Bullying

Bullying is hurting or doing an unwanted behavior, it is acted against a person or a group of children, or students. The aggressive behavior is done for a certain purpose and it is a repeated behavior. Thus, it is considered bullying when there is repetition and imbalance of power between the kids who are bullied and those who bully others.

Types of bullying:

There are three types of bullying:

1)      Verbal bullying: is using hurtful and unkind words.  It includes: name calling, using put-downs or threatening people.

2)      Social bullying: it is damaging others’ good relations, causing them bad reputations and starting rumors about a person. It includes: cornering a person, making fun of him in the public, ignoring or leaving a person out and giving dirty looks.

3)      Physical bullying: It is abusing others or destroying their stuff. It includes: hitting, biting, breaking others’ possessions and producing unkind gestures and movements.

five tips to help preventing this problem.

The first one is practicing what you preach through listening before talking and reflecting before acting to ensure that all of the learners feel valued and connected to the school. This will be reflected later in their behaviors and willingness to stop bullying and valuing each other as humans and effective individuals.

Moreover, another tip is related  to assessing the extent of the problem through surveying students to find out how much bullying is taking place, what types of bullying are dominant as well as where and when bullying is taking place in order to know how to prevent it.

Another tip suggests developing a school- wide code of conduct in which school rules and values are reinforced and unacceptable behaviors are clearly defined. This provides students with standards to follow and helps them better identify the inappropriate behaviors.

Furthermore, increasing adult supervision is the fourth tip which focuses on the importance of having adults visible and vigilant in hallways, stairwells, cafeterias, locker rooms and buses because mostly bullying takes place when adults are not present.

Finally, the fifth tip suggests conducting bullying prevention activities such as creative arts highlighting school values to reinforce the idea that bullying isn’t accepted and to emphasize the importance of building one community within the school.

Part of the dynamics group work presentation

Teachers as Counselors

Teachers play vital roles in the lives of students in their classrooms. Teachers play their roles as teachers, guide and counselor .Despite of being hired as educators, they know well that their duty is bigger than that. Teachers spend a great time with students, they communicate with their students and improve their skills at a level that parents don't really have a lot of freedom to control. Further more, teachers serve many other roles in the classroom. They set the tone for their classroom, build a warm environment, mentor and nurture students, become role models, and listen and look for signs of trouble. Students spend a great deal of time with their teacher and therefore the teacher does become a role model. Teachers are there not only to teach but to love and care for them. Another role is a protector role. Teachers are taught to look for signs of trouble in the students. When students' behaviors change or physical signs of abuse are noticed, teachers are required to look into the problems.
by

Renee Roseberry on 25 April 2015     

Edited

Elitism is alive and well in most UK universities

Elitism plays a huge role in deciding what you will be a s a university student.

Wherever you live says what and who you will be as a university student.That is what a journalist named John Raftery wrote on March 6, 2018

He said that young people who live in low participation areas seem to be responding to the demands of their societies and their location. They are to ‘know their place’ as people say. They are not encouraged to have dreams and ambitions.  And those signals are coming loud and clear from the very universities that are simply not doing enough to promote social mobility." 

Justice still exists even in educational fields !

Introducing Comedy In The Classroom

Innovative award-winning teaching using the performing arts and comedy improvisation as teaching tools, at the University of East Anglia, UK.
This university got some actors who are professional in comedy and taught their instructors ;who mostly have phd certificates; how to be funny in class. The goal from this step is to motivate students to share their creativity. The instructors participated in workshops that taught them how to be more confident and simple.
I wish I could attend such workshop.

New York Times: Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness

By DAVID SHIMERJAN. 26, 2018

1200 students registered a psychology 157 course at the university, the instructor focuses on teaching  students how to lead a happier, more satisfying life in twice-weekly lectures. This course was suggested by students themselves who noticed how unhappy their lives were, they wanted to change it to a better view towards themselves .This course focuses on both positive psychology and the way of flourishing a person's life. Yale's university is looking forward to produce more positive thinkers.

Great website for kids

We all know how games attract students to learning, I discovered a website that I think I could use it in teaching. This website is full of games: They say that their mission is to bring free information that would help kids in discovering new things. I recommend that you take a look at it, it has :

Astronomy Games Biology Games Dinosaur Games Geography Games Geology GamesHistory Games Math Games Memory Games Spelling Games More Games  It has also educational movies and music which would be fun to use with our students.

http://kidsknowit.com/

4 New "Effective Teaching Methods" to WOW your students

1. The Desire Method

where you give students what they really want to learn, the headlines that you write should be interesting and they would be like a promise you give for your students, it what they want to learn.

2.How does NOT knowing your content ultimately hurt their future success?

Show students how they would feel if they lack the knowledge, let them see examples, and focus on the feeling of loss.

3. The Preview Strategy: How To Create Anticipation For Your Curriculum

They can’t have something they WANT right now? tell them that they will reach to their learning goals after they follow on certain path, they share and learn until they fulfill their desired goals.

4. A Wild Secret for Effective Teaching: Teach with VAK

Teachers should be aware of the different types of learners which are: Visual , Audio and Kinesthetic learners, that is why as teachers we should include their preferences in our lesson plans to guarantee that they are all hooked.

ADHD event 22-02-2018(Dr Huda Shaaban)

I attended a seminar with a specialized AD/HD doctor, she focused on the strengths of the people who have this Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, she explained that there are several cases in this domain , the person could be AD only or HD, or he can have both. Dr. Shaaban gave ways that we can help students with so that they don't reach to the negative results that are caused by ADHD, she said that whenever we give students with this disorder suitable opportunities, then they can shine in the sky of success, and not any success. People with this disorder are extremely creative, they just need care and guidance since this disorder is a lack of a kind of neurons that is responsible for retrieving and sending messages. I got a full clear image about this disorder and I'm excited to search for more information about this case.
For more information about the Dr, you can connect to the following link:

Title of the webinar: Encouraging Physical Activity in Preschoolers

Time:  27,02, 2018 -Dr. Steve Sanders (sanders@usf.edu)The webinar started with the professor introducing himself, then he presented slides, he focused on teaching students , toddlers or our kids the loco motor skills . These skills are: run, walk, jump, hop, leap.  He defined every term, for example he defined walk as :” The walk is a transfer of weight from one foot to the other. Usually the heel touches first”, then he gave the order of learning them, so he said that babies learn first how to walk then they move towards running and other skills.

Afterwards Dr. Steve talked about uneven loco motor skills which are : skip, gallop and slide, he defined every term.

He moved to another part: The Skill of Travelling in The National Standards for Physical Activity (NASPE 2004), he also focused on the act of traveling, which is when the baby moves from one spot to another, he also mentioned the best positions for these skills to develop in babies he said that we should avoid keeping babies laying for long times on their backs. Furthermore, kids who walk earlier have a wider list of vocabulary than the one who crowls.

He added a slide: Traveling or loco motor skill: walking, running, marching, galloping, jumping and landing, skipping , chasing, fleeing and dodging.

The most important points that I learned were making kids aware of their  bodies, as teachers and parents we should focus on teaching them the names of their body parts, and it is our duty to teach and train students on using the loco motor skills and that helps them on staying safe which is our main goal that we want our students to transfer to the rest of their lives. Another interesting part was the ways of practicing loco motor skills with our kids and students, we could use a drum or any other instrument to make a beat then the students will follow and learn. There a way which is related to tagging and as the Dr. says it’s very beneficial to be used with kids.

It was an interesting webinar and interesting experience.