03-01-2009
While it was obliged to close its doors during the Israeli invasion for almost a month, activities at the Gaza Branch of the Centre were resumed towards the end of January with a series of meetings with teachers, headmasters and headmistresses to address some of the most urgent matters brought about by the war– especially how to deal with pupils who had been badly hit by personal experiences of violence and destruction. A delegation of pupils from Classes 7 and 8 in Fakhoura School, Jabalya, which had been hit directly by Israeli shelling, visited the Centre and spent a day working with researcher May Nayef on a number of games and activities.
In Ramallah, the period saw a particularly rich programme of events and workshops, starting with two meetings on special needs children in Bidou village in which 65 teachers took part under the supervision of Nai Shomar. In collaboration with the Institute of Early Childhood in Nazareth, a four-day workshop was held for a number of KG teachers from Ramallah, Jerusalem, Ramleh and the Naqab. Other events included a story-telling one-day workshop held by Wasim Kurdi at the Friends School Ramallah as part of an ongoing series. Nai Shomar supervised a meeting around the subject of the different forms of neuro-paralysis and their effect on the stricken pupil and on his/her learning abilities.
The Drama Teachers Forum held its seventh meeting in Al-Bireh. The meeting included a presentation of work by teachers from Nazareth and a number of other presentations over a two-day period.
A new project on the use of mimesis in the teaching of science was launched under the supervision of Awwad Sharaf in collaboration with the Welfare Association. A coordinating committee of 14 teachers was formed during the project's first meeting on January 31.
Last but not least, the new round of Qattan-Qaddumi scholarships in the educational sciences were announced for the academic year 2009-10.