Sharakah Schools Professional Day

MATESOL faculty and students have advanced community relationships in many ways over the past five years. Most importantly, Department of English faculty and students organize and deliver regular Professional Development Workshops for local Sharakah school teachers. These events include plenary addresses and individual, hands-on workshops on topics related to second language education. They are meant to provide working teachers with new ideas and practices for use in the real-world classroom. Topics have included, “iPad Apps for the Primary classroom,” “Improving oral participation in English classrooms,” “Words and sounds: Developing reading and writing with Phonics,” and “Motivation: The ‘M’ word and its role in successful language learning and teaching,” for example.

Through sharing the expertise of MATESOL faculty and students, Professional Day workshops are productive and rewarding wonderful means of connecting with the educational community in Sharjah. Since 2013, the MATESOL program and DoE at AUS have sponsored the following Sharakah Schools Professional Days:

• Spring 2013: Jack Richards Seminars
• Fall 2013: Teachers Needs Analysis
• Spring 2014: Using Social Media and Apps in the Second Language Classroom
• Spring 2016: Innovative Strategies for Teaching English
• Spring 2017: More Innovative Strategies for Teaching English