Amna KhurramUAE
Teaching assistant. Now covering the class.
Growing from teaching assistant into cover teacher.
- Now
- Teaching assistant taking cover lessons in all subjects, UAE
- Before
- Teaching assistant since 2018
- Programme
- Course with Suraasa, begun in February 2020
- Next
- A full-time teaching post, then a leadership role
Amna had assisted in a Dubai primary classroom since 2018 and wanted to understand what actually goes into a lesson before it starts. She was named best teaching assistant after two observations, and now takes cover lessons across subjects on her own.
Then the schools closed.
Amna Khurram enjoyed working in a school, and that is why she decided to grow in a teaching career. She began her course with Suraasa in February 2020. It showed her, she says, “what actually happens behind the scene. It’s not just being in class, rather there’s lot of planning done before each lesson.” She had a lot of questions in her mind before starting, and they were all answered. She learnt how lesson plans are made, and about differentiation, the different types of assessment, and questioning skills.
Then the pandemic closed the schools in March 2020, and she had no chance to try the strategies in a classroom. “So first I start implementing from my own family, on my own kids,” she says. She had learnt about many online teaching tools and resources, and she used them at home. It improved her children’s learning, she says.
A video shown to every assistant.
School reopened in September, and she started using what she had learnt as an assistant teacher. The first appreciation came from the teacher she assists. Then, in an observation, a coach noticed that she worked and interacted very well with the students while the teacher was busy with those online. The coach recorded her on video and held a meeting for all the teaching assistants, where the video was shown. “This was a big achievement for me,” she says.
A second observation was done by the head of primary, who said that Amna was fully involved in the lesson. The overall impact, she says, was the award for best teaching assistant, which came with a certificate and a message from the principal.
She appreciated my questioning skills and the way I am doing scaffolding for the learners in my group.
The second step.
These things built her confidence, and she started taking lessons herself. Her first observation was done according to the UK teaching standards, and the feedback was very good. Within a few months she was taking cover lessons in her school for all subjects, and handling online classes. She says her students like the way she teaches and interacts with them, and that she has learnt to manage the class and students’ behaviour by applying different learning theories.
She counts her progress in steps. The award was the first. “Now I am on the second step as a cover teacher,” she says, “and for my next step I look forward to be employed as a full-time teacher.” Her future goals are to make progress gradually in each step, and to be in a leadership role.
Most of the time they give me thank you cards which makes my day.
