Thursday, April 26, 2018

Humanity Has Lost Face

                                                   The Atlantic Slave Trade

 Slavery,the treatment of human beings as property deprived of personal rights has occurred in many forms throughout the world.One institution stands out for both of its global scale and lasting legacy "The Atlantic Slave Trade"occurring from the late 15th century to the mid 19th century and spanning three continents forcibly brought more than 10 million Africans to the Americas.The impact it would leave affected not only these slaves and their descendants,but the economies and histories of large part of the world.

    There had been centuries of contact between Europe and Africa via the Mediterranean.But, the Atlantic Slave Trade began in the 1400s with Portuguese colonies in west Africa and Spanish settlements of the Americas shortly after.The crops grown in the new colonies sugarcane,tobacco and cotton were labor intensive and there were not enough settlers on indentured servants to cultivate all the new land.American natives were enslaved,but many died from new diseases while others effectively resisted.And so to meet the massive demand for labor,the Europeans looked to Africa.

  African slavery had existed for centuries in various forms.Some slaves were indentured servants,with a limited term and the chance to buy one's freedom.Others were like European serfs.In some societies,slaves could be part of a master's family,own land or even rise to positions of powers.But when the white captains came offering manufactured goods,weapons and rum for slaves.

   African kings and merchants had little reason to hesitate viewed the people they sold not as fellow Africans but as criminals,debtors or prisoners of war from rival tribes.By selling them,kings enriched their own realms and strengthened them against neighboring enemies.

     African kingdoms prospered from slave trade.But meeting the European demands created intensive competition slavery that replaced other criminal sentences and capturing slaves became a motivation for war,rather than its results.To defend themselves from slavery raids,neighboring kingdoms needed European firearms,which they also bought with slaves.The slave trade has become an arm race altering societies and economies across the continent.

    As for the slaves themselves,they faced unimagined brutality. After being marched to slave forts on the coast,shaved to prevent lice and branded.They were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas..About 20% of them would never see land again.Most captains of the day were tight packers,cramming as many men as possible below the deck.While,lack of sanitation cause many to die of diseases and others were thrown overboard for being sick or as discipline.The captains ensured their profits by cutting off slaves ears as proof of purchase.Some captives took matters into their own hands.Many inland Africans had never seen Whites before,and thought them to be cannibals,constantly taking people away and returning for more.Afraid of being eaten,or just to avoid further suffering,they committed suicide or starved themselves.believing that in death,their souls would return home.Those who survived were completely dehumanized,treated as mere cargo.Women and children were kept above deck and were  abused bu the crew,while the men were ordered to perform dances in order to keep them exercised and curb rebellion.

   What happened to these Africans who reached the New World and how the legacy of slavery still affects their descendants today is fairly well known.But what is the effect that Atlantic Slave Trade had on Africa's future?Not only did the continent lose tens of millions of it's able bodied population because most of the slaves were men,but the long term demographic effect was even greater.When the slave trade was finally outlawed in the Americas and Europe,the African kingdoms whose economies it had come to dominate collapsed leaving them open to conquest and colonization. The increased competition and influx of European weapons fueled the warfare and instability that continues to this day.The Atlantic Slave Trade also contributed to the development of racist ideology.

   Most African slavery had no deeper reason than legal punishment or inter tribal warfare. The Europeans who preached a universal religion and who had long outlawed enslaving fellowed Christians needed a justification for a practice so obvious at odds with their ideals of equality. Therefor they claimed that Africans were biologically inferior and destined to be slaves making great efforts to justify this theory.Thus,slavery in Europe and America acquired a racial basis,making it impossible for slaves and their future descendants to attain equal states in society.

  In all of these ways,the Atlantic Slave Trade was an injustice on a massive scale whose impact has continued long after its abolition.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Finland is Revolutionary in It's Approach




  Education in Finland

    Finland has one of the best educational systems in the world.It consistently scored well in global education ranking.Here are 4 possible reasons why:
   1-Funding: All schools receive the same government funding,even the few private institutions
.
Private  schools are bound by the same standards as publicly funded schools.
   2-Training: Teachers are highly trained and encouraged to develop their own style.Primary school teachers spend 5 years training receiving at least a Master's degree.
  3-Homework:Finnish children do much less homework .In 2012 they spent less than 3 hours a week on homework.A figure that has fallen since 2003.
  4-Starting early:Finland provides universal access to early childhood education. Pre- primary  education is linked to better academic performance later.Most of the children can speak four languages.Unlike other countries teachers are the best and the brightest and come from top 10 of the world.


  •   Finland is the first country in the world to get rid of school subjects.The education system is considered one of the best in the world.Now,in its schools,there won't be any lessons in physics,Math,literature,history or geography.Instead of separate subjects, students will study events and phenomena from different perspectives.

For example,the second world war will be examined from the perspective of history,geography and Math and while studying a  course on "working in a cafe"students will learn knowledge of English,economic and communication skills.This idea is that a student gets to choose what subject they want to study based on their interests and capabilities.The new system will be in place by 2020.


  •   Finland continues to raise the bar of education.A handful of Finnish schools were redesigned over the summer to better reflect a new national curriculum.Instead of classrooms,they're now called "learning environments" as they only scantly resemble the neat rows of desks and chalkboards.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Science Has Gone So Far

                                                   Science Has Gone So Far

        Your good health is your first priority.Have a quick look on this new study.

    Scientists have developed a new blood test for Alzheimer's disease which can detect the disease 30 years before the symptoms appear.A new blood test can detect Alzheimer's with 90 % accuracy. The test identifies the build-up of a protein called amyloidbeta in the blood. Accumulation of this protein in the blood is the first sign of Alzheimer's.Recently,researchers developed another novel blood test for Alzheimer's.This test identified changes in the blood levels of a small molecule called micro RNA . It can even distinguish Alzheimer's from brain disease with similar symptoms.

  Blood tests are becoming a new efficient way to diagnose different diseases.Newly blood tests are not limited to Alzheimer's disease.

  Researchers developed a blood test that can detect 8 different kinds of cancer.The test,called cancer SEEK can detect ovarian,liver,and stomach cancers.It can detect pancreatic,esophageal,bowel,lung and breast cancers.This test detects tiny amounts of proteins that are released from cancer cells into the blood stream.This test can detect cancer even before signs,such as a lump begins to show.Cancer SEEK blood test also indicates the exact type of cancer present.The blood test accurately predicted the type of cancer in 83 % of patients.Early detection of cancer increases the chances of survival of the patients.

   Another blood test can detect genetic diseases early in pregnancy.This blood test can detect single gene disorders within the 6-10 weeks of pregnancy.The test looks for the level of mutations in the mother's blood once she is pregnant.Test results could help reduce the effect of genetic disorder.

  Another blood test can detect if individual has been exposed to gluten. Gluten intolerance is an autoimmune disorder called Celiac disease.The new test is designed to detect immune cells in a blood sample that are specifically activated and targeted at gluten protein. This blood test has an accuracy of 96%.Lipo protein panel blood test can detect early risk for developing a heart disease. This test looks at substances in your blood that carry cholesterol.

   Another blood test can predict the risk of heart attack by up to 7 years in advance.This test detects the levels of a compound called TMAO in the blood.Higher levels of this compound are associated with blood clots(thrombosis) .A blood test called high sensitivity C-reactive protein measures C-reactive protein(CRP) levels in the blood.CRP is a protein that increases in the blood with inflammation.Inflammation slowly erodes blood vessels and other organs. High levels of CRP increase your risk for heart attack or stroke by up to four time.

Importance of Instructional Decisions

                                        Importance of Instructional Decisions


             According to research the class is full of decisions,one decision for 2/3 minutes of teaching.
Each decision is preceded by assessment which is a process of collecting data that guides a teacher to make decisions about his teaching and provides students with information to make decisions about their learning.These decisions are classified into many categories such as placement decisions,classification decisions,selection decisions.In this post I would like to explain one important kind  which is instructional decisions.

Instructional decisions are decisions teachers make about students every class period and they are classified into three parts.
A-Decisions before teaching.
B-Decisions while teaching.
C-Decisions after teaching.

  A-Decisions before teaching include the information obtained from the answers to these questions:
1-What content do I need to cover during the assigned period of time?
2-What students abilities or backgrounds do I have to take into consideration when I plan my teaching?
3-What materials are appropriate for me to use in teaching this lesson?
4-What learning activities will students be engaged in during the lesson?
5-What learning objectives do I want my students to achieve at the end of my teaching?
6-How should I organize and arrange the students in class for my teaching?

   B-Decisions while teaching are based on the data gathered from answers to these questions:
1-Is my lesson going well?Are my students catching well?
2-What should I do to make this activity/lesson work better?
3-What feedback should I give to my students about how well they are learning?
4-Are my students ready to move to the second activity in the learning experience?

  C-Decisions after teaching a segment are final decisions that evaluate the teaching process.
1-How well are my students achieving the short and long term objectives?
2-What strengths and weaknesses will I report to each student and his parents?
3-What grade should I give to each student after finishing a unit?
4-How effectively did I teach this material?
5-How effective are the curriculum and the materials I used?

 The data obtained from all the questions presented above can provide the teacher and the students with relevant information,evaluating both performance and achievement.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Handling Difficult Students in Class


                                    Handling Difficult Students in Class


    Almost every teacher has had a difficult student in one class or another,and some of us are lucky enough to have one in every class.
  Imagine this situation:You are trying to give a lesson on the past progressive tense.You stand up the white board talking about agreement between the subject and the helping verb and that this tense is used to describe a continuous action that was happening at a specific point in the past.While most students are listening and concentrating ,a child in the back taps his pencil,kicks his feet against the desk,leans back in his chair and then falls over onto the ground.With the clatter from the back,come the laughs from the front of the classroom,thus, a complete loss of concentration about any facet of English grammar.



      Keep your cool and take these tips for handling difficult students :

  •   It's not about you:Though it may be a tough thing to hear,the first step is to remember it is not about you.As a teacher ,you are there to educate,guide and help your students.You are not there to captive audience hanging on your every word.We teachers sometimes have to shift our focus and remember why we started teaching in the first place.It is so easy to be caught up in our natural patterns as a teacher,especially when they have been effective up until this point.Having difficult students reminds us that we,too,need challenges and changes in our teaching style.If you can germinate the attitude in yourself that you can always improve,always learn,always find some way to be a better teacher,teaching a challenging student becomes an opportunity rather than a chore.Use the situation to your advantage to refine and deepen your craft as a teacher.All of our students,both current and future,will benefit from it.
  • Take a closer look:Read your students.Pay special attention to facial expressions and body language as you teach.Challenge yourself to spend more time facing your students than you do to the white board.Look at them and notice the difficulty coming before it hits you and your classroom in full force.As you do this,pay special attention to why the misbehavior is beginning.
  • Challenge your students:Sometimes students are not challenged.They may be  quick learners and find themselves bored before the lesson is over.There may be struggling students who have not understood previous lessons and are giving up on this one as well.There may be learning disability coming into play.If you suspect this,talk to an expert on the signs of and the solutions for different learning disabilities.Another reason they may be acting up because of a cultural issue of which you may be not aware.
  All of these situations and more can make class hard to handle for both of you and your students.

Now,what can you do to make things easier for both?
1-Group work can be the most effective way of engaging students under and over performing students.
2-Pair your most advanced students with those struggling.In this,your advanced students will become more of a teacher,challenging to explain the material better.Your struggling students get individual attention and perhaps a different explanation of the concept being taught.
3-Use the resources you have in other students to reach the ones you have difficulty reaching.
4- Change things up by breaking out of your curriculum when necessary to challenge students who are beyond what today's schedule says to teach.
5-Assign special projects to advanced students or let them work on their pace.If a student is not challenged in class,he might exhibit behavioral problems.A student who is challenged,on the other hand,will be more cooperative and tolerant when the class is studying something he understood long before that time.
6-Getting physical action is another great way to help students who have difficulty sitting and paying attention to a whole lesson.Engaging physical that ask students to move around help them become attentive and absorbent to what you are teaching.

As a teacher,you don't always have to do things by the book.You have to find the Undelying issue behind the disruptive behavior and you can tailor your lessons or assignments to meet you students' needs.
In fact,the best teachers are often the ones who do change.


Saturday, April 14, 2018

Ten Tips for Studying

                                                Ten  Tips for Studying


     Studying is hard,but some people make it even harder for themselves by not having a good study habit. Here are ten tips that should help anyone trying to improve their revision routine.

1- Don't leave it until the last minute : There are two main types of memory.Long term memory and short term.Its essential for people to transfer information from the short-term memory to the long term memory when studying.The only way to do this is with regular and extended repetition and practice over longer periods of time.

 2- Be organized:
  An organized  study space and schedule is sure to increase the efficiency of a tough study session. Make sure there is lots of natural light,not too much clutter,that its comfortable,and to make a timetable to follow.

  3-Practice wisely:
  Its crucial to nail the type of practice done for an exam.There is no point in writing essays if its an oral exam, or rehearsing long form answers for a multiple choice paper.

  4- Eat brain food :
  Eat lots of dark leafy greens (kale,spinach,etc. ..). chia seeds and nuts ,avocados,gogi berries,blueberries,tomatoes,pumpkin seeds and any other healthy treats you can get your hands on ,to help switch your mind on.

  5- Sleep:
   Sleeping is an essential part of life, and its crucial to be well rested during exam time. There's no point in spending hours revising if on the day you cant remember a single thing due to exhaustion.

  6- Take breaks:
  Working too long on something  can make a mind tired and foggy,which is why its important to take regular breaks.Walks outside are fantastic way to take the mind off of the task at hand. Don't get carried away though revision is still the focus.

   7-Exercise:
  Going for a run or going to the gym has been shown to help with mental clarity and acuity.Adding in some exercise to a daily revision can help clear and strengthen mind.



  8-Ask for help:
  If a challenging and confusing question arises,ask a professor or classmate for help .There's no point
in wasting time over what the possible answer could be when you could ask someone else what it is.

   9- Embrace the technology:
  There are lots of fantastic apps and websites to help revise and Campus is a great place to start.Do you can access your textbooks with Campus books.There are heaps of other cool apps too. Be sure to check out either the iOS Or google play education sections for more.

  10- Meditate:
  Meditation is a fantastic study aid.Using an app such as Head space can not only focus the mind ,but to clarify thinking patterns and reduce stress which is doubly useful on exam day.



Sunday, April 1, 2018

Encouraging Physical Activity in Preschoolers

                                 Encouraging Physical Activity in Preschoolers


   Professor Steve Sanders sheds light on the importance of  traveling skills (chase,flee,dodge..) which he considers initial activities that are designed to help children explore their surroundings and that might have influence on their language development. To support his point he states some examples:

  •   The transition from crawling to walking corresponds with an increase in infant receptive and productive language.
  •    Walking infants show larger vocabularies than crawling infants.
  •    The acquisition of an upright posture increases the infants visual field and permits greater flexibility with which to view the environment.
  •     Three to five old infants with faster rate of learning to sit independently show larger receptive vocabularies.
  According to research infants and toddlers who develop a strong base of locomotive skills tend to use those skills to be physically active as adults.Therefor, the relationship between skills and physical activity is reciprocal.It is expected that as motor skills competences increases, physical participation also increases and that the increased participation feeds back into motor skills competences.
 These locomotive skills are basic and natural and everyone is able to do them.They can be :

  1.    Rhythmic example: jumping,hopping or leaping
  2.    Uneven rhythmic example: skipping,galloping or sliding.
They also include chasing,fleeing and dodging. These skills not only delight children, but also help them in many sports throughout life like in playing basketball or hockey.
In teaching and practicing these skills Professor Sanders insists on the movement concept which
enables the children to understand how and where the body can move and the relationship the body has when it is in motion. Here, he presents three forms of awareness:

  •       Space Awareness: to learn where the body moves in which direction,pathway,level or space for example: high,low.right,straight...
  •        Effort Awareness: to learn how the body moves with speed,dimensions,force or rhythm for example: slow,strong,fast......
  •        Body Awareness: to learn the relationship the body creates with itself,other movers and objects around for example: follow ,lead.myself,with a partner...
He also instructs on how to present locomotive activities to young children. Thus by:

  1.     Practicing everyday.
  2.     Setting boundaries.
  3.     Demonstrating the uses for each skill.
  4.     Placing children in a variety of situations so they can practice different contexts.

   

Humanity Has Lost Face

                                                    The Atlantic Slave Trade   Slavery ,the treatment of human beings as property deprived...