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Feedback from a Student

Posted in all posts, blogging, life, philosophy, stories, teaching by coleman yee on August 4, 2006

Yesterday, I had my last lesson with a group of students. Since this was my last opportunity to speak to them, I spent quite a bit of effort in preparation for it.

The “closing talk” went really well. Using lots of my own stories and experiences with loads of humor, I had the full attention of the 18-year-olds (including the normally attention-deficient ones) throughout the 150-Powerpoint-slides-in-45-minutes session. (Yes, I really had 150 slides.)

Later that day, one of the girls blogged about it:

today during i n e lesson i was really inspired by coleman’s closing talk. he talked about courage, and having the “just do it” attitude. i feel that i should have that attitude too and not try and think so much. at times im a real thinker and think about the consequences, and factors that would affect my decision. also, he did emphasize that we get only one life, so make it meaningful. yes. i should make my life meaningful and make it my own. i want to re-live life again. yes, i’ve got only 1 life, and i should treasure it and make it really meaningful. he did mention about honesty also. yes, its very important. and i guess when i make decisions, i guess, its not about whether its theoretically right or not, but whether the decision i made is it honest to myself or not. these are lifeskills, and it is essential. coleman’s closing did really inspire me and i’ve really made the decision to make my life meaningful. this life is mine and God is in control. i want to rise up and soar from the situation i am in.

It’s reading things like this from students that makes teaching really meaningful and worth all the effort.

9 comments

Metaphors for Students

Posted in all posts, education, philosophy, teaching by coleman yee on May 10, 2006

I was in a training session for new teachers, and the trainees were asked to come up with metaphors for students.

The metaphors that a teacher chooses can give insight into their teaching and learning philosophy and approach, and how they deal with students.

"Students are sponges," offered one of the trainees.

"Anyone has any comments on this metaphor?" asked the facilitator.
I spoke up: "I don't like it because it implies that students are sitting there passively absorbing knowledge from the teacher."

"Who chose this metaphor?" asked the facilitator. "Do you have anything to say?"

"I chose 'sponge' because students tend to absorb everything we say or do, even the wrong things, which makes it quite scary sometimes. Also, sometimes you have to squeeze out the old stuff that's already there before you give them the new stuff."

I thought he had a point.

Anyway, someone else chose 'monkey'. 

"Why 'monkey'?" asked the facilitator.

Someone else quipped, "because they are less evolved."

The guy beside me almost spat out his coffee. 

3 comments

Scrabble, Life, and Teaching

Posted in all posts, education, life, philosophy, teaching by coleman yee on March 25, 2006

I used to play quite a bit of Scrabble at one time, but I stopped after I realized how potentially obsessive things could get.

In Scrabble, you have seven tiles which you took from the bag. Ever so often, you end up with really bad tiles, like too many vowels or consonants. In this way, you could say that there’s an element of luck in the game – if you’re lucky, you end up with good tiles; if you’re unlucky, you get stuck with bad tiles.

The best Scrabble players get bad tiles, just like the rest of us. But unlike the rest of us, they can still can play great games even with bad tiles.

Scrabble expert Marlon Hill was teaching a bunch of schoolkids the game, and he was telling them that the philosophy of Scrabble is like the philosophy of life – whatever you get, you just have to make the most out of what you have.

Good teachers have the same philosophy towards teaching the students they have. You don’t always get bright and motivated students, but you do make the most out of your situation, and bring the best out of your students.

May we have more of such teachers.

2 comments