Disclaimer!

Disclaimer - We are a very dedicated and passionate group of people coming together in a workshop experience to improve our teaching and the lives of our students. The opinions we express here are our own, and not necessarily those of the institutions supporting us! Thank you for understanding.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Our Philosophies - The Third Five


“My philosophy of education stems from the Islamic views of the creator, the universe, and the human nature. Thus, man is good and naturally willing to differencially learn and lead a prosperous life according to the Islamic teaching with a respected regard to the cultural uniqueness and diversity of every individual and ethnic group.  In that, as an EFL teacher I believe that my role is to create a more mentally challenging, emotional and uniquely culturally student – made and disciplined environment that I hold responsibility of.  We are but what we belive!”
Khadijeh O. Hamidi


“I believe every individual is unique, and my role as a teacher is to create and seize opportunities and help learners extend possibilities to reach the threshold of their minds empowered with the confidence, ability and desire to make the world a better place.”
Bassam Saleh


“I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, and socially. It’s my desire as an educator to help students meet their fullest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, support risk-taking and invites sharing of ideas.”
Saleem Al-Jabali



 “I believe that teaching and learning is an orchestra played by both teachers and students. The more congruent they are, the more fantastic the tune is. Students are there waiting for the leaders to explore their potential talents, create their own culture, shape their own future, and help them to be well-prepared for the real world.”
Fatima Ramadan



“I believe that the main role of the school is to create a balanced generation who have the ability to participate in different activities in their society. In order to achieve that, the teacher should explore students’ potentials as well as their shining sides believing that each one of the students has something to add.”
Khawla Adarbeh

Our Philosophies - The Second Five


“Students of all social class, ethnicity, race, colour, and mental abilities want to learn. My job as a creative teacher is to provide them with tools and knowledge that are necessary to continue the learning process.  Teaching must be combined with student’s life experiences and they must be taught the techniques of creative thinking, logic, problem solving, and basic ingredients of argument..etc.”
Tahani Jamal


“I believe that the teacher should enlighten students’ way to discover their abilities and potential equipped by respect, pride to their culture and religion and having a wide open mind to communicate with others.”
Sabreen Al-Omari


 “I believe that I have a mental challenge, sense of joy, and an ethical contract in the interactive learning environment and to deal with the miscue of some students, take care and respect of them in order to support their axiology and to be proud of them.”
Sara Subhi Shawamreh


“I believe the children are our future and each and every one has the potential to bring something unique and special. My main role as a teacher is equipping and empowering rather than transferring knowledge, helping students in learning to learn.”
Shadi Ali Al-Khwaja


“I believe in getting a great proud tolerant independent student having beliefs and values in an appropriate environment in order to live in the wider community.”
Amira Issa Abu Al-Tee

Our Philosophies - The First Five


“I believe in my ability to create culture where students are well instructed and consistently guided. This culture, I believe to have the atmosphere of trust, respect and teamwork. Learning in such a motivating culture arouses students’ self-confidence, creativity and their responsibility towards their learning environment.”
Nihaya Saleh

“I believe that students are capable and unique who have the potential to bring something unique and special to the world, if we help and provide them with a responsive environment which moves with their changing needs, interests, and desires. As a teacher my role is to guide my students to develop a deep love and respect for themselves, others, and their environment.”

 Mervat Shawabkeh


“I believe in my ability to build a classroom culture based on ethics and human values where fair opportunities are offered to every student to prosper and develop her full potential in a systematic environment open to positive and congruent modifications.”

Salam Saleh


“I believe that all students are unique individuals who need to be placed in a safe and supportive environment that helps them develop psychologically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Building that conducive environment will allow them to meet their potentials. My role as an educator is to facilitate their learning and to promote respect among them.”  

Zeinab Ajarmeh


“I am a firm believer of student’s right to learn, shape their characters and develop their ability in a safe stimulating environment that instills society’s beliefs and morals.”

Yaser Alhreh

Saturday, January 28, 2012

My Journey


Reality perception

My name is Sultan Awwad, I have been teaching English at UNRWA for about 7 years now. Although I have applied for an English teacher post to UNRWA, I have not realized the gravity of becoming one until I saw my name in the local newspaper. I didn't know what to do or what to expect. Nevertheless, I saw comfort in the fact that I spent about 12 years in schools as a student and naively assumed sufficiency of such an experience in performing my upcoming duties as a teacher.
Unfortunately, the comfort zone I capsulated myself in shattered into pieces when I saw the eyes of 45 students staring at me upon my first entrance to a class as a teacher! I then discerned that experience alter our perception of reality drastically.
Peculiarly, a boy sitting back close to the corner window (my favorite spot) called Hashem reminded me of myself; the glittering eyes, the confident smile, which can be interpreted mistakenly by a green teacher as a welcome sign. Yes, I was a green teacher but an adept student in giving teachers a hard time. Hashem would have been a perfect friend when I was a student; but now it is a whole different story! There is nothing pleasant in having someone like me in any class! I wanted to scream loudly "I'm one of you" I desperately wanted to reclaim my seat near that window where I could do my monkeyshines and manage my pranks. The only brilliant thing I did that day, which came out of instinct, is keeping a direct eye contact with them and wearing a shaky smile, which I strived to use as a cover to hide my fears. I saw no practical use whatsoever of my experience as a student except for my unrivaled ability to spot wicked students, which called for an emergency plan.
An emergency plan
I started to retrieve memory for the best teacher model that could deal with a naughty student such as Hashem. And there it was. Who else could it be? It was Mohammad aljaiousy; my tenth grade English teacher. I came to school the next day with high aspirations but things did not work as I hoped. I then turned to my capable peers to sip from their rich experience in terms of classroom management and teaching strategies. Some tips really worked fine but  it many had fallen apart when applied. It took me almost a year to realize that there was no unified booklet for teaching and that I had to invent my own.
I often saw teaching as a process of explaining a topic, encouraging students to ask questions, and giving Exams where some would pass and others would fail. I saw my performance as a teacher determined mainly by the evaluation sheet a supervisor fills upon attending a class of mine.
Milestone
All this changed three months ago when my mobile phone rang. It was my supervisor asking me whether I wish to participate in an intensive course by Dr. Michael Morsches. I had no idea about the course; nonetheless, I agreed to enroll.
Later on, we began communicating through the internet. He first required a brief summary about me, which I provided in no time. Then silence prevailed for a couple of days to be later dispelled by an assignment about philosophy. This course really sucks "I told myself". I hate philosophy. I hate people who write about it, talk about it, not to mention people who ask about it. However, I had already signed the contract! Nonetheless, Dr. Morsches had the redeeming quality of providing some elaboration on the questions he raise. He cut down the wicked term into three more wicked ones: ontology, epistemology and axiology.
I don't like the taste of failure, it is bitter, that’s why I made a good use of the notes provided by Dr. Morsches on each topic and ran a tiny research on the web. It turned out that philosophy isn't that wicked after all; it is a science that we live and experience everyday and certainly affects teaching and learning as well. It is the set of beliefs and conventions we hold, whether realized or not, which govern our behavior.
Philosophic responsibilities
It was blank inside my mind when I sat down to write about my philosophy as a teacher, but soon thoughts started to gush fervently as an eager prisoner longs for his freedom. I have started my philosophy article with questions I had carried with me almost forever; questions about the nature of things and people, about the perception of reality, about my students' nature and needs, about the process of knowledge acquisition, about the society and the ethical system we live in and about the values our student's cherish most.
Structuring my philosophy clearly, gave me a completely new self-reflection spectrum. My attitude as a teacher came to make more sense and I could see clearly my strength and weakness spots not only as a teacher but also as a human being. It is like having the sagacity to isolate frivolous, impertinent, and unreasonable variables of a ramified task profession and focus more on the core of teaching or "my philosophic responsibilities" as a teacher.
Setting up my philosophic responsibilities as a teacher, made me re-evaluate and reset my classroom instructions, my assessment techniques and the evaluation process in a more congruent pattern. Moreover, I came to perceive my philosophy in light of the goals set by the organization I work at, which added a great asset to my knowledge in keeping an equilibrium between the goals of the organization and those of mine. E.g., I didn't see a reasonable ground for applying authentic assessments by UNRWA because I had no clear perception of the overall image, nonetheless it turned out to be a crucial component in achieving my philosophic responsibilities.
I then realized that evaluating a teacher has more in it than just ticking a static evaluation sheet by an Ed. Specialist where both teachers and Ed. specialists have a little control over the many weltering variables in a rather blurry evaluation context. A teacher's evaluation should be based on teacher's congruent performance in the light of the philosophic responsibilities he/she cling to. In addition to that, I think Ed. Specialists' philosophic responsibilities should be reflected on the process of teachers' evaluation, which would yield a more natural equitable evaluation process for both teachers and Ed.specialists.   

Friday, January 27, 2012

Our Condolences


تتقدم أسرة أكاديمية lالتعلم والتعليم بأحر مشاعر التعازي والمواساة للزميل الأستاذ كمال الشوابكة وذلك لوفاة والدتة "المغفور لها باذن الله" يوم الجمعة الموافق 27/1/2012 نسأل الله ان يتغمد الفقيدة برحمته وأن يجعل مثواها الجنة وإنا لله وانا اليه لراجعون

 “We express our deep condolences to our colleague Kamal Al-Shawabkeh for the loss of his Mother today, Friday the 27th of Jan, 2012"

New Assignment

Your next homefun is very simple!  Find an online article regarding your research interest and forward it to me.  Also, write a small commentary about the article and what you think about it.  You need to start looking for a journal that you will eventually submit an article to. If you have any questions, let me know. Please get the article to me with your comments by next Friday, thanks :)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Punishment


 I met a parent today who left me with mixed feelings. Do I want to hit him? Do I need to burst with laughter right in front of him??
So, this well educated father ( who is an engineer by the way) said, “ With all respect to all what you do and all your techniques and philosophies, I think the only way to discipline my son is to spank him.”
……….
I stared at him for a moment to gather my thoughts and ideas, because I just wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine (a punch in the gut). Don’t worry guys, I didn’t do that.
I was able to convince him that a good teacher is always in control and he or she doesn’t need to be violent with the children to discipline them. After he left, it hit me… What if a teacher believes that the only way to control a class is by a wooden stick?? And even worse, what if a teacher uses verbal abuse thinking that words are only words and they can’t cause harm to these children in our classes.
I am not a parent, I have no idea how mothers deal with their kids at home. But to me, a child in my class is my responsibility. This child must be comfortable and he or she must like to come to class. How can he or she feel that way with an abusive teacher (think of everything that might hurt the child’s feelings as an abuse).
A teacher might say, “Well, you can’t control a class without some kind of authority. The good teacher is the one that controls the class and the students”
I agree with the last part, but the approach is the thing that I don’t agree with.
I would like to share with you what I usually do, and with a little training from the children’s part, it works like magic.
Pause for a little bit when a child does something wrong. Let the rest of the class notice that something wrong has happened and just…. Carry on. Talk to the child that misbehaved alone after class. Highlight the behavior not the child. Explain to him/her why it was wrong to do so and so. Even better ,let him/her talk about the wrong thing that happened during class. They understand no matter how young they are. Of course, there must be consequences, but not from the first time. You can agree on the consequences of the unwanted behaviors with your students in the beginning of the school year. Write these down on a notebook that you will keep all the school year long. These can be as simple as removing a star from the motivation chart, or as serious as staying in class during PE. ( believe me, the star thing is more serious than losing one’s home for the younger students).
And remember, reward comes along with punishment. Little things that you might do as reward will keep you in control not by the wooden stick, but by love and caring for those little angels.
Rasha

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Around the Corner

Our break is almost over! I was so touched when so many of you told me you wished the workshop had gone on and that you missed coming to it.  Never has a workshop presenter had such high praise! Praise for his work and praise for the team he helped uncover! We are about to move into then next phase of the academy where we work for awhile independently then slowly start to come back together in clumps.  As ungainly as that sounds, it is an emulsification process that will finally bind us together as a group that will never dissipate, never disband.  We will be working separately for a bit, but never out of sight and reach of each other.  Then, very soon, we will begin to prepare to come back together again in another group project, this time all together to leave a larger legacy. Exciting times indeed.
For the next few days, start to think about your research interest and begin to explore journals - read different types of articles, start to collect a few references (that i will collect and distribute btw), thinking about an article that you can eventually write. This will be your area of expertise, the area where you will be our more capable peer - dig in!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Coming Up for Air

Wow, what an amazing week! It was so much better than I had hoped to imagine. The projects were amazing, the best bit of evaluation I ever did :)  You are creative and intelligent - UNRWA and your communities are so lucky to have you.  I told you being heroes and heroines is  not easy work.  For what it is worth, you have my respect for a lifetime. You all were fantastic, and I don't think I ever felt that much of a family feeling, even in my own family growing up. I was amazed at how much you cared for each other, your schools, UNRWA, and your students. I don't always do very intelligent things, but coming here and working with you makes me look brilliant :) I am rested now (got six hours of sleep), am off to the ALC conference to present, wa anna saufa erga ela Amreka bukhra inshalah. I will spend Sunday getting caught up on my work over there, and then I will be back after you all Monday for six months. Keep reading and responding, in many ways we have more to do than ever, it just won't be so compressed. I have lots of ideas about the near future, as does Bassam, as do you all. We will not lose this momentum, because I am no longer driving this train. Thank you Fatima for creating the Facebook page, and I hope you all can join it: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1499577476#!/groups/271380266262369/

Thank you so much for the gifts - the Koran, the containers inside the containers :), the wonderful sand art, the books, the wallet (thanks Nihaya), and your unconditional love and support.

From a New Friend

I am Ameera Ibrahim,21years old, I study Optics at JUST university, I am a friend of the academy & I've attended the last session today.I strongly believe that those who I met aren't only teachers but  they are creative professionals.They work as a team. I watched marvelous projects. Before I attended the session, I hated  being a teacher, but now I can say that teachers have the keys of the locked dooes in life. Finally, I would like to say to Michael that you are a star shining in the sky.Thanks for everyone.
Ameera Ibrahim

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Philosophy

Today we've shaped our own philosophy of teaching and learning as a result of the previous online work and the four-day training workshop.
My own philosophy is the following :(I believe that teaching and learning is an orchestra played by both teachers and students. The more congruent they are, the more fantastic the tune is. Students are there waiting for the leaders to explore their potential talents, create their own culture, shape their own future and help them to be well-prepared for the real world.
Fatima Ramadan
I believe that no student has to the right to fail! All students can learn if we provide them a supportive and prescriptive environment, challenge and respect them, and hold ourselves to the standards that reflect the responsibilities of our philosophy.
Michael Morsches

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Burning Questions

The burning questions One of the techniques used by Michael in the training courses he is giving us in the academy. I think it's a good technique to apply in our classes so sts. (especially the shy ones) are encouraged to write questions on small cards and stick them on the wall(without names) Such questions you can't ignore and need to answer (to extinguish the fire) Fatima Ramadan

Monday, January 16, 2012

Pick Up Your Shovel And Dig
We've started the academy here in Amman. Today is the 2nd day and we have been working hard to achieve its objectives. We have started the project with our team and we will shape our own philosophy soon.
Thanks a lot Michael Morschiesfor your sincere efforts.

Real vs Unreal

"School prepares you for the real world" - What is a more "unreal" place than school?

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Thanks A Lot!

Today was the first day in the academy, it was very  interesting day as we started very early & carried out many tasks with Michael who proved again to be  a hard worker & dedicated man. The most interesting thing was that I am "D" Wow
Another interesting thing was that Michael surprised us with, he brought 7 laptops with him from the NEW RIVER COMMUNITY &TECHNICAL COLLAGE, I won the first one .Thanks a lot Michael.
Fatima

Saturday, January 14, 2012

The Lunch

I was so, so pleased with our lunch today!  The turnout was much better than I hoped (for the few of you who could not come, we missed you greatly!).  It was an honor to have Shorouq with us, and many quests who all made wonderful contributions to the event.  Thanks to Sultan and Bassam for working on things, and to Osama for his "instant eloquence."  Zeinab and Salaam have toured Shirley and Rachel, and Rasha and Nesreen will take them out again on Thursday.  Moath Freij, renowned journalist from the Jordan Times was with us (hoping to do a story :), and we had many other dignitaries. The academy members did a great job explaining our program (better than I could) and I felt so proud and relieved.  I have deliberately left things a bit vague so you all could decide how and when it should come together and I learned today that my instincts were good!
Not only did we "reify" the mission of the academy, we also began to see the value in doing similar programs for our students and parents. We have just begun and the future is looking very bright indeed.  Shorouq reminded us that sustainability is paramount and I don't believe we will let her down :) This week will be fun, tough, revealing, and rewarding. I am so excited it is here and a bit sad it will soon be over - until then I would remind you that my job is to kick your......and your jobs is to stop me :)

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday the 13th - A Lucky One!

We left Amman at 530am and drove south to Petra.  We got there it was very, very cold.  Shirley and Rachel took a nice carriage ride down to the end of the valley and waited for me at the restaurant. I made my way down and we had tea. On the way up, bumped into a friend coming down the Siq :)  We then drove down to Aqabah passing by Wadi Rum. We had a lovely seafood meal on the Red Sea, then turned around and drove up to the Dead Sea. We stopped at the Movenpick (I wanted to give the hotel the chance to redeem itself after a bad incident with a friend and I several years ago :) and had a wonderful dessert, then walked in the dark down to the Dead Sea.  Finally, we made our way back to Amman, and I am in my room listening to music blasting at a wedding across the hall - I am very tired, but there are worse reasons to make noise :)
I cannot wait to see most of you tomorrow, I really can't!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Day Three and Day Four

Day Three was very successful!  I did a four hour training for the Oxford School on Teachers as Leaders and it went very well.  Samah has such a great team there, and Ibrahim was a tremendous help too.  Rachel and Shirley were treated to lunch and a tour of downtown by Zeinab and Salaam (and daughter :) and had a wonderful, wonderful time.  I actually got a few hours sleep and got to back to Rainbow street for another cafe adventure.  It is now 5am and we are about to go off to Petra and Aqabah for the day.  The plan is to get back relatively early and then get some sleep, because we are all three so excited about the lunch tomorrow!  So far everything has exceeded our expectations, including the hospitality of everyone here (even though we knew it would be fantastic, it has been even better).  I must go off now and make sure the two ladies get to ride a camel......

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Art, Science, Intuition?

Well, Bassam and Sultan tracked me down tonight, diligently following me to a Syrian restaurant where we had the chance to meet and catch up on things.  While we finished our business at hand, Sultan reminded me he had asked a question about whether teachers were born or created, in other words were people natural teachers or could they be taught to be good teachers?  It immediately reminded me of three things: Is teaching an art?  Is teaching a science? And what is the role of intuition in teaching. I promised him I would address it, so here goes.....
As a teacher-trainer for more than twenty-seven years now, I have long believed that I cannot afford to believe that teaching is an art - I have come to this conclusion because if teaching is an art, then my job would be to find the people that had the artistic ability within them and recruit them to be teachers. I think most of us believe that art is something that needs to "pre-exist" in a human, and is brought out.  Many of us consequently believe that you cannot really teach art to someone.  Given that I don't often get to go out and "find" teachers, this metaphor is unaffordable!
If teaching is a science, perhaps then we can develop it within people.  Many people find this comparison to be distasteful though, as if you could build a teacher as you can a machine. I would add that too many teachers do not receive enough guidance, enough feedback, enough mentoring no matter what the case (art of science), and we would better serve them if we believed that all humans have the capacity to teach, just some start the process a little more equipped than others.
I was reading a great book on neurology (that I could actually understand) several years ago called "Descartes Error" by A. Damasio.  When I got to his chapter on intuition, I was simultaneously disappointed and very pleased.  He explained intuition in a way that I had long believed myself (his esplanation was far more elegant however), so I was disappointed that I had not discovered the idea, but that I was thinking soundly when I did come up with it (I would repeat this over and over again in graduate school, realizing that I probably would never come up with an original idea, but some of mine weren't completely crazy :). So here is how intuition works - I call it a synthetic incapacity, he called it an inability to connect an engram to a somatic marker.  In either case, when we have an experience, we register that experience in two ways: 1) there is a cognitive event and a memory is created, 2) there is an emotional response and it is recorded in another part of your body.  One note here, if you haven't visited emotional theories, it would be worth  your while - i.e., do you think of an event first then the thought produces an emotion, or does the emotion happen instantly creating the subsequent thought (James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer Theory, etc.). 
Intuition happens when we face an event later that is similar to one we had previously encountered. The events are not quite close enough to connect the cognitive response or the memory, but they are close enough to resurrect the associated emotion.  From that emotional response, good or bad, we make an emotional judgement about the event or situation- generate to it or away from it. So there is a logic of sorts buried deep within, just not recognizable or connectible at the moment in our brains.  Neat stuff huh?
Now I want you to think of the best and worst teachers you have ever had in the classroom.  I bet you both of them prized themselves as being very intuitive.  I believe when it comes down to it, the only person's intuition we really trust is our own (outside of mom and dad of course :).  And I really don't have much use for intuition as a fuzzy concept as a teacher trainer, as you cannot "share" intuition with another, you cannot pass it on.
I have talked about "operationalizing your intuition" before I think.  This is where we dig down and find out what is really behind those good hunches, those natural inclinations.  That was the basis of my chapter on The Three Responsibilities of a Student - helping largely intuitive learners (teachers) break down the learning process for non-intuitive learners.  We will be talking about this in about 77 hours - yikes!

Day Two

Our second day is nearly over (just on our way to have a Syrian dinner) and it was very productive!  Rachel, Shirley, and I went to the Oxford School where we are doing a bit of work as well over the next week or so.  The crew there was great, lead by Samah of course, and I am back to do a workshop tomorrow on Teachers as Leaders - I still have a few hours to figure out what I will talk about....

TheNew Dream Team: Shirly, Rachel, Samah




Proof that work is being done (notice I am not in the picture :)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Ask Michael - Cognitive Transitions

"Can we categorize kids' progress through time into "periods" and if yes, are there any transitionals and how can we help kids progress smoothly throughout these periods?"
Ghada and Yaser

This is a really good question, and I will answer it through my somewhat limited understanding of both Piaget and Vygotsky.  Piaget had his now famous stages of intellectual development - Sensorimotor; Pre-Operational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational.  He has been criticized for many issues related to his stages, including the fact that he did not offer a good explanation for how children moved from one stage to the next, nor did he account for gifted children and their ability to move so rapidly through the stages.  Also, as I have mentioned, he also neglected to account for the transition of egocentric speech into a tool for cognitive development and later thinking. He characterized the transition from one stage to the next as a function of "disequilibrium" where some sort of conflict arose and the child's mind had to change radically to accommodate it (here accommodation is when we actually have to change our schema or mindset to account for new information, not as we usually assimilate where we change new information to fit our existing schema or mindset).  These moments of disequilibrium often correspond to curricular junctures, like the point where children shift from expository to narrative analysis, or when they move into more abstract modes of mathematics. The point being, they have to reach a stage where they can no longer deal with the challenges facing them with familiar strategies or mental techniques.  It is also interesting to know that in biology, there is the theory of a "critical period" of acquisition where an organism is most likely to develop a specific skill (for humans, walking, talking, potty training, etc.) and if that organism fails during that time, it becomes less likely it will be successful, and increased the chances there will be great difficulty in the future (of course Freud outlined the psychological aspects of these acquisition issues very vividly, the most powerful being "anal retentiveness" where children who don't master potty training at a reasonable age will later overcompensate for control in their lives).  Halliday called this time period a "teachable moment" but the term has been corrupted in the West to mean an opportune time to teach something in the semester as it comes up naturally rather than wait for its unnatural spot in the curriculum.
Vytostky had much more to say about transitions through cognitive stages through peer-teaching, his Zone of Proximal Development, and inner speech.  We will talk about these concepts, and I will even show you a model from a family literacy program I developed where we tried to capitalize on these concepts helping low-literate mothers and fathers read to their children.  I think the most important lesson on these transitional stages is two fold: 1) different children reach them at different times and in different ways, and 2) we cannot always wait around and offer enough different interventions for this to happen in a formalized school setting.  We will talk about this, don't let me forget to address it next week!  Yes, I said next week - get ready.
One final word about Piaget and his levels - shortly before his death he reconsidered and admitted that he thought that only about 40% reached full formal operational thinking (ouch).

One Day Down

We have been here a little more than twenty-four hours!  I have met with three different teachers, the best administrator on the planet, I have had one mixed grill, a great assortment of Jordanian sweets, hummus for breakfast, treated Shirley and Rachel to Reem's Shawarma, been to two cafes on Rainbow street, been upgraded in our hotel to suites, talked to a few of you on the phone and online, and I am just warming up!  I cannot wait for tomorrow.  I am behind on a few of the Ask Michael posts and will catch those up bukrah inshallah.  Keep reading and sending in comments and posts - Khadijeh, you stole one of my posts on reliability and validity :(  just kidding, love to read this kind of thing).  I am glad Bassam sent you the information for the academy location, and I will do the same for the lunch on Saturday tomorrow.  I do think I will need a bit of sleep tonight though before I get busy....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Evaluating the context of language learning

Classroom-Based Evaluation in Second Language Education
By Genesee and Upsher
Summaryof chapter 1

Evaluating the context of language learning

by
Khadijeh Othman Hamidi
  
 This very chapter deals with the input factors that influence the second language
 learning and teaching like student needs and abilities, time , attitude..etc. I would add
 other factors such as the political system, the culture of the second language and
 whether it is in harmony or in conflict with the cultural elements of the community, 
 and the community’s needs and values.
  This chapter discusses the instructional objectives and their divisions: language,
 strategic, socioaffective, philosophical, and methodsor process. But what is stressed
 here is the language objectives which have been divided , in turn, into general course
 objectives and specific or more detailed unit or lesson objectives. The course
 objectives should be in compatible with students’needs , background and goals.
 These objectives should also be explicit to help students understand how they will be
 able to use language.
  It is important for teachers to articulate their own objectives . this will help
 teachers to plan appropriate instruction , teach effectively, and evaluate the
 effectiveness of their instructions.
 Good course objectives strive for the following five characteristics:

1.     They should be general.
2.     They should refer to single domain of language performance.
3.     They should not overlap.
4.     They should refer to products oflearning .
5.     I would add that they should be incompatible with Bloom’s taxonomy and that

they should be comprehensive: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective.
 It discusses also the importance of instructional plans which specify what
 should be taught . By comparing the instructional plans described in the
 syllabus with course objectives, teachers can assess whether the instructional
 plans prescribed in the syllabus are compatible with the course objectives.
 The chapter also discusses the facets of instructional plans that are useful in
 second language evaluation:  content, organization, material and equipment,
  activities and roles. It emphasizes the fact that what is planned may not be in
 harmony with what is really practiced in the field.
 According to chapter 2, I think that teacher should play different roles: a
 decision maker, a planner, a reviser , an effective reflector, an organizer, a
 facilitator, ..etc. He/ Sheshould evaluate his/ her objectives , content , the
organization, the material and equipment, his/ her roles , and even his/ her
  beliefs and principles regarding second  language learning  in the light of
current evaluation.

Collecting information

Classroom- Based Evaluation in Second Language Education by Genesee and Upsher
Summary of chapter 4
Collecting information

    In this chapter , teachers are exposed to types of information required for assessment, qualities of information , practicality, reliability, validity, and methods of information collection.
     In making decisions about second language learning , we use both qualitative and quantitative information .As the book mentions , there is no clear distinction between qualitative and quantitative information. But in general ,having a variety of types of information about teaching and learning can enhance the reliability of your assessment and the validity of your decision making.
   In discussing qualities of information, two aspects of quality have been tackled: validity and reliability. At the same time, there are additional matters to be considered when collecting information for evaluation , that’s the practical side of gathering information.
    There are practical aspects of information collection . First, cost which answers the question whether the method of information collection is affordable. Second , the administrative time which is trying to answer if there is enough time in class to collect information using this method. Third, compilation time that is if there is enough time to score and interpret the information . Fourth, the administrator qualifications that is if the teachers are qualified to use this method of information collection .Fifth, the acceptability that is if the method of collecting information  is acceptable to students, parents, and the community.
    Reliability is defined as the freedom from non-systematic fluctuation.  There are three general sources of reliability : the first has to do with instability or non-systematic fluctuation in the person or among the people collecting the information this is called assessor –related reliability or rater reliability.The second source of unreliability concerns the person about whom information is being collected. This is called object- related or person- related reliability. The third source of unreliability resides in the procedures used for collecting information. This is called instrument-related reliability. On this occasion I would like to add other sources like environment-related reliability and content /skill- related reliability. A question might be raised at this particular moment that is how can we enhance reliability?
Person–or object-related reliability can be enhanced by assessing on several occasions since human beings often differ in their behaviour according to transitory moods, momentary distractions, time of day, fatigue, or hundreds of other factors beyond the control or the recognition of the test taker or the assessor. Instrument- related reliability can be improved by using a variety of methods of information collection. Unreliability can estimate performance which may result from assessing student performance at times during the day or week when they are not at their best  . Unreliability can  result from poor or inconsistent record keeping . It is important to mention that reliability is a matter of degree and is usually expressed by indices ranging from .00 to 1.00 , it can only be estimated and not truly calculated.
     Validity is the extent to which the information you collect actually reflects the characteristics or attribute you want to know about.  It is important to note that there is an important relation between reliability and validity that you should be aware of – an assessment instrument or procedure can be only as valid as it is reliable. We employ different procedures to determine the validity of our assessment information and our methods of collecting it. We describe the three main procedures : content relevance, criterion relatedness ,and construct validity.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Dive in and Get Comfortable: Writing Instruction as Environment

From a colleague in Ohio!
By Michelle A. Miller, Ph.D.
In a previous life as a small town weekly newspaper sports columnist, I interviewed a high school swimmer whose father was the swimming coach. “What it is like to be a coach’s kid and team member?”  I asked this to several “kids” of various ages and their dad coaches, including my own siblings and father, for a two-part series. This late high school boy spoke well and eagerly on a topic he seemed to have been waiting for years to be asked about.  I understood this eagerness because this topic also hit home for me; my dad coached six of his seven children, and we fought preconceptions, misconceptions and certainly what we saw as intermittent unjustified jealousy as we played basketball and ran track on our dad’s teams.
One thing this young man said stays with me still, and it had nothing to do with our common adolescent social discomfort. He spoke about the environment of the swimming pool, the moist tropical air, the sharp chill of the sudden water, the scent of chlorine, and then there was the weird, demanding schedule that had him eating breakfast at the pool after morning workouts. So many peers thought this all was weird, so weird as to make anyone who liked it weird, but he didn’t care; to him, the pool felt more like home than anywhere, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I liked what he said. I recognized it immediately but not as a coach’s kid but as a writer. Much of what he said about swimming and the pool environment could describe how I felt about writing. True, I didn’t love the environment of writing the way this young man loved being in the pool environment, but after this conversation, I no longer saw writing as an activity so much as an environment, a world, a swirl with me in the middle of it, a swirl with me having the power to swirl it back and change that world through my efforts and uniqueness.
No, I didn’t and don’t take to writing like a fish to water. In fact, I often avoid writing. It seems cold and chemically and surely will take effort. Mid-twentieth century sportswriter Red Smith stated that writing is as easy as sitting at a typewriter and opening a vein.  There’s a lot of truth in that for me as I contemplate writing and consider sending myself off the deck into the middle of it.  However, that is only half of it, my view of writing from the outside, writing before I dive in, writing when I would rather be watching TV, chatting, reading, shopping, eating, exercising, playing around on the Internet, or even grading papers or cleaning. That is the avoidance, the apprehension of having to open a vein at the computer (no more typewriters; this is a new century but the same open veins). But fortunately, I know from experience that there is more to writing than the apprehension.
There is also the being in the middle of it, the typing, the hand writing, the inspiration, the “ice sliding on a hot stove” side of writing Robert Frost used as a description of writing poetry; there was the excitement of not knowing where the writing, like the ice, would slide, the feeling of being at the beginning of, the middle of, the instigator of…creation.  That’s where writing is like swimming; it’s effort but joyful; it’s being in the zone, being in an altogether different environment, weightless, forgiving but with that challenge, the “flow”  that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  wrote about, where challenge is just challenging enough that it is stimulating but not so challenging it is off-putting.  I sometimes compare writing to creating your own experiments, designing your own problems, and then churning your way to solutions and discovery. That is true differentiated learning.
This is where writing becomes more alluring and meaningful than a chore; it’s like driving toward destiny, like crafting my part of the conversation, like being “me” in a more articulate and clever way than I seem to manage in real time conversation. Unfortunately, getting to this flow, this ice sliding on the hot stove, this weightless joy of the pool, is a state the vast majority of writers do not achieve, not in middle school, high school, or even college.  Many do not realize this is even possible. Writing is a chore, a forced activity, a foreign environment, a lonely place between you and a teacher who you may or may not like and who may or may know really know you. It is a cold, chlorinated place surrounded by a pocket of hot humid air and distant noises, conversations you will never hear or understand and that have nothing to do with you.  That is writing for too many middle and high school and even college writing students.
This is not “flow,” nor is it an affinity space, another term that jumps to mind as relevant. James Paul Gee’s idea of affinity space suggests that classrooms should be more like clubs, organizations for the purpose of interacting over and developing common interests.   In an affinity space, everyone can contribute, even take the lead; both individual and co-created knowledge are respected and used; participation in multiple forms is available; and everyone is in it for the challenge and fun, making a communal sort of “flow.”  A recent article in The Atlantic about Finland’s school success makes a similar point, that an educational system that values cooperation, equity, and creativity will be more successful than one focused on competition and incessant testing. (See “What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland’s School Success” by Anu Partanen.)
Gee also offered two ways of educating the young, first, acquisition, which occurs in natural settings such as the home, and second, learning, which takes more concerted effort and occurs in external settings like school. Neither is better, and both are important, but many disadvantaged students come to school without the kind of experiences with literacy acquisition that would have set them up for greater success in school—experiences like being read to; playing word games; discussing stories, characters and themes; talking about stories as living things where characters, incidents, and even settings might have gone in different ways for varied reasons, and if they had, what would have happened and why?  Those are the kinds of questions some children come to school having heard and answered…but too many do not bring this sort of preparation.
That last point fits with my writing-as-pool-like-environment metaphor. Less successful students tend to see text, whether a pre-K fairy tale or a college chemistry text, as external, and in the latter example, worrisome, daunting, intimidating, and to be avoided.  These students don’t have experience interacting with text, losing themselves in it, questioning it, deriving ideas from it. Some kindergarteners show up to school having been a part of such interactive immersion and others have not.  It is clear those who have had such experience of text as environment enjoy a huge advantage in scholastic literacy.
What then can be done for those who come to school without such literacy acquisition experiences?  I visualize a Venn diagram of two categories of enrichment, but it is a Venn with such a complete overlap to be a total eclipse.  These two categories are writing as a social activity and authenticity. The more students share their in-process writing with one another and the more they share their completed writing with people outside their classroom, the more authentic, meaningful, and motivating it will be for students, the more they will take pride in their work and strive to make it as clear, correct, and compelling as they can.  Below, I offer not so much tips for improving student writing so much as activities that facilitate membership, citizenship in literacy, that joy of being in one’s element that the swim coach’s son enthused over in that interview….that belongingness… that being confident and active in the environment of text. None of these activities will be new to literacy instructors, but based on what I hear from my students, such activities are not common enough in the K-12 world. These activities include:
In process sharing: Students collaborate in workshop circles where they take turns reading aloud drafts with a few classmates with the goal of coming up with questions and discussion that will help the writer make the story better—clearer, with a stronger connection between point and evidence, more interesting, more focused, more aware of and responsive to an audience of peers.  I tell my students that this is similar to comedians trying out material before sympathetic audiences before taking it on to a more daunting audience where the stakes are higher.  Here, writers use audience to help them choose between ideas when they cannot decide on their own; to give the writer a place to articulate an opinion about their own ideas; to use audience to help student writers see their work evolving through the confusion, laughter, and concern reflected back from others; and to use audience reactions to find what is working and how to make it even better and what is not working and how to make it work. As much as possible, teachers should lead discussion of “What is good?” in writing and the “how I got here” of process to provide venues for more successful students to show the way and to articulate for themselves and others how they negotiated the process and found success with their writing.
Students can also benefit from sharing low-stakes writing with one another, for example, journal entries they feel comfortable sharing.  They can also work together on writing projects, such as skits or plays they would later perform. They can combine writing with other expressions and other subjects, to write songs, to write letters to the editor, to write in imaginary historical voices, to write varied accounts of one story by different characters, to use a variety of ways to enter text, to create it, to analyze it, to play with it, to use it as environment and not task. 
Post-process sharing: There are a variety of ways students can share their finished work with others, and all of them can motivate students to write at a higher level than they otherwise might if their only audience was a teacher and the only consequence was a grade.  Sometimes we think students are nothing more than academic capitalists, and the only carrot that interests them is a good or acceptable grade. In writing, however, we have the solidity of words on paper, words that may, for example, tell a story of a meaningful person, so why not share that story with that meaningful person? When one of my Basic Writing students writes a strong essay about a relative or other consequential person, I encourage them to print out a fresh copy and share it with that person, to take the essay from the classroom and make it real in the world.  When they do, both writing student and their subject discover the true power of writing.
At the recent National Council of Teachers of English conference I attended, I saw a high school English teacher and a middle school language arts teacher from the same school district show and describe the online portfolios that their students created. The students chose a few pieces of writing from the year and organized them and added photos, colors, and other graphics and created an online space for their work where family and friends could go online and read the students’ work—again, this sharing with audience confers authenticity on the effort in a way that a mere “A” grade cannot do.
Another example: a Basic Writing colleague has an assignment where students must write something with the end goal of publishing it—a letter to the editor, participation in a department reading, or publication in a department textbook, etc.  The department that I teach in, Basic Writing in Developmental Programs at The University of Akron, is particularly proud of two opportunities for public sharing that we offer our students: a late semester public reading of excellent essays by the authors and a custom-published text book where a committee of instructors chooses excellent student essays submitted by students to be published for the next year’s text.  Students like both the motivation that they can be published and the relevance of reading essays by students just like them.
 It is essential that words and ideas and full shareable pieces become real for students growing as writers.  Writing is not mere school assignment or mental exercise; this is an environment just as surely as that pool was for the swim coach’s son. Even though this environment may first seem chilly and intimidating, with a little tossing of self into this new environment, and with helpful company there to question and encourage, it becomes a place where writers at any stage of development could happily find a second home. 

                               


Sunday, January 8, 2012

One Leg Down

Well, we are in Washington DC after a very short flight on an old fashioned airplane with propellers!  We have a six hour layover here and we are going back and reading through your "homefun." Shirley and Rachel are enjoying themselves immensely - Shirley: We are so intimidated by how intelligent and insightful you are (we knew you would be, but even for teachers you guys are pretty swift). We are learning some Arabic, unfortunately it is from Michael!  Inshalah. We can't wait to get there and meet you all.  Rachel: Your answers on ontology are so fantastic!  I am really having a great time reading your ideas about these things, good vs evil etc. I am very excited to meet you, to find out what you guys do for fun? 
We will be pressing on soon, on our way to London!  I don't know if I can post from there or not, but I can check to see if you post comments so that I can put them up.  We are very excited to get there and get busy.  FYI, we are also doing workshops for the Oxford School, and Shirley and I are presenting at the American Language Center's Shaping the Way We Teach Conference on Friday, January 20th  (lol we then fly out of Amman at 1:30am in the morning).  This will be a very busy and exciting visit, but we hope to spend time with all of you when we can.  The two ladies are available for early evening adventures if any of you ladies are free :)
Talk to you soon!

Hickty Pickty


Hickty Pickty My black hen
She lays eggs for gentlemen
Sometimes nine and sometimes ten

 No! it isn’t the color of the hen nor the number of eggs I am concerned about here though such issues might be of concern to  anti- racism activists, animal husbandry specialists and even the farmer on the chicken farm!
And no!  it wasn’t in a nursery or a KG where I learned the above lines(easy to learn as they may be). It all came from a half –educated man, my father (May he rest in peace).The issue I am raising is well into the question of the affective domain in teaching and learning.
I remember my dad chanting that rhyme for two or three times only and being a young boy looking up to his dad ( or at his dad), I caught the tune and learned it in no time. Was it because I got enchanted by the tune, the admiration of my father or a love of a special kind, I could never explain. It was years and years ago (English being a foreign language for me and my Dad) . How did I learn it so fast? and Why? I have dreamt in English for three or four times so far. Have you colleagues dreamt in a foreign language. The dreams I cannot recollect now but for the life of me it was all native speech with meticulous pronunciation and perfect accent.
            –just eggs –sorry- food for thought!
Osama

Saturday, January 7, 2012

12 Hours

In twelve hours, we leave for Jordan!  We will fly from our small airport here in Beckley,West Virginia to Washington DC.  Then off to London where we will arrive early Monday morning. After a four hour lay-over, we then fly to Amman arriving at 7pm Monday evening.  From there to our hotel.  I am finally allowing myself to be excited about the trip, I have been controlling myself up to this point :)  My job now is to get some sleep, we will see.  The next post I do will be from somewhere between fourth and fifth circle!

A Message From My Boss

Hello,

I am Harry Faulk, Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer at New River Community and Technical College. I am so pleased that Michael Morsches, New River’s Director of Developmental Education, has established this Academy. I will be following your progress and submissions on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Blog. I am excited that New River is able to support this program and delighted that Dr. Shirley Davis and Rachel Kelly, two of our distinguished instructors, will also be participating in the program. I know you will appreciate working with them and they will enjoy getting to know you. I look forward to presenting you with a special certificate upon your completion of the program.

Harry Faulk

Friday, January 6, 2012

The Day is Approaching!

This has been one of the most rewarding months of my life!  The energy I have given and the energy I have received has been like nothing else I have experienced in my life. I am also keenly aware of how busy you all have been lately - yet you have managed to keep up with the work. In a little over a week, we will engage in a five day event that will bring us together to create a support network that will eventually support hundreds of teachers and tens of thousands of students.  You are pioneers, and I am very proud of you - you accepted this challenge with very little details (testing your tolerance for ambiguity) and you have completed every requirement.  You don't know how much respect I have for all of you.
I am looking forward to next week, and I want to give you one more challenge as you prepare yourselves - we will work hard to come together as a team, one that will ensure that this academy outlives this first year and our own needs!  Having said that, by the end of the week you will need to have narrowed in on a research interest, a topic you want to explore in great detail.  As you do so, I will expect that you push me as hard as you can so that I support you through the next five months - I am ready, anna goewy jedan!
If you have given me your concept and ten terms, and you have responded about the lunch on Saturday, then your homework is done. Please continue to read the blog, to comment, and to submit posts.  I want you rested by next week, but not too relaxed or lazy :)

Fun with Grammar

Fun with Grammar
This isthe title of a workshop that was given to the UNRWA teachers in Irbid by Peter Lucantoni  from the British Council. He emphasized that grammar should be presented & practiced in an interesting way that attracts & involves all sts. In the class. This demands applying activities & games which are competitive, interactive & involve problem-solving, sharing of information. Some of these activities could be done in the class with other sts.. Some of the activities could be designed as homework.
Asteachers we should provide our sts. With exercises, presentations & games that reinforce the grammar the sts. already know by providing realistic settings in which they may practice their knowledge.
Here are examples of such tasks that could be applied to make grammar fun.

YES/NO QUESTIONS
1. SHORT ANSWERS 1

a-Material: Your own strips with answers
Dynamic:Pairs/Small groups
Time: 15 minutes
Procedure:1. Arrange students in pairs orgroups of three or four. Give each
group a strip with short answers on them. Have the students work together to write questions for the answers.
2.Have each group read the questions and answers aloud and let the rest of the group judge whether the questions

B - Dynamic: Whole class
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Choose a category (famous people, occupations, food, animals, etc.)
2.Choose one student to answer questions from the rest of the class.
Show the student a word on a piece of paper (what he or she is).
The word should be an object or person. Have this student sit in
front of the class. Instruct this student to answer only yes or no to
any question asked of him/her.
3.Instruct the class to ask only yes/no questions. Their purpose is to
discover the identity of the student in front of the class. The class
is allowed only 20 questions. If they can guess the student’s
identity before or by the twentieth question, the class wins. If they
do not guess correctly, the student wins. (Although this is based on
the popular “Twenty Questions” game, you may want to actually
vary the number of questions the class can ask. Be sure to make
.the number clear before the activity begins.

2) QUESTION ORDER
Materials: Cards or strips of paper
Dynamic:Groups
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Prepare a list of questions for this activity. Make questions with
enough words so that each student will have one card.
Example: Where has he already traveled?
Cards or strips:
2. Arrange students in groups corresponding to the number of words
in each question. Give each group one cut-up question.
3.Have the group put the words into correct question order. When
they have finished, call each group to the front of the class and
have the students stand in order, holding the cards. (If a student is
absent on the day of this activity and you have an extra card,
simply have a student hold up two cards.) The rest of the class
judges if the order is correct.
NOTE: This activity can be used at any level. Just prepare questions
that cover the tenses/structures that you want to review. If you want
to use punctuation, include that on a card also.
 Fatima Ramadan ( Jerash Camp)


--

Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Brief Word About Student-Centered Classrooms and Self-Learning

This may not be at all what Zeinab had in mind when she sent in a question about self-learning and student centered classrooms, but it is what popped into my head (sorry, haven't got much sleep this week, you all are testing my "strength" these days :)
When I look at the scope of my curriculum, I always identify what I consider to be five or six of the most important concepts that I will continue to build upon (not always the same the book or the curriculum guideline identifies). From there, I drill down in two ways: 1) As I mentioned in an earlier post about elicitation, I work hard to find a few very concrete, experiential activities to start the foundation of the concept in my class, and 2) I want to find an extrapolative range of activities for the concepts - in other words, I will determine what the minimum set of concepts are that I want all students to get, but then also some more advanced, "extra" levels some students might be able to explore.  I do this because of my commitment to group work and the more capable peer philosophy.
I want to have the students work together to help each other form and solidify concepts, but I don't want to foster a "regression to the mean" (sorry, I have been itching to use that term for a month now, don't know why) where we end up teaching to the middle, losing the more advanced aspects of the concepts and the interest of the our more capable students.  I work hard to get the students and their parents to accept this team philosophy in my class, so I need to guard against a few typical pitfalls (I hope you notice I throw in as many idioms as I possibly can :).
If I am doing a unit on irregular verbs, I determine the most common that I want all my students (or at least most of them) to know.  I then have them work together on finding them, conjugating them, spelling them, etc.  I will pair them in teams using the MCP formula, but I will not keep them together for the entire lesson.  I will let the MCP work with the other student initially, then give her (and maybe some of her fellow MCPs) a second, more advanced task to work on.  This second task will have a tough time restriction (time being the second level of challenge for these precocious students, difficulty the first), and I will make sure they return to their original pairs to finish up the first task before the activity ends.  I can also extend these advanced tasks into homework or other projects.  The point here is that the MCP is rewarded for working with her peer, not punished because she is more capable. 
I like these "extended topics" places where I can let some students go beyond the minimal concepts - and many times, I find that it isn't always the same MCPs who get to do this. If I do my job right, I will find different interest levels that will spark many of the students in the class to occasionally go above and beyond.  The really neat thing here is that once a students accepts the challenge to stretch the topic, I don't have to worry about all the pounding and reviewing I have to do on the simpler levels!
*A note about parents accepting the MCP concept: When I taught younger students, or when I trained teachers who worked with younger students, we often had complaints from the parents of the MCPs that we were holding their kids back by making them work with "slower" students.  On more than a few occasions, my response has been this: "I understand your concern, and I agree that your child is very gifted, and I want to see him reach his full potential.  As you may know, I offer Mahmoud a few advanced projects that allow him to go further than the other students, but I am doing something else for your child - Mahmoud is very bright, and he will be a leader one day I am sure of it!  And when he gets out there in the world leading others, he will need to know how to communicate with those he will lead and how to guide them.  By helping me from time to time in the classroom with the other students, we are preparing Mahmoud for this very promising future......"  I say this with a straight-face because I truly believe it.  I also know and believe that Mahmoud has things to LEARN from the other students as well!

A Few Thoughts About Humor in the Classroom

"Why do elephants paint their toenails red?  So they can hide in cherry trees!"
"If your son flunks out of school and is illiterate and anti-social, what can he grow up to be? A Ma'ani policeman"
"What is gray, has four legs and a trunk? A mouse on vacation"
"Why did the cookie cry? Because his mother had been a wafer for too long"

The above are examples of jokes that illustrate a few elements of humor.  There has been a lot of research done on humor, and you would be very surprised at the results!  The most common element of a joke is that it first creates an incongruence, then it fixes it.  Look at the first joke, who could imagine an elephant painting its toenails any color, let alone red. A strange situation is created, and the punch line later ties it together.  The first joke has a silly, almost nonsense tie-up.  The second has an aversive (a bit aggressive, against something or someone) tie-up.  The third has a twist (unexpected, you thought you knew the answer - elephant) tie-up. The fourth joke has a "semantic" tie-up - it is a play on words (wafer, at type of cookie, instead of "away."  These jokes illustrate just a few elements of humor, there are many, many more.
One consequence of using humor in the classroom, is discovering that different people respond to the same types of jokes differently.  Therefore, if you tell the same joke to enough people, some will love it, some will be confused, some will be irritated, and some will be very upset. I learned this when I did research with a university professor who wanted to discover what the best predictor was to determine how well students would rate their professors at the end of the course.  We tested a lot of variables, including what grade they thought they were going to receive.  His research showed that the best predictor of how well the students either liked or disliked the professor was how they related to the humor of the professor.  Professors who used a lot of jokes often ended up getting "bimodal" evaluations - lots of positives and lots of negatives, almost like it had been two different classes!
This is not intended to be a dissertation on humor, just a short discussion on some variables that affect our perception of humor - I will leave the subsequent discussion about how to use it in classrooms to you all!
As you can guess after looking at the jokes above, some people may not like them because they don't understand the tie-up, or that it takes them longer to make the connections. And when they are in a social setting, and many people are aware that they are slower, you can see why they may not like to hear jokes too often.  To add to this problem, there is another type of joke that also starts as an incongruence, but the punchline doesn't tie it up - these can be very frustrating for some folks.
Throughout history, humor has been used to serve at least four major purposes - 1) As a relief, a defense mechanism, as a means of detachment (giving us a little bit of distance from something painful), 2) A source of superiority, aggression, even hostility (a tool to be used against others), 3) A benevolent mechanism (a way to show tenderness, affection, or affiliation), and 4) A philosophic tool to get us to speculate about an idea or concept playfully.
I suspect that many of our students have been on the wrong ends of jokes, and try to avoid them, maybe even trying to use them against others sometimes to deflect attention on themselves.  We all know about bullying, and humor is simply the most deadly weapon in that ugly game.  Don't get me wrong - I love to use humor in the classroom (those of you who know me know this :), but I have learned to create trust and some supportive dynamics before I engage my students.  As I said, this is just a bit of fuel for a larger fire - I can't wait to hear from you all..............
Thanks Bassam for this idea, now I expect to hear from you first!

A Dialogue

A Dialogue

"Complete this table, Read this text andanswer the following questions, Listen and follow in your book, raise your handbefore you speak …………".
"Teacher, what are you talking about?  Why do I have to learn? Why do I have tolearn a language other than mine? Is it important to study? What is the finalresult of education? My sister studied nursing and what? She is washing dishes!My brother studied computer science and look at him, he is selling cigarettesto earn his living! Stop teaching me, I don't want to have a headache! Teacher,look at us! Understand WHO we are and what do we WANT? What do we NEED beforeyou teach us?"

Shocking questions, for the first time I lookeddeeply into their eyes. How come I didn't see them wondering these questionsbefore?  I said to my self yes, I have toknow my students before I tell them about the British Museumor Global Warming.
A tear dropped from my eyes when I walked throughthe narrow paths of the camp. Two room houses, metal roofs, broken windows, andwhat am I teaching? Countable and uncountable nouns!
Stop!!!
I have to build a culture of motivation, desire, positivismand necessity to learn. I searched my memory for quotes I believe in and foundmy Malcolm telling my students:" education is your passport for the future,for tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today"," you willnever leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be".
 And I saidlook at Miss Halimah, She's your neighbor she believed in education and hereshe is, teaching you science. Look at Sana'a she believed in knowledge shestudied nursing and there she is giving you medicine tablets at the clinic,look at Ahmed and …..and ……..and ………………!!!!!.

Motivating students is a struggle we face everyday, building a culture of believing in education and knowledge, is the roadmap that will guide our students and show them what is possible in life.
Teacher: Yara Amr Al-Laqta

ACTFL Annual Convention - Call for Propsals





Deadline for Submission: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Many Languages – One United Voice

The 2012 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) will be held Friday, November 16 through Sunday, November 18 (Pre-Convention Workshops scheduled on Thursday, November 15) in Philadelphia, PA. The ACTFL Convention features more than 600 educational sessions covering the whole spectrum of the foreign language profession. The entire selection of sessions is designed to provide attendees with an exciting array of sessions and events to further their knowledge and help them be better teachers or administrators. We welcome you to submit a proposal for consideration. The deadline is Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. No submissions will be accepted after this date.
It is extremely important that you read carefully the Submission Guidelines before proceeding to complete your online submission. This will explain all the session formats and requirements.
The ACTFL Convention draws approximately 7,000 attendees to this national event bringing together language educators at all languages, levels and assignments within the profession. Please note: Presenters whose proposals are selected for presentation MUST be available to present any day during the Convention.
ACTFL Members: Your login for the Call for Proposals is the same as your ACTFL members login. Don't know your login and password? Contact the membership department at membership@actfl.org.
Non-ACTFL Members: You will need to create an account with ACTFL before logging in to submit a proposal.
https://myactfl.actfl.org/ACTFL_iMISPublic/AsiCommon/Controls/Shared/FormsAuthentication/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/BounceBack.aspx&doRedirect=http://www.actfl.org/login_receive.cfm

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Another Friend From West Virginia - Via Morocco!


السلام عليكم،
أنا محمد بولالي، أستاذ اللغة الأنجليزية و الرياضيات، و كذلك أدرس اللغتين العربية و الإسبانية من حين لآخر، في نفس الجامعة التي يدرس فيها مايكل مورشس.
كم كنت أتمنى أن أنظم إلى هذه الأكاديمية هذه السنة، لكن ظروف قاهرة حالت دون ذلك. لقد حضرت جل ورشات  العمل التي قادها مايكل في السنوات القليلة الماضية، وكانت كلها على أعلى مستوى من الدقة و الإحترافية. لا زلت لا  أصدق أن فرصة الإنضمام للأكاديمية هذه السنة قد فاتتني. لكن أملي كبير في أن أنضم إليها السنة المقبلة إن شاء الله. 
حرصي على الإنضمام إلى الأكاديمية نابع من حرصي على حضور كل أوراش مايكل. لقد تعرفت على مايكل مورشس كرئيس لي في العمل، و أيضا كصديق.
لقد كنت جد محظوظ بالعمل تحت إشراف مايكل مورشس لعدة سنوات، في ولاية أوريغون سابقا، ثم في ولاية  ڤرجينيا الغربية حاليا. كانت بصمته واضحة في مساري المهني، بحيث كانت علاقتنا أبعد من علاقة رئيس بمرؤوسه. أجده دائما حين حتاجه. يمضي أوقات طويلة لشرح و تبسيط كل ما يصعب علي، دون كلل أو ملل. ذكي، سريع، و يولي اهتماما بالغا بأدق التفاصيل لتحسين مردودية مرؤوسيه حتى يوفروا خدمة في أحسن مستوى.
كصديق، كان مايكل و لا زال، الصديق الوفي الذي يعتمد عليه في السراء و الضراء. لا يتعب من المساعدة أبدا. بيته دائما مفتوح في وجهي حتى وهو غير موجود. و بيتي مفتوح في وجهه كذلك. باختصار، حياتي في الولايات المتحدة، ما كانت لتكون كما هي من دون وجود مايكل.
شكرا مايكل، واحجز لي مكانا في الأكاديمية السنة المقبلة

Monday, January 2, 2012

Ask Michael - Special Education

The question that occurs to my mind now is how do American teachers deal with low achievers and students with learning difficulties (might entail slow learners)? Do these students sit in the same classes with distinguished and average students? If so, what remedial programs do the teachers use in order to improve their performance? If not, where and how?
It is highly appreciated if you tell us about the procedures of implementing remedial programs, if there are any?
 More importantly and maybe this should come at the very beginning is that what tools do teachers need to identify these students and what weaknesses that have got? Do they use diagnostic exams, for example or exams set for such purposes...:)

This is a great question(s). This subject is near and dear to my heart. I have studied learning disabilities for twenty years, as I work with at-risk students, low-literate students, and under-represented populations of students, many of whom suffer from learning disabilities. I got so interested, I read about the early stages of the research, going back to WWI and brain-injured soldiers. From there, I learned more about the brain and cognition.  Sometimes it is useful to study how the brain doesn't work to better understand how it does. 
When discussing learning disabilities, it is important to know what they are not!  They cannot be physical or organic issues (from injury), they cannot be from diminished IQ (that is a different type of disability), and they cannot be a cultural difference.  The best indicator of a learning disability is that nagging notion that a student isn't working to her potential in a specific area. So when a students actual performance lags well behind her potential performance, that is a good indication of a possible learning disability.  I won't go into the various kinds of LDs, but I have included a link to a checklist for LDs that is also connected to a good organization for more information.  You can always ask me individually for extra information as well.
In the USA, we didn't have a good plan to deal with students with LDs until the 1970s when we passed laws that schools had to do more.  But even up until the mid 1980s, we excluded most of the students from the regular classrooms.  Eventually though, we came up with a plan called "inclusion" where we would "mainstream" these students as much as possible - it is interesting to know that we were also doing the same things with ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Some schools practice complete inclusion, others practice "least restrictive environment" where the students get the right combination of regular classroom and extra interventions. Most schools practice this, where students spend most of their time in the regular class. Students must have psychological assessments to be given special accommodations in our classes.  If they are deemed to have a LD, then the teacher must grant the accommodations - these can include more time on tests, a quiet place to test, a note taker, etc.  Finally, each student must have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that details these accommodations.
There are informal tests that can be given by teachers to detect LDs and other learning problems. If you are interested, I can tell you more about these.  The best lesson we have learned about LDs is that an environment that uses a lot of learning styles is beneficial to all students, not just those with LDs.  I will provide more good web resources for those of you who are interested. This is just the beginning of a discussion on this topic, I am interested in what the rest of you have to say :)

http://www.montoursville.k12.pa.us/webpages/specialed/files/ldchecklist.pdf