Why "Backward" is best?

Though consideration about what to teach and how to teach, it may dominate our thinking as a matter of habit, the challenge is to focus first on the desired learning from which appropriate teaching will logically follow. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results, to meet cultural goals rather than a purposeless tour of all the major sites in a foreign country. In short, the best design derives back word from the desired results.

Only by having specified the results, we can focus on the content, method, and activities most likely to achieve those results.

But many teachers begin with and remain focus on text books, favored lessons, and activities (the input) rather than those means that can be implied to in the desired results, the output. They focus on teaching rather than on learning, and spend most of their time thinking what they will do, what materials they will use, rather than thinking of what learners need to accomplish the learning goals.

I think that the goals should be specified, so that they can be achieved by design and not by hope.

Teaching For Understanding

Teaching for understanding may seem ironic, no teacher teaches for lack of understanding. However when we examine the concept of understanding closely, we see that it isn't as simple as it appears on the surface. Experts describe understanding as "being able to do a variety of thought –demanding things with a topic-like explaining.  Finding evidences and examples, generalizing and applying, analogizing, and representing the topic in a new way. The teaching models and other strategies are designed to help teacher ensure that their students learning extends beyond memorization, which is so prevalent in schools today.

Teaching for understanding requires that teachers possess the different types of knowledge and this can be by identify clear learning objectives, selecting teaching strategies that most effectively help student reach the objectives, also by providing examples and representation can help students acquire deep understanding of the topics.

Transgenic Animals

A transgenic animal is one that carry foreign gene that has been deliberately inherited into its genome. The idea of creating transgenic animals gives researchers the opportunity to know the function of certain gene product In addition to using transgenic animal in reganestic study.

Transgenic animals are useful in agriculture By means of Trans genesis, a larger cross breading of desired traits can be formed. This can be done by selective cross breeding where farmers used to selectively breed animals to give rise of progeny that exhibit a desired trait. In fact, farmers work on increasing the amount of a specific trait or increasing the quality of these animals for example the transgenic caw can be made to produce more milk or milk with less lactose/cholesterol. Transgenic plant is another example where they are crossed and efficiently allows farmers to select a desired trait. This can reduce the looseness of crops and improve the growth of the produced plants However transgenic animals use is not limited to agriculture, it further works in many medical applications.

Xenotransplantation, nutritional supplements, and gene therapy, are all applications where transgenic animals can be used in.

Animal Rights

Animals are used for research in a variety of settings, including tests to determine the safety of drugs, cosmetics, and other substances.

In fact, animal testing allow researchers to develop new medication and treatments advancing the field of medicine and enhancing the health of society. For example drugs that are used to treat cancer and HIV infection, diabetes…are resulted from tests performed on animals. Also, by the help of animals, researchers are able to test the safety of medications and other substances in which human have regular content.

However, when using animals in testing, a significant number are harmed or die as a result of experiments and testing. Also, many of the substances that are used on animal subjects never receive approval for human use or consumption. Further, using animals in research is expensive, because they require care and treatment beside the cost of the experiment. I'd like to ask about these animals' rights, shouldn't be protected and treated.

I think that animals are living creatures too, they see the world and feel things  similar way to us, and they deserve rights.

What Teachers Need to Know about Assessment?

A teacher must make many decisions and making a good decision in the classroom requires more than good judgment or years of experience. Good decisions as what to teach and how to teach to evaluate students' achievements are actually based on high quality information about the student, and this come from high quality assessments.

The teacher shouldn't only think that the assessments involve simply testing and grading, or think of it as separate from teaching. But rather assessment is used to collect and use information to make decisions in order to optimize teaching and students' learning.

Validity of the assessment result is very important, so that when the results are valid we can use them as trust, it's the soundness of your interpretation and the usage of the results. One thing to improve the validity is to look at the content representative and relevance where one should make sure if the assessment emphasizes what he/she taught, if it represents the schools' stated curricular content, the current thinking about the subject, and if the content contained are worth learning. Another thing to improve validity is to look on the thinking process and skills represented.

Limited English proficiency (L.E.P)

LEP students are student who have limited ability to speak, read, write, or understand English. They are unable to communicate effectively because English is not their primary language, and they have not developed fluency in the language.

In fact, these students lack the motivation to learn, they have negative attitude to word English, they lack the confidence and the focus, and this is besides the limited teaching materials and ineffective teaching strategies used with these students. Hence, what are the possible solutions?

Beside the factors that we discussed above, is the cultural back ground and the socio economic status are also influence. Thereby, there are several things the teacher can use to minimize this limitation and help the students overcome such obstacle.

I think that the teacher should act as a motivator; they should try to motivate students to study English by using several strategies, activities, and adequate material to address their needs. So, by allowing them to engage and participate in the class they will feel that they are important contributors to the lesson. Also explaining the importance of English can work, because if students know the importance of English, they will remove the negative attitude towards it and attempts to become better at it when knowing its value in real life. Another important thing is the use of simple strategies so that the student will be able to move from simple to complex without feeling a gap in the transitions

Teachers and Technology

Integrating technology in the classroom is somehow challenging foe teachers due to the lack of many school districts, the necessary resources to carry out certain instructions. So that computers and soft wares licenses are not readily available for every teacher. This is besides the training these teachers need to be ready to use such technology.

Hence, some teachers are negatively affected by technology; they may lack confidence using programs they are not experienced with.

Even if technology is becoming a major part of our life, I think it's hard for teacher s that have been set in their ways teaching techniques for years to come and suddenly change their ways and incorporate something they have never used before. Teachers in this case feel uncomfortable and unsure of their teaching strategies.