I had a fast two long days with my high school friends. This is our third day in Bangkok. It is also the first time for our two companions to go out of the country. We already had a lot of sightseeing and some shopping, and a close encounter with some authentic street food, chili food, very nice hot noodles with basil and others.
Each of my opportunity to travel is a blessing for me. It meant a lot in many ways. It is a personal time as well. Best of all, it is a learning time.
I believe travelling should also be part of teacher training development. It should be part of the government agenda to enhance our teachers. Travelling has so many lessons to teach that you don't learn inside the confines of the campus. The greatest thing, for me, about travelling is not to see other places but to get to know other people, through their dishes, through their practices and traditions, partly through the changes in their lives exhibited by the infrastructure and developments, and of course interacting with them. Here are some things that are so real, it is experience that can only teach these things.
Knowing the people through the cuisine. By tasting, enjoying the local dishes, you get to understand many things--how they prepare or cook the food, what spices and local greens and meat are preferred, types of fruits present in the place, what time they usually eat and how they eat and what desserts interest them.
Historical and modern infrastructure. While some of these could be read in books or magazines, visiting historical palaces, temples or even the modern museums tell much of how a nation value its long history and how they impart these to the new generation.
Respect for others' culture and traditions. It is also important that more than the chance to shop and get souvenirs, any opportunity to observe and immerse with a cultural tradition should be embraced (even in the short time of stay). One example yesterday, I had the beautiful chance of observing local folks making offering to the monks in a very big plaza. The people offered small pockets of rice, noodles, flowers and other stuff. As the monks moved around, the people also extended great reverence to them. It was a beautiful sight. The people are giving something, supporting the monks with great faith, and are also in communion, in prayer with them. I actually joined the offering. I respectfully asked a Thai woman if I could also give my donation. She acknowledged it and was grateful. She also handed to me more pockets of rice to give to the monks. I was glad to be part of it. It also gave me a chance to pray and be thankful of this chance.
Interaction with the local folks. Having a good chat with the local folks may be of limited occasion for the travelling teacher. But the teacher should take initiative to converse and know the people, not by name, but by what they are. Talk to the taxi driver, the hotel receptionist, the concierge, the cashier in the local store, the policeman, the tour guide, or even to a student. These are brief moments. But if you sum up these brief moments, these also tell about the people in the local neighborhood. These are things you don't just readily pick up from the book.
The local Thais commonly speak their local language, very spiritual and will always try to help and give directions to a lost tourist.
And so I reiterate, that travelling should be part of the teacher training program of our government. It opens up the horizon of how we view things. And the items I mentioned are just on the soft skills. The training on planning and organization are separate items to be discusses as results too, of travelling.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
the five stages of grading
By dr. b ⋅ October 9, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
Filed Under grades, humour, lists, marking, students
Reblogged from: http://notthatkindofdoctor.com/2010/10/the-five-stages-of-grading/
Everyone is familiar with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and her stage model of coping with grief popularly known as the five stages of grief. What you may not know is that Kübler-Ross actually developed her theory as a graduate student, basing her conception of the process of loss on the experiences one goes through over a grading weekend.
In coping with grading, it’s important for graduate students and young professors to know that they are not alone and that this process takes time. Not everyone goes through every stage or processes the reality of grading in this order, but everyone experiences some version of at least two of these steps.
1. Denial. At this stage, the instructor is unwilling to acknowledge the size of the task ahead of him or her. An instructor in denial may be heard to say things like, “It’s not really that many essays, when you think about it.” An instructor in denial will grossly overestimate his or her potential assignment-per-hour output. Denial at the syllabus-creation stage of course development can lead to tears. Denial can also manifest itself as avoidance, where grading is put aside in favour of vastly more important activities like cleaning the fridge, baking, working out, or writing elaborate blog posts about the stages of grading.
2. Anger. Usually anger begins once the instructor starts grading. The first few papers are likely to excite the grader, but as a steady stream of errors trickles in, the instructor may become disillusioned. Commonly heard at this stage: “But we covered this in class! A lot!” “Wait, what does this even mean?” “Redundant! This is redundant!” Instructors at this stage of the process are likely to have unnecessarily large reactions to relatively small frustrations; for example, in one case an instructor screamed into a pillow upon discovering that every student in the class was still using “they” as a singular pronoun.
3. Bargaining. This stage usually begins as an earnest attempt to buckle down and grade. The instructor might say, “If I grade five papers, I can watch one episode of House,” or, “For every page I grade, I get to eat a piece of candy.” This process starts well, but as the instructor progresses the amount of work required to achieve the reward generally becomes smaller and smaller, until the instructor is checking Facebook after every sentence he or she grades.
4. Depression. At some point in a marking weekend, the instructor will come to realize that in spite of his or her best intentions, the papers won’t be marked in time for the next class. For the idealistic young instructor, this is also usually the moment he or she realizes that the assignments themselves are not particularly strong. These realizations can lead to feelings of failure, spiralling into reality TV watchathons or video game blitzes instead of grading. Ultimately, though, recognizing one’s limitations is a healthy part of the process that leads directly to the final stage.
5. Acceptance/Resignation. At some point, the instructor comes to term with the reality that the papers must be graded. This reality is usually acknowledged the afternoon before the instructor wishes to return the papers, leading to an all-night grading blitz. At some point and by some miracle, however, it all gets done, and the instructor is primed and ready to start to the process over again when the next major assignment comes in.
Filed Under grades, humour, lists, marking, students
Reblogged from: http://notthatkindofdoctor.com/2010/10/the-five-stages-of-grading/
Everyone is familiar with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and her stage model of coping with grief popularly known as the five stages of grief. What you may not know is that Kübler-Ross actually developed her theory as a graduate student, basing her conception of the process of loss on the experiences one goes through over a grading weekend.
In coping with grading, it’s important for graduate students and young professors to know that they are not alone and that this process takes time. Not everyone goes through every stage or processes the reality of grading in this order, but everyone experiences some version of at least two of these steps.
1. Denial. At this stage, the instructor is unwilling to acknowledge the size of the task ahead of him or her. An instructor in denial may be heard to say things like, “It’s not really that many essays, when you think about it.” An instructor in denial will grossly overestimate his or her potential assignment-per-hour output. Denial at the syllabus-creation stage of course development can lead to tears. Denial can also manifest itself as avoidance, where grading is put aside in favour of vastly more important activities like cleaning the fridge, baking, working out, or writing elaborate blog posts about the stages of grading.
2. Anger. Usually anger begins once the instructor starts grading. The first few papers are likely to excite the grader, but as a steady stream of errors trickles in, the instructor may become disillusioned. Commonly heard at this stage: “But we covered this in class! A lot!” “Wait, what does this even mean?” “Redundant! This is redundant!” Instructors at this stage of the process are likely to have unnecessarily large reactions to relatively small frustrations; for example, in one case an instructor screamed into a pillow upon discovering that every student in the class was still using “they” as a singular pronoun.
3. Bargaining. This stage usually begins as an earnest attempt to buckle down and grade. The instructor might say, “If I grade five papers, I can watch one episode of House,” or, “For every page I grade, I get to eat a piece of candy.” This process starts well, but as the instructor progresses the amount of work required to achieve the reward generally becomes smaller and smaller, until the instructor is checking Facebook after every sentence he or she grades.
4. Depression. At some point in a marking weekend, the instructor will come to realize that in spite of his or her best intentions, the papers won’t be marked in time for the next class. For the idealistic young instructor, this is also usually the moment he or she realizes that the assignments themselves are not particularly strong. These realizations can lead to feelings of failure, spiralling into reality TV watchathons or video game blitzes instead of grading. Ultimately, though, recognizing one’s limitations is a healthy part of the process that leads directly to the final stage.
5. Acceptance/Resignation. At some point, the instructor comes to term with the reality that the papers must be graded. This reality is usually acknowledged the afternoon before the instructor wishes to return the papers, leading to an all-night grading blitz. At some point and by some miracle, however, it all gets done, and the instructor is primed and ready to start to the process over again when the next major assignment comes in.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
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