Posted at 2:17 AM
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
tow anatomy of a story
It is one in the morning, I have a story to work on that was due yesterday, and I need a break! So I decided to update my blog. YaY! So here is what I got done so far:
Maryam Razvi is a sophomore at University of Wisconsin Steven's Point. Her memories of her school years include digging up earthworms, punching holes in the sides of her bookreporst and tying ribbons through the holes to bind it, studying the Qur'an, and looking at leaves under the microscope.
Nadia Darwish is a seventh grader in Madison. She spends her school days doing math problems from a Singaporean textbook, playing with her two-year-old sister, volunteering at the Islamic elementary school, and preparing for the weekly meetings of her reading club.
The educators of Razvi and Darwish aren't typical teachers. They don't teach at typical classrooms. And they definitely do not follow conventional curriculum.
Razvi and Darwish's teachers are their mothers. Mrs. Razvi and Mrs. Darwish use their homes as the classroom, and their daughter's interest as the curriculum.
Ok, me go write some more!
2:17. I can't type anymore. Here's the kinda finished version. I didn't run a spell check or read it over yet. I'll probably post the complete version tomorrow.
extra credit to people who find the two words that aren't spelled right:
Maryam Razvi is a sophomore at University of Wisconsin Steven's Point. Her memories of her elementary and middle school years include digging up earthworms, punching holes in the sides of her book reports and tying ribbons through the holes to bind it, studying the Qur'an, and looking at leaves under the microscope.
Nadia Darwish is a seventh grader in Madison. She spends her school days doing math problems from a Singaporean textbook, playing with her two-year-old sister, volunteering at the Islamic elementary school, and preparing for the weekly meetings of her reading club.
The educators of Razvi and Darwish aren't typical teachers. They don't teach at typical classrooms. And they definitely do not follow a typical curriculum.
Razvi and Darwish's teachers are their mothers. Mrs. Razvi and Mrs. Darwish use their homes as the classroom, and they let their daughters' interest determine the curriculum. They chose to home school Razvi and Darwish rather then sending them to a public school.
Home schooling is a growing trend in Wisconsin. According to the Departmant of Public Instruction's data the number of home schooled students rose from 14,539 during 1984-85 school year to 21, 034 in the 2003-04 school year. This is a 33 percent increase. During the same time frame the public school enrollment rose by 1.2 percent.
This trend doesn't surprise Mrs. Razvi at all. She said, "[W]hen I started 15 years ago things were just brewing at the time. There is general discontent among specially educated parents regarding the system all the way from formal education, to morality, values."
Nadia didn't feel content with her education and the educational environment she was in either. " One time they had a holiday party, a non-Muslim holiday party," she said. "I spent the whole time just sitting outside the classroom."
Mrs. Darwish pointed out that Nadia instigated the idea of home schooling. Mrs. Darwish said, "[Nadia] felt that she no longer liked the atmosphere of the public school. She started getting pressures that she didn't like. It was also among the time when her friends started to dress differently, talk about boys. Nadia never felt comfortable with these things."
Razvi recalled that she used to get similar reactions from people when she told them that she was home schooled. She said, " One of the main things people think is that, 'Oh my gosh you keep your child at home they are going to learn no social skills, no idea how to communicate with people, they are not going to have friends.' But it is not like that at all if you home school in the right community." Razvi and her other home schooled friends used to have activity nights every Thursday.
Darwish and her friends have a reading club. The members meet once a month to discuss books, and twice a month to learn about the prophet's lives. They also go to field trips. Nadia said one of her favorite field trips was when they went on Bascom Hill to draw State Street when she was learning about perspective.
Darwish and Razvi are able to have great deal of freedom on what they learn because of Wisconsin's liberal home schooling laws. The parents need to fill out a simple form promising to provide basic instruction to their children. Submitting a curriculum is encrouraged, but not required.
For Darwish learning could occur anywhere, even when they are driving in the car. Mrs. Darwish said, "We talked about patterns formed in the sky and how that is related to the tessellations that we learned in math, how that related to social patterns that we see in life, we related it to the reasoning that was found in the Qur'an, and relate it to the rest of the life. You wouldn't get that in school."
Razvi is studying to become a math teacher. Darwish said that she might become a lawyer, a teacher, or a pediatrician.
Posted at 1:14 AM
Sunday, November 06, 2005
tow eid photos
I got back to Madtown today and after my nice nap I am ready to blog! This is going to be a short one because I have twenty gazillion more things to do!
My lovely brother and I at our house. He is almost as tall as me, MasaAllah!
My brother took this pic. I told him to take a picture of me, but it ended up being our dining room. That leather recliner in the background is mine, but my mom never knows where to put it so we left it there.
This is a pillow at Amber's house, where we had the girls party.
This was the first wave of girls, the rest joined after we went out to eat. But most of us didn't have our hijabs (basortu, headscarf) on, so no pictures of the actual party was taken. Leave no evidence.
Here's us at the restaurant. The picture was taken by one of the waiters, I think she wanted to show case their beautiful glasses!
Leaning on the counter, left to right: Amber, Me, Yasmin, Mona, Sara
Standin on the back, left to right: Ayesha, Myra, Sarah, I forgat her name, sorry!
I watched Wallace & Gromit with my brother. I was a big fan of the short movies, it was great seeing them on the big screen. YaY. Cheese!
kelebek }{
Lord Victor Quartermaine: I want...
[lowers voice]
Lord Victor Quartermaine: ... toupee.
Wallace: Oh, yes, of course. We take cheques or cash
Lord Victor Quartermaine: No, you idiot. My hair is in there.
Wallace: Oh, no, only rabbits in there. I think you'll find the hare is a much larger creature.
Posted at 9:58 PM
tow gurnee mills
"One of the leading tourist attractions in the Midwest, located between Milwaukee
and Chicago. Over 200 stores." That is where I went today, the Gurnee Mills with my family. I thought it might be fun because I haven't gone shopping in ages. I thought I could get a few nice tops, and a pair of shoes if I was lucky. What I forgat is that how tiring and annoying shopping is. I have a knee problem called "osgood schlatters" ever since I was younger. It is Elhamdurillah, much, much better. But if I stand up or walk for long periods of time, it starts aching --bad! On top of my knee ache the place was insanely crowded. When they say over 200 stores, they mean over 200 stores! I was ready to go home after tacking the first 10! After a while I got so tired I had to sit down and people watch. Now, that was fun!! There were a ton of Amish people, which surprised me because, I have limited knowledge and exposure to the Amish life and I thought it was weird to see them bashing in the glory of the finest examples of capitalism! There were a lot of Muslims, to quote Rachel, in their full Muslim get up! There were the aunties of course with their jackets on top of their Shalwar-Kameez! I ended up sitting in front of Starbucks. Man, the line was doubling outside of the darned store. I am sorry but their stuff is not nearly good enough to wait in life for 15 minutes! There were also whole bunch of people dressed in black shirts, black trousers, and black ties. I think they were with the navy because some of them had sailor hats. Rachel suggested that they could be neo-nazis. Hmm, who knows! I ended up getting into an argument with my mom. For some reason she doesn't realize that I am 21 freaking year olds and I can choose what looks good on me!! We separated and I shopped alone. I did end up getting a nice top, a new stuffed Eeyore, and a really cute Eeyore mug! I really much rather have spent the day in my bed reading or doing something more productive.
I love my dad for getting me the digital voice recorder I've been wanting for the longest time. Clickty over here to see this beauty. I was lucky enough to find an "open item" at Best Buy so it was $10 discounted. I can't wait to use it for my next article!! YaY, I ♥ my dad!
The girls eid party was awesome!!! We went out to eat first. I swear that was the bet Thai food I ever had in my life. I am getting hungry just by thinking about it. At home we had whole bunch of different music. If you know me, then you know that I can't dance. But I put all shame aside and danced away (well more like jumped up and down with no rhtym!). I did learn one move, hard to describe though. At one point there was a loud knock on the door. We all freaked out and ran to the back room because most of us didn't have our headscarves (hijab, basortu) on. Turns out they weren't there to complain. They said our music was awesome and asked if they could join our party. Ehehe, umm, no!! I do have I think one picture I'll post it when I get home tomorrow.
I am going back to Madison tomorrow. Ugh, I have sooo much to do. I am going to start a to do list when I get home. Right now I just want to sleep. My dad is going to sleep too, and he needs me to stop clicking on the keyboard... Oh I missed my home!
kelebek }{
Hadi kelebek ne zaman yatacaksin?
-- Babam
Posted at 1:14 AM
Saturday, November 05, 2005
tow blurry
BLURRY
Everything's so blurry
And everyone's so fake
And everybody's empty
And everything is so messed up
Pre-occupied without you
I cannot live at all
My whole world surrounds you
I stumble then I crawl
You could be my someone
You could be my scene
You know that i'll protect you
From all of the obscene
I wonder what you're doing
Imagine where you are
There's oceans in between us
But that's not very far
Can you take it all away
can you take it all away
well ya shoved it in my face
this pain you gave to me
Can you take it all away
can you take it all away
well ya shoved it my face
Everyone is changing
there's noone left that's real
to make up your own ending
and let me know just how you feel
cause I am lost without you
I cannot live at all
my whole world surrounds you
I stumble then I crawl
You could be my someone
you could be my scene
you know that i will save you
from all of the unclean
I wonder what you're doing
I wonder where you are
There's oceans in between us
but that's not very far
Nobody told me what you thought
nobody told me what to say
everyone showed you where to turn
told you when to runaway
nobody told you where to hide
nobody told you what to say
everyone showed you where to turn
showed you when to runaway
This pain you gave to me
You take it all
You take it all away...
This pain you gave to me
You take it all away
This pain you gave to me
Take it all away
This pain you gave to me
--- Puddle of Mud
Posted at 2:07 AM
Thursday, November 03, 2005
tow Bayram!!
Yarin bayram, erken kalkin cocuklar!!! Herkezin Ramazan bayrami mubarek olsun!
The Eid is tomorrow. Eid Mubarak everyone! Do I love exclamation points or what!!
Check out the awesome banner ever talented Alex made for my lovely blog! Ehehe, now other people want t use it too, but remember people, you saw it here first. Thanks Baliysiteriri, wish I had some sort of talent that you didn't have so I can do you a favor. Can ya think of anything?!
Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the Eid prayer, I have to go to my J335 class which I can not afford to miss. I think the MSA girls are having an eid party in someone's house. I gotta figure out where the heck it is, I have no sense of direction. Hopefully I'll be heading out to Milwaukee on Friday morning. Sigh, I might not even get to see Burcu or my boyfriend all dressed up adorable in his new eid clothes...
Have a blessed Eid!
kelebek }{
Posted at 12:30 AM
