Art Therapy

Art therapy like a mirror that shows us the problems that child or adult face. Art therapy is the way that children can express them selves. I chose Abdulrahman because he is so stubborn and sensitive at the same time. You can not convince him easily. If he wants to do something, he will do it without listening to anyone. He has very nervous and short temper, if he is angry, you can not anticipate his reactions. Abdulrahman is 7 years old. He lives with both his parents. He is the third child in his family. He has three brothers, two older than him, Abdullah (14 years old), and Abdulaziz(12 years old). One is younger than him Mohammed (3 weeks)


He doesn’t get along with his oldest brother (Abdullah) and when asked to draw him, he drew him in black, and when he was asked about the drawing, he said, he drew him in black because “he is evil, he hit me until I cry”


On the other hand, he likes his brother (Abdulaziz) and they get along together and he drew him in purple because it’s his favorite color. Abdulrahman also drew his mom in pink because he said it’s her favorite color. He also drew his baby brother at his mother lap and didn’t color him and when asked about it, he said he wants to leave him colorless. I think his feeling toward his new baby brother is not clear yet that is why he did not color it. Abdulrahman drew his father with huge fingers and toes and when asked about it, he said because he is big and strong.

Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years) (piaget)

I did the experiment with my children Tala a four years old and Rayan a seven years old were the liquid experiment.
First of all, I put three glasses in front of Tala. Two are short, wide glasses and have the same amount of water, and the third one is tall, thin and empty. I explained to her that the first two glasses are same and they have the same amount of water. Then I asked her “ Is it the same amount of water in the identical glasses” she said “yes” Then, I poured the water from one glass into the tall one; and I asked her “Is it still the same amount of water?” she replied immediately “No, the tall glass has more water”, then I asked her “Why does it has more water, I told you that the first two glasses have the same amount of water exactly, what’s the difference now?” She answered “I told you that the tall glass has more water because it is taller!”

Tala couldn’t understand that the first 2 glasses have the same amount of water, so even if I poured the water from one short glass to another tall one, the amount of water won’t change. What happened is that Tala focused on the obvious characteristics of the glasses and not the amount of water, and focusing only on the height of the glasses rather than both the height and width when determining what has the biggest volume. So, she is still in the Preoperational Stage according to Piaget’s theory.

Second, I did the liquid experiment with Rayan in the same way that I did it with Tala, I placed three glasses in front of him; two are short, wide glasses and have the same amount of water, and the third one is tall, thin and empty glass. After explaining to him that the first two glasses have the same amount of water, I poured the water in the tall glass and I asked him “Is it still the same amount of water?” he said “Can you do it again” so, I did it again for him. Then, he said “yes, it is still the same amount of water.” I asked him “why do you think is it the same?’ he said ‘because you only poured the water in different sized glass”

Actually, Rayan’s answer was different from Tala’s answer, as Rayan is older and more mature. This is what Piaget came with in his theory; he discovered that children in the Concrete Operational Stage are able to conserve, and Rayan was able to recognize that even if we poured the water from a short glass to another tall one, the amount of water will not change or increase!

Free writing

Last summer, we went with my family to London and Paris. We had a great time and all the family enjoyed their vacation. In London, we went to London eye, Madame Tissue museum and we went to the several plays like The Sound of Music, The Blue Men and The Lion King. Our kids really enjoyed it so much.

After our stay in London, we took a direct train from London to Euro Disney in Paris. We spent three days and my kids really enjoyed it. We have met with all Disney’s characters and they actually signed autographs for our kids. We also spent a day in Universal Studious and met with different characters like Monster and cars.

It was a really nice vacation and we really had fun. Initially, we thought the vacation will be enjoyable for our kids only but it turned out to be enjoyable for all of us.

some of the major issues plaguing the educational system

The world is a much smaller place than it used to be; nowadays students come from different multiracial backgrounds. A lot of such children struggle with their own identities because of the difficulty of the society that they are put in. They have to go through a constant reminder of who they are. Most present educational system has failed the multiracial child by not recognizing them and not encouraging them to embrace their full identity with a constant reminder that they are different from the children of the land. It is very important that the educational institutions include and recognize multiracial children and the multiracial people who are part of the history of the country.

Another issue that plagues the education system is the technological developments that have taken place. These are related to both the system as well as the society. Not all students would be having he means to own a computer and have access to the internet for study related purposes. There is vast divide in the economic status of a lot of children and their families as compared to their fellow students in the same school and classes. Students that do not have access to technology at their homes are often left behind in studies. There are schools that do not have adequate technological facilities that can be availed by children and as such they are not able to prepare their students with respect to technology as other schools would. This greatly affects the performance of the child in further education. It is important that ministries, governments and school authorities should ensure that each and every child is provided with an equal opportunity to learn and adapt to the technology for his or her development. They should further ensure that there is an universal and equal level of technology available for all the students.

distance education

I feel that distance education is a very good thing and it presents an opportunity to everyone that is willing to study. A lot of people that might not be able to pursue a full time campus based educational course for various reasons and distance learning provides such interested individuals an equal opportunity to study.

Distance educations programs are very are convenient and they have different schedules and are able to cater to the student’s schedule. There are night classes as well as classes early in the day and throughout the day. All that is needed a computer and an internet connection. There is a lot of flexibility in the program and can be availed by working professionals that seek higher qualifications. Distance education provides a very diverse learning experience as the student is expected to do a lot of supplementary reading to compensate for the absence of the classroom environment.

There are some disadvantages of a distance learning program and one of the most important is the accreditation of the institute offering the program. It is at times seen that some distance learning programs are not recognised. Another thing that is missing is the live classroom environment in which the students interact and discuss the subject of study within the classroom as well as after class hours; the instructor is also available for any further assistance. All this is lacking is a distance learning program. It is also seen that the students would have to put in an extra amount of work as compared to a regular on campus program as he or she will need to study extra hard and address the problems on their own without much help from the program co-ordinator is at all there is one. Distance learning often is seen to offer a limited support to its students.

As a student, I would be interested in taking up a distance education program as most recognised universities and colleges are now offering such programs. The reason being that I can study from some of the best universities from any part of the world in the area of my interest. I would not have to leave my home and I can also take up a job and still be able to study at my convenience and time. The assignments can be done and submitted at any time of the day and the exam schedule is also flexible.
The course that I would like to pursue would be a Masters in Special Education or Educational Technology.

blog 5

1. http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm

Design – The design is nice and arranged in a size and manner that is uncluttered, this makes its simple for the children. The Learn and Play sections are easily navigable for the children based on the same layout. The website pages that are further opened for the activities of the children load quickly and have a voice tool which is very clear to assist the child. For the parents and teachers, the explanations are available under a different tab. It has the option for 4 different languages to explain letters, vowels, shapes, words and colours. Help option is not very clearly indicated.
Navigability – The navigation is clear, though the website lacks a site map, but the absence is not perceived that much. The tabs are on the top and clear being in blue colour with good font, the active tab changes colour to yellow indicating your present location. There is a FAQ for basic enquiries and understanding. The website does not have a search facility.
Authority – There are no well known approved authors mentioned in the website and it is not hyper linked with any other major educational website except its principals, which is Baxter Publications of Toronto, Canada.
Bias – There is a single viewpoint provided and that is based on international pattern of phonemes. As such there is no question of bias in the website.
Citations – Sources are not required and there is not active bibliography. All the matter related to Literacy Centre.
Dates – There are not date statistics mentioned in the website
Content – Content is adequate for children that start to associate letters - uppercase, lowercase, vowels, shapes and colours. The data of the website of the website is good for this purpose and will the make the child engrossed in it for further leaning. Data quality is unquestioned, and quantity provides excellent coverage
Links – The website in linked to its principals and through it you can attain further information on activities of the publication and owners of the website.
Relevance – The website is sufficient for basic instructional objectives with a sufficient amount of information for parents and teachers on the objectives therein.

2. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/wordfamily/

Design – It is a very basic design that is not attractive in layout and colours. It starts with asking your name and this is exciting, but for an early learner that is learning letters, typing in the name would be a feat itself. It is centred around vowels only and making rhyming words. It loads fast enough.
Navigability – There is no navigational requirements as such, it is a very simple website without any site map and help tabs. There are no search facilities.
Authority – There is no mention of the owners of the website or approvals and association. The website is also not linked to any other website at all.
Bias – There are no basis for ascertaining if there is any bias or not.
Citations – The website has no listed citations and bibliography.
Dates – The site contains information about its copyright and does not have any detailed information except for a mention of NCTE. What this represents can be anyone’s guess.
Content – Quality of data is based around learning or vowels and that is all. So it can be termed as an adequate learning tool for vowels only with association of words
Links – The website in not actively linked to any educational reference website for further reading and research. Active links to wide variety of excellent sites
Relevance – The website hardly satisfies early learning concepts with a very limited approach.


3.http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/student.cfm#grade1

Design – The website is nicely designed and covers a large number of grades, with each grade and its activities earmarked separately. Each of the activities is hyper linked and opens in a new window so that coming back to the main page is simple. Each activity page has sound to facilitate the learning as well as commending the child on a good work done. The pages are fast and simple to load, it is clear and colourful that makes learning a playful activity.
Navigability – The navigation is clear and simple. There are tabs that lead to the required field or area that is being sought. It has areas for students, teachers, family and contacts. The website has a site map that layouts the entire website’s plan. There is search engine with options to searching different fields within the website.
Authority – The website is owned by William H. Sadlier Inc., they are known to manage educational materials since 1832 in different fields. They are well recognised and known. As the website covers a lot of activities like educational fairs, social presentations and conferences, these are all hyper linked for further information on the related activities.
Bias – The learning and viewpoint is provided by the owner, it mentions serving the needs of private, public and Catholic schools with high quality, this leaves a thought in the mind of some surfers, as to what would religion have to do with early basic learning for children.
Citations – Sources are not mentioned as such there is an absence of a bibliography. However there are link to various articles that have do contain their own bibliography.
Dates – The site has its creation year listed at the bottom with owner’s information and copyright. There is no date on data creation and updates of any of the key information.
Content – The data quality is very good and it is delivered in a very simple and easy manner for the children, with additional information about each learning activity to the parents. It has managed to cover a lot of subjects and grades as well as activities that teachers, parents would be interested in.
Links – It is actively linked to current events relating to its trade and objective.
Relevance – The website has lived up to the expectation of the owners in managing and delivering good learning activities and as such can be said to have met all instructional objectives.