An Important Skill for a Science/Biology Teacher

Teaching Science or Biology holds many challenges especially for the students who are not interested in the subject. One of the most important skills for a teacher to have is to involve students in learning. Being a teacher doesn’t recommend for you to do all the work, let your students be involved in the learning process. For example, if there is an experiment to be done, as a teacher do not do all the work, let some students volunteer and help you, of course while taking all the safety measures. By this, the class will be more interesting for all students, especially for those who dislike the subject, and they learn better by being on task and engaged. 

Learning Process

The learning process is complex since every student learns in a different way, and it is personal to each student. It is the process of making sense of and using new information, concepts and experiences depending on his/her way of thinking, thoughts and many others. I see in schools, teachers (of course some, not all) stress too much students if they don't understand a certain concept or lesson from the first or same way, this puts so much pressure on the child thinking that he/she is a failure. This will also demotivate students to learn and then maybe to dislike a specific subject. This is a case of many students, and I was one of them back then in school. I was a slow learner, I only needed more time than others to understand concepts. This doesn't mean that the student is incapable of succeeding in school and later in life, and teachers need to stop stressing their students and try helping and supporting them more often.

My Drawings

All my friends usually get surprised when I mention that I do some sketching of pictures. I usually draw every while when I feel to do so, it’s not as a casual hobby. Sometimes I feel that I should enrich my talent more and practice it. As a biologist, drawing helped me sketch different figures and labels and even pathways in order to make my learning process more interesting and easier to remember. On the other hand, sketching is just an escape of some thoughts through pictures rather than words or expressions. I see that I should practice drawing more often, but I often always forget about this in my free time. Here are some of my latest sketches that I hope you’d enjoy, and I’d love to hear your feedback, maybe this will encourage me to draw more often.

Children's Logic

 While refreshing my mind in my news feed this dialogue took my eye:

- Teacher: How old is your father?
- Kid: He is 6 years old.
- Teacher: What? How is this possible?
- Kid: He became a father only when I was born.

Logic!! Children are quick by their innocent replies to simple and straight forward questions. Children also always speak their minds and consider their answers are right to the way they think and how they consider certain approaches. Teachers should always take into consideration children’s logic and go through it without hurting children’s feelings by inconsiderate replies or reactions.

Calligraphy

So I decided to start learning some Calligraphy. I’ve always wanted to learn this ever since I was young, but I never did.  I always watch videos of how to write in different forms of calligraphy, and every time I was amazed by the materials used, different types of pens and markers and all the colors, oh they all look great! During the quarantine due to the pandemic Corona Virus, I took the initiative to start learning Calligraphy with the help of some online courses, and it was harder than I thought it’d be! After a lot of practice, I finished level one, and I’m so excited and ready to the next level! The picture below is the first word I wrote, and I’d love to hear your feedback :) 

At the end, I always encourage you to do what you love; it’s never too late to do so! As I always say, follow what makes your heart smile. 

EDUC 561

This is one of my courses while pursuing my Teaching Diploma at LIU. It is all about educational media and technology that a teacher can use in her/his classroom. Despite all the work and practice that is overloaded in this course and the consumption of time to do so, I’m having fun using variety of applications and sites that were lacking in my life. This course made learning more interesting and productive because it requires practice. Moreover, it was useful to teaching were I actually used some of what I learned throughout my teaching, and hoping to use the rest! All of this I guess goes back to how great the Dr. is in presenting and explaining the materials, so she takes all the credits to making a course as easy as pie. 

This course is crucial and a requirement for all teachers, since it will make teacher's live easier especially during online learning. It holds a variety of applications and sites that can be used in teaching for student's engagement and assessments.