Best Teacher Selection

       IAT  initiated "best teacher" program last year to motivate teachers to improve their instructions and create appealing learning environment in which learners can achieve their best. I believe that the aim of the program is not to single out any individual as the best teacher in a school but to honor teachers who are representative of all excellent teachers in our school. The most important qualification as I see it is that the teachers have a superior capacity to inspire a love of learning in students of all levels and abilities.

This year students selected  Mr. Shireen From the English department and recognized him as IAT Al Ain best teacher for the year 2011.  We in the English team are enormously proud of our colleague and of the great honor he has brought to the team by his achievements.

      Shireen is among the few teachers who have a sustained impact on their students. He thinks of teaching as anything he might do to encourage students to learn and considers the classroom as an environment engineered for learning and meant to engage students.

He thinks outside the box, outside the classroom, and outside the norm. As much as possible, he tries to make classroom experiences exciting and memorable for the students, and constantly seeks ways to give his students a real world application for knowledge, taking learning to the next action-packed level. Think tactile, unexpected, movement-oriented, and a little bit crazy...but that what effective teachers do. And that why students voted for him.

He  celebrates student successes, shows compassion for struggling ones, tells stories from their own lives, laughs at their mistakes, shares their unique quirks, and isn’t afraid to be imperfectly human in front of his students.

Shireen fully understands that teachers don't just deliver curriculum, but rather the best teachers are inspiring leaders that show students how should behave in all areas of life and in all types of situations; he apologizes when necessary and treats students with respect.

For next year, I believe different procedures that allow peers (teachers), administrators in addition to the students to participate in the selection process. Criteria, judging criteria eligibility, schedule, awards and any other relevant factor should be considered so that the program can perfectly achieve its aims.