MUN SEASAC

We just had our first planning meeting for SEASAC MUN. It is going to be a very big, very detailed event.  Luckily, NIST has many keen students that will help make the success of the event possible. 

The Sitdown

My teaching assignments are going well. I'm quite enjoying getting out of the office and into the learning.  Jacqui and I both hope to be in the classroom next year. I enjoy teaching across the year levels.  Interacting with people from a range of ages and backgrounds helps the teacher to further develop a range of perspectives.

  After I received my BA, I lived at home while saving money for graduate school. During the days, I'd give my time teaching mature students basic literacy and writing skills. It had a profound impact on me.  I helped to open my students' minds to the power of a sentence, and subject verb agreement.  They needed English to take the General Education Diploma (GED). For many different reasons, they had never finished high school, and so this was their opportunity to move forward; it was their key to a better life.

It really made me think.  There I was, 10-15 years younger than most of the students, with a BA and on my way to my MSc.  While my students, were trying to get a entry qualification to start their lives.  I learned two things from this experience. 1, I have a way with words. 2, I have a deep understanding that knowing English helps to change one's life.   I want to further engage in helping people, of all ages and backgrounds, understand English through a range of sources.

 

Brain and Music: Amazing

I was browsing You-Tube and stumbled upon this gem.  Dr. Charles Limb explains how different areas of the brain respond to different types of music.

I find it very fascinating that we as humans are all created with near similar biological constructs, but the interaction and processes from brain to brain are vastly different; no two brains are similar.

How to breed creativity?

After reading Howard Gardener's 5 Minds and Ken Robinson's books on creativity, I am puzzled with one idea. How can we enhance our creativity.  I believe everyone is creative, but many people on see in black & white, they follow strictly to the rules or to the minute detail, while failing to miss the big picture. Why is this?  Robinson has argued time and time again, that Schools kill creativity. Is this true?  From my own personal experience, I would say yes.  Within the US School system, schools created creativity as long as it fit into the standardized box.  Creativity does not belong in a box.

Top books I have read recently

As I'm working in a school and love learning I have been reading books that inform me about learning processes but also, more precisely, how the brain works.  This posting is simply a listing of some books I have read recently that are very eye-opening when it comes to our brain, our mind and their functions. 

The Political Mind  George Lakoff
Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative. Sir Ken Robinson
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human Ramachandran, V. S.
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. David, Engleman
How the Mind Works: Stephen Pinker
Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders Pillay, Srinivasan S., M.D.
Thinking, Fast and Slow  Kahneman, Daniel
The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality Mooney, Chris
Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Brain-Based Teaching Tokuhama-Espinosa, Tracey
Introducing Neuroeducational Research: Neuroscience, Education and the Brain from Contexts to Practice   Paul Howard-Jones
Neuroscience. Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, Brain & Mind: Introduction, Primer, & Overview 
Joseph, R.

Being Reflective

As I continue on with my PGCE work, we question the difference between reflexive and reflective are they mutually exclusive or a counter balance of each other. Does being reflective only relate to the academic world? How often do we take time to withdraw and analyze how our lives are moving?

The US Elections are nigh!

The US presidential elections are only a few weeks away. I hope you are registered and ready to vote. As I live in Bangkok, I have already submitted by ballot via the State of Georgia's absentee system. The absentee system is quite archaic; everything should be online these days. No matter where we are in the world, one should be able to put in his/her name into the computer and vote. easy peasy. I wonder if the long process is a deterrent to keep people from voting? Please get informed on all the issues and vote for whomever you believe will be the best fit for the entire US (not just a select few). The next debate between the candidates will be on foreign policy, Obama should have it in the bag; he just has to swing the bat when he's at the plate.

How the world goes.

It has been some months since I last updated. But, I feel it is a good time to reconnect with this blog. Jacqui and I are both studying to become teachers, because working in an international school (and having very minimal interaction with students) is not very fun. My job is advancing this year, and I'm taking it all in great stride.