INTERVIEW WITH MR.A.SUJEE.

ON HIS RETURN FROM THE USA IN 2006. DID YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?
CITED BY SADIA DHORAT OF GRADE 10a

Zaiboon Motala conducted this interview to showcase Roshnee Islamic School. The interview is edited; however you can source the original interview in the Al-Huda Magazine – first publication of 2007.



Zaiboon In this month’s edition we interview Mr. Abdullah Sujee who won the Innovative Teachers’ Award in South Africa and then represented South Africa in the International Teachers’ Forum in Philadelphia, USA where he was voted in as the runner up in the best teacher category. The competition was first national and than All of Africa and thereafter, the two winners were selected i.e. Abdullah Sujee of Roshnee Islamic School and Paul van Zyl of St.Johns.

The ITF in the USA was judged on 3 C’s and the fourth been the teachers’ choice of the best educator. The first C : Content i.e. how you use the curriculum design of your country over a number of years to produce innovative ideas that lends itself to ICT – integrated computer technology and Media orientation. The second C: Community i.e. how the school and its community is involved in your teaching style in overt, subtle, direct and indirect ways through the integration of the school’s extr-mural and co-curricular activities. The third C i.e. collaboration – this means how you formed Joint Ventures over a number of years with schools, communities, companies and established avenues of learning such that the image of one’s country is enhanced. The fourth category is where all the teachers who won in their respective countries or continents would vote in whom they thought was the best educator – it was in this category that Abdullah Sujee won an award. The judges were from various countries and are involved in education in various ways.

Zaiboon: Tell us about all that you do that made you win the Innovative Teachers Awards in South Africa and the Award in the USA and do you see yourself as the teacher of the year or the best in SA.

Abdullah: Let me begin with the last part of the question first. I do not see myself as the best nor do I consider myself as the best in SA or anywhere else for that matter. What I do see myself as, is a person that wants to be the best in whatever I do because, that is the Prophetic example. I felt the competition/forum that was organised by Microsoft was only a means to get some exposure to the great teachers of the world and their innovative practices.
Zaiboon, All praise is for Allah, the thrust of the classroom is to connect the world outside the classroom with the classroom itself. Therefore, the world of media plays a major part in all my lessons such that today I use PowerPoint Presentations, audio streaming, radio, TV and Integrated Computer technology in lessons. This means making learning more integrated and holistic. For example, in the teaching of Shakespeare’s plays, pupils would have to produce an audio assignment on the play i.e. they had to produce a main news bulletin, secondary news flash, an advert, a letter to the editor and anything else. All this has to come out from the play thus, enticing the pupil to read the play – you do know that pupils today don’t really read their novels and plays. The same lesson would apply to novels and short stories. Pupils would also produce a film on a play or novel and you can imagine how they would have to ‘read’ the set work to identify setting and props to produce the effect of the writer. Mind you, it made pupils read more critically i.e. looking into the text for specific clues to heighten the image on screen. Furthermore, when pupils would be taught poetry through the use of P.P.Presentations and the internet, they would post their comments on the web and compare their comments with people across the world – this was an amazing feat!

The other idea that generated a lot of discussion was the way I got learners to write story books for pre-schoolers using their set work, July’s People as a springboard. You would recall that these books which were prepared by the grade 12s were made available to your pre- school for use. Furthermore, it was used at another school as well for evaluation and use.

The ideas that I presented here has been presented at various national conferences as well therefore, many issues were revised after the conferences because teachers would make you aware of things you did not think of.

Zaiboon: Tell us about your international experience at the International Innovative Teacher Forum in the USA in December 2006.

Abdullah: It was an amazing and an exhilarating experience that made me appreciate teaching even more. You know when you meet with teachers from all over the world, from more than 30 countries, you realise just how little you know and do. My colleague, Paul van Zyl, also from SA shared the same view. What impressed me greatly was how teachers from other countries appreciate what we are doing in South Africa. They were really impressed by the establishment of Muslim Schools as a world wide phenomenon. It’s very difficult to express what I learnt in the short space of time save to say that the sponsors, Microsoft and SchoolnetSA, made it more memorable in that they highlighted our ideas to the world. The overwhelming feeling was when my name was called out as the runner up in the teachers’ choice – it was something I really did not expect from amongst the great teachers from across the world. Allah loves me and therefore, I believe this award is a gift from Allah because; I joined the profession feeling that it would take me across the world and yes, I see it happening – alhamdulillah.

When we visited the School of the Future in Philadelphia, I was flabbergasted at this institution. It is a school that is really high tech and it has all the trimmings and trappings to make teaching a dream, for example each lesson is recorded and can be downloaded from the school’s webpage and all the pupils have their own laptops as ‘notebooks’. Each classroom has its own Active Board and ergonomically designed chairs to cut out classroom fatigue!

There is just so much to say however, the one thing that really surprised me is the ignorance of Islam even in the teaching fraternity. The fact that I teach at a Muslim school some teachers wanted to know what brand of Islam I teach – I don’t blame them save to say that they are so caught up in web of deceit of Islam on the airwaves and that is why I focus on integrating media into lessons. I have so much more to say but, it would need more time. If log on to www.schoolnetSA.co.za you will find more details and also the Thutong Portal on the world wide web you will learn more of the Innovative Teacher.
The one teacher’s work with grade 1’s really made me jump out of my skin. It was a school in New Zealand where grade 1 pupils would create their own blog on the world wide web, have their own dedicated website and post all their work on their blog and this would be carried through to the next grade – it was really awesome to see these children’s work on the web. It’s not just writings but, picture drawings, assessments and so much more. So you can imagine what their Grade R learning is like.

…..that all folks.