– a Singaporean teacher's storeroom 🖖
just realised it’s been 7 years since i penned a “qotd, my” (:
so here’s another one:
“lazy to argue with you” (Tan, 2020)
(just-for-fun suggested citation: Tan, Y.H. (2020, Aug 12). quote of the day, my [blog post]. Retrieved from https://edublog.net/wp/2020/08/12/quote-of-the-day-my-2/
thanks to rab my pal for suggesting this 😁
was reading two books in preparation for an opportunity to extend the lifelong learning experiences, and here are a few quotes (with emphasis added) that appeared in the first book which i found personally meaningful:
“You’re recently promoted. You’re now a vice-president or a provost or a department supervisor. Now the work begins. You haven’t arrived, and you’ve only begun to travel. In the same way, having children means only that the work of becoming a parent has begun. The biological event is very different from the love and commitment, the skinned knees and dirty diapers …… the sacrifices for tuition and music lessons, the laughter and the tears — these kinds of things add up to earning the title ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’. One becomes a leader, I believe, through doing the work of a leader. It’s often difficult and painful and sometimes even unrewarding, and it’s work …… I hope that you, too, will discover that so much of leadership is music from the heart.”
(De Pree, 2008, p.9-10)
“The promises we make as leaders must resonate with our beliefs and values. Otherwise they ring false, and people know it. In our lives as leaders, we frequently find ourselves in situations where skill and technique fail us. At times, professional qualifications simply aren’t enough. We need to resort to deeper resources, resources beyond technique and the jargon of seminars, resources rooted in our beliefs and values. It behooves us, then, to find our voices.”
(De Pree, 2008, p.28)
“Vision is the basis for the best kind of leadership. A vision exists somewhere when teams succeed. Instinctively, we most of us follow a leader who has real vision and who can transform that vision into a meaningful and hopeful strategy. I’m not talking here about next quarter’s sales targets — that is no vision. But the tenders of visions are often lonely, usually unpopular, and frequently demand that others change. People with a vision injects ambiguity and risk and uncertainty into our lives. They embark on voyages to new worlds.”
(De Pree, 2008, p.31-32)
“Moving up the hierarchy does not confer competence. This is hard to keep in mind …… A promotion likely to pan out produces temporary incompetence, the kind of awkwardness that always comes before deeper understanding. The only appropriate response to a promotion is ‘Good grief, have I got a lot to learn now!‘”
(De Pree, 2008, p.34)
“In a way, leadership is as delicate as Mozart’s melodies. The music exists and it doesn’t. It is written on the page, but it means nothing until performed and heard. Much of its effect depends on the performer and the listener. The best leaders, like the best music, inspire us to new possibilities.“
(De Pree, 2008, p.38)
Reference:
De Pree, M. (2008). Leadership jazz: The essential elements of a great leader. New York: Crown Business.
汉娜、慧珊、俐彤、明丰、子扬、玮旭、东贤、远德和宇恒：
今天是年中假期的第一天。这是一个不寻常的年，因为5月份显然还没到年中，而年中假期的到来原本代表我们已经完成我们的战役——华文会考（论理说今天是会考日？）。过去4个月的一起学习让我认识到同学们都有不同的能力和需求，所以我昨天在我们在家学习(FHBL)的最后一天也跟大家分享了“天天进步” 计划供参考、使用。今天虽然是学校假期，但是老师我也没闲着，因为我和大家一样正为下一个“学习机会”而努力筹备着。这时，我心想，大家都已经是中四中五的学生了，很快就要毕业离校，是“小大人”而不是小孩子了。或许可以和大家分享一些刚联想到的想法。#心血来潮
大家或许都觉得自己在为“华文会考”作准备。我们是否有想过，我们只是为会考作准备以考到最好的成绩，还是也为其他东西作准备呢？大家以为自己是学生，其实大家都是运动员，而且还是马拉松健儿(marathon runners)。2020年大家将参加不是一场，而是两场42.195km的马拉松赛！一场原定6月1日（现延期至6月18日），另一场则是十月份开跑。
我们之中有些人天生就爱跑步，有些人不喜欢跑步，甚至不喜欢运动。但是没选择，大家都会参加这两场马拉松比赛。同样的，我们之中有些人比较喜欢华文，有些人从小就不太喜欢华文学习。但无论如何，大家都会参加6月18日的赛事。原来我们的一生中须要面对的事情是有许多我们“不喜欢”或不擅长的事的。#thisislife
准备马拉松容易吗？互联网上一搜，不难发现至少4个月的天天准备是不可少的。准备华文会考容易吗？不需要搜互联网，我们问一问自己吧。
再回到先前的问题，当我们觉得自己使在为“华文会考”作准备，原来我们是在为人生旅途作准备。这个过程中我们会认识到的是自己的强处和弱点（e.g. 有些人可以坚持2个小时不停地做功课；有些人只有30分钟的耐力便须要休息），个人的喜好和厌恶（e.g. 有些人讨厌音乐；有些人则须要听歌曲才能专心）。认识自己的弱点能提醒我们要更好地锻炼，去克服弱的地方使自己变强；熟悉自己的厌恶是提醒自己想办法解决从而提升自己的能力。这些方面的学习和准备将让我们终身受益的（无论是将来的工作或学习）。绝对不只是为了“华文会考”。
综观上述，与其认为自己是在为“华文会考”作准备，不如把这次的过程看作是为人生的旅途作准备。除了认识到一生中须要面对许多我们“不喜欢”的事，也认识自己，克服自己的弱点（e.g. 时间得掌控；self-discipline；focus stamina），把自己锻炼得更强。任何42.195km的挑战？bring it on, 我们做得到！(:
#共勉
updated the version no. to v4 after completing migrating server (back) to bluehost (cant remember when was it updated to v3 and the migration to advancednetworkhost). originally scheduled to do this in June, but since it’s busy time ahead with the covid-19 shifting our mid-year school hols one month in advance, thought would be better to do it while i still remember and before other things catch up (:
the last post was created on 0214, and today’s 0412. on 0214, the covid-19 situation was just budding, and now on 0412 the situation has escalated worldwide. on 0214, classroom teaching was still going on as per ‘normal’; on 0412, the new norm today (which began 4 days ago) is full home-based learning (or FHBL in short). so how has learning become, from one norm to another norm?
chanced upon NUS Prof. Ben Leong’s post in which he reflected on the his FIVE(5) years of journey before achieving success in conducting full online interactive teaching. epistemologically speaking, we know learning is slow and experiential, and i thank prof leong for sharing his (giant’s) experiences for the rest of us to learn from. these are some of the ideas/statements that resonated with me (with emphasis added):
teaching is an inherently social activity, and so is learning which inherently has a social aspect to it. that’s why many teachers, during this time, choose to adopt ‘live’ meeting/lesson via Zoom/Google Meet/any other conferencing tools to engage students. so two questions that may lead on from here: (1) how do we ‘distribute’ the screen time limit among the different subjects each day? (what we are struggling here is screen time WITH teachers; some children are glued to screens big and small in a day and may very well exceed that ‘limit’?); (2) what other means/channels have we put in place to support the social phenomenon? looking at the 5 items that contributed to the successful implementation, [2] activity feeds, [3] in-platform messaging, and [4] in-platform forums are probably missing in popular platforms teachers are currently using (incl. Google Classrooms).
students need to be taught how to be online students. these would include the various aspects of a student’s life, including but not limited to attending lesson, doing and handing up assignments, clarifying doubts with teachers, receiving feedback and seek further clarification for understanding. and some of the rules and routines i have improvised so far include:
i believe the list will expand and be refined as our experiences grow. oh btw, the above list applies to my secondary school students. if you are a K-6 primary school teacher, your list will likely to be different (: now, it’s time for me to go back to my lesson designing and preparation … …
#SGUnited #TogetherWeWillImprove #TogetherWeWillOvercome
(p.s. prof leong has published a note on fb yesterday to share his thoughts on the recent Zoom bombing event and the ongoing hbl)