Sunday, February 22, 2009
A NSS Workshop
Lately, one Kwun Tong secondary school has invited me to run a workshop on one of the electives in NSS curriculum - Social Issues. Actually I am very glad to share my humble experience with frontline teachers and panel chairs in the territories. Personally, I am more keen on exploring non-language arts electives rather than language arts counterparts since I think the former is more practical and useful for the less able students. In the professional development courses that I am teaching, I usually introduce 'Pop Culture ', 'Workplace English Communication', 'Sports Communication' and 'Social Issues' to teacher participants. However, this time, my audience is only limited to a panel of 17 teachers, so I need to tailor-make the contents of the workshop and should have a better communication with the panel chair to see what I am expected to deliver. Up to now, I have corresponded to the panel chair twice and understood what teachers wanted to learn in this workshop. I am looking forward to collaborating with the colleagues in this secondary school.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A University Title
Yesterday, the UGC announced that the HKIEd's application for a university title was rejected and the Review Group Report in the meantime was also released. In the document, two proposed ideas were recommended to the Institute. First, the notion of 'merger' is an alternative like NIE in Singapore and IOE in Britain. Second, the Institute should develop and become a multidisciplinary institution which attends to the wider needs of society such as offering various undergraduate and postgraduate programs other than education.
Through the intranet, the President sent us an e email that the option one was non-issue. Actually he would attempt to focus all his efforts and put all available resources to turn the Institute into a university more than teacher-training organization. I think his determination to fight for the university title is evident and unambiguous. No matter what statue we were given, academic, teaching and administrative staffs are all working hand in hand to excel ourselves. Perhaps, the most unhappy ones would be students. It is understandable they were disappointed because they also worked hard to fight for the title. And most colleagues actually told students to work hard and behave well if they want to 'own' this university title. Who knows? Maybe after three years or another three years... We may become a unique "university", specializing at both education and social science disciplines.
Through the intranet, the President sent us an e email that the option one was non-issue. Actually he would attempt to focus all his efforts and put all available resources to turn the Institute into a university more than teacher-training organization. I think his determination to fight for the university title is evident and unambiguous. No matter what statue we were given, academic, teaching and administrative staffs are all working hand in hand to excel ourselves. Perhaps, the most unhappy ones would be students. It is understandable they were disappointed because they also worked hard to fight for the title. And most colleagues actually told students to work hard and behave well if they want to 'own' this university title. Who knows? Maybe after three years or another three years... We may become a unique "university", specializing at both education and social science disciplines.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
"I enjoyed Saturday class"
Yesterday, I taught the other round of NSS professional development course (PDC). Since 2007, I have been teaching this course for more than 12 cohorts, each of which consists of 4 sessions of 3 hours.
From my observation, participants who opted for Saturday class usually performed better in class and showed more willingness to learn the current curriculum and assessment trends. There are two major reasons to account for this phenomenon. In the first place, teachers feel more relaxed since there is no need to do substitution after they go back to school. Can't believe it. Second, it is obvious that they feel more refreshed on Saturdays.
I asked one of the participants, "Why did you choose Saturday instead of weekdays to attend this course?"
She then replied: "My principal doesn't allow me to take any courses during school days (from Monday to Friday), so I can only attend PDC or seminars on Saturdays."
Another participant also told me that she enjoyed attending courses on Saturdays because she didn't need to think about teaching . "I enjoy Saturday classes. I can better concentrate on Saturdays since teaching and marking occupy most of my time on weekdays."
Though these 28 participants may not represent all teachers in Hong Kong, I reckon most of them are eager and even fond of upgrading their professional knowledge. Actually some of them do not mind spending their personal time to take courses given that Saturday is not counted as a working day (but I am sure most principals may think oppositely)...
All in all, most teachers are conscientious and committed to their work and it is only the system that fails to support them and make them more professional than ever.
From my observation, participants who opted for Saturday class usually performed better in class and showed more willingness to learn the current curriculum and assessment trends. There are two major reasons to account for this phenomenon. In the first place, teachers feel more relaxed since there is no need to do substitution after they go back to school. Can't believe it. Second, it is obvious that they feel more refreshed on Saturdays.
I asked one of the participants, "Why did you choose Saturday instead of weekdays to attend this course?"
She then replied: "My principal doesn't allow me to take any courses during school days (from Monday to Friday), so I can only attend PDC or seminars on Saturdays."
Another participant also told me that she enjoyed attending courses on Saturdays because she didn't need to think about teaching . "I enjoy Saturday classes. I can better concentrate on Saturdays since teaching and marking occupy most of my time on weekdays."
Though these 28 participants may not represent all teachers in Hong Kong, I reckon most of them are eager and even fond of upgrading their professional knowledge. Actually some of them do not mind spending their personal time to take courses given that Saturday is not counted as a working day (but I am sure most principals may think oppositely)...
All in all, most teachers are conscientious and committed to their work and it is only the system that fails to support them and make them more professional than ever.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Spoken Language and Written Language
This afternoon, it's my colleague's turn to give a lecture on the differences between the features of spoken and written language. By all means, spoken form and written form of language are very different in terms of mode of delivery and uses in various contexts of communication. However, scholarly research on writing has long been developed; whereas spoken discourse has just been explored since the last four decades of the 20th century.
Sure, my colleague, An, is always good at giving lively and stimulating lectures on discourse analysis as it is one of her research and teaching areas. She quoted a very good example to illustrate why spoken and written discourse are so different by using an example of her students who used to ask her a very interesting question:
'Dr. He, in the tutorial, you had a very high opinion of my oral presentation, but why you found out so many problems in my draft version when I sent it to you for comments.'
Then, An explained to all students in the lecture theatre: 'Yes, it's always easy to present a paper or a drafted version of an assignment verbally since there is so much visual and audio support to help convey the message, so to speak, resulting in better and more productive delivery of the presentation. However, when it comes down to written discourse, the draft is "alone", without any contextual clues or paralinguistic features to make its meaning explicit and clear to its readers! That's why writing is far more cognitively demanding than speaking in terms of transmission of information.'
I particularly like this example as writing is much more demanding than speaking. Writers have to make sure every word and every idea he/she put down on paper is relevant and sensible to readers who only read the text instead of seeing or meeting the writers face-to-face. Every single idea must be understandable and interpretable to others who are far and remote from the writers in time and space. An then concluded by saying 'Speaking is a process which is constantly happening and writing is a product which existed physically.'
Sure, my colleague, An, is always good at giving lively and stimulating lectures on discourse analysis as it is one of her research and teaching areas. She quoted a very good example to illustrate why spoken and written discourse are so different by using an example of her students who used to ask her a very interesting question:
'Dr. He, in the tutorial, you had a very high opinion of my oral presentation, but why you found out so many problems in my draft version when I sent it to you for comments.'
Then, An explained to all students in the lecture theatre: 'Yes, it's always easy to present a paper or a drafted version of an assignment verbally since there is so much visual and audio support to help convey the message, so to speak, resulting in better and more productive delivery of the presentation. However, when it comes down to written discourse, the draft is "alone", without any contextual clues or paralinguistic features to make its meaning explicit and clear to its readers! That's why writing is far more cognitively demanding than speaking in terms of transmission of information.'
I particularly like this example as writing is much more demanding than speaking. Writers have to make sure every word and every idea he/she put down on paper is relevant and sensible to readers who only read the text instead of seeing or meeting the writers face-to-face. Every single idea must be understandable and interpretable to others who are far and remote from the writers in time and space. An then concluded by saying 'Speaking is a process which is constantly happening and writing is a product which existed physically.'
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Never Give Up
This afternoon, I saw a movie called 'Marley and Me' and actually the film is based upon the novel version which was published in 2005 and I read the book during last summer. There is almost pointless to compare the book and movie versions as the former usually outperformed the latter. For the movie version, a number of episodes has to be twisted and everything single detail that happens in the book may be squeezed to very different form in order to make the pace of the movie much faster and appealing to audience.
Back to the story, the film is about a couple, both journalists, who were newly wed and attempted to raise a dog before considering taking greater responsibility to raise their own kids. Having visited a farm, the coupled decided to purchase 'a bargain dog' which is a breed of Labrador Retriever. It was the beginning of the couple's nightmares. When Marley was home, he could ruin everything one could imagine, chewing sofa, scratching the floor, breaking the window and eating the whole remote control! He was extremely devastated to the thunderstorm and reacted extraordinarily abnormal. This little devil no doubt gave a lot of troubles to the couple.
Finally, the couple had 3 kids. While raising Marley and 3 kids, the couple felt very frustrated and tired. Once, they were determined to give up and did not want to keep Marley anymore. Having a second thought, the couple thought it wouldn't be a complete family without Marley despite his naughtiness and misbehavior as he witnessed the growth of the family. At last, they stayed with him until he passed away. The story is obviously a sad one. However, the underlying message is pretty clear that in our life, things are always difficult and sometimes insurmountable. If we insist on overcoming them, we will succeed eventually!
Back to the story, the film is about a couple, both journalists, who were newly wed and attempted to raise a dog before considering taking greater responsibility to raise their own kids. Having visited a farm, the coupled decided to purchase 'a bargain dog' which is a breed of Labrador Retriever. It was the beginning of the couple's nightmares. When Marley was home, he could ruin everything one could imagine, chewing sofa, scratching the floor, breaking the window and eating the whole remote control! He was extremely devastated to the thunderstorm and reacted extraordinarily abnormal. This little devil no doubt gave a lot of troubles to the couple.
Finally, the couple had 3 kids. While raising Marley and 3 kids, the couple felt very frustrated and tired. Once, they were determined to give up and did not want to keep Marley anymore. Having a second thought, the couple thought it wouldn't be a complete family without Marley despite his naughtiness and misbehavior as he witnessed the growth of the family. At last, they stayed with him until he passed away. The story is obviously a sad one. However, the underlying message is pretty clear that in our life, things are always difficult and sometimes insurmountable. If we insist on overcoming them, we will succeed eventually!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
A long day
At 9 this morning, I arrived at the office and prepared my lesson, simply studying what I have written on the PowerPoint. At 10, a student came and asked me something about her assignment. At 10:20, I went straight to the classroom. The lesson went on until 1:30. Having finished the third session of Language Assessment, a few Yr. 4 students asked me some questions about their final year thesis.
By the time I went to the office, it was 1:50, I then had a quick lunch. Nothing good was on the menu, mainly leftovers. I decided to have some noodles. At 2 pm, I browsed Blackboard to see whether my students posted their comments on the Forum as I usually uploaded some questions and invited discussion every week. More and more students have participated in this activity. After responding to a few entries, I went straight to a meeting about the NSS professional development course. This is a quality assurance meeting for all colleagues who teach the course. We mainly reported our feedback and shared some teaching ideas. The meeting lasted for 1 and 1/2 hours.
Around 4, I thought I could start marking the assignments. However, one of my colleagues called me and he wanted to talk to me about some issues on staff appraisal. Then we had a chat for about 45 mins. It seemed to me that he was not happy working in IEd. A lot of complaints!! Finish my work as a councillor. I went back to my work and started marking the last three assignments. At 8:45, I finally finished and entered the marks in an Excel file. I left Tai Po.
About 9:30, I was home but felt speechless as the day was REALLY long. No sooner did I finish my dinner, then I forgot my doctor appointment at 8pm. I immediately called Dr Law to apologize for my absence and I asked if I could make another appointment the following day. She said, 'Why not?' Now, I should get some sleep. Good night.
By the time I went to the office, it was 1:50, I then had a quick lunch. Nothing good was on the menu, mainly leftovers. I decided to have some noodles. At 2 pm, I browsed Blackboard to see whether my students posted their comments on the Forum as I usually uploaded some questions and invited discussion every week. More and more students have participated in this activity. After responding to a few entries, I went straight to a meeting about the NSS professional development course. This is a quality assurance meeting for all colleagues who teach the course. We mainly reported our feedback and shared some teaching ideas. The meeting lasted for 1 and 1/2 hours.
Around 4, I thought I could start marking the assignments. However, one of my colleagues called me and he wanted to talk to me about some issues on staff appraisal. Then we had a chat for about 45 mins. It seemed to me that he was not happy working in IEd. A lot of complaints!! Finish my work as a councillor. I went back to my work and started marking the last three assignments. At 8:45, I finally finished and entered the marks in an Excel file. I left Tai Po.
About 9:30, I was home but felt speechless as the day was REALLY long. No sooner did I finish my dinner, then I forgot my doctor appointment at 8pm. I immediately called Dr Law to apologize for my absence and I asked if I could make another appointment the following day. She said, 'Why not?' Now, I should get some sleep. Good night.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Back pain
During the last two weeks, I worked non-stop for preparing lessons and marking assignments . Yesterday, my back pain and stiff neck came back and I realized perhaps I kept sitting in front of the computer for too long. My family doctor told me to move around or stretch my arms and legs every twenty minutes. It is a very good suggestion but how I can remember to do so unless a timer is put in front of me. To relieve pain and ache in my shoulders and back, I took pain-killers three times a day and applied Salonsip gel patches to the affected areas. It's so painful!! I even found it hard to stand straight this morning. I pray to get well soon as I need to give my second lecture on Monday. Keep my fingers crossed....
Saturday, January 10, 2009
In Celebration of Rosina's life
This afternoon, I attended a gathering organized by Steve Andrews in celebrating Rosina's life. The event was held in form of buffet lunch and invitations were sent to all past students of Rosina including BEd and PGDE students since 1998. I saw a lot of old friends there such as Blanche, Michael, Simon Chan, Simon Sharp, Maria and some teachers who taught me before including Margaret, David Bunton, Leo, Suzie, Amy and so forth.
The purpose of this occasion is to bring back good memories of Rosina and the function started off with cocktail and then slide show which featured the life of Rosina. The pictures since Rosina was four were shown. After the slide show, seven guests gave their speeches to share with the guests the sense of humor Rosina had as well as how much she loved cooking. Then, several past students of hers talked about some interesting anecdotes happened when they were studying Yr. 3 and Yr. 4 with Rosina. While Gary was giving a speech, some of us were in tears because Gary knew Rosina very well and what he mentioned was really touched such as the jokes of shipping Amazon cookery books for Rosina from the UK and all faculty gossips. Lastly, when Amy concludes Rosina's life, I was impressed with one sentence she spoke, 'She did not die.' I guess it is right to say so. I always think of her especially those words in which she taught me how to be a good teacher educator. I will remember these words forever.
Although the event was a bit sad towards the end, all guests knew that if we were upset, Rosina was not happy because she liked partying. In order to celebrate the life of Rosina, we should be cheerful after we parted company and remember how she fought the batter with a larger-than-life attitude.
The purpose of this occasion is to bring back good memories of Rosina and the function started off with cocktail and then slide show which featured the life of Rosina. The pictures since Rosina was four were shown. After the slide show, seven guests gave their speeches to share with the guests the sense of humor Rosina had as well as how much she loved cooking. Then, several past students of hers talked about some interesting anecdotes happened when they were studying Yr. 3 and Yr. 4 with Rosina. While Gary was giving a speech, some of us were in tears because Gary knew Rosina very well and what he mentioned was really touched such as the jokes of shipping Amazon cookery books for Rosina from the UK and all faculty gossips. Lastly, when Amy concludes Rosina's life, I was impressed with one sentence she spoke, 'She did not die.' I guess it is right to say so. I always think of her especially those words in which she taught me how to be a good teacher educator. I will remember these words forever.
Although the event was a bit sad towards the end, all guests knew that if we were upset, Rosina was not happy because she liked partying. In order to celebrate the life of Rosina, we should be cheerful after we parted company and remember how she fought the batter with a larger-than-life attitude.
Friday, January 9, 2009
A New Semester
The first week of Semester 2 has started already. So far, I have met two groups of students I teach. They are BEd Yr. 3 and BA Yr. 4 years. For the former students, I teach their tutorials plus two lectures and for the latter group, I teach them all sessions. Students in these two groups are quite different in terms of their learning styles, personalities and career aspiration. That's interesting. Well, we had a good start this week. Hope they enjoy the modules like me.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Cafe de Verseau
Joyce, my sister-in-law started a coffee shop named Cafe de Verseau two years ago. The cafe is located in a shopping mall in Mongkok. This evening, we paid a visit to this very trendy cafe. In the meantime, we celebrated Grace's birthday though hers is on 20th.
Joyce recommended one award-winning dish to us and it is actually a chicken roll with instant noodle. She told me that the chef was very creative to design this mouth-watering appetizer out of some ordinary ingredients. This appetizer is indeed crispy and delicious. We also ordered some drinks and had great fun there.
Joyce recommended one award-winning dish to us and it is actually a chicken roll with instant noodle. She told me that the chef was very creative to design this mouth-watering appetizer out of some ordinary ingredients. This appetizer is indeed crispy and delicious. We also ordered some drinks and had great fun there.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
New Year Resolution
Christmas has gone already; now it's great time to think about New Year Resolution.
I would like to make three wishes:
1. Everyone is happy and stays healthy
2. The economy of Hong Kong will recover soon
3. I can travel to different places in the coming year
Wish you a Happy New Year
I would like to make three wishes:
1. Everyone is happy and stays healthy
2. The economy of Hong Kong will recover soon
3. I can travel to different places in the coming year
Wish you a Happy New Year
Friday, December 26, 2008
Suspect X
On Christmas day, Grace and I viewed a Japanese movie called 'Suspect X'. The movie was rated Grade B in most film reviews columns published in either magazines or newspapers. I was astounded by such a low rating. To me, I would rate it as Grade B+ or even Grade A- movie. Why? The answer is that the film has a wonderful plot.
The movie only involves 7 major characters: one Physics professor working in university, one high school mathematics teacher, one divorced lady with her teenage daughter, one ex-husband of the divorced lady and two inspectors. The story takes place near the suburb of Tokyo.
The film started with the ex-hushand visiting the divorced lady, extorting money from her and even blackmailing her he wanted to stay with her again. Of course, arguments and fights were inevitable. During negotiating with her ex, the divorced lady attempted to strangle him with the help of her daughter. In fewer than 10 seconds, the ex- was choked to death. While three of them were struggling, their next door neighbour, the math teacher discovered something was happening. When the door bell rang, the divorced lady was so frightened since she didn't know what to do and her daughter burst into tears non-stop. Holding her breath, the lady opened the door and said she was fine. But the math teacher said that something wrong had happened. He further requested, 'Let me in or I can't help you!'
After a few days, the two inspectors were assigned to investigate the murder case. They suspected the lady was the murderer. However, the lady could provide good alibis for the evening of the murder case. The murder case actually happened at the waterfront near the Tokyo river on 2 December, around 7 to 10 pm according to the police. Why was that? The lady and her daughter went to a movie and then they visited one karaoke lounge until 11 pm on 2 December. Why?
Actually, the math teacher was also interrogated because he was very suspicious of giving a hand to kill her ex-. Unluckily they didn't get much out of this math teacher, the next door neighbour of the lady...
The two inspectors were very perplexed when they almost got no clue though they knew the lady was the murderer. Eventually, they sought assistance from the professor who is good at logic and reasoning... Coincidentally, the professor knew this math teacher since their formative years at university because both of them are genius in their subject disciplines, physics and mathematics respectively. Only the professor went on doing research in university and the math teacher had to take care of his diseased mother.... But the professor knew who designed such a great master plan behind the scene... Who is the killer?
I should stop here. I think though the movie is a simple one, its every part is thoughtfully and skillfully interwoven. Every single line spoken by the characters is inter-related. Excellent. It is a real fantastic movie.
The movie only involves 7 major characters: one Physics professor working in university, one high school mathematics teacher, one divorced lady with her teenage daughter, one ex-husband of the divorced lady and two inspectors. The story takes place near the suburb of Tokyo.
The film started with the ex-hushand visiting the divorced lady, extorting money from her and even blackmailing her he wanted to stay with her again. Of course, arguments and fights were inevitable. During negotiating with her ex, the divorced lady attempted to strangle him with the help of her daughter. In fewer than 10 seconds, the ex- was choked to death. While three of them were struggling, their next door neighbour, the math teacher discovered something was happening. When the door bell rang, the divorced lady was so frightened since she didn't know what to do and her daughter burst into tears non-stop. Holding her breath, the lady opened the door and said she was fine. But the math teacher said that something wrong had happened. He further requested, 'Let me in or I can't help you!'
After a few days, the two inspectors were assigned to investigate the murder case. They suspected the lady was the murderer. However, the lady could provide good alibis for the evening of the murder case. The murder case actually happened at the waterfront near the Tokyo river on 2 December, around 7 to 10 pm according to the police. Why was that? The lady and her daughter went to a movie and then they visited one karaoke lounge until 11 pm on 2 December. Why?
Actually, the math teacher was also interrogated because he was very suspicious of giving a hand to kill her ex-. Unluckily they didn't get much out of this math teacher, the next door neighbour of the lady...
The two inspectors were very perplexed when they almost got no clue though they knew the lady was the murderer. Eventually, they sought assistance from the professor who is good at logic and reasoning... Coincidentally, the professor knew this math teacher since their formative years at university because both of them are genius in their subject disciplines, physics and mathematics respectively. Only the professor went on doing research in university and the math teacher had to take care of his diseased mother.... But the professor knew who designed such a great master plan behind the scene... Who is the killer?
I should stop here. I think though the movie is a simple one, its every part is thoughtfully and skillfully interwoven. Every single line spoken by the characters is inter-related. Excellent. It is a real fantastic movie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
