HamzavardheniSharjah, UAE
Sundays at her desk. French in Sharjah.
Walking into an observation without the nerves.
- Now
- French teacher at a school in Sharjah, UAE
- Before
- About a year and a half teaching French in Pondicherry, without a B.Ed
- Programme
- PgCTL, with Sunday classes alongside school work
- Next
- A higher position, and a book for children
Hamzavardheni taught French in Pondicherry, where her subject had no B.Ed route, and froze whenever an observer came into the room. PgCTL gave her Bloom's taxonomy and strategies to plan around; she now teaches in Sharjah, runs flipped lessons, and met her last observation without hesitation.
Teaching without a teaching course.
Hamzavardheni began teaching French at the school in Pondicherry where she had once been a student. She had a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in French, both taken in Pondicherry, and no teaching qualification. “I started my teaching career without any B.Ed or anything,” she says. She went into teaching because of her mother, who is a professor, and because she loves being with children. “Whenever I teach them I feel happy and positive every time.”
About a year and a half in, she wanted a higher qualification, one she felt she should have for a move to the UAE: a teaching course that would show interviewers and schools “that I’m qualified to that position”. She searched online. “I trusted the Google that moment because I don’t have any idea alternative to B.Ed,” she says. She found a few courses, went through the details, and chose PgCTL.
Sundays kept free.
Everything about the programme was new to her, the assignments included, because she had never been through a B.Ed. “I was a little scared in the beginning because everything is new, new group of people,” she says. What surprised her most was the batch itself. Some were at the beginning of their careers and some had a great deal of experience, and she could ask them about it. She is still in touch with batchmates who work in the UAE. “I could contact them anytime when I have this doubt.”
Classes were on Sundays. On those days she would try to finish her school work earlier so that she was available at class time. “I’ll be very much excited to learn something new,” she says. When she felt low during an assignment, had a doubt about a concept or missed a session, the mentors were there to help.
Students teach, she listens.
In India, she says, technology and online classes played a smaller part. In the UAE she is connected with her students daily, on Teams. Her approach to planning changed as well. “Before, it was just vague. I had so much ideas with teaching,” she says. Now her lesson plans are prepared in advance, along with the strategies and Bloom’s taxonomy.
The programme gave her an overview of how to take a class, how to handle a class that includes a child with special needs, and which strategies to plan beforehand. Her classes in India, she says, were not interactive: “I used to go to the class, I used to teach and make them learn, do work, that’s it.” Now she runs a flipped classroom. “I’ll make students teach and I’ll listen to them, what are the mistakes they are doing,” she says. “Very interactive and playful.”
Nowadays, I’m using those strategies and activities to make my class interactive.
The observation she was ready for.
Observations used to set off a run of questions in her head. “What are the strategies? What are the plans?” Her school in Sharjah works with Bloom’s taxonomy and SOLO taxonomy, and before the programme she had no idea about either, or about how to frame activities.
There was an observation at her school recently. “I was quite confident that I could face them without any hesitation,” she says. The school’s aim is to follow Bloom’s taxonomy properly, so she now prepares her questions and activities by level, lower-order thinking and higher-order thinking. “HOT questions, LOT questions. So I could differentiate that. So that’s the confidence level I have gained.”
A notebook of links.
While she was doing her assignments she was not mainly focused on a job. Once she planned the move, she contacted her mentors and her batchmates. Those already working in the UAE gave her HR email addresses and suggested contacting schools directly or through LinkedIn. “In that way it was easy for me to communicate with them and get a chance,” she says.
Friends from the French field who are moving into teaching have asked her about the programme after seeing her certificates on LinkedIn. Her advice is that even at “a zero level”, with no idea of Bloom’s taxonomy or teaching strategies, “they are there to guide you from the base”. Next she would like to move to a higher position in her field, and to publish a book for children, which she calls her dream job. She already keeps a notebook. Whenever she finds a new website or activity link she jots it down, then passes it on in class: “Try on this links, try on this website.”
PgCTL from Suraasa has guided me from a baby to be a grown-up woman in the teaching line.
