Special Education!

Be Happy: Be Yourself: Appreciate Your Healthy Life.

         Through studying my Bachelor degree in education, I really enjoyed studying and more searching about special Students. "Special Education" course brought the advantage of both to thank God every second for being healthy and of course to know how to handle special students in a regular classroom .The idea was kindly vague to me.

         Mental retardation, ADD, ADHD, Autism, learning Difficulties, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysorthographia, Aphasia, Behavioral disorder, gifted and talented individuals; Students with these kinds of problems need special educators or special education programs. IEP(Individual education plan) can support students with these kinds of problems, Because they are slow learners, low achievers as well as they are at risk of academic delay (Scholastic delay).

          Students with disabilities should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum, extracurricular activities, or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers. Academically, a resource room may be available within the school for specialized instruction, with typically no more than two hours per day of services for a student with learning disabilities, Should the nature or severity of his or her disability prevent the student from achieving these goals in a regular education setting, then the student would be placed in a more restrictive environment, such as a special school, classroom within the current school, or a hospital program. Generally, the less opportunity a student has to interact and learn with non-disabled peers, the more the placement is considered to be restricted.To determine what an appropriate setting is for a student, a team will review the student’s needs and interests.

         After I get introduced to all beneficial information needed, I had observed and interviewed an Autistic and epileptic Girl in BLESSED center (Benevolent Lebanese Evangelical School for Special  Education and Development) in Beirut. Nadia's case was really shocking and miserable. We have to be grateful to  God  for all  his favors and Blessings. We are all wonderfully made. 

Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing and How It is Applicable in Teachers' Life?

         15th of April, 2015, at Lebanese International University, Dr. Oussama Hatoum, from Department of Computer Sciences, had presented a lecture that entitles Cloud Computing and discovering computers. He emphasized about Advantages of Cloud Computing:

• your slow computer will become a fast expensive when using the Cloud.
• Access from multiple devices
• say goodbye to software installation and setup
• no more software and hardware maintenance overhead
• No need for backing-up your data
• Faster connections

He explained about the Types of Cloud Computing:

storage only cloud services
SAAS (Software as a service)
PAAS (Platform as a service)

He continued his presentation that the Storage only cloud services allow you to save your data on the cloud, they backup your data and take measures to secure it and he maintained that by using Cloud in our daily life there is no need for USB sticks any more.

He introduced a brief explanation about SAAS and PAAS:

SAAS

• It is a service that offers software that run on the cloud
• These software can be accessed for free or based on a subscription fee
• Google Docs, sheets and slides and Microsoft office 365 are considered examples of SAAS
• All changes are automatically saved on the Google drive

PAAS

• It is a service that allows users to create SAAS applications
• usually they provide web-site building platforms that allows the user to build and deploy a web-site on the cloud
• Ipage, Engine Yard and Byethoste.com are considered examples of PAAS

          Dr. Oussama had emphasized that using Google Drive print help you to print from multiple locations and devices.you don't need to use cables anymore to attach your software device to a printer. On the other hand, you just give an order and it prints whatever you command from any location you want to make print.
         He focused on special cloud services that we can benefit from.Moreover, He gave clear explanation about cloud Antivirus that how it submits your files to the cloud to be scanned for viruses. we became aware that Cloud Antivirus runs on the cloud and is faster and lighter than traditional antivirus. However, if you find traditional Antivirus slowing down your system, then you can switch to a cloud based Antivirus. For example, Panda Cloud Antivirus.
         Dr. Hattoum had explained that cloud services differ in the level of security provided; some offer minimum to moderate security and others force the user to use high security standards.
What are the advantages of using Google Cloud security?

1.  Encrypted data; that the conversion of electronic data into another form which cannot be easily understood by anyone except programmers will be much more easier then using any other security service.
2. No virus infected files allowed and eventually, 
3. Less software installations, less viruses

Where to store all these data? 
This question was raised by  Dr. Hattoum himself. Through his clear examples and information he encouraged us, and eventually, made us convinced that all our data will be safe and protected in Swiss Alps. He clarified his point of view by telling us that according to a recent survey, Switzerland is already dedicating big amount of space to cloud storage facilities. In addition, Switzerland banking system is increasingly under attack, and still today it has never faced any problems, such as, stealing.... So, another safe profitable business has suddenly moved up is cloud Storage in Swiss.

Webinar

"Making Learning a collaborative process with Skype"

    Tuesday, March 24, 2015 was the date of my great experience with attending my first webinar. The way you may interact with other attendees and how you can clarify your misunderstood questions through communicating with the presenter, all these communication happens on the spot viewing in the chat box below.

    Who is Shannon Holden? He is a Teacher for eight years in Texas,assistant principal for seventeen years in Texas Missouri. He also teaches online classes for helping teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms.

    Middle School Assistant Principal, Shannon Holden, showed teachers how to communicate collaborate with educators around the world with Skype. He maintained and continued that Over the past few years, Skype has grown from an original platform with limited functionality to an excellent tool for students and educators alike! He suggested that Skype is a professional learning community where educators can apply it in their classrooms, it is useful in terms of integrating technology into the classroom to engage and inspire students.

    First The presenter presented the overall issues related to the presentation and the to the topic itself. How can attendees ask their questions? Invitations to upcoming webinars, Ce quizzes, webinar recording and resources, outline discussion, how and when they are going to send the link to have our certificates for attending that webinar, as well as he discussed about webinars tips that how we can make the webinar meaningful as possible as we can.then, he gave an overview about that session.

• what is Skype? 
• how to use Skype? 
• Skype ideas 
• preparing your students to use Skype 
• finding others willing to connect 

     What is Skype? 

Skype is a free software program that allows you to make free voice and video calls to any other computer in the world via a high-speed internet connection. He claimed that if you have high speed internet connection Skype works great it its not Skype goes a bit dicey

    How to use Skype? 
First we have to download the Skype software to our computer, It is free and takes only five minutes. He introduced how to call the other people to communicate trough Skype.However, if you want to share documents or  information that is no need to show your faces of, so  you just make voice calls.    You can also send messages,  share files with your friends in your contacts, this is relatively new feature added to Skype.

What is New in Skype?
Skype used to charge for people to do group video calls
They are now free
You can share documents/files of almost every type

He showed us a picture that a group of students (six graders) are sitting and looking at screen where they are Skyping a united state's soldier and they recorded that session and posted it on you-tube,
Six graders had read a book under the title of The Soldier's Heart. So the teacher decided to gather all six grade sections together to Skype an actual united state's army soldier.

Integrating Skype in our classroom

• Collaborate with other classes no matter where they are
• connect with an Author for a "book-talk"
• Find guest speakers and invite them in your classroom, (they don't have to drive to come, he is going to present once if you have multiple sections so you can gather them in an auditorium)
• Take a virtual field trip anywhere in the world.
• contact a famous historical figure for a "guest lecture"
• Many famous people would love to connect with school kids
• you can contact people that clarify ideas that are not clear enough how they are used in real life
•  For Grandparents' Day,you can surprise your students by Skyping with their grandparents that are far away.
• Home-bound students could be connected via Skype and be able to watch and participate in class if he/she were there.
• Using Skype for parent/Teacher Conferences

Preparing your Students before Skype session

• Teach students to stand up (and get in front of the camera)
• have students prepare their questions ahead of time, and put them into a set order
• have students practice speaking in front of the camera
• Remind students no to be silly
• Remind students to be quiet when others are speaking
• If you are doing a foreign-language activity,don't laugh at the accent

We can maximizing our Skype Experience in our classrooms; by just adding a projector (or Smart-board)that makes the computer screen large enough for the entire class to see what is going on and an USB microphone that provides a way better sound quality than our computer's embedded microphone.

David A Cox is a gentleman who has made great video, it tells you how to install and how to use Skype. This is the link to follow the instruction and process  made by David  Cox to contact people and carry conversations. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAeAeyh7zM

Note:

what is the maximum participants we may have in a group call? you can have up to 25 people in your group chat. on the contrary,on Google handout you can have 12 people on.

You deserve to be Honored!

       

  Today, Lebanon is in an official state of mourning. Many of our soldiers, actually we can call them "Heroes", who gave up their lives, not thinking of their families, of their children and of their wives, to defend us.

           We will always remember them, we will never forget their names and their faces would always remain as if they are still alive. We as Lebanese people we have to honor every single soldier that serve for the sake of their country.They do their best to protect us to provide safe and secure environment to live in.

          My one and only one lovely brother also serves for his country. His mission is to provide safe and secure environment to his surroundings.Whenever I faced any problem, you were the person I turned to.  You always give me tough love. You encouraged me to be a better version of myself. Thank you for always protecting me, and also letting me fall but being there to pick me up.  You are the best big brother, and I am so blessed to get the chance to be your sister.

         So I will dare to say thank you for you all, serving our country and defending freedom for all. We hope you will be home soon with your family and friends. God bless you all.

Unforgettable Experience

              Everybody has unforgettable experience, even bad or good ones, including me. On February 9th, it was Wednesday afternoon when I experienced an abnormal diarrhea that continued until the end of March. what was the reason? how to solve the problem? which medicine was beneficial? to whom to listen? which Doctor was telling the truth? were the tests enough? there was no answer.

             After following and applying my doctors' instructions, day by day I became more skinny and weak. I lost almost twenty kilograms from my original weight. all the tests were in progress but there was no any evidence to tell us what was my real problem. the bad ideas had started to wander in my mind. Am I suffering from intestinal Cancer? Shall I start counting down the days? would I leave my beloved ones?

            Fortunately, after waiting almost one month for the disease to be discovered, the laboratory analysis had showed us that I was suffering from Celiac Disease. It is an autoimmune disorder that can occur in genetically predisposed people where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.  It is estimated to affect 1 in 100 people worldwide.

          Currently, the only treatment for celiac disease is lifelong adherence to a strict gluten-free diet. I avoid foods with wheat, rye and barley, such as bread and beer.

         No one warn us, No one was aware about it. My aim behind sharing this personal experience is to help you to have an idea about Celiac Disease and search more about it and be aware of it. so be Careful!

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs are good to eat

Easter Eggs yellow and Blue

Easter Eggs for Me and you

           Have you ever Experienced kids are singing Easter songs and reciting Easter Poems? Doesn't it sound marvelous? we can classify it under the most beautiful occasion of all.Children wait for Easter bunny to visit them and ask them to find the hidden colorful eggs.They strongly wait to visit their relatives and friends to get colorful eggs dyed with spring colors. So, what is behind Dying eggs with Variety of colors? what does it symbolize? so many questions wander in our minds when we discuss about Easter Eggs. A traditional symbol of egg is fertility, and rebirth. Christians use Easter eggs because they symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus.though an egg appears to be like the stone of a tomb, similar to the bird hatches from it with life; similarly, the Easter egg, for Christians, is a reminder that Jesus rose from the grave, and that those who believe will also experience eternal life. The symbolism of rebirth fit well with the spring holiday of Easter, as it is the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Most of Christians boil their Easter eggs and typically dye them with Red color. we believe that it symbolizes the color of blood, in recognition of the blood of the sacrificed Christ. Some also use the color green, in honor of the new blooming after the long dead time of winter. 

Happy Mother's Day!

My graceful Queen!

         My Mom is the Best! The words are not enough to describe her. She is my Ideal. Her caring, loving, understanding, strong and organized character makes her pretty and classy woman.

        She taught me every helpful steps needed in everyday life. How to eat, how to be neat and organized, how to pray, how to rely on myself, how to respect others, how to enjoy life... all her graces I enjoy in my everyday life. I'm continuing my Mom's mission. How I behave now with my daughters is similar to the way that my Mom had used to behave with me when I was a child.

       Mom, I will never forget your compromises, your sweet words when i was disappointed or  lost and your motivating expressions when i achieved something great. You shaped me as a Faithful Christian and Honorable Armenian. you are the cause to have my dreams to come true.  what I am now, what I have achieved in my life;These all, because of you.