Throw back: Desert Love

Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled down out of the sky, reminding any thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.
One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...
For the memory of the most healing night i have ever had.. for the peace the desert poured in me, my soul starves for being there again..

Red Mountains in Sina

       

Career Orientation at AUB

Usually, students and employed professionals have no idea of right career guidance. Right career guidance can tell you, about the career options that could suit you the most. Hence, you can start preparing for that option from the beginning.

It will give you ample amount of time for right kind of preparation. This could only be possible if you take guidance for your career.

This is what the the Career Orientation program was all about for high school students i teach in the Access Program.

Students had a chance to meet with professionals from all domains, asked questions of what the career they do is all about and what it took them to be who they are now.

Students had an opportunity to find an interest in certain domains rather than others. Now they got an idea about it all and they are more aware of what they want to study and their future plans. Good luck in your lives guys:)

community service in the village (M.A students)

Community service involvement is important because volunteering teaches people of all ages and backgrounds compassion and understanding. One thing I like about community service is that there are opportunities to improve and leave your mark on your global and local community. volunteering  and putting on service events can be used as a way to advocate for causes that you are personally passionate about.

Community service volunteering can also be the avenue to explore areas that you express interest. Volunteering is something that has no time limit; you can volunteer as much or as little as you’d like or have time for and still feel some type of fulfillment from it. Not only is community service fun and rewarding, but volunteering looks great on a resume or college application.

Starting from there, M.A high school students were always there whenever it came to serving the village. Two of the projects I was there to monitor were: planting flowers in reused tires and planting a neglected space in the village's square.
 

The first aimed in trying to diminish the accumulation of unused tires in the nearby school area. they believed that there are ways to benefit from no more used things, more of a recycling thought that we had no access to. The other project was trying to beautify the square's image.
Students had fun volunteering, and felt part of their communities.

hands to serve

  

Impressive

By JULIE WILLIAMS: Should Struggling Students Repeat a Grade?

At first glance, grade retention may look like old-fashioned common sense: Fail the year? Just do it over! In fact, with new emphasis on hard-nosed standards, the tactic is on the rise around the country. Old-fashioned, yes, says the National Association of School Psychologists. But common sense? Not on your life. Retention, cautions the association, is in fact “an ineffective and possibly harmful intervention.”

In fact, says professor Shane Jimerson, PhD., of the University of California in Santa Barbara and nationally respected authority on the topic, the practice may best be described as “educational malpractice.” Those are strong words. So what exactly is the problem? Here’s what studies have found:

Gains are only short term. At first, kids may do a little better, but within 2-3 years, they have generally lost those gains. Faced with new topics but without any help regarding the problems that made their school decide to hold them back in the first place, students continue to struggle.

Losses are long term. By the teen years, “overage” students have different developmental interests than kids in their grade. They have more problems with friends and behavior, and research reveals that they are 5-11 times more likely to drop out of school. “Actually,” the NASP advises parents, “grade retention is one of the most powerful predictors of high school drop out.”

KG's and the Word Building Apron:)

As a KG teacher , one of the ideas I found interesting in teaching students words, practice sight words and build CVC words in a dun way is the use of an Apron.
The teacher dresses with an apron with pouches. The teacher usually prepares letter cards ahead of what she wants to teach. Students then use the pouches to build up words and spell them. It's useful when teaching CVC words as cat, dog, pig... Students find it fun coming next to the teacher and filling her apron with letters and feeling great about their ability to spell them after. It also works in placing missing letters in high frequency words' teaching.
I have used it with my children and find it interesting to share it with you on my blog. Always coming up with new ideas, is the challenge when we teach KG students. It sticks to their minds and they approach learning in a game-like manner :)

A Thought about Cooperative Learning

    Based on the experiences of thousands of classroom teachers, these are the benefits of cooperative learning:

Student achievement. ...
Student retention. ...
Improved relations. ...
Improved critical thinking skills. ...
Oral communication improvement. ...
Promoted social skills. ...
Heightened self-esteem.

     

    As a teacher I find cooperative learning one of the best methods to adhere in classroom, students find it energizing and competing. Using appropriate structures for the applicable objectives and lesson plans, engage most of the students of different learning styles and levels of achievements.

About the Webinar: Why Audiobooks Don't Work and All the Reasons They Do (Hosted by edWeb Team)

Presented by Terrie Noland (Learning Ally National Director),the webinar was interesting in its content.
The learning Ally creates human-narrated audio textbooks and educational solutions to help students thrive as students with dyslexia.
It is said that 20 minutes of daily reading helps performance on Assessment tests. yet some students thrive in reading due to dyslexia.
Audiobooks are there to help those students and they have went too far technologically.
Audiobooks are usually digital, some of which have human voice where others are of synthetic voice. on the other hand, some provide visible texts where others are just audios.
Most of the attendees in the webinar see that human voice audios are better than those that have synthetic voice. Human narration is better for inflection that helps with understanding the text.
Terrie tried to give myths about audios and the truth behind:
-it's said that listening to a book is cheating rather than reading with the eye.
TRUTH: Reading is the taking in of info whether you are doing with eyes, fingers, or ears. you are collecting info, that means you are reading.
There is no difference in eye or ear reading.
-If my students are using audiobooks they won't learn to read.
TRUTH: Audiobooks directly supports reading skill development(fluency, vocabulary) and students gain confidence.
Terrie even discussed the idea of comprehension while ear reading takes place. The way this is usually interpreted is that once we are able to decode letters into sounds which we do by the time of grade 5 or 6, the comprehension is the same whether it is spoken or written.
She discussed areas to consider for effectiveness of Audiobooks. Then how to use them with students, and how students feel about them.
All in all, the webinar was really interesting, and i directly thought of how helpful it would be to start using them in our schools for students with learning disabilities.

When we meet and greet at LIU ( Department of education)

Welcome Note By Tulipano

As I finished my first Masters semester,I can tell that it was the right choice to make at the time. I was hesitant about it at first. I didn't know what I really want , maybe till now. but it is getting clearer as i proceed from one course to another. There is much to learn even when it has been around 8 years away from the learning process and being a student myself..Today I'm attending the EDUC560 course and I've just created my own blog.. Something I never had an idea about.. and I truly find it interesting. So Hello from my blog and it's always time to learn something new.. :)

It will make sense one day