Hi: Just commenting as a reminder to all of you, that we have made some minor adjustments in the schedule to accommodate tonights' question and answer session. We will look at the Marzano reading on instruction, curriculum and classroom management next week. Then, in week nine, we will have a slightly longer than normal session, in which we will cover both of the Littky readings, the one on kids and the bigger picture in education, as well as the atmosphere and school culture selections. Thanks, Dr. Andy
When: 16.07.2010 We had a very nice discussion on motivation and classroom management in an all-boys school.
We also discussed a bit on governments and immigrants. We came to the conclusion that free movement of people result in better governments. In the perfect world there would be no borders, people would move freely and therefore governments would need to listen to their people in order to keep them in the country.
Also, we talked a bit about some governments telling other governments how to run their countries while they themselves can't follow what they say (vide the USA sometimes).
Application: 1. As an administrator, I would try to make sure that the number of boys and girls in my school is pretty much equal. It helps in classroom management and motivation. I would try to avoid to have a school with only girls or boys.
2. As with the immigration, I would allow the students to be able to change schools freely (with good reason of course). It would force the schools to listen to their students and parents and provide the best education. School without students would have no money to survive and weak schools would be therefore eliminated.
3. As a teacher I should be an example to my students, so if I want them to follow certain rules, I should be a good example and follow them too (to some extend of course, not always to the same extend as the students).
This week, we had a Q&A class instead of Marzano, which is postponed to next week. One of the students in class asked a lot of interesting questions, raising following issues. 1. Blending "Gender" into classroom management. 2. Sporadic analytical points of American education, with direct experience example from the instructor. 3. Issues regarding the news article that one student posted on FB, regarding the newly issued state federal law on Mexican labor working in the U.S 4. Issues regarding application paper Application: 1. Regarding Gender issues, I think it applies to all settings. In classroom management, the mixture in co-ed should help balance the dynamic flow in classroom management. In supervisory skills training, there were also similar case studies. With the EEO law being implemented, such practice is not legally right, but this mixture technique (or whatever it is called technically) can help solve unseen office issues that lie under the carpet and are sensitive to be addressed out in the public. I have an example of an office with all female staff. There were issues regarding hierarchical power of the younger staff who was promoted before the older staff. The older staff "were reported" to have such behaviors as talking behind the back or backbiting, causing conflicts and gossips all over the organization. This makes the team resistant to improvement and productivity. Once new positions are approved, it was not stated in the Job Description that it is restricted to a male or female as it is against the law. But in the interviewing process, the highest boss mentioned that it would be nice to have male staff in office too, as the philosophy of working is to encourage "diversity". Such thing, help the old people change their focus of resistance to the new employee instead, but such resistance cannot be detrimental as the newly hired staff was in the senior position and the other was the lowest position. This help keep the balance in the office. I would not go too much into detail here. By the way, after a one year tryout, this office got an award for the best Customer Service Provider, which should be a guarantee that measures the better performance of the office. The gender mixture might not be the sole cause of this improvement, but it should be one of the factors that balance the dynamic flow within the office environment management, making a hassle-free working environment. 2. Regarding immigration, I kind of think what Dr. Andrew's mentioned regarding John Lennon's quotation from the song "Imagine" is a food for thought. There should be no country in the world. (Trying not to sound too surreal) :-) 3. As a teacher, I should try to manage time better to be a good example for my students. Obviously, this is the part I need improvement......
Just in addition to my last comment, I would like to suggest that in classroom discussion, the issue of "cultural sensitivity" should be raised. I kind of feel offended when someone mention Thailand in a bad way, even it is true sometimes. Not because I am Thai, but because I believe wherever you go to live in this world, mostly, you will find the same problem in different settings. If you go to live in Montenegro, you will complain about a new problem in the new country. It is, of course, personal rights to say it and we are a small group. But it's just something I'd like to raise for your concern. Instead of generalizing such problems to be the whole Thai attributes and shaking your head when mentioning the word "Thai", would it be better to generalize it in a wider picture as a concept or so?
Let's talk about this next class. I am sure nobody meant to cause offense. It was more a case of honest airing of concerns, for example US policy came up for a lot more criticism, as with Canadian, than did Thai. However we will talk about the issue next class. Remind me should I forget.
Most of the I do not criticize Thailand because I want it to look bad. I want it to be better! I want some things to improve because I love this country and this is where I am going to spend the rest of my life. So when I am critical about something it is because I want it to be better. I always speak in positive way about Thailand to outsiders, but when I am with people who live and understand Thailand I usually discuss things that I would like to see improving.
It is like with my classroom - to my students I always tell them to improve, that they need to work harder, sometimes I tell them they are lazy. Why? Because I want them to be the best, not because I hate them.
Some people never criticize, they always speak positively about things. Why? They often see the negatives, they just do not mention it because they know that when there are lots of negatives it is going to collapse, and this is what they really want.
I know what I wrote here might be a bit confusing but as I said, I criticize some aspect of Thailand, because I care about it.
Do I criticize my country, Poland? Yes I do. When I talk to Polish people I will be very critical, because I care.
Not taking sides here because I can see and understand concerns both ways. Sure we should respect our adopted country, and if we live in Thailand we have a lot to be thankful for. No question about it! It is also true that if you look to history, regimes which tolerated no crticism were often amongst the most repressive on earth: Hitler's Germany, Italy under Mussolini, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and China under Chairman Mao, all used the repression of critics as a method of terrorizing their own citizens. Looking to a more recent example, had Americans listened earlier to war critics like the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore, there might have been thousands of lives saved in Iraq, including a very high proportion of innocent women and children. Here in Thailand too, it is in part our unwillingness to take an honest look at income disparity and social injustice that drives the divisions within the country to the extremity witnessed in the recent red/yellow shirt clashes. "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
I see the points that Dr.Andy and Marci brought up, looking at our country from a foreigner's perspective, making points that are constructive to further improvement. I also respect that the points mentioned are true in a way. Knowing that you have already been aware of, the only thing left that I would like to make my point clear is to "Respectfully mention country or cultural issues", including not to personally build sterotypes for that specific nation. The fact that I see foreigners mentioning Thailand in a bad, non-constructive way with Thais sitting there, smiling is where I am coming from. Of course, the discussion in the class will only be meaningful and constructive only if we criticize and analyze to trigger analytical and critical thinking skills. As long as the discussion is done with respects to all parties, the speaker being a good listener and the listener being an assertive speaker, it will only add value to the discussion to be even more fruitful. Also, as in adult education, I believe we would not take things personal. I would encourage and enthusiastically participate in the discussion about the issues in Thailand in class, but in a way that we all focus on finding the benchmark practices, not complaining, so that in case there are chances, those practices can be adopted into real practice. Of course, there is no one best solution to all the problems and it would be good to have many people brainstorm to create many solutions as a way for scenario planning that will benefit our future.
reflection nine To: Dear Dr. Andy We had an interesting discussion about 1)the conflict between teacher/parents/ and students.2) and classroom management. Dr. Andy had explained about the importance of classroom management, and discussion about students are immigrant to other country.How each country government should be concern to people, and educational system and policy, needed to provide facilities for education to motivate educators attention.By the way open border make a chance for educator to choose better opportunuty for education.some ountries they are setting educational strategy ,even international conclusion but they aren't following... other discussion about classroom management such as all boys or all girls there will be no any motivation in some casess , no challenging , ...
Applications: 1)Classroom motivation ( gender issues) that make a balnance, challengeing reflections , Administrator need to be much concern about it . 2)For immigration , I have the same mind as Dr. Andy mentioned . There shouldn't be boundry for people to immigrant for study or living.Students will challenging with different culture, there will more opportunities in communication,getting extra knowledge,... 3)Classroom management and setting some rules,Teachers need to be carefull and be good example, should know how to motivate students on learning.
13 comments:
Hi: Just commenting as a reminder to all of you, that we have made some minor adjustments in the schedule to accommodate tonights' question and answer session. We will look at the Marzano reading on instruction, curriculum and classroom management next week. Then, in week nine, we will have a slightly longer than normal session, in which we will cover both of the Littky readings, the one on kids and the bigger picture in education, as well as the atmosphere and school culture selections. Thanks, Dr. Andy
When: 16.07.2010
We had a very nice discussion on motivation and classroom management in an all-boys school.
We also discussed a bit on governments and immigrants. We came to the conclusion that free movement of people result in better governments. In the perfect world there would be no borders, people would move freely and therefore governments would need to listen to their people in order to keep them in the country.
Also, we talked a bit about some governments telling other governments how to run their countries while they themselves can't follow what they say (vide the USA sometimes).
Application:
1. As an administrator, I would try to make sure that the number of boys and girls in my school is pretty much equal. It helps in classroom management and motivation. I would try to avoid to have a school with only girls or boys.
2. As with the immigration, I would allow the students to be able to change schools freely (with good reason of course). It would force the schools to listen to their students and parents and provide the best education. School without students would have no money to survive and weak schools would be therefore eliminated.
3. As a teacher I should be an example to my students, so if I want them to follow certain rules, I should be a good example and follow them too (to some extend of course, not always to the same extend as the students).
Well thought out and atriculated reflection with great school applications!
This week, we had a Q&A class instead of Marzano, which is postponed to next week. One of the students in class asked a lot of interesting questions, raising following issues.
1. Blending "Gender" into classroom management.
2. Sporadic analytical points of American education, with direct experience example from the instructor.
3. Issues regarding the news article that one student posted on FB, regarding the newly issued state federal law on Mexican labor working in the U.S
4. Issues regarding application paper
Application:
1. Regarding Gender issues, I think it applies to all settings. In classroom management, the mixture in co-ed should help balance the dynamic flow in classroom management. In supervisory skills training, there were also similar case studies. With the EEO law being implemented, such practice is not legally right, but this mixture technique (or whatever it is called technically) can help solve unseen office issues that lie under the carpet and are sensitive to be addressed out in the public. I have an example of an office with all female staff. There were issues regarding hierarchical power of the younger staff who was promoted before the older staff. The older staff "were reported" to have such behaviors as talking behind the back or backbiting, causing conflicts and gossips all over the organization. This makes the team resistant to improvement and productivity. Once new positions are approved, it was not stated in the Job Description that it is restricted to a male or female as it is against the law. But in the interviewing process, the highest boss mentioned that it would be nice to have male staff in office too, as the philosophy of working is to encourage "diversity". Such thing, help the old people change their focus of resistance to the new employee instead, but such resistance cannot be detrimental as the newly hired staff was in the senior position and the other was the lowest position. This help keep the balance in the office. I would not go too much into detail here. By the way, after a one year tryout, this office got an award for the best Customer Service Provider, which should be a guarantee that measures the better performance of the office. The gender mixture might not be the sole cause of this improvement, but it should be one of the factors that balance the dynamic flow within the office environment management, making a hassle-free working environment.
2. Regarding immigration, I kind of think what Dr. Andrew's mentioned regarding John Lennon's quotation from the song "Imagine" is a food for thought. There should be no country in the world. (Trying not to sound too surreal) :-)
3. As a teacher, I should try to manage time better to be a good example for my students. Obviously, this is the part I need improvement......
Thank you for a meaningful class, Dr. Andrew
Just in addition to my last comment, I would like to suggest that in classroom discussion, the issue of "cultural sensitivity" should be raised. I kind of feel offended when someone mention Thailand in a bad way, even it is true sometimes. Not because I am Thai, but because I believe wherever you go to live in this world, mostly, you will find the same problem in different settings. If you go to live in Montenegro, you will complain about a new problem in the new country. It is, of course, personal rights to say it and we are a small group. But it's just something I'd like to raise for your concern. Instead of generalizing such problems to be the whole Thai attributes and shaking your head when mentioning the word "Thai", would it be better to generalize it in a wider picture as a concept or so?
Let's talk about this next class. I am sure nobody meant to cause offense. It was more a case of honest airing of concerns, for example US policy came up for a lot more criticism, as with Canadian, than did Thai. However we will talk about the issue next class. Remind me should I forget.
Dear Nuchy,
Most of the I do not criticize Thailand because I want it to look bad. I want it to be better! I want some things to improve because I love this country and this is where I am going to spend the rest of my life. So when I am critical about something it is because I want it to be better. I always speak in positive way about Thailand to outsiders, but when I am with people who live and understand Thailand I usually discuss things that I would like to see improving.
It is like with my classroom - to my students I always tell them to improve, that they need to work harder, sometimes I tell them they are lazy. Why? Because I want them to be the best, not because I hate them.
Some people never criticize, they always speak positively about things. Why? They often see the negatives, they just do not mention it because they know that when there are lots of negatives it is going to collapse, and this is what they really want.
I know what I wrote here might be a bit confusing but as I said, I criticize some aspect of Thailand, because I care about it.
Do I criticize my country, Poland? Yes I do. When I talk to Polish people I will be very critical, because I care.
Thanks,
Marcin
Not taking sides here because I can see and understand concerns both ways. Sure we should respect our adopted country, and if we live in Thailand we have a lot to be thankful for. No question about it! It is also true that if you look to history, regimes which tolerated no crticism were often amongst the most repressive on earth: Hitler's Germany, Italy under Mussolini, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and China under Chairman Mao, all used the repression of critics as a method of terrorizing their own citizens. Looking to a more recent example, had Americans listened earlier to war critics like the Dixie Chicks and Michael Moore, there might have been thousands of lives saved in Iraq, including a very high proportion of innocent women and children. Here in Thailand too, it is in part our unwillingness to take an honest look at income disparity and social injustice that drives the divisions within the country to the extremity witnessed in the recent red/yellow shirt clashes. "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
I see the points that Dr.Andy and Marci brought up, looking at our country from a foreigner's perspective, making points that are constructive to further improvement. I also respect that the points mentioned are true in a way. Knowing that you have already been aware of, the only thing left that I would like to make my point clear is to "Respectfully mention country or cultural issues", including not to personally build sterotypes for that specific nation. The fact that I see foreigners mentioning Thailand in a bad, non-constructive way with Thais sitting there, smiling is where I am coming from. Of course, the discussion in the class will only be meaningful and constructive only if we criticize and analyze to trigger analytical and critical thinking skills. As long as the discussion is done with respects to all parties, the speaker being a good listener and the listener being an assertive speaker, it will only add value to the discussion to be even more fruitful. Also, as in adult education, I believe we would not take things personal. I would encourage and enthusiastically participate in the discussion about the issues in Thailand in class, but in a way that we all focus on finding the benchmark practices, not complaining, so that in case there are chances, those practices can be adopted into real practice. Of course, there is no one best solution to all the problems and it would be good to have many people brainstorm to create many solutions as a way for scenario planning that will benefit our future.
Noot: very well put! I highly endorse everything you have written in the above comment!
reflection nine
To: Dear Dr. Andy
We had an interesting discussion about 1)the conflict between teacher/parents/ and students.2) and classroom management.
Dr. Andy had explained about the importance of classroom management, and discussion about students are immigrant to other country.How each country government should be concern to people, and educational system and policy, needed to provide facilities for education to motivate educators attention.By the way open border make a chance for educator to choose better opportunuty for education.some ountries they are setting educational strategy ,even international conclusion but they aren't following...
other discussion about classroom management such as all boys or all girls there will be no any motivation in some casess , no challenging , ...
Applications:
1)Classroom motivation ( gender issues) that make a balnance, challengeing reflections , Administrator need to be much concern about it .
2)For immigration , I have the same mind as Dr. Andy mentioned . There shouldn't be boundry for people to immigrant for study or living.Students will challenging with different culture, there will more opportunities in communication,getting extra knowledge,...
3)Classroom management and setting some rules,Teachers need to be carefull and be good example, should know how to motivate students on learning.
Thanks.
Mali
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