Skillful Teachers

• Skillful teachers are made, not born.
• Being skillful is not in competition with being a thinking, feeling being.
• Skillful teachers are aware of the complexity of their job and work to be conscious and deliberate about what they do.
• Skillful teachers are clear about what is to be learned, clear about what achievement means, and clear about what they are going to do to help students attain success.
• Skillful teachers are learners.
•  Skillful teachers constantly reach out to colleagues with an assertive curiosity that says:

        "I don't know it all. No one does or ever will, but I am always growing, adding to
         my knowledge and skills and effectiveness."

      Saphier, J., Haley-Speca, M., & Gower, R. (2012). The Skillful Teacher. United States: Research for Better Teaching, Inc.

Bridge Action Plan

This is a bridge action plan done by my friend Areej Yassine and I.

We introduced in it a solution for a problem that's happening in a school,

which is holding on to traditional and boring teaching methods.

And we suggested organized and concrete steps to work on.

Al Farabi

In al-Farabi’s philosophical system, education is one of the most important social
phenomena. Indeed, in al-Farabi’s view, the whole activity of education can be
briefed up as the acquisition of values, knowledge and practical skills in a particular
period and culture. The aim of education is to guide the individual towards perfection
because the human being was created for this purpose.

In al-Farabi’s view, education is the combination of learning with practical action.
If the speculative sciences are learned without applying them, this wisdom is
defective (Al-Farabi, 1983, p. 89).

Besides so many aims of education, one is to prepare the political leaders.
The social life integrates the individual, the family and the city. The politicians should
not restrict their work to the organization and management of cities. They should
encourage people to help one another in dispensing good things and over rooting evils.
They must use their political skills to protect the virtues and praiseworthy activities.

Rauf, Muhammad; Ahmad, Mushtaq; Iqbal, Zafar. (2013). Al-Farabi's Philosophy of Education. Educational Research International, 1(2), 4-5.

مُجتمعي

إنّ المُشكلة في مُجتمعنا نحن "العَرَب"

أنّنا نُحبّط من مَعنويات بعضنا البعض،

بدل أن نَشُدّ على أيدي بعضنا

لِنعلوَ ونُزهِرَ ونتألَّق..

لماذا لا أقول لأختي "ثيابكِ جميلة اليوم"

بدل "منظرك مثل النورية" أو "يُستر عليكِ"؟

لماذا لا تقول لصديقك "أعجبني تعامُلك مع والدتك"

عِوضًا عن "إسا صرت آدمي"؟

لماذا لا تقولين لأباكِ "إنّي أُحبك"

مع القُبلة التي تُعطيهِ إيّاها؟

لماذا لا تقول لتلميذك "أحببتُ الطريقة التي حلّيت بها هذا السؤال"

بدل "لازم تحلّ بالطريقة اللي أعطيتك اياها، بلا اختراعات"؟

لماذا لا تتكلّم مع ابنك بهدوء بدل الصُّراخ والصَّرامة؟

- فاطمة سليمان  

حُسن الظن بالله

وإن بانَ كُلُّ شيءٍ أسودًا

وإن تلبَّدتِ السَّماءُ بالغُيومِ ولم تُمطِر

وإن تغيَّر شكلُ العالم

وتجمَّعت حُشودٌ مُحتشدةٌ مِن حَولي

وارتفعت أصواتُهم وتَعالى صُراخُهم

 يُحاولون تغيير تَفكيري وتَيئيسي

وإن أمسَكوني بقُوّة وهَزّوني هَزًّا عنيفًا

ثُمَّ انكَبُّوا عليَّ ضّربًا ولَطمًا

فَلا، لا، لن أظُنَّ بكَ إلّا خَيرًا

ولا، لا، واللهِ لن تُخزيني

ورِضاكَ مِحوَرُ مَطالِبي

وبوصلةُ طَريقي!

- فاطمة سليمان -