Category: 06. The chRoNIcles

juz received this today in my (snail)mailbox:

seeing the handwriting alone, i have guessed who sent it without the need to flip it over and *faint* :

??????????

?????

???????????

?????? 🙂

guat kheng passed this to the remnants of class of 05, the DASH movie, slow down your ‘dash’, sit back, watch and reflect 🙂

yesterday was the first lesson for mlt801 “foundations of learning and knowledge building” facilitated by a/p chee yam san. the lesson was most enlightening, and, mind-boggling. there are still a few ideas that still stuck to my head fresh until now (my seriously failing memory due to the lack of sleep has not had so much ideas stuck in it for a long long time). i cant catch the exact phrasing of each quote but here’s wat i have:
on “the mind”
– it’s hard to entertain the idea that a human living does not actually knows wat’s going on up in his mind
on “human understanding themselves”
– if it takes a (n+1)th level being to understand a nth level being, does it mean that a human cannot really fully understand themselves?
on “philosophy”
– Rene Descartes, founder/father of modern philosophy, greatest proposition: “Cogito ergo sum” (translation: I think, therefore I am”)
on “views”
– can there really be a ‘view from nowhere‘?
on “computation”
– rules … ‘if’ …. ‘then’ …..
on “rules and representation”
– in 3×4=12, does the computer really _understand_ wat’s 3? and wat’s 4? it but shows a representation of ’12’ (after computation, based on in-built rules)
on “meaning”
– does dictionary really give/tell meaning? every page is but carbon on paper
after all these many ideas, wat do they actually mean to me as a teacher? perhaps it’s important for us to keep on reminding ourselves about the assumptions (esp the way we (re)present our ideas to students) that we have while we go about our teaching, day after day, month after month, year after year. our students have each their own mind, and though we wont be able to understand each of them fully, if at all, we can help them find meaning and make them realise they are thinking beings. to learn to understand how the mind works (+neuroscience perspective) will enable us to better represent meaning to our students, in hope that they will be able to construct a (better) understanding for themselves. students are not computers, if we treat them with computers and feed them with only rules, ????????
looks like if every lesson is going to be like this, we’ll being having an exciting time ahead, especially when we are adopting a FCL (Fostering Communities of Learners) apporach for our lessons. not sure if the practical aspect can really work out for the many part-time students like us coz it’s almost impossible to find time to meet up, and to construct meaning together. even if we manage to get together, the mental states may not be ready. everyone is taking the module for different objectives/reasons, quite unlikely for everyone to be there for the (constrution of) knowledge/learning. in any case, be forward-looking and make the best within the constraints. and got to pray hard that i can manage to get at least a B- for all my 3 modules, else i wont be able to graduate 😐

today is teachers’ day, happy teachers’ day to all teachers 🙂
this is the first teachers’ day away from school, missed the students. yesterday, had 3 met ups with ex-students: (1)had lunch with 凯琳(03-5n1), glad that she’s doing fine with her course which she’ll be completing at the end of the year; (2)visited 冰容(04-4e1) at sgh, stayed and chatted with 1+ hours, glad to see that she’s recovering, condition has improved much since 1+ week ago. pray that she’ll get well soon and discharge from the ward; (3)went to marina south zhenfa live seafood after leaving sgh, about 20 04-4e1s were there. good n glad to see my students still coming together for gatherings. (some of you may be recapping the evening in your blogs, if you are reading this and would like a link, leave me a comment)
2 articles from 04-3e2 arrived in the snail mailbox: (1)can see the trust in singpost service by 珮绮、乐玲、詠薇 from the still-in-1-piece item that arrvied; (2)a nice little card made by 斯惠. 2 sms greetings arrived from 丽琳(04-4e1) n 世玮(03-5n1).
离校后还能和学生保持联络、收到他们的祝福/挂念，心中有一种莫名的滋味。相信这是缘分，所以也经常嘱咐学生要惜缘。哦，差点忘了，还有思佳的一则网记。以上一切的一切勾起无限回忆，在此再送上一句老话，”加油！加油！”，尤其是那些就快要面临考试的。保持联络 🙂

the server has been experiencing error 500 these 2 days with the mt.cgi, it’s affecting my updates and the helpdesk is not responsing to my emails, wat’s going on? *arrgggrrhhh*