You can see the sadness and depression on our students’ faces, because of family violence and other society issues, but through music their lives were changed and you just gave them the motivation to come to school and enjoy the lessons”. Majdoleen Yaghi, UNRWA Teacher
Merging the beauty of song and music with education to create a harmonized learning experience for students, the World Voice programme in Jordan has just concluded its third training in partnership with UNRWA, to help teachers liven up their classes.
Thirty eight UNRWA teachers from South Amman, North Amman, Zarqa and Irbid who teach English, Music and other subjects came together to participate in the World Voice training that took place in Amman between 9 and 12 November 2015. This training is part of the World Voice programme that is implemented in partnership with UNRWA, UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Through this project, we aim to support teachers who wish to learn more about singing leadership techniques, provide them with resources that can be used in the classroom as well as promote an exchange of skills, knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures, and develop learning through singing for all students of ages.
The aim of this training was to help teachers who teach different subjects add more to the teaching process and help children in the classrooms develop their English language and enjoy the learning process. By bringing together English language teachers with teachers of music and other subjects, the training helped them work cooperatively together while cascading the learning experience and knowledge to students and other new teachers.
We had two UNRWA teachers, who were selected in previous training sessions as Master Trainers in Jordan, deliver parts of the training to share their teaching experience. This was a great opportunity for everyone; the Master Trainers developed their knowledge and gained useful feedback from Richard, while other teachers interacted with them and felt that they can implement the learned knowledge in the classroom.
Richard also worked with teachers on a few selected lesson plans from the Jordanian curricula and explained in detail how they can apply the singing techniques that they learned and formulate them in a way that can add more joy to the class.
On Wednesday 11 November 2015, Richard delivered a demo session to students in one of UNRWA schools that is located in one of the marginalised communities in Eastern Amman. The first group of students, from third and fourth grades, enjoyed the lesson immensely and some of them spared the help of the translator and started translating immediately after Richard, waiting to hear more of him! The second group was of 20 seventh-grade girls. As they were older, it was a bit challenging at the beginning because they were shy but after 10 minutes of the training they just started singing along and ended the session with a small performance by the girls and the teachers together!
Khitam Jaber, an UNRWA teacher confided to us: “I usually skip any of the trainings as I find them all boring, but this one is exceptional and I am enjoying each and every moment of it. It is very useful and creative for us as teachers. I am planning to take a music course to help me develop my singing skills. Music can make miracles”.
