# data[].attributes.body
So I wanted to make mine informational because I feel like that was the whole point of all of this. I started out with drawings and it's kinda like an animation(not really) introduction. Then it cuts to me talking. I wanted to make clear points of why I think my single story is serious and why it would be good in the classroom. If teachers understand Muslims better than they will be better teachers. It honestly goes for every religion and every race. It's our job as teachers to care for everyone equally. I liked filming the video and I thought it was fun. My friend helped me film it and that made it a lot easier.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

# data[].attributes.body
My group had trouble finding a topic to focus on. Me and Glatz ended up meeting with Dr. Cole privately to figure this all out. So then we closed in on "Tech tools we can use as teachers to lower our students stress" I basically set it up for the rest of my group and then they filled out their parts. Like I did the powerpoint set up and then gave them their spaces to put information. I feel like this worked out the best because it looked neater and more organized for the viewers to understand. I also used Slido to give polls and quizzes but had a scare before class when it wasn't working due to administration not allowing it. A classmate found a way around it and everything was dandy from there. I really enjoyed teaching as a group.

# data[].attributes.body
So I wasn't a huge fan of this. Only for one reason, I hate hearing my voice when I am reading something. Also when it is something that I just recorded. I did it based around Native Americans and had clips of Native Americans doing activities. One cool thing was that the clips were all of the same guy and they weren't all different. I was lucky to find someone who did all pf them in the same place with the same person. I am pretty experienced when it comes to video making. I would say most of my generation is. When it comes to putting music name stuff I feel really comfortable. So yeah I didn't hate it because of what it included. It was more of cringing at my voice.

# data[].attributes.body
So I think my book talk went well. I did it on does my "Does My Head Look Big In This" It was my first time really presenting in college and I will say I was quite nervous. I practiced like 10 times before in the days leading up to it. Some thing I did bad on was I talked pretty fast. It's a fault of mine, I do it all the time when I talk about stuff I am interested in. Also I didn't make to much eye contact, so I could've done that better. I definitely think it was a good warm up for the semester.

# data[].attributes.body
I did my Tech Demo on Socrative. When I got into Socrative I actually thought it was something else but it turns out it was a lot better than I thought. It is a simple application to see where your students are in the class contents with polls, quizzes, etc. I loved being in front of the class teaching something that I was interested in. I felt like an actual teacher and I was stoked. I felt like I spoke clear and loud, that I was confident in what I was saying. Also one of my classmates had a question and instead of half heartily explaining it. I went over and showed in face to face so he understood. I really loved this moment of this class and hope to do it in other classes too.

# data[].attributes.body
I really like making alternative covers. This one is a little more abstract and I wanted it to focus on the darkness of the situation and how serious it is. I didn't include the title on purpose because I think the images speak for themselves about what is happening. I said this before but I think this would awesome to incorporate in the classroom. If student made covers it would get them more involved with the book and probably help them picture parts of it better.

# data[].attributes.body
This book did an amazing job at getting the mental health and realism of the situation down. The other books I read for this single story still had a YA feel to them. Being that its was still cheesy at points and light hearted. But this book spoke of suicide and depression which others didn't touch as much. I will be honest this book was a little harder to read due to the sadness of the topics and how they hit differently than others. This book was definitely a lot more well written as I do believe it won awards. It just wasn't my favorite out of the bunch. That doesn't mean I didn't gain knowledge for my single story though.

# data[].attributes.body
So 9/11 was also also a big part of this book. It's taking place in 2003 a little after the US declared war. I wanted to know if any of this hate existed before 9/11. I understand that the terrorist threats wouldn't have made sense but I am interested to know if there was hate before the attacks and what they went through back then. Because all I know of now is that the attacks on the twin towers led to a stereotypical belief that all Muslims are dangerous, which is dumb. But did this hate exist, and also how substantial was it after 9/11. I was so young I had no idea what anything was at the time. So I was wondering how much there really was back then. Sorry if the question is confusing.

# data[].attributes.body
I personally think her statement at graduation is what makes this whole book work and helps it get its point across. The power to say this in front of all of her classmates is crazy and really shows her determination. It is a very moving moment and I really like the picture I made for it. I hope to use these kinds of pictures in the classroom so the students can get a picture in their head if they are struggling.

# data[].attributes.body
At the end, Nadira is giving her Valedictorian speech. She excelled in school and her time had finally come, but she did something different. She announced that she is undocumented. Then she states how they all have one goal in common, a future. She relates to everyone else so well and it is written to perfection. This book was written to open the readers eyes into seeing the prejudice against Muslims and how we should them as equal to all. That they are not terrorists, and that they genuine people. That is why making a huge relation at the end of the book is so powerful. It makes the reader think about their personal life and how they are the same as Nadira. That's what happened to me. Through these readings I have found commonalities. But this one really left an affect on me. I did enjoy how strong they made Nadira in this though. She is fighting for her father to be free and she is there for Aisha mentally. It is great to see such strong female muslim main characters in novels.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the book that finally gave me some background when it came to Muslims in America. It shows the aftermath of 9/11 and how it affected Nadira and her family. The hate sprouts out of 9/11 and how everyone now saw Muslims as terrorists. Before 9/11 no one really blinked an eye them but now they are the center of attention. I was born a year after 9/11 so I obviously couldn't form my own opinion about Muslims. I was born into this world that has a heavy stereotype against them. Which is really awful and it is show cased in this book. One part that really opened my eyes is when Uncle said that if the girls became documented no one would view them different. That was a cray thing to think about. These poor people aren't allowed to live normal lives due to a terrorist act committed by someone else from. another country.

# data[].attributes.body
So I decided to make like an alternative book cover. It shows Jamilah looking at home and school, basically making a choice between the two of them. Showing that she could either embrace her culture (home) or just fit in (school). I also make it look like she is coming out of a flower so it shows her growing as a person which we get to see over the course of the novel.

# data[].attributes.body
I have brought this up before, I believe when I wrote about "Does My Head Look Big In This"(Same author as this novel) But the relatability is what really helps this. The author brings up specific tropes of being a high schooler. But now they affected a Muslim girl rather than myself, so it really helps me understand the pain she goes through. Like I had helicopter parents that didn't want me out doing dumb stuff ever, I always thought about it though. Just like she does in this book, her father is a helicopter dad that wants her only hanging out if it's at the Arabic school. Also the way all of her stresses keep pilling up really helps the reader understand what is going on in her head. She's trying to keep everything afloat while trying to find herself.

# data[].attributes.body
It is so sad to think about the lengths people will go to hide their true identity and culture. In this novel Jamilah Towfeek literally changes her physical appearance and her name (to Jamie) just to float by in society. So no one sees her as a Muslim. I really hope when I am a teacher that this doesn't happen because I wouldn't even know how to approach the student and get them to show there true selves. She dyes her hair blonde and puts blue contacts in. It's almost like she is forced to white wash herself just to get by. Also this takes place in Australia, it is difficult to think of all this hatred outside of the US. You'd think everywhere must be nicer than where you are but that just isn't true.

# data[].attributes.body
So I used Adobe Spark again, I wanted to touch on the topic that I found most interesting. That being the father holding her back and disapproving of her becoming more involved in her religion. I just find this so hard to figure out. Like what do you do as a parent. Do you let your kid get bullied and affected by this or push them away from it. Either way you're wrong in different ways to everyone. Good thing Allie was strong enough to over come this and embraced her religion.

# data[].attributes.body
Something that took me back is the fact that Allie's father is an atheist, he used to have Muslim beliefs. He changed his beliefs after dealing with racism and islamophobic remarks and issues. The fact that he gave up his beliefs because he scared of his kid getting the same treatment is awful. No on should have to go through that and I can't even believe that happens. Religion is a huge part of peoples lives and to give it up for someone else's actions is terrible. He has great intentions to protect his child from the cruel world but he shouldn't have too. I never in my life had said remarks to a Muslim person that would ever hurt them. But this book showed me the effects of what could happen. So this made me realize that somethings aren't acceptable. So if I hear a student make a remark about someones religion, which is negative. I will take them aside after class and tell them why that isn't acceptable.

# data[].attributes.body
This book takes on the issue of not looking like what your beliefs are. Allie Abraham is our main character who looks like everyone other white American, but her family is Muslim. She doesn't want that to be public in the beginning and wants to keep it to herself. I really found this interesting and it is why I chose this book. This book was quite long but the whole idea of it made up for it. It opened pathway in my brain, What if my students are something that I don't know right off the bat. It isn't good to judge people and make assumptions but to have a general idea of someones beliefs without asking them really makes things easier. This was an eye opener that you really can't assume anything. As a teacher I shouldn't go into religion at all really but different religions carry different beliefs, also I wouldn't want to make my student uncomfortable for any reason. This is something I shall keep in my mind while going forward as a teacher.

# data[].attributes.body
I made this picture on Adobe Spark. I really love the program. It's good for graphics and other things. You have to pay like 9 bucks a month and I think it is worth it if you use it. I created a scene of Esa thinking about the possibilities after finding Christopher Drayton's body. I like it, and think it came out nice. I could make tons of things for class with this for my students. Teachers PowerPoints get boring after quite a while so using a program to make graphics like these help a lot.

# data[].attributes.body
Having an author that relates to the topic at hand really helps excel the story. I decided to do some research and found that Khan holds a Ph.D in International Human Rights with a research specialization in military intervention and war crimes. I really think that changes the realism in this story. The fact that the author has studied war crimes and understands this stuff to another level really helps the book. Khan is able to go into more details and open doors for the reader because they understand it to a greater level. Finding this out now I really believe what I read and it feels more realistic. Another thing I wanted to put down was that the chapters were very condensed which helped the reading a lot. I didn't feel overwhelmed and it made it an easy read. This was important because a reader from America could become overwhelmed after seeing the name Esa Khattak, but the pacing of the book really helped solve that.

# data[].attributes.body
This novel was quite a good mystery/crime novel. I do love watching murder television but never really thought about reading them. But this novel finally got my foot in the door. In the story Esa Khattak is trying to figure out the case of Christopher Drayton, along side him is Rachel Getty. Chris had fallen off a cliff and they are trying to look into foul play. It gets interesting when it is shown that Chris could have been a war criminal. This novel is around the Bosnian War, something that I knew nothing about. The book really educated me on this war. It all wasn't just shoved in the readers face. It was discussed over time. Giving the reader an easier time understanding. I was also educated about Muslim life since the Esa is Muslim. This is what we need more of. Stories with different main characters, not stories where the characters are all the same nationality and color.

# data[].attributes.body
I made this character diagram because I struggled when it came to remembering name with stories. So I put names with other names they relate to and why. I think this would help a new reader of the book understand better what they are reading. I divided Amal's School friends and her Muslim friends. I also showed her love interest and her enemy of the story. The tool I used was helpful, it was also quite limiting. I do see myself using it again, I just wish it had more for free. I saw another student using this program and decided to give it a try. I would definitely show my students this and get them to play around with it.

# data[].attributes.body
This book would be phenomenal to bring into the classroom when trying to broaden students horizons when it comes to culture. I would use it to make more students comfortable with the idea of someone wearing the hijab. In my high school there was no students who wore a hijab and if a student did wear one I feel like it would have been a big deal. When it shouldn't. No student should be exiled due to their culture and their beliefs. So I would bring this book in to my classroom and read it with my student so they could have the same understanding that I now have, a basic understanding of Amal's culture, and hopefully it will transfer to my students when they read it.

# data[].attributes.body
Right in the beginning of the book Amal makes a reference to the television sitcom "Friends". This really set the tone for the entire book, her humor and witty comments made it amazing. I knew nothing about Muslim culture going into this book and I was pretty nervous because of that. But as soon as I got through the first chapter I was settled and comfortable. That was such a smart move by the author to start off the book like that because of people like me. Some people could've gotten easy overwhelmed by the book early on and put it down. Causing them to never get any of the information in the book. But starting off like that gets people into it and ready to learn.

# data[].attributes.body
So I took the quiz with all of the resources. I got a 5/10 and the rest of group either did the same or worse. All the other groups who had a handicap did a lot worse. Most of them didn't even get one right. This is an obvious showing that students need the same tools for class to be fair. So they can all learn at the same speed. So as a teacher I need to keep that in mind. I'll need to make sure all my students have a fair opportunity when it comes to the digital area. So the kids with more technology aren't miles ahead of the kids without as much. In class I could see that the students without the technology had to lean on guessing, while the other students just looked up the answers on google, which obviously isn't fair.

# data[].attributes.body
I honestly didn't know what to do for this because I whole heartedly view people the same. But after looking over some other people's padlet posts I realized something I could look into. I wasn't alive during 9/11 but I have definitely heard about it. I have also heard from crazy people to not trust any Muslim, which is ridiculous. So I decided I wanted to learn more about Muslims and how I can change this single story. Especially with everything going on overseas, I think this would be a good time to understand what is happening. I did a google search and had some trouble finding what I wanted. But I soon found a website that actually listed 10 books about Muslims and Islam to learn more about how they are stereotyped and how it can change. They were all listed out with brief descriptions. I would like to change this single story and I included the link here to the website that I mentioned. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/top-10-books-about-muslim_b_13872346https://www.huffpost.com/entry/top-10-books-about-muslim_b_13872346

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Media stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims are nothing new. In a post-election world, Muslims are finding more allies who often want to help but don't know much about us. More and more of our fellow Americans have questions and need answers.

In on online forum recently, someone asked me about books I would recommend to those wishing to learn about Muslims. I'm happy that people want to learn -- even though I think meeting Muslims is far more valuable than reading about them -- but searching the sea of available choices can be difficult and dangerous. For instance, search for "Muslim" or "Islam" on Amazon, and the array of books that pop up is worrying. Not because there are so many, but because many of them are horrifyingly inaccurate and often downright false.

Many books that promise "the truth" about Muslims are actually full of hatred and bigotry. You can learn about Sharia from authors who have no clue what it means, or about the tenets of Islam from authors whose bias can be seen from a mile away. You might think a website called "the religion of peace" would be somewhat positive, but it turns out to spew vile hatred against a billion people who actually practice Islam as a religion of peace and love.

But knowledge is power, so here's my list of books you can and should read if you want to know more about Muslims and Islam. It's the list I recommend to my students when I train law enforcement and educational institutions, or speak at churches and synagogues. It's a list of my favorites thus far.

No God but God by Reza Aslan is an oldie but goody about the origins of Islam. If you want to know how the religion of Islam started, what the early Muslims were like and how the landscape changed politically, culturally and in terms of faith as Islam spread across the world, this book is for you. My favorite part about this book is the fact that Aslan writes as a scholar, not as a Muslim, so you don't get any of the religious fervor of belief that often turns away non-Muslims.

The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists by Khaled Abou El Fadl is a comprehensive account of how Muslims in some parts of the world turned away from rational thought and began dabbling in literal interpretations, extremism and sometimes violence. It is really an excellent way to understand some of the political upheavals we are seeing in Muslim countries today, including the rise of militant ideologies.

This article was originally published in Wear Your Voice magazine under the title Want to Learn More About Muslims? Pick Up a Book. Or 10. The link to the original posting is here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Media stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims are nothing new. In a post-election world, Muslims are finding more allies who often want to help but don't know much about us. More and more of our fellow Americans have questions and need answers.

# data[].attributes.body
Chapter 7: Students do not have great reading habits, they like to skim over things and not actually pay attention. When something gets boring they also bored. This causes them to not wanna read anymore. I did this a lot in high school so I totally understand. Teachers give inadvertent messages. One that I found really important was that teachers aren't interested in what they are reading, I think that teachers should always show some sort of interest to engage students more. I also see that a lot of the sources are from the 80's. Technology that expanded a lot since then and I think it could beneficial to keeping kids more interested. While on the other hand it could cause students to have even shorter attention spans due to how quick they read short messages on their phones. Reading workshops work well to keep students interested since they can pick their own books. Exerting ownership and picking books is a great step for students. As we grow we learn to pick things we enjoy reading for ourselves. At a certain age we might be able to read something of a higher difficulty but it doesn't mean we will enjoy it.
Chapter 8: A lot of readers relate the text to themselves and this is why people enjoy stuffs that they can relate to. Mainly the main character. The teacher began to write back to students rather than talk because you can be a lot more personal and descriptive with the answers. This could work great in todays world with email. Email is also great because teachers answers at home from the computer. Don't get too personal, there is a difference between a diary and class notes. Students should be able to speak to each other about the readings and it is healthy.

# data[].attributes.body
I avoid New York City and any other cities mainly for the reason that I heard that they are very dangerous. That crimes happens more than good things do, the news doesn't help this case either. I don't really understand how New York City is split up or how big it is, so if a crime happens it sounds like it's in every persons backyard. I heard that the city is dangerous because of the amount of lower class people living there. Lower class doesn't exactly lead to more crimes. It just means that those people don't have as much money as others. I would like to go the city more often to clear the idea that I'll get robbed while being there. I even would like to hear stories from people on campus about the city, since a lot of them are from there. They could give me a better understanding about what actually happens there. Adiche stated that "When we reject a single story, we gain a part of paradise" So maybe if I ignored what I heard about the city I might have been in love with it. The time I visited it, I had a chip on my shoulder the whole time. I was basically hyper aware of my surroundings. I also see a lot of crime on the news over and over, which I then start to believe is the only thing in the city. I live about an hour and a half from the city so I get that news. Adiche also said that if you show someone something over and over they will believe it.