Mr Hamdan Mohammed Alhwaishan is one of 25 Saudi Arabian educators visiting Calamvale Community College for ten weeks in Term 4 as a part of the “Building Leadership through School Immersion” professional development programme.

What have you gained from your experience at the College?

At Calamvale, I have learnt many valuable skills and knowledge. For example, I have picked up new reading techniques and strategies to use in my teaching of English literature. I have also learnt how to support students to analyse a text closely.

What has been the most rewarding or exciting experience you’ve had here?

The most exciting experience has been following the development of young students – especially their personalities – in their first years at school.

What are some similarities and differences between education and schooling in Australia and Saudi Arabia?

There are similarities between our uses of technology for teaching, as well as in the subjects we offer at each learning stage.

Here, you do not use curriculum books for each subject like we do in Saudi Arabia. Also, school starts at 6:45am and ends at 1:30pm in Saudi Arabia, whereas lessons start later in Australia, from 8:30am to 3:00pm.

What are you future aspirations and teaching goals?

I hope to improve my English language teaching strategies and methods; this will help me to support my students to love and learn English language at school. My experience here in Australia will play the main role of changing and improving my teaching life for the better. Australia is the perfect place to get an excellent education, and that’s why I chose Australia for my teaching program after I got my Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics in 2012. I am planning to visit Australia again in the future.