The teacher as a student and the student as a weather-woman
9th Nov 2004
I FELT LIKE MY STUDENT
The self is a powerful being. No matter how much people convince you that you are fine, you will still feel stupid if you think it so. I felt rather stupid during class discussion today. I just felt that what I said didn’t have much depth. I was thinking “What crap!” What I said could have been said by any first-year undergraduate. It did not help that Nicola and George (classmates) made so much sense. But it’s a small class after all, so if I had said something silly, it was just in front of that small group. Nothing’s going to stop me from talking again.
I reflected on my own teaching and my students. What if my students finally plucked up courage to speak up and then they felt, “My god, what I said was crap!” As a teacher, it takes much skill to handle the situation
1) How do I assure the student that he has a point (despite him thinking that he was stupid)
OR
2) How do I tell him that he has a point but he is out of point (without hurting this vulnerable soul who may clam up for the rest of the class or horrors of horrors, end of the term?)
OR
3) How do I ensure that the OTHER students do not see his statement as crap (despite the fact that he was waaaay out of point)
OR
4) If he is indeed out of point or maybe, even his point is superficial, how do I guide him to think about other ideas (especially when students can hand on to their perspectives quite tightly)
I am still learning how to deal with such situations.
Anyway, back to the class. After feeling stupid for an hour, I managed to redeem myself (my own perception again) when it came to practical stuff like creating workshop activities. This time, I felt so smart! In actual fact, it’s experience more than anything else. I have seen my fair share of classroom activities, so that wasn’t too difficult. I was just trying to soothe my embarrassment over my crappy discussion.
WHEN A TEACHER LOOKS AT A TEACHER
Martin gave us an assignment before reading week (the one-week break). He expected us to hand it in this week. It’s basically some kind of framework for our essay and he gave us a few guiding questions to develop the framework. Being a good student, I did my work. I even had questions about the question!
But today, he gave us a “new” assignment. It’s essentially the same one given two weeks ago, with more details included this time round. And when is it due? Nov 26th! If I had known I had more time to do research, I would not fret about it so soon. I have done my work already! And I was not the only one. Two others have done it too.
I offered to hand in my assignment anyway. But he didn’t want to take in my assignment , preferring to discuss it after class. He said he would collect it on nov 26th. In the end, I took up so much of his time discussing the question after class that he said he would take my assignment back after all! Hahaha…If the work’s good, I’ll do it again and hand in an improved one on nov 26th. Get my money’s worth, man. I can be kiasu if I want to!
Suddenly, I have become the student that I sometimes come across as a teacher. I am usually proud of and admire those students who are “super-on”, ultra-enthusiastic and do everything ahead of time. Yet, as someone who marks assignments, I wish they would just relax and not be so over-zealous.
COLD AND HOT
The weather here is quite predictable because there is a common thread which runs through. Cold and Rainy. Cold with sunny spells. Cold and windy. Cold
LKY has once commented how a cool climate increases productivity. Hmmm… or did he say a warm climate slows productivity. Anyway, we became an air-conditioned island partly because of his positive vision of a cool environment.
I perspire easily in Singapore and I enjoy London’s weather because
1) I can walk to the supermarket and walk back with heavy loads without perspiring
2) I can cook without perspiring
3) I can cook a boiling pot of rice noodle (hor fun) soup AND eat it without perspiring
4) I can concentrate more because I don’t have a sticky neck and back.
BUT
1) I don’t like the idea of washing my jackets once in three months.
2) I don’t like walking out from a heated building onto the streets
3) I don’t like wearing layers of clothes, with accessories like gloves and hat (yes, you look more fashionable but I’m not a fashionable person anyway)
4) I don’t like my hot food to become cold in just a while
5) I don’t like sinks with separate taps for cold and hot water (cold is really cold and hot is scalding hot)
6) I don’t like applying huge amounts of moisturisers to prevent looking like a prune
7) I don’t like stepping out of the shower
I FELT LIKE MY STUDENT
The self is a powerful being. No matter how much people convince you that you are fine, you will still feel stupid if you think it so. I felt rather stupid during class discussion today. I just felt that what I said didn’t have much depth. I was thinking “What crap!” What I said could have been said by any first-year undergraduate. It did not help that Nicola and George (classmates) made so much sense. But it’s a small class after all, so if I had said something silly, it was just in front of that small group. Nothing’s going to stop me from talking again.
I reflected on my own teaching and my students. What if my students finally plucked up courage to speak up and then they felt, “My god, what I said was crap!” As a teacher, it takes much skill to handle the situation
1) How do I assure the student that he has a point (despite him thinking that he was stupid)
OR
2) How do I tell him that he has a point but he is out of point (without hurting this vulnerable soul who may clam up for the rest of the class or horrors of horrors, end of the term?)
OR
3) How do I ensure that the OTHER students do not see his statement as crap (despite the fact that he was waaaay out of point)
OR
4) If he is indeed out of point or maybe, even his point is superficial, how do I guide him to think about other ideas (especially when students can hand on to their perspectives quite tightly)
I am still learning how to deal with such situations.
Anyway, back to the class. After feeling stupid for an hour, I managed to redeem myself (my own perception again) when it came to practical stuff like creating workshop activities. This time, I felt so smart! In actual fact, it’s experience more than anything else. I have seen my fair share of classroom activities, so that wasn’t too difficult. I was just trying to soothe my embarrassment over my crappy discussion.
WHEN A TEACHER LOOKS AT A TEACHER
Martin gave us an assignment before reading week (the one-week break). He expected us to hand it in this week. It’s basically some kind of framework for our essay and he gave us a few guiding questions to develop the framework. Being a good student, I did my work. I even had questions about the question!
But today, he gave us a “new” assignment. It’s essentially the same one given two weeks ago, with more details included this time round. And when is it due? Nov 26th! If I had known I had more time to do research, I would not fret about it so soon. I have done my work already! And I was not the only one. Two others have done it too.
I offered to hand in my assignment anyway. But he didn’t want to take in my assignment , preferring to discuss it after class. He said he would collect it on nov 26th. In the end, I took up so much of his time discussing the question after class that he said he would take my assignment back after all! Hahaha…If the work’s good, I’ll do it again and hand in an improved one on nov 26th. Get my money’s worth, man. I can be kiasu if I want to!
Suddenly, I have become the student that I sometimes come across as a teacher. I am usually proud of and admire those students who are “super-on”, ultra-enthusiastic and do everything ahead of time. Yet, as someone who marks assignments, I wish they would just relax and not be so over-zealous.
COLD AND HOT
The weather here is quite predictable because there is a common thread which runs through. Cold and Rainy. Cold with sunny spells. Cold and windy. Cold
LKY has once commented how a cool climate increases productivity. Hmmm… or did he say a warm climate slows productivity. Anyway, we became an air-conditioned island partly because of his positive vision of a cool environment.
I perspire easily in Singapore and I enjoy London’s weather because
1) I can walk to the supermarket and walk back with heavy loads without perspiring
2) I can cook without perspiring
3) I can cook a boiling pot of rice noodle (hor fun) soup AND eat it without perspiring
4) I can concentrate more because I don’t have a sticky neck and back.
BUT
1) I don’t like the idea of washing my jackets once in three months.
2) I don’t like walking out from a heated building onto the streets
3) I don’t like wearing layers of clothes, with accessories like gloves and hat (yes, you look more fashionable but I’m not a fashionable person anyway)
4) I don’t like my hot food to become cold in just a while
5) I don’t like sinks with separate taps for cold and hot water (cold is really cold and hot is scalding hot)
6) I don’t like applying huge amounts of moisturisers to prevent looking like a prune
7) I don’t like stepping out of the shower
posted by changzee at
6:28 PM
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