RAFIA BEGUM

 ABOUT ME :RAFIA BEGUM                      

                                  
MY PROFESSION:

I am a public School teacher...                                 
More about the subject I am teaching:
Chemistry to high school level (16-18age group).
Performing practical activities of science.
Science  is a way of finding things out about the world. The scientific method, has allowed man to make very rapid advances in knowledge and practical skills.
When teaching science aim not to teach facts, instead aim to teach skills. Pupils with the necessary skills will, with your help of course, be able to find out the facts for themselves. The skills required  to become a scientist can only be learned through practice. Pupils learn theses skills by performing experiments. As a teacher  should aim to do at least one investigation or experiment every day. For very young children, the experiments should be simple with clear concept and results.               

               
MY FAMILY:

My family consists of 11 members, my father, my mother, 2 brothers and 7 sisters including me. My father is a general physician and my mother is a house wife.

                                   
MY PROVINCE:
I belong to Charsada, it is a big town  of Khyber Pakhtun Khawn (KPK).KPK is province of Pakistan. Peshawar is capital of KPK.It has great artistic heritage.Our major  crafts includes knitting, carpet weaving and woolen hats. Our peshawari chappel are very famous. KPK is a cradle of famous literary writers and poets for example khushal khan khattak and Rehman Baba.Our famous crops are wheat, sugarcane, tobacco, maize, dry fruit, walnuts and apricot.
                    
PERSONAL INTEREST:
I love teaching and exploring new and creative teaching methodologies. I love to watch good movies and reading books

MY FUTURE GOALS:
I want to be a ‘dynamic and smart’ teacher, who not just teaches education but teaching also ethics to the learners. And also educates my youth how to give and get respect.

I want to have fun and excitement in my classroom. I want them to understand why it is so important. I would follow democratic teacher –student relationship.

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION DESCRIPTION:

LOCATION
My school is called the Government Girls Higher Secondary School Shabqadar.  It is located in heart of     Shabqadar of  District Charsada KPK. It is one of the leading areas in the education sector.
BULIDING
The infrastructure of my school is very good. It has twenty classes, three practical laboratories, one computer class room, one library and big playground. The number of students attending my school is 1500.
TEACHING STAFF
Teaching staff is 22(twenty two) and administrative staff includes five members. They are very hard working and energetic. My school principal’s name is Miss Naveeda. She is highly qualified, competent and very energetic.
Subjects Teachers:

• Physics
• Biology
• Maths
• Computer sciences
• Chemistry
• English
• Economics
• Pakistan studies
• Physical sciences
• Islamiyath
• History
• Civics
• And middle school staff

 CURRENT ACADEMIC STRUCTURE:
It is higher secondary school from grade 6 to grade 12. It has science as well as social sciences subjects . The instruction is delivered in Urdu.  The Provincial Government provides free books and scholarships of 1000 rupees (10 dollar) annually from grade 6 to grade 12. Computer class is now compulsory from grade 6 to grade 8. On 22 March 2011, the Peshawar provincial government has announced a new plan for the promotion of local languages in the province.
The new action plan provides that Pashto language is compulsory from primary class till secondary school level. Audio visual aids for instance charts, maps models, specimen and concrete equipment are used at my school.  At grade 11 we teach pre- medical, pre- engineering and different social sciences subjects. In grade 11 the number of girls in specific science subjects is much less as compared to social sciences. The students in my school belong to very poor family. The annual admission fee of each student in my school is 1000 rupees (10 dollar). In my school we also arrange different extracurricular activities for girls. We also provide vocational classes like knitting, sewing and cooking. The girls also take part in debates and sports. Besides these activities, we lack many advanced technologies. We try our best to improve our education. We also hold parent-teacher meetings to give information about their child.

NEEDS OF MY INSTITUTION
We have   facilities but being a public school in Shabqadar and having many student we have many unfulfilled needs  which are as follow.

• More highly qualified teachers:  The teachers   are senior and hardworking but they have no basic skills and techniques regarding pedagogy and we have less number of teachers as well.
• New class rooms: Students’ enrollment is high; We need more classrooms in order to make   room for section for the students.
• Examination halls: We have no examination hall.
• Big play grounds: Just one play ground is not enough for 1,600 students.
• New and additional computers: We have a computer laboratory but it needs more computers because we have too few computers available.
• Audio visual aids: They are in limited supply for our students.
• Library (having books and ebooks ): We have  library but it has no historical and subject related books and no technology for the students.
• Highly equipped laboratories for each science subject: We have no lab equipment   related to sciences subject i.e. chemistry, biology, & physics.
• School buses: There are no school buses for students.
• Furniture: We have limited number of chairs and desks.
• Sports: There is no sports material for play in our school.
• Improved sanitation system: Water is the major problem in my area, there is impure water for drinking everywhere.

                           

NON SIBI DISCUSSION

In my community I perform different non sibi actions. In my school we have a large number of poor children.  Their parents cannot even afford their fees and cannot provide stationery's. Our administrative staff and teachers raise funds for these children in order to continue their education. I personally help many students by teaching different subjects without pay.
Last year I had a student. She had some serious problems from her parents and she wanted to commit suicide.  She was very upset and when I came to know about her story I called her and listened her problems.  She needed some psychological treatments. I arranged psychiatric sessions for her. After eight counseling sessions she was completely normal.  She got first top twenty position in the Peshawar intermediate board and now she is now medical second year student. In 2010 we had a terrific and disastrous flood in Charsada. I and my family members donated clothes, foods, hygienic kits, medicines, shelters and money to the suffered people.       

MAX WARBURG COURAGE REFLECTION

My study trip   was to the North Eastern University. I heard about Max Warburg who was a 6^th grade student. He was leukemia patient. He died in 1991; his age was around about 11 years. Max Warburg courage curriculum was discussed in presentation. This curriculum has been designed for sixth and ninth grades. I was really impressed when I saw Max you tube video and then met Max’s mother that moments I cannot explain my feelings in my own words. In my view this curriculum is very amazing because it develops and strengthening the character of students, it enhances learning skills of students and academic performances and knowledge of many students. Being a teacher I have gained a lot of encouragement after attending this presentation. In last they gave me a book “The Courage of Boston’s Children”, it involves 46 stories of courageous children of Boston and other areas as well. The North Eastern University is working with Max Warburg curriculum in order to develop the literacy skills and strengthen the learner’s characters as well.       

 REFLECTION ABOUT WASHINGTON DC

We arrived in Virgina in afternoon of of 22 July 2012,we stayed in Hampton inn located in heart of Crystal City near to Washington Reagan national airport and downtown Washington DC. This hotel is one mile away from the pentagon, and is in walking distance to metro, area shopping centers and different restaurants. The Hampton Inn, the hotel where we stayed was very beautiful. In the evening time we visited the City by bus having driver talk about the history of Washington over a microphone. I saw many Monuments and Memorials like  Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln Memorial Statue, Jefferson Memorial, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Statue, Korean War Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, Air Force Memorial, Pentagon Memorial and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial.
On Monday I went to the Department of State and met to very honorable officers, and participated in a round table conference for one hour and they gave us certificates. We were very tired on same day but then in evening time we visited different museums like Air and Space museum, Natural Museum etc. But I personally like the Air and Space Museum it was very interesting and wonderful.
On Tuesday I went to the Senate house and did table conference discussing the different aspects of education and then we went to the Pakistan embassy meeting Sheri Rehman, Pakistan's new ambassador to the US and other officers as well. Then we went to Pentagon City and it was very fabulous because it offered  world class  shopping centers. I really enjoyed Pentagon City and did a lot of shopping. Kabob Palace was amazing restraunt offering good Pakistani foods and  I enjoyed many different foods there.
On Wednesday I went to Voice of America broadcasting center and there I gave interview in my native language that is Pushto it was also really amazing and I was very happy in that moment because my own community was listening me at VOA. I prepared my luggage and came to airport and left for Boston at 3:30 pm , Air travelling   was just nice it was round about one hour after that I were driven by bus for two hours to New Hampshire. Finally I reached Mary Lyon dormitory and slept deeply.
Washington DC trip was phenomenal fantastic and dynamic. I was really impressed by Washington DC traffic, people and buildings. I had a very good experience in Virginia and Washington DC as well. This trip had a great impact on my life , I learned a lot about American people and culture. Iit will be unforgettable in my whole life now I am very clear about American people and after returning to my country I will change people‘s wrong  perception about American people and culture.         

MASTER ACTION PLAN  (MAP)

Proposed by: Rafia Begum

Subject Specialist

GOVT.GIRLS HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL SHABQADAR KPK

Pakistan Educational Leadership Institute, Plymouth State University New Hampshire USA

Introduction

Project Title

Imparting training to the teachers of Biology, Social Studies, Urdu, English and Islamiyat in implementation of environmental lessons with related activities in their classrooms.

Key Themes

• • To yield considerable output from the lessons in terms of behavioral change of the students 
• • To train the teachers in bringing about desirable changes in the personality of students through environmental lessons given in their text books. 
• • To sensitize the teachers and students towards thoughtful approach for achieving the objectives of the environmental lessons given in the text books at various levels.
• • To relate the contents of the lessons with the prevailing issues of water, air, soil and other type of ever growing pollution and pollutants.  

Rationale

Education can play a vital role in molding the personality of a child. Our prevailing system of education, unfortunately, has not been successful enough to bring about the desired changes in the students as desired by the National Educational Policy. Apart from so many other reasons; inappropriate methods of teaching, ignoring the key issues of the modern era and dependency on rote memory of the students could be cited as the main reasons behind the failure. 

Imparting awareness and sensitization about environmental issues is one of the key points to be addressed through formal and informal education however; the available syllabus designed by the curriculum wing does not cater the need of the students for proper sensitization. Most of the text available in various subjects including Social Studies, Biology, G. Science etc. is not activity based and is solely for memorizing purposes. The developed countries have already established well organized programs for imparting various new disciplines of education while the environmental education program is on the top of the list. 

The prevailing situation of environmental hazards and related issues is not satisfactory in Pakistan and the symptoms are now clearly visible on the health, psychology and attitude of the people. The natural resources are fast degrading due to ruthless usage, the water scarcity is increasing at an alarming pace; water, soil, air and noise pollution are not even taken into consideration and the people have accepted as part of their lives which is of prime concern for the health department specially and for the government officials in common. 

Since there is no separate subject for environment in the said classes, various subjects are enthralled with some topics/chapter. The purpose of this series of workshops is to sensitize teachers to identify and relate the given text in the relevant text books with the everyday life issues of environment so that the required output may be obtained after teaching the lessons. 

In order to properly equip, aware, sensitize and mobilize the young spirits of the society, the proper training and sensitization of the teachers is by far the most essential step. The guidance of teachers towards sensitizing the students through activity based education could be a practical step towards protection of our immediate environment and endangered natural resources. 

The proposed series of training workshop is one of the steps towards equipping teachers of selected schools to impart awareness and sensitization in the students of grade 7^th to grade 12^th in the secondary schools of the area. Since the project implementation period is quite short, an effort is made to conduct the workshops while after each workshop, the impacts/feedback of the teachers is recorded in the next workshop. It is also planned that the next workshop will be based on the learning experiences of the teachers during implementation of the first phase of training. The detailed strategy is given in the body of the proposal.

Objectives

• • To enable at least 20 participants from my schools to identify, transform and induct the relevant environmental topics from various text books (Urdu, English, Islamiyat, Social Studies, Biology, chemistry etc.) from grade I to grade XII. 
• • To relate the topics/contents given in various text books from grade 6 to grade 12 with the everyday issues of environment and the remedies offered by the lessons. 
• • To impart enough expertise to develop and carry out various environmental activities on the basis of lessons given in the text books. 

Expected outcomes

1. a. The participants shall identify the objectives behind the environmental lessons and shall be able to induce the required knowledge/sensitization in their students. 
2. b. The students shall be able to sensitize the gravity of the situation regarding environmental degradation. 
3. c. The prospective students will avoid anti-environmental activities
4. d. The prospective students shall help impart information/sensitization to their fellow students, community and neighborhood. 
5. e. Simple environmental issues like usage of plastic shopping bags, wastage of tap water, health care, management of class room healthy environment, cleanliness of their homes, school and surroundings, will be effectively addressed. 

Suggested venue for implementation

The project shall be implemented within the Government Higher Secondary School, Shabqadar, Distt: Charsadda. 

Implementation

1. 1. Trainees: 
1. a. The beneficiaries of the workshop will be the teachers teaching at various private and Government Schools around the suggested area and the students learning under their supervision. 
2. b. The selection of the teachers shall be made in consultation with the heads of the selected schools on the basis of interest, enthusiasm, and dynamicity of the participants. 

Methodology

 The following phases shall be followed during the implementation:

1. a. 01Training/Orientation Workshop for the selected teachers. 
2. b. Dissemination of information books to all the participants that will guide them during their teaching/activities development.
3. c. Submission of monthly Reports by the teachers during the implementation. 
4. d. Identification of bottlenecks/shortcoming during the process and seeking necessary remedies for removal of such obstacles. 
5. e. Feedback of the students/parents/fellow teachers regarding impact formation on the students though questionnaires, interviews and personal meetings.  

Timeline

The project shall spread over a period of 90 days (03 months) after approval and will comprise Training workshops, implementation phases, monitoring and evaluation of the impacts.

The resource person shall be called upon and requested from the cohorts of the senior Alums and Environmental Specialists.  

Monitoring & Evaluation

The progress of the project shall be evaluated through periodic reports of the trained teachers, students, parents and community members. Most of the evaluation shall be done through personal interview (video & photos).