OSCA U.A.E. 2009
In United Arab Emirates 2008, there will be two teams based in Abu Dhabi and two teams based in Dubai. Every team will be composed of seven members and led by a director. A bilingual manager will help with school liaison and the general running of the camp. There are also five other teachers, each with unique teaching material. Six bilingual teaching assistants, recruited from local universities, will assist our volunteers in the classroom.
The exact dates of the camps are to be confirmed, but will involve a 5 week stay in the U.A.E., during which teachers can expect to teach for twenty half day sessions.
Respecting Islamic culture, all students will be taught in single sex classes, with male teachers teaching boys and vice versa. Boys will be taught in the morning session by male teachers while girls will be taught in the afternoon session by female teachers.
The day starts with three one-hour long lessons. The six same sex classes in the camp are further separated into two bands of three classes, with the six teachers split accordingly. The children are then taught in three rotating classes within their band.
In the last hour of every day, the children have an opportunity to use English in a more active manner. During the first ten days, the children alternate between taking part in specially devised English activities and whole camp activities, such as fashion shows and murder mystery games, taking an entertaining approach to English learning.
In the second half of the programme, the students take part in a ten-day drama series, starting with drama workshop exercises on the first day. Each class will then be guided in the planning and writing of their own play, which will be performed in the closing ceremony on the last day of the camp. While the teaching assistant rehearses the drama with the class, the teacher will have the opportunity to conduct tutorials with pairs of students, allowing the student to communicate with their teacher on a more individual basis.
If after reading this there is any other info you’d like to have about this project or about the U.A.E., please email us.