AEP Blog #3.2 “How was the 14-day challenge?”

Salutations fellow readers! It is I, Ayesha, here to create a blog about a certain well known experience that all AEP students were required to put themselves into. The catch? Its a challenge. A two week challenge. 

My writing and typing skills sure aren’t working for me today, but I digress. I’ll try my hardest and see what I can output about thus 14-day mental reminder, workout and encounter. 

Way back when Ms Disa announced it, I was rather stunned over how I was actually going to have to force myself to create to-do lists. Those were the thing of the past for me. For some odd reason, I stopped making to-do lists back when online class started and didnt seem to put that habit back on me. To-do lists are great! But it seems like Ive lost its purpose by somehow forgetting that I have a to-do list. So, something that was graded was a big push for me. 

It would be quite hard to describe how I felt during each of the days but I can thoroughly explain what I have learnt and generally express the mental strategies I had to make in order to make this plan a success. 

Given it being 14 days, I had to make sure I made things in a solidified time frame. Writing on the padlet should be in a specific time so I wont forget… all of it was planned in a full proof manner. 

Except it wasn’t as easy as I imagined.

On the first day, I wasn’t able to answer it. Great. But for all the other days I was able to answer it but my answering schedule was so messed up for the first week — not to mention the camping in which I almost forgot to ask my teachers to sign. I wont go through the details but I have to thank my trusty sister for reminding me hehe..

Although this blog might be a little short because of the time I have to write this. I think I have learnt one main thing. Which is…

Writing to-do lists!

I am now starting to write to-do lists again, although this may not be the biggest improvement aside from my already implemented daily stretches and avoidance of sweets… managing my time has been such a big  obstacle for me and having these to-do lists make me realised all over again why I was able to manage my time so well when I was back in primary school. 

I don’t know if I’ll be able to continue doing these to-do lists but until now I have been making them. Perhaps its a great thing! Especially with my IGCSE’s coming up. 

I thought at the start that this 14-day challenge would just be another task I’d have to do but I didn’t think it would be as beneficial as I imagined but here you go! I am now practicing a practice I once left before, thinking it wouldn’t serve me any use. 

Thank you so much for reading and see you in the next one! 

AEP Blog #3.1 “A ghibli surprise”

 

Oddly enough, my title seems super irrelevant to AEP. You might be wondering why the title mentions animation despite AEP blog titles having the reputation of being something deep or just literally related to something we did in class today. 

Good day fellow readers! Welcome back to your daily dose of Ayesha’s blog. We are now entering the final stretch, the last school term and perhaps the term where people try to make the most outstanding memories as possible. 

I found myself constantly being surrounded by Ghibli these few weeks, people around me have been watching movies made by the studio a lot more than usual. Ive been rehearing the soundtrack I was once obsessed with, and now getting obsessed over it again ( It was a month ago.. I suppose its a monthly thing now). Ghibli is an animation studio that gives animation both disney-like and the usual 2d standards that commercial anime provides — back in the 90s. With the precisely painted backgrounds, frame by frame animation done in paper and the home-like environment such studio provides. I doubt you didn’t hear about it before, its one of Japan’s most known animation studios not to mention the movies that leave a permanent mark on anyone’s hearts. 

Although it has been a while since Ive thoroughly rewatched a Studio Ghibli movie, scenes from those movies still replay in my mind.I like finding ways to romanticize my existence and the varying background music playing in the back of my head really helps a lot.  

With the pleasant surprise of nostalgia, I fear the sluggishness that comes afterwards. 

So, just yesterday Ms Disa introduced her “14-day challenge” a challenge that aims for you to create a to-do list everyday to prepare for the following day. I am someone who has lost track of time since the past two weeks because of many big projects and assignments. Although it seems like another task to me, I am more than happy to see how much Ms Disa is willing to help us and is able to see what we really need right now. Its a form of reassurance I didn’t know I needed. Despite missing the first day, it gave me a head smack for tomorrow. This week is just full of checking exams so I am a little woozy and tired. I doubt I’ll ever be fully proud of my grades but I just hope I don’t get low marks. 

Today, we planned with each other our plan for this term. It gave me a wakeup call on how this school year hasn’t ended yet, but rather how it’s the last chapter for a while. Why not give it your best shot?

With this blog being annoyingly short ( due to my inability to write like I used to.. It will come soon, just a few more days.) I hope to see you in a more, complete and coherent blog. Salutations, dear reader! 

AEP Blog #2.3 “Clearing my throat”

 Salutations fellow readers! Welcome back to the well made freshly served daily blog by yours truly~

The irony of my title is such a great laugh. Funnily enough, I have a sore throat while writing a title that says,”Clearing my throat”. As much as I know you must be aware how this is indeed figurative language; I can’t help but laugh over the perfect timing of writing this blog. Whilst the constantly changing environment I have put myself in, feeling disconnected from the low shutter speed background and the dimmed foreground. 

It is very much expected for us students to feel overwhelmed with whatever projects we have. Its the second term and it always focuses on intense, faster deadlined group work material. I usually don’t mind group work, but if it requires constant developing, improving and continuous meetings — I start to get really out of it and lose my energy. Of course, I still have to work my way through it but I start to get just a little more mentally drained as days pass. Once the project ends, I go back to my normal self. This two step process has always been what I would go through ever since. 

Perhaps its not a bad thing, I know some people have it worse. This month has just been “one of those months” . Its when things just don’t go the way you want it to, and thats okay. 

I remember when I used to always make these type of blogs; talking about how overwhelmed I am with the amount of assessments… but now that we are in face-to-face classes, I realised how little work I had during that time. I was just feeling really tired because there was no sense of accomplishment coming from my side. Compared to classes now, I start to feel more accomplished even if I did feel very frustrated during the process. Each time there is a project to be finished, I enjoy the good times I have with my group mate(s), whether it be my seat mate; a person I have never had a conversation with; or my close friends. Its true, I do feel drained but at least I know that I won’t be feeling this way for too long. 

They say, “Its all in the mind.” 

Thats why all I need to do is to correct myself, change the way I think and try to grasp it well. Clearing my throat, and changing what I have to say. 

Now for some AEP! 

One of the most memorable things we did happened just recently. This was really the time I felt like making essays can be an easier task to do compared to before. Whenever we have such type of activities, we have to go to miro and jot down whats being asked. Fahad chose the map we were doing and that already made me feel flexible. I already knew that I can make as many mistakes as I want which makes me a lot more calm. 

We then studied the type or vocabulary we should used and structured our paragraphs. I was able to see what my other classmates wrote too so I can improve my paragraphs. 

I cannot stress enough about how much I love this type of learning. The comfortable type, the type wherein I don’t have to ask the most perfect questions, the type where we can speak freely ( of course, giving space for the teacher, I don’t mean this literally) and the avoidance of stress this type of class manages to do is what makes it so special. 

Thats all I have to say, See you in the next one! 

AEP Blog #2.2 “Slowing down”

Good day fellow reader! 

It was not a good idea to write this while having a brain with no gas. 

Yeah, bring it in — all the brain fuel disappeared so do help me with finding ideas on what to write. I find it quite hard to think of a topic especially when I’ve been a little tired these past few days… 

Right!

Lets talk about slowing down.

I’m pretty sure this blog wont be that long, but I’ll try my best. These days have been really tiring for me — I have been forgetting things easily and lagging on my schoolwork. It leads to a never-ending domino effect that could definitely be ended if I tried harder. I doubt it’s because of the amount of schoolwork but rather the mental weight of having my O-levels in just a few months. Not to mention the fact that I have been slacking off with my hobbies — my main source of fulfillment. 

Aside from that, let me talk about AEP. 

These past few weeks we have been doing map essays and learning how to describe images. At the start, we tried describing images and drawing them based on what the people in charge of describing the images say. I really like doing this because its kind of like a freestyle mind boggling dump…using the smartboard. Other than that, we would focus on maps instead of graphs; we started by simple describing all the way to the way we are supposed to describe a map in an essay. Surely, I can tell this helped me a lot because I am aware on how bad my describing skills are, and even if I don’t see drastic improvement — I still see how I am able to describe things easier and in a more direct manner instead of lengthening my explanation without removing the useless bits. 

Word games have been taking over this class too! Some of them are really hard. I enjoy weaver a lot. This is kind of a ladder game, I probably like it so much because of how easy it is compared to the other word games. Yes thats right, goldfish brain talker right here! Nice to meet you! 

I cant really think of anything else to say right now, its quite hard to formulate the right words so I’ll have to make it up for my next blog. 

See you in the next one! 

AEP Blog #2.1 “A retrospective blog”

 Salutations dear reader! Welcome back to your daily dose of Ayesha’s AEP blog. 

Okay, just a heads up; My writer brain is not functioning, unfortunately it never does after a long break. I think I need some spicy tofu, or some strawberry shakes( yes, its plural) or maybe a good ol’ slap on the back to wake me up internally. 

DO I NEED SOME BOLD LETTERS? Italics? underlined?

Definitely not a crossed out one. Maybe I can put it for my definitely right comments…hehe

Now with all that aside, I have to give myself a pat on the back. 

I did well, I did the best I could do within that time. Perhaps I can do better, perhaps I could’ve just worked harder, perhaps I could’ve done better if I had more time…et cetera

My reasons could go on and on, but what I know for sure is that I did the most I could’ve done with all my circumstances. I may not be proud, satisfied and full of glee but I think I’ve accepted what I have done because it wont change. 

Now! Lets take a look back in term 1.

Although I cannot just bullet point each and every activity we did throughout these 3 months, allow me to tell you a general idea of what I personally learned — whether literally AEP-related or not. 

This blog will be structured a little differently, lets have it numbered and all organized! 

1. Writing IELTS graph essays ( or descriptive essays…or any essay…) 

Frankly I always thought, “Gee! Im good at writing essays,  I love words! I love English!” (I seem to be manipulating myself, attempting to change reality and abusing my phycological health ) This colloquial term is otherwise referred to as “Gaslighting”. I never enjoyed English class, no matter who the teacher was. I just can’t seem to find myself enjoying words in general. Playing around with words and learning how to write such fantastic stories with perfect punctuation, grammar and structure. It sounds like a dream to me, and although the dream is possible for many, I find it hard to make myself so passionate about a skill that I’ve had so much trouble with. 

All these years I havent been so constricted in my writing unlike right now.  I’ve been used to following my own flow in writing an essay. The only difference is perhaps the word count, the topic or just adding a few subheadings here and there. I have always written the way I have done for the past 10 years of my school life, with only additional spelling, writing and constructing techniques that almost everybody learns once they enter middle school. Once I started year 10 AEP, I learnt how we will be doing essays. These essays however, are much more different than what I imagined them to be. They were factual, they had to be descriptive and they had to have a specific structure that was one I was not used to at all. Especially the vocabulary. This type of essay writing changed the way I view my essay tasks, and after doing a few in AEP classes, I find myself a little more confident with my essay structure but of course I know I have a lot to improve on in every aspect of writing that essay. 

Looking back, I think I should’ve tried focusing more on the structure of the graphs. I would always write about the graph in little mini parts, disregarding the hierarchy of importance and explaining it in a way where someone would fall asleep because I would never get straight to the point. (Im now contemplating about my blog, but this is a blog— not a graph essay). I am looking forward to see my progress, hopefully my flexibility with essays will be much better. Not to mention how I analyze graphs in general! 

2. Emphasizing the importance of learning 

This is the first time I’ve ever felt this. 

You know, I’ve always just studied again and again, following my normal schedule and getting marks that I like to see. I work and I relax, its a give and get mechanism and although it does fail sometimes, it is the way I function as a student. For the first time, I have felt intimidated to push forward. I can’t really go into detail but I really felt scared to ask, scared to learn and the learning environment for me was a place I wanted to leave in immediately. I have always been taught to never feel shame in asking for help, “Its the teacher’s job to teach you, so don’t feel scared.” was what my mum would tell me. So I had the chance to not feel intimidated to ask questions for many years now, but knowing my O-levels are coming and all. I feel scared in asking for help just because Im afraid the teacher will get angry at me. 

Its a childish reason, but now I realise how others feel. This feeling is still common and I frown upon those teachers who want and do make their students feel scared to ask questions or just learn in general. In AEP, as I mentioned previously, we were doing essays about graphs. I know how I am horrible in writing them but I realised how comfortable I feel with not doing well at the start. All the more, I feel at ease when I ask for help, and the feeling of not doing well was not a slap on the face to me but rather a call to do better. The call is a way to tell me that I still have so much room for improvement, which makes me feel at ease. Of course, I do not feel confident with my abilities, but in AEP, I never feel scared to learn. 

3. Word games, word games and more word games! 

We’ve all done word games before. Whether it was a short game of scrabble, a gruelling score in hangman or the wordle craze many have been into these past few months. In AEP, we did many versions of wordle. Ranging from 4x wordle in one, or a wordle that pushes your brain to think of the most incorrect answer possible and even one which resembles a waffle. The amount of wordgames are unlimited, and doing them at the start of every class always pushes my brain to work, even if its just a little push. To add, doing it with my classmates makes everything so much funnier. We get a few laughs and a lot of smiles, perhaps a few screams here and there if we have a new record. Or maybe loud silence because we dont know what the answer is. 

4. Padlet

I always include this segment in any of my retrospective blogs. I enjoy doing padlet and even if my exit tickets are short, doing a bit of reflection at the end of every class session does not allow me to leave with a bad heart. Sometimes uploading in padlet allows me to remember what I enjoyed doing in class, or maybe what I found tough. Or in most days, its just what I did on that day. 

In conclusion, its a 5 minute safe-space for me and my classmates. 

Oh! Seems like Ms Disa is calling us to post on padlet, how perfectly well timed. 

With that being said, I’ll see you all in the next one! 

Blog #1.2 “Getting used to a busy schedule”

 Good day dear reader! It sure has been a while since I have written a blog. 

My hands are stuck and my mind is not going on a roll. It seems as if my fingers have forgotten how to type with such speed and precision that I would be able to get compared to when I was in 7th Grade. 

Sometimes, I have to write a little more just to get myself “into the zone” of writing a blog in AEP. 

Truth be told, my 7th Grade blogs have been nothing but my old self thinking that I could write amazing things. Yes, thats right! Thats me thinking I was a good old genius…What awful times 

“

 You know those times when you have a quiz on a certain time and you studied for it just on the night before and you realized that everyone in your class forgot there was a quiz today? Yeah, I've been there, usually when that happens I have both a happy and an annoyed feeling. Annoyed you ask? Well I get annoyed because now I have to wait another week just to have that quiz. I have a happy feeling because I don't have to feel bad even though I studied the night before! I'm such a great student.

“

-August 24,2019

Definitely! Just look at my last definitely-not-sarcastic sentence. 

Oops,  I made another sarcastic sentence. 

As the days in AEP pass by, especially during face-to-face classes, I remember the days where I used to complain about having too much work and too little time. I am realising how online classes just allowed us to think and be into a predicament many people face. We think as if time is moving by really quickly, but this is just an illusion many forget to see through. Now in face-to-face classes, I have double or even triple times the amount of work I used to have when I was in online classes. Despite this, I still manage to finish everything somehow, although I do indeed still feel tired and exhausted. Evaluating yourself is something that you should do often, I think its something I should do more too. One thing I realised is that I no longer feel unaccomplished. I actually feel happy finishing the work I do, and that was something I wanted to feel for the past 2 years of online classes. 

These days, many events have been happening. Sometimes it takes a toll on the way my mind works, confining my brain into a fight or flight response with the work that must be accomplished by a 10th grader. Everyday I still feel just a little sleepy, but when I talk with my classmates and try to listen to class lectures, I manage to wake up and then enjoy a nice nap on the 45 minute ride home. One thing about me though is that I like it when I have work that I can finish. I like feeling like I have something to do, something to achieve and something that I can be proud about. Every little assessment, job, and skill. It was very different in online classes because I would always find a way to just end my job in the fastest way possible, most of the time. 

During the past months in AEP, whilst getting used to face-to-face classes and events, we have tried and conquered many ways to do our learning methods. Grade 10 is all about essays, and so, we write a lot of essays! So far, we have been writing about graphs. These graphs mostly contain two to three subjects and these objects show a change in numbers. Me and my classmates try our best to translate these graphs into an essay format suitable for a passable grade for Ielts. We would go on miro, our well known digital whiteboard, and then try to find words that can help us for these essays. We try to also analyze the main points we are supposed to write about. Then, we put these points into structured sentences using the right words to make a good essay. 

At the start, I was thinking that it would be a simple task to do. During our first essay lesson, we were asked to write as essay immediately to stand as our starting point. I thought I would do alright because I’d think ,”Ive written many essays before, surely this one would go the same way as my other english essays.” 

I was far from right. 

Writing these types of essay really mixes up my brain. I need to use specific words and I am limited with the amount of opinions I use. The word counts always tie my hands up. Ms would tell us many rules only for them to pile up in my messy file storage in my brain. This is why she thought of something quite extraordinary! Which was to try to have baby steps in miro so we would be able to work out how to make our essays a lot better. What we do is that we gather out main points and contrasting ideas in several graphs while trying to analyze them. 

I personally find taking baby steps really tough. I am a person who likes to make things finish faster especially if it has to do with something I am not that versed in.

Aside from daily word games and shenanigans, I definitely learnt that I need to learn how to take smaller steps at a time to achieve goals quicker… maybe that sounds a bit too broad to get from a lesson but, here it is! 

Thank you for reading this blog, see you in the next one!

AEP Blog #1.1 “Bye bye, google meet?”

 Salutations dear readers, Ms Disa and the invisible internet alien that haunts the cupboard at night. 

Gosh! It has been such a long time since Ive written a blog. My fingers are rusty and my brain is flat. I suppose I dont have a good way to convey how much my life has changed these past few months. New experiences and new chapters, new plots and new challenges! 

Thats right, welcome to school year 2022-2023! With a huge twist, now face to face! 

After all the grueling 2+ years of staying inside my humid room, shuffling between dozing off or hurting my eyes, all the way to mastering the use of many websites just only when I heard that we won’t really be prioritizing them anymore. With a fully blown hybrid class environment and subtle covid precautions brings a whole new scenery for FIS veterans and FIS welcomers. 

To introduce myself again, Im Ayesha! Nice to meet you. 

When it comes to self introduction, I cant help but ponder over what I can provide as a student, as a daughter and as a friend. What are the qualities I wish to share with others? In the end I can only come up with just a few words and details that almost every student would share. Their birthday, age, nationality , hobbies or what not…

Differences are hard to notice when you’re talking about yourself, but differences in other people feel easier to spot. We would think about how the lockdowns have changed us, perhaps physically, mentally , and spiritually. If you were to ask me, then I believe that I became a weirder person. Well, thats what my sister said. Im proud of my accomplishments even if they may not seem like accomplishments to others, they do for me and I think thats what matters the most. 

Well let me start again, 

Nice to meet you, Im Ayesha! I wear the hijab with pride and share my world through art. The world I see not so clearly, but full of colour and people that share different experiences that you can always learn from. Im a person who finds joy in many forms of art. Topics like writing, music, maths, painting or even just the art of speaking is something I wish to master as well as the previously said topics. Im not the best in practical academics. I procrastinate and laze around, forgetting my to-do list left in my bulky pen case. 

One day, I was sitting in my couch waiting for sanity to come save my day. I was nervous, sweating and shaking unlike my sibling who’s sitting in the other side of the sofa, her face was gleaming with “IM EXCITED!” . A paradoxical dynamic if you’d as me. I was excited per say because I was finally able to not rely on my sluggish wifi in hopes to make me actually understand what my teacher is talking about. My sister on the other hand was super hyper because she would finally be able to meet her friend’s she has been waiting to meet for so long! In my case I was only excited to see a few which Im very thankful to have the privilege to meet them a lot more than usual. (Props to you Dilara!) Its just, the assessments might be able to take over me just like they did in online classes, although right now its not as bad as I expected! I just hope I can keep it up.

My debate friend told me months before the orientation that some of hew classmates will come to FIS. I got to see them in the first day and they were very nice! I felt glad that I knew everyone within the first week of school. Thankful that I didn’t have to go through an awkward phase of not being able to approach someone just because I didn’t know their name. 

Here we are now, in the 3rd week of school still getting used to the whole “face to face-hyrbrid” classes. I feel like the same new me. A different yet similar person, a changed one but still the Ayesha that everyone knows. 

Now for AEP! 

Allowing myself to suffice for a class that I wasn’t able to bring my entire focus on during the online classes because of countless difficulties was frankly not an easy job. 

Except thats what I thought. 

When I entered the classroom in the 4th floor, reminiscing the times I used to walk in those same hallways with my classmates and go down the stairs to fill our stomachs and chat around. I took a few steps until I saw the rose door. A door that I haven’t seen for so long, the art and AEP room that I remember going to each week is finally right in front of me. Greeted by the same teacher who makes you tensed up but relaxed at the same time, engages you with her fun aura and overall allows you to feel safe in her classroom. Thats right, Ms Disa! 

During our first week we did some brain work. Which is what we call, “Remembering what we learnt”

We did this in miro which we were already well versed in. The new students, Huda and Alisa got the hang of it really quickly! Which was great. We didn’t use the smartboard that much that day, relying on our devices to help us make comments and posts about what we did before. Being able to recall is a very vital element in making your brain work! So it acted as our fuel to start the school year. 

The week after that we started to use miro for simple vocab. This type of vocab is used in describing graphs. Words like decreasing, increasing, staying the same. We gave all the synonyms we could and slashed the ones out which cannot be feasible to describe changes in a bar graph. Then we did what I like to call a “Diagnostic test”. We had to write an essay in the span of 15 mins with the topic of describing the bar graph that was given to us. I think in that moment, I wrote the worst essay Ive ever seen in my entire life.Not to mention the chicken scratch handwriting I haven’t dared to improve during the 3 month break. 

Currently, I am spending this AEP lesson for writing a blog. Once again, with my rusty fingers and flat brain. Surely, I wish for a better output next time, but for now this is what I have. 

Thats all for this blog. See you! 

AEP blog #1.3 "Two sides of a coin."

Hello dear reader and of course Ms Disa! Come come, grab a seat and I'll serve you the most recent experiences of yours truly~ 

Negativity. 

Negativity. 

Negativity. 

What is being "negative"? 

What does true disappointment feel like

Positivity. 

Positivity.

Positivity. 

What is being "positive"?

What does true happiness feel like. 

These feelings compliment each other. To some, this feeling causes pain, and to others, it's the best feeling one can feel. 

These are the two sides of a coin, two compliment each other, much like complimentary colors. 

They show each other's weakness, two sides of a coin, polar opposites and viewed in an either extremely good way, or an awfully bad way. 

I've met people tell me how they hate complimentary colors, and how they look muddy together. While I would hear other people tell me how they love complimentary colors, hence the word 'compliment'. 

"Flip a coin, see what the answer will be."

"Is that how life works?"

"Not the process, but rather it's about what the result will be, how will you take it?" 

Much like in AEP, or really any situation in life. Anything can be given two sides to look at. 

The positive side, and the negative side. 

Currently Ms Disa's Computer can't be used in class. In what way did she look at it? The positive way or negative way? 

She took it positively and chose the next best alternative, using her tablet of course. Now, unfortunately her tablet has a lot of limitations hence its small size and other capabilities. In my class, we finished the seat work that ms told us to do last week, so we have two periods worth of blogging. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy when I heard that. I have more time to write my blog today!

Ms Disa wasn't that negative, honestly she took everything in mature- teacherly approach, thank you ms!

She told us to just do our blog until 9:30 and see what happens next. Ah yes, definitely the Ms Disa breed --of-teachers answer right here. 

This is the positive side of the coin. 

Now what is the negative side of the coin?

I'd like to say there isn't a negative point because we already have a positive one, but for now I'll just throw my naiveness down the river. 

The negative side is that Ms Disa will sacrifice our 80 mins of learning for something that would be done within 20-40 mins, She won't be able to continue teaching us our verb tenses unfortunately. 

But why focus on that? 

It's not like she can't teach us the verb tenses anymore...

Remember even no matter how big or small the situation is, always try to make your mind work in a way to just not overthink about all the negative aspects of that situation. 

Because once you do, its a long way back up. 

I want to hold a TEd-talk someday! Okay thats unrelated, moving on.

Anyways, putting that life-lesson aside ( Fun fact: Ms Disa was the person who taught me this, back when I was still really young) 

This week in AEP was full of verb tenses, Present continuous and present simple!

Its nice being able to refresh my rusty verb tenses, feels great!

Alright thats all I have in store for this week's, as always, stay safe and sane!

See you in the next one!

AEP blog #1.2 "Colorful AEP experiences."

 When I mean colorful, Im not joking,  our class was literally colorful. 

Hello There student, or Ms. Disa! Or the alien creature from mars who just got the chance to connect to his nonexistent internet connection? 

Welcome back to your weekly blogs, written by yours truly!

This week was quite exciting, intense and the "makes your heart beat so much until your brother's gcse results come out" Thats sort of unrelated, but a pinch of personal life wont hurt!

As Im writing this, about 40 mins ago my brother's results got released. Safe to say the stiff atmosphere in my house has turned into a happy and relaxed atmosphere! 

This week's AEP classes were like I mentioned a while ago, colorful.

The app we use nowadays, miro, has been really fun to use!Its very handy, the arrangement of features are not too hard to get a grasp of and it's easy to work your way through the whiteboard app. Not to mention how you can work together with your classmates, real time! Oh and also you can add sticky notes (personally my favorite feature) 

I remember how this one time, about a year ago, I wanted to try downloading a whiteboard app in my ipad for fun. It ended up being miro since it looked very clean to use! I had fun using it for a while but ended up deleting it due to storage problems. Well what a coincidence! I have to download it again but its for school purposes! Well I wasn't that mad, but rather quite happy honestly. Because its a better app instead of other sticky note apps Ms had let us use last year. Though its just my device that has little storage so I had to delete some things to fit miro! It worked out at the end, thankfully

Then we have padlet! You all know padlet, otherwise known as the "Exit ticket from class". In my opinion, a wonderful idea to hear what your students think of today and your class!

We have also changed the way we do our oral, now with some color! (again, makes sense right?) We are trying to use either canva and this storyboard app called storyboarder.  Pretty much 90% of the FIS student body knows a little bit of canva and how it works. 

Story boarder on the other hand is sort of like a drawing application? Used to make animatics and storyboards. I really wish they had one in the app store, but its on the computer only.

So I'll try to download it on my mac, hopefully it will work this time...

Alright thats all thats in store in my kitchen, see you in the next one!

AEP blog #1.1 "A fresh start?"

 I was honestly supposed to name this blog "A new book." But honestly thats way too literal especially since we are actually using a new book.

Now why did I put the title with a question mark then? I sound a bit hesitant, and I'm sure everybody does feel the same way too. 

(Cough) Ahem yes now to professionally start my long awaited blog

Welcome and welcome back dear readers and of course Ms Disa to your weekly blogs, written by Ayesha!

This is top notch, fresh from the kitchen, written in class!

"Wait...

In class? "

Those were the first three things I remember thinking when Ms Disa started explaining our new schedule in finishing work. Apparently we are going to write blogs in class, have two homeworks per semester. Meaning that we would have to write blogs in class. Seartworks went down as well. This is very foreign to me actually. 

Im concerned about how we'll be able to spend our AEP classes because with such little seatworks I can't necessarily study "better" the less work the less input I get. However I'm not complaining, just concerned. 

Ms Disa is very unique among the different teacher species. There are different types of teachers: Slow,  Talks to fast, Forgets easily, Super Bubbly teachers and then there is Ms Disa, yes she deserves her own category. She never actually teaches us in a normal way that most teachers would. She doesn't teach, she guides. Ms Disa will help you through your journey but you need to help yourself and get an understanding of it as well. To me, its one of the best modes of teaching a teacher could present. 

This week was warming up and going back to the good ol' School system. Getting used to typeshift and all these new apps again. 

We are now doing grammar in comparison to last year's AEP when it was vocab and comprehension. Again its a new light for me! I don't really know what to expect because honestly its been a while since I've got head straight into looking at tenses in english again, Its been three years since I've last done that.

My grammar has gone a bit rusty since then so its a perfect choice!

Getting used to this old but new atmosphere is a very unique feeling. 

See you in the next one!