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Please scroll down for entry #1, week 2!

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entry #8

Week 9

I was also absent for this lesson, however I will try my best to deliver what I understood from my peers as best as possible. 

This week’s lesson was about Distance Learning. In essence, this is a method of teaching and delivering instructions at a physical distance. 

During my time between when I graduated high school and was waiting to begin uni, I enrolled to an online course in Journalism presented by Stanford university. As I understand, online courses are a form of distance learning. This opportunity allowed me to be educated in this course by a professor at Stanford university without actually being there. For the small fee I paid, I had the freedom of watching lecture videos whenever and wherever I wanted, without having the added stress of waking up early in the morning or being somehow punished if I’m late. We even had a chatroom where we could talk to other enrolled members in the course from all over the from with all age groups. This helped me a lot with interaction, because although I didn’t like interacting with people I didn’t know in class much, I also didn’t like the thought of being alone. So this gave me the opportunity to discuss questions and what people think of certain concepts and tasks etc. The only thing that was fixed was deadlines. We were given a task to complete every week, which we had more than enough time for, and we would have to submit within the next 7 days. We would get graded on this work and eventually get a certificate at the end of the course, which was very rewarding. 

Back then, I used to get quite bad social anxiety at times e.g. getting picked in class to answer or having to read a passage in English for the class to hear would just make my voice tremble and it would be a disaster. So being able undergo this course without all that pressure was really lovely and very fulfilling actually. 

I imagine the rest of the types of distance learning come with these advantages as well. Other types of distance learning include Skype calls for example with a class, maybe the teacher is not able to be physically present, so a Skype call would be perfect for this. All the benefits that come with it are similar to the ones I previously mentioned with online courses. 

However, there is a big downfall to distance learning through technology. And this is that it is fully reliant on technology and the internet. As an example, when I was taking this online course, one time, our internet was down for a few days and as a result I was unable to complete my given task because I had not seen it. This lead me to a few days delay where I ended up completing this task quite last minute and in all honesty, it wasn’t my best work, because I didn’t have the time I usually do. So this became a problem. And essentially of course, not everyone has access to technology that allows this, so it’s not practical for situations like that. 

Finally, a very big limitation to distance learning is that it’s not specifically inclusive to special needs students. Special need students will likely need some extra aid to be able to function with such learning methods, so this might be more disruptive to their learning rather than actually being helpful. 

Figure 9A is a video where it discusses the advantages of distance learning, one of these being that you can have a part-time or full-time job while still utilising distance learning. This reminded me of my dad. When my dad was working his full time job, he always used to take online course, and somehow he’d still manage to get his work done for everything really. When I asked him how, he said commitment and consistency. He said that without these everything would collapse. And I completely agree with this, because my dad also always said that you can never stop learning, and the day you stop is the day you die. This is so true, because in so many situations, whether we like it or not, we are learning. Moreover, although my dad is a Geologist, he was always really really passionate about maths and other sciences, in which he did not get to fully experience in his career. So I could see how undergoing these online courses really helped him practice his passion and reignite it and genuinely made him feel happier because he felt like he was now doing everything he loved! And simultaneously, he’s actually educating himself with some very important stuff so I am really proud of my dad for that. 

~H

Figure 9A:

References: 

The Skills Network (2018). Advantages of Distance Learning. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m-l-QpqxOo [Accessed 8 Mar. 2018].

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entry #7

Week 8

I was absent in this weeks lesson however I did manage to get some information on what my friends leant this lesson. 

I was told that there was a group who had an imaginary situation of epileptic students. And they thought of teaching them computing, like an ICT class, despite the fact that the brightens and the flashing of the screens can trigger an epileptic episode.  In my opinion, this is acceptable, although it can be difficult, it does challenge students and encourage them to step out of their comfort zone. They also suggested that the students themselves, if old enough of course, will be allowed to determine their own prefered assessment method and how much time they need to minimise the level of stress for them. This way they can maximise their potential and achieve their goals, but simply in their own way. So, so long as the epileptic episodes, that are highly likely to happen are dealt with in an appropriate manner and they are calmed down and possibly given a break before they get back to work, this can be practical. 

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I do think it’s important that special needs students feel that they are all in one the same as students without special needs, and just that everyone is different in their own way, but it doesn’t make you less special than anyone else. So by challenging themselves and doing “normal people stuff”, I believe that they will feel more normal. Because this just comes to show them that if they try, they really can do anything anyone else can. And if they really can’t, then that’s okay too. But I think what’s important is the trying process. Experimenting with different strategies to see what works and what doesn’t. Because without taking that risk, and it is a risk, they can never move forward, and you are constraining them by holding them back from achieving their full potential with their existing capabilities that are yet to be discovered. 

I especially liked my friend Justine’s group lesson plan. This group suggested teaching an autistic child in a class of “normal students” (as this is usually the case), how to do creative writing; starting with the basics of metaphors and similes. They proposed to use objects such as toys they can actually hold and play with to understand the concept and even stimulate their imaginations. Because a ‘drill and practice’ idea will most definitely not work for autistic students and won’t be effective. We want these students to really understand the concept and not just memories it, so that in future, they will be able to apply and identify these in their work.

They also suggested the use of noisili.com which is a website that has natural sound effects of things such as thunder and rain, which tend to be relaxing noises. This accompanied by fidget toys would create a friendly, non-threatening, safe environment where the autistic students would hopefully not feel as anxious as they usually would and allow them to focus more as they’re not just sitting still- there needs to be some sort of interaction. The group also suggested to have mats all over the classroom floors so that it would be as trigger-free as possible, for example, the chairs wouldn’t be screeching even time someone dragged it.

Overall, some problems I suspect would arise with these plans would be of course anxiety/epileptic attacks, depending on the students. However, once again, if the teachers are appropriately trained, and it is dealt with in a proper manner, the damage that such issues cause would be minimal. And I believe that these issues will hopefully only be at the beginning of lessons, when students are just beginning to step out of their comfort zones, once they are used to these activities, they will one-by-one learn and adapt. This will of course take time, but I think that so long as they’re progressing in some way, strategies like these should continue.

Another problem might be with the rest of the students perhaps finding the special needs students displaying disruptive behaviour. This could be distracting for some students. However the one strategy I can think of for this issue is to also educate these students. E.g. educating them on how patience is key and to empathise being in their situation, and that placing them in a class where they’re all special needs is sometimes not the best solution, because just like us, they want to fit in with everyone and feel normal. This can allow students to understand where they’re coming from and not just to be tolerant to this but to also be acceptable. 

In Figure 8A, I have shared a link of my personal favourite relaxing sounds to listen to on noisili.com when studying. I imaging this would relax many other students too. Linking this back to special needs kids, this kind of environment is key for them to be productive and reach their maximum potential, because without this, we are constraining their skills. I am not saying that noisili is a magic tool, but it really does help myself and many friends I know when it comes to focusing on whatever it is and really just reaching that top level of productivity you know you can reach. 

~H

References:

Figure 8A:

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entry #6

Week 7

This week, we leant all about special needs students and tools that are needed for them in a class/lesson environment. A few types of special needs we discussed included autism, down syndrome and even mental illnesses like depression. 

I always knew mental illness brought difficulties to a learning environment, but this week I truly recognised how disruptive it can actually be. 

Thinking of special needs reminded me of when I used to work with Chole, a 22 year old girl with down syndrome, and I was her ‘companion’. So I’d take her to her classes and her tennis lessons and take her out for lunch etc. I worked with her for about 4 months after I graduated high school, and it was undoubtedly a once in a lifetime experience. 

I’m going to be fully honest here. Although my mum was a teacher at a school with special needs back in Egypt, and I was aware of them, I had no idea what Down Syndrome consisted of besides that it was caused by the inheritance of an extra chromosome. Oh yea, I also heard that they were usually very happy and friendly people. So I went into work with certain expectations. Pretty much none were met. 

Chloe faced many difficulties, just some of these were: depression, anger issues, speech difficulty etc. Lots of these difficulties were interlinked in one way or another. E.g. I believe, that part of her anger issues came from her difficulty in speech, as this did cause her frustration many times, and she didn’t have the patience for it. She wasn’t about to repeat what she says 3 or 4 times every time she wants to say something simply because know one understands her. 

Chloe also lost her older brother to a very tragic, accidental death a few years back which I was told by her father had an immense impact on her, i.e. she used to be very talkative and generally ‘happier’, which was actually quite hard for me to imagine considering I got used to seeing Chloe’s rather grumpy face every morning, so this clearly still had a terrible effect on her. However knowing all this now made my job a little easier, because it showed me that there was a reason for all this sadness. Down syndrome alone is difficult, but now with depression, it’s another story. Especially because sometime’s it would be hard to differentiate between wether this was her natural condition, or this was her depression now. 

But as time passes, I too learnt. I learnt what strategies were best in certain situations. I learnt that she lacks empathy. So when she’s being rude (which was a lot), she doesn’t realise that she’s hurting feelings in the process. Although I was never truly hurt by her rudeness, because I was considerate of her feelings, I did want to show her that it’s not something to be encouraged and that it is indeed something rude and something she should learn to contain. 

So every time she would behave rudely E.g. Tell me to stop talking when I’m explaining to her her schedule of the day, I would respond by telling her “Chloe, that’s not very nice, you hurt my feelings and now I feel upset. By very directly telling her how I feel, it makes it easier for her to understand that what she said was out of line, and she will quickly apologies for it and sometimes even explain herself e.g. “I’m sorry I just meant...” and I would in return thank her for her apology and accept it and tell her that I really appreciated it and it would be solved.

But I also saw some people dealing with this is a very wrong way unfortunately. E.g. She was the only girl with down syndrome in her class, the rest of the students had some form of autism. And in my fair opinion, the teachers didn’t know how to deal with either, but more so Chloe, perhaps because she faced slightly different issues. Also, none of these teachers were educated about special needs whatsoever, all they thought was we need to give them a bit more time and because they’re dumb. This even went to the extent that a teacher complained about Chloe saying she’s “too rude”. I understand this is an issue, however how are you reacting to this? You cannot punish a student with special needs the same way you punish a student without special needs. You have to understand that their brains are wired differently and you have to educate yourself with different strategies to effectively cope with this, so it’s not difficult for them or for you. 

As a teacher, I would understand the importance of implementing different strategies for teacher were I to have special needs students in my class. Patience is definitely key for teachers because if you don’t have the patience, this will shift on to them and what may take them half an hour to do would now take them 2 hours because they’re doing it under stress which they do not react well under. But at the same time, I would not want to treat them in a very coddled manner because if they are challenged  in the correct way, they will go very far. So I would not want to give them completely different tasks to the rest of the students, but perhaps slightly easier tasks that lead to the same objectives I have set for the class, being to understand a specific concept for example. And if they say it’s hard or they can’t do it, but I know they have potential, I will motivate them by using positive reinforcement, saying “yes you can!, come on let’s do it together” and help them just the right amount. This is because it’s also important for them to see that essentially they’re just like the other students, everyone is just different in their own way, and that’s okay. 

As well as helping the special needs students, I also want to educate the other students on the importance of being kind and considerate to these students and once again, that they’re not much different to you. Because once you have a supportive environment, the learning and teaching process becomes much easier and less stressful. 

Putting the topic of special needs aside, at the end of the lesson Ms. Nabila said something that really hit home for me. She said “you can never save everyone”. And this is something that really touched me because I started reflecting and thinking that I am a very genuinely loving and caring person when you really get to know me. And teaching is not necessarily my first job preference for many reasons but this just added to them.  Just in my everyday life, I do focus a lot on helping others and making others feel good about themselves, even if I don’t feel good about myself. A lot of the time I will give people advice that I know is correct, but I just don’t apply it to myself. Because sometimes I don’t think I can do it but I believe others have the potential for this so I challenge them to view things under different lights. This may not seem apparent, because I have been told that I can have a very “intimidating” look, however simply the thought of knowing someone, not even necessarily my friend, is going through a hard time, makes my heart sink. 

So I know, that me being a teacher would be difficult. Because I would want to be the kind of teacher that gets close to my students and allows them to confide in me, and be almost like their friend as well as playing the teacher role. I know this is difficult because of issues such as respect and such but one can dream. I mean, Ms. Seymour did it, and oh so successfully! So I would want to help every student I can. But the thought that even just one student may be going through something such as depression which likely extends to suicidal thoughts, knowing that there’s only so much I can do for that student breaks me. Because that means I can help some and not others. Which is very difficult for me to come to terms with. I know this may sound a bit over-the-top and ridiculous, but this is me. I am emotional, I have a weak heart, and with some thing, I just break. So I know this would be a very difficult job for me, not saying I can’t do it per se, just that I will have to put lots of feelings aside. 

Below is a photo of Chloe and I, along with my friend Chelsea (who was working with her before), the very first day I met her which was a special day. 

~H

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entry #5

Week 6

Social media & facebook- teachers being able to use facebook casually and adding students

We had a long discussion about wether we think teachers should be allowed to have social media such as Facebook. 

I think this is absolutely fine because at the end of the day, these teachers are also human and it would be unfair for them if we said you cannot have social media for the purpose of students and being professional; this just makes their whole life about students and doesn’t allow them to have any sort of seperation between their work life and their personal life; which everyone should have the right to. 

At my school, teachers were not allowed to add their students on social media. Which I consider to be a reasonable rule, since it still allows teachers to have social media. However when it came to a class group chat for example on Whatsapp, they were allowed to be included in groups like these and they were actually very beneficial to students. This of course worked differently with different teachers. Some teachers much prefered having a whatsapp group where we can all join in and text whenever we had an issue with homework or whatever it was, that way, other students that were struggling with the similar issue could read the teacher’s reply and benefit from that. 

I think that if a school has no specific policy on this issue, where students and teachers can freely add one another on social media, teachers should take into consideration that at the end of the day, there are students seeing these posts. To give an example of some issues that may arise, one of my classmates in high school had become ‘friends’ with his business teacher on Facebook, apparently the teacher accepted his request by accident. As a result, this student began ‘online stalking’ the teacher and eventually shared his profile with a few of his friends to have a look at and quickly, private photos of this teacher and rather ‘inappropriate’ ones, such as being absolutely drunk and going partying, and behaving in a completely different way than he normally would in classrooms of course. This lead to the student and the teacher being called in. After this incident, there were many cases of students not taking this teacher seriously, not as they used to at least, which of course is completely unacceptable in a professional school setting, not to mention being unfair to the teacher for the lack of respect he deserves.  Of course this is a slightly different situation because the teacher had accepted the request by accident, however I believe if a school didn’t have such a policy, an issue like this is likely to happen too. 

This week, we also discussed how we can use memes in classes. There were varying opinions between the students on this. Some believed that memes should be kept completely away from lessons and teachers should just avoid using them. And some believed that memes are fun and beneficial in classes and should be used more. I believe that there needs to be a balance. When teachers have used memes previously in school/uni, I found that some teachers know how to use them better than others. For example, in school, my history teacher used to use memes at the end of topics and this would do a lot for the students, it would: light up the mood a bit, from being serious and focused on the lesson, the memes weren’t just funny, but they were always linked to the topic we learnt and what would alway make me laugh was when my teacher would caption these memes in a way that you would have to understand the topic that was taught in order to get the joke of the meme, so we were also learning through them! Although I wasn’t such a huge fan of memes then, these memes would always make me laugh and sometimes cringe too, but that didn’t bother any of us because we loved our teacher. 

However when I say there needs to be a balance, I mean there needs to be a balance alright. So if a teacher is adding in a meme in every other slide and just overdoing it, students will probably very quickly loose focus of the topic and get distracted, or simply be bothered by it, I know I would. 

Therefore, integrating memes into lessons isn’t essential, but it’s a fun thing to do for sure, so long as it’s not done excessively. 

My lovely friends made a meme featuring myself which I found hilarious (Figure 6A) . I don’t know if this is thinking too far, but I thought, what if a teacher were to do memes like this, that had educational meaning behind of course, but ones that featured their students? Just a thought haha . But of course this would have to be with permission of students. But yea, I just thought such a thing would highly entertain students and they would undoubtedly look forward to it at the end of every lesson. 

Figure 6B, refers to how Germany lost the Second World War and how highly unexpected it was, so that meme could help students remember that Germany did indeed loose the war. Believe it or not, I had a difficult time remembering the Germany lost the war, despite going through their defeat about 79,000 times. So to see this meme back in school would have helped because I would have immediately associated ‘Nazi’ with ‘Not see’, meaning that they lost and voila my memory is back!

~H

Figure 6A:

Figure 6B:

References:

Figure 6B:

Funny History Teacher Memes. (2018). [image] Available at: http://www.lentilla.info/funny-history-teacher-memes.html [Accessed 9 Feb. 2018].

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entry #4

Week 5

Today we looked at the TIP model, that is used for lesson planning. Looking at this made myself and my group, for the EduTech presentation, realise that there’s actually a lot we didn’t think about, or thought was redundant but actually turned out to have needed mentioning for a deep level of understanding of what and how we were teaching.  

As an example, the first step in the very first phase on ‘Analysing of Learning and Teaching Needs’, is ‘Determining relative advantage’- meaning being aware of the learners’ prior knowledge or lack of. This got me thinking, that with certain topics in general, having some background knowledge is helpful, whereas in other topics when teaching, having background knowledge may actually make it harder for both the learner and the teacher. 

The reason having background knowledge may make it harder for the teacher to teach is because with certain topics, there may be common misconceptions. These misconceptions will have to be corrected and clearly explained in lessons for students to get on the right track. Whereas if students come into lessons with no background knowledge, they will as a result, have no misconceptions, this can make it easier for the teacher because he/she is now working with a blank canvas, as opposed to working with a stained one where the teacher may have to spend some extra time correcting  these misconceptions, (essentially being time constraining) as having these faulty beliefs may be detrimental to their learning of the topic. For example, if the lesson is a ‘Sexual Education’ lesson, and the students come in giggling and not taking the class seriously (this is undoubtedly for many reasons besides the fact that they may have misconceptions), the teacher may have to spend a decent amount of time correcting some myths students may have, this is not guaranteed to stop the giggling, but it may allow students to see Sexual Education in a more mature manner and taking it seriously rather than just squirming and making inappropriate jokes the whole lesson, being damaging to both them and their peers which are genuinely trying to learn and be mature about the lesson. 

If I were to give to give a lesson and wanted to see what existing background knowledge the students have, I would probably use the online tool of mentimeter.com, where I will post a question on what students know of the topic e.g. Why is contraception important? By this I will be able to determine, or rather estimate how much the students already know about what I will be teaching, and what I need to correct and work more on in the lesson, or what I don’t need to really go into detail with because they already know quite a bit on it. 

This is also why, sometimes for many subjects actually, it’s better for students to read ahead on what will be discussed in class. This is usually beneficial as from the beginning of the lesson, the teacher can pose questions where everyone can contribute in answering, and this will hopefully boost more interactive activities and encourage more people to participate as they would’ve done their own background research and understood some basics in their own way. 

Figure 5A gives a few basic reasons as to why it’s important to read before class. My favourite one is on participating. Because when students pre-read they can come into lessons more confident with the topic having already some background knowledge on it. For me, when I pre-read, I feel more confident coming into lectures as I feel like I already know the answers to what the teacher is going to explain, this doesn’t give me ego, but it definitely gives me confidence in terms of answering and participating in class discussions. Answering in front of the whole class has always been difficult for me, but when I am more confident of my answer, that sure does help. 

~H

References:

Figure 5A:

Kuther, T. (2017). 6 Reasons to Read Before Class. [online] ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/reasons-to-read-before-class-1686430 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2018].

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entry #3

Week 4

Today we learnt of Instructional technology. 

What I found particularly interesting was the drill and practice concept, one which Ms. Nabila actually referred to as “drill-and-kill”, which is funny but so true to this idea. The reason for this is that this requires no level of deep understanding and involves not  hint of processing. It is entirely built on the foundation of route memorisation and does not make space for any sort of creativity; in both the learning and the teaching side of it. This can easily be linked in to the theories we learned in week 2, under ‘Directed integration models’ with B.F. Skinner’s theory. This leaves the student almost like a robot, where they simply receive the information, and are conditioned to react with a specific stimulus, which is usually to regurgitate the information just as they’ve heard it. Not very productive. 

I assume this is where the phrase “drill-and-kill” came from; it’s killing the students’ brain cells! Their lack of use, rather. Listening to some of my peers speak in class of how they are very familiar with this traditional form of teaching/learning makes me feel very fortunate that I did not have to endure this for the majority of my school life. For the most part, the marking schemes in our school were quite flexible, in the sense that if the student shows a decent level of understanding in the subject, they will be granted marks. This is key in my opinion, because everyone has a different style of writing or explaining things, so to compartmentalise thousands of minds, tonnes of identities into specific, rigid categories is in fact, absolute torture. Because doing so in the classroom then telling a child they can be “Anything [they] want to be” is hypocritical and simply unfair. Why? Because it’s telling people  that they have complete freedom to choose the path in which their life goes, when really, they don’t. Because they’ve been deprived of this privilege from such a young age that, that by the time they may indeed have that “freedom” people call it, it’s too late, because they’ve been conditioned as computers, to do as they are asked and always be submissive. By submissive I mean not questioning anything. There’s a lovely proverb in Arabic that says: “السؤال نصف العلم”; this is translated to: “A question is half the knowledge” This just amplifies how one of the most important things to living a fulfilled life is questioning everything. Question by question, you get closer and closer to the truth; to whatever it is you’re seeking really. And in order for that to happen, you have to want to figure out the truth, you have to have that motivation. And that my friends, will be oppressed and diminished if not instilled from a young age ie. in school and at home. 

Alright now, just to give this concept the slight benefit of the doubt, in my opinion, this concept can be practical in certain cases. For example, in history with memorising dates, it’s no good remembering historical events but not knowing when they happened, in this case, the drill-and-practice concept would be acceptable, to some degree. This method would also be beneficial with the use of flashcards for example, when learning a new language, using visuals with children is usually efficient. E.g. Having a picture of an apple on one side and the word ‘Apple’ on the other side of the card. Repeating this activity over and over again allows the individual to memorise the word quickly, and at this point, memorisation is usually the only thing we want (considering there is not much understanding that goes into it). 

So, as for the ‘drill and practice’ role, I do believe this can be practical in some cases, however like everything, there needs to be a decent level of balance between the different forms of instructional technologies for their to be an effective lesson.

Another huge hindrance we discussed to learning is ego. In any situation now where learning is required, if you have ego, that just goes out the door. If I were a teacher, I’m sure I’d be able to identify those with a level of ego in my class because they usually just stand out. Subhanallah. Students with ego come into class thinking they already know everything so, they just sit back and distract themselves to basically do anything  but focus. Or they answer questions in a very cocky manner, that my answer is always right, and if you tell me otherwise then you’re wrong. They do not even consider the slightest possibility that they just be wrong. Another way of looking at this is that they may have also been conditioned that being wrong, is wrong, that you simply cannot make mistakes. Which is an unfortunate mindset to be honest. 

Some students with this attitude really need to be put in their place to gain some level of humbleness when learning. I.e. they need to be proved wrong and understand that it’s okay to be wrong so long as you learn from it. Furthermore, to undertsnad that respect is important. 

However this ego issue doesn’t just happen to students, it’s also applicable to teachers. Because in my opinion, the teacher is teaching bet she/he is also learning from his/her students. And that is key for teachers to understand. Because at the end of the day, teachers are human, they will make mistakes. And again, thats okay. And if a teacher humbles himself/herself they will go so far in their career. Because they will be accepting of being corrected when they are wrong. Which is very important. 

In the Ted talk I have attached below, the lovely Mandekh Hussein mentions how “Questions of the past have shaped our present”. This is so true, in terms of racism e.g. asking is slavery really ok? that ended slavery. She also discusses how questions are not just important to be asked to a third party, but also just for ourselves. Because asking ourself questions, no matter what it is, leads us to self-actualisation and helps us understand ourselves better, and when we understand ourselves better, we can help understand the world. And by understand the world I mean we can come to certain realisations, and think, that maybe this needs to change, or this is not right. And with that, we will begin asking questions directed at the world. Why are we not doing enough in terms of helping the innocents including children, dying in Gaza that have been for many many years now? Now, I would not have been asking that question had I not acknowledged myself that the innocent killing of anyone is wrong. Had I not questioned the media, I would not be asking this questions. Questions are much much bigger than just asking and getting an immediate answer. Questions make people think and change their perspectives completely. As cliché as it sounds, questions do actually change the world. 

~H

Figure 4A:

 References:

TEDx Talks (2018). Why ask “Why?” - And the important questions | Mandekh Hussein | TEDxUTSC. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxvl3uE6OnU [Accessed 15 Feb. 2018].

[habibatalks]

entry #2

Week 3

This week we learnt of “The biggest, most disruptive hindrances to teaching / learning”. Our group focused on ‘passion’ being a major hindrance as we found it to be a factor that essentially comes from both sides in the education field- the learner and the teacher. 

As a student, when the teacher doesn’t have a sense of passion for his/her subject, it really shows in their teaching and is obvious that this is something they are in simply for the job benefits that come with it. This lines up perfectly with my favourite teachers of all time, now that I think of it. My favourite teacher from secondary has to be Ms. Seymour, my English teacher. She was absolutely incredible from her loud energy in every single class to her warm, kind heart that touched every student’s life at some point or another, no lie. I just love her so much. She made going to English class feel like it was just another time we can chill, except now we’re talking English only. Her love and passion for English was blinding. She was the main reason I moved from a C to an A in a few months. She saw potential and believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself.  Because she was so passionate about her job, she saw us as students but also like her kids almost, constantly proving to us that she is always approachable no matter what your problem, even if it was outside academia- she went well and beyond what was required of her as a teacher. Which is very, very rare to find these days. 

Ms. Seymour wasn’t just an English teacher, she was also the head of our year group in year 9. She had a big responsibility and she was busy alright. But still, this remarkable woman never failed to find time to help anyone and everyone, making them feel safe and essentially just happy. Isn’t that what we all want? My point is, that Ms Seymour had a huge impact in my life, and If I was to thank her from here until the day I die, it would not be enough. And this all stemmed from her passion for her job, and everything that came with it. Her passion translated to me and the rest of the students in her class, those who came in hating English, left IGCSE’s in tears that it was over AND Ms. Seymour was leaving. Passionate teachers touch our lives, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. 

On the other hand, teachers that are just in it for the sake of a job are terrible. You can tell when sometimes you see how eager they are to leave the class, like what ?? why ?? Honestly, I feel sympathetic for teachers like those because sometimes they this may be their only option at making a living. And we actually need to consider these possibilities before reaching conclusions and terrible judgements. 

However, for those teachers where this is not the case, and they simply just have little passion in their teaching, and sometimes (what bothers me) when they clearly draw the line that “I am the teacher, and you are the student”, bothers me. Because then, I myself don’t feel encouraged to do well in that class because I don’t feel it affecting me as an individual, I just feel as if it’s another module that I have to pass and I know I can do more than just that. I am not saying the blame is all on the teacher in this case, however learning is a two way street; I put in effort to learn and absorb all this new knowledge and experience and you put in effort to present this to me in the best, most effective way possible for me, understanding that not all students have the same needs and there is very rarely ever a ‘one-size-fits-all’ teaching method. Now I know I’ve mixed in lots of different things together right now but it’s because everything is so interlinked, its hard to compartmentalise these things without bringing another aspect into the picture.

Essentially what I mean is, if I ever become a teacher one day, Inshallah, I would want to have my career something I can be passionate and dedicated about, and hopefully not do it for simply having a job. I would want to make my students feel cared for and would aim to convey my love for my subject to my students in a way that they too can feel that love for their learning. 

Prof. Tracey McKenzie wrote a passion for teaching statement (Figure 3A) in which she mentions how much of an impact teachers have on students’ lives. And I agree with this 100%. Because I can recall every single teacher that changed my life one way or another for the better and I can also recall every single teacher that made my life so difficult. I can remember all that to this day. And if you ask any student they would too. Because the impact is immense. And the pressure is high. But if you want to, you can do it. So teachers really need to be careful what they say to students or how they teach, because this will stay with them forever, so might as well make it worthwhile. 

~H

References:

Figure 3A:

McKenzie, T. (n.d.). U.S Professor of the Year Awards - Tracey McKenzie - Passion for Teaching Statement. [online] Usprofessorsoftheyear.org. Available at: http://www.usprofessorsoftheyear.org/Winners/Previous_Natl_Winners/McKenzie_Passion_Statement.html#.WqUhaJNuagS [Accessed 24 Jan. 2018].

[habibatalks]

The only thing I know is that I know nothing

Socrates

[habibatalks]

entry #1

Week 2

In week 1 we learnt about the Four Perspectives. What particularly caught my eye in these were the ‘Media and AV Communication’. This specific perspective focuses on integrating audio-visual resources in the classroom as opposed to just textbooks, for example. Having been aware of different learning styles; changing from one individual to another, this perspective is crucial to catering to various students with different learning styles; specifically visual, aural and verbal. 

This made me think that this can easily be linked in to Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Model of Memory (Figure A), where adjusting to diverse learning styles in lessons will encourage attention in students making learning easier when it comes to storing information into their long-term memory and not just short-term. This essentially is a great way of teaching, even if it is simply in a classroom. This is due to the basic reason that in many schools still, students are encouraged to study through the traditional method of pure memorisation as opposed to actual understanding of the content. However, because the examinations in these specific schools require only that (memorisation), it is likely and almost quite understandable actually that students will study purely for the purpose of passing their examinations. In the larger scheme of Education, this approach is not, and should never be the purpose of learning. Eventually, students will leave school and go out into the ‘Real world’, and if these individuals have solely been taught to memorise through ‘Directed’ learning, they will have a very difficult time finding their place in the world as individuals, as they haven’t gathered the appropriate skills to carry with them and stay through life beyond school. 

Furthermore, with reference to Atkinson’s Model of Memory (Figure 2A), ‘Encoding’ is the process of transfer from short-term to long-term memory. The three main ways in which encoding can occur is through visual, acoustic and semantic. Focusing on the ‘semantic’ factor, referring to meaning of information, this confirms that idea of the importance of truly understanding information, otherwise the transfer from short-term to long-term memory will likely be unsuccessful. 

This got me thinking, that If I were to be a teacher one day, I would really want to focus students’ attention on the understanding process of learning, because too many times we are tested on our memorising skills rather than our understanding which is completely unfair. I struggled in school a lot because my memorising skill was almost non-existent. However when it came to explaining concepts to my friends, I was great, because I had understood the information in my own way and not necessarily memorised the textbook. I am writing this specific paragraph right now after I have finished all my entries, and let me tell you, I love the fact that we’re being assessed on this because I can explain what I’ve learnt in class in my own way without having to focus on exactly what the handouts said or about using formal academic language (which is useful, but not very easy to do in reflections). This has helped me because I feel like it’s very raw and genuine so I can’t lie here, and if I did, you’d be able to tell. These are the types of assessments we need- variety is key, because we all have different learning methods so to assess everyone in the same manner is simply injustice. 

Sorry for going off on a tangent, it just had to be said. 

As for the visual and acoustic aspects of ‘Encoding’, this reiterates the fact that ‘Media AV Communication’ really is a key aspect of Educational Technology as it builds on the foundation of providing students with the opportunity to be able to fully absorb information in the most effective, and healthiest way possible. 

Additionally, I found it interesting to explore how some ‘Social Issues’ with regards to learning can lead to a genuine risk of losing self-esteem and confidence. To further this point, I think mentioning Social Media influencers such as on Instagram and YouTube would be key. Many of these influencers will post the most sumptuous and almost surreal content; from wearing the most expensive makeup and clothes to going on holidays to the most luxurious places on Earth with of course, their incredibly good looking partners, so much to the point that viewers would admire and can easily conclude that these people are ‘living the dream’, and I will admit I do fall in with this category of viewers. When in reality, these people actually carefully choose what they post and what they want to show the world. It is a given that they will most likely not want to post their troubles in life, although the probably have them, as they are human beings just like at at the end of the day. But a lot of us place them on this imaginary platform that these people are somehow ‘better’ than us and we forget this when we are scrolling through our phones. Thus, an overuse of Social Media eventually may snowball to major issues like mental health such as depression, eating disorders, severe anxiety etc. Therefore, it is important for educators to recognise the dangers of these tools that may initially appear harmless, and being able to maintain a safe balance between technology and perhaps living in a virtual world with the present and reality. 

~H

Figure 2A:

References:

Magarger, C. (n.d.). Model of Memory. [image] Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/364791638539861895/?lp=true [Accessed 22 Jan. 2018].

McLeod, S. (n.d.). Atkinson and Shiffrin | Multi Store Model of Memory | Simply Psychology. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/multi-store.html [Accessed 22 Jan. 2018].