Bridget Blomfield

Religious Studies

“Learning By Design” Lilly West Conference

I chose to attend specific seminars and presentations that I thought would help me as a better educator. Because I teach Islamic Studies to a diverse student population, including International students, we sometimes discuss difficult topics like the Palestinian/Israeli issues. I attended the following presentations:

“Conflict Resolution in the Undergraduate Curriculum”
This presentation was interactive and the facilitator Ray Leal from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas had us work in teams using excursuses that would stimulate communication and interaction and most importantly, listening skills. He works training law students about conflict resolution, peer-mediation programs and collaborative skills in Peace Studies programs.

“Building a Course Narrative: What Story are You Telling?”
Elizabeth Frye from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio facilitated this presentation. She used a class narrative to describe what students want to learn and what in fact, did learn, by finding where there was a disconnect between students and faculty.

“Using Field Interviews as Cumulative Experiences”
I also attended “Using Field Interviews as Cumulative Experiences” facilitated by Kenneth S. Shultz from California State University. This presentation was a well-organized power point showing in detail how to take field notes and interviews for ethnographic research. I attended this session because I have my students interview each other, other students and community members as part of the class work.

“Student Self Assessment: Using Belenky’s Epistemological Model in a Woman Writers Classroom”
This presentation was very beneficial and interesting and addressed alternative learning styles where students self-assess their needs, Learning abilities and goals. This assessment is done from the perspective of self reflexive ideology as a opposed to hierarchical “teacher as knower” roles and students as passive learners who are empty and ready to be filled with knowledge by the expert instructor.

“Teaching Immigration: Exploring Student’s Attitudes and Reflections”
Because I work with numerous International students I felt that this seminar was important. Dr. Anthony Peguero form Miami University discussed the challenges and needs of working with immigrants and their children. He shared attitudinal surveys taken administered over the semester, his findings and gave some suggestions for how these diverse populations might be better helped.

I attended a few other presentations and panels but felt that these were the most important for the students population and subjects that I currently teach at UNO.

“From Here to Mecca: Working with Saudi Students at University of Nebraska at Omaha”.
Finally, I presented a paper called “From Here to Mecca: Working with Saudi Students at University of Nebraska at Omaha”. In this presentation I covered the joys and frustrations of working with Saudi students. I made recommendations for educators on how to best work with students from a very different background than American students. I used my experience teaching numerous classes where I had Saudi students enrolled. I interviewed some of the Saudi students and the American students in the classes so that they could share their experiences participating in a mixed class with a diverse student population.

RECOMMENDATIONS

ASKING THEM TO HELP- READING IN ARABIC
CHOOSING TEXTS THAT ARE ENGLISH AND ARABIC
USE OF VIDEOS, YOUTUBE
GET TO KNOW THEIR CULTURE
GIVE THEM TIME TO ADJUST
SPEAK SLOWLY AND ASK DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
SPEAK CLEARLY, TRY TO KNOW A LITTLE ARABIC
GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR
BE TRUE TO YOUR AMERICAN TEACHING STYLE (CRITICAL THINKING AND NO GRADE NEGOTIATIONG) WHILE UNDERSTANDING THEIRS
CHEATING- LAY DOWN THE LAW AGAINST PLAGARIZING AND BUYING PAPERS
BE AWARE OF THE AMERICAN STUDENTS RESPONSES AND ISSUES
HAVE THEM WORK WITH EACH OTHER, SAUDIS AND NON SAUDIS
FIRST SAUDI-AMERICAN THANKSGIVING
I HAVE TRIED TO GET TO KNOW THEM- SAUDI – AMERICAN THANKSGIVING
GOING TO LADIES PARTIES, FOOD, VISITING, MAJLIS,

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