It's been hot takes on LGBTQ. Let's get some Islamic edu on "gender nonconformity" i.e. "identifying as a gender different from what was assigned at birth."

There're 64 genders* today—not just male/female anymore. Anything of such & how's gender established in Islam?

THREAD

Is gender about anatomy (the genital you were born with) or personal decision?

That's summarily the question this thread seeks to illuminate as per Islamic perspective. It doesn't matter if you're a Muslim or not. So far you're a knowledge-seeker and here for that, be my guest.

Like you're probably confused about the LGBTQ arguments, some persons around are confused about their biological sex and gender. The exact reason they (the few real ones among them - not trans) appear noncomformist.

This problem is called gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria is the feeling of unease that occurs in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or genitals (sex-related physical characteristics).

See attachments on gender identity, gender expression & sexual orientation. All.. different things.

Forward. Is there anything different from male/female known to Islam? Yes, there're gender-atypical persons.

1. The ambiguous khunthā (al-khunthā al-mushkil)
2. The congenital mukhannath (al-mukhannath al-khilqī)
3. The non-congenital mukhannath (al-mukhannath ghayr al-khilqī)

While it left very little time for personal processing, I'm proud that our leadership team worked for hours last night to prepare guidance for staff today. These are a few of the points. (LPS educators, your building teams have shared/will be sharing more specifics!)

Name what happened. The events of January 6, 2021 were violent and unlawful. This is not an opportunity for exploring "both sides."

Follow your students' lead. They will tell you how much or how little they want to process. Always make allowance for individuals who differ from their peers; make space for those who aren't ready to talk or those who want to continue talking.

Acknowledge this was a traumatic event. We all react differently to trauma. Individuals process in different ways, and there is no one correct way to respond; therefore, it is important to acknowledge individual reactions and feelings.

Be aware of your own reactions to events. Children of all ages take their cues from the adults around them. Staff members should seek support for themselves to process events if needed.

Can we talk about remote learning for a minute?? So, we've been doing this since March. Which means that every teacher & school staff member is now an expert in what works/doesn't work far above every single district bureaucrat or politician anywhere. They have ZERO experience.

So...what are we seeing?? (Keep in mind I teach 1st-3rd)

1) Whole group lessons should be kept to a minimum. Some community building, announcements, maybe a quick read aloud. That's it. Small groups & 1:1 instruction is far more effective.

2) Less is more. Teaching through a screen presents unique problems. Tech issues, not being able to see student work in real time...Teaching ONE concept thoroughly with practice is so much better than more complicated work.

3) Reduce Screen time. I mean, duh. But seriously on this one. Doing RL should not mean staring at a screen all day. Quick, targeted lessons in small group/1:1 settings, then allow choice in follow-ups to practice. And the indep work MUST be work than can be done without help!

4) I'll repeat this one: Less is more. Shorter school days, more breaks, targeted small group/indiv lessons works best. The push for RL to mimic the pre-pandemic in-person school day is absolutely ridiculous.

Education secretary @GavinWilliamson now delivering a statement in the Commons on plans for bringing children back to school. Stay tuned for live updates.

The government's response is proportionate to the risk at hand, @GavinWilliamson says.

.@GavinWilliamson says in a small number of areas where infection rates are highest, only vulnerable pupils and children of key workers will attend primary school face-to-face. This is NOT all Tier 4 areas. The overwhelming majority of primaries will open as planned on Monday.

For secondary schools, it will be a staggered start, says @GavinWilliamson – with staff testing starting from 4 January, exam years returning on 11 January and everyone back in by 18 January

In particularly hard-hit areas, @GavinWilliamson says that exam year students, as well as vulnerable students and children of key workers, will still attend secondary schools in person, with all other classes taking place remotely

Tonight I'm reflecting on the incredible & overwhelming work, resilience & commitment of Alberta's teachers, school staff, administrators & school boards over the past 4 months. And I want to tell them all that I bear witness. #ableg #abed

🧵

I watched as my daughter's Kindergarten teacher cheerfully spent extra time outside w/ them so she could take her mask off to show them how her mouth looked when she pronounced French words that were new to them. The kids had no idea this was different than usual. #ableg

I watched as my son's Grade 2 teacher brilliantly signed them up for virtual City Hall School and my son might now be more excited about what happens at City Hall than the Legislature. His teacher has done extraordinary things to keep them engaged & he's never loved school more.

I watched as our school principal & vice principal stood outside every morning, picking up dropped masks, cheerfully reminding kids which door to go in & to stay distanced, while greeting parents & sending regular videos to let us know about changing protocols. #ableg

I watched and listened to our school custodian tell me that in the over 40 years he's been at the school, this year stands out as the hardest in memory, but to proudly talk about the custodial staff and how hard they've worked to keep staff and kids safe & healthy. #ableg

#PhD INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE + TIPS/TRICKS (mine were for #biomed)

A thread.👇

Before I begin, all of you are awesome and never let anyone tell you otherwise😃

Share and RT 😁❤
@AcademicChatter @OpenAcademics @PhDspeaks @firstphdchat

You made it. You have an interview for a #PhD program! And we are in the middle of a pandemic! Be proud of this accomplishment, you are amazing 👏

It took me a while to become confident and actually acknowledge this as something to be excited about and not anxious about.

Remember that the committee is impressed and wants to recruit you.
They would want to impress you with their the same way you want to impress them.

Now let's move on to interview prep.

An interview really is you marketing your best self as a candidate to the committee/your faculty interviewers.
If you know your interviewers prior to your interview (I also had the opportunity to pick them), read up on them, their research, recent publications/projects.

Faculty interviewers will be impressed if you have an understanding and interest in their work. It is also a good conversation starter.

One on one interviews with faculty will have more room for conversation than panel interviews.

How we got here, a thread (1/25)

Before Christmas, owing to rising infection rates, Greenwich advised their schools to shut before the end of term – several councils later advised the same.

.@educationgovuk threatened these schools with legal action if they did, resulting in schools re-opening their doors for the last few days of term.

The General Secretary of the ASCL, @RealGeoffBarton, accused the @educationgovuk of using "bully boy tactics" to stick to a "robotic mantra to keep schools open whatever the cost" but added "the costs could be incredibly high."

During this time, @KevinStannard1 warned that we could be heading for another exams U-turn (*spoiler alert*: he was correct). (5/25)

Mini Hungarian language lesson: house of cards

A historic house being demolished to make way for yet another hotel is an everyday occurrence in downtown Budapest.

But today's news about the demise of the house that used to host the pub called "The Wichmann" is sadder than most.

The pub itself was owned and operated by nine-times canoe world champion Tamás Wichmann. With its stripped-down interior, welcoming atmosphere and legendary schnitzel sandwiches it was a unique place we kept returning to in the noughties.

It was an anachronism, a place that shouldn't exist, it felt like we were stuck in the 1980s but in an absolutely positive sense.

Then in 2018 it was announced the pub will be sold; Wichmann was 70 at the time and said he was just tired and old. He died less than two years later

But the demolition of the house erases a lot more than just the memory of a legendary pub.

Take a look at this gate ornament for example. If your first reaction is WTF?, I'm not blaming you.

But that isn't a Star of David there and as for the swastika, it was yet to become a symbol of terror when this door was made. (The ankh is an ankh at least.)

For this house used to be the home of the Theosophical Society of Hungary in the first half of the 20th century.

Front-end developer roadmap for 2021 🧵👇🏼

I started my web development journey exactly one year ago i,e. January 2020 and it's been a year since I'm in learning phase

In this thread I'll be covering

- All you need to learn about front-end development
- Tools and technologies
- Skills you need to learn
- Resources

First things first, you need an editor to write code. There are plethora of editors out there like atom, VS code, sublime etc

I recommend you to start with VS code. Why?👇🏼

🔹Many built-in features
🔹It's fast
🔹Large community
🔹IntelliSense code completion and debugging

Don't want to download an editor due to memory issue or something else?

Don't worry we have lots of online editors

Now you're all set to write code and create beautiful websites

A typical website can be divide into three phases

- HTML 🧱
- CSS 🎨
- JavaScript ⚙️

Why I love learning.
Personal reflections from an #ActuallyAutistic perspective.
#ActuallyAutistic
#AllAutistics
#education
#edutwitter
#teaching
#studying
#autistic
#autism
1/

I realised I loved learning at nursery school. I pressed my painted palms onto sugar paper and slid smooth wooden beads on an abacus. I sat on a vintage tractor in the grounds and marvelled at its mechanics. To learn was to wonder.
#earlyyears
#education
#nursery
#autism
2/

I loved the fabric of the building. A small human sized door set in a large wooden gate. My coat peg with its sunflower motif. The canvas and metal camp beds we slept on after lunch. Collaborating with my cousin David, who helped do up my buttons, while I tied his shoe laces.
3/

My memories of primary school are even more vivid. Immersing objects in water, seeing what would float. Making kites out of sticks and paper. Translating shapes on paper into meaning and sound. Planting seeds then scraping back the earth to find red radish globes. Watching.
4/

One day we made a sorting machine out of index cards with holes in different places threaded onto knitting needles. It would answer questions for us. It was a rudimentary computer. I learned that I could answer questions myself by reading books, or sometimes just by thinking.
5/

How many people know they're autistic, so far.
These are the studies from various countries and teams.
England & Scotland data taken from the official school records.
The problem is, not everyone knows they're autistic.
The tests & assessments tend to find white males/

/because that's what they were expecting to find, many decades ago.
It simply never occurred to people that autism might 'look' different in e.g. females, BAME communities, older people, males who don't present in typically male ways, etc./

I suspect we are nowhere near finding most of the females.
Why do I suspect this? From conversation with diagnostic professionals who are updating their info and having 'oh heck!' moments.
From parents struggling to get their daughters diagnosed, whereas the son was easy/

/...from the number of autistic females I've encountered over the last decades who had gone 'under the radar' for so many years until someone finally had that 'aha!' moment.
And so many with identical presentations who are still struggling to get diagnosed/

Being clear that many diagnostic teams are fabulous.
It's simply a reality that the tools they were given were designed to pick white men.
Let's look at some examples:/

Why does online learning not work, the younger the child is, & less supported at home?

Teacher cannot

1. Check for understanding
2. Hold child to account.

Parent has to get child to focus, check the learning & do what the teacher normally does in the classroom 1/10 THREAD 👇🏼

It works well with highly motivated Sixth Formers.

They are mature and ambitious enough to make use of the teacher’s knowledge to further their own ambitions.

But even at Sixth Form it cannot work with kids who need teacher to do what teachers normally do! 2/10

What do teachers do in classrooms?

They don’t just lecture! Not if they are good teachers.

They constantly pepper questions to check for understanding.

They test knowledge retention to judge whether something needs reteaching.

This cannot be done on Zoom. 3/10

Why can’t it be done on Zoom?

Kids have answers in front of them. So teacher can’t test.

With a challenging intake, audio from kids undermines teacher’s authority and allows one child to derail entire lesson.

Kids turn off video and then disappear- not hearing a word! 4/10

Why do we think it can be done on Zoom?

1. We mistakenly think kids are like adults and can lead their own learning & behaviour. They can’t.

2. We imagine parents are able to support at home. Many cannot, won’t, do not know how

3. We want to believe there is a solution. 5/10

Press conference starting shortly calling on @DonHarmonIL to let the elected school board bill have a floor vote in the Senate like he promised. We'll live tweet it here.

Labor leaders standing with elected, parents, community orgs and teachers @AFTunion, @J1Ramann, @SigchoFor25, SEIUHC,

of @KOCOmmunity & @J4J_USA: Mayor Lightfoot who said she would be different and support an elected board wants a hybrid that she controls

Brown: The senate president @DonHarmonIL who said he would be different and would stand with labor is refusing to call a bill

Next up Bob Reiter, @chicagolabor: the appointed board just represents the mayor's office. There is no reason why this school district should be different than any other district in IL. Parents need to elect their representatives

Sex education is more than just putting condoms on bananas. Sex education is a foundation for our development as people. We know — it sounds totally awkward to talk about this with your fam. Don’t worry! We’ve got you ⤵️

Spark a convo by getting everyone involved ✨

Build a foundation to understand what everyone’s own experiences were and where they would like to see change.

Always helps to go over the basics: definitions, benefits, and what actually is problematic.

Hit ‘em with the overwhelming statistics in favor of sex education.

Masters Scholarships for guys that wanted more.
Open Scholarships Thread:
LEGAL.
Master in Transitional Justice Scholarships
Program: Masters
Organisation: Geneva Academy
Country to study: Switzerland
Course: Not specified
Deadline January 29,

DAAD-EPOS
ENVIROMENTAL SCIENCE
MSc WASTE
Scholarship Type: Masters Organisation German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
Country to study: Germany
Application Deadline: February 15,

Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth
OPEN COURSE
Scholarship Type: Masters Organisation Commonwealth Scholarships
Country to study: Bangladesh, Barbados, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania.
Deadline: January 18,

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
HEALTH
Type: Masters
Organisation: LSHTM
Country to study: United Kingdom
DeadlineMarch 28,

University of Oulu
OPEN COURSE
Masters
Scholarship Type: Masters
Organisation: University of Oulu
Country to study: Finland
Deadline: January 20,