About Me
Jan 7th, 2008 by Intrepidteacher
My name is Jabiz Raisdana. My background is in ESL; I have a Master’s degree from Columbia and my BA is in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. I taught with US Peace Corps in Mozambique for two years and then in the Bronx for another two. I was the Language Arts teacher at Mont Kiara International School in Kuala Lumpur and now I am in Doha.
I love consuming and creating all types of media. I am an avid reader, blogger, and photographer. I am dabbling in amateur film making and strum the guitar now and then. I have started to grow a garden, as well as raising my toddler daughter.
I love teaching and cannot think of any other job that I would rather have. I far more enjoying spending time with young adults than grown ones, and I feel sorry for people who do not have the time to spend with kids.
I believe that objective presentation of facts, logical thought, honesty, love, and communication are the keys to a more peaceful world. A peaceful world is my only goal. If this attitude makes me of unfit character than I suppose I have to search the earth until I find a school that agrees with me. Which is what I am doing now. I have no other hidden agendas. No matter what political or religious obstacles we may face, I want nothing more than to find a path toward peace. This is why I teach. This is why I write. This is why I exist. My blogs are nothing more than maps of my journey. There may have been times I have taken wrong turns, said things I shouldn’t have said, but they are meant to be read as a whole. I do not believe in sermonizing or preaching in the classroom. While my opinions may appear to take a one-sided stand at times, I work very hard to create and maintain an objective environment to teach kids to ask questions and search out the truth. That is all.
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Jabiz,
What a nice blog! Thanks for posting the link on Classroom 2.0.
-Lynn
Dear Jabiz,
Thank you for the welcome letter! I am very excited about joining “the team” and looking forward to getting to know you and all of the teachers. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Sanford Jones. I come from Massachusetts, USA and am currently the band guy at AIS in Israel. I came to the Middle East from Arizona where I was doing a masters degree at U of A in Tucson. My biggest claim to fame though is being a tuba player and conductor for the Broadway show, BLAST! (www.blasttheshow.com). The show, if you are unfamiliar, is like the American marching band version of Riverdance or Stomp.
I am not a blogger personally however, I enjoy reading the adventures of others. I am a huge fan of pictures so if you have any of Doha and/or Qatar in general to share, I am quite willing browse!
Again, thank you for your warm welcome. I look forward to August when we meet in person!
Happy blogging!
Sanford
Hi Jabiz,
We really do have a lot of books, and therefore interests, in common - I have been lurking on your blogs for a while, and enjoy your reflections. I’m also interested in social justice and activism, buddhism, environmentalism, peace and music. I was glad to see that you’ve recently discovered Michael Franti and Spearhead. We seem to have similar interests in literature/fiction too. I’m glad to have made the connection, and I’ll be adding a few books from your Library Thing list to my Visual Bookshelf.
Nirvana
Hello Jabiz
Nice blog. You might be interested in adding your blog details to the International Edubloggers Directory at http://edubloggerdir.blogspot.com
Patricia
Hello Jabiz,
I have a lead on a MS Humanities, probably grade 8, teaching position in Beirut, Lebanon. Email me if you might be interested.