Pakistani Educational Leadership Project at Plymouth State University

Greetings All,

You can tell school is busy when I haven’t been checking the Blog. It is wonderful to meet everyone from the 2008 group. Likewise, the 2007 group is often in my thoughts.

My name is Sean Robinson and I will be one of the Community Advisors for the Institute. You will be seeing me often. I, and my counter-part Sarah will be living with you during your stay in the US to help assist you while you are here. Our positions are to help you get to know the US, find the resources you need while you’re here, and answer questions you may have. That, and we are a lot of fun.

Academically, I am completing my Bachelor’s Degree in English in one week and am looking forward to continuing my education. I enjoy reading, writing, traveling, and a variety of others things. I will also be teaching a course during your stay here.

Sean Robinson

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Hi!
Martin

It was really great to learn the exciting and amazing good news by your side that I am one of the lucky ones who are being blessed to be at PSU to become skilled at educational leadership for Pakistan.

As, you want to know “Who am I and where I came form”

I was born in a Christian family, on 29th Nov. 1979, in Lahore, brought up in a small Christian well known village “Clarkabad” District “Kasur” Punjab. Parents are teachers. At present my father Mr. Robin Griffin is retired and unluckily a bedridden patient of paralyses and mother Mrs. Ishrat Robin is still serving in a missionary school of Lahore diocese. Both had served in Peshawar Diocesan schools for two decades. I am the only son of my parents and have two sisters too. Both the sisters are married, as I am. God has blessed me with two daughters “Jennifer” and “Jemima”. Jennifer is school going, studies in class prep while the other is of a year and nine months.

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As far as my education is concerned, after passing grade three from the native school i.e. St. Monica’s High school, Clarkabad. I completed rest of my schooling from Mardan (N.W.F.P) the northern state of Pakistan, and earned graduation and B.Ed. degrees form Peshawar University. The grounds behind was that my parents got a teaching job at Peshawar Diocesan schools in 1989 and had to migrate with family to N.W.F.P.

My teaching journey started after doing my F.Sc. Circumstances compelled me to teach tuitions and teaching in different Missionary schools. Later, a year awhile I got a good job in St. Joseph High School, Risalpur as a secondary school teacher (under the management and control of Convent Sisters). There along with service I earned my graduation degree as well as professional degree (B.Ed.). I served there more than four years.

Then again twist of time, paved my way back to Lahore, as my mother-in-law and aunt ( my father’s sister) got serious, since was a heart patient, her trauma dragged me again to my home back (Lahore).
Fortunately, within a month I got a teaching job at Christ Church School, Youhanna Abad, Lahore. as a secondary school teacher taught English and Social-Studies to elementary classes. Here, I served for a year and half and then in July 2005 in stepped in as a subject teacher in Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust School. The reason to join SNPET was, it is one of the best and leading schools of not only in our locality but I can proudly say that it is the best one of the best schools of the city, which is well equipped and above all it is for the deprived families and here students of every religion are welcomed and treated equally without any discrimination. Now, I am taking English and Social-Studies and Science in junior and elementary classes.

Today, I am living happy and joyous life with my family in Christ’s grace.

With regards,
Saimon Robin.

I am Nighat Sana Kirmani. I am from Lahore. I did my masters in Science Education andwas appointed as lecturer in same discipline at Institute of Education and Research, University of the Punjab, Lahore. I am serving in this position since more than six years. Two days back Ireceived the pleasent surprise in form of your mail. This is really an honour for me to be the member of this prestigious institute.

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Regarding my life, it is considered here by the people as one of the busiest life of a pakistani woman. I am 32 years old woman with two kids. My husband is in armed forces and most part of the year, he is not with us. Though my Ph.D in my university is in final stage, I have also secured admission in Newzealnd becuse of much higher ranking of the University. I am committed to my tasks and I know how to manage them. Just five hours before the birth of my daughter, I was presenting my project during Ph.D course work. However I really love my life. The successful accomplishment of my tasks keeps me happy mostly. I celebrate my achievements with music. To be the part of your family, to me, is also an achievement and I wish to clebrate it with you people. Hope to see you soon.

Dear Martin, your mail came as a pleasant surprise, it feels great to be a part of PSU-PELI!!

Well, I am Rakshanda, a female teacher educator at one of the community institutes in Karachi, Pakistan. My job is to provide professional support to teachers for the improvement of classroom teaching and learning. My focused areas are English and Social Studies, besides I facilitate teachers in class management , reflective practice, curriculum development, lesson planning, classroom research etc.

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Well, to answer your question Where I came from? —— My parents belong to the Punjab, which is situated in the North of Pakistan). They migrated to Karachi (South of Pakistan) in 1960 and since then have settled here. I was born and brought up in Karachi and therefore have a mixed cultural background. I can speak languages of both the provinces fluently that is Urdu and Panjabi, which makes me very comfortable in both the cultures. Interestingly I got married into a family which migrated from Hyderabad, India, having different cultural back ground. In the beginning I faced difficulties to adapt to different style of living, but soon got adjusted . So you can see that how different situations helped me adapt and appreciate cultural diversity. Similarly, when I did my Bachelors of Education from Notredame Institute of Education- Karachi, Pakistan, an institute which is run by Australian faculty, I got a wonderful opportunity to understand an altogether different culture. We used to celebrate our religious festivals such as Eid-ul-fitar or Christmas together which helped us respect and value each others beliefs and practices. Now that I have been given a chance to visit USA, I am very excited to interact with Americans, to share our experiences and to learn from each other.

I would also like to mention here that last year, I did an online course about teaching of Foreign and Second Languages, from (iEARN), International Education and Resource Network. iEARN, is an American, non profit network which encourages online collaboration between teachers and students around the globe. I deeply enjoyed my online interaction with teachers. I learnt about their practices and their school context. The course broadened my educational and cultural horizon. I learnt that although we live in different parts of the world, most of the time our classroom issues are quite similar. The course helped me look at educational issues from various perspectives.

I am now anxiously waiting to visit America and to actually see and observe the things personally. I am looking forward to a rich learning experience from PSU-PELI, and wish to promote the same on my return to Pakistan.

Rakshanda

Hi!

I am Khurshid from Peshawar (well! almost Peshawar, since its the capital of N.W.F.P) actually my village is situated about 45 km away from Peshawar, named “TANGI” with a pure culture of typical Pathans clan (the Muhammadzai’s).

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I entered the profession of teaching accidently however soon I began to love it. May be it was due to the one of the best school of Pakistan that gave full support in almost all disciplines of teaching-learning process. I have been working as a senior Master in University Public School (One of the three schools run by University of Peshawar). I am the poineer in establishing the computer Lab. in the school in 1986 and eversince, the teaching of computer never stopped (Now a fully equipped lab with 38 P4s). Besides taking classes with senior students in Biology, I also coordinate co-curricurlar activities including 13 clubs (Nature Club, Science Club, Art & Craft Club, Debating Club, etc which are run each by two relevent teachers).

In 2003, I joined WWF-P (World Wildlife Fund for Nature- Pakistan) as an Environmental Education and Communication Specialist. With the experience of UPS (University Public Schoo) in hand, I travelled to the very remote and difficult areas of District Muzaffarabad (Azad Jammu & Kashmir) and imparted awareness regarding conservation of the resources of the nearby National Park (the Machiara National Park).

All this was in progress quite smoothly when the calamity of the October 2005 occured and everybody had to suspend their routine duties except to rescue, provide relief and ensure rehabilitation of the affected communitieis. I was lucky enough to reach the most affected area through a sortie and remained there until February 2006. Its a long story (I shall be sharing it with you bit by bit later) how I rescued the critically injured, established field hospitla/dispencaries, Provide food and blankets (of course with the colloboration of WFP and IOM) and established a very friendly relation with the local commnities.

The most promising task (I think), is to treat the local school children regarding the psychological affects (PTSD) of earthquake.

Now I am back to my school and (God knows! visiting USA may be a reward for the efforts I made for the poor communities of Muzaffarabad) with a huge collection of images, videos and reports regarding Environmental Education, Rescue, and Rehabilitation.

I am also very enthusiastic to learn from the visit regarding modern techniques of imparting ‘activities based education.’ ( Well, I am the author of 3 books on EE which are totally activities based but those were my own approaches and not of the experts).

(I made few attempts to insert some images but in vein. It would be very nice of anyone who could tell me about the process)

See you all soon

Khurshid Ahmed