Tuesday, February 10, 2009

How do you teach English to such a large class?


Today, I took these shots for the two classes I teach. First Year Computer Science (100). First Year IT Diploma (300). Above all, I am the one who is supposed to design a syllabus for the courses I teach. I put the master copy at the computer center and ask(push/force) students to photocopy. I am totally exhausted, frustrated,depressed and feeling hopeless. The university doesn't want to pay for a syllabus. Correcting exam papers? Correcting assignments? Assessing students? Class control? All these do not compare to creating activities to engage them in class. I don't feel like writing more. I wish I can zoom in the photo to have only 20 students in class. How am I feeling today is leading me very fast towards quitting the job!:-(
BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Sunday, February 08, 2009

My 6 Year First Poem


You love you very much
You will come to the party
You will come and
Dance with us and sit with us
I love you
You love me
Rahma
PS She asked her elder sis, Haneen to correct the spelling mistakes on the mini board.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Images4education:" I blame you.."

Amazing post ! The tile is "Flickr, I blame you.." This is what I commented:
"You told MY story! People around now me think that I am a geek! I recommend you to join images4education, the session I blame for being like this. My "phobia" has just started 5 weeks ago, but, reading your post, now I know where it will lead me.
It immediately inspired me to post about what images4education,Exploring Images in the 21st Century Classroom,a six-week online workshop, one of the Electronic Village Online Sessions has made to me.A session during which I didn't post a single post, but the effect was so strong for a lurker.With a low quality mobile camera, without posting a single post,(no excuses!!), this is what images4education "has really done to me, for me":
Sharing what you see from your window:(25/1/09)

Realizing that I should reflect about my teaching in large classes:(2/2/09)

Or when I remind myself to take document the first tooth-loss for my baby:(30/1/09)

Or when I was at a traffic light and see a funny name for a mini cafeteria selling juices ( Blood Bank Juices):24/1/09)

After teaching for nearly 9 years in my university, I have never thought of taking a shot for the scene that I see daily when I get out of my classes on the fourth floor:

I have grown up with putting Henna. I used to put Henna weekly when I was younger. It's so normal. Now, I started to look deeper into the images drawn and see the beauty of the drawings and how these simple not well-educated women( Hananat)can create a flowery "plateau" on a bride leg/hand:

Family gatherings at my flat? Weekly, daily on holidays. Never thought of taking a picture that can be entitled " What a community we are!":

Simply put: images4eduation is to blame for this. I imagine what have I turned into if I was sharing, posting, interacting, collaborating. This is crazy!!LOL. Maybe I can say,"I want to see the change I want to be", from a quote on one of a very nice post I have read earlier this week: 'I want to be the change I want to see' Gandhi.
My gratitude goes for a session whose moderators do not know what they have done to one of the participants. Excellent job, gils and gys!!
Session moderators are: Alice Barr, Ana Maria Menezes, Bob Sprankle, Carla Arena, Cheryl Oakes, Daniela Munca, Jane Petring, João Alves, Mary Hillis, Nina Lyulkun, Ronaldo Júnior, and Susan Burg.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

21 and More Opened Tabs;Twitter



I start my daily online journey with checking emails (2@yahoo, 1@gmail). Then I move to twitter. This happens in a multitasking way. The bandwidth is not so fast and I sue both IE and Firefox at the same time( wonder if this good!), so while waiting for a page to open, I would have done 2-3 tasks. I wonder if this how people multitask!!Anyway, I usually start with a plan on my side, written on my notebook. I have to finish what I planed (usually not too many)before I put my toy off.These days, I always end up with "None is done" phrase. Why? Because I start with twitter, and end up with 20 something tabs opened on my Firefox browser. I end up to the neck fulled with knowledge, news, update articles, joining seminars, meeting or presentations, asking for help, sending tweets to sick people, giving hellos to ones missed and so many tweets on the tweet sphere. I was, for the third time, so reluctant about Twitter, but now, it's my homepage for staring the journey, BUT still can't figure out how to use it with my students!! I will work on that soon. The photos are for a presentation at Elluminate about informal learning that I dived in when I followed a tweet by Cris. When I was in, I was asked if there are informal learning cases in Sudan I want to share.I remembered the students who sit at the back and that when I try to engage them in class and they reply by "Ha?".
Today, I started with this post!Good start, Hala! Now off to Twitter!