By Fazeena Saleem
A group of hand-picked young graduates and professionals who began their work as full-time teachers in Qatar’s Independent Schools has completed one year in their new endeavour.
Mohamed AlJanahi, Sarah Fayyad and Touhami Abi, who are from different backgrounds and specialisations, received rigorous teacher training, and placed as teachers in Independent schools to teach English and Mathematics for a two-year ‘fellowship’ under Teach For Qatar.
They have introduced innovative teaching methods in classroom to make learning interesting and develop skills among students.
The Teach For Qatar Fellowship is designed to positively impact students in Qatar, and by working with its partner schools it has identified English, Mathematics and Science as high priority subjects. The first cohort of Fellows have completed their first year and the second batch will begin their career soon and will teach those subjects to 7th and 8th grade students.
AlJanahi, decided to join the fellowship by taking two years leave from Maersk Oil Qatar, where he is employed as a mechanical engineer.
“Although I’m an engineer by professoion, I always had a passion for teaching and taught Arabic to my colleagues, I had a desire to be a teacher,” AlJanahi said.
He teaches mathematics in two classes with 51 students at Al Ahnaf Bin Qays Preparatory Independent Boys School.
Al Janahi has introduced a very attractive method of teaching mathematics to make learning easy for students. He teaches through Arabic poetry, created videos in which he acts out real life situations where mathematics is useful and has created a YouTube channel where he uploads videos that explain mathematics in a simple way in the Qatari-local dialect.
“Making the class enjoy leaning is a big challenge ….Students have different personalities and especially dealing with teenagers is a challenge,” he said.
However, he says that the children, who are taught by parents at home, perform better in school. Suggesting young Qataris to take-up teaching as profession AlJanahi said: “They need to think about being teachers because we don’t find much Qatari teachers for mathematics and science, there is a really big gap and it need to be filled.”
His colleague in the Fellowship Sarah says that teaching is not easy but it’s gratifying.
She graduated from the Georgetown University in Qatar and teaches English at Moza Bint Mohammad Preparatory Independent School for Girls for two classes with 47 students.
Sarah closely monitors the high achievers and low achievers in her classroom and teaches the low achievers during break time, four times a week. She also encourages children on self learning.
“It a challenge to teach English to children who are 12 or 13 years old and who don’t like English that much, and more kind of scared and shy speaking in English, so had to find creative ways to teach them,” she said.
First year of the Fellowship has been a learning experience for Sarah as well.
“I teach children from different backgrounds and I learn to be flexible and develop the skill to talk to children and know about their problems,” she said.
Another graduate form Georgetown University in Qatar, Abi is interested in working for the public sector, and has chosen the Fellowship as an opportunity make an impact on the society. He teaches Mathematics at AbuObaida Preparatory Independent School For Boys.
“The first year was very challenging, exciting and most of the time very rewarding. I have like 70 students and each one of them is unique each one of them have specific skills but the hardest thing was the first few months building relationship with the students,” said Abi.
He has created a consistent and comprehensive incentive system to reward high achievers and to encourage students to participate actively in class. He also conducts extra classes on Saturday mornings for low achievers and students who are facing learning difficulties.
“Teaching is dealing with human, you need keep patience and understand the students and understand their behaviour,” he said to the youth interested in entering the Fellowship.
Founded by H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Teach For Qatar is a local non-governmental organization (NGO) working to be part of the solution to the challenges faced by students in Qatar. It does this by reinvesting exceptionally talented leaders into the independent school system.
By providing its Fellows with the opportunity to guide and inspire the country’s future leaders inside the classroom, Teach For Qatar is actively seeking to address the value of teaching and its important role in realising the Human Development Pillar of the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Additionally, Teach For Qatar has also established strategic partnerships with several reputable companies in Qatar, through which a number of employees are being encouraged to undertake a two-year secondment with Teach For Qatar, to work as teachers in independent schools.
The Teach For Qatar model is guided by the successes of Teach For All, an international network supporting organisations in 35 countries. As a member of Teach For All, Teach For Qatar has access to more than 20 years of research on training, recruitment, and leadership development that is tailored to Qatar’s unique context.
Recent graduates and young professionals, whether nationals or residents, are encouraged to apply to Teach For Qatar for a chance to develop their leadership skills through a teaching placement at one of its partner independent schools in Doha.
The Peninsula
