To write more and more to write

A few days ago, I asked some of my Yr.4 students if they had a habit of writing blogs or using facebook. Almost of them said yes, but some of them told me that they found it difficult to write blog entries as most of the time nothing special occurred on a day-to-day basis. Then, I inquired, 'Do you read newspapers? or Do you have a part-time job? You must want to express your own opinions towards something you deem unacceptable or nonsense. Talk about it. Put forward your stand no matter whether you agree or disagree with the issue.'

One lady said, 'We don't know how to start.' I further explained, 'First, you must have inspiration. For instance, if you attended a lecture you thought you didn't understand, think about why didn't understand and what you could do about it. You may write a few lines about this event. Or if you were ill-treated by someone such as the waitress in a cafe, talk about it. There are so many things you can discuss in your blog. And more you write, more you find it more you can write!'

After I said that, some of these young men and ladies felt very puzzled. They asked, 'Is that true if we write more, there will be more inspiration.' My reply is, 'I can't say for sure, but you could be inspired from various sources such as reading, sharing, observing, thinking... Input is around us and you won't live a life without any stimulus. Am I right?'

Having talked for about 10 minutes, I said, 'Go home and write few more blog entries to express yourself! Writing more is good brain gym for your minds.'

Tips to save money for conference trips

Lately, I've read Paul Matsuda's blog entry about how graduate students (doctoral students) go to conferences without spending too much money. The following is some of the tips he shared:

Paul mentioned that students should combine their personal trip with conference trip, having a conference in a place where they also want to visit and making the distinction between work and holiday fuzzy.

Second, Paul remarked that students should save money for dinner rather than spending too much on breakfast or lunch. He said that students could simply grab some water or bread in convenience store and use the money for conference dinner or dining out with some famous scholars. He further added that such strategy could make the trip more fruitful, mingling with some famous scholars and discussing about some significant issues in the field.

Third, Paul also stressed that graduate students could get grants or funds to sponsor their trips as there are openings of scholarship or sponsorship for conferencing in different institutions. Or they may join some competitions such the best teaching award or the most successful young scholar scheme to finance their budgets to conference trip... (this strategy may be easy to Paul...)

Fourth, he suggested that graduate students should find a partner to share out expenses such as hotels or shuttles for the conference trip. Sharing expenses on the trip is the best strategy to save money!

I think all this advice is based upon Paul's personal experience over the years and what he heard from others when he participated in various conferences both in the States or other countries.

Part-timers

In response to Paul Sze's latest entry, I do agree that most Hong Kong teachers, whether they are in primary or secondary sectors, are very keen on updating their knowledge. The story he narrated about an ex-lawyer, now a school principal complained about the reluctance of teachers taking up further studies is both biased and inconclusive. For instance, those part-timers in my institution I supervised last year told me that they didn't need to study PGDE (SKP) again but they did so because they wanted to be more competitive in the market. They further added that there was no harm if they could teach one more subject in schools. Some said it would be easier to change schools or find another job. I still remember one lady I supervised was doing PGDE in my institution as well as MA in Chinese in the other one. I asked her if she could manage to study two part-time courses at the same time. She replied, 'I want to learn more when I am still young and single. Upon my graduation, I can teach Putonghua, Chinese language as well as English language. How nice!' I was impressed by her perseverance and strong will power to pursue her studies in such a Draconian condition. Imagine if we study two course at one go, it means that we may need to go to university for at least 2 to 3 evenings plus one Saturday afternoon. This single case may not be generalizable to all Hong Kong teachers, but I am sure, in one way or another, teachers are willing to attend courses in order to cope with the forthcoming challenges in the field of education.

Over is the First Module

Tonight, I finished teaching my first module in this academic year, a Yr. 4 module titled 'Studies of Discourse Analysis'. Let me do a brief self-evaluation. In general, I performed much better than last year and could help students connect the theoretical underpinnings of 'discourse studies' with their real teaching in the field experience, especially the last component - classroom discourse. Most students expressed that this part was relevant to their practicum as well as future career such as teacher talk, verbal interaction patterns, questioning behavior and the like. Very soon, I will pay school visits to 11 students of this group and hope that they like their teaching practice and enjoy being with their students though some grumbled over students' disciplines and their low academic abilities. Well, this is life, let's face it!!

Is sleeping a luxury?

How much sleep do we need every day? Some people will say they sleep at least for 8 or 9 hours per day. Is that possible in Hong Kong when everyone is complaining that having enough sleep is a luxury?

When I joined the teaching profession 13 years ago, I could go to bed around 11 pm and get up round 6 am as the previous school I served got an early timetable. Life was good as I still had 7 hours' sleep.

Few years later, I enrolled in a part-time PGDE program, meaning that two evenings were occupied for attending classes. Surely, on those two evenings, I would go home late and sleep late as well. During my PGDE study, I slept around 12 (midnight) and wake up around 6. It came very natural that my sleeping hours were reduced by one hour.

Now, having a family of my own, I need to sleep later than before. First, both Grace and I had to do some housework such as cooking and doing laundry though the cleaning jobs were outsourced already. With more responsibilities both in the job and family, I usually hit the sack around 1 and get up around 6:30 to catch the staff bus to office.

What will happen 5 years later? I am just worried about the deteriorating situation. Do I sleep even less if I have children or have other commitments in my profession. Can't imagine at this time!!! But one thing is sure that there are tons of side-effects having insufficient sleep such as poor memory and high blood pressure.

How can we get more sleep? I think the only answer is we should be more self-disciplined. Do not watch TV non-stop and try to finish all undone businesses as soon as possible. Having a habit to go to bed early will also make us wake up earlier... Easy said than done...

Am I alright?

Last night, I went to see my family doctor 'again'. Once she saw me in the clinic, she said, 'Why have you patronized me for so many times lately? Do you miss me?' She is a funny lady, anyway. When I counted how many times I visited her in these few minutes, I couldn't believe it. Twice in July, once in August, twice in September and once, so far, in October.... (touch wood), the picture seems so scaring. I asked myself what was the problem. Though every time I was diagnosed either cold or flu, I shouldn't overlook my health problem. In the past, I saw my doctor once or twice in a year. What is the signal? Is it a sign of ageing? Did I have insufficient sleep? Did I overwork? Or simply I am stressed out. I don't know the reason. Actually, I have a habit to take vitamins as they are good to my health. I really have to think about it! What I mean 'to think about it' is to self-evaluate where my problems are .

Help

Yesterday, a senior colleague talked to me for a while. Actually, she wanted me to do her a favor by helping her with data collection. The task seems pretty easy as she needs some teaching materials from my students who are going to do their teaching practice in the next 8 weeks. Sounds easy. I said, 'Sure, no problem.'

As both teacher and researchers we all know how difficult it is to collect data in schools or in colleges these days. If you can help others, you are after all helping yourself because one day you may need help from others as well. It seemed to me when this colleague left my office, she was so elated and I felt happy either.

Relaxation

In response to Icy's latest blog entry, I think we all agree that doing sports regularly is good for us. Apart from sports, what should we do in order to reduce stress. Stress here refers to pressure from family, work, emotion, financial situation, love relationship and so forth. The following is the ten suggestions:

1. To cry (it may be effective but don't do it in public!)

2. To play sports (you may refer to Icy's blog)

3. To go shopping (you may consult Grace who is an expert in shopping)

4. To drive on highway (if you need to buy a car first, consult my colleague, Ben who is an expert in cars!)

5. To sleep (Good though, it costs nothing and it's good for misers like me)

6. To eat (if you are big enough, forget this option! Because when you gain on weight, you may become more stressed out)

7. To travel (lately I find that this method works very well to me, but it's expensive)

8. To take a bath for a few times (but make sure that you have oily skin, otherwise you need to see a dermatologist)

9. To gossip (you can do it even you are extremely relaxed)

10. To do housework (while you are planning to fire your maid or when you no longer tolerate her!)

University Ranking

A new round of global university rankings was announced. HKU, ranked 18th last year, becomes 26th in position this year. Besides, HKUST, which newly joined the league table, ranked 39th among the best 50 universities around the world. When interviewed, one of the HKU spokepersons expressed that the 'downgrading' of HKU ranking was due to the fact that there is insufficient research funding to finance various research projects in the university. He further explained that unlike other universities in the North America, both federal government and private sectors will sponsor university research projects. Having heard about such comments, my first response was that there is no need to panic though the ranking of HKU dropped from 18th to 26th. First and foremost, HKU has a long history and it is so well-established in Asia, the new ranking will not diminish its appeals after all. I am sure most students and parents still regard HKU is the best in Hong Kong. Second, all universities in Hong Kong should no longer await research funding solely from the government especially those disciplines like applied sciences and computer engineering. University professors should not stay in their castles on the peak. What they should do is to think about how to use their project proposals to allure sponsorship from enterprise or well-known entrepreneurs. If those projects are beneficial to the well-being of society and enable businessmen to make money, it will not be difficult to get funding from private sectors.

Vested Interests

Tomorrow, there will be an election of Staff Member to the Institution Council (highest level of management board in the institution that I serve). According the codes of the institution, there should be three staff members, regardless of their ranks, elected to form the constituent of the Council. Since one of the members is about to finish his term, there are two eligible nominees seconded by three colleagues. One is the Associate Dean and another candidate is an instructor working in the language centre. As the election day is around the corner, the election campaign also started last week. However, it was also the beginning of a nightmare. Two candidates, out of their good hearts and intention, vowed how to protect the interests of "teaching staff" as if this group of staff were underprivileged in the academic community. To be exact, a tug of 'junk mails' war polluted our email accounts for more than four days. Every day, when I logged in my own account on the staff intranet, I could see the names of these candidates. In view of this intense situation, the ASAXXXXX, Staff Association of my institution, then joined the warfare and promised that they would fight for the academic track migration of TF and instructor ranks. In addition, they will fight for private offices for some 'teaching staffs'.

I bet you have enough of this. If you were me, I reckon you knew what I really needed was a harmonious working environment where politics could be reduced to its minimal and a collaborative spirit where everyone can work hand in hand to train our future teachers to serve the community.

Observation

Do you observe people? Or you are always observed by others without being noticed!! The former is just normal behaviour, especially eyeing something beautiful; for the latter, I need to say 'Congratulations' to you because you must be very good-looking or attractive. Let's have a look to see if you agree with the following:

1. If you want to know whether a man is tasteful, look at the socks he wears.

2. If you want to know whether a lady is elegant, look at her hands.

3. If you want to know whether a person has good health, look at his/her hair texture.

4. If you want to know the personality of a guy, look at his handwriting.

5. If you want to know whether a person is reliable, look at his/her eyes.

6. If you want to know whether a couple has good relationship, see how much they care about each other when there is a catastrophe.

7. If you want to know whether a person is happy, look at his/her expressions when they wake up in the morning.

Lifelong Commitment

When my doggie was sick, Grace and I would be in great trouble. This is what our experience told us. Two years ago, he had the problem of skin disease and he felt extremely itchy all the time. Then, we took him to the vet. Medication was a great challenge to both of us. Imagine to feed a 3-year-old naughty doggie with capsules! We sweated all over our bodies after we finished. It was no kidding. Worst still, we had to wash him with a special shampoo which could kill the bacteria on his skin, but the liquid itself was pretty raw and irritating in texture. Bathing him in a tub meant he splashed water all over the floor in the toilet.

Last summer, he suffered from diarrhea for almost two months because he drank some unclean water. Actually, pets do not need to drink boiled water. Because the weather was terribly hot and he had probably drunken some contaminated tap water, then he had a horrible attack of diarrhea! We had to change diapers for more than 6 times in a day! He also lost 2 pounds in this incident but he weighed only 13.5 pounds before he had a stormy stomach.

Last week, Grace and I discovered that he got inflection of the lower part of his nose. As he frequently rubbed and licked the inflected area, it became swollen after a few days. At first, we were worried it was a tumor. But after the diagnosis, it was just inflammation of his nose and again, feeding him 6 different types of medication two times a day would take us ages and the entire treatment lasts 12 days.

In the past, we felt very annoyed whenever my son was sick. Now, I have learnt that we need to accept illness is part of our life. If he is sick, take him to the vet and try to feed him with the most appropriate medication. Well, there is no time panicking and no use crying over spilt milk. Then pray. I have learnt that this is our responsibility and lifelong commitment to take care of him, feed him and raise him until he dies.


Thanks to my mentor. I've learnt from her how to live a life without too many complaints as I am very fortunate already.

Ten 'First Time'

The first time...

1. The first time you wore a graduation hat and threw it in the air after the congregation was over

2. The first time you got on the plane

3. The first time you kissed a guy or a lady you fell in love with

4. The first time you received a pay cheque and went out on a spree

5. The first time you passed your driving test after you failed more than 5 times

6. The first time you moved in an apartment or a house you bought on mortgage

7. The first time you heard your son or daughter crying in hospital

8. The first time you had promotion in your career

9. The first time you did not go to work in your life

10. The first time you cried when your grandchild came to the world

Hip Size vs. Intelligence

According to a latest medical research study, there is significant correlation between hip size and human intelligence. The findings of this study reveal that if one has a bigger hip size, his/her IQ is almost 30% higher than their counterparts with relatively smaller hip size. Having read the research report, I felt a bit excited and hilarious for those who are always worried about their big body shapes because this group of people tends to have lower self-esteem. Sure, we should be health conscious and shouldn't be too fat; otherwise, we may have a lot of health hazards. However, in Hong Kong, people are 'figure conscious' rather than 'health conscious' since they try to make themselves underweight by using tons of methods like self-induced vomiting, laxatives and plastics surgery... The list is endless. Though I am not very convinced with the statistical figures presented in the medical research I mentioned earlier on, I am very happy with the implications drawn from the study, that is, those being supersize still have their own worth, at least intelligence wise. What do you think?