How Service Learning and Community Engagement Impacting Students during Pandemic

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

A Creative Approach Where Students Learn Theories in The Classroom and At the Same Time Through Community Engagement Reflect and Deepen Their Understanding of What Is Being Taught.

Last week, one of my previous students approach me to share the recent school project that he opted to work on in the summer holidays. The project was all about community engagement of how to volunteer your time and expertise to engage with the people surrounding you and improve their living who can’t afford to develop themselves during the height of the pandemic. Once the project completed, the student then reflects upon the change that he/she made after their volunteer engagement with that community or an individual. My student was very excited and wanted to share and discuss some basic ideas on how he can participate in community engagement. This idea fascinates me, especially when we are bound to stay away from each other physically. Community engagement can be one of the ways to engage our students to experience whatever they learn in the classroom Continue reading “How Service Learning and Community Engagement Impacting Students during Pandemic” →

Why Students’ Classroom Disengagement Is on The Rise?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

The new way of hybrid learning has provided diverse opportunities for students to engage with the content, but many still struggle to be involved in the online classes.

Student engagement is always a matter of concern for teachers in any classroom context, but the pandemic is making it more challenging nowadays. In a physical classroom environment, teachers usually adjust the pace with attention to those slower moments when a lesson seems to drag on a bit. This makes teachers to create frequent transitions between topics by asking critical-thinking questions and seek out relevant resources. Resulting in making students to get excited about the topic. However, it seems simple to think and expect, but in a hybrid teaching environment, it is nearly impossible and challenging. The use of asynchronous methods means you can’t predict the pace of a lesson anymore. The lack of physicality makes movement more difficult. Continue reading “Why Students’ Classroom Disengagement Is on The Rise?” →

World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Final Episode: The King’s Crusade

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

History is full of such events where simple misunderstandings among the groups inflicted severe outcomes in the form of war. But then there were times when these wars came to an end on a peace treaty where both parties agreed to end the war. Such an agreement or treaty is known as a truce. According to Oxford Public International Law, “the terms truce, armistice, ceasefire, and cessation of hostilities are often used colloquially as interchangeable. While historically each term captured similar but distinct situations on a continuum from war to peace, with both the start of the war and the end of the war characterized by formal declarations.” In short, a temporary agreement to stop fighting or arguing or a brief interruption in a disagreement. It doesn’t matter how long a truce would last, but it halted the aggression between parties. A similar kind of a truce ended one such aggression initiated on religious grounds and had cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. The question is why it always took so long for people to reach such an intellectual decision? A possible answer could be it depends on what kind of priorities were set by the parties. Continue reading “World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Final Episode: The King’s Crusade” →

World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Episode 04: The Retaliation

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

The modern belief of the term ‘Retaliation’ is when employers treat applicants, employees or former employees, or people closely associated with them less favourably for reporting discrimination, participating in racism, or opposing discrimination. But in history, the term retaliation has different meaning and purposes. The most common purpose was always and still ‘to seek revenge’. According to Melissa Hogenboom of BBC, revenge has been part of human behaviour since the time of human existence on earth. Literature has used it throughout history, from Greek tragedies such as Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy where Orestes wants to murder his mother to avenge his father to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Many of us have no doubt imagined vengeance against those who have wronged us or even lashed out at them. At the moment, it can certainly feel beneficial to do so. But what motivates us to seek revenge in the first place? Continue reading “World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Episode 04: The Retaliation” →

World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Episode 03: The Final Siege

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

When I was in high school, our sports coach gave us a 20-minute speech on goal setting. At that moment, we all were making fun of him, but later in our lives, we felt its importance. Goal setting is essential for a healthy and happy life but sticking to that goal is even more beneficial. This is the area where most of us lack where we put a lot of effort into our goal setting but eventually adrift from the track—resulting in falling back to our old habits and simply give up. History is full of such foolishness where people set up goals and embarked upon them, but they simply forget about it. One such example can be found in the late 11 century where a group of people set off to achieve a cause but eventually ended up ruining it by killing thousands to accomplish that goal. Continue reading “World History Series Documentaries: The Crusades – Episode 03: The Final Siege” →