE-CP 2014-15 Admissions to the ECE-CP 2014-15 formally opened on May 2, 2014 with admission forms and schedule announced on the website. A series of inquiries from interested candidates followed which was managed by the staff. Based on the scrutiny of registered candidates, written tests and interviews were held in June. The candidates were duly informed about the selection or rejection decision. We are still accepting applications for the new batch and the second round of interviews will be held in August 2014. Open day: ECE-CP 2014-2015 An open day was organised at TRC on May 19, 2014 to showcase its Early Childhood Education Certificate Programme (ECE-CP). The purpose was to introduce the programme in detail and facilitate interaction of the potential candidates with the faculty. The open day sessions were held in two time slots, between 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, to allow both in-service and non-teaching candidates to attend.
A number of visitors from different walks of life attended the event; teachers, coordinators, fresh graduates aspiring to be teachers and even seasoned teachers who were looking for a comeback to the profession. Through a gallery of displays, the visitors were walked through the
ECE-CP classroom giving them a sense of what to expect from the programme. Visitors who opted to come in the second half had the opportunity to observe a class in session. The testimonials from some of the alumni members, who volunteered to be present at the occasion, inspired the candidates to opt for registration. The open day was well received by all those who attended and provided insights into what the 10-month journey would look like in terms of its academic rigour, diversity of approaches and relationship with the faculty.
