A Place at the Teacher's Hall of Fame

Its not a secret that being a teacher is one of, if not the hardest job on earth. The reason lies in the fact that we are responsible for countless numbers of lives that need us to have an open mind when it comes to their education. For students who aren’t just a white canvas waiting to be filled with information, they are already colorful masterpieces that need to be analyzed in order to know how to add to the art in a way not to mess it up. Thus, when planning and creating our personal ‘pattern’ of teaching, especially if we are language teachers, we should make it a priority to take into consideration the different factors that affect learners’ cognitive and emotional abilities. Doing that will not only guarantee you a place at the teacher’s hall of fame but will also you guarantee your students’ life long success.

My First Webinar

The Webinar I decided to watch is about Climate Change, due to my interest in the topic.

The online conference was shedding light on the observational data that our oceans have been giving us. It talks about how ocean life is changing and how climate change is affecting it. It also sheds light on the different organizations that monitor the ocean, and how they do so.

I also learned about how the coral bleaching and how climate change is affecting even the natural color of those essential organisms. Apart from that, I learned about the school science program in the US called the "JASON Learning Project" that encourages students to pursue careers in the scientific field in order to help scientists to find solutions for climate change and other issues affecting our ecosystem.

 

One last thing:
I really like the fact that we could comment and they would interact with us! They even read my comment about Lebanon outloud.

(*become)

The Moment I Knew

I never imagined I would be studying to become a teacher. I never aspired to become one. I even enrolled just for the sake of the language and my desire to become a writer. Yet here I am, finally feeling that I found sense in this life.

I remember the moment everything shifted. It was during the first semester of my TESL career. I had taken a course called Educational Psychology with Mrs. Diana Dassouki. I still remember that instance very well, she was telling us how teachers have the power to change lives, to help someone become the better version of themselves. She told us a story about a student that had a drastic change of paths due to a teacher that helped overcome his past. I thought to myself in that moment: is that what you want? To become that teacher that students will remember in a positive light? isn't that worth leaving behind after you die? At that moment I answered myself with a simple 6-word sentence: "I want to be a teacher"

Next Time

"Stay quite.
Next time just stay quite.
Don't say it out loud.
Keep it to yourself.
Tweet about it.
Write about it.

You can even talk to yourself about it;
But for your sake,
Just don't say it out loud.
Keep it inside our head.
At the end of the day,
you got to do what you got to do
to keep your peace of mind.
Just keep quite..

yes but wait, dont you think..."

Boy will be boys..

Raising kids has always been a challenge. But, nowadays, in the world we live in, it has gotten even harder; especially when it comes to raising boys.

This society has led us to believe that boys are bound to fall into one category; that the way they are meant to be is fixed. And of course, there are certain rules they are obliged to follow. Boys are not supposed to be sweet, they must be aggressive. Boys are supposed to be emotionally and physically strong, and they better not dare be any less. They are not supposed to show emotions, nor that they care. They better stick to the colors assigned to them.

Boys are meant to be angry. Not the kind of anger women nowadays are using to make themselves heard and reclaim their rights, but rather the type of anger that shuts other people down; the anger that murders for the sake of supremacy. And all this for what? Why is it fair to impose a whole persona to boys as young as one day old?

Since day one little boys fall into this ideology that "boys will be boys" and that everything they do might be excused with that. Boys cannot even aim to be any less than what the status quo has dictated for them. If a child cries he is immediately accused of not being man enough; if he is peaceful and selfless he is a shame to his kind.

I hate that men are not allowed or entitled to their emotions, it is not fair! Let's just let boys be whatever they want to be; let them boys be HUMAN first.

Fragile Life

"That's the thing about life; it is fragile" - Holly Butcher

I came across an Upworth message from a 27-year old who died of cancer, Holly Butcher. This is what I learned:

1. Life is too precious and too short to be spent doing things that don't make you happy; too short and fragile to be taken for granted. 
2. Often we find ourselves living a life that is not ours; a life led by other people's choices and judgments. Often, we forget that this life is meant for us to decide which path we want to take.
3. The world we live in has become full of hatred and materialism which makes us forget what we came here for in the first place. 
4. Life is not supposed to be spent behind a camera, not be lived only for the sake of social media content. 
5. Family and friends will never abandon you; they're not supposed to. Real ones won't!
6. Everything about our time here is unpredictable and inconstant. We never know when death will knock on our doors. 
7. Spending hours regretting and hurting for mistakes and people that don't care is not worth our time. Time is too precious for that!
8. Gifts are not supposed to be about how much money you spent on them, but rather how much effort and thought you put into them. 
9. We could plan and plan all we want, but life can tear those plans apart and turn them into ashes in a matter of seconds. 
10. Stop thinking about what happened and will happen. Live today for today! (THIS IS SOMETHING I NEED TO REPEAT TO MYSELF EVERY DAY)
11. Do what you love, and love what you do, for there is no other way!
12. Find what makes you happy and be IT; breathe IT. 

Holly would have wanted to realize this and so much more before she had no choice. It makes me sad that she wanted to grow old and have kids but she couldn't. It makes me bittersweet and grateful that despite all her unmeasurable pain and suffering she took the time to let us, strangers, know the importance of living life the right way and see all she never did before she had no choice. Her words I'll cherish forever; her lessons are ones I'll try my best to always remember.

I hope she rests in peace.


Link to the article written by Holly before she died:
https://www.upworthy.com/life-advice-from-cancer-victim

Forgiveness taken to a whole new level..

While scrolling down my Facebook feed I saw a video titled "Mom comes face to face with son's killer in court." Without giving it a thought I clicked to see the mom's reaction, and what I saw was nothing I expected to see. I saw a mother, a grieving mother, forgiving the murderer of her son. Instantly, goosebumps all over my body, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, the mother wasn't seeking revenge. On the contrary, she wanted the murderer to start again; to become a better man. He is young she said; she wants him to know that his life shouldn't stop or be bad because of what he did, she said. The mother even said that maybe her son had to lose his life so the boy could gain his, and have a better and more righteous one. How she was able to hug him is beyond me.

How selfless? How strong? How can it be possible for someone to have so much forgiveness in their hearts? Even now, while writing this, I am asking my self, could I even do that? If I were her, God forbid, could I be able to look at the murderer's eyes and tell him I forgive him? I have no idea.

This mother has left me speechless. She taught me a valuable lesson, one that this world we live in is desperately in need of. Her kindness and selflessness will serve as a reminder that forgiveness, as hard as it might be sometimes, is the only path to peace of mind and heart.


Link of the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z5SGI5Jdns

How I Learned to Avoid My Writing Mistakes (almost)

Things I learned after reading these two articles “What’s up with that: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos” by Nick Stockton and “How to Say Nothing In Five Hundred Words” by Paul McHenry Roberts:

1. When writing, our brain generalizes simple tasks and focuses on more complex ones; for turning letters into words is less complex than combining sentences into ideas. Whether we write “she” or “hse” is not as important as the idea behind the combination of sentences being conveyed. In order to avoid this, I should make my material as unfamiliar as possible. I could write it and forget about it for a while, or I could just change the background of my paper to trick my brain into thinking this is new to us.
2. One must dare to be bold and take the unusual side of the argument. When confronted with a commonly talked topic, one should try to come up with new ideas that relate. Even though I always try to come up with my own arguments to prove where I stand, I often tend to state the obvious. I understand now that I should be bolder when choosing my position and I should always avoid being too abstract. I need to do more than just saying so, I have to show them why I say so; I need to paint a clear picture in order to make my stand more credible. 
3. It is not about how many adjectives you use to describe an action; it is about how concise you are while doing so. As Roberts says, when calling a fool, you call him a fool. I need to stop thinking about whether the reader will accept it or not; in the end, it is my stand and I shouldn’t be censoring it.
4.  Colorful words can paint a better picture sometimes; however, it is crucial for me to understand that not everyone likes fancy prose. Some people, especially in this era, prefer it plain and simple. Colored words can give my writing strength, but they can also divert the reader into concluding something different. And even though I normally don’t use colorless words, such as nice and cool, since I’m too extra when writing, I need to learn how to balance them with the colorful and colored words.
5. Writing will never be less frustrating when it comes to editing. We all do the previously discussed mistakes and we will perhaps keep on doing them. 
6. It would be good to take some time off my writing when I finish the first draft in order to have a fresh perspective when revising it. Ultimately, in order to solve the problem, one must be one harshest critique!