To 1st Secondary Students

Today I will be saying good bye to all my 1st Secondary Students. It was a great year full of activities and interest. I really enjoyed teaching you and the cooperative class atmosphere. Many of you had highly positive input, and I could see gradual growth and development. Best of wishes on your exams and have a wonderful summer.

To My 3rd Secondary Classes

Now that the year has come to an end, I can't but say that I really enjoyed this past year with you all and I learned so much from you all. It was really a pleasure working with you on language skills and prepartion for the official examinations. I enjoyed both the Humanities and Sociology & Economics classes; the class atomosphere was a warm, pleasant one and I had great example of students who were really willing to improve their language skills and so they did their best. Each one of my students has a special interesting personality, is unique in a way and I could see that each could excel in a specific domain. I would really appreciate your input on the past year whether positive or negative because I believe that the best way to evaluate myself and improve is to have my students express their opinions on what goes on in their class. Please feel free to say what you wish to say. Best of wishes to you on your official exams and have a great summer.

Cooperative Learning in the Lebanese Environment

We have always been trained and have read a lot about the importance of cooperative learning in creating a healthy learning atmosphere at schools where students not only learn their academic skills but also are prepared to real life situations where they will need to work in teams and share their ideas and products. One of the important aspects of cooperative learning is sharing rather than competing. I have been noticing lately that many students, when given the privilidge of being independent in the classroom, tend to abuse this privilge. And so I am wondering: If students are raised in their families where no freedom of choice or freedom of expression are encouraged and appreciated, and if those same students are bombarded with the politicians' and party leaders' stiff stands where no one is willing to compromise and accept others' views, how are we to teach students the importance of being collaborative and sharing? Aren't we contradicting their realities? Doesn't this contradiction created confusion and chaos in the students' behavior? Can teachers work on values in isolation of the society? Should we come up with an adapted method for our society rather than take what is not made for us?