HARLEM SHAKE

The title in my blog may be interesting. Nowadays, after Gangnam Style, there is a wind of Harlem Shake. People mostly don't understand the real effect of the music and its strange and unnecessary looking dance. If we detailly analyze the starting point and the developing part of the dance, we can make healthy inferences about it. There is a person wearing a strange clothe and a halmet or a cone on his head. He starts dancing alone but the other people around acts as if he is not there. They go on working, studying or doing their routines. Suddenly, with the change of music, everybody starts dancing wearing strange clothes and doing different moves and actions. There is of course a philosophical explanation of this situation. The guy dancing alone represents the inner world of people which is completely mad; opposite of social behavior. People watching the first part with the solo dancer become confused since the guy doesn't behave normal. Then they become a part of the dance by the second part and they show their inner world with all its nakedness. Thus, Harlem Shake  attracts the attention of most people no matter they like or hate it.

TEACHERS AS SCAPEGOATS WHEN FAILURE IN EDUCATION

Education is a tripod with school, student and parent. If the situation of one's absence, education becomes meaningless since the tripod lose the ability of standing. In Turkey, especially during the last decade, teachers have been continiously kept under pressure, checked and complained about by the school administrations, parents and communities' gossip mechanism. There are request boxes for the students in order to watch and learn about their requests and complains about their teachers but sometimes some students may write defamations just because they don't like the teachers or they are away from the lessons and rules.

The condition mentioned above, effects the teachers' productivity negatively. Mostly teachers lose their aspiration on teaching and using fruitful approaches and they become unwilling and frustrated educators which is not preferable in a healthy education. In adition, even if teachers apply very useful tecniques and approaches, they may decide to change their methods of teaching. This most probably effect the students who are really aware of and interested in the subjects.

Of course the critiques and complains are constructive if they are real but on the other hand, in the situation of false directions, they are so harmful and destructive for the mental and social position of teachers. If there is failure in reaching the goals and targets, teachers are the direct collocuters and responsible individuals; not students or parents. That's, it is a hard job to teach and pay attention at the same time. Theachers are the scapegoats.

EVALUATION OF THE SURVEY ON SCHOOL UNIFORMS

There was a survey which I broadcasted last month about free clothing at schools. I applied it for my students at the age of 12. By the help of the results, I can say that they agree on school uniforms with the percentage of 54.  Only % 33  want to come to school freely. % 12 have no idea or they don't care. As National Education Ministry of Turkey declared last year, the request of school uniforms at schools would be removed. However they have changed their mind. I think the surveys among the students and families are top efficient for their change. I applied a very simple questionnaire to see the reality. I am sure the Ministry applied very detailed and professional surveys, meetings, researches and consultations to understand the importance of the real needs of the students. In my opinion, we haven't any problems with clothing at schools. The real issue should be the techniques, approaches and curriculum and we should focus on these. Actually, we have experienced many many times the deadlock whenever we deal with people's clothes.

For me, the most important thing in an effective and productive educational environment is discipline. A sweet-hard discipline provides a well built educational system. Pupils should own self-discipline and regularity in addition to self-confidence. The uniform gives the sense of discipline and belonging.

 

SENSE OF MUSIC

I have written an essay on belonging and identity for teenagers and I decided to broadcast my work here in my blog. I am waiting for the comments about. Enjoy....

Human beings, due to their natures, are in need of nestle something in which they can feel familiar. This is not only because they express themselves efficiently but also they find ways of being understood by the society they live in. One’s identity is formed and influenced by the groups one belongs to.

Music is a tool for some people to improve their sense of belonging. This may be sometimes by the help of learning to play an instrument or singing and taking place in a group. They fulfill their identity issue by joining musical activities. In deed, groups look for different characteristics from their members. That is one must possess those criterias. You may think that you are a very talented guitarist but this doesn’t mean that the group you apply for is looking for your style. Sometimes group leaders consider the applicants social status. Even if you are talented enough, they may give priority to one’s socio-economic background. Actually this differs from group to group. Nevertheless people, as social animals, mostly fill the requirements posed by the groups and they enjoy music activities. It gives them a sense of belonging and identity in the society they live.

There is another way to use music as a source of belonging. One can play or sing alone and this probably help develop identity. Some people feel more confident and satisfied if they introduce their music by themselves. That is, some people are inter-personal and some are intra-personal.

By the help of above mentioned facts, I can conclude that we are all in need of being secure and understood. In spide of the conditions and things required which may at first pressure us, we mostly manage to anchor in a safe harbor like music in a way.

STUDENTS' BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS

Recently educators have been complaining about the students' indifference on the school subjects and increasing number of bad habits among them. Even today we have talked about our students' bad behaviours in and out classroom and we have made some decision to overcome these issues. Students have been acting more disrespectively to their instructors and parents than the last decades. This situation results in lack of academic education environment. If we want to deal with the issue, the first thing we have to do is to form a road map which includes a variety of approaching methods. I will try to offer some that I think it works when applied efficiently at school and at home.

First I want to indicate the reasons for the behavioral problems then I will offer you some approaches in order to defeat or at least decrease the level.

If we number them, we can put continious technological improvements as the main guilty. I will tell you about other issues in my future posts. Actually, technology is for people's comfort but when used improperly, it becomes an evil ready to terminate our social life as much as inner world. Teenagers and adults have been using internet and social media in most of their times. They share, express themselves and even have fun online. Cellphones, Iphones and others are their new and close friends. As they are very young, they aren't experienced and equipped with sufficient knowledge about the real life surprises. They think that online life is different from real life. That is normally so but when you start living online, you lose your values about real social life since you spend most of your times with your virtual friends instead of real ones around. Teens act quite free and they gather false information; that's why they become overloaded with useless, meaningless, impolite and rubbish ingredients. When they are offline, they go on behaving the same as online. The problem arupts then.

APPROACH:

* Parents education on responsibility, leadership, selectivity and security online by holding meetings and some photocopies

* Students education on responsibility, selectivity and security during online by meetings and even online activities.

* Citizenship and education of values.