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 - 

What can I do Now that I couldn't do last year?

 

       COVID 19 have impacted our lives in all sorts of ways, but I decided to construct my future even better and take positive turns in this crises. In this post I will be talking about the things that I can do now that I couldn't do last year. 

       1- Improve my Self Confidence: When I decided I want to continue teaching diploma, I was anxious about the thoughts of " I hope this major is not too hard" or " I don't know if I can make it to be a teacher" . Those fears are slowly disappearing, as my knowledge is increasing on how to be a successful teacher; weather, constructing exams and evaluation, portfolios in the Assessment and evaluation course, learning very interesting tools, websites, and applications that I would use as a teacher later on and gave me a wide horizon on how technology affects and highly improve the educational process. With my role model Dr. Amal Farhat, as well as the philosophical approaches in education, and most importantly, how to really manage a Classroom successfully. This have changed a lot of thinks and made things clearer to making me a better teacher in the future, as well as on the personal level.

      2- Higher order skills: As all students, throughout my entire education at school and at university, I was never trained to perform critical thinking and analysis, as well as how to construct and smoothly join the ideas of several chapters to a clear essay. I now have the critical thinking skills that I didn't acquire before, because it was not practiced. It also boosted my creativity in many things. 

    3- Time management: This skill have been always mastered by Me; however, last year was tough, and I had fell of the wagon, but with the continuation of my education, I regained this important skill to be able to study and live my life in a better and more organized way. 

                                                                                                                          - Dana Molla- 

Challenges in Online Learning

  

    

        COVID 19 have tremendously affected our lives both positively and negatively. It also made a revolution of online education; however, it was not easy to adapt to this kind of change immediately and have raised some disadvantages for both the students and teachers. I will be discussing some challenges that I personally faced with online learning. 

      1- Less Focused : In many courses, it was hard for me to stay focused during the lecture, due to the system of students explaining the material and not the teacher. The way that students present keeps it hard to stay focused, this is because of their tone of voice, pronunciation, and articulation of their voices when presenting, dull PowerPoints with no interest or action in them, using too much words in the slides. Luckily there is the concept of recorded lectures that helps me be more focused on the lecture and get the best out of it at my own pace. Although, I am usually not focused in other lectures, because of the pedagogy being used, I am highly focused and enthusiastic in Media and technology since everything done is applied and we are highly engaged in the classroom activities and all of us are on-task in this class because Dr. Amal uses a very nice approach in teaching, her instructions are very clear, her activities and assignment are solved enthusiastically, and I am lucky to take this course with such a great Dr.

    2- Internet Problems: Internet connection problems happen all over the world, and the more people are using the server, t) he slower the internet connection is, this is bad from the teacher's side because the students will not understand the material being explained if the voice is too lagging and even if they want to repeat the session from the recording it will not help understand the lecture.

     Let us look at some solutions Regarding this issue:

          A- Working on a different network : It makes it faster since only 1 person is using this network only, it wouldn't necessarily be perfect but it can help. 

           B- Use a UPS: UPS is a large battery that can serve as an alternative during the electricity is cut off until it comes back.

           C- Have Back up plans : For students, losing the internet connection does not tremendously affect things; however, if teachers lose their internet it is a big problem for the students. Therefore, a teacher should always have a backup plan when it comes to online teaching (example: Have mobile internet service... etc. ) 

    3- Using new Applications : At first, I had some trouble joining the class when using Zoom, this is not due to lack of computer skills rather than it is a professional meeting application that I never practically used, whereas using Google meet was easier since I have encountered it previously. Thankfully, with Dr. Amal's Help I can now use Zoom easily and proficiently. 

   4- No Student-Teacher Interaction: I, myself am a very social person; however, not seeing my classmates even on camera made me a little bit shy to even greet them without feeling anxious and my heart pounding, this is due to the fact that there isn't any real interaction with the students between each other. I feel like I am studying just listening to the lecture as a voice note, rather than engaging with my classmates like I would in university campus. In addition, not all teachers turn on their camera when giving the lecture, and this makes it a little bit hard to get interactive with the teacher. The fact of talking to each other like robots behind the screen is frustrating. Thankfully, when Dr. Amal turns on her camera, I am very enthusiastic and very happy to see her; whereas other instructors just talk from behind the screen, I just know how they look like from their pictures, but I wish they would turn on their camera to know them and meet them. Unfortunately, we have lost the student-teacher interaction during online learning, but this is a choice and teachers can show themselves or not while talking, this makes it more engaging like in reality. 

     In conclusion, Online learning difficulties can be categorized into technical issues or Pedagogical issues, and with this new revolution that brought up a lot of advantages, including opportunities to join Classes internationally and at the comfort of their home, it promoted higher order skills more, and it allows the students to repeat the lecture at their own pace; however, not to mention the disadvantages encountered during online teaching which can easily be prevented and improved.  

                                                                                                                           -Dana Molla-