I met Muslim Girls Making Change a few months ago on Twitter when I participated in #MuslimWomenDay. The team is doing amazing work to raise awareness about Muslim women and shatter stereotypes of us through their art and poetry. This is activism. They used their passion to help show the world how to be more … Continue reading Muslim Girls Making Change
Tag: students
Create a Safe Space for Students to be Heard: A Workshop
The week before elections, I was invited to speak to The Hun School of Princeton students in New Jersey about the concepts of Grit and Resilience. The Hun School works to read 1 or 2 common books each year and have a conference about the theme of the books. This is such a neat way … Continue reading Create a Safe Space for Students to be Heard: A Workshop
Who Am I? Help Students Explore Their Identity
This post was originally published for Annenberg Learner foundation. Being an English language learner, in middle school, was a really difficult experience. I had many questions about my identity, and who I was as an individual. This was a result of the language shift, but a culture shift played a huge role in this complex … Continue reading Who Am I? Help Students Explore Their Identity
The Toughest Lessons Learned: Conversations on Race
“In a sense the limitations of Orientalism are, as I said earlier, the limitations that follow upon disregarding, essentializing, denuding the humanity of another culture, people, or geographical region.” ~ Edward Said The first time I read Edward Said's "Orientalism" was when I was doing my Master's in Literature, back in 2008. I remember signing … Continue reading The Toughest Lessons Learned: Conversations on Race
Systems of Adversity: For the Love of Teaching – TEDx
I did a TEDx on May 14 at Kitchener, Waterloo. My talk discussed the need for each of us to find and share our voice. Through my own experiences moving through the Middle East and eventually settling in Canada, I attempt to show the power of finding and sharing your voice even when others may … Continue reading Systems of Adversity: For the Love of Teaching – TEDx
“Why is your point important?” On the importance of Analysis in Writing
This post was originally published on The Writing Project's Blog. When we write, it’s important that we try and think about the reason why you’re writing your point. This helps us to stay focused on making our point clear to the reader, and helps to push our thinking to the next level. Instead of focusing … Continue reading “Why is your point important?” On the importance of Analysis in Writing
Cultivating Student Voice through Narrative Writing
Every day, students at University Laboratory School, a public charter in Honolulu, Hawaii, have the opportunity to spend a quiet 10-15 minutes with their teachers for a Writer’s Workshop. One on one, they talk through the student’s progress on writing assignments they were assigned to complete during class. But these aren’t the stale essay responses … Continue reading Cultivating Student Voice through Narrative Writing
The Community of School: Some #Educon Takeaways
This weekend I attended #Educon conference in Philly. It was held in the Science & Leadership Academy, and the opening keynote panel for Friday evening was held at the Franklin Institute. It's my first time in Philadelphia, so I was really looking forward to attending, and presenting. My friends, Xian and Melinda, and I held … Continue reading The Community of School: Some #Educon Takeaways
On Student Voice
Student voice is often discussed as an entity that needs to be brought to existence by a person authority. However, student voice exists whether we give it the space or not, hear it or not, student voice is there. #EduColor chat a few weeks ago focused on student voice and activism, and in prepping … Continue reading On Student Voice
How to Recover from Failure
This post was originally published on Edutopia. Failure is the new success. It’s becoming one of the buzzwords that is often overused in education and other industries like the tech and entrepreneurship space. Many educators are working hard to help students see that it’s okay to fail and most importantly, that no one is … Continue reading How to Recover from Failure