HIE Teacher Training event, March 16th, 2019.
The Presidential Decree of 2016 commits HIE to the task of developing English language teaching in Mauritanian Secondary Schools. HIE has been engaging with Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) for the past 2 years to carry out this mandate. To this end, a second successful teacher training event was organised on March 16. 2019. This was in conjunction with the teacher trainees from Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS), Nouakchott. The aim of the one-day series of workshops was to encourage best teaching practice and to provide practical, relevant help to the trainees for their classroom lessons.
The event opened up with a series of welcome speeches by Mr. Gerry McKeown (Academic Quality Coordinator) and Madame Siham Babana (Head of English, ENS) and an outline of the programme of workshops was given.
The following topics were delivered by HIE instructors:
Gerry McKeown – Coursebook conundrums. (Adapting your coursebook creatively.)
Emma Heath – Resources – no resources? (Overcoming the problem of limited resources.)
Music to my ears. (Using music to create dynamic, fun activities in the classroom.)
Bill Curry – Teacher talking time (TTT). (Exploring ways of reducing teacher talking time in the classroom and maximising student talking time.)
Warren Sheard – Practical pronunciation practice. (Using games and activities to practise aspects of pronunciation.)
Jon Birkin – Role-play in the classroom. (Using role-play in the classroom to overcome student shyness and create materials.)
Pascal Ranaghan – Consolidation Exercises. (Using consolidation exercises to extend and reinforce vocabulary, grammar and functional language elements.)
Jon Miller – Warmers, lead-in activities, fillers and coolers. (Using warmers, fillers, coolers etc, to reinforce previously-taught language items.)
Mohamed Beina – Teaching vocabulary. (Using creative strategies and games to help students learn and retain vocabulary.)
Lilian Wardle – The written word … (Brainstorming ideas on topic-based and free writing activities in the classroom.)
Based on the success of this event, HIE anticipates holding a further series of teacher training workshops.