Best Practices 2015-2016 1 www.ha.ae اﻟﺪورة 18CYCLE His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance 2 3 HE Eng. Hussein bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi Minister of Education Chairman of the Board of Trustees 4 5 Dr. Jamal Al Muhairi General Secretariat for Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance 6 From the desk of the General Secretariat: Over the past eighteen years, Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for the Distinguished Academic Performance has seen remarkable transformation in empowering excellence in the education sector as well as nurturing talent. The Award’s main objective since the beginning has been to reward excellence in education to reach highest global levels. This award recognises the achievements of students and teachers in the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf region and spotlights their contribution to boosting the education system. We firmly believe that the most important investment is in education because we give top priority to sustainable human development. We are convinced that the building of intellectual capacity promises a bright future, and we look at education as the key factor in achieving prosperity for people across the globe. Education is an interactive process, so our decision to honor students, teachers and educational institutions, stems from our determination to make education accessible for all so that it pays dividends for everyone. The main goal of this award is to build an ideal learning community driven by healthy competition and positive cooperation. The aim is not only to gauge the students’ and teachers’ performance but to encourage them to boost their personal potential. We have been successful over the years thanks to the relentless support of His Highness, the Patron of the Award, in promoting entrepreneurship, innovation and excellence in all scientific and literary fields, and raise the level of performance and creativity and competence. The satisfaction achieved among stakeholders stems from the excellent results attained in the field of education in particular and the wider society. The award has recognised more than 2538 distinctive members of the education system. We are highlighting the practices, talents and hobbies of this year’s winners to serve as signposts for those seeking excellence. We hope that this book will serve as one of the international yardsticks to those concerned in achieving excellence in education and making outstanding contribution to this emerging field to step up the ladder to garner the award. 7 INDEX 8 Preface 10-11 The Education Supporting Organization Award 12-15 GCC Competitions • The Distinguished Student Category 16-23 • The Distinguished Teacher Category 24-29 • The Distinguished School & School Administration Category 30-33 UAE Competitions • The Distinguished Student Category GRADES 3rd-5th 34-111 GRADES 6th-12th 112-267 • The Distinguished Teacher Category 268-277 • The Distinguished Socio/Psychiatrist Specialist Category 278-279 • The Best Implemented Project Category 280-281 • The Distinguished Academic Student Category 282-291 • The Oldest Learner Category 292 • The Distinguished Student (Adult Education) Category 293 • The Best Educational Applied Research Category 294 • The Distinguished Family Category 295 The OLD WINNERS 296-307 9 Preface: Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance has in a span of a decade and a half emerged as a global beacon that honours successful and talented people in the education sector. This valuable award has come as a milestone in the lives of the winners, and encouraged them to continue to excel. The book you have in your hands explains the beliefs and practices of teachers, students and educational institutions in the UAE and the Gulf Cooperation Coun- cil (GCC), and details their educational and developmental methodologies that have earned them such honour and distinction. The book highlights the most ef- fective ways to raise educational and personal potential of teachers and learners. The award has undergone many changes and refinements over the years, by way of introducing new categories, and expanding its footprint to cover the GCC region. It has become an international award, on par with prominent awards run by The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNES- CO). Considering that education is a multi-level process and its success is based on the adoption of best practices, the categories were developed to reward the most distinguished and innovative candidates. The award categories are: 10 • The Distinguished Student Category • The Oldest Learner Category • The Distinguished Academic Student Category • The Best Educational Applied Research Category • The Distinguished Teacher Category • The Distinguished School and School Administration Category • The Distinguished Socio/Psychiatrist Specialist Category • The Distinguished Family Category • The Best Implemented Project Category • The Best Scientific Innovation Category • The Education Supporting Organization Award The winners of Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for Distinguished Academic Performance award are creative people who are considered role models not at the UAE level but also in the region and the world. By highlighting the practices and beliefs of the outstanding winners, we hope this book becomes a beacon to spread the culture of excellence in the field of education. 11 The Education Supporting Organization Award 12 • Sharjah Police General Directorate 13 The Education Supporting Organization Award Sharjah Police General Directorate 14 We took the responsibility of supporting education in the UAE through a series of programs and initiatives including The Culture of Security, a program rolled out in almost all schools across Sharjah that discusses subjects like education, security, culture, and health. Levels vary according to each student category, all of which are dedicated to raising the awareness of the students in these areas. We issued several booklets such as Learn How To Say: No, Parents’ Obedience, National Love, Modesty in Girls’ Lives, Road Safety, Positivity, and Voluntary Work. We also tailored specific programs such as one for answering the questions of secondary school students. All this work was done by voluntary officers from the Sharjah Police in coordination with the Sharjah Education Council. Our main purpose is to create a generation of students that helps the police prevent crime, to reduce behavioral deviation rates between different schools’ students, to develop a sense of security, and to instill Islamic and social values. Our other initiatives include five main categories; Friends of Police, The Culture of Security, Traffic Services for Schools, Little Police Officer Magazine, and Education Initiative Service, which included a cartoon character and a TV show aired on S h a r j a h T V. We have been involved in this field for almost twenty-seven years, as we started with Friends of Police as a single initiative that targeted students in summer camp. Our influence continued to develop and, in the year 2010, we launched The Culture of Security Program. The students who benefit from our Friend of Police activities number about 530 a year. The Culture of Security Program attracted around 51,290 students in 2013, compared to 27,506 students in 2010. Participating schools amounted to 104. Our future plan is to launch a smart project aiming to transfer all these educational programs into smart learning. We are also planning to develop a cartoon character to be the main presenter of our programs on electronic devices. We have an online platform that allows students from all over the UAE to benefit from the content and their parents to know what is exactly being taught for free. 15 Gulf Cooperation Council Competitions 16 • The Distinguished Student Category • The Distinguished Teacher Category • The Distinguished School and School Administration Category 17 Distinguished Student Category Almas Eid Maashi Mizel Al Fadli 12 :Grade School: Hadiah Secondary School State: Kuwait Region: Al Ahmadi I am talented in Decoupage art, which is one of the hottest trends in the crafts world that depends merely on a little bit of paper and glue. I learned of this art when I heard about it on the Internet and joined a course in the Civil Institute of Arts. My teacher, Mariam Al Kandari, helped me to develop this talent and created a special corner in the school to spread awareness about it. My hobby is agriculture. We sometimes make collaborative efforts to plants areas in school. I also love oratory, which I train at home and with help from the poet, Musallam Al Behairi. I was crowned first on the Al Ahmadi Education Zone and second in the same contest the following year. My noble cause was about the environment. I made an extensive awareness campaign, visited Kuwait University, participated in workshops at schools, and visited the garbage landfill. I also visited the Environment Public Authority (EPA) of Kuwait and arranged with them a campaign at school. Helping the slow learners was another cause I took responsibility for. I counted them in my class and filled their free time with lessons in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. My skills include fluency in the English language and I undertook a course for the four skills in Kuwait University. I conducted interviews with prominent national figures such as deputies from the Kuwait’s National Assembly, met with Sheikha Ghanimah al-Fahd, and others. I participated in the Chemistry Olympiad and won the Bronze Medal. I also came in first place for a national contest on the occasion of the 50-year anniversary of the Kuwaiti Constitution. The winning of the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance was inspirational. I offer thanks to His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum for this generosity and nobility. 18 Rula Jamal Hassan Mohamed Ali Naqi Grade: 12 School: Muharraq Secondary Girls Country: Bahrain Region: Muharraq I felt proud to be the first in my family to win the renowned Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance.