My growth in MTB-MLE

 

My growth in MTB-MLE

Previously we have written about our journey in MTB-MLE, whatever little I have written in last session, it has great impact on my life professionally or personally.

·         TCF has always given opportunity to people who has no or less specialization, for this clam I am the biggest example of it. I have no specialization in reviewing textbooks, helping in hiring, conducting assessment center, giving orientations to team, designing MTB-MLE language trainings, developing a language framework or conducting trainings.

I have a professional degree in Applied/English Linguistics which advocates the issues of teaching second language (English) in classrooms, and this degree has limited connections to the experiences mentioned above.

·         MTB-MLE in itself is a big learning of my life, but being part of it has benefited me with the most beautiful experiences. I have divided those in two categories.

 

My personal growth:

 

1.      Being a part of 4 member’s team and interacting with diverse people across the world was a very pleasing experience. I have learned so much from Ajay, Ayesha, and Anum. Ajay’s contribution in reshaping my personality is huge so I can give credit to him very happily. I always look at Ayesha and feel a kind of calmness, she is such a sweet person that never gets angry very easily, she always gives solution of problems without panicking (that’s what I want in me) she also taught me excel J.

Anum is very polite and generous, her way of putting things forward and being vocal for her needs is inspirational. She has adaptive to change, I have learnt from her to be positive every then and now. She also taught me making power points presentations.

2.      My first learning here was to convey my thoughts in a proper manner with a suitable selection of words. I was asked repeatedly to say a single sentence until it sounds good to hear, with that I also worked on my expressions (sometimes my words are not that much harsh but my tone and expression make it sound like that). Ajay always discouraged my tone, and selection of words (for which I am grateful to Ajay). Sometimes he scolded me, sometimes he made me realize, and sometimes his one look was enough to reflect on what I just said. I am more conscious to select words now while speaking. It counts in both personal and professional growth.

3.      The second thing that really counts in growth is to write emails. The same things which apply to spoken language, applies to the written language too. The language must be respectful, specific, well versed, and the tone must be acceptable. Whenever I wrote emails, Ajay wanted me to reflect as someone else has written to me and I am the audience. This changed my narrative, and I become very selective in words and expressions.

4.      I joined this project with a limited exposure to professional opportunities, previously I was a teacher who was connected with students and other staff at the university or school and has no interaction with outward world. When I joined TCF, I came across new people every day, I became acquainted with every new person. I made very beautiful relationships here (including my team) with I am still in touch.

Going for field trips, school visits, interviews, trainings or to meet professionals, I was never confused or out of words. There was always a two way communication with the hope to reconnect in long way. Meeting people, hearing them with patience with a sweet smile remained a big part of my behavior. I reflected that I had networking capacity but it never appeared before. This was the place where my good networking helped me to grow relationships (true relationships) Ajay also believes in relationship building so it became my encouragement.

5.      Travelling is always most desired part of my nature, when we travelled with team anywhere we remained connected, we trust each other more, we follow each other’s instruction, we enjoy the hectic routines, we live that traveling period with full of life and happiness whether the travel is for TCT, or for MTB-MLE filed trips to Tharparkar.

Professional Growth:

1.      Power Point Presentations and Excel:

For every meeting we needed to prepare ppts, and these ppts should have to be neat, clean, and specific with more visual than content. The same was with Excel document (I had no clue of using excel or making ppts).

2.      Reviewing textbook:

I had developed a research based rubric for reviewing textbooks, I reviewed each lesson and gave it score on rubric besides I wrote supporting arguments for the score I have allotted to each parameter. It was a complete rational task, where there was no need of baseness. Rubric and score allotment strengthen my thought process and rationality, I was asked critical questions for giving a particular score to a lesson or textbook. It helped me a lot to resist giving my personal assumptions. Secondly I was writing supportive arguments where I used to define why my score is correct with the required reasons and proofs that helped me to put forth my thoughts with a confidence that I am on right track. It took me months to learn and still I am learning. (The long essays I usually right is the outcome of those arguments)

3.      Conducting Assessment centers and hiring team:

I never experienced the hiring process, it was never required in my previous jobs so taking part in hiring, designing pre-works, reviewing those, calling applicants to HO and conducting assessment centers was altogether a new journey. I became part of hiring process where my contribution was meaningful to hire people. We all three people discussed the strengths and areas of improvements of every applicant after assessment centers, which helped us to take better decisions.

4.      Orientation to team:

Assisting and giving orientation to new team members always helped to make a bond with team members, I feel I have that tendency to make new team members comfortable.

5.      MTB-MLE Language Training Design:

Before developing the training manuals we have to develop the Learning outcomes of the training. The purpose and objective of the training needed to be clear. I learnt to write objectives first because I did not know how to write it. This part helped us to have bigger picture of the training in mind that was the teachers and students who are the immediate audience of this training. Module's layout and structure was new to all of us. Writing a manual through ABIC (Anticipation, Building Knowledge, Independent Practice. Consolidation) framework gave us experience of connecting activities throughout the training. We become conscious of division of activities, management of time, connectivity between each modules and following the ABIC formula.

Training development and delivery were new task for me. I had attended language trainings by Pakistan Reading Project in 2019 so I had some idea how things need to be done but I never did this before. I came out of my comfort zone and took this responsibility whole heartedly. I enjoyed the process of developing language training manuals. I with my team member researched on topics that were challenging. We took MTB-MLE's research and guiding principles for our reference too. This whole process helped us to developed good understanding of the language trainings design (content writing) and its delivery. We conducted simulation in February which helped us to think logistically that how we would manage trainings, time and participants. In simulation we had two teachers to train for few activities, there we faced teachers concerns about MTB-MLE and its philosophy. So we now have become more conscious to take into considerations all the concerns of the teachers, their burdens, their time, their efforts and other related concerns. Simulation helped us to think through these facts while developing these training manuals.

6.      Sindhi Framework Development:

We thought to develop a language framework for Sindhi for that purpose we reviewed Urdu language textbooks (Dastaras and Guldasta) and STBB revised textbook to compare and see what approach is used in these models for language teaching from early years. The review process enriched my understanding of the early years learning process of children, plus it gave me clear image of progression that can be used in Sindhi language framework too. I would say reviewing textbooks gave me insight of early year’s language teaching/learning. I am more conscious to add those components which I felt were missing or had quick progression in these models. The research process through which I am finding answers is really helping me to build my knowledge and credibility over this task. The process is comprehensive and detailed as I am comparing 4 language models along with a Sindh Curriculum and conducting primary and secondary research to find the exact answers, this helps me build confidence on the answers that I suggest. Also writing a rationale and action point help me to give my logics and reasons to my suggested answers. I have to think through valid reasons and facts before writing any suggestion for the answers. English team in FPD has worked on the English framework from Nursery to grade 5. We met Nayma many times to understand their research process, their approach towards language learning, their timeline and challenges. It was a huge learning. The understanding of framework and textbook development were increased. I was first time working on such task so taking help from Nayma and Manal gave my work a kind of direction. When I faced the challenge of unavailability of Sindhi relevant research and was not able to find answers of some most important questions then I started conducting primary research. I had to interview Sindhi authors and experts who have worked on language curriculums. This was the first time I had to lead the primary research. Before this I conducted interviews with other team members. So taking the lead on task build my confidence. The interviews helped me to find answers and speaking to renowned professionals gave my answers strong credibility. I found it helpful to build my personal capacity of building good relationships. This task nourished my professional as well as my personal skills of communication.

7.      Others:

Reading, writing, and happy hour sessions always been a source of inspiration and motivation. As I am a fond of reading and writing so it helped me to write my thoughts and give them a direction. I usually write about soul shaking subjects which sometimes I share and sometimes just leave them on my end but it helped me to vent out the negativity and regain the calmness. Reading is always another pleasure for me and discussion on the readings helped me to understand the different perspectives of people on the same piece of art. I hope these sessions restart again.