JESS Jumeirah, Dubai

Thoroughly enjoyed the Live hook up with S.Q in L.A!; smoothly executed, it generated some excitement in the room! I was bowled over by Mark's very simple Higher Order tennis ball idea. In fact, it has already been shared with the most 'talkative teachers'. I do like the idea of a fun timer to keep speakers on track, but it did highlight one thing- teachers need to take the advice they offer students: rehearse your presentation and time it! Perhaps a Special SPARK event might be dedicated to those of us who are trying to promote a culturally creative curriculum e.g Improved bilingual content/Is Studies?

The way forward for more focussed CPD is already underway with the inclusion of an MFL SPARKevent in September. Despite a general interest in Education throughout the system from Early Years to Senior School, I still find it difficult to maintain interest when a presentation comes on from an area that I currently do not teach in. Great to speak to educators from outside the Dubai network too.

I took many ideas away with me this time, whereas last event wasn't so impressive, perhaps too many speeches. I liked the Ball questioning idea as well as the thought given for the Islamic education (we must relate to real life situations, such as chat and discuss about the religion and apply to our life situations, when we are depressed or happy or lost... As for further improvement, I would like to share my feelings and understanding about the workshop as a listener. When a speaker comes up to the stage, he or she must start from the OBJECTIVE or a CLEAR definition of what PRODUCT is he or she gonna talk about. Many times I was irritated by the speakers when they take 7-10 min, just advertising NOTHING but speaking about things that listener has NO CLUE :) As a speaker, you must consider that the listener has NO IDEA what the hell you are gonna talk about. So, BE CLEAR and BRIEF. But most importantly is the CLEAR idea that you must offer. I dont want to stereotype cultures, but British speakers tend to talk without a CLEAR message (speak ONE thing, rather than 1000 things from here and there :). Arab and Asian cultures like to REPEAT the same thing OVER AND OVER. Hence, as a manager, you might need to have kind of a framework or model that speakers could follow. It is like writing an article. First define your PRODUCT, then EXPLAIN it and then bring examples of your product. Or as selling a product start with WHY you wanna sell that product... HOW it works... then WHAT is it that you wanna sell... This order can be reversed (WHAT, HOW and WHY). Very simple! WHY I wanted to give my feedback (because people get irritated and fed up from listening theories) HOW I can make the workshop more interesting (by being clear and SIMPLE, more concrete) WHAT am I offering now (my feedback)!!! THX Shushan

I really enjoyed this event. IT was fantastically well organised (Thank you and well done Steve). I found it very interesting to hear from Primary School teachers. The ideas they had about 'Play' at Foundation and why should it stop there really made me think as did the action that JESS have taken to improve the provision of Arabic as well as its reputation in the school and with parents. I would have liked more Teaching and Learning content but that is not to say that ideas that were shared were any less valuable to me. It was great to hear about BYOD and see some new apps being used (particularly useful as I am leading the mobile working party at my school next year). I thought that Neal Oates use of BlendSpace and Screencast-o-Matic was brilliant as was Luke Rees resources for Show What you Know. I can't wait for the next Event!