4-Day In-Service Winter Refresher Course 2011

The regular 4-Day In–Service Winter Refresher Course was held from 26^th to 29^th Dec: 2011. The conduct of the course was comprehensive in that it planned and execute the most sensitive areas relating to the teachers of pre- primary, primary and higher Secondary levels. The most important areas which were addressed in the course were Early Childhood Education, Salient features of National Curriculum of 2006, Bloom’s Taxonomy, lesson planning, Questioning Techniques and an analytical treatment of the demands of modern education on teachers and students. Besides these, there were some very useful and inter-active sessions in the subjects of English and Maths conducted by Mr. Rustam, Lecturer in English Havelian College, Ms Rakhshanda Sartaj, lecturer in English Department of English Hazara University and by Mr. Zabeeullah from AFAQ in Maths. Mr. Akhrtar Munir from New Century Education and Mr. Ayaz from Prism held sessions for the teachers of Pre-primary teachers. These sessions were the requested sessions. Mr. Zahid Malik from Islamabad, Professor Ayub Sabir and Mr. Abdul Wahid Mir spoke at length on the Ideology of Pakistan. Mr. Shafiq Awan, Principal, GHSS Dhodial, Mansehra, held a collective session on ‘Formative Assessment.’ In her orientation on ECE, (Early Child Hood Education) Curriculum, for the teachers of Pre- Primary level, Mrs. Shahida Perveen, briefd the teachers about the importance and validity of this document. She also demonstrated the different documents of the National curriculum. Her session remained very interactive and the teachers showed keen interest in learning about the approach and the contents of the document. Dr. Tariq Alvi, from Islamabad, held the same session for the teachers of senior classes and Mr. Nadeem Sultan, from the bureau of Curriculum, Abbottabad, introduced the salient features of the National Curriculum to the teachers of Primary level. At all levels, the teachers took keen interest in learning more about the documents and they have unanimously asked for more such sessions on it, Blooms Taxonomy was another sensitive and lacking area for our teachers. It was decided that it must be introduced this time maybe at a very elementary level. Three very knowledgeable persons put their heads together and did their best to put the teachers at all levels, in touch with the concepts of domains and made to do a lot of work on it. We plan to keep working on it for along time to come. We are grateful both to Mr. Asif Khan from Peshawar and Mrs. Ghazala Shah from Islamabad for agreeing to travel all the way up to Abbottabad, to help our teachers on two most sensitive and lacking areas of classroom teaching that is Lesson planning and Questioning techniques. They both had a 4- hour session each and kept their sessions activity based and task oriented. Two very interactive and activity -based sessions were held for the teachers of KG classes by Ms. Shabnam Qureshi and Ms Zainab Mushtaq. Heir topics were ‘Story telling and Nursery Rhymes’ and ‘Making outdoor playtime useful’. Deep and heartfelt thanks go for all the participants as well who persistently upheld their noble conduct in arriving on time in spite of cold and chilly weather through out four days of the Refresher Course.