Parenting Responsibilities: 10 Things You Are (and Aren’t) Responsible for as a Parent

Parenting Responsibilities: 10 Things You Are (and Aren’t) Responsible for as a Parent

Thrilled day

last week during the character building lesson the general stage supervisor asked the students to write a letter to any teacher of their choice either to thank her or to ask her anything they want her to do to make her lesson better, students will not write their names on these letters.
today I've received more than 10 letters from my students praising the math lesson, my way in teaching them , my patience, my activities, the group work I'm providing and moreover one of my students wrote to me that I'm her best class teacher ever,
I'm sure that two years before I wasn't the teacher I'm today nor the class teacher as I'm now, really for the first year in my long 14 professional years I enjoyed going to school as this year, really I'm enjoying teaching my students this year and regretting the past years which I didn't enjoy being with such wonderful students I had before.
a lot of difference happened I stopped criticising my students and giving up that they don't have the abilities to learn, I believe now that they have their own abilities to learn and I've to fulfil it for them,
I learned that I need to plan, and plan very well to enjoy being with them without any stress.
I learned to expect their success but accept the failure from one or two but never give up.
I learned to be quiet for some time.
I learned that students have different learning styles and it's my job to meet them all.
I learned that motivating my students to learn comes before teaching my subject and finishing my syllabus.
I learned that engaging my students in a life project like serving their community will set a meaning to their learning.
I learned that I as a teacher has the power to change in those kids' life.
before I missed the tools but now I think that I started to own them.
writing on my blog and reading the other colleagues' blogs is such an experience which painted my life with bright colours and enriched me with multi visions, our debates and conflicts are very fruitful and it reflects on me and my work all over my days and I carry some of these debates to my school colleagues.
life isn't like the past.
years aren't added without quality or real gain as it was.
thank you all dear colleagues and dearest Dr Joy.

willingness VS. motivation

 since Mohamed has mentioned that the learner should be willing to be motivated, I'm thinking about willingness, if I wait my students to show willingness to learn or to be motivated so I'll wait for life time because some students aren't willing at all to the learning process and by the way my daughter and my nephew are one of those but sometimes they show enthusiasm and motivation to study a certain subject at a certain time, then I start to wonder why my daughter now is doing her homework alone, keen on pleasing the teacher and showing care, then I found that the reason goes back to the teacher herself, she encouraged the students by a way or another and motivated them then my daughter repaid her back by showing willingness. I think that the core of this course is to motivate the students who don't show any willingness or caring to school learning by engaging them in further education to show them that their learning is meaningful and though we can change them into intrinsic motivators,
I think by that time they will be willing to learn and to be motivated.

Engaging Students in Math | Edutopia

Engaging Students in Math | Edutopia

project based learning

this is a very effective video to design a whole semester not only a lesson I used it this year to plan for my first term syllabus.
I planned a project for the whole term including all the lessons the students are studying and learning this term then I started to design small activities on each lesson to cater students to implement their project.
I recommended it to you it's applicable to all subjects not only math
hope you enjoy it and find it beneficial 

Community Learning

after the summary which Dr joy displayed about we took during the past weeks at this course, some of us started to comment that they use the community learning in classes but I felt that we aren't according to what I understand from our readings and discussions during the sessions, yes there's a community at the class but it isn't designed to create learning may be it helps the students to learn but by coincidence not intended, what I've known during the past couple of months that I as a teacher had to design my class in a shape to motivate students to learn and engage them in a team work and plan the lesson which can help them to learn even if I don't utter a word. again plan, plan, plan.
community learning doesn't come by coincidence it's something we should know practice and plan for, I hope by the end of this course I'll be able to engage my students in such learning.     

Plan,plan,plan

It's so obvious that Dr joy is very persistent on teaching us the APA style of writing our summaries and reflections, so she prepared a well structured lesson plan, she wanted to show us the right order of the reference, surname, first letter of the initial name, year of publishing, then the name of the book. then when we take the first chart sheet concerning the reference of the book, the journal, and                 the chapter of the book, there was a lot of wondering during the activity what are we doing and what's for but when I started to remember the last session to write my reflection , I found myself remembering the plan she made to drag us in the APA trap, so all of us returned our home remembering  most of the steps of writing the reference and if we needed any help we could revise the sheet of referencing she already provided us with.I'd like to engage my student in an activity they could remember with the steps of answering their problems in math. planning well to our lesson is very important to get excellent results.
The second assignment during the second part of the session was interesting to describe how our community at our  school looks like,  Dr Joy was pretty astonished from our description specially to our profitable schools , I'm looking forward to know her impression and feedback about the differences between our schools in Egypt and the rest of the countries.  

Expensive traffic jam

Being stuck in the worst traffic jam I've ever seen last Tuesday didn't mean only to be tired and late for 4 hours but also to miss one of my sessions at 504 and it seems that missing one session was very expensive, I'm a very punctual person, I have never missed any of my sessions during the whole Diploma except on that day, then I felt disappointed after knowing about the excitement you all had during your activity at the beginning of the session specially after receiving the powerpoint by mail.
my past week was stressful, too long, and tiresome, I discovered that the time I spend with my colleagues in the session is very important to charge my battery with new mood, ideas, topics to share with my school mates and children and moreover a big charge of motivation to continue my week with, any how I'd like to say thank you Dr Joy for the delightful and fruitful time I spend at this course and badly missed this week. 

classroom activities

yesterday was different than the past days at 504 as we were waiting for the results of our summaries, I was surprised for the too many details of APA style . I used the APA style with my previous journals and the instructors accepted them. doing the assignment twice was a little bit frustrating and it made me hesitant to deliver the reflection, I wished that Dr Joyanne to encourage us as she does with our reflections on the blogs, any way I would work once more on my assignment but with less motivation than before. the second part of the session was presenting various activities we could use at our class to reduce the teachers efforts in class and that motivated me to create more in my classes, and as I'm working on decreasing the TTT I found a great help. hopefully at the end that my next assignments would be agreeable.     

every time we meet I gain more information and the picture of community based learning get clearer, at the beginning of the session I realized that I've this invisible student, she's a chubby teenager girl who suffers from low self esteem, too shy, hesitant, and has no desire of sharing in class, she didn't do her home work more than once and started to pass me different channel books every day, so instead of accusing her and confronting her I tried to show her that I trust her and these small incidence will not affect my trust, actually on the next day I found her doing her home work and then I grabbed her to see her exercise and she wasn't doing it claiming that she didn't understand so I assisted her in the first part then I asked her to continue the rest alone actually I discovered that she's eager to please but she doesn't have confidence.
 knowing the characteristics of the components of the teenager character was very fruitful, it helps to understand why they don't get together, they don't share in team work, they don't take turns, they liked to chat with too many friends on facebook rather than building a relation with two friends  maximum in class, they easily get used to chat offline when they like to end it up.
how they feel about themselves according to their physiological changes between being proud or being ashamed of themselves.
I've too may AHA's moments during the demonstration of each one's project's goals data collection, and their procedures. I found myself screaming out loud I'm getting it now, I was so impressed by the project of each one, I thought at the beginning that it should be a project which integrates with my subject but I discovered that any project which can raise the motivation of the teenagers is acceptable, and I was touched by the idea that I can take my students' opinion so I decided to ask them today as we are planning to the event of school day we call it Elsian's day its theme is developing new Egypt so I intended to use the opportunity and asked them How to make our community a better one and I've got lots of wonderful answers I'll try to figure each one and start my plan.

The second session was quite an experience actually I liked the questions arose at the beginning of the session , maybe I had the same thoughts as Reham and most of the teachers that we could expect failure of our students but after the discussion about expect and accept, the difference between them and how important that we shouldn't expect the failure of any of our student so as not to lose faith and believing in the abilities of my students, try many times as much as I can to make them succeed because if I expect the failure of any of them that means that I gave up and this not me I've never give up, I'm a persistent person, I was so ashamed of myself that I liked also the bell shape which expresses the students accomplishments but I'm not frustrated as my perception now has been changed and that is the target of joining this Diploma is to change the old beliefs, on the next day at school I asked my colleagues the same question whether they expect or accept the failure of some of their students, I found them answering the same answer as I did that we expect but not accept, then I started to discuss with them the difference between the two words and their impact on our enthusiasm to give those students more and this leads us to give up and those students which we lose faith in them could succeed with other teacher who is more persistent than us, they started to have a new vision.
the second part of the meeting was very effective and fruitful as actually the idea of community based learning wasn't clear to me so after demonstrating each one's idea and the discussion which Dr. Joyanne held has helped a lot in clarifying what's vague,  I remember when she put the points which the project should cover I had an enquiry about the involvement of the community, I asked my colleagues which community definitely she means (within the school, or out of the school) then after the discussion for my idea I realized that the experience which my students will gain should be spread among more students as to be also motivated at that moment I started to think in this direction so I explained my idea to the administration of the school to get their help and support in establishing the community based learning which I believe will help a lot in motivating students.
we are looking for more in the coming meetings.

I've been teaching for 13 years as a Math teacher for grade 6 at an international school but I teach in the national system,  on year 2008 the school had sent the math and science teachers to a centre in Maadi to take a course in teaching called ITTC (intensive teaching techniques course). at that time I discovered that my teaching style is a copy of my old teachers and what's old doesn't suit the new generation, they are different than us, the narrative way and the teacher centred class isn't effective and suitable to my students and no wonder that the students that are weak keeps weak and those who are excellent are still excellent but not because of me.
I read the advertisement of this diploma in the newspaper so I decided to join it, and I'm the only teacher at my school who was enrolled in this diploma but now after my colleagues have seen the impact of the courses on my teaching we have two more teachers are enrolled as new students in the Diploma.
Each course has a great influence on me starting from course 501, studying psychology was something new for me it helped me a lot to know myself before knowing my students, how to express my feelings and set my goals which meet my students' abilities and readiness.
course 502 was very fruitful as we studied the project based learning in which I'm trying to use this year, as I planned this term from the beginning with the performance task which includes all the lessons covered this term then I started to design each lesson's activities which cater the student to perform his project at the end of the term.
course 503 was teaching assessment and its forms, (whether formative or Summative ) assessment, how to use them and when and how to provide equity and fairness in class.
course 505 was very effective, knowing that anything could be a helpful resource in class whether it is a picture, a quote, a design, a puppet or anything real like a lemon or leaves .....etc. the main issue is that when I plan to my lesson I have to take in consideration the different learning styles and try to find the suitable resource which matches every one's style.
course 506 is a real bliss it makes us see ourselves inside the class through the eyes of the mentor or compare between ourselves and our peers after the visit and writing a report about it in which makes us correct our teaching quality and also the CFG made us shared a lot of our concerns and problems which we discovered at the end that they are common between teachers of different subjects and working in different schools and systems.
This is my last course I'm hoping to know how can I make my students more eager and enthusiastic to learn, I'd like to motivate my students and make them feel the importance of learning, creating a healthy environment which meets my students' goals.
I work as I said in the national system although the administration is not encouraging the teachers to develop from themselves like they do to the international system but they are trying to engage the students in many events, celebrations and activities related to our community like fund raising to support the children cancer hospital.