27th Conference and Smart Goals

(Sep 7st 11th 2014)

Attending the annual conference was a great chance for us to meet the
whole staff from all the colleges and to hear different experiences. HE
Mohammad Omran Al Shamsi, Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of
Technology and Dr Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of the Higher
Colleges of Technology gave a speech welcoming the whole faculty and
the ones under 170@17 program. Their words motivated me a lot and
ensured that my choice to be part of the HCT was correct and this is
the place to achieve my goals and be what I want to be.
To specify, attending different sessions raised my awareness towards
different aspects of the learning and teaching process. One of the
sessions that I liked more was about mentoring and how mentors and
mentees work together in a way that facilitates better outcomes. I
have found it very beneficial because it clarified the role of both
mentors and mentees. Additionally, discussing how can mentors and
mentees benefit from each other reminds me of the learning and
teaching process as teachers play the role of mentors and students
present the mentees. Based on that, teachers should understand
learners' needs and offer what serves their learning process. Students
as well have a role to ask questions and express their needs.
Another area that affected me positively was thinking about my smart
goals for this year which directed me to different aspects of teaching. It
is very useful since it qualified me to become more aware of my
teaching role and responsibility. Moreover, I will be able to observe my
development and improve my weaknesses. In fact, choosing what I
want to improve helped me to think about my future in the teaching
career and what I really want to be.
Collaborating

and

interacting

with

more

experienced

teachers,

familiarizing with materials and improving documentation of my

experiences in and outside the classroom are my goals for this year. I
thought a lot about choosing my goals and which one will be helpful
and focused. For that reason, I included different areas to develop
including myself, learners and relationship with other teachers. One of
the fundamental goals

is interacting with other teachers because it

opens the door for me to observe, negotiate and ask for clarifications.
Moreover, I want to be more confident about teaching, so I have
decided to observe and teach many lessons as possible as I can to
observe different strategies and to apply what I observe. To sum up,
documentation is the most important part as I need to keep a track of
what I do over the year, so I can use it for the future.