LEARNER - CENTERED

     Nowadays, we hear considerably about student- centered teaching that is widespread and gets attached to teaching strategies, teachers, classes, programs, departments and institutions. This technique used in classrooms increase the self-awareness, responsibilities, and self- confidence of the students, and increases their motivation to learn better. In this way we get rid of the traditional lecturing method.  In this context we should note some characteristics of teaching that make it student-centered.

   First of all, we know that teachers work hard to make learning tasks to students, asking questions, and getting answers, then adding details to these answers, they offer examples, and they organize the content, so the teacher works much harder than the students.  I don’t think students develop sophisticated learning skills without the chance to practice and in most classrooms the teacher gets far more practice than the students. So learner-centered teaching should engage students in the hard, messy work of learning.

   To add, learner-centered teachers teach students how to think, solve problems, evaluate evidence, analyze arguments, generate hypotheses, all those learning skills are essential to mastering material. These learning skills develop faster if they are taught explicitly along with the content.

   Moreover, learner-centered teachers should include assignment components in which students reflect, analyze and critique what they are learning and how they are learning it. The goal is to make students aware of themselves as learners and to make learning skills something students want to develop.

   Furthermore, when teachers make all the decisions, the motivation to learn decreases and learners become dependent. Actually we can give students some choice about which assignments they complete. Discussing some policies, setting assignment deadlines within a given time window. And even more we might ask students to help create assessment criteria. In other words, using this strategy give students more chance to develop some control over learning processes.

   Finally, teachers are aware that students learn more from and with each other, so they should encourage the collaboration, and the communicative interaction among the students, use face to face interaction, or even more engage students with online interaction, and so forth… In this way they communicate with other cultures, therefore they enhance their writing, and speaking skills, as well as increasing their educational experiences.

Do we judge fairly our students' behaviors or misbehaviors ?

Lately, I read a short story on facebook about a teacher who used to tell her students daily that she loves them except one student, because he is dirty, smelly,  and low achiever. The teacher ignores him in the class and even don't let him participate in a conversation with his friends. One day this teacher was asked to collect data for each student's achievement of 3 previous years. This teacher was surprised when she read the notes wrote by the grade 3 teacher that this student is so clever, so neat, so sociable with his friends , and he is so lovely. Grade 4 teacher's report contained that this student starts to loose his concentration a little bit because his mom is so sick, he is less sociable,  his behavior should be took into consideration, and should be helped as soon as possible. The grade 5 teacher reported that this student unfortunately lost his mom, he is so depressed, always sad, he sits in isolation, he don't participate in class and he is not friendly anymore, "I am so sad for his bad situation" the teacher added. The teacher was chocked after reading the student's reports, she started to get close to him, take care of him, motivate him to participate in class activities, show him affection, treat him as her child... In teachers' day, he presents her a necklace with missing pearls, and a bottle of perfume used and almost empty. When the teacher saw this present she starts crying because she knew that those things are highly precious and valuable for him because they were for his mom. And the mere gifting them to his teacher reveals his great affection toward her.  Several years passed and the teacher was invited to his graduation day, she wore the perfume and the necklace. When he hug her he told her your smell as my mom.

   Regardless this story is true or not, it is really very touchy, and we could learn from it that we should never ever judge any person's behavior, whether he is a student or any person, without knowing what lead him to behave that way, or without digging inside his thoughts and his background in order to be fair in our judgement, and to know how to interpret and use this judgment in a constructive way.

Keep a Noisy Class Quiet

     One of the biggest struggles new teachers face is how to handle noisy students. Some teachers when they step into their classroom; they are bombarded with a deafening noise. They try helplessly getting their class to pay attention. In order to keep students silent and catch their attention to the class we should follow some tips.

   First of all, we should settle concrete rules from the very beginning of the school year about the consequences of talking in the class. In addition we should be a good role model for our students, in other words we should implement and follow the rules as well as them, for example, I cannot ask my students to be silent when my loudly sound spread and reach out the end of the hallway.

   Then we should with the collaboration of our students, we can create a sign when the teacher uses it, so the students should stop talking such as waving hands, or the sign of putting the finger on the lips. The most important is to teach our pupils how to obey this sign.

Furthermore, we make an easy notice change in the classroom’s atmosphere in order to stop the students’ misbehavior of the students such as: turning off the lights, or ring a bell and so forth.

   We should use quiet voices when talking to our students, because if you talk over them, they for sure will be louder than you. When you try to talk softly to them some students remain silent in order to know what you say. And as we took in the classroom management course the “when the teacher start to shout that means she / he is at the summit of failure”.

   Most of teachers remain silent in order to remind students of the class rules and try to regain the control. In plus, Teachers should have a self-belief and self-confidence that they deserve to be respected and obeyed from the part of the students.

   To end with the students that must be aware that the teacher is the leader in the classroom, and you as teacher you are aware of that too and must be as forefront for your mind.

     Finally, the teacher must ask herself, why the students are doing so. Do they have tests all day? Is this the day before holiday? If so the teacher may act someway else such as discussing for few minutes with them about what they want to do in the holiday? Or we should ask them to sing a song while walking around their chairs in order to burn some of their energy. Thus we can get their silence back.

Lebanon's gender gap

     Lately, I read an article in the Executive Magazine written by Benjamin Redd in 30 January 2013. This article reveals a study about the Lebanese females who have limited opportunities to enter the workforce after their graduation. He referred this issue to the bias that happens between genders in the poor countries. In other words, he considers Lebanon as one of these countries who discriminate between genders, thus predominatingly prefers to hire males than females in different positions. Honestly, this article caught my attention, because we as females in this country, I think we get the opportunity for different positions better than males. The first reason lies behind this issue is that females’ salaries are lower than males, that’ why they select them rather than males. To add, Females in Lebanon, obtained their rights several decades ago, while females in other Arab countries they don’t dare to drive a car, or work, or even learn. Girls in Lebanon have their fully rights, as well as males,  to select any specialization they want. And as I notice from my surrounding, that boys are always complaining about the unemployment.

     We cannot forget that the crucial reason behind such unemployment for both genders is the flow of emigrants who came seeking for work, and they accepted the lower salary because of their bad conditions, while Lebanese people cannot live with low salary of course because of their high expenses, and the cost of living.

     I can conclude that, unfortunately, the opportunity of work become narrower day after day for females as well as males, that why the majority of youth Lebanese seek to immigrate looking for a position with best salary.

Parents Do Play a Role in Education

        Last semester, in the sociology course, we highlighted that the education is one of the major institutions in societies. Family, schools, along with other institutions play a crucial role to increase the consciousness of learning in each society.

     I would like to emphasize on the parental involvement in their children’s education that has a very constructive influence and a key component in their child’s success and motivation.

Parents have fundamental roles in both: home and school, towards their children’s education.

Starting from home which is considered as the first place where children feel secure and motivated, the mere presence of their parents make them feel confident. Parents can benefit from this point to create a positive home environment that will help their children to develop and maintain positive study habits.

     Some supportive home environment will allow the child to excel and to be productive in his studies such as, set aside a place or a corner for him far away from any kind of distractions as games, TV, the siting room, music, and so forth. In addition, we can teach our children to plan, organize and manage their time in order to accomplish their tasks on time. Furthermore, parents should take into consideration their attitudes toward school and education because it could affect in the same way their children’s attitudes and behaviors toward them too. They should always convey positive attitudes and reveal the great significance and importance of learning. Parents should make a daily follow up and discuss their children’s school day, and show them caring attitudes which in turn motivate them to learn.  They have to praise and encourage their academic efforts. I would like to focus on a very vital point, which is; parents should understand and reinforce the rules of the school at home.

     In school, as in life, consistent support from them is essential to enhance their children’s confidence and achievement. To start with, they should communicate with their children’s teachers regularly, by attending school meetings. In plus, they should share and discuss with teachers the family problems that could have negative impact on their children’s performance, behavior and grades. To add, there are questions that circulate in the head of parents that couldn’t be answered unless it is asked and shared with their children and with the teachers. Teachers have insights that might help parents to answer those questions about the lower grades of their child, such as: What caused our child’s poor grades? Was it a lack of understanding? Is something bothering them in their personal life? Are they bored by the subject matter? All these questions could be answered in collaboration with the teacher and the child himself.

     Finally, nothing helps a child succeed like an involved parent. A parent should be a friend, a cheerleader, a teacher, and a reinforcer in his child’s life. When students feel the support from both home and school, then their self-confidence and their self-esteem increase. They sense more the importance of school and of education in general.

Higher education in Lebanon below international standards

 I read an article, in the daily star newspaper, few months ago was entitled “Higher education in Lebanon below international standards”. This article addressed the issue of Graduate and Doctoral-level studies at Lebanese Universities which are not up to international standards.

“It is unfortunate to say, but many universities in the country have become more like high schools and I don’t have much confidence in their competency,” said Ahmad Jamal. It is ultimately true, because I have a friend that she is working on her master degree in French now at the Lebanese University and at the same time am doing my mine at a private university. She asked me about the materials we cover during each semester and was surprised about the deep difference between even the materials itself. She was complaining about what they still take as materials such as poems, the history of France!!!! And comparing with ours nothing of them could be applied in any classroom, they just use abstract topics. Till now they didn't done any exam while the exam day was decided at the first of February and we are at the first of May now. Unfortunately, as Jammal added in his article that the ministry acknowledges and understands the insufficiencies of some programs of higher education, but prefers to give universities a chance to implement reform independent of government intervention. It is a dishonor and shame for us as Lebanese students to accept such kind of education and we should stage a sit because it the government’s role to set the curriculum of universities and to oblige each university branches to implement them. Otherwise, we will remain in this educational retardation.

   Finally a proper management should be suggested and implemented in order to strengthen the quality of the Lebanese universities and we don’t mean by them the private universities.

    

How to integrate technology into our classrooms in a healthy way?

Moderation in some settings in life could be a demotivated technique for the people who aspire to innovate, to reach the top whether in their work or in their studies, to improve their social life, and to fulfill their ambitions. So in that term, moderation can lead to kill the motivation and the creativity of an aspirant person.

On the other hand, in other frameworks, moderation could be seen as the best solution. For instance, it is obvious to see how well the technology invade our society as well as our schools. First, I would like to talk briefly about a seminar I attended one month and a half ago titled "Continuing Professional Development" concerning how to integrate technology in our classrooms such as: white boards, LCD's, active boards with its different types, laptops, I-pads, e-books, and internet. And it was really so beneficial to update our knowledge about new technological devices used in the classroom in order to help both the children and as well as the teacher. In respect to the students, using technology help to engage them more in the instruction, they become more active learners, and active in research, projects and presentations. Furthermore, the technological tools allow them to be intellectually challenged and refine their analysis and problem solving skills. The teachers in this way become facilitators and guides to their students, as well as the technology itself facilitates their jobs because it offers them helpful interesting and effective ways to meet the needs of different types of learners, so the more the students are engaged and interested the more the teacher's tasks is facilitated. Actually, all those interesting devices should be accompanied with an equipment, high bandwidth which in turns costs a lot, unfortunately, in our country. Moreover, the teachers should be very well trained in order to meet the desired targets. However, I believe the the most useful device, regardless it costs, is the i-pads, that should replace the heavy books but at the same time remain the pen and paper the main key for assignments, exams, and other activities. So that's why we have to be moderate when integrating technology in our classrooms because we should stick with things that really related to the traditional learning ways, such as the paper and pen tools.

My experience with " Spark your Creativity" webinar

Two weeks ago, in our "Integrating Technology into education" course, the teacher asked us to attend a webinar in pairs. I have to acknowledge that, at the first glance, the term was unfamiliar to me and I have no experience in attending online seminar. After delving into the experience, I felt how was amazing to encounter our ignorance in some issues, and to dive into the experience and taste its outcomes. Talking about the webinar that was titled " Spark your Creativity" which is organized and performed by Cindy Handler and Noah Mendelevitch, these two speakers were teachers and parents who were pleased to present this webinar to the audience that was from different countries such as USA, India, Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Amsterdam, South Africa, and so forth, furthermore, they were occupying different positions, such as educators, artists, business leaders, parents and counselors. But what differ the webinar from the seminar is that in the latter, u can handle a pen and paper and write your notes and some of us may ask questions at the end of it, while, on the other hand, in the webinar, you are asked some questions that you have the choice to answer it, in addition, you can ask questions, share your opinion with others by chatting them , and you can also receive their answers and their comments as well as the ones of the speakers. "Sparking Creativity" talks about how to thrive to be creative in our life, how to face our problems that we encounter on daily basis, and how to solve it in new ways. And in order to be Creative we have to face the “Creativity Killers" which are the Fear, the Holding back, the Judgment, and the Resistance to change and substitute them by the Inspiration, Intuition, Imagination and Innovation. I would like to note that I faced a problem with the video because of the low bandwidth in our country, but i was likely to read the slides as well as the comments of the audience. But the best issue is that they send us the video later on, so I had the opportunity to see it and save it in my library. Finally, I would like to encourage who have never been the opportunity to attend webinars to encounter their fear and try it, because it is a very interesting experience to up to date your knowledge without being worry about the distance and the time.

TECHNOLOGY !!!!!

Nowadays, the technology invade the whole world, every institution, every single home, most of shops, and even the majority of schools. Of course, the technological devices facilitate a lot the life, as well as the work  of human being. But, we should never overlook the disadvantages of this invasion, because it is obvious that it affects the social life of the community, specifically the small institution which is the family. I would like to raise a question: Is it normal and healthy that a family members, who live together, to communicate with wathsapp or similar applications rather to communicate orally?  Those applications and others are called social media, from my personal point of view, I agree to apply those applications with persons who live abroad in order to communicate with them, but it is not acceptable to use them when we sit together in the same room at home or in the same class at university. I think the abuse of such devices really threaten our community and vanish the oral communication and the moral values. I acknowledge that making phone calls is costly in Lebanon, but it is not a reason and an excuse to use those applications the same way most of people do today. Lately, I was invited to an event, I was choked when I saw that 10 persons who sit on the same table, each one of them looks and plays with his mobile phone!!!!! Is that normal? Is that ordinary to not talk together??? I think the misuse of such devices and applications is vanishing and killing our moral values.Ten years ago, and even less, it was unethical to respond or speak to a person without looking at him, without eye contact and face to face communication. Where are those simple values in our days?
Another issue is raised with those applications, is the misuse of the native language that in turns lead to deteriorate our written language because those young people created their own letters, own signs, and their own abbreviations.
To which extent, we as parents, should follow blindly our children's demanding for innovation? And to which degree accept their negligence of moral values???

Teachers' mission !!!!!!!

Teaching is the most sacred mission in this world. Of course this job needs a lot of hard work and devotion in which the teacher must give from her/his inside heart in order to reach the ultimate goal. The teachers play a crucial role in maintaining the process of learning that incorporates building a healthy relationship with students, setting clear learning outcomes in order to came up with valid and reliable assessment, with different assessment tools, through which we can offer to our students more opportunities to be ethically and fairly assessed .The teacher's role should be as a facilitator rather than an authoritarian in order to maintain a healthy classroom climate in which the students are the center of the class, where they are allowed to express themselves freely, take decisions, and work cooperatively. The most important point that should be highlighted is that this generation differ from the older ones, and even from our generation as teachers, so each instructor should take this point into consideration in order to enter the tools and methods that meet and satisfy the needs of our students, such as integrating technology in our instruction methods, in this way students will be more motivated and more engaged in their lessons.