Learning Pain

Here is a poem I wrote for the class activity on Learning (life, love, and change)
See blog archive (March 2012)

LEARNING PAIN

Learning is a pain
My energy is drained
By the end of the day
All I do is wail
whining as I sit on my chair
Afraid to fail
Words escaped me
Why? Oh, why
do I have to feel this way?
Is there a better way to get an 'A'?

Aiden Yeh

Written on March 2, 2012
In class
Rm 605

Passion in your eyes

I must apologize for the delayed publication of this poem. I wrote this poem in class (after in-class discussion) while my students were also writing their poems on the theme: patriotism (towards their country: Taiwan)

Link to the activity: http://rebelliouspoets.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/discussing-and-writing-about-taiwans.html

Immigration Story

Based on TED video, My Immigration Story, Tan Le

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/tan_le_my_immigration_story.html

Vocabulary

It is okay to be an outsider, a recent arrival, new on the scene — and not just okay, but something to be thankful for. … Because being an insider can so easily mean collapsing the horizons, can so easily mean accepting the presumptions of your province.” (Tan Le)

to endure

oblivious

to bypass

inflexible

enmeshed

relentless

catapulted

marginalized

disenfranchised

hunches

thwarted

entitlement

This video contains a lot of valuable lessons for students. It is a great teaching material about personal/emotional endurance, presumptions, determination, tribulations, and gaining success despite various upheavals.

Personal Branding

Personal Branding- this was the lesson I gave on June 8, 2012

Introduction:

I asked my students to think of how they would introduce themselves to people. What would they say besides their name?

These are what they came up with: I'm a graduating student...; I'm majoring in English...; I come from Taiwan...

I then rephrased my question to: If you were to market yourself, what adjectives could you think of to describe your abilities?

I wrote on the board the word, Brand. I asked students to throw in answers of what they think this word means (listing them on the board). This is what we came up with:

- it is a symbol or trademark
-style
-a name given to a product or service
- recognizable/unique

I then moved on to discussing 'personal brand' and why we should care about it. I asked my students to think of their qualities, what makes them unique.

I drew two columns on the board with the following headings:

Student brand | Personal brand
-smart            | smart
-hardworking | proactive
- earnest        | creative
-inspiring       | competent
-positive       | experienced
-cunny          | productive
                    | effective

Passion- this is priceless, you can learn skills. love what you do
Energy- pursue what you love to do

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There's more to this that happened in the classroom, but the point of the lesson is for the students to discover their own self-worth. Self-impression is important and an awareness of what and how people think about you is valuable in gaining self-confidence or simply just improving yourself.

Secrets

Frank Warren: Half a million secrets #TED : http://on.ted.com/CR6c
(http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_warren_half_a_million_secrets.html)

Video Summary:

"Secrets can take many forms -- they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful." Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret.com, shares some of the half-million secrets that strangers have mailed him on postcards. He posits that, "Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas, of frailty and heroism playing out silently in the lives of people all around us.”

Frank Warren is the creator of the PostSecret Project, a blog full of secrets anonymously shared via postcard.

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Based on this material, I created a lesson plan for today's class. I wrote on the board the following words:

secrets
anonymous
shocking
soulful
frailty
chuckle
crowdsourcing
struggle
uncover
haunt

I asked the students to look for the definitions of the words above (both in Chinese and English), and I asked them to share with the whole class what they have found. I used this opportunity to add a few comments, throw questions that would make them think or guess what the discussion theme was about.
I asked them if they have secrets that they have been keeping to themselves. Secrets that they find difficult to share with their family and friends. These questions made my students smile and laugh. I told them that I also have my share of own pandora's box- now this made them chuckle and probably curious, as well.

Once the topic, SECRETS, was revealed. I showed/played a short video, and asked them to watch and listen carefully. See the web link to the video above.

The content of the video was meaningful as all of us, including our students, have secrets. And like what Frank said on the video, these secrets can be shocking, silly, and soulful.

I played the video the second time, and this time I paused on every secret that Frank shared. We looked at our own reactions, and we asked ourselves if we could do something that is totally out of the ordinary- sharing our secrets anonymously. And we did!

The secrets shared were not only about the mischievous things we did in the past (or intending to do), but they were also about things that students think fancy but never shared anyone.

Sharing our secrets- anonymously in  class!

Since this was a big class (50 students), I felt it was safe to do this activity. I would think twice if it was a small class.

I distributed stick-it-note pads  in class, and I asked students to get one pad and write on it THEIR secret. They were asked not to write their names or any clue that would give out their identity. As soon as they were finished writing, I asked them to fold it. I walked around carrying a small pouch where they drop their written secrets. At this stage, the students were excited and obviously, they were having fun. Before I read out their secrets, I dropped my own little secret in the bag, too.

As I read our secrets aloud, everyone was saying ,'oh', 'aha!', or simply asking, 'who on earth would that be?'. This is what I think made the activity fun.

In a nutshell, I believe that this was a successful activity- one where everybody had a blast, including myself!

NOTE:

sample of students' anonymous secrets will be published on this blog soon.

Comments on Students' Poems (3)

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