Not too bad for a bad day

Re: Just for laughs.

Think you are having a bad day?

Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section
of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The
deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba
tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask.

A post-mortem test revealed that the man died, not from burns, but
from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive
identification. Investigators then set about to determine how a fully
clothed diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.

It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, the man went diving off
the coast, some 20 miles from the forest. The fire fighters, seeking
to control the fire as quickly as possible, had called in a fleet of
helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the
ocean and emptied at the site of the forest fire.

You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the
Pacific, the next he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket
300 feet in the air.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.




Still having a bad day?

Just remember, it could be worse . . . The average cost of
rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill In Alaska was
$80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved
animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and
applause from onlookers.

A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.



Still think you are having a bad day?

A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking
frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire
running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt
him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank
of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had
been happily listening to his Walkman.



STILL think you're having a bad day?

Two animal rights protesters were protesting the cruelty of sending
pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn , Germany . Suddenly, all two thousand
pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding
madly. The two hopeless protesters were trampled to death.

What?! STILL having a bad day??

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter
bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting
it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

There, now, feeling better?

From :
OFFICER,
WSD/WORKSHOPS PRODUCTION CONTROL ()

A Service Learning Project Reflection

It is interesting to see that in NIE, trainee teachers are expected to do Service-Learning as a module (or should I say, system requirement for teacher qualification) when Service-Learning is such a specialised and highly reputable skill. I feel that is doing injustice and disservice to SL.

A quick glance at the kind of projects we teachers carry out reveals this: A lot of emphasis is being placed on the ‘doing’ and ‘serving’ rather than the ‘learning’ of the trainee teachers. When you help out with community service work or run a camp, you are simply offering a service. Where, then, is the 'Learning' which is supposed to come hand-in-hand with our service? By doing a reflection report after you've done everything? How does that help you to learn???

I cannot believe the module I was assigned to do is so contrary to what I know about service learning. It is definitely injustice to SL. On a personal level, I feel that trainee teachers are not adequately trained in service learning to carry out the project meaningfully. It seems that everybody is coming together simply to complete a requirement for graduation rather than to seek learning and personal development. And if the teachers, who are to later take on the role of facilitators, do not acquire the necessary skills in service learning, then it will naturally be reflected in the way they run the event and engage the students and fellow teachers. I believe this is not the desired outcome of the whole experience.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED
Firstly NIE cannot assume that a group-engineered experience will lead to individual learning. Second, it must change the mindset that people are capable of acquiring very high level skills in an unreasonably short period of time. If you want something short term and can produce results, forget about service learning. Unprocessed experience is wasted experience. This explains why people can be experienced and yet don't seem to have gained much from their experience. SL is powerful and even helpful for educators when they know how to maximize on it. One awesome thing about SL is that it can use the simplest lesson to teach a difficult concept. The whole point about doing reflection is so that you can keep improving and changing because you're constantly looking at yourself and making changes to keep yourself growing. SL is progressive, not a hit-and-run. SL builds depth into character, and character is not formed in an instant. SL requires multi perspectives, so that new possibilities are unveiled before the eyes.

In our mad-rushness for instant results, we have allowed this undesirable mad-rushing mentality to infiltrate every part of our culture and lifestyle. That is what we are today. And if we don't start growing deep, someday we're just going to collapse cuz our roots are so shallow.

Just some thots...

Haven had any inspiration for a long time... Anyway, its good to be back. Well, practicum was fun and was a great time with the kids. I realise that sometimes its good not to be too smart, or to think too much like me... haha. Life is really pretty simple.

It has been a great joy teaching the students here (altho for some, it is just relief and then dota...:) and I think the best memories I'd have as I step back into NIE will be those times I spent with these guys (esp 3T1). Seriously 3T1 is quite a joy to teach, despite hearing very negative stuff from the teachers. I could remember everyone so well that if you ask me to write a personal card for them, I'd have something for everyone.

2 weeks left to NIE!!!!

Having very mixed feelings about going back, altho its kind of comforting to know that rest kicks in when you return to schooling. I duno what stupid assignments they'll give me this time but I think I'll have to get my future lessons ready ;) AND I WILL MISS MY STUDENTS!!! ROAR!!! Thank god for friendster. Its the only thing that'll remind me that I haven lost my contacts... hehe...altho I'm not really a supporter of friendster (it laggggggssss......)