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Any gradblrs here observing Ramadan and/or documenting Ramadan while studying/working? Please like this post!

#gradblr #studyblr #Ramadan at work #Ramadan #Muslim

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Saturday, May 20, 2023

Woaaahh it's been a minute. Life updates: I'm still teaching at the high school and currently doing English tutoring on the side for a student. I am incredibly behind on a lot of other responsibilities I've said yes to. My mission in the coming days and weeks is to tackle them one at a time. Ya Rabb.

#j

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Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Satisfied a day-long esquites craving and made some today after work. My contract officially ends at the end of the month, and my last day of teaching in class before finals is tomorrow inshaAllah. I am relieved.

I have some nice mixed baby tomatoes I bought at the grocery store this week and I'm thinking of using some for pasta. Thinking about tomorrow's work lunch...

#alhamdulillah #j

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Monday, May 23, 2022

What even, bro.

Honestly I'm just here to get myself excited for work tomorrow by writing about my lunch.

I'm having leftover arugula salad on couscous with feta and roasted zucchini. Plus a banana, grapes, and boxed orange juice (those Tropicana juice boxes that are normally like $7 for a 6-pack were on sale for 74 CENTS!!!). I might throw in a chocolate cupcake that my mom made. In my desk drawer at work I keep a pack of mint chocolate Milano cookies which I always look forward to.

Man I'm psyched.

#Alhamdulillah #lunch blog #j

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I usually tell my students that “close reading” means looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself, rather than some idea “behind the text.” It means noticing things in the writing, things in the writing that stand out. To give you some idea of what this means, I’ve made up a list of five sorts of things that a close reading might typically notice: (1) unusual vocabulary, words that surprise either because they are unfamiliar or because they seem to belong to a different context; (2) words that seem unnecessarily repeated, as if the word keeps insisting on being written; (3) images or metaphors, especially ones that are used repeatedly and are somewhat surprising given the context; (4) what is in italics or parentheses; and (5) footnotes that seem too long. This list is far from complete—in fact, no complete list is possible—but the list is meant to begin to give you an idea of what sorts of things we notice when we’re doing close reading.

What all five of my examples have in common is that they are minor elements in the text; they are not main ideas. In fact, your usual practice of reading which focuses on main ideas would dismiss them all as marginal or trivial. Another thing they have in common is that, although they are minor, they are nonetheless conspicuous, eye-catching: they are either surprising or repeated, set off from the text or too long. Close reading pays attention to elements in the text which, although marginal, are nonetheless emphatic, prominent—elements in the text which ought to be quietly subordinate to the main idea, but which textually call attention to themselves.

Most of you have been educated to ignore such elements. You have been taught to seek out and identify the main ideas, dismissing the trivial as you go. This has had to be trained into you: read to a young child sometime, you will notice she has the annoying habit of interrupting the flow of the story to draw attention to some minor thing. Close reading resembles the interruptions of that child. It is a method of undoing the training that keeps us to the straight and narrow path of main ideas. It is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas.

Jane Gallop, “The Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters,” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Vol.16, No.3 (Fall 2000), pg.7-8 (x)

#This is so interesting and I enjoy thinking about ideas like this #Saved the article!

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12.17.2021

Waiting for an interview invite has continued to be a lesson in patience. There’s still a couple months to hear back, but I’m starting to think about the next application cycle. I really hope I will be moving on to medical school next fall. 

Currently reading: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Just finished: Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

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working lunch, 22.03.22

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It sort of stings every time I see non-Middle Eastern academics talking about how they are living in the Middle East and all the things they get to do. Living in apartments with high ceilings and looking out balconies and exploring tangled city streets and going through local archives, in whichever form that may take, to study the local life.

Yes, it's a one-sided portrayal and it's not always as glamorous for them as they make it seem (hello social media). Yet it hurts because overall, it's a life that many of us don't get to live or have had to leave behind. I am not trying to "gatekeep" the Middle East or whatever lol; it's just my personal experiences and a bit of pain talking. Maybe I will get to live there again and get to do what I love there someday.

Anyway, comparison is the root of all misery. So alhamdulillah for everything that is and is not.

#Perhaps others can relate to this when it comes to their native homes as well.

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Sunday, March 20, 2022

Sometimes I come here and do check-ins for myself. Today I am fasting as I am making up some days before Ramadan. I know, I know—I shouldn't have left it till the last minute. But alhamdulillah this is an ok time for me now.

I am going to finish up some marking and start working on progress reports for my classes.

My iftar for today inshaAllah:

Leftover chicken with couscous salad

Super quick apple crumble with cream (it will be my first time making this, and I just plan on doing it on my stove top and finishing it off under the broiler)

In the past couple of years I found out how much I love cooking and trying to make do with what I have, or figuring out shortcuts to some of my favourite foods. You can tell I am more excited about this than my marking lol

Going to renew my intentions and get started. Bismillah!

#j

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Sigh. I have a student who today essentially spouted off some bad opinions from Twitter and I had to kindly respond and offer alternate ideas and then sort of eventually shut it down to move on to course content. Anybody encountered this issue and can offer advice? I want to approach it sensitively and empathetically but also keeping in mind that ideas don’t change overnight and I can’t simply transform students. What to do...

#gradblr #studyblr #teaching #I have lots to say about people basically following social scripts from social media #It's really becoming an issue unfortunately #We are all human and so easily influenced. No one is above that.

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“I want to thank you for listening to me. I hope I haven’t put anybody on the spot. I’m not intending to try and stir you up and make you do something that you wouldn’t have done anyway.

“I pray that God will bless you in everything that you do. I pray that you will grow intellectually, so that you can understand the problems of the world and where you fit into, in that world picture. And I pray that all the fear that has ever been in your heart will be taken out, and when you look at that man, if you know he’s nothing but a coward, you won’t fear him.

“If he wasn’t a coward, he wouldn’t gang up on you. He wouldn’t need to sneak around here. This is how they function. They function in mobs—that’s a coward. They put on a sheet so you won’t know who they are—that’s a coward. No! The time will come when that sheet will be ripped off. If the federal government doesn’t take it off, we’ll take it off.“

Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) speaking to young students in Selma, Alabama, February 4, 1965

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Wayne Thiebaud (American, b. 1920) - Desk Set, pastel on paper, 40.6 x 50.8 cm (1972)

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#lol #unfortunately this is true but how to do the tasks.......

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15.10.2021 - I powered through my todo list this morning to have the afternoon off to have some me time. It was actually good for me because I wasted less time dithering over email phrasing or dossing around on my phone to avoid essay writing... And I managed to finish my first proposal draft, so I'll be editing this tomorrow!

Now I'm off to finish(?) my reread of Assassin's Quest under a blanket.

Currently reading: Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb; The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

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http://instagram.com/jo_rodgers/

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Bismillah

I have been working as a high school teacher alhamdulillah, but the work is really draining. I try to remind myself of all the blessings. I pray this year goes smoothly and that we have the strength to navigate it. We are currently on winter break and not sure what the return to school will look like as we hit another peak in the pandemic.

In any case, I return to this blog for accountability/comfort/organization/fun/writing into the void. I guess I’m somewhere between studyblr/teachblr??! I still see myself as more of a student lol

Here we gooooo

#j #God be with us