Shahla Raza
Activity
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Shahla Raza made a comment
A child once asked in a unit on insects - 'Why did nature make mosquitoes? Are they good for anything except biting us?'
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I grew up at a time when urban spaces had much more greenery around and lots of trees to climb and woody areas to explore. I spent a lot of time outdoors, looking at flora and examining frogs in ponds and insects building their homes, birds nesting, animals foraging for food. As i grew older I found the National Geographic magazine to be a treasure trove of...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I love this project by Wildlabs - WILDLABS is the first global, open online community dedicated to conservation technology - A new web portal for annotating bird sounds, its key objective is to develop global, automated software for bird sound identification. I love going there to listen to bird sounds from all over the world.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have encountered a lot of adults who think a colder than usual winter/spring is proof that climate change is not real.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
We watch the trees around us through the school year as we have a unit on seasons. We record when they shed their leaves, including the ones that don't, we watch when the first green leaves start appearing. This year we had an unusual warm spell in January when some of the blooms started appearing. The children were sure it was spring so I explained that it...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
i would love to do nature walks more often but we only have a little park near our school that we can take the children to. The children mostly use this park to play on the swings and it's hard to make them wait till we have done our nature activities before they can jump on the swings.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
No bad weather, only bad clothing is something i learnt when i moved from a hot country to one with cold weather. I used to be miserable in the winter until i found out how to dress outside and now i love winters. This is something I try to teach the children in my class too and we make sure that we go out in all kinds of weather so we can explore how we feel...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
a. cold and cloudy
b. partly cloudy and frosty
c. warm and sunny -
Shahla Raza made a comment
In my teaching, i let the children decide the topic they would like to learn about within the theme for the month. We then decide together if they would like to do a craft based activity first or watch a film about it or discuss it verbally depending on the mood of the class for the day. Sometimes we just do play based activities around the theme if that's...
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Shahla Raza replied to Megan Griffiths
That's so amazing. You're so lucky you have so many options to choose from!!
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Shahla Raza made a comment
The only nearby open space available to us is a tiny city park. It has some trees and flowering plants and an artificial pond. Last summer we did a summer camp that included a nature club. I took the children to this park where we did an insect scavenger hunt, a tree bark printing activity, some nature sketching, and craft activities with things we could find...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Yes, outdoors learning is definitely more beneficial and fun than desk learning. Children are more joyful and excited to learn outdoors, and more curious and observant about their surroundings.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I run a sustainability based social enterprise and am hoping to design sustainability and climate change workshops for school students this year.
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Climate change and sustainability are some of the most pressing issues of our time, and it is important for children to understand the impact that their actions can have on the environment. Teaching them about these issues can create awareness and inspire them to take action.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
A refugee should adapt as much as is needed to fit in to the new environment. I think a new analogy is needed to describe integration where in the individuals while maintaining their distinct characteristics also become immersed in the new culture. In a salad bowl a tomato is still a tomato, while in a melting pot a tomato becomes merged with the onion. I...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
In my work with refugees, I have seen that not knowing the local language has been one of the biggest barriers to integration. Not knowing the language is a hindrance in finding work, negotiating the city, dealing with paperwork, accessing health services and finding housing. It is also a hindrance in making social connections.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
1. Yes handshakes are not the only way of greeting and increasingly are being eschewed as being sources of infections!! So a more universal way of greeting people of other cultures is putting your hand on your heart. I find this more endearing and heartfelt than a handshake.
2. A good way to avoid misinterpretation is to think carefully of commonly held... -
Shahla Raza made a comment
My cultural background is so varied its difficult for me to pinpoint which cultural trait comes from where. I find it easier to adapt to other cultures easily and am not even aware of what is specific to 'my' culture. But yes, certain features do stand out which I became aware of only after interacting with cultures very different from my own. For example, the...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
When I moved from my country of origin to my current country of residence, I realized how people viewed my cultural background. A few key gestures, some foods, some ways of dressing... these seemed to be the markers. I realize culture helps people box other people in order to understand them. And it also throws people off if you don't fit into this certain...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Respect and understanding of differences goes a long way in establishing a safe space to communicate. I have been volunteering with refugees for the last 5 years and have come across a lot of similar instances but a healthy way of communicating meant that both sides came away with more empathy and knowledge of each others' way of thinking.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
So many reasons to give to the question "But why do they leave their homes?". Refugees and immigrants are asked this question all the time. I left my 'home' and moved to a different country myself to volunteer with refugees and I'm asked this question a hundred times too "But why? Why did you leave home to move here and do this work?" I tell them I moved...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Yes the burkini ban is cultural discrimination. No one should be forced to dress in a certain way just because it offends some other people. Unless for security reasons, a dress should be treated as a dress. Forcing people to speak in English or the dominant language, or eat certain foods or saying 'go back to your country' are all cultural discrimination.
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Unstable living conditions, poverty, violence, war and persecution are some of the reasons that force people to leave their homes. Most of the countries' that refugees come from today have had a history of colonialism and have never managed to rise from the conditions that made them unstable after their independence.
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Shahla Raza replied to Ryan Monchalin
I like the 'check and connect' idea!! We also have a program supporting families with food packs,
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I don't know about the programs in the country I currently live in but at my community center I started a breakfast and lunch program for the kids attending the program which includes a hot freshly cooked nutritious meal as well as milk and fruits and I can say that it has made a tremendous difference both to the children's physical health and learning...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
i have a student this semester who I know routinely suffers physical and emotional abuse at home. He was also born and lived until he was 4 in a city that was being bombed and was under siege. He has very poor concentration, is extremely sensitive to external stimuli, is constantly watching around him for danger, has difficulty learning simple things which...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I found all the information very helpful. Trauma is indeed very complex to understand and deal with. I am still struggling with finding effective ways to help the children that i deal with everyday. I hope in this course in the next few weeks I am able to learn some strategies.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have come across all four attachment styles and have observed that the children with secure attachment styles are the most comfortable at school and fastest at learning.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I am currently working on a program to help a student who is undergoing complex interpersonal trauma. I am working with therapists, as well as involving the family in understanding how best to help the child who is struggling with several behavioral issues.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Learning about attachment styles is an important first step in understanding why the child behaves how he or she does when they are away from their primary carers. Also it is so important to have the primary carers involved in the child's schooling as after they are out of school, the teacher can no longer see what the child is going through at home and can...
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Shahla Raza replied to Jessica Boulton
I am so sorry to hear about this, Jessica. I can understand how devastated you must feel. It is unfortunate that so few teachers are ready to invest their energies in dealing with students with ''behavior'' problems when they are the ones that need the most help. Thank you for your efforts.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I am currently dealing with a child who is going through complex trauma. I can see how learning is so difficult for this child. I am trying to find expert help as it is very difficult for me to help this child alone.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have been working with refugee children over the past three years and I am still deeply affected by some of the issues that come up. I am learning to detach myself but it is still hard. Hopefully I will be able to learn ways to help myself too through this course!
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Thank you for sharing this report. Many of the findings in the report I am familiar with through my work. I particularly liked the recommendations and hope they will be gradually implemented.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
The course was very well organized around the subject and gave a lot of helpful resources and peer feedback. I would have loved some more information on teaching languages other than English but I understand as this is a British council course the emphasis is on teaching English. I liked that the teachers were not forgotten in the course, and the fourth week...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have gained a lot of useful insights through this program and have now seriously started considering further studies in Educational psychotherapy. I am researching a good Masters program that I can do online. Thank you for all the resources, and guidance.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Thank you for this resource list. I use Edutopia and the Unicef resources. Will look into the others.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Unfortunately I don't find much time to interact with peers in the field and share experiences. This course has been an outlet of sorts as I made sure I found some time every weekend to catch up with the classes and read comments and share experiences. At the moment I am struggling with work and lack of time and energy and almost at breaking point.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I use a lot of songs in my class too. My class learnt the alphabet, numbers, days of the week and months all through songs. We are now doing emotions and the parts of the body through songs. Songs make learning much more fun and faster.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
In the first case, the child seems to be repeating patterns of behavior learnt from his earliest caregivers. Probably the adults around him only respond to him when he gets angry or cries and this is his 'go to' behavior for interaction with adults. He does not understand when the teacher is kind to him and can only respond if she is angry with him. In this...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This is very important and helpful information to have. Where can I learn more about this?
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Mindfulness is the best part of my day. I make sure I take time out everyday to practice. I have also incorporated it in my younger learners' everyday routine.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
These are great ideas and I do a lot of them already. Still working on the 'eat properly' and 'get enough sleep' suggestions!! Its very important to have outside interests that help you detach from your work for sometime. I love to paint so whenever I get the chance I get my paints out. I also make sure to get some time for my mindfulness practice and for...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Earlier hearing the terrible stories that my learners shared with me would affect me for days. Sometimes I would cry with them, sometimes privately. Later, as I learnt to help them through these traumas I started feeling that it was important for me not to show myself as being as helpless as them, as they were looking at me as someone who could guide them. So...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I didn't know the concept of 'making stress your friend' but yes it definitely makes sense. But what struck me more was the last part about oxytocin and how helping others made stress feel less. I have noticed this in myself over the last few years. My stress levels have gone way down and even on the most stressful days I feel very relaxed and in control of...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
As they say in the safety instructions on the airplane: wear your own oxygen mask first, before helping others. I find this the truest thing. Even a simple thing like not having breakfast before I start the day can make a good day terrible. I learnt this through trial and error. In the early days, I worked 30 hours per day, no sleep, little nutrition. I would...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Thank you SIrin. Looking forward to the last week!
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I would like to incorporate some of the play and learn techniques from this week. I would specifically like to learn more about encouraging the students through using choices instead of stars or stickers.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
The dealing with challenging behaviors is an excellent resource. Thank you. In my earlier classes I had some learners with very challenging behaviors - like bringing knives or lighters to class or trying to set the curtains on fire. After the items were confiscated and the child was told why it was not acceptable to bring these to class or why it was not a...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Most of my students have outside pressures although the younger students don't have to deal directly with these. But many students are unable to attend regularly because of pressures on their parents. Some students stop coming if their parents move away from the neighborhood, some miss classes if the parents are unable to bring them because of other priorities.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I always try to use positive language instead of negative. Instead of saying don't turn around I say 'look at me' instead. Instead of telling a student she is lazy, I ask her if she's tired and would she like to take a break or get a little snack. Because I know these problems that annoy most teachers are reframeable as learning opportunities for the teachers...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This is so inspiring. Wonderful to see her work! We use a lot of games, stories and songs in our class too and the children definitely learn much more through that than other ways.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This is a great list. We already do some of these in our class but I'm going to do some of the others from this list. This week we are doing emotions and today I had the children make a smiling face or a frowning face and held up a mirror to show them how they look. They loved it and wanted to make all kinds of faces to see how they looked while doing it....
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Yes our main goal for both our younger students and adult learners is psycho-social support more than focusing on language learning. We emphasize life skills in class more than grammar and correct language use. We focus on being kind, sharing, politeness. EQ is encouraged more than IQ. For the adult learners, we have conversations on cultural similarities and...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
How do we measure cortisol levels if we don't have the scientific means? I would be interested in learning more about some other ways of checking that. In our class, I measure the reduction of stress in the children by observing their behavior. Are they paying more attention than they were previously? Are they feeling safer than they did when they first...
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Shahla Raza replied to Shahla Raza
@PatriciaEbhohimen yes as soon as I can!
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Shahla Raza made a comment
If a teacher knows which chemical is being released in what situation, then it will be easier for him or her to understand why the child is reacting in a certain way. This way what we term as 'behavioral difficulties' can be seen from a different perspective as chemical reactions and dealt with accordingly.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I've seen all these responses in almost all of my children. Fortunately I know each child's individual story and what particular trauma they have been exposed to so I know what to expect from each child. It's so important to be aware of all times why a child is reacting in a particular way to a particular stimuli.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
These are all great strategies. I use some of them but plan to incorporate more from this list. I use a lot of song, dance, play, story telling, art and humor in class. The parents have reported that the most recalled things from class are the art activities and the songs, and something funny the teacher did!!
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Amina seems to like learning but unfortunately the public school system has failed her. She had difficulties with a new language, trauma from losing her home and members of her family, sadness about her mother and an insensitive teacher. She needs a teacher that understands her situation and is patient with her, extra help with learning the language, art and...
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This is an extremely helpful list. I plan to print it out and put it above my desk and also share it with the other volunteer teachers. Thank you!!
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Most of the students who come to my class have had no prior experience of school and also have trauma and learning difficulties of various kinds. In the beginning I had 70 students crammed into a small space, none of whom had been to school before. Needless to say, we didn't get much teaching done in that class. After we broke up into smaller groups with more...
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@PhilieSpyropoulou its a song that goes "Merhaba merhaba" and the children wave hello at each other .
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@ClaireRoss ahaha no. We don't do English with the little ones. Our target language is Turkish so our welcome song is in Turkish and it goes "Merhaba" and it involves waving hello at everyone. :)
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Shahla Raza replied to Shahla Raza
@ClaireRoss we do them at the center. This way the parents feel involved. I also share some of the work the children have done with the parents (mostly the mothers) at this time. We will be doing 6 weekly meetings this week.
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Shahla Raza replied to Shahla Raza
@MarianelaSarzur please take a look at our facebook page Yusra Community Center.
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It is mainly the teachers in public school systems that are not able to cope with students with learning difficulties. Lack of training, lack of support from the school system, lack of training, large classes are issues that need to be solved at a policy level unfortunately.
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Shahla Raza replied to Shahla Raza
I believe this kind of play helps them make sense of the terrible things they see and perhaps this is a way for them to feel a little more in control of their surroundings by acting out these traumatic events.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I work with refugee children, some of whom have recently arrived. Once I remember a group of children playing with dolls and when I observed closely I realised they were playing at a funeral, complete with coffin and mourners. Another time I remember they had made a hospital where patients were being brought in for emergency care. I have also had several...
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Unfortunately the list of beliefs that children are expected to have are dependent on the kind of teachers there are. I have seen many teachers unable to create the kind of environment for learning where the children can have these beliefs. And this in turn leads to them not being able to develop the skills.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Mutual trust and respect, a peaceful classroom with no raised voices, moderated stimulation, mind breaks are all techniques helpful for learning well.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
After much hit and miss, we have now developed a routine where in the first 30 minutes of coming to the center, the children settle down, talk to their friends, talk to me about anything they want to share, eat a light breakfast and generally just get settled into the classroom space. I ask them if there is any problem or issue they want to discuss or tell me...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Thank you for a very informative second week!
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I will definitely use some of the activities from this week. And I will be learning more about play and learn, as well as strategies on collaborative learning from the BBC toolkit for teachers.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This video made me cry. Nawwar's story is the story of most of my children. I'm glad he is doing well in school thanks to his new friends. I cannot use this video in my class but I do encourage my students to develop empathy and teach them how to be a friend. We do a class on peace-building in which we do activities based on how to be a friend. This will...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Learning empathy should be required subject in all schools. Lack of empathy is what has led to many problems in the world today. I like the idea of using stories as children relate immediately to characters.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
My center is completely volunteer run. Unfortunately no one has had any training working with refugees and the last three years have been a learning experience as much for the volunteers as for the learners. As the manager I try to ease new volunteers into the environment and give them a short training on how to interact with people attending the activities....
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Shahla Raza made a comment
We do a lot of collaborative art and craft projects in class with our younger learners. This gets them working together and teaches them not just understanding the instructions but also other skills where they can work together and help each other.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I like the idea of collaborative learning and letting the learners decide how they want to learn. I also like giving a purpose to writing and not just writing for the sake of learning.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Many of the adult learners in my center are life-long learners as they have all had to give up their learning in their home countries and start fresh in their new countries. I have a 22 year old who had to stop school in his last year and after six years he has restarted the process of going to university. He prepared himself by learning English informally...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have a few SEN learners in my groups every term and I try to pace the learning according to everyone's level. Laughing at someone with slow learning or other 'disabilities' is absolutely discouraged. For students with anxiety or ADD, a time away from class is encouraged and they are separately given the lesson when they are ready.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I haven't really used this in my groups as I work with very small groups. For newcomers, I usually do one on one interactions on topics I feel they are finding difficult.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I do a meeting with the parents at the beginning of the term to get a detailed background of the student - everything from likes/dislikes to health issues and parenting issues. I keep a diary of each child. I do a six weekly follow up to see how each child is doing and ask the parents to tell me if they have seen any changes or if the child is using the...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I work in a non-formal setting in Istanbul, Turkey. The activities I run personally are for pre-school children and I prepare them for the formal school system. My students are all refugees, mainly from conflict regions in the Middle East. I do not speak the same first language as my students but they are teaching me. I have not had specialist training in...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
We roughly follow the lesson plan of the kindergarten program in the Turkish public schools. We tweak it to make it slower as our children are also learning the language along with other things. Sometimes we skip certain lessons as they don't seem useful. And sometimes we are not able to meet all of the kindergarten goals as set out by the program.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
For our language clubs for adults, we ask the participants what they are most interested in using the target language for. This year the students (who are mainly women) have requested topics on visiting the doctors (both for themselves and their children); buying groceries and reading labels; talking to their children's teachers; understanding school...
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@janesilver thank you I will have a look.
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@SirinSoyoz thank you Sirin, so we need to make sure we closely supervise and structure the learning. At the moment we only give a maximum of 15 minutes per week for every student. Let's see how this goes. Thank you for the helpful link.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
We use a lot of art, music, song, dance and yoga in teaching. We also do outdoor activities. With the children, art and songs are very popular as well as the outdoor activities. With the adults, cooking together or working on a skill based project fosters more learning. We have recently introduced fire tablets to our kids to help them learn. The jury's still...
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Although I work in a non-formal setting, I have closely observed how the formal school system in Istanbul is working to accommodate the huge numbers of newcomers in the classroom. The Turkish public schools are not well-funded at the best of times, but many schools have found creative solutions to help the newcomers settle in. One school we work closely with...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I work in a non-formal setting and the system heavily influences the kind of learning. As we are dependent on volunteers and donations, we often lack trained facilitators for our language activities as well as a paucity of materials. Our students are also often not regular so we cannot follow a formal curriculum and are constantly having to rework our...
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This week was very informative and helpful. I would like to learn more about multilingual learning for very young learners - how soon to start, how much of each language can a child learn and retain, should both or more languages that a child is learning be given equal emphasis etc.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This looks like my group here. We switch between Arabic and Turkish and a bit of English.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Some of this material is certainly very useful and we use some modified versions of it in our Turkish language activities for adults.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
We don't have English for our younger students, only for our older learners. But as many of the teachers are English speakers, our young students pick up many English phrases on their own. Also thanks to youtube videos many of the children are learning English at home.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
I have a class of 5-6 year old Arabic speakers that are learning Turkish. Even at this age, most of them are aware that they are learning a new language. At the moment we speak a mix of Arabic and Turkish in class with some English phrases thrown in. I plan to use this exercise as a good way for them to notice the different languages they are using.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
This exercise was so revealing about my own unconscious biases and assumptions. Will try it out with an older group of students about not jumping to conclusions about people based on a single piece of information.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Yusra's story is very inspiring. I have shared her story with both my younger and older students to illustrate that we can rise above our circumstances and that 'refugee' is only a label with a short lifespan and that it can be changed to whatever we want as in Yusra's case to 'Olympic level swimmer'.
PS - I don't mean to be political here but as a sidenote,... -
Shahla Raza replied to Katie Zaniboni
@TonyCapstick I usually use the term 'refugees' for funding purposes as donors are more likely to respond to the commonly used term. In my class I refer to the learners (children and adults) as students. In other contexts I use 'forcibly displaced people'. So the term usage, I guess, depends on the context.
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Shahla Raza made a comment
Just to give an example - in the early days, one of the new art teachers was in class with the children when it started thundering outside. Many of the children started crying and huddling together. Being unaware of what could have triggered this outburst of crying, she rushed to me. When I went in, many of the children ran to me and hugged me around the legs,...