RTP Workshops: Using Google Drive-Google Forms for Educational Purposes

On Friday, March 24th, the School of Education at LIU, Bekaa Campus presented a series of workshops for teachers in Bekaa region. The Reshaping Teaching Practices Workshops started last year, and a positive and encouraging feedback was given by participants. This encouraged for repeating the initiative for a second time.
We, the students of the Education Department, were responsible for assisting the instructors as they presented their workshops. And for the second year, I got the privilege of assisting Mrs. Amal Farhat in her workshop (I'm not saying this because she'll be grading this post; she does know how much I love her. And if I get an A on my blog, it's because it's interesting and satisfies the criteria Mrs. Amal will be basing our grades on! You can't get me guys! Come on! You already know you can't!).

Ok..
Back on track..

The workshop started at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 2:00 and included two breaks; one for Friday prayer. Mrs. Amal introduced the teachers to Google Drive, mentioning the benefits of using it for saving documents. She then introduced Google Docs and Google Forms as alternatives for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel respectively. All documents needed for the workshop are presented on a website created by Mrs. Amal especially for the workshop.

Teachers listened to the explanation of each part then applied it, while Mrs. Amal, my colleague Soumayya Hammoud and I walked between them and provided assistance whenever needed.

At the end, teachers filled in the evaluation of the workshop on a Google form, instead of a traditional form. Well, that's the aim of the workshop..!

After the workshop, we had a delicious lunch and a family picture, including the students who helped in the workshops and several instructors ! <3

Webinar

On Friday, March 17, I attended a webinar titled You Know Better: Bridging the Gap between “Knowing” and “Doing”, presented by Jill Molli, M.Ed. 

The presenter of the speaker is a musician; he sang one of his songs before her presentation started! However, thanks to the poor WiFi connection in Lebanon, I couldn't tell any of the words he said! Happy days! :)

The speaker started her presentation with a very interesting question: Why do people know the right thing but not do it?

Then, she introduced the theory of Conscious Discipline, started by Rebecca Bailey.  To make things clearer, she presented a video containing short interviews with teachers expressing their thoughts about the effectiveness of applying this theory in their classrooms. All teachers praised the effects of applying this theory in the classroom. One teacher even told the story of how one of her students' mother stopped punishing her child frequently after being introduced to the concept of Conscious Discipline. 

To make long story short, here's a statement explaining what the theory is all about: When teachers become aware of the mental state of their students when they don't do the right thing, their discipline will become effective.

The speaker presented a picture of the three regions in the brain that affect the behavior of people through emotions:

She explained how the brain interferes in our behavior when we are in each stage. If we use threatening methods to stop students from misbehaving, they will move to the survival stage, and therefore try to defend themselves. This defense is manifested in even more misbehavior.

The speaker then presented 12 brain skills that we usually expect students to acquire from a young age. She explained that those skills need 24 years to mature; we need to stop using the expression "You should know this by now!" very often!

The speaker then moved to an extremely important point. She said that our children are not missing skills; they are only unwilling to learn new ones because they are in self-preservation mode. To solve this issue, my practices and responses to their misbehavior have to answer the questions below:

To make them feel safe, you may present the routines of the classroom visually or apply physical exercise before transitions. Another helpful practice is simply to ask them to take a deep breath before starting a new task. 
In order to help students feel that they are loved, they have to feel connected to the teacher, their classmates, and their class. That's why assigning students to roles can be extremely helpful here. Each student can be assigned a role for a certain period of time; each role has to help keep the classroom environment as smooth as possible. 

The more students are exposed to problem-solving tasks, the faster they develop their skills.
Students have to solve real-life problems, posed in real-life situations. This will make learning more meaningful. 

I really enjoyed attending this webinar. During the webinar, I participated in two polls posted by the speaker regarding our knowledge of conscious discipline. 
The speaker is really fun to watch. She kept a wide smile throughout the presentation and used clear visual aids (not all are included here). 
I'm looking forward to attending more presentations by Mrs. Molli and other speakers discussing pedagogical issues. 
*Pictures included in this post are all taken from the material the speaker used during her presentation. 

Once a Bookworm, Always a Bookworm

In this post I'll be discussing the important role books played in my life. Those bounded papers have always been a major part of my life. Our love story dates back to the day I was born <3 

On August 11^th, 1995, a not-so-tiny baby was born. She was the second girl in a family made up of two young parents, including an Armenian mother, and a four year old girl, called Hanaa. This little baby was destined to become an English teacher, just like her sister. This little baby was destined to be ME , so enjoy this brief description of how letters and print shaped me! 

As soon as I grew old enough to sit, I was supported, like any other baby, with pillows. But my parents chose me a lifetime support beside fluffy pillows: books. I was surrounded by books of every color, size, and genre. Arabic books, English ones, hardcovers, paperbacks, children books, and adult books were always around. As I grew up, I grabbed them, opened and smelled them. I stared at the black, mysterious characters. I then started to visit my father’s bookstore, which is located in the ground floor. The stuffed shelves amazed my little eyes each and every time. There I would sit with my late grandfather and read for hours. He would read for me and wait for me to repeat after him. With his eloquent Arabic and his relatively poor English, he created the love of learning in my younger self. At that time, English books dominated the Arabic books in my little world, as they still do! The Ladybird series, with its colorful pages and clear fonts left an indescribable effect in my life. I can still remember several drawings from this series. The pictures in The Little Red Hen and Jack and the Beanstalk, for example will forever stay in my memory. Before I went to school, I was able to tell the stories by heart; having listened to them hundreds of times at bedtime.  

My “official” adventure then began, and I was well armed and prepared.  

Books have always been my friends, and I'm really thankful to them, my mom, my dad, and my late grandfather for shaping the person I am! 

Language Death

Below is one of the papers I submitted for the Introduction to Linguistics course. It discusses the factors behind the death of certain languages. Enjoy :)

Language Death

   “All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.” This statement of Robert Louis Stevenson’s is the key to understanding the concept of language death. A language dies when nobody speaks it anymore (Crystal, 2000). Thus, language death is the result of various factors: human and non-human.  

     It is estimated that 90% of human languages will, in the long run, become extinct or be doomed to extinction (Baker, 2006). This expectation is based on the fact that 50% of the world's estimated 6,300 languages are no longer being reproduced among children. Therefore, many of these languages will die in the next 100 years unless some conservation measures are taken. Linguists maintain that, around 8,000 BC, there were more than 20,000 existing languages.  In 2012, that number was considered to be 6,909 (How does a Language Die?, 2013).

     One of the important human factors that intervene in the transmission of languages from one generation to another is the oppression of minor languages in some areas. For example, about three-quarters of the languages of the Americas are under the threat of extinction, and 95 % of the indigenous aboriginal Australian languages are declining extremely rapidly (Rosenthal, 2014).  Another example is what has taken place in the former Soviet Union. Many people in Kazakhstan are unable to speak Kazakh because they grew up in exclusively Russian-speaking environments. Those environments were nurtured by the laws of the former Soviet Union. In the 1950s the USSR implemented the policy of Russifiying its republics. Children from non-Russian speaking families were sent to only Russian-speaking boarding schools for ten months. Such policies are set from political and economic perspectives. Armies can fight together only if they share the same language, and it is easier and cheaper to market to millions of people in the same language (Raw, 2014).

      Another human factor is human conflict. During World War II, many islands of the Pacific Ocean lost their native languages as a result of their colonization by European countries. In South America, 1,500 indigenous languages that were used before contact with European settlers are reduced to 350 languages nowadays (Raw, 2014). Therefore, globalization is the main reason behind those policies and is actually succeeding in killing some languages. It is realized that languages of little economic power are more in danger of extinction. For instance, Spanish, English, and French are not in danger; they are rather killing other languages. In France, Breton, Allsatian, and Provençal are eventually replaced by French in schools; thus children are no more able to speak or write their native languages.

     Other factors that may lead to the death of some languages may not be human; that is, out of human control. Natural disasters have played a major role in murdering some languages. Tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes have wiped out hundreds of thousands of people along with their languages. In 1970, a tidal wave swept most of the inhabitants of the Andaman Island, which belongs to India. The Indian government decided to move the remaining Andamanese to a safer nearby island, a decision which affected the Andamanese language vastly. Andamanese, which was one of the oldest languages in the world, was no longer transmitted from older to younger generations. It died with Boa Sr, the only member of the Bo tribe who survived till 2010. She was reported to have lived alone as a result of her husband's death. Her children, on the other hand, did not acquire the language of their parents. "It was all because of the colonizer", she said a few days before her death. "They destroyed our language. And then came this wave. Everything is over" (Shaw, 2010).

 

      Although languages die because of human and non-human factors, some languages die because they don't help individuals of today to communicate. That is, some languages are not productive in terms of word formation; thus, they cannot satisfy the communicational needs of modern man. For example, Mlahso, a dialect of Aramaic, died in 1998 with the death of its last speaker in Syria. Nobody knows this language anymore except his nearly deaf sister who has no one to speak it to (Law, pp. 2,3).

      Different factors contribute to the death of language. With the high rate of language death, one language dies every two weeks (Rymer, 2012). Hence, governments have to take necessary conservative measures to keep their languages safe, because language represents one's history and culture, and predicts his future.

Works Cited

 

Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Multilingual Matters LTD.

Crystal, D. (2000). Language Death. Cambridge University Press.

How does a Language Die? (2013, February 21). Retrieved January 11, 2015, from Languages.com: http://languages.com/2013/02/21/how-does-a-language-die/

Law, P. (n.d.). Langage Ecology. BBC , pp. 2-3.

Raw, L. (2014, November 11). Retrieved January 4, 2015, from The Official Memrise Blog: http://www.memrise.com/blog/why-do-languages-die/

Rosenthal, M. (2014, July 15). When languages die, ecosystems often die with them. PRI .

Rymer, R. (2012, July). Vanishing Languages. National Geographic .

Shaw, A. (2010, February 10). Last member of 65,000-year-old tribe dies, taking one of world's earliest languages to the grave. Daily Mail , pp. 1-2.

  

A Joyful Pain

This is a short story I wrote two years ago, and is to be published in the next issue of our department's magazine EduVoice! :)

A Joyful Pain

She laid her exhausted head on her tired torn pillow, with her eyes wide open, staring at the wall 

before her

For those who saw her, it seemed that her eyes were following a ghost stretching on the rough stones, peeking at the world through the thin cracks. But the ghost didn't find it enough to peek; it slid through a crack, just to find that the world that existed outside would never visit an inhabitant of this dull room, not even in dreams. The ghost must have left by then, for her eyelids dropped for a few seconds before going apart again. Had the ghost reappeared? Had it carried a glimpse of that world to the miserable inhabitant of this gloomy room? It might be so, for she didn't only stare, but half raised her weary head. It may be that the ghost's load was not tempting enough for her to crane her neck, or it may have been that the ghost gave up every attempt to enjoy what was called'' the world". But, looking closer, it was not a ghost she was staring at, but the ancient, rusted bucket placed in a corner of the room. Her eyes were following water drops dripping from the cracks of the rotten, gray ceiling. It was amusing to see how the drops followed one another, falling into the half- full bucket. Maybe she compared them to the line of sufferers who would, at dawn, fall into the bucket of eternal darkness. With every drop, dawn came a step closer to her, bringing with him the eternal relief. This melancholy tune of the sufferers' dripping made her heart contract. How could she believe it? Was it even believable? When does death start? Where does it start? How? She shuddered at the thought of 

shedding blood. Does death require blood shedding?

"The fools! They think I'll die at dawn", she murmured. A strange smile could then be seen on her pale, tired face. A hysterical laugh followed; a laugh that seemed to stop the time, to fill the bucket. Moaning followed, then murmuring, cursing, and gasping.  She was now sitting on her knees, shaking the iron bars with all her might. The jailer rushed to her cell and pushed her inside with a punch on her face. She retreated, with blood covering her face. "Honored are the dead whose blood oozes on their death bed! Nay! Honored are those who bleed after their death!" Her words found their way through blood, through her spiritless mouth, through her shrinking throat. Her blood was soon washed by grieving tears, by her savage weeping, and by her vigorous head shakes.

Then arrived the unwelcome visitor. The fatal visitor! The vital visitor!

Oh rude, hateful, awful, savage, barbarous steps!

Oh sweet, soft, kind, just steps!

Lost till the very end!

She was hastily driven out of her dungeon till she arrived at the threshold of her world.

All those who saw her at dawn wondered how and when she shed the blood covering her dress, and how she smilingly bent her wet head over her wet body, staring at the blood stains on her dress, or rather, on the ghost of this world, which kept intruding hopelessly into her eternal happiness.    

Life's Beyond Thy Dreams

In the previous post, I promised I will be telling the story of how I became a teacher. 

My story was included in the philosophical statements of my two portfolios (the two parts of my senior project, on which I worked for eight whole months! :) ) 

To make things clear: below is the philosophical statement of the second part, which in turn includes the first one.. 

     "It is amazing how much we change in four months! If we look back at who we were before four months, we would be astonished by the changes our personalities and mentalities have undergone. Our view of life changes and our dreams expand despite the fact that we become more mature and aware of obstacles. In short, our dreams grow with us, mature and become more realistic…. in only four months!

     Four months ago, I was asked to write “what I think teaching is all about” and here’s what I wrote…

“ “No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.” – Anonymous

     It would be a lie to say that I dreamt of becoming a teacher from very young age. Actually, I dreamt of becoming anything BUT a teacher! My story started when I was twelve years old. It was at that time I first heard of Genetic Engineering. It was love at first article! The more I read about it, the more I became certain that I have found my dream job. At high school I chose the scientific section and was extremely proud of myself!  Many made fun of my dream and described it as “too big”. At home, I was told that I had to have a plan B; some dreams are too big to come true! But I didn’t want a plan B! What plan B? Anything related to teaching? No thank you, that’s not even a plan Z for me! I knew my goal, and nothing would stop me from reaching high for it. I even took the SAT exam to join a university in Beirut, and my score was pretty high! I was coming closer and closer to achieving what I was dreaming of.

But then…

Something unexpected happened! I still don’t know how and why I went to LIU that day. Although I was familiar with TESL from my eldest sister, Hanaa, I’ve never thought of choosing TESL as my major. And yet, that’s what happened! I chose TESL as my major, teaching as my future career.

And it was NOT love at the first session! It actually took me a whole semester to change my mind, my view of life. In other words, it took me a whole semester to transform! Teaching became not my plan B, but my whole life and future! At that moment, I realized that I didn’t choose to become a teacher; I was destined to become one!

In fact, I didn’t become “just” a teacher, I became….

A counselor,

A teacher is someone who students can refer to for help of any kind, a good listener and adviser; that’s what a good teacher is. Teaching is not about merely explaining grammatical and linguistic structures. It’s about being there for your students. You need to know everything about them. You need to find out their gifts as early as possible. Remember that every child is gifted, children just unwrap their gifts at different times. A teacher has to make sure not a single detail about her students and their life escapes her, to be sure that she is really there for them. The smallest cues students send tell you a lot about them and their needs. Your advice doesn’t need to be words you whisper to your kids’ ears. They are small whispers you quietly whisper to their souls. They are your looks, your gestures, your smiles. They may even be your “harsh words”, for they may be what your students need at the moment.

A leader,

You don’t only see the way, you go it and you show  it. You are their leader; the one who has to show them how and why they have to live. You enlighten them to the challenges they may face during their life. You show them how to overcome defeat and how to resist blows. Show them the way, but don’t take the steps for them. Be there as a leader, not a replacement! They need to try to learn, they need to fail to learn. They need to learn how to deal with both, success and failure. They are part of the real world. Actually, they are the future. If we lead them to find their personal treasures through the good and the bad, we are sure the future is in safe hands.

A role model,

A teacher models to her students not only her techniques and activities, but also how to live. In her minutest gestures, she is reflecting life and its various experiences to her students. Through her explanation, she is modeling how to think and how to analyze whatever faces them in this wide world. Through her classroom management, she is teaching her kids how to manage themselves and their time. A teacher’s academic role is never separated from the role she has to play in her students’ lives.

A friend,

In this changing world, we have a challenging reality to face. Teachers are no longer the all-knowing teachers. Their knowledge may at many occasions be comparable with their students’. Teaching is becoming more and more challenging. We have to keep in mind the role of technological advancement and media in changing our students’ mentality and shaping their characters. We don’t have to stop this gigantic flow, because we can’t. We have to challenge only what is manageable, and that’s another thing we have to teach our students. A good teacher has to go with the flow, making her students feel as if she is one of them, but, at the same time, maintain her role as a controller who knows her students’ best.

A mother,

Like a mother, a teacher passes through many stages of development of both, style and character. She, like any mother, is dealing with the hardest thing to deal with: the human soul. She, like any mother, is responsible for creating characters which will make her proud. A teacher is the figure to which all students look to for guidance. She is, like any mother, a support, a good listener, and a trustworthy source of comfort!

A life-long learner,

“The more you learn, the more you find out how much you don’t know!”

                                                               Dr. Wassim Abou-Yassin

“Teaching and learning are two inseparable processes”.

                                Me  J

A teacher never stops learning. Every session will open her eyes to new things. She has to accept the fact that she doesn’t know everything she needs to know. Even the greatest educators are learners; they learn from their students’ behavior and words. Whenever you think you don’t have anything more to learn, you’ll die. So keep learning, because life never stops teaching!

A genetic engineer!!

Yes, my first dream is coming true, and the result is greater than anyone expected! I AM a genetic engineer who is breeding the future, modifying its genes. My class is my laboratory. My kids are my chromosomes, and their future is my DNA. Through my innovative teaching, I’ll be serving humanity! I’ll pave the way for generations to be the change we want to see in this world.

And here’s what I learned,

You can NEVER dream too big…”

Four months later, I was also asked to write what I think teaching is all about, and that’s when I realized how much more realistic my dreams and I have become…

Yes, you can NEVER dream too big, but making your big dream a reality takes too much effort and perseverance. You’ll need to expect the unexpected and deal with it. You’ll need to tailor this dream to real life!

My dream has come true, but the effort needed to keep this dream a reality is greater than expected!

     If you choose to be a teacher, here’s what you have chosen to become:

A better listener,

Listen, listen, listen. Your students will always tell you what they need. You’ll find it in their looks, their words, and in their misbehavior. Whenever they seem to be unwilling to obey what you asked them to do, they are sending you messages. Whether they are not comfortable in class, facing troubles at home, or even having troubles with the way you teach, they are always expressing it, you only have to listen and care!

Friendly,

    You’ll find difficulty stopping the urge to act like a friend with your students! But keep in mind that you need to be friendly more than you need to be a friend. There are limits you need to set and stay within.  Remember that they’ll remember you as the shoulder they can lean on, the person whom they ask for help.

Flexible,

      No matter how much your plan seems to be perfect and well-planned, you need to adjust your plan to whatever happens in the class. You may be given an extra session; you’ll need to take longer time working on a task to fill both sessions. You may face an unexpected problem in class and you need to cross out a part of the plan or stop students from misbehaving if an accident happens. If students act spontaneously and their actions don’t hinder the progress of the lesson, you need not stop them. It’s all about them and how they like to learn.

     Flexibility is an extremely important characteristic of a teacher who is successful in class as well as in the teachers’ society. You need to be open to new ideas and suggestions. Accept criticism, especially from experienced teachers, even if you feel it’s unfair. You’ve done your best, but there might be a “better”!

Real,

     Be real, whether in your personality or in your teaching. Make them feel that your class is part of the real world. A good teacher is someone who makes learning an interesting journey in terms of connecting what students encounter in class to what they see in real life. Whenever you feel like stopping the lesson and refer to a historical event or a current issue discussed in the news, go for it! Your pupils need this the most! They may not remember the concepts you taught them, but they’ll undoubtedly remember their childhood and their lives. So keep their lives present in your class and connected to it, and they’ll remember it as well!

This applies to the personal level as well! No matter how hard you try to “fake” any action or any word you say, even when you’re exhausted and you’re trying to act like you’re full of energy, you can never fool those little eyes. Your students are able to see through you. They’ll understand your minutest gestures and looks. So be yourself, they’ll love you the way you are! J

Patient,

     Patience, patience, patience! Change needs time. If you’re willing to raise a generation which leads the change in his society, and if not in society, in himself, you need to be extremely patient. Some days you’ll come back home exhausted and regret your choice, wishing you chose a career where you sit in an office all day long. There will be ups and downs, but through patience and determination, hardships will diminish and your successes will scream louder with every smile you use to defy what you think is an “unfair” reality.

Well-organized and well-prepared,

     These traits go hand-in-hand and are extremely important to any teacher, especially language teachers. As language teaching includes teaching several skills, organization is a key factor in the success of any teacher. A good teacher is organized in terms of material and time, and well-prepared in terms of the subject matter he/she is teaching. In other words, the teacher has to be knowledgeable about the subject itself. This demands searching for further information and examples on whatever concept. Students ARE going to surprise you with their questions. And if you’re not as well prepared as you need to be, you’re going to face some problems!

Passionate,  

     Your energy is contagious! Loving what you do makes whatever you do a success. When you like what you’re doing, students will undoubtedly feel positive about what they’re learning! Your passion is badly needed for the creation of a positive environment in your classroom. A positive environment is the most important factor in the flourishing and thriving of your students.

      You’re a teacher, an opportunity-maker, a life-long guide! You’re shaping the world and how it will look in several years! It is a great responsibility, but as long as you are willing to accept your mistakes, to learn from them, and to enjoy your daily tiny successes, you’ll be able to achieve the ultimate goal of existence: Improving the universe!! " 

Good job! You've just finished reading a pretty long post! :D
 

Welcome...

I never imagined myself a heroine of a I-know-not-how-it-will-end fairy tale! No, it's not a love story;  it's much more interesting than a fantasy adventure to Prince Charming's Land!

 It's my journey to dig out my real self; to know why I fill a space on Earth; the reason behind my existence! 

It's the story of how I stood, jaw-dropped, before the great plans of God, who knows the secret behind our existence, and when we are supposed to find our personal treasures. 

To put it simply, it's the story of how I became a teacher! 

Yes! As simple as that may sound to a stranger, it's the most important life-changing decision I, a person who never thought of teaching as a career, have ever made!

In my next post, I'll be including the detailed story of my career choice. Stay tuned!