Tricky answer..

My colleague and I were sharing on our encounters with our unpredictable batch of diploma students....

My colleague in one of her Microcomputing class...

Colleague: Tell me class, what do you know about computers?
Student1 : Ah, I use it to download songs..
Student2 : I use it to download movies...
Student3 : We use them to watch porn movies.. (my goodness)
Students : I access the facebook, friendster, twitter etc...

My colleage commented that she needs to find new ways to teach them...

In one of my class (we were discussing on some techniques that we can use to generate research idea)

Me : What do you understand by brainstorming?
Student 1: Crack our head, hit the head real hard?
Me : Err... in a way..., tell me more
Student 2: Ah, is it something to do with disturbance to the brain..
Me : Err... (you can't actually said they are wrong, right?) BUT I honestly believe they don't get it quite right, so I got to interfere to clarify their understanding on what does it really mean by "storming" the brain..

I believe we should not limit our students' answer and encourage them to be expressive and critical, but at times you do need a lot of sense of humour and patience to deal with them and be open to receive whatever answers they have for you. :D

First Class of 32

Today I have the first lecture with my Diploma students and comtemplated to get some inputs to the questions below:

1) What do you want to achieve out of the module?
2) How do you want me (the lecturer) to help you to achieve what you listed in (1)
3) What can you do to achieve what you listed in (1)

The inputs were:

1) Almost 100% said they wanted to achieve high distinction in the course
2) 60% asked for more tips during the final examination (typical students!), one answered "Make the exam paper easier" and one commented "Give me a high score in my assignment".
3) Majority answered "work hard, play hard, be attentive in class" and one even commented, "prayed that the lecturer will like my assignment" :)

Well, it's a good start isn't it? I told them the tips will be given in each of the classes, so they got to attend all lectures and be aware of the magic words "This is very important...". At the mean time I am to deliver the lessons clearly, make the classes fun, interactive , provide good notes and give a good lecture.... these are what expected from me. Not a bad start for a class of 32, as for now, we'll see what transpire later...

Natural inspiration

I was preparing for lecture this morning and attempted to use this UK based company by the name of "Pret A Manger" as a case study exercise for my students. As I was exploring their website, I found below pictures from their website very naturally inspirated and hopefully will give some mothers out there some inspiration while preparing food for our kids. I extracted some information from their website (www.pret.com) - Pret opened in London in 1986 by two college friends, Sinclair and Julian, made proper sandwiches using natural, preservative-free ingredients...

You see they can turn this sandwich into a big empire today, that's call entrepreneurship, so mothers out there if you have a new way of preparing food, it might end up to be a great enterprising idea, so don't be sceptical, who knows one day your home recipe might turn out to be a multimillionaire business... :)

A great way to get our kids eat oranges...

How about using this idea to get your kids eat their vege... and also to remind them to brush their teeth after every meal..


Let's take this before we go to school and work eh...

Ah... it seems the fish is enjoying its dip....

Occasionally Enterprising...

One of the subject I’ll be teaching this semester is Enterprising Management and one of the exercise that I plan to do with my students is the GET test (General Enterprise Tendency test). The test was initially developed by staff at Durham University Business School and over the years has been revised. The tool was meant to test if one has the entrepreneurial personality, in other words to see if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur (one who has an innovative idea and able to commercialize it to create wealth). It’s an objective based questionnaire, 54 questions in all, quite simple and you just got to tick your stand on the statements whether you tend to agree or disagree…
Well, this is what I score and the interpretation of the “entrepreneur likelihood” in me. :)

“Occasionally enterprising”
You are likely to have strengths in some of the enterprising characteristics and may be enterprising in some contexts. At this time you probably are unlikely to set up an innovative growth-oriented global business, and may be able to express your enterprise either within employment as an intrapreneur, or in your leisure time through voluntary community projects.

You probably wish to consider tried and tested enterprising ideas that fit in with your lifestyle.

You may be happy to work as an intrapraneur as a valuable member of an organisational team. If you start your own enterprise, you may need to cultivate stronger independent leadership qualities. Starting a business is not the only option for you. You would be probably equally happy to work as an employee as part of an organisational team or on your own projects.

You would probably look to others for entrepreneurial ideas but are probably content with proven, traditional approaches to business or enterprise.

You are not happy about taking on any risk and perhaps you have too many responsibilities or too few personal resources to allow you to feel comfortable about taking financial or business risks.

You scored highly in having an internal locus of control. This means that you may have the following qualities:
• Opportunistic, seeking and taking advantage of opportunities;
• Self-confidence with the belief that you have control over your destiny and you make your own luck (I trust in God’s plan for me), rather than being controlled by fate;
• Proactive, taking personal responsibility to navigate problems that arise to achieve success on your terms;
• Determination and express a strong willed control over life;
• Self belief, equating the results achieved with the effort you make.
Having an internal locus of control means that you confidently seek to exert control over your life, drawing on your inner resources rather than depending on others. You strongly believe that your personal qualities and efforts will determine your success in life. (I’m just a simple woman delighted by the simple things around me!!)

Thinking of running your own business, you may want to try this test out at
http://get2test.net/test/index.htm before deciding on your next move...anyway it's just a test, should not be an ultimate tool to influence your decision.

"WATCH OUT"

Today is my 4th day at the college, classes have not commence, so kind of light and easy mode here, furthermore it's exam week over here and most lecturers have taken the opportunity to clear their leaves, put their hair down and leisurely preparing for next semester's lectures, assignments as well as exam questions.

Joining the college at this point of time is one of the best arrangement, it allows me to fit in the environment, get to know other colleagues as well, wander within the perimeter of the college, get a glimpse of the college working culture and also foretaste the life of a full time lecturer.

Yesterday while having lunch with my colleagues, she pre-warned us of some practical jokes played by the students on her and possibly on my other colleague and I (since we are the 2 new ones) when the semester reopens. What she encountered so far was a fake arm on the chair in one of the lecture hall, a fake cockcroach (gee.. I hate it) and student bringing their "pets" to registration day.....

Okay... with this realistic preview of some of the students' tactics here, I shall prepare myself to face them i.e. do not shout and jump over the sight of any cockcroaches in the class, do not be overly concerned on an extra "helping hand" that may appeared before me, learn to associate with whatever "pets" they wanted to introduce me to, do not overact over the sight of blood stains, skeletons, "dead objects", foul smell etc (God knows what are they up to...)

All the best to me ya! God gave me wisdom to deal with whoever that He wants me to deal with starting from this 10th Aug!!

A or B

After been lecturing for half a year now (trial period), I decided that lecturing is what I wanted to do, so since April I've been scouting around looking for a full time lecturing position. Just this June 2 colleges (I named them A & B here)came back to me with their offers(I don't know why good things sometimes comes in pairs). After evaluating the pros and cons, probing answers to all my doubts, I somehow decided today which college to take up and gathered my guts to turn down the other offer (which in terms of benefits and salary wise is better). I may sound crazy but I prayed that God will give me peace of mind for the decision making and I'm quite at peace now, so let's continue to pray I'm making a wise decision here...

Just to share A Vs B

A - quite established, nice building, new working cubicle with laptop provided, salary is 10% higher than B with dental benefits, 25 days of annual leave, currently the department I'm about to attach with is without the head (turnover of the head is high!!), near to where hubby's office so can car pool very convenient, 5 days work..

B - growing college, older building with older facilities, desktop provided, salary is lower, no dental benefit, 24 days AL, 5 days work, flexi hour (8-4, 9-5 or 10-6), after chatting with the head, he's quite sure of what he wanted to do, free and easy guy, get to learn ODL (open distant learning)model of learning as it is affiliated with a local U.

With this evaluation, I decided to go for B.

Super hilarious question from my student

I've not been blogging about my lecture life but something spectacular happened this morning that I must blog about it. It is very normal that students asked me questions during, after or before lecture session. This morning I was teaching the topic about effective writing and we were discussing on the requirements of a good thesis report writing, the requirements for the introduction, body and conclusion of the whole write-up. Serious things here right? So in the mid of the lecture I decided to break for 5 as the session is real dry and I could see my students' mind have wondered....

One of my foreign student, a Thai young lady asked if she could asked me a question, well by all means go ahead, that's what I'm here for right?.. to facilitate her learning and furthermore we are doing "Developing Learning Effectiveness in International Business"... Below is our conversation (I have another male Thai student in the class as well)..

Student : Teacher, can I asked you something?
Me : Well, sure
Student : Do you know how I can remove my armpit hair permanently?
Yes... this is exactly how she puts it... amazing right?
Me : Startled... (want to faint already..)oh my goodness.. how am I going to answer that..
Me : Hmm.... I'm afraid I cannot help you with your problem, but you can approach some beauty saloon/center and seek their advice.. (at the same time I looked at my male student and see his reaction, it seems our topic of interest did not bother him, in fact he is now in our conversation too.. my goodness..)
Student : My friends asked me to shave.. but it's too troublesome...
Me : Err... yeah... I heard of the wax thing...
Student : Yeah, I know but it's not permanent...
Me : (oh yeah you want a permanent solution...) I think you should just go to the center and asked.
Student : I used to pluck it everyweek...so painful...
Me : Oh ya....
Male student : Oh yes I did observed girls with armpit hair... very weird..
Me : (what you expect me to say...), just smile at both of them...

I tried to change the topic from removing armpit hair to facial regime...(thank goodness it works!)....so we were leisurely discussing about the product that we use and blah blah blah... I quickly resumed the class and back to where we stopped earlier.... gosh.. I really need to be careful the next time I welcome questions from the students, aiyoh...

Lecture-mia

We’ve been watching the movie Mamma Mia repeatedly… so we are hot with mias….

Started to teach last Tuesday, so far so good. I’m blessed with a wonderful view, the class that I taught in faces the sea, so a sea-view classroom with layers of mountain as the background. The college that I taught in situated in a high-rise building, 28th floor the second last storey of the entire building. What a nice way to start my new chapter of life.

I’m teaching 4 subjects this semester, 2 papers each for Diploma and Degree program. The class size is small, with only 2 or 3 students per class, so lots of interaction with the students, I also have 2 foreign students this semester, one from Saudi Arabia and the other, Bangladesh.

The current teaching arrangement is very flexible, I get to choose my time and only required to be present during lecture hours in which I packed them into 3 full days, averaging about 6 hours/day. I can choose to prepare the lectures at home or in the staff room during my free time.

Sounds like a pretty good arrangement but of course in terms of the employment package it is incomparable to my previous positions. I’m hoping to get some teaching experience and wait upon God’s leading, besides God is good to prepare a job so fast (the one I’m looking for) and at the same time allows me to cover the general expenses of our household.

So if I sound too naggy in my blogs, please bear with me ya…lecturer mah…. I’m hoping to be a facilitator, facilitating the students in their knowledge acquiring process and not lecturing my way……………