Connecting Math to Our Lives Math Introductions 2003-2004   Karachi, PAKISTÁN: Introduction of teacher Farhat Hadi from Shahwilayat Public School. Hi everyone, I am doing an online iEARN course. As my coordinators Charles and Lockias have asked me to post my introduction and class description, I am giving you my introduction. Down the slopes of the Himalayas, till the shores of the Arabian sea spanning the mighty Indus River, is my country Pakistan. My name is Farhat Hadi, I am from Shahwilayat Public School. I teach Mathematics to the students of grade 5. This is my first experience for participating in any online course. My classroom has a very friendly environment. In our school we follow integrated system. Before starting any new topic I do some activities related to the topic with the children so as to make the concept clear. I observed that my children always enjoy doing activities. There are genious, average and below average children in the class, so activities help specially below average children to adopt or understand the topic easily. (Practical work always better than theory.) As children comes from different family backgrounds so I always take care to keep the environment neutral in the class. Children prepare charts (Softboard displays) related to the topic for their class softboards. The one who shows overall good performance like: behaviour, punctuality, studies becomes the "apple of teacher's eye" and he or she is awarded as the "Best student of the class" for a week. I assign monitors, softboard incharges, cupboard incharges weekly to make the students feel responsibility. On every Friday we have presentation time. We gives the topic grade wise for presentation to the children. They make skits, write poems, do speeches in the presentation time, in this way children gain confidence. I always motivated my children to ask questions freely and instead of rote learning try to make the concept clear. I do hard work for my children to give them quality education. I love my profession and as a teacher I feel happy when I achieve my goal i.e: When I look at a student and he/she is smiling with sparkles in his eyes. Thanks, Farhat Pakistan