Education land by Saeed Mubarak

Education Land PART 1

Introduction This book is for teachers of English and also educators .It contains many ideas about How to deal with students, time, course books, lessons, parents in appropriate way.It will help you how to think when you face difficult situations.

This book reflects my own teaching experience in High Schools. I have been teaching English for ten years in Saudi Arabia English language as a foreign language .So I hope this book will be helpful for Saudi teachers who teaches English .Also I hope it will be also helpful for any EFL teachers whatever his language is .

Finally ,I would like to thank my friend "Ahmad" who is also teacher for being helpful with me .I also would like to thank all teachers of English in my country Saudi Arabia who I met with them and having very nice discussions about my book tips. Best Regards Saeed Mubarak

Content 1. Improving Classroom Quality 2. Avoiding Mother-Tongue in Classroom 3. The Most Effective Dictionary 4. Using Hidden Cameras in Schools 5. Standardized Testing is not enough 6. How to Maintain Positive Attitudes with your Students 7. What Worksheet Can Do! 8. Teacher's Attitude and Students' Progress 9. Designing Course Book for future needs 10. How to activate your class 11. Creative ideas for different ability Class 12. How to deal with Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interruptions 13. My Dreams with Digital Classroom 14. A piece of Advice for Teaching Grammar 15. Using Facebook to Teach English 16. Introducing Historical Events 17. Big Grammatical Surprise! 18. The Importance of Using Course Book in Classroom 19. My students challenge me! 20. Making Scan Reading Meaningful 21. How to select what fit your abilities! 22. Breakfast in Our Schools 23. Involving Students in Self-Assessment 24. Dealing with Sick Students 25. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kill some time 26. How to enjoy your job 27. Attracting Students' Attention and Thought Before a New Lesson 28. Back to School 29. How do I prevent my students from cheating!

1. Improving Classroom Quality Classroom quality is depending on the teaching and learning processes which take place inside it. Also it depends on the relationship between the students and their teacher. The learning process involves students and teacher interaction. So teachers should endeavor to improve the manner of interaction with their students when introducing new lessons in classroom. Furthermore, this process takes into consideration the facilities available to the teachers in imparting knowledge to their students. In this regard, teachers should be adequately provided for in terms of the latest technological equipment they may be in need of. With the use these factors as well as the under mentioned ones, I think, classroom quality will be improved: 1- We should allow students to participate in the learning process- By allowing students to participate in teams that require multiplicity and diversity of the tasks; their learning abilities will be enhanced. In this connection, students can be organized into education and learning teams as required by the circumstances and content of teaching seminar. 2- Strengthen the teamwork between the students- By the distribution of roles and responsibilities among them, and this can involve them in a deeper stage of education before entering into tertiary education. 3- Maintaining positive environment- By maintaining good teacher-students relationship, this will create a positive learning environment which will ultimately lead to improved students' performance. For us as teachers, I suggest some strategies if adopted; may aid the teaching process and at the end of the day may improve Classroom quality. 1- Transfer from known to unknown- Teachers should be careful in introducing new information in the class. In this sense, a progressive methodology of moving from the known to the unknown can be very beneficial to students' understanding. 2- From touchable to abstract- Borrowing from the English proverb which says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Seeing is believingâ&#x20AC;?, I advice teachers to mostly start with what students can touch and see. Building from this solid foundation, you can move to the abstract and there will be a great tendency for your students to be with you. 4

3- Give assignments and test based on Students’ ability- Assignment and tests must be compatible with students’ level and ability. Because this is necessary to keep the students motivated. Because a teacher who gives his or her students work beyond their capacity will discourage them and left them unmotivated.

4- Giving them frequent revision to make sure that they understand- Learning without revision could be almost meaningless; therefore, by giving regular revision students will be abreast with what they have learned. Observations have proven that even weak students can improve considerably when given frequent revision exercises. 5- Knowing the students’ cultural background- A teacher who knows the students’ cultural background will be able to relate to them well. This will be helpful in the learning process. Considering the above mentioned points, I think if implemented will bring about a considerable improvement to the classroom quality.

2. Avoiding Mother-Tongue in Classroom

Learners of a foreign language may face lots of challenges as a result of the differences that usually exist between two languages. The other day, I was having a discussion with some of my colleagues when the topic of using mother tongue in classroom cropped up. We discussed about when and how to use mother tongue when teaching English. In this article, I will discuss the result of that discussion and make some recommendations. In order to treat this topic with the justice it deserves, the following questions will be asked: 1. In which level should we avoid using mother tongue? 2. What are the tools that can be used to help teachers and students avoid mother tongue classroom? Recommendations 1. When to avoid using mother tongue For the purpose of simplicity, mother tongue may be used in a limited way for beginners. This is because a new learner may need to make connection between his or her native and the foreign language. Some language experts have even suggested that a sound grammatical understanding of one's native language will assist greatly in learning a foreign language by way of correlation. However, after the basics of the new language have been grasped at the beginners' level; it is better to gradually avoid the use mother tongue at the intermediate level. For a complete avoidance this can be done at the advanced level. 2. Tools that aid the avoidance the use of mother tongue The following tools may be employed to help avoid the use mother tongue: 1. Course book: a course book with diagrams and illustrations will make understanding easier for students and thus there will be no need for the use of mother tongue. 2. Flash card: makes learning easier without the need for another language and so also is slideshow. 3. Photo-Dictionary: some students usual use dictionary with words translated to their native language. A dictionary with pictures will make the need for another language unnecessary.

In addition to the above, some foreign language intuitions have introduced rules that aid the avoidance of mother tongue such as separation and prohibition.

Separation is the situation where in students with the same native languages are given placed in different accommodations; thus, those with different languages stay in the same room. In this way, they will be obliged to communicate in the new language. Prohibition is when rules are passed that make it prohibited to speak mother tongue in classroom or the entire school campus. Usually, a sort of penalty is be levied to those who break the rules.

3. The Most Effective Dictionary For learners of a foreign language, developing vocabulary and using words correctly are absolutely necessary if one is to gain mastery of the target language. Therefore, the method of learning a new word is very important. One day, while I was explaining a new vocabulary to my students using English language as usual; one of them who always likes discussing with me said: “Please teacher get rid of using English to explain new words. English-Arabic dictionary will help us to know the meaning of the word directly. Why do you make all these efforts to explain a single word? Now we have electronic English–Arabic dictionary that gives the meaning in seconds”. In order to stress the importance of learning a language in the language itself, I started discussing with him and his classmates how using an English-English Dictionary to learn new vocabulary will help. In this regard, I mentioned to them some benefits of using an English-English Dictionary: First of all, looking for words in dictionaries needs effort; so this difficulty to find the meaning of a word will make it almost impossible for you to forget. This is not he case with electronic dictionary which gives you the meaning instantly. There is a great tendency for you to easily forget; because as the saying goes: "easy to come, easy to go" Secondly, it helps students to stop thinking and translating in their mother's tongue. Actually, it will make them think in English. Thirdly, if students keep using multilingual dictionary such as English-Arabic Dictionary, at the end of the day, they will have for each Arabic word many English words with the same meaning. But they may not know how to use them appropriately. But if they use English–English Dictionary, this will help them to understand how to use the new words correctly. Fourthly, when students look for the meaning of new words, they will learn many things. These can be itemized as follows: a) Students can learn how to pronounce words correctly. b) They will learn the exact definition of the word. c) They will know how to classify words grammatically. d) Each word in a dictionary has a sentence as an example as to how it is used in daily life situations.

At the end of discussion one of the students asks me: “How can we deal with the situation if we don’t know the meaning of the words which describe the given word?” I asked them to give me enough time to look for a solution .When I browsed the web site called (Using English), I found a person called Alex Case who is a teacher and teacher trainer in Turkey, Thailand, Spain, Greece, Italy, the UK and now Japan. He has also published English teaching books, articles. He tried to answer the question my students asked in one of his article. He said:” Many students are worried that when they look for one difficult English word in the dictionary, they will just find it explained with another difficult word they also don’t know. This will rarely happen with the right dictionary and if this happens all the time you should probably be using an easier one such as an Elementary Learners’ Dictionary “.

4. Using Hidden Cameras in Schools

It is a known fact that certain crimes and malpractices take place in schools and other educational institutions. I was wondering how can this crimes be eliminated or at least be minimized? In case of hidden cameras are introduced, how effective can these be dealing with theses problems? Before discussing the effectiveness of hidden cameras, let us itemize for what they can be used: 1. To Prevent stealing- There are some students who are in the habit of stealing stuffs from their colleagues. Mostly, they went uncaught in the absence of physical evidences. However, in the presence of hidden cameras there will be sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the culprit. This will also serve as a deterrent to any potential criminal. 2. To Monitor Indecent Behavior- Character and disposition vary from one individual to another and as such students might subject their colleagues to various types of bully and physical harassment. Some even go to the extent of introducing unwanted sexual approaches. If they are prosecuted to the school authorities they often deny any involvement in such indecent behavior. In the presence of evidence the situation will be dealt with easily. 3. Dealing with Cheating- Examinations are meant to assess students' abilities; so that teachers can identify areas of weaknesses and strengths. Learning strategies can be diversified to address shortcomings and bring about improvement where necessary. Therefore, if exams do not truly reflect the reality of their abilities, there will not be successful solutions to learning. When students are aware that they are being monitored by cameras they may give up hope of cheating during exams for fear of being caught. They may be forced to prepare well for their examinations and their overall learning performance may finally improve. 4. Prevention of Potential Crimes- In a situation wherein a student might tend to become aggressive because of certain psychological problem; a close circuit camera can be might be helpful in aborting a potential crime. In effect, school administration may deal with students' crimes by taking appropriate actions against potentially dangerous as well proven dangerous students. Having enumerated some important benefits of using hidden cameras, I'm still wondering what are the odds of establishing such a technological system? Would there be enough government allocated budget to maintain this system? If funds are used for 10

this purpose, should this money have been better spent on the actual educational system in terms of teachers' salaries and provision of advanced technology for the teaching process? Would this security system lead students to adopt other anti-security strategies? Or should we deal with the causes of these crimes rather with the crimes directly? Whatever the case might be in a scenario where solutions to prevent crimes have been proved to be ineffective, spy camera will be of great usefulness. Please feel free to share your ideas with me in connection to this issue of using hidden cameras.

5. Standardized Testing is not enough Longman Dictionary defines "Evaluation" as a judgment about how good, useful, or successful is something. This judgment should be fair. So we can get benefit of this process. When we look at most evaluation systems nowadays, you find the main concentrating is on Answer sheets students introduce at the end of session .We should if we would like to be a fair especially teachers of English to look at many sides .Learning English involving four skills .So we have to give each skill certain criteria . So we have to give them a list of activities in each skill in a certain period of time. Then we can evaluate their efforts according to the number of activities they do and quality of their works. This method encourages them to work hard to practice English by doing all kinds of activities you give them. Evaluation process is one of the most sensitive thing in education .Evaluation is the gate for jobs. So we don’t like any one open this gate unless he is qualify enough to do that. According to Education Week Teacher ,Larry Terrazzo under his topic Looking Beyond the Simple School Fix said: ” Evaluating Students and Teachers Using Fair, Valid and Reliable Measures: We need to reduce our dependence on standardized testing as the primary method of assessing students and teachers. Using multiple measures, including portfolios of student work, allows us to evaluate students based on work they have constructed themselves, as opposed to their skill in selecting the one right answer from a list of possibilities on a multiple choice test.” Students' works should be evaluated according to the county and quality at the same time .Because as I mention before this is will encourage students to be more serious and more creative at the same time.

6. How to Maintain Positive Attitudes with your Students Dealing with human beings, whether they are teenagers or adults is not an easy task. Therefore, teachers should endeavor to create a classroom environment which is conducive to learning. Achieving this is not always easy as there are students who respect classroom etiquette while others do not. However, if you conduct your classroom in a manner that respects your rights and the student’s rights, this will create a positive and supportive classroom environment. The following are some ways of creating positive attitudes and preventing a negative backlash in classroom: 1. Teachers should put on professional behavior in classroom and students will learn by imitating them. But if they see you treating their classmates with disdain they will turn on one another. That is, they model their teacher’s behavior without thinking. 2. Awarding student’s respect- by recognizing a student’s contribution; their classmate will follow suit, so it all starts with you the teacher. Thus, other students will compete in a positive way for the teacher's recognition. When this is the case, your performance and that of the students will be tremendously enhanced. 3. Show your students that you are there to make them succeed. Let them know that you are there to help them achieve something positive. When ever I ask my students to do some activities in such a positive atmosphere their motivation to work is optimal and the results are amazing. For example, if a student gets a high grade in the first exam; this might encourage him to maintain a positive momentum throughout the term. A successful lesson held with your students will breed more positive attitudes in the classroom and consequently their abilities to do better will be improved. 4. Do not show favoritism. If you show preferential treatment you risk losing their respect. However, justice and fair dealings couple with a demonstration of a desire to see them excel will establish positive attitudes among them. In effect, your students will love your subject and your job will be more interesting. 5. Don’t transfer annoyance to another circumstance- if you are emotional disturbed by another source; don’t express this in front of your students. But if you start your class in a high spirit, there will be good interaction with your students. I still remember when I was sick; I could not explain the lesson to my students in a way I used to do. As a result there was poor interaction with my students. 6. Good compliment- positive attitude leads to greater positive achievements. When you compliment your students on their success this will motivate them to achieve more. 13

When I wrote my first article, people around me positively compliment my effort by say something good about it. Thus, I was encouraged to continue writing better articles. At the end of the day, the positive attitudes you maintain in school with your student, gives you happiness and job satisfaction as well as great success on the part of your students.

7. What Worksheet Can Do! The task of teaching a foreign language is not an easy one. Therefore, as teachers we should device ways to ease the learning process for students. The course book which I use to teach indicates in a particular lesson that students are required to write a paragraph of composition of their childhood memories. This proved to be difficult for them considering their level of English. Contemplating solution to this problem led me to use worksheet to simplify their task. In this article, I will discuss some of the usefulness of the worksheet. According to Longman dictionary, worksheet is a piece of paper with questions and exercises for students. From this definition, we deduce that worksheet is an effective tool of practicing English. It is from this perspective, that I used the work sheet to help my students to write about their childhood memories in a very easy and interesting way. The following are the features of the worksheet which I used according my own evaluation: -It is suitable for group work: Bringing students together to work as a group contains lots of benefits like sharing ideas and be more motivated to overcome the learning challenges they may encounter -Provision of specific guidelines: This can be compared to a scenario where students are in a bus going to a designated destination. They will need a road map to guide them to their target. The most suitable tool that offers this guide is the worksheet. Because it indicates the necessary points and expression needed to compose a paragraph. -It provides the needed vocabulary: Students may come across difficulty to write a composition as a result of lack of adequate vocabulary. In a worksheet the necessary vocabulary are readily available; this makes it easier for students to use them. -It contains illustrations: Worksheet with pictures and diagrams enables students to understand faster; especially for visual learners. They can easily make connection between pictures and diagrams to construct meaningful sentences and ideas. -Simplification of the teaching and learning process- Worksheet allows the teacher explore wide range of creativity in terms of introducing diversified mind maps and diagrams. Furthermore, it makes explanation easier for the teacher and students are able to grasp the lesson quickly. The bottom line of all this is an effective usage of time in the teaching and learning process. Any comments in this connection will be well appreciated. 15

8. Teacher's Attitude and Students' Progress

The relationship between teachers and students can at times be very critical; as teachers' attitude can impact students' progress negatively or positively. In this regard, teachers should adopt an approach that will motivate students to progress rather than demotivate them. This article concerns two methods of approach that teachers mostly use and there corresponding consequences.

The Motivating Approach Teachers who used this method are cognizant and appreciative of the smallest progress students make. They show recognition and appraisal for this so as to encourage the student to keep it up. When I was at school, I made a little progress in English literature; then my teacher recognized and appreciated my effort because of this, I consequently obtained excellent grades in this subject. Teachers who use this method do not overreact when students fall short but seek to find out what was the cause and address it. They observe the general progress of the class instead of only focusing on the small group who excel.

The Demotivating Approach This is the situation wherein the teacher is very difficult to satisfy. Whatever improvement on the part of the students is not recognized or appreciated. Instead, they are searching for shortcomings in order to intimidate students. This attitude often cause backlash on the students as some of them might develop hatred for the subject as a result of the teacher's attitude. This will definitely cause students to retrogress in their studies.

Therefore, as teachers we should adopt attitude that leads to students' progress as opposed to one which will adversely affect them in their journey to success. Your contribution in relation to teacher's attitude and students' progress will be most welcome.

9. Designing Course Book for future needs

For those preparing course materials for students learning English as a second language, careful deliberation should be taken to understand the special circumstance of the students. There are many obstacles in learning a foreign language; especially to those who start it late. In my country Saudi Arabia for instance, students start learning English at intermediate school, so mostly it is not easy for them to cope; except with special effort. In addition to this, in secondary school, students are divided into two areas of studies: Arts and Science. I am going to look at suitability of the English Course being taught to these students and suggest how it could be redesign to make it fulfill it real purpose.

Problems of the Course Book The division of students to Arts and Science is done based on their academic performance, consequently students with higher grades find themselves in science and those with lower grades go to arts. For the arts students their difficulty is apparent; as the course is not easy for them considering their low standard and also it is not meeting their special needs. Moreover, science students have much serious problem as they will have to pursue medical or engineering course and the medium of teaching is English language. Since this English Course is not design to cater for their area of science, most of them often face problem of understanding in medical school.

Solution Having studied the problem carefully, I am wondering if students are going to overcome it and make tremendous progress; there should be a redesigning of the English Course book to make it suitable to the needs of both the Arts and Science students. The reason for this is that at secondary level all other subjects are taught in Arabic and English language is taught only as a foreign language. So a newly designed course book might help students reach their learning goal. Do you have any other method to share with us that can assist student of EFL overcome their learning difficulties? Your ideas will be warmly welcome.

10. How to activate your class It could be mention that in a class with several students, there must be differences in abilities, aptitudes and concentration. Because of this, the teacher should find ways to diversify his or her teaching strategies in order to get the all students to be included in a lesson. In this regard, I think the following steps will be beneficial in achieving this goal:

1. Division of the Class into groups- Instead of having a bunch of students to deal with; they can be divided into groups. This actually leads to efficiency as the smaller the group the more effective will be the supervision as well as the better the focus and concentration of the students.

2. Designation of a specific and clear task to each student- The success of a group work will only be ascertained if each student has a role to play. Therefore, it is important to give each student a specific task to carry out. This task should be related to what the over all group are doing. In this way, it is like individual student contributing building blocks that will eventually lead to a complete building.

3. Distribution of work sheets- To get the job done efficiently, work sheets should be given to the students. In these work sheets, they will do their individual task. For the fact that they are required to submit their work sheets, they will be motivated to do their best.

4. Discussion of the work sheet- The importance this stage can not be over emphasized; as it could be compared to sick persons who visit a Medical Doctor for treatment. The Doctor will only be able to effectively treat these patients after a complete diagnosis and tests have been performed on them with clear results. So when the students submit their work sheets the teacher will know exactly what their weaknesses and strengths are and in the process of discussion these problematic areas will be smoothly dealt with.

11. Creative ideas for different ability Class

Teaching students who in the future will be expert in their particular fields is not an easy task. Therefore, teachers should be keen to identify methods and strategies that will facilitate this process and make it a success. Since I started teaching English some ten years ago, it was my dream for my students to achieve proficiency in all four language learning skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, my long experience in this field made me realized that this is very difficult to achieve. The reason for this difficulty is that students vary in their abilities, aptitudes and capacities to understand. One usually finds students who are fast to understand, while others are in the middle and yet others are very slow to cope in class. In a situation like this, if a teacher deals with these students on the same level there will definitely be a vast disparity or inequality in students' achievement. If we do not want to see an undesirable result like this, something needs to be done. In this regard, I think students should be divided into three groups: beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. For each level there is a course and work book and a specific test designed for them. The aim of this is to allow students to learn and progress at their own pace based on their aptitudes, abilities and special needs. In the final analysis, we will see general progress and achievement rather than a success of just a cross-section of students. In case anyone has a strategy that will take in consideration the differences in abilities that may exist among students, I will be happy to receive his or her view point.

12. How to deal with Students’ interruptions Yesterday, I start my lesson as usual with a discussion as an introduction for my next lesson. Then one of my student interrupt me and said “Please teacher I would like to go to bathroom .Another one interrupt me .Then he said ” Please ,teacher punish my colleague (Why!) ,because he throws me Actually, we as teachers have a particular syllabus which should be covered in a semester .So topics are distributed within specific periods . In this case ,if there are unnecessary interruptions during explanation’s time ,this means teacher will not be able to find enough time to complete the lesson during the stated time. For instance, I am teaching English as a foreign language to Arab students .My students are divided into two groups .Some of them are motivated and interested while the others are completely disinterested .Those who are motivated sometimes ask questions ,that if I should answer all of them. It might be too time consuming and the lesson for that period will not be completed. On the other hand, the disinterested one ask questions with the aim of causing absolute distraction from the lesson being discussed. In dealing with this situation, I discussed this issue with one of my colleagues ,and he gave me a golden advice .That I should hang a poster which is for questions students may want to ask .If a student wants to ask ,he could early write it .Then hang it on the poster. At the end of the lesson, questions would discuss in order of importance. I invite suggestions from the readers on how to deal with student’s interruption .Any comments will be received gratefully.

13. My Dreams with Digital Classroom I teach English language for High school students. My course book has many lessons focusing on some drills relating to reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. But one of my favorite lessons is about conversations. This is also a type of drills as I mention before. My often start these lessons by reading the conversation loudly, and then start discussing the content of conversation. I sometimes use cassette recorder to make my students listen to native speakers. However, I observed that my students don't interact that much with cassette recorder. This traditional method makes me feel sick. I wish I could change this to something unfamiliar and something unusual. I suggest that how much I would like that I could make internet connection with another classroom around the world their students who are English native speaker .We can use Skype messenger to connect with another classroom in another country for example "England ". If you ask me" How can we do that?" I will reply" we can do that by making connection by Skype messenger .This messenger is unique. Before that we have to make preparation between you as a teacher of classroom and another teacher .You have to discuss which conversation you would like to discuss .Then when you agree .You can then explain you lesson as usual .Then when Practice time begins when you open Skype messenger .Then make connection with a teacher in another classroom in England .Take a permission from him to start practicing .After that, choose one of your students to make conversation with another students in another classroom who are native speaker .That's will be very interesting .Also that's will encourage students to speak as I think. During conversation each one of these students Saudi student and these English students can see each others .It is like face to face conversation .What is a wonderful experience they may get. Here in Saudi Arabia we follow single sex education .In Britain there is a Single sex education. If you may make agreement with them, don't bother yourself .You will see just males. It is a fantastic idea I wish I could apply it once a day.

14. A piece of Advice for Teaching Grammar My course book contains some lessons which are related to English Grammar. I face difficulties to teach them even when I use slide show and other tools to simplify the materials but they still not able to understand anything. I start asking my colleagues who are working with me in the same school .I found them frustrating about studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance even though they work hard to teach them using many tools .But there is still big number of them understand nothing in Grammar. Next, I start thinking of this situation what can I do for my student to understand English. Then I found this solution .I has to ask them firstly about their first language grammar .Then I can make a comparison between their first and second language Grammar. The day after, I come to class to explain the previous lesson which was ambiguous to them .I start discussing with them their first language Grammar .Wow what a shame .I found big number of them didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how to extract subject from the sentence in his first language . Because of that I start revising all the grammatical items which are relating to my current lesson in their first language. Next, I made a comparison between their first and second language. Finally, they understand the grammatical items in my lesson .But I say to myself â&#x20AC;&#x153;I should give them worksheet for this lesson .Because of that I divide them into four groups .Then, I give each group one single worksheet to answer .They answer them in a perfect way. As a conclusion , I advice all EFL teachers to revise and make sure that their students are ready for taking new lesson in Grammar by revising this item in their first language. Any comments will be received gratefully.

15. Using Facebook to Teach English When considering the technological advances in this our age, I was wondering if I could start teaching my students English as second language by using Facebook as the medium. Well, you might be tempted to ask; how intend to go about it? In this connection, I will first of all create a group in Facebook by using the Groups tool in Facebook and clicking on the Create A New Group button. Follow the steps including making the group public. It will be made public because I would like students can find it easily. Secondly, inside the group, I can post topic for my students to write on, then I will choose the best three for voting. This competition style stuff will make them prepare well and I hope will improve their writing skill. Videos, links, and other "wall" items will be posted to assist them in their preparation. In fact, this is a means to continue the classroom in other settings with much flexibility. Thirdly, using my own personal network, I will invite "guests" into the group so that they can contribute to the discussion boards. There is a real benefit to get other experts talking to your students. The students might establish fraternity with other students and much benefit can be exchanged. Fourthly, I will make sure my students always respond to my original post for a grade, and then give points for when they respond to others in the discussion board. Your guests will have to become members of the group to post to the Discussion Board, so let your "guests" drop out of the group early if they are only to contribute to one discussion. Finally, I would I encourage the students to post a topic of their choice in order to ignite their creative. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to use Facebook for effectively teaching English as second language.

16. Introducing Historical Events Most students may find history subject interesting; however when it comes to associating historical events with the specific dates and places of occurrence this usually present a Herculean task for most of them. Should teachers leave students to their plight without assisting them in surmounting this problem? Or should they find ways of simplifying this task of relating events with dates and places easily for their students? I am in favor of the second option based on a simple method which I have tried with my students. To be frank, the outcome of this method was amazing. In this short article, I would discuss how this method has worked for my students and I believe that if your students share the like of that problem it may work for them too. Actually, my students used to detest issue of dates in historical events. This has been bothering me for quite a long period of time. What solution should I come up with in order to address this problem? Finally, I decided to make use of mind map to associate historical events and the corresponding dates. In drawing the mind map, I decided choose the pattern that mostly suite my purpose in simplifying the task of my students. Therefore, I chose this particular design that effectively relates events and dates directly. Attached is a sample of the mind map used. After I introduced this method, I gave them a test relating to associating historical events with their respective dates. It was really a great surprise to see how excellent was their performance and above all how their attitudes towards this issue of dates in history drastically changed from being negative to positive. Do you have any incident to share in your encounter with your students; wherein you have faced a problem and you introduce a successful solution to deal with? If any of you think of such a situation, I would be very much appreciative if you share it with us.

17. Big Grammatical Surprise! My course book contains some lessons which are related to English Grammar and as such I usually face difficulties to get my students to understand these rules. Even though I have diversified my teaching methods by using slide shows and other tools to simplify the materials but still there is not much success. I thought may be I was not doing enough to get the information across to my students; however, discussion with some of my colleagues showed that this problem is general. They informed me that even though they are working hard by employing various teaching techniques to teach grammatical rules, yet still their students' performance is very frustrating as the vast majority of them can't understand these rules. In connection with this problem, I refused to give in; so started thinking of a possible solution. In the course of this, I decided test them with certain grammatical rules in their native language which were related to the subject matter being discussed in the second language. My intention was to make a comparison between the grammatical rules in their native language and the second language to see if this would improve their understanding. In this regard, the next day, I started explaining the previous lesson which was ambiguous to them, by discussing with them similar grammatical in their first language. What a flop! What a shame! I found big number of them didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know how identify subject and predicate in the sentences of their native language. Because of that, I started revising the grammatical rules which are relating to my current lesson in their first language. Subsequently, I made a comparison between their native and the second language. Finally, by using this method, they understood the grammatical rules in my lesson in the second language. I further decided to give them a worksheet for their practice on what they have learnt using this comparison method during the lesson; so I divided them into four groups. I then gave each group a single worksheet to answer. They answer them in a perfect way. So I was wondering: does a thorough understanding of one's native language give him or her an advantage in learning a foreign language? If this is the case, then EFL teachers might consider ways in which their students could strengthen their native language so as to make learning a foreign language more of a fun and easy exercise. Your opinion in this issue would be most welcome.

18. The Importance of Using Course Book in Classroom I was discussing with one of my colleagues the other day about the necessity of using course book in the classroom; then I managed to come up with the following points after our discussion: 1. Organization and Planning- Course book is organized units of work and outlined all the plans and lessons that teachers are to cover in a specific topic in some detail. 2. Helping beginning teachers - Teachers who are new in the field of teaching are in need of a material that clearly designs each lesson in detail. Therefore a course book provides the needed assistance. 3. Exceptional Teaching Aids- Course book is a very important teaching tool that supports teachers to clarify and simplify the material for their students. 4. Excellent Learning Resource â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Because course books are organized and carefully planned, this provides the students with the much needed resources for their smooth learning process. 5. Sequential Presentation of Information- As a result of the preparation of the information in course book in an orderly manner; this allows the teacher to present material in a balanced and sequential way. 6. Provision of Teaching Procedures- Course books provides a detailed sequence of teaching procedures that tells what to do and when to do it. Everything is carefully planned and so there are no surprises. 7. Outlining a Complete Program- The series are usually based on the latest research and teaching strategies therefore they provide administrators and teachers with a complete and comprehensive program. In conclusion, the above are the some of the factors which make course book one of the most important tools in the teaching and learning process.

19. My students challenge me! In my last post, I mentioned that I gave my students a new type of questions with the aim of preventing them from cheating. My observation after I gave them these types of questions while still following some traditional strategies such as creating A, B versions, was quite fascinating. Students who had adopted the habit cheating failed my examination miserably. Yet still others tried relentlessly to play some dirty games. What they did was that they intentionally abstained from writing their names on their answer sheets. Their aim was probably to confuse me. But they were unsuccessful in this trick, because I made a quick comparison between the handwriting on their homework book and that of their answers on the sheets. Finally, I was able discover who own these papers. They were astonished, but they later understood that they were not smarter than their teacher. As the saying goes, “a school master was once a school boy. In conclusion, I would like to mention an important note of caution to my fellow teachers that we should not be naïve to some of the criminal strategies that some students might adopt in order to render education process meaningless. In addition to our academic achievement, we should be equipped with the necessary knowledge to deal with the psychology of these young students criminals. I remember when one of my students complained saying: “Please teacher help me someone has stolen my books!” Sometimes, some students even practice violence against teachers themselves. It is not uncommon for teachers to find the windows of their cars broken or other types of destruction. Headmasters and students’ supervisors are also in need to know how to investigate and take appropriate measures before the situation becomes uncontrollable. We are in need of reading about school related crimes. I invite suggestions from readers on how to deal with minor and major challenges of students.

20. Making Scan Reading Meaningful I sometimes give my students a period of about five or ten minutes to read before the starting a new lesson. However, I realized that in most cases they don't concentrate and some naughty ones among them cause lots of distraction. After a prolong thought as to how I will help them make this reading time beneficial, I decided to come up with the following strategies to see how successful it would be to increase their focus.

1. Setting specific Goals: In order to connect them with the previous lesson, I asked them to read and extract the main ideas of a particular passage. In this case, I noticed that they were really focused and concentrated on what they were doing. In addition, I asked questions about certain words used the last lesson. Many of them came with encouraging results.

2. Asking questions before reading: Teachers may ask some questions relevant to the lesson to be discussed and students should answer these questions immediately after reading. This helps students to focus on the points of relevance and consequently improving their reading skills.

3. Analyzing Grammatical rules- In teaching English for instance, a scan reading session may be conducted to help students identify grammatical rules. The teacher may ask them to identify tenses used, sentence structure or correct punctuations.

Nevertheless, it will be up to the teachers to specify what is it that they require from their students for any session of scan reading. But that being said, giving reasons to read is better than to ask them to read for the sake of reading.

21. How to select what fit your abilities! For most High school students, deciding a field of study in college might pose the most difficult problem in their lives. Therefore, they need to put thought and effort in deciding the path that they are going to thread on; taking in to consideration the bigger picture of life. However in making this important decision the following points should be noted: Knowing Your Interest Only you will truly know what interests you, and what can keep your attention if you were to do it as a job. Maybe you are really into the law, maybe you like to help people, or maybe you just like being in charge. By figuring out what you are interested in, and what makes you happy, it becomes easier to single out exactly what field it is that you will want to go into. You don’t have to choose a field based on what you think will either make rich or famous! It doesn’t work like that .It is hard to imagine anyone who is either rich or famous starting out with those vague notions as their goal. You have to choose what you really love to do and money will follow in truckloads, you’ll be a richer person if you love what you do. Don’t choose what you think will be easy. Nothing worth having will ever be an easy process, and you shouldn’t give up on what you enjoy doing just because it could be too hard. You don’t want to look back at graduation, and realize that you really wanted to go into something else. Also, don’t decide upon a field of study based on what others expect you to do. Just because everyone in your family chooses that section before, doesn’t mean you have to follow them. You have right to choose what you think you have interest for. Knowing Your Skills It is absolutely necessary to be realistic about your strengths and weakness. If you are weak in mathematics, physics and biology, the science section might not be right for. It might not be a wise choice. Furthermore, in order to assess your strength and weaknesses, you may try out a variety of activities while you are still in high school through volunteer work groups. This lets you get a feel for things without making a decision about the field you will choose. It could lead you in some surprising directions as well. Finally, realize that the field you start with is not a life sentence. If you have at least started in an area that does not interests you, you can easily move into a related field that suits you better later on.

22. Breakfast in Our Schools Healthy breakfast is the most important meal .Studies show that children who eat breakfast do better in school. Students will feel better and perform better at classroom. Whether you work at home, on the farm, at the office, at school, or on the road, it is not a good idea to skip breakfast. Actually ,we face a problem in our schools ,because it introduce junk food for our students .School Shop sells Cola, Chocolate and chips which has no benefit .It will be reflected on Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; performance which will become worse than before because of this unhealthy breakfast . Another thing, there is no suitable place for students to eat breakfast. So I see my students eat breakfast while they are walking .This is too bad for their health and mood. Many students I face didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wash their hands and mouths after breakfast .This is become a result of not having a suitable a place for breakfast .Because of that we see a big number of my students visit dentist clinics. I hope we can see a suitable place for breakfast which is healthy in our schools. Any comments will be received gratefully.

23. Involving Students in Self-Assessment

In order to attain success in imparting educational information to students, a number of factors should be taken into consideration. Among these, involving students in the assessment process can be of immense importance. Therefore, in this article, we are going to discuss how to engage students in self-assessment. Mentioned as under are some factors that may contribute to an effective student's self-assessment.

1-Setting goals- Try to tell students at the beginning of what you expect from them at the end of the class. In this case, they will work according the goals of a lesson. This can be done by Planing methods for self-assessment concerning the learning objectives and evaluation criteria. Having this in mind will help students to stay focused and be able to assess their progress as they go ahead in their studies. 2-Making competitions between groups- This is another effective method of selfassessment. Indeed, when students know that they are to compete with each other they will take their time to study and prepare well for the contest. At the end of the competition, they will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Students can work on how to correct these areas of weaknesses and then develop their strengths. 3- Answering homework in groups after been done individually at home- Group work allows for exchange of ideas and as they say: "two heads are better than one", this makes students benefit from each other. In effect, be able to make a self-assessment. 4- Making conversation between two students- Two students can be engaged in conversation, while a third judge between them as to who has done better. Furthermore, a series of questions about the objectives can be provided then pair students to conduct learning interviews at the end of class.

5-Making remedial activity for students mistakes in exam and homework- Such activities are a necessary means for students to make amends for what went wrong in their preparation for their exams as well as their actual performance during the exams. 6. Survey- Expand a unit by distributing a survey inquiring what further information students would like to have and arrange a discovery period for delving and sharing. In

this way, students are given the opportunity to voice their opinions about the learning process and make contribution that will aid for their effective evaluation. 7. Finally, conclude each lesson by asking students to write succinct learning statements in their learning logs about the daily objectives.

24. Dealing with Sick Students It is natural that differences exist among different individuals. If one takes it into consideration class of many students, they will notice that students differ in their physical, mental and psychological abilities. In this case, the teacher has to take care of students especial needs. In order for a student to perform well in class he or she must be in a state of good health. In this article, I will discuss two types of illnesses that may affect students as well as ways of dealing with them. Temporal Illness- This is the type of illness that may affect some students for a short period of time; such as common cold or flu. Some students who are eager to learn may want to attend school even in this state of sneezing and coughing. But owing to the contagious nature of these types it illnesses, it might be injurious to the health of other students. Therefore, the teacher may ask the student to stay away from school until he or she recovers. During the absence of this student he would have missed some lessons and perhaps tests or examinations. So how should teachers address these situations? In Islam for instance, fasting from food and drinks from dawn to dusk is being prescribed upon Muslims every ninth month of the Islamic calendar as a means of developing righteousness. However, not every Muslim may have the ability to fast due to many reasons such as illness. In relation to this, there is concession for two types of illnesses; temporary and permanent illnesses. In the case of temporal illness, the Muslim is not supposed to fast during the days of the illness but should compensate for the missed days after the month of fasting when he would have recovered from the illness. If it is a chronic illness he or she not required to fast at all but should compensate by proving food to one fasting person. We can treat our sick students in a like wise manner. During the student's absence, we can make a video recording of the lecture, or we conduct internet chatting sessions, telephone conference or upload a video of the lecture on facebook so the students can access the missed lessons even while away. If the student missed an examination, the teacher may arrange a special date for it to be taken or can conduct online. Permanent Illness- Coping with students with permanent illness or chronic illness is more difficult than dealing with temporal illness. Because of this, special consideration must be given to these students with special needs. Based on the seriousness of their situation, a special class may be assigned to them and they should be provided for as their needs dictate. It is a logical conclusion that their needs would be quite different from healthy and normal students. Therefore, teachers teaching these students should

be well equipped with not only the academic knowledge but should also be given appropriate training on how to deal with students with disabilities.

25. Let’s kill some time The success or failure of any individual in life largely depends on how discipline he or she is in connection with time management. This is true for people of all works of life; because it natural that one encounters difficulties and problems from time to time. Therefore, the more disciplined the person is, the easier it will be to overcome these problems. But if one does not have willingness or discipline to solve them; then success will distance himself from that person. In that case, suffering might be visible in his or her situation. That is why it not uncommon to see people who are unsuccessful even though they may have many opportunities that guarantee their success available at their disposal. Contemplating this scenario, makes me to wonder how prepared are students to understand the importance time management. My personal observation reveals that most of my students lack this understanding and very ill prepared to deal with issues related to time. I sometimes ask some of my students why don't they do your home work? However, the usual expected answer is: "Sorry teacher, we didn’t have time to do our homework!" Furthermore, lateness is one of the chronic diseases that is common among my students. During class time, the door is being knocked at several times as a result of students coming late. When asked the reason for their unpunctuality, the customary reply is as follows: "I wake up late, I’m sorry my teacher!” In order, to make them understand easily, I usually ask them to prepare for the coming lesson. If I inquire from them the next day, I definitely find out that they have not prepared their lesson. Nevertheless, these are the same students that continuously spend hours watching TV shows. Their interest in football is near addiction; they watch almost every single football match with utmost attention. But when it comes to their attention in class, you might mistakenly label some of them with attention deficit disorder. When the bell goes at the end of the class period, they hastily jump up from their sits and escape from the class like run away prisoners. It happened that, I asked them the reason for their behavior, they replied that at the end of the period they have no reason to delay to exit the class. How ironical is their behavior! One a day, I asked one of them the reason for their unnecessary waste of time in the evening without studying or doing their homework. He said: "we usually feel boring, because of that we always try to kill some time. I think there is a problem with their mind set. .They just wanted to get all things without any effort. They would like to get everything in a fast way like "Fast Food ". 35

How can we solve this problem? There should me an effort on the part of the teachers and parents to help students understand the proper use of time. They should also be aware of the consequences of it improper usage. It is quite necessary to train them to assume responsibility earlier in life. This can be done by showing them examples of successful and unsuccessful people and ask them which they like to be in the future. So we advice and direct them when they err and praise and encourage them when they achieve something good. This will actually motivate them towards success.

26. How to enjoy your job Nowadays, officers are different. Before decades you see officers were active in their works. They came on time and work in a very good way. They appreciated their work very much. So they did it perfectly. Also they are friendly . But now the number of lazy officers is rising. These lazy officers come to their offices late. They walk slowly and sometimes sleep in their offices. When the company customers come to them, they show customers that they are unwelcome. Some of you will wonder why we have like this kind of officers. Actually, there are some reasons behind these phenomena Some of them take their job just to get a salary at the end of the month .So he tries not to make any efforts as much as possible. This kind of officer should understand that ( Allah) will punish them for the money they take for nothing. The other kind, they become lazy because of work routine. So they become like machines or computers. They just do what their boss ask just. Any person feels boring by this way. But he needs more fun in his work. So I advice him to try to entrain himself by drinking coffee ,eating breakfast, playing football, using internet connection to read news. Some of officers hate their work because of bad dealing he received from his colleagues or his boss. I advice him not to bother himself a lot. Try to just do your duty and ignore any person who tries to bother you. Some of officers are frustrating because of heavy load he has with low salary especially when he sees other officers have light load with a high salary .So I advice companies to raise the salary of this kind of officers Actually companies should take care to provide facilities such as places and machines for their officerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s entertainment such as playground for footballs computer laborites, coffee shops, libraries and swimming pool . This will double your officer productivity. Then you will win at the end of the day.

27. Attracting Students' Attention and Thought Before a New Lesson

Getting students to be attentive and involved in the new topic of discussion during lessons is not always easy. However, by using ways in which their attention can be attracted and their interest aroused; the teacher may notice enthusiastic participation and fast understanding on the part of their students. In this article, I will mention some of these methods; which was a product of a discussion that I held with my colleagues in school as to how to get students' attention and involvement during lessons. 1. Asking challenging questions- By throwing challenging questions, the teacher can get the attention of the students and cause them to focus on the topic about to be discussed. This method is particularly effective if the aim to drive home a specific point. Otherwise, if you intend to let them acquire a general understanding of the topic then use: 2. Brain Storming- This can be done by dividing your students into groups and allow them to spontaneously share ideas in order to solve a series of problems. It is said that: "two heads are better than one", therefore when students work in groups they can share ideas and understanding and arrive at solutions than when working individually. Ultimately, will be in the mood of learning when the teacher starts the lesson. 3. Reading Silently before the Lesson- If students are given time to read silently just before the start of the lesson, they may have acquired a brief understanding of the subject matter that was to be discussed. Eventually, this will accelerate their understanding when the lesson begins. This also gives some students who are visual learners a chance benefit from this ability. 4. Flashback of Previous Lesson- A quick transition to the previous lesson may grant the opportunity to students to relate and connect well with the new one. It would be a foundation to build upon. Especially if the earlier lesson was thoroughly grasped it will be an easy work over for your students to be with you in both mind and body during you new lesson. Please fell free to contribute in ways that we can make attract students' attention and thought before a new lesson

28. Back to School After a summer vacation which is two months. We go back to school. The first day is for greeting .and welcoming each other to start new school year. Today, After I got up, I go to school. The school ring rang to tell us that new school day starts .New fresh breath with morning .So I go upstairs to class. Actually this is one of things I hate in our school system. Teacher should go to many classes according the timetable. Class “A "is in third floor, you should go upsatair.The second class is first floor you have to go downstairs .It makes me nervous. Each teacher should has his own classroom. A specific classroom for each teacher is better. It makes kids to go upstairs and downstairs .This makes them more quite when they come to me. Anyway ,on the way to the classroom I found some of my students still outside chatting with each others .Really I feel sad for this .But when I get in my class ,I was astonished . A big number of my students are absent .I usually found classroom full of students. Then I ask my students who attend the first day "What's wrong with students who are absent?". Then, they reply “They don't want to attend school for the first week. They would like vocation with endless time. So I start explaining my lesson. On the way to my home .I started thinking "Why these students don’t want to go to school? Actually, as I think students nowadays don’t appreciate schoolbooks and system .They just appreciates to get a certificate which allow them to get good job with good salary. They didn't like to do any efforts for that. After class time finished, I stay alone then I try to remember my fathers and old Muslim who use camels to travel for months just to learn a few pages or lines . How much I feel sorry for what is happening with students. I hope to see my students more motivated to attend classroom early and work hard to learn .Parents have an important role to play in this. It is required for them to stress the importance of education to their children from an earlier stage. So they will grow up loving education rather than thinking of it as a burden to run away from.

29. How do I prevent my students from cheating! In the process educating or teaching, the ultimate aim is to develop knowledge, skills or character of the individual; therefore examination may be a means to assess whether this goal has been achieved or not. How effective is the examination method is absolutely important. In this regard, teachers must take effective measures to ensure that the examination questions are drawn in such a way that would truly reflect the capacities and abilities of their students. Furthermore, teachers must be alert to the various cheating strategies some students may want to adopt and hence prevent any cheating and consequently examination results will truly reflect what the students have achieved so far. Personally, I try to measure any cheating during the exams I give my students by comparing their scores with their performance in class. One of my students called Ahmad is known for his intelligence, hard work and good manners and often uses the Eng-Eng dictionary and prepares well for the lessons. On the other hand, there is another students named Wazah is lazy careless and impolite. It happened that I gave them a class exam which both Ahmad and Wazah took. After the exam, I collected all the answer sheets from my students. To my astonishment, when I finished marking the papers; I observed that both Ahmad and Wazah got full mark 10 out of 10 obtaining excellent grade. This actually puzzled me! How come a weak and lazy student could obtain full marks! So I started investigating the reason for this coincidence in the exams. After prolong thought, I finally concluded that the nature of my questions might have played a role. My questions were multiple-choice and it is easy for students to get the right answer by just making some gestures. Then, I decided to change the method of asking questions in order to make it difficult for them to cheat. In this connection, I came with the solution of putting all the choices randomly in a single box. I then require them to choose the correct word to fill in the blank spaces. Choose the correct word to fill the blank spaces below Read, write, eat 1. I ________ lunch everyday. In this way, I found that it is more difficult for them to cheat as compared to the old method which is as follows:

From the following multiple choices choose the correct answer: I _______ lunch every day. a) read

b) write

c) eat

The latest version of my multiple questions has the under mentioned advantages: 1. The random way I introduced the answers confused cheaters and gestures can not be easily used any more to indicate the correct answers. 2. It will make students use their handwriting which is a very important element in learning process. 3. I think this is a kind of anti-cheating method which makes students prepare well before exams rather than waiting for an opportunity to cheat during exams. If you ask me; what is anti-Cheating Questions? I will reply: that: these are questions which are designed to prevent students who are cheaters from copying the correct answers from their classmates. In conclusion, we as teachers of English should think seriously of inventing questions and methods which make it difficulty for students to cheat. Also, other cheating methods some students use include; writing the information on their arms and rolling down their sleeves, so during exams if the teacher is not concentrating they roll up their sleeves and start coping. Sometimes, also students copy information on their desks and write from it during exams. The bottom line of these anti-cheating questions is to make assessment of studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability more meaningful.