Susan Marandi's blog and welcome to it!

WAR AGAINST TERRORISM , dedicated to “Crusader” George Lips gray-blue, nose still running, streaking his face A grimy white bandage hugging his baby fat His dark wide eyes stare accusingly into mine thru the camera lens Sweet little three-year-old How can I possibly make you see the soldiers only want to set you free? How to help you understand they merely want to save you from yourself by beating the “terrorism” out of your filthy Muslim blood? Alas! You are yet too young or you would now know what your teenage sister will never forget The precious price of “democracy.” * * * * Lovely little darling with those curly long lashes look the other way, please. They are coming again and it’s time to "turn the other cheek." By (Seyyedeh) Susan Marandi

Hello all! Just wanted to say thanks so much, those of you who spent time on my blog and my students' blogs. They were really thrilled at receiving your kind comments and it made them take their work so much more seriously! Thank you all soooo much! :-) I should also apologize for not replying to your comments; I know this excuse is inadmissible and doesn't lessen my rudeness in not replying, but I have truly been overwhelmed by trying to keep up with my girls' blogs! Nevertheless, I am really ashamed of myself for not being as good a friend for you as you have been to me. :-( I also owe a big 'thank you' to my dear students, whose enthusiasm was inspiring. I can now safely say that I have reached the 'no-return' point with Computer-Assisted Language Learning, because despite all the difficulties, it has been truly rewarding. Actually, I had been avoiding writing classes for a few terms, because of all the extra work it adds to my already overburde

Hello all, I finally started using blogs for my BA students' Essay Writing Class! It is a new experience for us all, so bear with us while we blunder thru, but I may add that I'm proud of the efforts my students have put in, and I hope you feel moved to visit several of their blogs and honor us with your comments. I'm sure they will be delighted to have visitors! The URLs follow below (not all of them, but those who have already posted to their blogs; the rest will follow shortly, I hope). Hopefully, the English and typing mistakes will lessen after more experience, but since they are mostly new to typing (not to mention blogging!) and they are only sophomore students of English, I think they are doing pretty well. I should also mention that some of them have been guilty of plagiarism without knowing how serious an offense it is (they mostly think of it as sharing something worth sharing, and don't mean to abuse other people), but we're working on that, too. As a st

This is the tomb of Hafiz, a celebrated Iranian poet. His full name was Khaje Shams ud-Din Hafiz-i Shirazi, and he lived from 1326-1390. After the Holy Koran and Islamic prayer books, Hafiz's collection of poems is probably the most popular book in Iran. (I can hardly imagine an Iranian household not having a copy, so you can guess how popular he is!)

Here's another historical site to visit if you come to Iran: Khaju Bridge in Isfahan, which was built around in the year 1650. Like Shiraz, Isfahan has many places worth seeing. For more info on Isfahan, you might want to take a look at Wikipedia . Although it's not always accurate with regard to Iran's modern history, it can give you an idea of the more ancient history, at least with regard to architecture.

This is a photo of Perspolis, capital of Achaemenid Empire 500 BC. It is located in Shiraz in Fars province in Iran. The stone engravings are unbelievable! Those of you who haven't seen it don't know what you're missing! :-)

Reincarnation, resuscitation, renovation, or maybe just face-lifting! Whatever you call it, it looks like my blog and I are back again! (Whew! Long story; I'll tell you later ...) Finally I can relax! Susan :-)

Looks like my blog has just disappeared!

For those of you who want to add your del.icio.us tags to your sidebar; check it out! Collaborative blogging: Adding your del.icio.us tags to your blog template#links

Hi, all! For those of you who intend to use blogs for your classroom, Jane Petring provides the following easy-to-follow tutorial in her blog (English CEF Blog), and I've borrowed this with her permission. Enjoy! :-) English CEF Blog : "Creating Your Blog" Here we go Future Bloggers.... First go to the Blogger site. Click on the orange arrow to create your blog now. Username: this is not as easy as it looks because you must select a unique name that no other blogger is using. You may have to try a few times before it is accepted. When it is accepted, write it down immediately because you will probably forget next week. Password: please choose a password that you don't mind sharing with me (I don't want to know any of your secrets). After the first few weeks you can change your password, but in the beginning it is helpful if I can get into your account when you are having difficulty. Display Name: This is the name that shows up when you leave a comment. Most peo