Becoming A Fighter

Dr. Elham Zandvakili (Dr. EZ) is a writer, teacher, researcher, an artist, and a lyricist with seventeen years of experiences teaching language and culture. She has a Ph.D. in Language, literacy, and culture. Dr. EZ will lead you to a special place where learning has limitless possibilities in an unforgettable journey to a new and exciting world. Learning is a fun experience that all can enjoy when learning a second language such as yoga, storytelling, and music. The old days of drill and kill interest and motivation is in the rear-view mirror of Natalia's little red car. The book tells the story of Natalia's growth of mind from her first adolescent party to a mature young woman determined to find social justice. This seven-chapter story of adolescent growth is set to rhythmic music and the reader pats her feet to the beat of Natalia's adventures. As students learn the lyrics to the music in each chapter, she is practicing a second language. A new yoga pose is part of each chapter, and students experience increasing awareness of the power of their body to the fun rhythms of the music. The music is included in audio files that students can listen to as often as they need to by simply clicking on the link. Each chapter takes the learner to the Museum of Reincarnation where Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Ludwig van Beethoven, Hatshepsut, and Florence Nightingale are waiting to share the wisdom of their worlds. RECOMMENDATIONS: Professor James C. Young, Clark University, Atlanta, GA. Dr. Zandvakili has done what many claim is not possible. She has blended the activities of storytelling, music making, lyrics, karaoke, yoga, and visiting the Museum of Reincarnation into a curriculum that is fun, interesting, and meets the developmental needs of students. Professor Edmund W. Gordon, Professor Emeritus Teachers College, Columbia University and Yale University. Dr. Zandvakili is a gifted teacher, she is also an artist and a scholar. She is not blinded by the extant factoids of knowledge but is constantly mindful of the roles of contexts and perspective. She grounds her interestingly creative approach to curriculum and teaching in the relational structures that exist among her students and the phenomena of their existence. She has produced a volume in which the affective, cognitive and situative flow together in a seamless stream of dialectically related learning experiences. She seems constantly aware of her responsibility as inspirer and enabler of the learning of her students. The essences of this teaching persons are captured in this album and book portrait of an artist/teacher.