"Keep on coming to my class and I will insist on surprising you"

John Dewey once said "I believe that education which does not occur through forms of life, forms that are worth living for their own sake, is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality and tends to cramp and to deaden". In other words, education is not only that we receive in classrooms or what we learn from our educators. It is not confined to reading research papers or attending classes. Yet, it can happen in so many ways.

Usually, when I know that I will have a guest speaker in any class, the norm is that speaker will lecture us. Yesterday, it was completely different. When I first saw Mrs Jennifer entering the classroom with Dr Joyanne, I said that she must be a woman with a considerable amount of knowledge which she will share with us. And when I noticed that we will sit in a circle, not facing the projector, all I thought about was that this woman will have an academic discussion and that she wants to be friendly.

 

First, Mrs Jennifer wrote down our names, I was wondering why she is doing that. Then, the discussion started by her asking a question which I think is one of the most difficult ones to answer "Tell me one thing about yourself that you think I should know!". This makes you think, should I say something about me that look really interesting and attractive? Or should I speak my mind and say what I feel comfortably describes me? This takes me back to the Narrative challenging it was to write the story of your life; to see the stops you made, the hardships you overcame and the progress you have achieved so far. This also makes me think where would that take me?  Mrs jennifer wanted to know about us, so she relates to our experiences and for her talk to be more beneficial to us all.

After introducing ourselves, Mrs Jenniefr started to tell her story. She started by her education then she accompanied us to a journey of transparency, success and determination.  She told us about the many places she has been and the development initiatives she launched or led. What really grabbed my attention was when she said that "We help people to know how to help themselves".  She said that help is not about the interventions international organizations make in countries that need help; yet. To teach these people how to continue without them. That made me think about these two Chinese proverbs "Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime" and “Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand" .

When we first started our class, and when I first didn’t find one of the readings, I sent Dr Joyanne an email and talked to her in the following class that I didn’t found them what would I do? And the answer came "You can find them through online search. And if you didn't, I am sure you will find other journal articles on the same topic". I talked to myself "Oooookay…mmmm…I don't get it..should I read these specific readings or do what?". Later on, I understood that she is giving us this list of reading as a guidance, to show us the road so we carry on and drive the remaining distance ourselves. I am taught how to be a self learner for life, how to break the boundaries I am putting for myself.

I believe now that Dr Joyanne's official statement is "Keep on coming to my class and I will insist on surprising you". It is only when we step out of our comfort zone and do things that we usually don’t do, we start to develop new skills, gain rich experiences and reveal even more about our personalities. This is the form of education that stays engraved in your memory and never fades away.

  C u in another surprising class!

Step Up

  Our classroom is home for 6 colleagues and one professor. People build homes but homes don't build people. In our 2^nd class, we laid down the corner stone for the spacious house we will build throughout the semester.We created our countries and designed all systems needed to be run. Last time, we took a step up towards the structure of our house. To do so, we work in teams of twos where each group focuses on building their rooms and decorate it the way they want. We all will create a common stairway that we all will climb to reach out to our aspirations.

  Marriam keeps on surprising me with her fashionable and creative ideas. When she said that they will preserve a fashionable clothes manner for all their immigrants as part of the educational system, I was like "Seriously!".But, Dr Joyanne looked cool with the idea as long as there is no harm would come from it. At that moment, I asked myself a question "Do I need to broaden my thinking horizons to accept ideas that may seem unacceptable or kind of shocking to the way I think?". Actually, I still didn't find the answer to this question. May be I need to wait for a while until I am exposed to more of these ideas and then, I will be able to form an opinion.

  Mike and Othman kept on developing educators’ indigenous professional development to meet the purposes and goals of the educational system in their country. I like the way they fit in all the pieces together. I like the fact that despite the poor situation in their country, they are able to come up with realistic solutions and making use of every single resource they have. They, also, have just built a new university in their country and that is why I will take the opportunity to congratulate them "Congratulationssss guys :)".

  For Care and I, I think that there is yet a lot that we will learn about ourselves. I like that we both work with passions and enthusiasm. We want for our educational system to be the best. We want to reach out to almost every single student in our country and provide them with quality education; which is not necessarily tied up with the financial status of the person. I don't want quality education to be exclusive to the wealthy. I want for  every person to be able to have access to the type of education they would like to pursue.

  Most often, we overlook an important fact and it is that mainstream education trajectory is not the only educational venue that exists. There is also the Technical Educational system with its various branches;commercial, agricultural and industrial. I believe that focusing on that side of education will help heal the rift between individuals socially and culturally. There is this notion in the Arab world that whoever chooses the technical trajectory is beneath those in the mainstream system. And to be clearer, students DON'T choose it, they are sent there automatically because they get lower scores than their peers. Thus, these students are labeled with failure and disappointment which eventually lead to a parallel unproductive generation. That if we considered that the mainstream system students are productive!

  It all goes back to the matter of prestige, which student graduated from which reputable school; sometimes regardless of what they learn. So, as long as I have co-created my country with my partner; Care. Next class, if we will still build up on our activity and do our scaffolding, I would like to develop new ideas with my partner to see how we can build two parallel, interrelated and integrated educational systems; mainstream and technical.

  C u all in another fruitful class ;)

Stepping outside the BOX of CONVENTIONALITY

First of all and before reflecting on why I choose this title for my new entry, I would like to thank you Dr Joyanne  for being considerate about my prayers time. You looked at your watch more than I did. It is amazing when we find people who respect other peopl edespite their cultural and religious differences. This sets a model of how we should be as human beings. Our differences are basically meant at bringing us closer to each other through cooperation and understanding. But, surprizingly, the human race  used these differences as an execuse for violence, incoherence and disunity.

This brings me back to our activity yesterday "Different roads to the same end". This activity was such an eye opener. Although each group created its own country with its all different characteristics, population, geographical locations, weather, currency or systems. Yet, all of us had a unified goal and it is how to make education a better place for all generations, not only the younger one. Thinking about the different countries, it amazed me how Othman and Mike chose a poor, underpriviliged country. Any person, if she/he, had the choice, would choose the best bet for themselves. I like how they  appreciated the indigenous  culture of their people, how they relied on the natural resources they have to generate funds for the betterment of their society. In the educational system they designed, they were keen to tailor it to the need of their people, to prepare and educate a generation suitable for the labor market. They adopted entrepreneurship model. This remineds me of Philippines. There, the unemployment rates among adolescents are high despite the advanced post-high school degrees. The reason is that what they learn and study doesn't go hand in hand with the labor market needs. Mike and Othman came up with this cocktail of  learner-entrepreneur mix that produces learners/professionals.

Of course, it is important to learn what makes us fit in the future plans of the labor market. But, what is more important is the educational process itself. The process that we endure for over 18 years of our lives. This process involves many facets including students assessment practices. Most, if not, all the countries apply standardized tests. These kind of tests, that come under many names like PISA, TIMSS, Ib and Thanawya Amma, impose a huge pressure on the students and the parents as well. In short, these tests determine and define the student's future ambition, though ambition should be a matter of choice. This takes me to Philips and Merriam country. Although, from my viewpoint, it lacks diversity, they succeeded in laying down a system where students have the opportunity to select the learning and career path they want for themselves. They figured out a system where students from different age groups can learn the same subject at the same time and in the same room. Although, I still think that this is hard to achieve in real life. But, Dr Joyanne seemed that she found it possible and reasonable.So, I will look up some research and journal articles on this area and try to find if this is really doable.

Caroline and I almost covered everything an educational system can have or need, but still we were caught up and stuck in the old traditional and conventional way of testing. Despite the fact that we introduced skill-based college admission evaluations and we allowed students, who lack the necessary skills to join a one year program to come back and  re-apply for the college they want. But, Dr Joyanne said that it is still competitive. And that as long as these evaluations have numbers on them, the issue of the score remains. So, we need to come up with an evaluation that alleviates the high-stake exam pressure. I liked that we considered all social classes in our country, but the stratification dilemma persisted. I hated it when I realized that we determined  persons' jobs based on the social class they belong to and the money they have. I hated it because I don't believe in the concept that suggests that money defines a big part of who we are and what we do in life, although this is partially true.

Difference is the idea the human beings were created upon. We belong to different ethnic, religious, cultural, social, demographic, geographic backgrounds. BUT, this is only to have the chance to develop our personalities, to help others, and to realize our societies' needs. The educational systems around the world need to realize these disparities. Policy makers need to start putting plans that contain us. We need systems that help us embrace our roles as human beings towards each other and the communities we belong to.

Going back to why I choose this particular title, it is because yesterday, the way we learned was outside-the-box- method. We had hands-on experience that made me realize that as an educator and a reformer, there is no easy way to do that. We need to equip ourselves with the expertise needed. I realized that it is not only education that I should learn about, but also statistics, sciences, technology and many other subjects. Education is an interrelated, multidisciplinary institution. It is not only about the curriculum or the best practices, but also about how LITERATE we are of othere disciplines. I learned a lot from my colleagues and more about myself. Only through involvement and practice that we realize what we need to enhance in ourselves, what we need to diminish and what we need to change.

My last words will be that Educational systems all over the world should stop nurturing the concept of "Survival of the fittest", instead, it should start teaching students the concept of "Fitting to survive".

Class 1

First of all, and before reflecting on anything I want to say that I DID IT. I set up the blog myself and without anyhelp although I have to say that at first I couldn't get back to my blog. And here comes my first reflection. WhenI read the word "Blog" in the syllibus I went like "Really! Me blogging". And I said "Why all professors all of a sudden want to integrate technology in all the 3 courses I am having this semester". I guess by now I should realize that I need to be on good terms with technology . There is a quote that I came across a while ago that really had my attention "If you keep doing things like you've always done them, what you will get is what you've already got". So, I think that we shine at the end of our comfort zone.

On our first meeting, every one of us shared their experiences and background.But, actually the part that got me was the third question "How did we get here?". Actually, this is very interesting because some of us are coming from a far away part of the world, some belong to the same continent but have different culture and some of us have been to many places while others, lik emyself, have been only to Turkey once but many parts in Egypt. This diversity is exciting because it enriches our professional  and personal perspective as well. Each one of us carries a part of where we come from and  listening to all these success stories and the determination to succeed makes me say that development is still possible and education can better in many underprivileged and at risk areas by people like us.

Having our discussion about the goals we are expecting from this class, makes me know that we will touch on different models of educators and their development in different parts of the world and in countries I have not many information about. I am excited about the case studies because they draw a closer look at the subject and have profound view at matters.

Thanks Dr Joyanne for the chocolate, it was yummy and it was a nice welcoming touch from you. That's all for this time and I am looking forward to my last blog because that is only when I will know how far my development curve reached.