Words of Freedom

When the day changes to night,
As does the dark change the light.
There, crossing the lands and seas,
All I heard was the whistle of the breeze.

Behind the mountains lay the hundreds,
And all around, they were bounded.
I listened to all the sounds uttered, 
Yet, behind me not a voice muttered.

That great prison that gathered all
Only I was away from the long wall.
That wall made them the same,
And I being alone and different felt insane.

Should I be imprisoned or be free?
Should I leave my origin or stay me?

The sounds of my old fellows faded away,
I almost forgot my words that might leave today.
But I ran away to save my words,
For I won't sell them to greedy lords.

Behind me voices came out, 
Not similar to mine, there was no doubt.
But, fast as wind I was caught,
And loud as drums my heart beat.

No hurt they said, no harm they brought.
I was alone and they were five.
Six, together we make a life.
Soil, air, water, fire, and earth
With my language life comes to a new birth.

My language they wanted to learn,
For we are free and freedom is to earn.

The old sounds came to fly,
Protecting my words which will never die. 

      Rouba Farhat 

I wrote this poem when I took my Bilingualism course. As students, we were asked to come up with a poem that talks about our language and what we would do if we were the last people to speak our language. So, here, there is a kind of story that is going on. There are people who are imprisoned and they are just stuck and can't move forward; this is because they have no language or at least not my language, and that's why I can't recognize the sounds and utters I'm hearing. I described those imprisoned and how they are all the same, while I was the only different one. Because of this, I questioned myself whether I want to be like them or just stay free with my language. And the last choice was the best for me, so I ran away to save my language. Soil, air, water, fire, and earth are the essential elements in life, but to me also my language is the sixth element that will make life comes to a new birth that is peaceful and that is a new beginning for a better world. When I teach my language to the five people that are represented by the five elements mentioned before, I start to remember the sounds of the old fellows because my language will not die and more people will be learning it. My language gives freedom to others and to be free we need to know this language. 

A Season

Bursting out in laughter

Under the round ball of the sky, 

Desiring, though in abundance. 

Under the same sky,

Content, demanding nothing, others lie. 

Both not sure where they are heading. 

Different ways ahead,

Long or short, dark or bright, 

And in the end nothing avails.

Dark gets darker, and off goes the light. 

No need for muscles, nor for mind,

Nor for jewels and treasured mines.

Why dare look down?

Why need beg the crown?

 It is a season that lasts for a while;

And a lasting time awaiting all. 

                                                                                            Rouba Farhat

We all live on the same planet, breathing the same air, walking under the same sky...

Some might be content with what they have, though it might weigh nothing, while others might be nagging and rushing for more earthly materials, though they can have everything!

But 'nothing' and 'everything' are viewed differently by people because they have different views of life and perspectives of what the world is. People live in big lies a lot of time! But at the end if we think about it for a minute, what is it that worth begging others or being greedy? We need a lot of people to ask themselves why they treat others like slaves and make them beg simply to stay alive sometimes. We need to understand that this world is going to an end that we are never going to decide, and that's why instead of living in a rush just searching for more earthly materials and treating others like they are nobody, we need to change. We need to know that nothing will go with us when life is over, we won't have houses with labels on them- 'rich' , 'poor'...

Life is just a season that will come to an end, and what really matters is after that. So, let's treat each other equally because we were born equal and we will die equal.

Enjoy what you have, enjoy all moments you pass through because we don't go back in time. Let's love life for what it is and for what it gives because it is a trip or a journey that we should take care of.

Patch Adams

It's really encouraging to see how determination can take us to the next level. Patch Adams is a movie that talks about a medicine student who was so passionate to become a doctor; he wanted to help others, to make them laugh, and to spread inspiration to cure them. His only problem was that his ways of treating patients were different and creative. How is that a problem? It's not his problem, it is the problem of his stubborn instructor who refuses his techniques. He was asked to leave medical school accused of "excessive happiness"!! Patch didn't give up, he stood strong and confident facing his instructor, and he graduated to become an excellent doctor as one of the best
students graduating. "We need to improve the quality of life for our patients, and not just delay their death," he says defending himself.

Yes, it's a movie and it will always be. But it is so important to be determinant and to work hard standing against obstacles, all obstacles, because there has to a moment where things work out. Another main message is his passion to reach his dream, not because he wants to be called a doctor, a genius, the best, etc..., but because he wants to make a change, he wants to help others, and he wants to tell those around him that crazy ways can sometimes be the best for a better life- a true life. When we own the passion and make the dream part of us, we can feel the happiness of achieving something and we can feel the importance of determination.

"Literacy Draws Upon Art"

Cheri Sherman, a Champion Creativity Webinar presenter and Director of Education for Crayola, presented the importance of art in conveying meaning. Sherman talked about the relationship between visual literature and written literature where art integration happens across the entire curriculum. Showing a graph, Sherman explained that 90% of teachers use visual arts to teach literacy.

Why do teachers use art integration?
Teachers use art to teach literacy because it leads students to achieve the targeted objectives in easy and fun ways, and it also helps engaging all students in the lessons. So, the percentage of engagement increases. Teachers most of the time look for lessons that meet both the visual standards and the art language standards.

Teachers can use art to teach in terms of the four skills that are reading, writing, speaking, and listening. For reading, teachers can guide students to name the authors and illustrators and their roles in presenting ideas, ask students to describe relationships between illustrations and texts, tell students to describe characters through illustrations, and a lot more.
Illustrations can be related to the writing skill where students can use them to compose their own opinions about the text, to predict what will happen in the story or text, and to narrate the events themselves and/or give information.
Students can also achieve comprehension and collaboration through one-on-one or group discussions. Students can use illustrations to describe what they say which contributes in the speaking skill as well as listening. Also, students can engage in a "speaking chain" by building on each others' ideas and to express their own thoughts. They can also paraphrase ideas based on visual art.
Additionally, students can meet language standards by  using visual art, for instance they can determine the meaning of words using visual clues.

Sherman have talked about the National Core Arts Standards that target artistic practices by students like creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. Students can use their artistic skills in order to create illustrations and visual arts that at the same time convey a lot of meaning which aligns perfectly with writing; students can build creativity through writing. They can also present their work and be engaged using art skills and language skills especially speaking and listening, and they can respond to others' ideas and use the language. The most important aspect of the standards here is that students can and need to always relate and connect ideas to their own lives and to external contexts through reading most of the times (it can be through any of the four skills). The standards target each of the four skills and allow for their development and progress.

One of the ways or ideas teachers can use while using art in teaching literacy is the "Look Again" activity. This activity allows students to read illustrations. When we hear the word 'read', we always think of a text, however we can read illustrations, too.
Reading illustrations includes several aspects/practices:

• extract insight from meaning
• find visual clues
• interpret how the art conveys meaning
• use what you see to make inferences
• discuss authors' intentions behind illustrations

When teachers use visual arts, they need to mostly use 'What', 'Why', and 'How' questions. They can start asking students what they see and what they think it means. Then, they move to ask students why they said something (based on the first 'what' question). Later, they ask students how the author created illustrations and how they conveyed meaning through illustrations. The great characteristics of asking these questions is that they go in a cyclical way and the teacher can go back to start a series of questions again which is related to "cyclical thinking".

Teachers need to learn where to look for clues in the illustrations, and thus to guide students later to see the clues by themselves. Clues can be within the composition, colors, lines, focal-point, proportions, sizes, shapes, patterns, repetition, harmony, contrast, etc...
Sherman discussed these points by showing children books and describing the illustrations in terms of the aspects above. She used well known books like Madeline and Lon Po Po. 
This section here reminded me of one of my courses in university that is Children's Literature. One of the topics in this course is about the importance of choosing the right book for children, and a good children book would include different qualities including good illustrations that provide students with meaning. 

This webinar shows how important art can be in teaching literacy. And unlike what some people think, art is not only related to art classes like drawing, theater, or dancing classes, but it is across the entire curriculum.
The following are two websites I've received after attending this webinar. You can visit them and see a lot of ideas for teachers.

• www.crayola.com/educators 
• www.edweb.net/creativity

"Legal Issues Facing New Teachers"

I've attended a webinar under the title of "Legal Issues Facing New Teachers" that was basically about what teachers should do when confronted with certain situations.
The speaker first discussed that there are two types of new teachers; those who don't know the law and those who are afraid of being sued. The first type of teachers don't have the knowledge of what is acceptable by law and what is not, so they are most likely to be aggressive because they want to keep order and they don't want to see rule breakers. Those teachers may get into troubles because they over practice their rights while keeping order in schools. On the other hand, there are teachers who are afraid to catch rule breakers and to keep order since they may get sued. Those teachers try to avoid doing something with students who break the rules and ignore the complaints reported to them by others.

An issue discussed was about suspecting students and when it is reasonable to do so. First he mentioned that teachers in general and new teachers in particular deal with students based on rumors.This is true a lot of times; teachers sometimes take information about students from other teachers who talk about their students. Sometimes new teachers take the wrong image about the students and thus treat them on that basis which can cause problems for both teachers and students. Therefore teachers need to have an 'individualized suspicion' based on individual real experiences.
Some suspicions lead teachers to violate rules by searching students and over practice their rights. For instance, teachers may search students phones which can lead to further problems with the law, whether the schools' laws or the government laws. Teachers should avoid this.

An advice for teachers when they take something that belongs to students away was that they should lock it up!  The speaker added that things might get stolen which can put teachers under lots of troubles. And as a personal opinion here, I think that when teachers take something away from students, even a simple game that doesn't need to be locked up, they need to put it out of sight because students might not stop asking for it or trying to take it back. 

Additionally, teachers should not touch students except for four main reasons; when students are going to hurt themselves, when they are about to hurt someone else, when they are about to destroy property, and to maintain order. However, some believe that teachers need to provide students with care and love. The speaker mentions that teachers can do that by many ways where they don't need to hug students. Teachers can use high five or a fist bump. Other attendees who participated in this webinar also mentioned nice ideas like an 'air hug' which is like a virtual hug or a hug from a distance.

How can teachers deal with Bullying?
Everywhere in the world we hear about the issue of bullying. In my opinion, it is found a lot around us but it is somehow hidden unlike in other countries in the west. The main point is that teachers need to report bullying behaviors to the administration right away and immediately so that problems are solved on spot. Also, teachers need to immediately ask the bully to stop unacceptable behaviors and/or speech. They can also report what goes on to parents (hot lining parents) which also keeps a communication between teachers and parents who can provide help in eliminating problems. Teachers can play the role of mandated reporters. Also, teachers can report bullying to students counselors in schools. He also advises teachers to 'report' not 'investigate' because in this situation, bullying, teachers' roles end with reporting what has happened.

Many students have allergies in which some of them might face serious illness because of eating something they shouldn't eat. Teachers should be trained at the beginning of the year to know how to deal with cases of allergies.

An important issue that was discussed is confidentiality. Teachers must care about privacy and must keep information about students to those who have the right to know. He mentioned the Family Educational Right and Privacy Act (FERPA) that gives students and families the right of keeping information about students private. It happens a lot when teachers just sit together and gossip about students or even sending e-mails about students. Teachers need to respect the privacy of their students.

Toward the end of the webinar, the speaker  discussed dealing or breaking up fights. When confronted with real physical fights, teachers also need to break them up physically by approaching students and hold them back. Teachers can start with verbally asking students to stop the fight. If the situation continues, teachers can interfere and can call for help from an adult. He says that in many cases the winner wants to continue while the loser just wants the fight to be over. So, a teacher can figure out who is winning and grab him/her away.

Teachers might face a lot of different issues regarding dealing with students and maintaining order. They have the rights to stop any unaccepted behavior, however they need to be careful concerning how to deal with students in order not to over practice their rights. Many issues can lead to problems that cause teachers to be sued. Problems can reach outside school, so it's important to know how to deal with different situations, and there are a lot of websites and organizations that advise and provide help for teachers.
Teachers can visit the following website: www.edweb.net/new teacher help

Teacher's Day

How many teachers have left an impact on you?
How many teachers you still remember and you will always do?
A teacher works all the time to make the students happy and ready for the real world outside. Teachers always remember their days giving all they got for students; they remember the good days, the bad day, a day when someone made a great joke (or a horrible one), and lots of things. I myself remember so much about my school. And because memories last forever, teachers need to make those memories the greatest for their students and for themselves.
Happy day for all teachers in the world.  

School of Education- LIU

Few of the best moments!

No matter how big things are, we can still find a way to grow bigger. No matter how far our dreams go, we can always stay on track until we meet them. It just takes courageous decisions; decisions for taking the risk and making mistakes for the sake of reaching what's better. It takes lots of time and effort; nothing comes from nothing and there is always a beginning and lots of bumps ahead. It takes so much attention and organization in thinking; you always need to put a plan for your journey. It might not be a perfect one, but pinpointing to the goals means you are half way there. The most important thing is that it needs love, trust, passion, and a strong belief. Love your dreams and have the passion so that you can work from the bottom of your heart. And always trust yourselves and believe that you can do it even when things seem to be falling from a cliff because as I always say to myself "Winning is for those who trust the beauty of their dreams". Dream because tomorrow is hope and you are tomorrow's hope.