Inquiry based learning

  After going to a workshop with Miss Doha Kabalan. It was one of a life changing experience. The techniques that were used in inquiry based learning were just so interactive and interesting, it didn't even feel like a workshop that you think is boring or so. This is how it affects your classrooms too! Using the techniques and knowing the point of every step used is really helpful in helping students learn and grow. 

  Students usually think that learning and schools are very boring and it has no use to it. This is were our role as teachers come and that is to light and ignite that inner motivation in them to crave learning new things and to be interested in reading and knowing alot of things. Some students have the wrong idea about school and why they should be learning and studying. One of the answers I heard when I asked a student in grade 7 was , " I need education for me not be dumb" .

   How many students have this misconception of why they need education in their lives! In Inquiry based learning, what happens is that we drive them to be curious about a certain topic, listening to what they would like to know about it and what this topic brings about in them, emotionally, or in their daily life. 

Inquiry based learning is a revolution, it will shift the mindset of students towards education, it will boost their interest in learning unlike the traditional curriculum and the methods used in teaching. One of the applied methods for Inquiry based learning is Starting with a Question. 

Asking students to fill in the 

What I Know

What I want to know 

What I learned

Why? .. when you tell students to fill this simple chart, you will know where to focus more and on the concepts that ignite their curiousity but you can also include the topics that should be learned in a very lean way along with what interests them..

  

What makes a difference in our Society

 

          Education is one of the most important elements in developing successful citizens that are an important role in our society. Everyone accounts to a certain role and are all effective citizens no matter what they do as their job. The degrees and certificates are nothing really but a piece of paper that doesn't really determine who that person is and people are not evaluated based on their jobs because even the cleaners are needed to maintain a hygiene regimen. Work is about what you bring up to the society and how you really help other people. Unfortunately most people seem to lack this sense of what a person really is. We are all born equal, and there is no person that is better than the other; rather, it is the different roles that every citizen works for. 

       For sure, education is extremely important and the more knowledge we know the more we can be effective as citizens. Mostly, parents consider their children as failures or they are worried about their future or what career they will choose due to the pressure from the society around about occupation, grades, how many certificates have they obtained. They are really missing the point of a real education...First of all parents should be taught that their children are not evaluated by looking at their grades to see if they are smart or not. There are many factors that affect their performance and such factors include;

• Self Esteem

    Can you just imagine for a second, how much of thoughts and feelings a student carries on their back due to pressure around them from their parents, their peers, the definition of success, the fact that due to the constant negative thoughts planted into their brains have wiped away their self confidence and their self belief in achieving anything. Did you know that being supportive for students and saying positive words to them as well as showing them that you actually believe that they can do anything they put their mind into it, their performance starts to improve on its own!! Yes! this is the power of words and self belief. 

• Fear and anxiety

       Fear is what causes brain freeze and a decrease in student performance. It is the paralysis to the road of success; however, fear is a normal feeling but only when it is in reasonable amounts. In fact, fear can actually sometimes increases our focus due to the high adrenaline rush to our brains. Fear of what? 

1- Fear of Judgement of their grades: this can be fear from their parents due to a punishment or being hit for their poor performance and actually feeling threatened that they have to pass or else something bad is going to happen to them. Another thing is that students fear to be shamed for their grades infront of other classmates as well and that is due to the fact that they feel pressured and more of a competition. Building a safe classroom environment for students should help ease this situation. 

 2- Fear of being evaluated:  Students should be taught that when they are doing an exam, it is to see how much they understood from the lesson to see where to focus on and help them understand it better and that it has nothing to do with them or their capabilities and their self worth. Additionally, a teacher should provide unconditional love to the students and not only when they are getting good grades. Teachers should explain to the students that it is okay if we don't do good on an exam because this will show us how to get better at it instead, and they should know that it doesn't mean that if they didn't do good on that exam that we keep trying! and don't give up. Maybe change the approach of studying or teach them time management skills or how to set their priorities. This is the real education !! not just information from books. " Everyone deserves a second chance, and everyone is unique with their own personality" . 

• Depression 

   Students do not really have the emotional intelligence, and they don't know how to control their emotions or separate these emotions from what they are doing. Symptoms of depression include lack of concentration, overthinking, losing interest and motivation. In fact this is very common especially if parents are passing through problems and divorce for example or it could simply be hormonal changes that the student is passing through. When a teacher sees a certain change in the performance of the student, they should be good listeners and should offer support, care, and love to the student, because you can simply save a life. A positive word, unconditional love, support, care. This can really make a difference. Being a teacher doesn't mean to only teach the subject that you teach, but you are an influencer, a motivator, a leader, a supporter, and you can change lives.  

Traditional curriculum vs creative curriculum 

   

     Why do we need education? the more we know the better, because ignorance is the person's worst enemy. However, we really need to have that inner motivation to be able to gain a good education and that is because people's interests differ from each other. I believe that a more student approach curriculum to be used for a better education, and the freedom of choice for picking what subjects they are interested in or what builds on to their future career and builds the framework of the career to be chosen ahead. For example, why should a student forcefully study things that are non-beneficial to them when they have no interest at all in those subjects? this will actually decrease the academic performance and students will lose interest in learning since they have no internal motivation. Choose your subject of interests and the subjects that move you closer to your career goals. 

     

     I personally support a curriculum that is more vocational and to do more practical skills and work than actually focus only on theory. The learning process is by applying what we learned in real life, and I believe education doesn't meet someone's needs if it was learned only by theory for 12 years at school, going from one grade to another and learning all types of courses with loss of interest, no gained knowledge, and no future dreams just due to the fact that students and parents consider school as something essential for exams and grades. 

       When a student learns to apply the theoretical knowledge in an applied based environment, this brings up a lot of difference in their future careers. For example, if you consider someone wants to continue in phlebotomy, why don't we start with the basics of phlebotomy in school? Training on an artificial arm, improving students communication skills by pretending their friends as patients and how they should talk to them, to really stimulate that workplace and applied based learning. Additionally, I believe courses such as emotional intelligence, social skills, leadership courses, digital safety, organizational skills, first aid training and any course that actually comes in our real life where they actually apply it in their lives and grow through this information, instead of really wasting time on things that are not helpful neither in the daily life nor career wise. Moreover, students can be trained on how to work with companies by simulating a business like environment. This will boost their self confidence, improve their inner motivation, and lead a successful career. When a student is exposed to different work place simulations, this actually helps them figure out the career path they wish to work with. 

       In conclusion, in my opinion  a traditional curriculum sets limits to the abilities and choices of students with no freedom of choice for the subjects they have interest in. I believe that a more student centered curriculum approach should be adopted and for simulation of real workplace on how to deal with people, as well as essential life skills through courses that are not ever taught in schools and these are the most important skills for a successful life ahead. Education is warmed up by inner motivation, and creativity in the courses and learning process can ignite the curiosity of the students and end up having an effective citizen and actually ready to be in the workplace and ready to live life and know how to deal with challenges. This is what education is really all about

Written by: Dana Molla

The effect of Parents on School performance

     A child does their best to live up to their parent's standards and try to make them proud of their achievement. This actually puts the students in so much stress and studying starts to feel like a punishment. A child or a student at any age should be taught that education is something important for them as they grow throughout their lives, that the skills that they will encounter is what will make them achieve the dreams that they have. Despite the fact that students are forced to take subjects they are not interested in, they learn how to overcome such obstacles. Parents tend to be competitive when it comes to their child's grades and performance! No!!! and a Big NO!! because children are not supposed to pressure themselves and stress themselves and get themselves sick for them to be accepted by their parents or feel their sense of self worth or being proud of! The encouragement and support that is provided by the parents to their children makes a huge difference.

        Each student has their own learning style, their own way of grasping information. If your child doesn't always get high grades this doesn't define who they are or if they are smart or dumb. Maybe their interests are different, their learning style is different, they are under stress, they are sad! Students should not be terrified from their parents when it comes to grades and fear a punishment for their performance or being hit for it. Their are way important things than grades and school, and everyone has their pace at learning things. Teach your children the importance of education and try to prove it to them in how they could use it in their daily lives. The performance of students will excel once they feel safe, improve their self confidence and self belief, when they get support, and when they are heard and respected on what they like and what they don't. Love your kids unconditionally and stop comparing them to other students. We are all unique, be the supporter to your child and not the barrier to their dreams. 

                                        

Written by: Dana Molla 

Bullying and School Performance

 

       Bullying is a Huge social phenomena that is usually given an inconsiderate attention to this problem. It is found everywhere around us weather at school, university, work, on the internet, or even at home. Little do they know the long term side effects that it has on one's life. Luckily there is a solution to limit this phenomena. We will focus here on how and why bullying affects school performance, how to prevent it at schools, and how to deal with the bullies, In addition I will be sharing with you a study that I have conducted through a Questionnaire for more reliable and proved data. 

     Bullying comes in different forms; physical, verbal, cyber bullying and sexual harassment. In definition, it is the act of violence, gossiping and making fun of others, and making rumors about others and is a very common yet destructive for students as well as affecting their academic performance at school. Studies have shown that males are tended to be more involved in physical bullying, and females tend to be involved more in verbal bullying. Additionally, keep in mind that since this is the Technology Era, Cyber bullying is on the rise and is becoming more and more common. A study that was conducted in China showed interrelated the fact that bullying acts can occur when the person feels that they are less important than those who perform well in their academic performance to be superior and compensate this missing part to feel accepted. It was also discovered that people who bully other students and people who are being bullied are both subjected to depression and anxiety problems, whereas those who bully others on the internet do not get depressed and does not feel guilty about their actions. 

     When a student is bullied at school, they lose the safety of them being at school and they tend to avoid coming to school to avoid being bullied by their classmates. The school should be conducted as a safe environment for students to achieve the best learning process. There are different types of personalities that you encounter as a teacher and you should not only be the source of just giving information for students to memorize it, but an educator is a psychologist, a mother, a supporter, and an influencer. Educators can change the lives of their students.  

       The effects of bullying include:

     - Low self esteem:  When a student gets bullied at a young age, they tend to develop a low self esteem and this affects their life later on as well. Self esteem is how one looks at themselves and how much they see that they are worth living on earth. Self esteem is tremendously affected by verbal bullying especially at a young age, implanting in one's head that they are a burden or they are unloved or cared for, there is no point that they exist. A child faces a lot of conditions at school from such occasions as well as the fact if there are groups done in class and they do not accept the student into their group, thus making them feel inferior to others and not accepted. Having a low self esteem will lead to all other long term effects. 

     - Poor academic performance: Due to the lack of self esteem and the self image that they are failures and are not capable of doing something and they are not smart. If a student has this self image towards themselves, they won't even give an effort to try because they believe that they are failures. Another reason towards poor academic performance is the fact that the student feels unsafe to even answer anything in class for example to avoid being made fun of them, or they simply avoid to come to school at all to avoid the bully. Not to mention that depression and anxiety causes lack of attention in class and disinterest; therefore, leading to a poor academic performance. 

     - Depression: A child tends to become depressed because they suffer from loneliness, lack of friends, feeling unaccepted and unloved, feeling invisible, being made fun off, having trouble sleeping from fear. Depression is characterized by constant sadness and crying over long periods of time and can be either clinical depression due to an imbalance in the hormones and chemicals that are responsible for the mood, as well as resulting from environmental factors and the things that a person has been through and the situations they face in their life. 

     - Anxiety: From the constant bullying, the student tends to develop anxiety and the fear from people judging them as it is part of their daily lives. This is a long term effect if it is not controlled from a young age and can lead to the leading reason for failure in the future. 

     - Suicide: With constant pressure at school and at home, the child or the student cannot handle it anymore especially with no support going on at home, no friends, no love, no care !! As a child, no one can handle this extreme loneliness and lack of attention and self worth, not to mention being rejected by those around which will eventually lead to suicide. In order to prevent that, school should raise awareness to teachers that teaches them the signs of a student being bullied or depressed and are transferred for therapy, to set limits to this issue and save the child before it is too late.

      A research study was conducted using Google forms , to assess how many people have been bullied, to know how many people know others who have been bullied, their side effects, the most common place they were bullied, and some suggestions of their prevention. A survey was created and shared on social media to get as many responses as possible. The total number of respondents was 82 with a wide range of age. 68.29% of the respondents were in the age group of 21-30 years old, while 18.29% of the respondents were in the age group of 10-20 years old. 91.46% of the respondents who answered were living in Lebanon, while approximately 9% who answered the questionnaire were outside Lebanon.

     According to the results seen,  there are many people who have been bullied throughout their lives or at least knows someone who has been bullied. The most common effects that were seen in the study were long term effects in which it affected their self esteem, and suffering from depression and loneliness. Few of the respondents also indicated that there are people they know who have killed themselves from bullying. The most common place of the bullying was at school, further results indicated that it affected their school performance, as well as hating school from it, and also show that they were bullied at home as well. The highest percentage of the question “ What do you think is the hardest type of bullying ?”, 47.56% answered bullying at school. 

      Most students who were bullied reported that it is because they were afraid to defend themselves. Although most participants answered school as the most common place to be bullied in, it is important to keep in mind that cyberbullying is on the rise, such as tiktok for example a social media application in which many of the people post videos of them crying and devastated from the bullying they are encountering, as well as sexual harassments (asking for photos or on video calls … etc.). Lastly, all participants answered yes for having a counselor at school. One of the schools that have a counselor in Lebanon is the Saint Joseph school, and I support every school to adopt such a system. Because what is more important than the safety of our youngsters? Weather emotionally, physically...etc.  

     Suggestions that were given by the participants regarding how to stop or reduce bullying included: Conducting awareness at school and at home to explain to the children the consequences of bullying on others, moral education at schools and at home, psychological treatment, guidance, and counseling, Support from family and raising children with strong personality, to enhance the self confidence of the child and identifying their strength and weaknesses, that teachers should focus on those with low self confidence more than others, religion and respecting others regardless of their differences, having restrictions and consequences, bullies should understand the power of words and how they can create serious consequences from it, boosting one’s self confidence, ignoring the bully, treating them with kindness, to know one’s worth, developing students and improving their self confidence, punishments, and presence of a psychologist in all possible places of bullying. Defending the person being bullied, bullies should seek a therapist, and the government should make laws that prevent the act of bullying.

    In conclusion, the study showed that there are a lot of people who encounter bullying throughout their lives, and those who suffer the most are those who are also bullied at home. In addition, the most common place of bullying happens at school, and can be limited to save students from the serious effects that happen from it. Finally, a school counselor is a must to help students who are bullied, as well as treat the bullies themselves. Moreover, awareness and moral education should be included in the school curriculum

                                                                                                                     - Dana Molla - 

School Performance & Malnutrition

 

        Usually, students are naturally off-task than on-task, and being on-task should be taught to the students; however, some students get easily tired and lose their focus too quickly. Since Now a days, children are tempted to eat fast food from MacDonald or Hardees for example and crave it even more from the chemical endorsed in the fast food (MSG: is a chemical that tricks the mind about the taste, in addition to it is an addictive chemical used to let customers want to buy more of it.), so children prefer eating fast food instead of a healthy and balanced meal. Their blood sugar levels tend to go up and down like a roller coaster, they don't have the nutrition needed for their brains to function properly. Not to mention, DEHYDRATION!! I mean, children play at school and they lose fluids from their bodies. This really affects their performance.

 Let us see how malnutrition can affect the student's performance. 

    1- Iron Deficiency: Iron is the atom that carries 4 oxygen molecules per Red blood cell. They provide the Oxygen throughout the body. children who have iron deficiency have poor concentration levels, due to poor circulation. In addition they are also always sleepy, and fatigued. However, this doesn't mean that the student is lazy, rather than having an unbalanced nutrition. 

    2- High or Low blood sugar levels: Many children tend to have an undiagnosed condition of high or low blood sugar levels. When this happens, they tend to have a brainfog and confused of what the teacher is saying. Not to mention, the sickness they feel from it as well as the anger that they experience. 

  3-High Copper: Having high copper levels have been associated with depression and other psychological problems. Increased copper is due to either high level of copper in food from using copper utensils and cooking pans, or it could be accumulated in the liver and the brain of the baby if the mother was consuming a high level of copper during pregnancy. High copper levels also come from low zinc or insufficiency in the adrenal glands. 

    4- Iodine deficiency: Iodine deficiency leads to thyroid problems such as an underactive thyroid gland, which is practically responsible for most body functions. Symptoms of an Underactive thyroid include constant fatigue, poor concentration, and drowsiness.  

    In conclusion, having a child who is always sleepy and tired , is often mistaken  to be a lazy student and an off-task student, not taking into consideration the other factors like malnutrition and health problems. It's our job as teachers to discover the source of the problem, and not to judge the child rather than help them reach to a better version of themselves. Nutrition plays a key factor in behavior, as well as performance; therefore, awareness should be raised for students for the importance of having a healthy meal, as well as for teachers who should be aware of the possibility of reasons why the students is having problems in responding well to them and being on-task. 

                                                                                                                       - Dana Molla - 

Use of 3D in Education

 

         The innovation and the rise of revolutionary ideas in the world of technology has been increasing day by day, and the benefits of using technology in class has been proven. Bringing along a lot of Interest, and engaged activities rather than being bombarded with non- understandable information from the books and the curriculum that should be followed. Education should not be the quantity of the information learned, because half of the information being learned is useless or will not be used later on in their life. On the other hand, if taken into consideration that education is intended to build the skills necessary to be able to properly cope in life, this is what should be focused on. It is the activities done, the engagement of students in tasks, and the group work will never be forgotten, but if we follow the traditional way of teaching, education is no use or not as efficient. 

      I believe the image above is self- explanatory of the benefits that are encountered when using 3D technology in classrooms but they will be listed as well for more emphasis. 

        1- Student Interest: As we all know, students tend to be having a lack of interest in studying or performing any activity, and wonder around thinking to themselves " This is a useless subject" , " This is so boring" … etc. Well, how much the student is interested depends on the pedagogy of how you present this subject to them in an unforgettable way and imprints in their souls where they could never forget it.  How much do you think students will be enjoying a 3D movie of a certain topic, such as history, taking the students back to the war zones and feel the climate that was going on in those days? Of course they will be more interested than simply reading from a book about history ! Or how about travelling inside the human body, and see how it functions from inside? this is unforgettable and brings about the interest in the students and they can relate it in life. 

       2- Student Engagement in activities: Many students naturally tend to be off-task than on-task, and it is our responsibility as teachers to make the learning activities as engaging as possible. The most efficient way to make students engaged in a learning activity is using technology, because it is more fun to them and they can focus better when learning while playing than actually just being lectured from the teacher. One of the best ways to do that is using the constructivist approach, where you throw a bate or a small piece of information and ask the students to search about it, they construct their own learning and they share it with everyone when they work in groups. Student engagement in activities is one of the best ways to a successful life ahead and best educational journey. 

       3- Access to inaccessible sites: One of the best ways to learn is to see things in reality, and the videos watched in 3D can be from real life situations and thus the learning process is based on real life experiences and things that they can relate to their life weather currently or not. Instead of going to the factory and showing them how milk is done, you can bring the site to them in class, they can engage in the environment as if they went to the site itself. It is more feasible and safer to do so , I am not saying that it is bad to take students out on a field trip, but since it is very limited, we bring the site to them with this amazing technology. 

      In conclusion, being a teacher is to bring about a better generation, more efficient learning journey, and more students being enthusiastically on-task , but everything should occur in moderation, using too much technology in class and not focusing on readings or summarizing a certain article is not good because they would lose the skills of analytical thinking and other skills such as comprehending what is being said. Moderation is the key to success. 

                                                                                                                         - Dana Molla- 

Technology and Learning disabilities

 

       At schools, there are students that encounter learning disabilities that are usually misdiagnosed, and the blame is put on the children, that they are not studying well or they are not smart and this is why they are not doing well in classes; however, there are many disabilities that can be encountered, such as Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism Spectrum disorder, Poor eye sight, Hearing problems... etc. 

  Thanks to the technology that is rising everyday by day, it is helping students with learning disabilities to overcome this and improve their educational performance and their mental development. With the innovative creations in technology and specific programs, every student is able to express how they feel or what they know in their own way. 

 Let us see how technology can help students with learning disabilities. In the Video provided through the link , you will see how assistive technology uncovered the true essence of students with disabilities. 

       How Assistive Technology Supports Students With Disabilities - YouTube

     In fact, this was a very emotional moment while watching this video, because we cannot determine what a child is capable to actually give or how smart they are. 

   Learning is not always evaluated or assessed through paper-pencil exams to determine what the students know or what they don't know, some students are not able to express their thoughts in writing rather than talking but that does not mean that the student is not smart.

   As teachers, our job is to develop the minds of our youngsters and to help them move forward in their lives, not to judge them and feel that they are not worth it or they are not up to the level. They can be smarter than anyone in the room, but it is our job as teachers to figure it out.  

                                                                                                                          - Dana Molla -