Phyllis Omido won $12m

Phyllis Omido won $12m fighting lead battery poisoners. After a decade of campaigning, Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido won a court ruling that awarded £9.2m to a community poisoned by lead pollution from a nearby factory. 

In 2009, Ms Omido explained to her employer that their business of battery recycling could end up killing the people living near the plant. Her employer asked her to never talk about it again. 

The battery melting process emitted both toxic fumes and a discharge that seeped into the neighbouring densely populated Owino Uhuru community. It affected both the air and the water, causing illnesses. 

The doctors tried in vain to use malaria medication to treat the Owino Uhuru's population who came in with unexplainable diarrhea and strange rashes. The children did not improve, because they did not have a mosquito-borne infectious disease; they were lead-poisoned. Indeed, the recycling factory has put a neighborhood of children at serious risk of lead exposure. 

Lead pollution remains in the ground for decades. Some countries are shipping hazardous waste to other countries ill equipped to process it and they are doing it legally. The people who are shipping all these hazardous waste are turning their heads and pretending it is not their problem! 

Chronic lead poisoning in children is hard to diagnose because the symptoms are fairly common, among them low I.Q. and attention issues. Without blood test result, a definitive diagnosis is impossible. Few labs in Africa offer lead testing and the cost about $100- is beyond the reach of poor families.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, "Blood lead levels of 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood in young children can result in lowered intelligence, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention span, hyperactivity and antisocial behavior." 

Performing crude battery recycling to where people live is a frightening thing indeed! 

Phyllis Omido worked in the office of a lead smelter in Mombasa, when her baby King David, became sick. She learnt that he had acute lead poisoning. 

She wrote numerous letters to Kenyan's environment and health agencies. She marched in the streets of Mombasa and organized to have children tested for elevated blood lead levels, despite death threats and an attempted kidnapping of Phyllis and her son. 

Human Rights Watch began working with Phyllis in 2011, documenting the extent of lead poisoning in the community. 

Phyllis' tireless activism paid off. Most environmental activists are not professional campaigners but ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, either unable or unwilling to turn a blind eye. 

Every week, two activists are killed for their work!

When Phyllis Omido and other residents peacefully protested the pollution and the lack of government response, they were threatened, harassed, arrested and beaten up by thugs. 

Omido said, "I never dreamed of becoming an activist, but the issue of lead poisoning became personal after my son was born." Today she is one of Kenyan's most outspoken environmental activists. 

Phyllis Omido was awarded Goldman prize environmental award after battling to close the lead plant in her kenyan slum that was poisoning its inhabitants and her baby. 

How is her son? He is well now, she said. "Some people say I should get his IQ tested to see if the lead damaged his development, but I don't want to do that. What difference would it make?"

The courts have found the government and investors liable for poisoning a community with a toxic smelting plant. 

Congratulations Phyllis Omido! 

Palimpseste

Un palimpseste est un parchemin manuscrit dont on a effacé la première écriture afin d'écrire un nouveau texte. 

Le terme 'palimpseste' vient du latin 'palimpsestus', mot lui-même issu du grec ancien 'palimpsêsto', qui signifie 'gratté de nouveau'. 

Le palimpseste est donc une figure textuelle ou poétique qui porte une charge historique, en ouvrant le présent au poids du passé. On peut utiliser l'idée du palimpseste pour décrire comment la narration peut représenter une histoire enfouie ou supprimée. 

De même que les copistes réutilisaient un parchemin déjà écrit, mais dont ils savaient effacer l'écriture précédente par grattage ou par lavage, de même, l'écriture du présent, omniprésent, recouvre un récit passé, traumatisant, culpabilisant, qui est une histoire enfouie. 

La définition de la mémoire comme palimpseste par le poète Baudelaire est très intéressante: "Souvent des êtres, surpris par un accident subit, suffoqués brusquement par l'eau, et en danger de mort, ont vu s'allumer dans leur cerveau tout le théatre de leur vie passée. Le temps a été annihilé, et quelques secondes ont suffi à contenir une quantité de sentiments et d'images équivalents à des années. Et ce qu'il y a de plus singulier dans cette expérience, que le hasard a amenée plus d'une fois, ce n'est pas la simultanéité de tant d'éléments qui furent successifs, c'est la réapparition de tout ce que l'être lui-même ne connaissait plus, mais qu'il est cependant forcé de reconnaître comme lui étant propre. L'oubli n'est donc que momentané; et dans telles circonstances solennelles, dans la mort peut-être, et généralement dans les excitations intenses créées par l'opium, tout l'immense et compliqué palimpseste de la mémoire se déroule d'un seul coup, avec toutes ses couches superposées de sentiments défunts, mystérieusement embaumés dans ce que nous appelons oubli."

L'oubli n'est autre chose qu'un palimpseste. Qu'un accident survienne, et tous les effacements revivent dans les interlignes de la mémoire étonnée. 

Genette note, "Toute écriture est un palimpseste." Certes, un texte peut toujours en cacher un autre. Les idées de quelqu'un qui écrit n'émergent pas de nulle part, et celui d'un double sens, un sens figuré, dissimulé derrière des lignes simples. Les mots sont des palimpsestes dans le sens où quelque chose a existé avant. 

Le souvenir surgit par un détail, une image cachée dans les replis de la mémoire, comme un écho au palimpseste de la mémoire indestructible. 

Les fragments d'une vie se télescopent, s'entrechoquent. Dans l'agencement des événements, s'élabore un exercice de remembrance qui, par les moyens de l'écriture, ménage un instant de suspend. 

La mémoire se construit et reconstruit par l'action des hommes, elle évolue et se renouvelle, elle est vivante, dynamique: un palimpseste des représentations.

Qu'est-ce que le cerveau humain, sinon un palimpseste immense et naturel? Des couches innombrables d'idées, d'images, de sentiments. 

Are we ready?

When schools closed their doors back in March, my first thought was for the students. I wondered if they were safe. I wondered if they had adequate means for getting meals and access to the necessary tools to continue their learning. 

Learning retention, whether online or not, is all about the quality of the lesson and the resources that support learning. It is not about having the best cables, microphones, lights, and cameras.

We are ready to support our students transitioning to their next grade or course, acknowledging their prolonged absence from the classroom. We will include assessments to identify students' strengths and gaps in learning at Key instructional times to ensure students have fundamental building blocks in advance of new content. 

Indeed, to align with physical distancing, our school is not planning field trips and activities requiring group transportation, until public health data suggests otherwise. School assemblies or other large gatherings will be avoided but virtual options will be offered instead of in person gatherings. 

Remote learning will be available for all students with access to learning materials posted online to support both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities during the day. 

Making time to explore and learn about our students' experiences, particularly home-learning experiences, will be an important part of this back-to-school initial transition: both for pastoral and teaching and learning reasons. Our students need time and space to readjust to school-based learning. This is the reason why this transition will be filled with as much anxiety as the first day of the school year. 

We need to provide our students multiple opportunities to explore their home-school experiences to support this transition. We can use class discussions during morning circles; while writing, poetry, music, art, dance, drama would all provide authentic therapeutic opportunities. 

We all learn by thinking about, and reflecting on situations we have experienced. For example, we can provide to our students a questionnaire and they have the choice to tick between two smileys (Didn't like or loved) for each question: 

• We have been staying from school.
• We have not been seeing our friends face-to-face.
• We have been doing things with our families.
• We are not stand too close to others.
• We have bot been visiting family. 
• We have been washing our hands for 30 seconds.

Students can also draw pictures or write about their feelings and experiences during self-isolation. Some students may have lost family members to the disease caused by the coronavirus, and some schools may have lost staff members. Most often asking students to talk about their experiences is a good idea. 

To end with a more hopeful note, the reopening of the school after the crisis provides an unparalleled opportunity to rethink the day-to-day experiences of students and teachers. With students having had to take a lead role in their own learning and teachers having had to adapt to remote teaching, I hope that upon returning to school the interactions between teachers and students will be more engaging, with teachers spending less time teaching and more time facilitating students' inquiry and problemsolving skills. 

For example, rather than just learning facts about the French Revolution, students should learn about the French revolution as a way to understand issues like world conflict or poverty or the struggle between church and state. Without those connections, I am not surprised that so many students have trouble naming things they learned early on that still have meaning today. 

Hashtag Activism

I was intrigued to notice lots of selfie-posting participants from my Instagram and Facebook list, all of whom I would not necessary have expected to participate in something called a black and white selfie challenge. 

The hashtag # womensupportingwomen monochrome selfie campaign does not have to be worthless. But I really think that the hashtag does not help these oppressed women around the world. I think that Instagram and Facebook new empowerment trends are meaningless. 

Don't get me wrong! I am all about women supporting women, but I am a little bit cynical about this social media black and white selfie challenge.

According to me, self-portrait masquerading as activism or empowerment is meaningless. It makes the person feel like he or she has accomplished something, and it allows them to bask in self-satisfaction and win virtual approval. 

Of course, people have the right to post what they wish on their own platforms. But how does a monochrome image of oneself, not of the woman you want to elevate, champion empowerment?

I am not against digital activism. History shows how marginalized groups, long excluded from elite media spaces, have used hashtags to advance counternarratives, preempt political spin, and build diverse networks of dissent. But Internet cannot do everything. Social media allows us to know about these cases in ways that afford teachers some modicum of support from a community that is broader than their own institution. Indeed hashtags give voice to diverse experiences and many people say that social medias are all they have to build solidarity around threatening experiences. 

But I think that online organizing is not enough by itself to effect real social change. 

The new Instagram challenge of posting black and white photographs of themselves was originally meant to raise awareness on the high rates of femicide in Turkey. But I challenge everyone who has posted a black and white photo to post a screenshot of the organization or charity they have donated to that actually supports women! 

I am just saying, as a teacher, that it is the time for a real reflection. Now is not the time to be silent, neither is it the time to jump on a bandwagon. It is the time for deep reflection and care. 

Evgeny Morozov is also sceptical of the motives, and power of digital activism. "My hunch is that people often affiliate with causes online for selfish and narcissistic purposes." Indeed hashtags come and go and are no match for real world activism engagement. The researchers such as Evgeny Morozov (2009) have long been pre-occupied with the understanding why the Internet does not permit development of the coherent social movements or collective action. 

Moreover, the journalist and blogger Morozov (2010) points out that digital technology provides new methods of control, surveillance, and persecution for repressive governments. Governments can block access to content and track the online actions of citizens. Following this logic, digital technology may endanger activists more than it helps them. 

I totally understand that the hashtags are intended to encourage individuals with similar experiences and to let them know that they are not alone. They are using the digital to make visible the global scarce of gender oppression and to link protest movements across national borders. Unfortunately, ideological fluffiness on the part of people with huge online followings can be deleterious to more substantive activism. 

But hashtag activism must not let us forget about activism in the real world. 

When we repost a hashtag or an awareness video, we should keep the same energy for real actions in real life. Our activism online is not the work; it is just a tool for the real work. 

Let us be aware of slacktivism. Slacktivism combines the words 'slacker' and 'activism' to create an epithet that suggests that online political actions that require little time or commitment often act to supplant, rather than supplement, physical, real world activism. (Allsop, 2016). 

Digital movements are no match for real world engagement. The realities of face-to-face contact and in-person mass protests, the tools of centuries of struggle for full rights, have become even more essential to grounding us as we navigate through a new era of humans' relationship with technology. 

I have taught my human rights youth group to examine implicit and overt form of bias and discrimination and I have provided my students with the structure, opportunity and tools to do something about the injustice they see in the world. 

My task is to transform students' feelings of anger, sadness and hopelessness into concrete actions that can make the world more equitable. 

Every week, I encourage my students during our meetings to think of ways they can teach their classmates, younger students and adults in their lives about important social issues. This can include school assemblies, community forums, teach-ins, peer-to-peer programs and social media forums. I include many opportunities to share the information in interesting ways: written, art, theatre. We have written letters to legislators and we have examined the extent to which legislation impacted injustice. 

Demonstration and protests can be uplifting and empowering and can help students feel like they are part of a larger movement. They can create posters, prepare songs or chants and practice symbolism that conveys their thoughts and feelings. 

We have created our own surveys. We have used paper surveys in order to gain insight into how other students in their school or the larger community feel about an issue. 

We have raised money and this activity has shown my students that raising money is a concrete way to contribute to community or national efforts to address injustice. They can raise money by selling items, auctions, entertainment, sponsoring events and more. 

Indeed, both volunteering and social activism are important strategies for fostering people's participation in social change and human development. By participating in both, volunteering and social activism, students can be empowered with the confidence, skills and knowledge necessary to effect change in their world. 

Student activists are attuned to multiple aspects of social justice and it is important to widen their views in a classroom in order to take overlapping positions into account.

Activism involves advocacy. To be an activist is to be a mover and galvanizer of a particular cause that one thinks ought to form a permanent landscape of an ideal society. Advocacy is the act of translating private problems into social issues. An activist must possess a deep-rooted sense of empathy. He or she must be involved in society; to partake in the joy and suffering of ordinary lives; to listen, to respect and to be actively involved in society. 

Last but not least, activism must be guided by a moral vision that is embedded with a deep concern for fellow humans. Without a moral vision, activism can easily be politicized and serve group or individual interests that no longer put the community or society as its ultimate concern.

Uniqueness

When you neither feel superior nor inferior while meeting anyone, you are respecting your uniqueness. 

All families are different. We need to teach our students to feel good about the uniqueness of their family and to respect other families that may be different. 

All students are unique and so are their requirements. We must notice the uniqueness in each student. 

We call students to grow into their best selves and to treat others with the same degree of dignity. 

Teachers need to encourage young minds to learn to express their ideas, develop a positive self image, and develop skills in independence and self-direction. We need to teach and consistently reinforce to our students their uniqueness.  

It is important to be sensitive to the fact that differences do exist and that such differences must be respected.

We need to avoid segregating students by cultural groups and we shouldn't allow them to segregate themselves. We need to intervene immediately when a students ridicules a minority student's culture or language.

Holding high expectations for every child promotes the idea that each child's development has both universal features and features that are unique to each child and their context. High expectations for every child does not involve having the same expectation of every child. Each child will experience learning and development differently. Students have diverse culture, ability, learning styles, personalities and identities. 

Every student is special. Every student has different needs. Every child is a unique individual. Teachers can reach every child.

Teachers need to transform differentiation from buzzword to classroom reality. True differentiation involves constantly assessing students and tailoring instruction accordingly. It's a student-centered classroom, in which every teacher responds to where students are and provides choices and flexibility. 

As teachers we already know the importance of getting to know every one of our students individually. 

Howard Garner conceptualized the idea of multiple intelligences as, ""The extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways." Indeed, there are many ways to be smart. 

Each student is unique and uniquely smart. Today's world no longer accepts one-size-fits-all. It is definitely time for a mindset change: a growth mindset.

Sin Ciencia No Hay Futuro

El covid-19 ha evidenciado que sin ciencia no hay futuro. 

La ciencia no vive de buenas intenciones, sino de personal altamente cualificado y con talento, y de instalaciones competitivas, reactivos, materiales y salarios que hay que pagar. 

Actualmente la ciencia està asfixiada; la mayorìa de las infraestructuras cientìficas en Africa estàn obsoletas. 

A los jovenes africanos con talento no les quedarà màs remedio que emigrar y otros paìses explotaràn sus hallazgos. 

La ventaja de la ciencia es que no hay que creer en ella, ni siquiera tenerla confianza ciega. La ciencia es comprobable, y se verifica de forma continua. Por eso permite avances y progreso social. 

El método cientifico ha demonstrado con creces ser el màs pràctico y el màs fiable, ya que se basa en planteamientos lògicos y procesos de evaluaciòn continuados. No es dogma de fe: se revisa continuamente y es capaz de corregirse a sì mismo y evolucionar, mejorando su capacidad predictiva. 

Cuando se realiza un descubrimiento cientìfico, habitualmente se da a conocer publicàndolo en una revista cientìfica. 

El trabajo cientifico es un trabajo de hormiguitas, en el que grano a grano se construye un hormiguero lleno de galerìas, o se mueven montañas de tierra.

La ciencia no es perfecta y nunca ha aspirado a ello. Tiene una enorme capacidad de superaciòn y una capacidad de autocrìtica quizà algo exagerada. 

Màs que nunca, ahora podemos afirmar, con mayùsculas, que sin ciencia no hay futuro. 

"La ciencia es el alma de la properidad de las naciones y la fuente de vida de todo progreso." Louis Pasteur

Sin ciencia no hay futuro. Y sin conciencia tampoco. Con-ciencia para cumplir dignamente nuestra labor, con-ciencia en como gastar los fondos pùblicos...

Gandhi dijo "Las raìces de la violencia son: la riqueza sin trabajar, el placer sin conciencia, el conocimiento sin caràcter, el comercio sin moralidad,

La medicina sin humanismo médico no merece ser ejercida. En cado acto médico debe estar presente el respeto por el paciente y los conceptos éticos y morales. Entonces la ciencia y la conciencia estaràn siempre del mismo lado, del lado de la humanidad. 

Rabelais dijo, "Ciencia sin conciencia, no es màs que la ruina del alma."

New Normal

Our daily lives have changed since the coronavirus outbreak started. We have had to change the daily routines we were used to, and this has led to a new expression that describes our new way of life. 

I was stopped at the door of the bank and the guard asked me, "Can I take your temperature?" How many of us have experienced something similar in the past few months?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life as we know it. What will "the new normal" mean for us? Until a safe coronavirus vaccine is available, there will continue to be a risk of infection, even as people get back to work, school and a more normal life.

It is time for us to accept that this pandemic, and social isolation, are here for awhile! We are in a new normal! Please bear in mind that we may have to live in the new normal for a very long time.

We have to get used to a new normal due to this virus. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness and it is not known to be transmitted by exposure to food or food packaging. Nonetheless, an emphasis is given on increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning.

In school, we have to reduce the size of classes and we have to keep children in small groups. We have to wear a face mask all the time in school. 

Restaurants may no longer be able to seat the same number of people, due to social distancing requirements. There will be increased sanitation and cleaning everywhere. 

Droplets from sneezing, coughing or possibly even talking are considered the main way the coronavirus is transmitted, from landing either on another person or surface. Those who touch that surface may be at risk of infection if they then touch their face, especially the eyes or the mouth. 

By wearing a mask, we reduce the amount of particles we express out of our mouths. Since the virus can enter the body through the eyes, standing further apart also reduces the risk of infection. 

The situation is complex. There are many unknowns. We need to be humble, think critically, and be open-minded to different points of view. 

We need to change direction away from a new abnormal and to turn instead toward a healthier new normal.

Strengthening the health system as well as creating adaptive social protection, social solidarity and community resilience must be at the core of the new normal policy. 

The new normal is not the end phase, but rather a process for building resilience. 

This new normal is not made for humans! In difficult times, our deepest human impulse is to draw close to each other, the very thing we have been told NOT TO DO!

We have to be very compassionate and patient with ourselves lately. 

I hope that when reading this post you are beginning to see that you are not alone in the adjustment process. My wish for you is that you have found some peace in the chaos, and learned something about yourself and the world around you. 

Fun is Yours

If you want to enjoy your life, do not subscribe to other people's definition of "fun".

Fun does NOT mean drinking or partying. 

Fun can be a night in your house alone reading a book. Fun can be a deep conversation. Fun can be a walk. Fun can be creating art. Fun can be listening to music. 

Fun can be dancing in the rain. Bill Connolly said, "I hate all those weatherman, too, who tell you that rain is bad weather. There is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing, so get yourself a raincoat and live a little." :)

Meditation can also be Fun. Solitude is often nice, no endless conversations, just you and your thoughts. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience." 

Meditation is one of the single tools to help you stay focused. Contemplation can be Fun. Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. 

Meditation can help us understand how our emotions work. Most of the time, we are hesitant to acknowledge negative emotions. We are growing up thinking anxiety, anger, sadness are bad emotions. But naming and accepting these emotions is a foundation to problem-solving how to manage them. 

Yoga can be Fun. Yoga can be used in the classroom or at home to create a unique and fun learning experience for students. Meditation and yoga can give us a sense of calm, peace, and stress reduction, leading to improvement of our emotional well-being. 

Practicing meditation has been linked to decrease stress, greater mindfulness, and improved psychological health. 

Meditation leads to mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening in the current moment, both within our thoughts and bodies and the world around us. Mindfulness helps us to turn our focus to experiences occurring in the present moment in order to create awareness and gratitude. Mindfulness can help us to notice our stresses or negative feelings early on in order to change the way we perceive them. 

Practicing mindfulness can be Fun. Practicing mindfulness regularly can ease anxiety and stress, improve self compassion. 

Inhale. Exhale. If you can do this fun exercise, you have everything you need at this moment. 

Rumi said, "There is a voice that does not use words. Listen." Breathe. Sometimes you just need to disconnect and enjoy your own company. 

Today is always the best day to listen to the birds, to notice nature's beauty, to smell the flowers. 

Find a quiet place and get into a comfortable sitting position. practice focusing on your breath, and the present moment. 

Start by centering yourself on you breath, noticing your inhales and exhales without you trying to change the natural rhythm of your breathing. Next, turn your focus to your body, beginning either from the top or the bottom. How is your head feeling today? How are you neck and shoulders? Continue moving down, lingering for several moments on each part of your body and noticing any stiffness, tension, soreness...

Once you have scanned your entire body, you can once return again to your breath, then slowly come out of your meditation. 

Mindful walking can be Fun. Walk more slowly than usual, making it a smooth and continuous movement, while being conscious of every step. This can have a huge calming effect because it forces your mind to slow down along with the rest your body. 

Hanh said, "Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects."

Meditation is a secular practice, not a religious practice. Meditation helps us to be aware of the thoughts we are thinking.To be mindful entails examining the path we are travelling and making choices that bring happiness to ourselves and those around us.

You made a mistake. That is okay! Meditation helps you see that mistake in context, while mindfulness helps you remove the stories you are telling yourself about it that are out of proportion to reality. 

We are not monks living in a monastery. We need to find the best time to practice meditation and mindfulness within the normal flow of our day. 

I use mindfulness as a way to help my students build self-regulation skills and learn to calm down when they become frustrated or angry. There are lots of informal ways to bring some of the benefits of focusing on the present in the classroom. It might become routine at the start of the day, or when class begins, to do a mindful check-in: each student takes a deep breath, and shares how they are feeling at the present moment. Indeed, it is a great way to embed a mindfulness practice in the DNA of the classroom. 

We need to explain to our students the relationship between their amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Students should know that an "amygdala hijack" is a physiological response to stress that makes it harder for them to think, learn, or remember. While it is not their fault, it is something that they can learn how to control through mindfulness practices. 

We can encourage our students to practice acts of gratitude by creating a gratitude tree. It can be a drawing or wire frame of the trunk, limbs, and branches of a tree. Each day, students write one thing they are grateful for on a paper "leaf" and attach it to the tree. The leaves can be anonymous.

Mandala coloring can be Fun. Mandala coloring pages are made up of repetitive shapes and patterns that students can take their time to color as they chose because there is no right or wrong way to complete the designs. Mandala coloring is very useful for students who prefer to process their thoughts silently. 

Mindful writing can be Fun. Whether through daily journal prompts or written reflections after discussions, the act of putting our thoughts on paper brings about a similar kind of metacognition and awareness as meditating. 

Meditation can slow down a lot of the buzzing thoughts we have in our mind, and deep breathing helps to increase the flow of oxygen to the brain, which helps release endorphins and calm our body.

Deep belly breathing, where you put one hand below your diaphragm and one on your chest, focusing on the body's sensations, also works to calm the brain and body. 

Remember Fun is yours. Fun can be knitting, coloring mandalas, exercising. Fun can be journaling, playing or listening to music. 

Fun is Yours.

Persian Poet: Sa'di

Sa'di's remarkable poetry is perpetually modern and full of benevolent wisdom on how to live. 

In the 13th Century AD, during one of the most turbulent periods in Iranian history, the poet Sa'di left his native Shiraz to study in Baghdad.

Unlike his great contemporary Rumi, the medieval Persian poet Sa'di is not much known in the West. Sa'di is no Rumi. Sa'di is a bit like the chameleon whose eyes can look in two separate directions at once: one eye is focused on this life and the other eye is cocked at the afterlife.

The "Rose Garden" appeared in 1258, when he was turning 50. That was the same year in which the Mongols under the dread Hulagu Khan overran the Islamic world, sacking Baghdad, murdering the last caliph, and bringing the 500-year-old Abbasid dynasty to an end. 

The poetic persona of Sa'di came across a friend who had lost so much weight. He asked him why was he so weak, as he was a wealthy man and could have weathered the famine much better. Then came the most memorable punchline of the poem:

"The wise man looked at me visibly hurt,

With the look of a wise man upon an ignoramus:

I am not weak because I don't have food to eat,

I am saddened because of the sufferings of the poor!"

Sa'di's poems are in reality sermons and moral discourses. He criticizes the sycophants and pleads with his patrons to practice justice, generosity, kindness and benevolence. He implores them to spare no effort in alleviating the misery of the poor and the destitute. 

Sa'di is a strong believer and proponent of the universal brotherhood of mankind and fervently propagates it. He denounces the indifference of man to the sufferings of his fellow human beings, and considers such indifferent people to be grossly inhuman.

"Human beings are like parts of a body, as they are created from the same substance. When the world causes pain to a single part, the other parts also cannot be at ease. You who are indifferent to the suffering of others, do not deserve to be called a human being."

The great Sa'di is a votary of peace and strongly advises the wisdom of pursuing peace in all spheres of life. 

He said, "Even if you have the strength of an elephant and the claws of a lion, in my opinion, peace is preferable to war."

The wise poet fearlessly advises the rulers to follow the path of justice. Sa'di detests oppressors and tyrants, and considers rebellion to tyrants as obedience to God.

Sa'di wrote, "The evil tyrant does not last long, but the curses of his victims last forever."

Sa'di attaches great importance to the subject of humility which is the root, mother, foundation and bond of all virtue.

He wrote, "A drop of rain trickled from the clouds, and on seeing the ocean, it was embarrassed by the ocean's vastness and said, "What am I in comparison to the vast ocean? Truly, I do not exist when compared to the ocean." Since it regarded itself with contempt, a pearl-oyster nurtured it within its bosom. The heavenly sphere elevated it to such a status, that it became an illustrious royal pearl. It attained greatness because it displayed humility. An honourable wise person will always be modest. A branch laden with fruits shall always touch the ground."

Sa'di impresses me with his open and friendly style and simple, though not simplistic, diction. He does not merely recount tales that support proverbs and morals. He makes the reader forget that he is being taught something. He wanted his writings to provide a "mirror for princes", practical and corrective moral and ethical guidance for his supporters.

Sa'di said that religion consists only in the service of the people. Religion does not lie only in the rosary or the prayer-rug. He did not support the recluse and the ascetic. 

Sa'di enlightenment and free thinking touched the core of Emerson's poetry and made Emerson compose a poem called "Saadi". This poem shows how Emerson is fascinated and enchanted by Sa'di and how he loves Sa'di.

Sa'di is the poet of friendship, love, self-devotion, and serenity. Emerson calls Sa'di a poet of the human race and knows the human being. Poetry is eternal, and poets are constantly living with their poems and never die. 

Indeed, the world needs more poets than politicians since the world needs peace! NOT WAR! Poetry and NOT POLITICS, Poets and NOT POLITICIANS! 

Only poets can bring about peace and friendship. 

An idiom/expression a Day Bang on About

Do you know someone who talks about something so much that it gets annoying? 

Bang on about something is used to say that someone is talking about something so much that it is annoying or irritating. 

That person on the bus was really annoying. He kept banging on about how the prices had gone up. 

Bang on about something means to talk about something for a long time, especially in a way that is boring to other people.

My parents are always banging on about how much better life was 20 years ago. 

Anti-Racist

I believe that societies should be free, fair, and informed. My ultimate goal is to help to shape a prosperous world where no one is left behind.

But is it possible in a world where systemic racism exists?

Racism is not an issue that can be solved overnight. But if we teachers recognize that there is always more to be done, that each and every one of us has a responsibility to do better, and that those first few steps start TODAY, is what really MATTERS NOW!

WE,Teachers and Educators must not waiver from our commitment to this fight, even when the noise dies down. 

Systems of oppression are built on a multiplicity of strategies, and it may take just as many to dismantle them. 

Empathy is not just a nice thing to do! It is an essential, active skill; it is foundational to embrace differences, building relationships, and communicating more effectively.

Empathy starts with putting yourself in someone else's shoes-a key step in understanding perspectives that differ from your own. Empathy is the most important back-to-school supply. 

We can find many websites with long anti-racist reading lists. Indeed the crafters of anti-racist reading lists are mostly making an earnest effort to educate people, but literature and dialogue cannot supplant restorative social policies and laws, organizational change, and structural redress. 

Anti-racism efforts are watered down by listening and learning as though it can be acquired through the awakening of people's hearts and minds, INSTEAD of through a clear-cut democratic process!

Nelson Mandela said that in the absence of concrete economic and legislative changes, consciousness raising through anti-racist reading is mere filibustering.

I believe that education is the most valuable tool to dismantle racism and create a more equitable society. 

Indeed, reading, watching movies, and listening to lectures is not enough. We need to animate workshops of active learning, growing, and reflecting that will help teachers and students to become anti-bias and anti-racist. 

Teachers need to take the opportunity to educate children and teens on social justice. We need to understand that the racism issue will be a conversation people are going to be having and learning about 100 years from now. Therefore, I think we all want to be on the right side of history and to create change.

Students need to take a course in ethnic studies or social justice because it will empower them and it will give them the knowledge, broad perspectives and skills needed to solve society's most pressing problems. 

The best teachers do not just teach. Instead, they use their pedagogy as a beacon of peace in order to create peacebuilders who will bring peace and harmony to the world.

My Peace classroom aims to inspire and equip students of all ages to take action for peace in all aspects of their lives, collectively creating a culture of peace in their schools, nationally, and globally. 

I share stories of peacemaking-past and present. I display thought-provoking permanent and temporary exhibitions that encourage actions towards peace as a way of life. 

Teaching is not about managing behavior, but it is about reaching students where they really are. As we process racial injustices, self-awareness is critical to identifying and processing our complex emotions when things are uncertain and socially turbulent. It is important to teach students to reflect on their strengths, to understand their cultural, racial, and social identities and to examine their implicit biases.

Self-management is also a very important skill that our students need to have in order to develop their resiliency, and express their agency through resisting injustices and practicing anti-racism. 

Transformation starts with small steps, short-term wins and a common goal. In the end, transformation is rarely a solo act. Teachers need to be a model for peace; a beacon of light for those who need guidance; so many students have troubled home lives. Teachers are their hope. 

Teachers, don't let people pull you into their storm! Pull them into your peace. 

Commitment recognizes commitment. Don't wait for others to commit to you. Decide to commit for them. You be the committed one to PEACE and watch how it impacts your team's commitment.

L' ARTEMISIA Paludisme/ Malaria

L'artemisia ne peut pas être utilisée en préventif chez des voyageurs qui n'ont jamais été en contact avec le paludisme, et n'ont donc pas développé d'immunité contre le parasite. 

On ne peut pas utiliser les tisanes d'Artemisia en prévention. Si on considère la molécule active que l'on connaît, l'artémisinine, elle, a une demi-vie plasmatique de quelques heures, c'est-à-dire qu'elle s'inactive dans le sang en quelques heures.

Par contre l'utilisation de la tisane d'Artemisia est une solution pour éviter les accès sévères de paludisme en réduisant le nombre de parasites dans le sang. Une tisane d'Artemisia annua aura pour effets de réduire le nombre de parasites dans le sang et donc déliminer la fièvre. 

Un voyageur prenant des tisanes d'Artemisia comme prévention ne sera pas protégé, et s'il en prend en cas de fièvre, il soignera la fièvre mais pas entièrement le paludisme. La France, par example, a interdit la vente d'Artemisia.

L'Artemisia annua est une plante originaire de Chine où elle est abondamment cultivée. Elle a été importé à Madagascar où la société Bionexx fait travailler un réseau de 15 000 petits producteurs afin de récolter environ 2 500 tonnes de feuilles d'Artemisia annua par an. 

Elle en extrait ensuite l'artémisininemisinine qu'elle revend aux laboratoires pharmaceutiques qui fabriquent des médicaments à base de cette molécule utilisés dans le traitement du paludisme. 

En Afrique pousse l'Artemisia afra qui ne contient pas d'artémisinine mais qui est aussi utilisée en infusion contre la fièvre. 

Artemisia afra ne contient pas de molécule d'artémisinine, mais aurait une activité antipaludique, au même titre qu'Artemisia annua, dont est extrait l'artémisinine servant à faire les médicaments. 

Trop de facteurs environnementaux, sociétaux, immunitaires, viraux entrent en jeu dans le contexte épidémique du Covid-19 pour pouvoir démontrer, à l'heure actuelle, le rôle de telle ou telle molécule pour expliquer le faible nombre de cas en Afrique. 

Pour organiser des essais cliniques il faut de l'argent, beaucoup d'argent. Et c'est en grande partie pour cela que la Maison de l'Artemisia n'est, jusqu'à présent, pas parvenue à réaliser des essais cliniques jugés aux standards des normes internationales. 

La crainte de l'OMS dans l'utilisation des tisanes est de créer des plasmodium résistants à l'artemisinine et de mettre en danger la stratégie des bithérapies. 

L'utilisation de l'Artemisia annua seule, en poudre ou en tisane, n'a aucune garantie d'efficacité et risque d'aggraver l'émergence de formes résistantes de la maladie. 

En 2016, 216 millions de personnes ont contracté le paludisme /malaria dans 91 pays, soit 5 millions de plus que l'année précédente.

La maladie, due à des parasites transmis à l'humain par des piqûres de moustiques, a entraîné 445 000 décès en 2016: 90% des cas sont survenus en Afrique.

Le paludisme, ça peut aller très vite! un accès non traité correctement peut en deux jours se transformer en accès grave et entraîner la mort. 

Pour le paludisme, la résistance est aussi génétique et naturelle, mais chez les sujets sensibles, il a été montré qu'une personne pouvait faire jusqu'à 100 épisodes de paludisme différents, sans être immunisée! 

L'essentiel reste de détecter les patients qui ont découvert comment devenir immuns et de les imiter. 

Hivernage rime avec paludisme du fait de la prolifération des moustiques en cette période. Aussi, ne cessera-t-on jamais de sensibiliser sur l'utilisation des moustiquaires imprégnées pour se protéger contre cet insecte. 

Toutes les deux minutes, un enfant meurt du paludisme sur le continent africain. La maladie fait partie de notre quotidien. C'est le combat de toute une vie. 

Le vaccin? On l'attend toujours. Pendant ce temps là, le parasite devient de plus en plus résistant aux traitements.

Back to School :) Back To The Future

I can't wait to hear :)

"I forgot my mask at home"

"My Mom said I don't have to wear a mask"

"He/she is less than 6 ft away from me"

"I'm not feeling very well"

Please remember, wearing a mask is the most basic step we can take to keep COVID-19 from spreading in our communities. Masks are a must if we want to protect our citizens, get our students back to school, and keep our economy open for business.

Many families with school-aged children are sick of living and hearing about: a miasma of sleeplessness, squabbling, incessant interruptions and multiple simultaneous glitching Zooms, step over a kid who is crying on the floor about algebra...

Even parents, who have broadband access and enough functional devices to do Zoom school and work at the same time, said that online schooling was a miserable experience and that they would give anything never to have to repeat. 

Indeed, despite the uncertainty created by the pandemic, parents want their children to go back to school. 

Teachers also want to have their students back to school. These are unprecendented times, but one thing is certain: teachers are always on the lookout for finding the best way to serve their students no matter the circumstances. Learning is always the goal and quality instruction is the path. To optimize learning, we must utilize evidence-based practices:

1. Bell-to-bell instruction
2. Clear lesson goals
3. Structured lessons with an introduction, body, and close
4. Opportunities to respond
5. Consistent monitoring of performance
6. Effective feedback
7. Judicious practice

It's back to school time again and this year looks nothing like we have ever seen before. If you are going back to school in-person, chances are you will still be doing some sort of remote learning in the future. I know that my instruction will be a hybrid of in-person teaching and distance learning.

I have read a lot about teachers who created a bitmoji classroom! Creating their own virtual classroom helped them feel a little bit more "at home" with distance learning. To get your Bitmoji Google Slides, download the Bitmoji Chrome extension. Then, click the Bitmoji icon on your browser bar, select the Bitmoji you want, and drag and drop it onto the slide. To get your Bitmoji in Power Point, click on the Chrome extension icon, right-click on the Bitmoji you want, and save it as an image-then you can insert that image into your PowerPoint slide.

Parents need to know that none of us have it all figured out. We are all learning every day. We are surrounding ourselves with positivity and we are always keeping an open mind and heart. 

There is always something new to know and some new ways to grow! Sometimes we need to take stock of what is happening in our classroom and change up the structure we thought was going to work. We keep the best parts and we keep tweaking the rest! Teaching is indeed built on continual growth, not final answers.

An Idiom/Expression a Day Bite The Bullet

Get your teeth into this English expression which describes doing something that's difficult but necessary. 

This is an English expression that involves bullets but is not dangerous :)

This phrase describes situations where you have to do something unpleasant but can't be avoided. When someone bites the bullet, they are forced to do, or accept that they have to do something difficult or unpleasant. 

For example: If I am going to get fit, I will have to bite the bullet and start going to the gym. 

The origin? The most well known is that before there were anesthetics and soldiers had to endure painful procedures during the war, they would bite a bullet to distract them from the pain and keep them from biting their tongue or screaming.

To bite the bullet means to face a hardship straight on, to bear something either physically or psychologically painful with bravery. 

The accused man bit the bullet as the judge handed down his sentence. 

The phrase is used to tell people to stop being weak and do what they are afraid to do.

If someone is nervous about going to the dentist but later acquires a terribly painful toothache, he/she is going to need to bite the bullet and visit the dentist. 

Another example: Come on, bite the bullet. You know you need to tell Kodjo how you feel. 

An Idiom/Expression A Day Throw Shade

An idiom is a word, group of words or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is not easily deduced form its literal meaning. 

Do you know anyone who keeps 'throwing shade'. Has anyone you know been 'throwing shade' recently? Throw shade means publicly criticize someone or express contempt for someone.

Hopefully my post didn't look like I was trying to throw shade or something.

Amina got really angry when she caught her friend throwing shade at her. 

To throw shade simply means you have said something shady to someone. To subtly issue insults or expressions of disapproval. Insults delivered when throwing shade should be subtle and not necessarily appear to be insulting at first. 

For example, if one of your friends has a new haircut you don't like you might say, "Look at your hair." This is not a direct appraisal of what you don't like about the haircut and is not even a negative comment, but it is not a positive comment, either. The idea it that it is a shady, or dishonest, comment.

Learn an Idiom/Expression a Day- A Slippery Slope

When things are destined to get worse, how can we describe it? 

Sometimes a situation or problem is just going to get worse; it might easily do downhill, which is why there is a perfect English expression to describe this. 

We describe a situation that is getting worse and will end in disaster unless it is stopped as a slippery slope. 

For example, James was on a slippery slope to getting the sack when he started missing important meeting with clients. 

You are on a slippery slope once you start lying about your age!

The company started down the slippery slope of believing that they knew better than the customer.

Slippery slope: a course or situation regarded as easily or inevitably leading to further decline or deterioration 

For example: When the mother found an empty bottle of whiskey in her teenager's bedroom, she warned him he was on a slippery slope toward a life of indigence and destitution. 

There is also the slippery slope argument. The slippery slope argument is used in discussing euthanasia and similar topics. This argument says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted. For example, people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to be made legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen. 

Sustainable Living

If we are looking to emphasize the importance of sustainable living, we should start by evaluating our own habits to see if they are areas we can improve in.

Today's students will be tomorrow's leaders in the battle against climate change, so it is vital that students understand the concept of sustainable living from an early age. 

Modeling and teaching by example have a greater effect on student's behavior than simply telling them what to do. Therefore, if we are looking to emphasize the importance of sustainable living, we must start by evaluating our own habits. And of course, there are always areas we can improve in :)

First of all, teachers and parents can read story books about climate change. Reading story books together is both a bonding parent-child activity and an excellent way to introduce the issue of climate change. There are some well-known classics which can create opportunities to discuss the importance of living sustainably, such as Where The Wild Things Are or Charlotte's Web. There are also books that address the issue more pointedly; from Michael Foreman's picture book Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish to Elizabeth Beresdord's series of children's novels The Wombles. 

Secondly, teachers can plan a field trip to the grocery store. Before we head out, we need to explain to the students the concept of eco-friendly products and we need to make sure they understand how to check whether something is locally produced and organic. Once in the store, we need to teach them how to look out for certain labels or stickers, and to look for products without unnecessary plastic packaging. 

In addition, we need to discuss and practise recycling at school. It is very important for students to understand the issues of waste and recycling. We can talk about how paper is made and why recycling can help protect the trees and forests. We need to explain to them how some materials, such as plastic, take hundreds of years to break down naturally and are harmful to wildlife and the environment. 

Another very interesting field trip would be to visit a local sustainable farm. Visiting a local sustainable farm is a great way to teach our students about where their food is coming from and why it is important to buy organic and locally grown fruits and vegetables. 

We need to allow our students to spend more time in nature. They need to learn very early about how their actions can impact nature. If they are enjoying nature trails, forests and parks, they need to carry an empty sack and make a game of collecting any rubbish they spot while they are hiking.

In our school, we have started a vegie garden. The vegetable garden is a fun way to show our students where their food comes from. In Science class, the teacher and students can start by getting together to research which vegetables grow in which seasons and deciding where they want to plant them. 

In the cafeteria menu, it is very important to implement meatless days. Implementing meat-free day is a great way to have an open conversation about the environmental impact of livestock farming and lowering our carbon footprint. Teachers and students can have some fun coming up with meat-free recipes.

Students can have a difficult time understanding that water is a limited resource or that electricity is usually generated from non-renewable natural resources. Teachers need to find some educational videos and infographics that will help them understand why conserving natural resources is a good thing. 

Furthermore, teachers can tackle an upcycling project with their students. For example, empty plastic bottles can be turned into bird feeders; a pizza box can make an excellent surface to paint on and tin cans can be turned into DIY lanterns.

Finally, we need to encourage our students to walk or to start cycling more often. Instead of taking the car everywhere they go, they should consider cycling or walking when time and weather conditions allow. They will save on fuel costs and minimize air pollution. Indeed, it is another teachable moment that will get our students thinking about how their everyday choices can impact the environment.

An astronaut said, "From a distance you can see how fragile and thin our atmosphere is. Only a thin layer covers our big planet. The atmosphere is absolutely not some kind of infinite rubbish dump. The ecosystem needs to be taken care of, and people must move to sustainable consumption."

Go Green must be our motto for sustainable living in school. It is all about spreading the message of eco-sustainability and making our Earth a better place. 

Our students love Instagram! Well, we need to encourage them to start an Instagram account about sustainable living and they can invite their friends to follow. They will inspire their friends to start composting, or use all-natural cleaning products. They may go beyond teaching their friends to more eco-friendly too.

They can start a book club on zoom dedicated to learning about sustainable living. It is a great way to socialize, at a distance, with friends and to learn more about being good to the environment. They are so many good books to read on the topic that can sustain their sustainability chats as long as they like. 

After reading good books, they can start a community garden with the local gardeners. A community garden is an excellent way to learn about sustainable farming. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is easy to stay socially distanced in a community garden by scheduling the work in shifts. 

They can also challenge their friends to sign up for community cleanups. Cotonou has come a long way in the last couples of decades, and a lot of that is due to volunteers, like Sandra Idossou, who have put in the work to make Cotonou thrive again.

We shouldn't forget to get the little ones involved in our sustainable living efforts. The young ones who learn to go car-free, or grow their own salads in a garden, are better prepared to guide our world into the future. 

One of the biggest thing we can do is to become changers of social behaviors in our communities. Research shows that teaching concepts to youth is more likely to create a lasting impact. It is never too early to teach sustainable living. In a world where mental health, obesity, and food related health issues are rife, such a simple veggie patch can have a life long impact in food choices and a healthy mind.

Every country must pass legislation prohibiting supermarkets from throwing away food based on its sell-by date. They must instead donate all food that is still edible to a charity or food bank. In addition, every country must phase out chemical pesticides like glyphosate by 2020. They will illustrate a commitment to healthy, sustainable food for all citizens. 

Remember, making the slightest change in your lifestyle can have a significant impact on the environment. Be a more vigilant citizen, the MOTHER EARTH needs preservation, not exploitation.

Sustainable living is a success on its own as it gives us the privilege to contribute our part to leaving a habitable planet for the coming generations. 

Have a great Saturday! 

Model and Empower

Rather than only displaying a growth mindset poster or quotation, teachers can empower their students to have a growth mindset by explicitly teaching specific feedback, questions, and self-talk.

Teachers can model and empower a growth mindset. Dr. Erik Youngman came up with very interesting ideas. 

FEEDBACK

• You are not successful YET, but you and I both know you will do it.
• I appreciate your effort.
• Great job taking a calculated risk.
• Your improvement and progress is amazing!
• Great curiosity, creativity, empathy, or resourcefullness!
• This will be challenging to learn, but I know you can do it.
• Reflect about the feedback to plan your next steps. 
• Awesome job embracing change, challenges, and uncertainty.

QUESTIONS

• What strategy will you try net?
• What questions should be asked or considered in this situation?
• What will you do to challenge yourself or improve?
• What growth goals can you set and monitor?
• What advice can you share to help or inspire others?
• What should you do when you make a mistake?
• What can you learn from others?
• How could you enhance efficiency, flexibility, performance, or growth?

SELF-TALK

• Mistakes are feedback that help me learn.
• I persevere as a problem solver when I am frustrated or challenged. 
• Confusion and productive struggle are part of the learning process.
• I need to courageously move out of my comfort zone. 
• I want to challenge myself and grow.
• My effort, actions, and attitude impact my success.
• I will make progress and succeed if I focus and work hard.
• I am going to make this even better.

Albert Einstein said, "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. We all progress through life at different speeds. Students should not feel the pressure to progress faster in school by comparing themselves to others. 

Natural talent only determines the limits of your potential. It is dedication and disciplining your life that makes you great! Remember, a genius is not born but is educated and trained. Don't settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had. 

Henry Ford said, "Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you are right." Replacing "why is this happening to me" with "what is this trying to teach me" is a game changer!

Great students don't run away from challenging environments. They embrace them and use them to grow as a person. Too often students try to escape difficult or uncomfortable environments. Don't! Embrace competition! Curiously explore your courage zone, acquire new skills, embrace challenges, set new goals and passionately find purpose as you learn continuously with a growth mindset.

A Attitude and effort determine how much I learn

B I can be Brave and step out of my comfort zone

C Challenges help me grow

D I'll try a Different strategy

E Effort makes me stronger

F I can welcome Feedback

G Getting better takes time

I I can choose a growth mindset

J learning is a Journey

K I can Keep an open mind

L Learning is my goal...not perfection

M Mistakes help me improve

N New things are opportunities for me to learn

O it's Ok to not know something

P Plan B might work

Q when I ask Questions I learn

R it's okay to take Risks

S Success of others inspires me

T I can choose to Try again

U Unsuccessful attempts are all part of the process

V Valuable information can be found in every failure

W What can I learn from this?

X Xyz didn't work I'll try ABC

Y I don't know how to do this Yet!

Z any ideas can lead to amaZing things

Galileo said, "We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves."

Don't let your challenges overwhelm you. Think of them as stepping stones toward your goals! 

Samuel Beckett said, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

Back to School

Many schools and universities have decided to bring students back to campus in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether that's actually a prudent or even ethical decision could take up a series of posts. But at this point the decision has been made, and I am going to do my best to live with it as long as it holds.

What it will mean to teach under these circumstances has been driving me crazy for weeks now. So I want to use my blog to think in public and clear out some of the concerns that are waking me up in the middle of the night.

I will be teaching in classrooms at scheduled times, albeit with some adjustments to alleviate hallway congestion during transitions. I will also need to make my classes accessible to students who may be taking it remotely for periods of time. All students must achieve course objectives.

Inside the classroom, the desks and chairs must be spaced six feet apart. Students are responsible for staying masked, cleaning their desks, and sitting according to a seating chart. Teachers need to have a face shield and stay in a limited area up front. I guess I will avoid passing out paper, including quizzes and exams, which I will move online.

Many students are very happy to be back to school. According to many students, remote learning meant: little to no interaction with classmates, little to no interaction with caring educators, no electives, extracurriculars, or athletics. 

Whether, we are face-to-face, blended, hybrid, hyflex, or fully online, we need to be thinking deeply about what our students will need from us this fall. I can imagine students sitting in a classroom, wearing a mask, separated from their friends, facing forward with their feet on the floor, perhaps behind a plexiglass divider...I think that some students are going to be nervous, scared, and feeling disconnected. The best way to combat these negative beliefs and behaviors is to use teaching strategies that engage learners. 

Blended learning is an educational approach that educators will be using a lot during this pandemic. While thinking about the implementation of blended learning, it is important to consider the different types of blended learning, how the learning is facilitated, and the developmental appropriateness for the age range we are instructing.

The elements of blended learning are composed of teacher-led examples, off-line examples, and online examples.

TEACHER-LED EXAMPLES

• small group direct instruction
• small group discussion
• providing real-time feedback on assignments, projects, writing
• Q & A session
• Lab/STEM experiment, teacher available to assist 
• modeling a practice/procedure
• small group scaffolding
• oral assessment
• individual tutoring
• differentiated/modified practices based on student need
• small group min-lessons
• mini socratic seminar
• SEL discussions
• relationships building activities
• RTI station
• formative assessment
• I do, we do, you do activity
• rubric assessment overview
• exemplar overview
• small group review activity
• present a problem/challenge

OFF-LINE EXAMPLES

• STEM activity
• paper/pencil assignment
• student-led discussion
• brainstorming activities
• cooperative learning activities (Kagan structures)
• makerspace activity
• genius hour work time (hands on)
• inquiry planning time
• independent reading
• independent writing
• paper formative assessments /exit tickets
• peer tutoring
• peer-to-peer collaboration activities
• team building activities
• student-led socratic seminar
• creating a model (hands-on)
• art/craft project
• sketchnote creation
• mind mapping
• project-based learning (brainstorming, planning, collaboration, creating)
• self-assessment
• choice board activities

ONLINE EXAMPLES

• teacher created video lecture
• Edpuzzle video lesson
• electronic formative assessments/exit tickets (google forms, GoFormative, Schoology)
• interactive quiz/review games (Kahoot, Gimkit, Quizizz)
• video creation (screencastify, flipgrid, wevideo)
• audio creation (wevideo, audio chrome extension)
• curation activity (wakelet/padlet)
• infographic creation (adobe spark/google drawings)
• student reflections using Google Apps (Docs, Slides)
• digital portfolio or notebook
• online assignments
• listening to a podcast

I consistently challenge the traditional and often ineffective delivery models to drive new processes and learning and developmental methodologies to meet student needs. 

We need to design a new choreography for schooling for a better decade. We need to implement blended learning models that integrate online learning with brick-and-mortar instruction to rethink time, space and staffing. 

The flipped classroom is a blended learning model that flips the traditional relationship between class time and homework. Students learn at home via online coursework or pre-recorded video lessons, and class time is focused on teacher-guided practice or projects. 

The flipped classroom is one of the answers to COVID-19. The blended learning principles and practices can help educators think through how to make the most of their circumstances.

Blended learning is more important than ever. We need to ensure that our students will get the best of both worlds, whether classroom teaching or remote learning, with our digital learning portfolio. 

Indeed, we are going back to school. Therefore, we have to use new tools and strategies for virtual teaching: blended learning, flipped classroom, virtual classroom. We cannot recreate a physical classroom online nor the experiences we share in it but we can create opportunities for us to create new experiences. 

Flexibility and an emphasis on relationships will be essential at the start of the new school year. It is naive to think that the return to school will be the same as any other year; a worldwide pandemic, students have been learning at home since March and teachers have been on a steep learning curve with blended and online strategies, so many new factors....

We need to take the time to share experience and progress, to address issues around adults' and children's wellbeing. We need to partner with our students to reimagine learning and reclaim our lives. 

Albert Einstein said, "The future is an unknown, but a somewhat predictable unknown. To look to the future we must first look back upon the past. That is where the seeds of the future were planted." 

In August, we are going to help get you ready for the unknown.