Newspaper Khebrat Wave2 Oakland 2018

Galileo Saudi Arabia Program Newspaper
By : Fatmah Abdullah
“If you stop learning, if you don't have fun and
creativity, quit” Beckie
She is a special Instructor, TESL Advisor and
Coordinator
First, we are glad for having Dr. Rebecca
with us telling us a little about herself as a
person and an educator.
Her name is Rebecca (Beckie) Gaydos. She is
a faculty member in the Department of
Linguistics. In 1971, she began her career in the
education field as a teacher for the blind and
partially seeing, and the physically and
neurologically impaired. Dr. Rebecca held
teaching certificates in Pennsylvania and
Michigan in K-6, K-9 social studies, K-12
special needs visually impaired, K-12 reading
and language arts, and K-12 English as a second
language (ESL) until her retirement from public
school teaching in 2005.
She described her experience in teaching
blind student .
“My blind and partially seeing students were
incredible individuals. They were strong and
fearless children, K-high school, achieving
academically and socially despite their
disability. I learned a lot from them”.
She runs many education programs, which
one is her favorite and why ?
She coordinates the undergraduate and graduate
TESL programs in the Department of
Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences
at OU. She said her favorite parts of the TESL
programs are the practicums at Hispanic
Outreach in Pontiac and the K12 summer
program.
We ask her to address us a word as saudi
teachers.
“I am very happy to work with the Saudi
teachers. We all have much to learn from one
another”. And we are glad of having her as one
of our educators at Oakland University.
We are wondering how she balance her
personal life and her work as teacher.
“As a person, I believe my responsibility is to
keep myself healthy so that I can do what I was
put on this earth to do. Family, friends,
colleagues, and work are all gifts. I do what I
love ...teach”. These are her priorities, she raised
a question in my mind, what are my priorities
and how I re manage my life?
I appreciate these important insights which
reflect a great personality.
By : Fatmah Abdullah
It is known that Finland achieved the First
rank in the world in Education for several
years. Definitely there are great efforts to achieve
that progress ,so we are interesting to figure out the
reason to get that . we are trying to learn from
them to change our schools.
I read a few books, and watch some videos
focusing on Education in Finland schools.
IT IS very wide topic BUT I WELL TALK
ABOUT four POINTS WHICH were the most
IMPORTANT IN MY OPINION:
First: teach the essentials as the Dr Timothy said in
his book Teach like Finland: (they need prioritize
the essentials in class room)
Second : make it enjoyable, for example math and
science can be mixed with music for the students
to sing during the lessons, they will love their
subjects and school
Third :coach more than teach ,it means let student
learn by themselves (doing, sharing , writing ,
answering, peer leering) teacher observes and
helps them when they need and gives them
positive feedback
Forth : give them freedom to choice by giving the
student there tasks then let them choose the
strategy and they demonstrate what they can do
individually or with group .
To sum up ,there are important things help the
teachers and students in Finland to get an
extraordinary education which we can follow in
our countries like tech by fun ,freedom,….etc.
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