Tuesday, 8 July 2008

A night out on the town

Thought you might like to know how much last night's lovely meal out for 5 people cost. 240 bhat = £6. We weren't drinking, just water, but how amazing is that...
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3 comments:

Rowena Arshad said...

That meal sounds fab and the price even more so. The beauty is you sweat so much, you don't really put on the weight.

I think one of the aspects of this and last year's trip is you and your teacher's activism in issues beyond CoE for example. My colleague Lindsay Paterson as part of his research in 1988 found that teachers ‘reported many directly beneficial effects of activism on their professional competence, both in the sense of their access to curricular materials and their general effectiveness as a teacher.’ For these teachers, having wider networks, developing trust with practitioners outwith the teaching profession have clearly developed their social, cultural and intellectual capacities. I am assuming that it would stand to reason that for those teachers that can be persuaded to engage with individuals and agencies that address issues of equity and discrimination, that these teachers will develop more empirical reasoning and practical purpose for these issues thereby increasing their likelihood to alter pedagogical practice.

However, the crowded curriculum in teacher education institutions and in schools do not often offer such “border-crossing” opportunities to teachers.

I would be interested to discuss with you once you are back, how this can be achieved. I think unless we have these engagements, we will have teachers who increasingly feel just like operatives rather than teachers and student teachers who will continue to be either sweetly naive or highly inward looking.

Ah well, that is the rant of the day over...

Bye for now
Rowena

8 July 2008 at 09:06
breadon said...

Hi Sheila and Geoff good to hear your news and that you'r enjoying your visit. The lego and games must be so interesting for the kindergarden children to play with and the washbasins look great. Look forward to your further adventures. Regards Chris and dang

8 July 2008 at 09:20
Forthview said...

Hi Chris and Dang, Today I was showing the Grade 5 children slides of how you got us involved with Hle Bee originally. They were quite amazed by this and clearly hold you in great affection. At first I called you Chris Robinson and they looked blank. Then I said CHRIS - Oh Chris! They were full of smiles. Lovely.

Sheila

Hi Rowena

Wow!You're on a roll but is this not all related to your research? (How's it doing by the way?) And if leadership shows the will and the way, it will quickly motivate those eager to learn and slowly but surely this thinking will spread. This is the point of Global Schools Partnership because teachers can only exchange a maximum of twice so the practice is not confined to one enthusiast in a school but spreads widely. I completely agree that this experience changes and informs your teaching and professional practice. Beginning in an exchange of art, our thinking now affects practice in social studies, health, enterprise, maths, writing, music..... Today I was teaching the Burmese Grade 5 class (top class) about the Dalai Lama. I was so surprised they didn't know and they asked why he can't go back to Tibet. Drawing the link to their situation, being unsafe to return to Burma was fascinating as you almost saw their brains processing this information, linking it to what they already understand. What a privilege. Thanks to my dear interpreter Guardian Angel. So thanks for your reflections and we will discuss on my return (over afternoon tea at the Sheraton of couse!). Sheila

8 July 2008 at 12:52

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