Sunday, 21 April 2013
Yuki Diary #2
It's fine. It's okay. Something bad happens because something good are waiting for you in the end. Keep smiling. Keep the optimistic you. You can do it. Believe in yourself and Allah will surely help you. Say, "Alhamdulillah."
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Story Time #1
The
Little Mermaid
Hans
Christian Anderson
Once
Upon a time, far out at sea where the water was as clear as crystal
and very, very deep, there lived the Sea King. He had six beautiful
daughters. The youngest was the most beautiful of them all.
When
a mermaid turned 15, she was allowed to rise to the surface from the
sanctuary of the kingdom to observe the realm of the two-legged
people, where the flowers were fragrant and the forests green. As
soon as the eldest was of age, she rose to the surface of the ocean.
She had hundreds of things to tell her sisters when she returned, as
did each other sisters. Finally, it was the Little Mermaid’s turn.
One of the first things she saw was a ship with a handsome prince on
board. A party was being held in the prince’s honor as it was his
16th
birthday. The Little Mermaid fell in love with the prince and watched
him from a distance. Then a great storm hit and the vessel cracked.
The Little Mermaid saw the prince sink into the treacherous waters.
She remembered that human beings, unlike her, couldn’t breathe
under water and would drown. She saved the prince from drowning and
delivered him unconscious to shore near a temple. She waited until he
was found by a young girl from the temple and disappeared into the
waves as quietly as she arrived.
The
Little Mermaid asked her grandmother whether humans could live
forever if they did not drown. She was told that humans had a shorter
lifespan than the merfolks’ 300 years, but when mermaids died they
turned to sea foam and ceased to exist. Humans had an eternal soul
that lived on in Heaven. Her longing to be with the prince and to
possess an eternal soul overwhelmed her, and she visited the Sea
Witch who sold her a potion that would give her legs in exchange for
her tongue as the Little Mermaid had the most enchanting voice world.
The Little Mermaid agreed despite the warnings of the Sea Witch that
she could never return to the sea, that drinking the potion would
make her feel as if a sword had pierced her, that each step she took
on her legs would feel like she was walking on sharp swords. The
witch told her that she would only get a soul if the prince loved her
and married her, for then a part of his soul would flow into her.
Otherwise, at dawn on the first day of his marriage to another, the
Little Mermaid would die of a broken heart and turn into sea foam.
The Little Mermaid drank the potion and met the prince, who is
mesmerized by her beauty and grace even though she is mute. Most of
all he liked to see her dance not knowing the terrible pain she
suffered to do so for him. The prince’s father then arranged a
marriage between him and a princess of a neighbouring kingdom. The
prince told the Little Mermaid he could only marry the young woman
from the temple, who he believed rescued him from drowning. It turned
out that the princess was the temple girl, who had been sent there to
be educated. The wedding was announced.
The
Little Mermaid’s heart broke. But before dawn, her sisters rose
from the ocean with a knife from the Sea Witch in exchange for their
long, flowing hair. If the Little Mermaid slayed the prince with the
knife and let his blood drip on her feet, she would become a mermaid
again.
However,
the Little Mermaid could not kill the sleeping prince. As dawn broke,
she threw herself into the sea and became foam. But instead of
ceasing to exist, she felt the warmth of the sun. She had turned into
a spirit, a daughter of the air. She was told by the spirits in the
air that she had become like them because she strove with all her
heart to gain an eternal soul. She would earn her own soul by doing
good deeds for 300 years. For each good child she found, a year would
be taken from her sentence, and she would eventually rise up into the
kingdom of God.
-The
End-
Learn Something Today! #1
10
Worst Things a Teacher Can Do
Here
is a list of items that you should avoid as a new or veteran teacher.
As I am involved in this career, I have only included serious items
in my list and have left off such obvious offenses as having affairs
with students. However, any of these can create problems for you as a
teacher and if you combine two or more, then just expect to really
have a hard time gaining respect from students and finding your
profession enjoyable.
1. Avoid
smilling and being friendly with your students.
While you
should start each year with a tough stance and the idea that it is
easier to let up than to get harder, this does not mean that you
shouldn’t have students believe that you aren’t happy to be
there.
2. Becoming
friends with students while they are in class.
You should be
friendly but not become friends. Friendship implies give and take.
This can put you in a tough situation with all the students in the
class. Teaching is not a popularity contest and you are not just one
of the guys or girls. Always remember that.
3. Stop your
lessons and confront students for minor infractions in class.
When you
confront students over minor infractions in class, there is no
possible way to create a win-win situation. The offending student
will have no way out and this can lead to even greater problems. It
is much better to pull them aside and talk to them one-on-one.
4. Humiliate
students to try and get them to behave.
Humiliation is
a terrible technique to use as a teacher. Students will either be so
cowed that they will never feel confident in your classroom, so hurt
that they will not trust you ever again, or so upset that they can
turn to disruptive methods of retaliation.
5. Yell.
Once you’ve
yell you’ve lost the battle. This doesn’t mean you won’t have
to raise your voice every once in a while but teachers who yell all
the time are often those with the worst classes.
6. Give your
control over to the students.
Any decisions
that are made in class should be made by you for good reasons. Just
because students are trying to get out of a quiz or test does not
mean that you should allow that to happen unless there is a good and
viable reason. You can easily become a doormat if you give in to all
demands.
7. Treat
students differently based on personal likes and dislikes.
Face it. You
are human and there will be kids you will like more than others.
However, you must try your hardest never to let this show in class.
Call on all students equally. Do not lessen punishments for students
you really like.
8. Create
rules that are essentially unfair.
Sometimes the
rules themselves can put you in bad situations. For example, if a
teacher has a rule that allows for no work to be turned in after the
bell rings then this could set up a difficult situation. What if a
student has a valid excuse? What makes a valid excuse? These are
situations it would be best to just avoid.
9. Gossip
and complain about other teachers.
There will be
days when you hear things from students about other teachers that you
just think are terrible. However, you should be noncommittal to the
students and take your concern to the teacher themselves or to
administration. What you say to your students is not private and will
be shared.
10. Be
inconsistent with grading and/or accepting late work.
Make sure that
you have consistent rules on this. Do not allow students to turn in
late work for full points at any time because this takes away the
incentive to turn in work on time. Further, use rubrics when you are
grading assignments that require subjectivity. This helps protect you
and explain the reason for the students’ grades.
Ideas
from Melissa Kelly, About.com Guide
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