Do It Anyway..!

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
LOVE THEM ANYWAY.


If you do good, people accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.


If you are successful, you win false and true enemies.
SUCCEED ANYWAY.


The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
DO GOOD ANYWAY.


Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.


What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight.
BUILD ANYWAY.


People really need help but may attack you if you help them.
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY.


Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

how do you respond..?!

    Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life

was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as

one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with

water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to

boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and

ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil,

without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he

was doing. After twenty minutes, he turned off the burners. He took

the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the

eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and

placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked, "Daughter, what do you see?"

"Potatoes, eggs, and coffee," she hastily replied.

"Look closer”, he said, "and touched the potatoes”. She did and noted

that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the

shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile

to her face.

"Father, what does this mean?" she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and coffee beans had

each faced the same adversity, the boiling water. However, each one

reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water

it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile with the thin outer shell

protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then

the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were

exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created

something new.

"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on

your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee

bean?"

In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only

thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Let it go..!

  Is it true that we suffer from violence even with our family members or our close friends? How vulnerable are we to the verbal attacks or assaults we get from some people who pretend they say that just for our own good?!

Well, the answer is quite clear “yes it’s true”. The violence doesn’t necessarily need to be from outsiders; rather it could come even from those who you trust, those who have always been considered to be your harbor in the time of trials and tribulations.

It’s just the way of life. If you did not get it yet then you’d better wake up and live the truth. Stop your blind trust you put it everyone..! However, this doesn’t mean that you abandon all your friends just because they were abusive at some point in the past..! If you tend to do so then get prepared to live alone the rest of your life..!

It’s not about people being harsh or abusive, as this is the nature of human beings unless they work on bettering that, it is all about how you react... Are you short-tempered? Do you get angry so fast? Do you think deeply about everything you hear?!

We should realize one essential thing about those guys who don’t monitor their mouths; you're not the only victim of their smut, it’s very likely that they put down many people on daily biases. Hence, the best tactic with such creatures is to ignore what they say. Once their words get in from one ear, immediately let them go out from the other one.

Make sure not to reconsider or rethink of what they said… don’t let their words play in you head… don’t double your agony… yes, it wasn’t your fault to hear that, but it becomes so if you give them a room in your mind.

By the way, such people are not always bad, you may find good ones but they need a sincere advice. If you think you could be of any assistance then hurry and pick them up.. and don’t forget, even at this time you may get something undesirable form them, but it doesn’t  matter if you’re to get nice results… otherwise save your face..

Week 10. Bye..!!

   What a nice feeling when you come to the end..! Patience is the key to relief. When I look back to this course I see how short it was, yet very busy. All participants in this course are involved in many things and that is a key factor for making this class hectic.

Needless to tell how squeezed my schedule was during the last couple of months, you believe it or not, I did not even have time to cook. I was supposed to join an intensive Japanese class. It would take me all the time. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that it was the most overwhelmed period I have ever had in my life.

When I got an email from Oregon I didn’t know what to do..! How could I catch up with these things..?! How could I stand up to all my responsibilities..!? I did not give them a reply until the last moment. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle all. Eventually I said to myself “Why don’t you give it a try, you’ll lose nothing, if you could keep up with the others that would be fine, otherwise you can just drop out..”.

But it was quite the opposite, once we started the course I got a different feeling, it turned to be an oasis that I come to after a long and tiring day. I wouldn’t though ignore the fact that it was also demanding. When I look back I say “wow, I just made it.. how come..?!”. It seems like the saying I used not to believe in became true “If you want something done, ask a busy person”. Of course Allah’s help is in the first place, it was there all the way long.

We learned so many things; Delicious, which is really delicious. It’s like a backpack; you just put your stuff in and go wherever you want. I personally got to know many websites I wish I had known at certain early stages in my life. The blog we made at the beginning, which will continue to be my reflective blog in the future, is also a fruit of this course. We made our own websites, ANVILL accounts.. etc, the list goes on and on. Those tools are the fertile soil where you can plant your ideas, and then keep watering these plants with a constant technological update.  

Finally, I want to thank all my classmates from whom I got a lot of benefit. It’s my great pleasure to get to know all of you guys. I wouldn’t have gotten this chance hadn’t been in this course. Thanks also to our guests who shared with us their experience and expertise. Last but not least, thank you Robert.. thanks for your comments, feedback and ENCOURAGEMENT.

Best Wishes 

Week9: Our study habits..

    This week’s discussion made me recall the question that I often raise with my friends “How much a student learn from the typical studying?”. I always try not to impose my opinion even if it’s right.. Hold on a second.! What do you mean right?! Right to who..!?.. Oh yeah, I am sorry, it’s just right to me.. It could be wrong from another’s point of view. But anyway, diversity of thoughts is always a healthy phenomenon.

The experience has proved to me that most of our study habits are, unfortunately, old-fashioned. How do we call it then when the student spends 12 years of his life at least, starting by the elementary school up to the high school, and when you ask him/her what are you good at, or what are your strengths? They just stand mute not to know what to answer..! Who is responsible for that?! Isn’t the educational insinuations and teachers?! Why do they insist on giving the same dose with the same amount to all students..?! Didn’t they realize that everyone is different form the other?! That’s how we were created, and based on that we should be working with people around us including our students..

You imagine with me, how would it look like if we just focus on our students’ talents and help them use those talents the right way?! I can imagine a society full of thousands of  people like Al-Khwārizmī, Ibn al-Nafis, Edison, Shakespeare..etc. Kids are like a clay, you shape it the way you want, you make it the shape you want. It’s our responsibility, whether we are parents or teachers, to try to find those kid’s talents and offer them to the world, and get the rewards and words of thanks for offering that genius..  or the opposite could be done quite easily “bury it” and get the condemnation and humiliation forever.

In school, Edison’s would often wander that made his teacher call him “addled” and that was the last straw that broke the camel's back. He left the school just after three months of official schooling. He recalled later, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." His mother homeschooled him. It’s his mother who got the credit for that and it’s his teacher who’s still blamed for wasn't able to identify his talent.

Like Edison, the cornerstone of the modern Arabic literature “Mostafa Saadeq Al-Rafe'ie”, he dropped out the official schooling because of a hearing disability, but that fact did not stop him, rather his dad who was a learned man, put a huge library in his hands that he would spend most of his time in, and eventually the most famous Arab poet of the early twentieth century came out of that library.

Examples are endless in this regard, in every society and every culture, and I’m not against official schooling, this is an extreme that I am not in favor with, however I don’t like either the end of the other extreme. We want to hold the stick form the middle, to give a space to our children and students, to find exactly what everyone is really good at. As I said in one of my posts this week “what fits X student doesn’t necessarily fit Y” and based on this fact we should move. If you see your student has sort of tendency towards something, whatever that might be, don’t be a stumbling block on his path, rather, be a bridge to the area where he/she fits best. That way we can guarantee perfect education, perfect generation and obviously perfect outcome.

We got our projects done too, and we had the chance to get to know Tom and Max, Editors of the FORUM. Big thanks to both. They reminded us this valuable magazine.

Week 8: The meadow is green but the goat is sick..!

    If there is a fact to be said in this week it would be that “These tools; Nicenet, Anvill, blogger..etc are the core of our course, I think. They are the soil where we can plant the seeds we’ve been accumulating so far in this course”

These tools have made the learning process as a bed of roses which nobody has ever thought of. Has anyone ever dreamt of this abundant of resources and references?! I am not only talking about ESL, but in all fields. Old days, not so long ago, people would suffer a lot to get a piece of information, they might also resort to travel to far places to get a reference or a book. But now we have everything we need, just hit the button! You can get an access to whatever you want, no matter what your field is. You could even excel in things that aren't your specialty, as long as you have the desire “learner autonomy”. We need to push ourselves ahead, as well as our students.

We want to take advantage of the 21^st century technology the right way. We don’t want the Indian proverb to be applied to us “the meadow is green but the goat is sick”. This week we learned how to use ANVILL. I even created my own account, but I sometimes feel as if there is something holds me back .. I don’t know if it happens to anybody else when coming across a new thing for the first time! And I don’t know what that is exactly..! Could it be nostalgia for the old techniques..!? But I don’t keep that good memories which make me feel such feeling..!

I also stepped one step ahead towards my goal. I have always wanted to create my own website, so I managed to make one this week using: sites.google.com. It might not be the site that I’m dreaming of, but it is just the beginning, and something is better than nothing.

Peace and Love

Week 7. Learner Autonomy..

   If we go to analyze the existing level of most ordinary institutes we would find that they don’t pay that much attention to the learner autonomy theory. By the way, what is the learner autonomy first of all !? As defined by experts, it is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning”, meaning to take a whole responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning. In other simple words; students are supposed to be sole responsible for their learning.

This ability is not inborn but must be acquired by the formal learning. But we’ve got questions remain unanswered; how can students acquire this ability? Do institutions, represented by their staff and teachers, help them learn that? Well, I think most of the time neither the staff nor the teachers promote learner autonomy..! Not because they don’t know what it really is but because they have set of regulations and fixed curriculum that they don’t want to go beyond.

Even if students are mature and know the importance of learner autonomy but still they need guidance, they need their faces to be directed to the right direction. And on the top of all that they need encouragement and motivational words, these words are like the oxygen. They might not last long, but they must leave eternal impact, and at the same time they cost us nothing.

As for “one computer” option, there is no question about the importance of using computer when teaching especially in these days. I wish every student have a computer in the classroom or his/her own laptop. Having a PC in the classroom along with internet connection can make the learning process a real fun.. You could run the entire class using the computer, as in literature classes; where you could play movie of the scene or the novel.. etc. Why taking all that time reading the literary work when you have it already acted..!?

I remember when I was in the university we had lots of literary works like Hamlet, Macbeth, Doctor Faustus..etc. We would spend the entire semester jumping from one scene to the other wasting most of our time in looking up words that aren’t used any more, and at the end of the day we could not comprehend the plot of the play or the novel. We could have saved a lot of time if we watched the acted movie. The same goes for other aspects of the language.

Peace and Love

Week 6: Collaborative learning...

    To me this week seems not to be like the previous ones.. I don’t know why..! Every time I log into the Nicenet and see the tasks I feel so scattered and don’t know from where to start. I stopped for a while, trying to make brainstorming but end up closing the page..

Anyway, let’s get started, this week was about how to teach large classes and how to use PP effectively. Two wonderful topics focused on the practical techniques of implementing technology in collaborative learning.

I have always been a big fan of collaborative learning, or say in-group learning, as it makes lots of short cuts to many things that could have taken several hours if dealt with individually. But, is it always good? Does it always have good impacts? Well, personally, I don’t think so. Sometimes it is quite the opposite, it turns to be time-consuming with very little outcome.

I like the “Just-in-Time Teaching” idea even though I don’t completely agree with the timeframe. As I mentioned in my post in the Nicenet, few hours before the class could make pressure to the teacher and might not be able to catch a whole idea of what the needs of the students are. Nevertheless, the idea generally is wonderful, and I think the timeframe is something changeable, up to the teacher.

I also read “How to Create Memorable Lecture”. The article mentions very important points, but what I liked most is “You can also ask students to generate their own examples from personal experience in class or as a written assignment” This statement made me pause and ponder upon our over-used educational systems, where teacher (so-called good teacher) goes into the classroom pouring out information and thoughts in a full and unrestrained way..!! Is that really a good teacher at all..!? To me this is a robot..!

Unfortunately, this is the typical image of a good teacher, but in reality that’s not right. The role of the teacher is not just delivering the information. If it was all about information then there are much more reliable sources e.g. books, internet…etc. On the contrary, teacher should be seen by students as a father, a brother, at least a friend with whom students can share experience, happiness and sadness.. We should not forget that we are dealing with human beings, just like us, with emotion and feelings. Nothing makes you better, the only difference between you and your students is that you are more knowledgeable than them, and this not because you’re smart or talented, it’s most likely because you’re older than them.

This might be considered as an idealism but believe me, if you managed to build a strong relationship between you and your student, a relationship that goes beyond the walls of the classroom, then you’ll enjoy teaching more.

It is not necessary that you go deeply into private matters. It’s enough to ask them for example about their families, about things they are interested in, things that are irrelevant to teacher-student relationship. Once you did that soundly you’ll see how they dedicate themselves to your subject.. I am sure some teachers do that and they agree with me to some extent.

In this week also we learned about thing that’s well known but unknown at the same time..! Mystery.. hah!? That is power point. Most people know what it is but don’t know how to use it properly. Me, having seen many poor presentations made me think this application is useless, but the reality is the opposite. “Top 10 Slide Tips” gives us brief but perfect information on how to make better presentation.. I hope we can make use of all information in this week..

Peace and Love

Smart Ideas

       “Less teaching and more learning” it’s an attractive title for someone like me. I have always been skeptical about the traditional way that the language is taught. I am convinced that for the language to be learned, the student should be part of it. It’s quite hard for any thing to be leaned, whether it be a language or any thing else, unless you make the learner feels as part of that thing.

We see in Gaer’s article how she managed to make her students part of the learning process. She stated at the beginning that she used to use the traditional way of teaching, which is obviously used by most English teachers, but that did not work with her group at all.

She said her students were kind of mixture of different people from different countries, who came to US as immigrants or refugees. Now those people apparently are adults and they need to indulge in the community to live normally, which means the desire is already there. But at the same time it’s hard for such people at this situation and at this age to learn a new language and we all know what learning a new language means. I could picture those people occupied with lots of concerns e.g being away from home, heading to unknown future, adapting to a new life, culture..etc. How possibly could a teacher make such group learn a new language..?!!

Susan Gaer, I think, has answered this question practically in a perfect manner. In the first example she made students talk about folktales. This is a smart idea.. why..!? Because she noticed how those students felt homeless, so she triggered something that would generate information and let them speak elaborately. She made students indulge deeply into the learning process.

Likewise the second group, with which she issued the newspaper, they showed a good extant of success because they were given the chance to talk about what they feel like to talk. In other words, they became part of the learning process, that’s why they participated enthusiastically.

I wish I could talk more about this, but for the reader not to get board and acting upon Roberts’ word “a reflection, not a lecture”. This what I hope to be done in my home country, instead of the traditional military-like education; "I say, you do". I have a dream that our students come to the classroom with the feeling that they are going to a meeting, where their opinions, words, thoughts, will be respectfully heard. I have a dream that the teacher will shift from his old and antique ways to the environment where he becomes a friend, a helper ..whatever,, you name it. I have a dream that students will enjoy the learning process as if they are going to a picnic or so, rather than feeling they are going to a prison, where they start counting the minutes down… Could these dreams come true by any chance..?! Hopefully, InshaAllah (God Willing).

One last thing we learned this week is the webQuest. It walks you through the basics to create a simple but fruitful lesson. You might not even need to create a lesson if it’s already there. For example, “Hamlet” is a play by Shakespeare. It’s an absolute theoretical model to let your students read the original text “which some literature teachers still do”. Rather, you can grab it from the WebQuest, take what you think suits your students best, and make use of the materials and resources given there.. And the same could be applied to any thing else other than literature. Generally speaking, it’s a wonderful and formative website.. thank you Robert.. and thanks to all who posted to it ..

Peace and Love

Someday I’ll do it..

   Since this is a personal reflective blog, I always write stuff about my previous experiences and try to compare them with what has been learned during the week. As this week was about writing, I’ll share with you my own experience in writing.

I remember two years ago when I was in the States I was very interested in writing so that I took a course in technical and professional writing and another one in news writing. I recall how much we suffered with these two courses, especially the first one. We would spend a lot of time just in very simple stuff, like those mentioned in Krajka’s article. Every time we wrote something we would feel very satisfied that we did a graet job. But once we go to the professor she would make lots of comments and corrections.

She might have been right, and I don’t blame her, on the contrary, I give her credit for that because she wanted us to master all style of writings. However I still don’t agree with the way we were given that course; lots of stress, time, and energy which all lead to disappointment and discouragement. We spent lots of time in very little things that could have been gained on the road. We could have spent that time in much better way.

I could say the whole course could have been taken in two weeks or so, and the rest of time could have been used for practice. Just as Krajka suggested “ I am in favor of devoting at least two periods to teaching one genre” which means totally 22 periods, which could be broken down into two weeks give or take a few change.  

Like other skills in English language, writing takes time to be mastered. You can’t judge a person by one piece of writing, rather you show him the techniques and he goes by himself.

I am amazed at the way the writer dealt with each genre individually, the description, and the resources. I could Imagine how great benefit students would gain if they join such course. I hope, I could someday do a similar course with my own students…you hope so too for me.. don’t you? Thank you..

Week 3. The more you learn the more you realize how little you know.

Once you start to feel you got to the zenith of something, you come across, from time to time, with bunch of facts make you rethink of your convictions.

We sometimes overestimate our own merits when we think we know every thing about our specialties.

This notion becomes quite clear when you get involved in a discussion with people from the same specialty as of yours. They enrich you with resources you never had known at all. They might make you look at something in a different way.

At the beginning of this week I said to myself “this is my week... ESL websites..! What a coincidence..! I know the most important ESL websites” and to be honest, I would not expect any addition to what I already have.

I, gradually, began to read my classmates’ posts. I started with Mbarek’s. He recommended www.eslpod.com and www.manythings.org. I said “OK..! there we go, the first two websites.. let’s see what they contain.” I went through them and found amazing information which I wish I had known at earlier stage of my life, when I was graduating from high school and starting out as an English learner.

I went down the page and as I read a new post I found new things which have never been known to me at all.

I finally got to be best of the best, which I could not find words to describe it but to say ‘it’s second to none’. It’s www.elllo.org/english. What a blessing..! Nothing is better..! No more excuses not learning English. English language has become approachable by anyone, anywhere, at any age. No language, as far as I know, has been simplified as English. All one needs to do is just to stretch a hand and take the grape..!!

Thanks for everyone for these great information 

Week 2. Old habits die hard..

Sometimes we get so used to the status quo; the uncomfortable comfortability of our old habits, that we are afraid to make any changes or don't even realize that we have choices.

There is a saying which says “the man always hates what he does not know..”. That’s exactly what happens to most human beings. If you ask him/her; why don’t you like that thing? They would answer: I just don’t like it.. I don’t know why.

There is a short story where a little girl saw her mother cut the head and the tail of the fish before cooking. She asked: Mum, why do you do that? The mother replied: Well, I’ve never thought of that before.. but I saw your grandma does the same thing.. let’s call her and find out why. She called her, and surprisingly enough, the grandma answered: I don’t know why either.. I saw my mum did the same, I’ll call her and let you know. She called and asked her. Her mother said: well, honey, actually I used to have a small frying pan, and that’s why I would always cut the head and the tail of the fish..!!!

Sometimes the same thing happens with us. We repeat doing what most people do without thinking of “why”. We think that is the only thing in the world and nothing is better, whereas, in realty there could be much better things out there; we need just to expose ourselves to.

This attitude becomes quite clear when it comes to technology-related things. For instance, personally I used to use Google for quite long period of time for all my searches and I would think it is the only search engine that would never say “I don’t know” but, having seen other engines during this week I realized that the search could be much easier and I could save a lot of time. However I am still a big fan of Google no matter what..!! Why?! I don’t know, Maybe I need to get a big frying pan..!!!

Week 1. First Step..

How good it is to be able to create a blog. Not so much has happened.. You just follow the instructions and you’re right in your own small world; a world where you can share your ideas, thoughts and experience with others.

I like it.. I like every practical thing.. that’s what we really need; something practical, something copes with 21^st century..

In the old days, not so long ago, teachers were compelled to stick to certain ways of teaching, but not any more.. we can simply have our students visit our blogs and share with them what we want.. not everything could be said during the class,, Am I right??

Having a blog keeps you connoted with others, keeps you updated with what’s going on around, and enables you to widen your experience and knowledge.

OK, I don’t want to talk too much about blog. It’s just a drop of the huge ocean of technology stuff.. which I hope we’ll, all members of this class led by Robert, be able to go 

so deep to discover more..

Have a good day.

Faisal