I am currently in a seminar/ workshop in UP - National Engineering Center. We are "talking" about a seemingly mundane topic called Research Preparation.
But boy, I am totally wrong about my initial read = )
This is truly a fine tune on my held belief and biased. (Thank you to School of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management of Mapua for sending me over.)
And I am a better man and a learning facilitator for that.
Two ideas that stirred me most:
1. Stand in the shoulder of giants.
2. It is better to do a small contribution to a large problem rather than a large contribution to a small problem.
This is such an eye-opener for me!
I am truly blown away that I am actually in a fora like this in the Philippines. If someone has only told me about this, I will not believe it. I am truly and honestly surrounded by professional and career scientists, researchers and scholars!
The idea of Filipinos being a race inclined to science is starting to wake up on me. I mean, the rice terraces was done by pre-colonnial Filipinos after all!
I am humbled. I am excited.
And also, this place, literally and figuratively, reminds me of a younger version of me. A me that was in Acceleration Class way back in elementary. I am again in Grade 5 doing my Science experiments, talking about tadpoles, salamanders and the beauty of earthworms = )
Wednesday
the best student feedback
I asked if they have questions.
The reply came.
".... Sir, bakit ba natin ito ginagawa?"
I smiled.
I love that feedback. Honest.
Why? Because it is a raw feeling and it is a fact. I love truths. And yes! Even if it hurts like hell. Why? Because it is the truth. And the truth shall set us free = )
And knowing who gave that feedback, it gave me a great insight. I now see = )
To the two students who gave me the feedback, mucho thanks!
The reply came.
".... Sir, bakit ba natin ito ginagawa?"
I smiled.
I love that feedback. Honest.
Why? Because it is a raw feeling and it is a fact. I love truths. And yes! Even if it hurts like hell. Why? Because it is the truth. And the truth shall set us free = )
And knowing who gave that feedback, it gave me a great insight. I now see = )
To the two students who gave me the feedback, mucho thanks!
Sunday
valentine entry
From the Holy Book...
If you like for a question to swirl on your mind,
...read on = )
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
Here's my "swirling question" with these Bible verses - why did the writer, Paul, the saint formerly known as Saul the Pharisee who ordered the death of the first Saint called Stephen, described LOVE as PATIENT first?
Why did he not arranged the adjectives alphabetically? Why PATIENT? Why not start with KIND then PATIENT? Why patient then kind?
Or am I being Shakespearean here that I am much ado about nothing?
Could I be kind without being patient?
Hmmm... interesting question = )
Why should the description of love start with PATIENT?
And why did Paul NOT say love is a feeling? I mean, do people in the past don't feel LOVE as we know it now? Do we know much more about love now because we have today the prevalence of movies and musical overtures accompanied with explicit images describing love?
Or are we simply confused now and they got it right before? How many divorces and failed marriages did they have before ba as compared to the statistics we have now? How many single parent families did they have ba before compared to the single parent families today?
And why did Paul describe LOVE as a result of something? Why not love is "when you hear violins..." or "when you feel butterflies in your stomach..."? Why love is patient... kind... not jealous... not boastful... not proud?
I mean, can one be patient without going through the process and the act of being patient? Kind without the act of being kind? Not jealous without the act of not being jealous? Not boastful without the act of not being boastful? Not proud without the act of not being proud? Not demanding without the act of not demanding its own way? Not irritable without the act of not being irritable? Not keeping the records of wrong without the act of not keeping records of wrong?
And can we do all of these without being patient first?
Here's another thing, if we read through the whole chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians of the New Testament, the whole discourse was written in first person, I.
It is NOT in "we" as in Love is when we are patient and
we are kind = )
Hmmm... interesting = )
Lord, does it mean I do not have to wait for the other person to be patient for me to be patient? The passages is absolutely silent about the "object of love" or whatever is the "object of love" is doing.
Lord, Paul's description is not for them. It is for me, the doer, the first person.
Maybe it is really about all of us who are so busy looking for the right person and asking if he or she is the right person for us that we forgot to ask if we are the right person for them.
Thank you, Lord...
If you like for a question to swirl on your mind,
...read on = )
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
Here's my "swirling question" with these Bible verses - why did the writer, Paul, the saint formerly known as Saul the Pharisee who ordered the death of the first Saint called Stephen, described LOVE as PATIENT first?
Why did he not arranged the adjectives alphabetically? Why PATIENT? Why not start with KIND then PATIENT? Why patient then kind?
Or am I being Shakespearean here that I am much ado about nothing?
Could I be kind without being patient?
Hmmm... interesting question = )
Why should the description of love start with PATIENT?
And why did Paul NOT say love is a feeling? I mean, do people in the past don't feel LOVE as we know it now? Do we know much more about love now because we have today the prevalence of movies and musical overtures accompanied with explicit images describing love?
Or are we simply confused now and they got it right before? How many divorces and failed marriages did they have before ba as compared to the statistics we have now? How many single parent families did they have ba before compared to the single parent families today?
And why did Paul describe LOVE as a result of something? Why not love is "when you hear violins..." or "when you feel butterflies in your stomach..."? Why love is patient... kind... not jealous... not boastful... not proud?
I mean, can one be patient without going through the process and the act of being patient? Kind without the act of being kind? Not jealous without the act of not being jealous? Not boastful without the act of not being boastful? Not proud without the act of not being proud? Not demanding without the act of not demanding its own way? Not irritable without the act of not being irritable? Not keeping the records of wrong without the act of not keeping records of wrong?
And can we do all of these without being patient first?
Here's another thing, if we read through the whole chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians of the New Testament, the whole discourse was written in first person, I.
It is NOT in "we" as in Love is when we are patient and
we are kind = )
Hmmm... interesting = )
Lord, does it mean I do not have to wait for the other person to be patient for me to be patient? The passages is absolutely silent about the "object of love" or whatever is the "object of love" is doing.
Lord, Paul's description is not for them. It is for me, the doer, the first person.
Maybe it is really about all of us who are so busy looking for the right person and asking if he or she is the right person for us that we forgot to ask if we are the right person for them.
Thank you, Lord...
Tuesday
If Google ran my classroom?
Hmmm... interesting = )
There are five companies I passionately follow, in no particular order other than it being random: Toyota, Apple, Dell, Amazon and Google.
I immediately bought the recent Businessweek magazine simply because of its cover story - Could Google fix Detroit? (What the search giant could teach automakers about reconnecting with their customers?) and made my mind played around (still is playing around) with this question - If Google ran my classroom, how will it do it?
For proper context, I also embrace the fact that one should obselete oneself and not let others do it for me = )
Google always involves its customer in product design.
If I transpose that idea to how my classroom is being ran, I will have to answer the basic question of what is my product?
In my analysis, the school's current product is really learning experience.
Curriculum is like the engine of a car. Where car's real value is transportation and that's the learning experience I am talking about. I mean, you do not buy a car because it has an engine. You buy a car because it will bring you somewhere. Also true for a student, one does not go to school because it has a curriculum. It goes to school to learn, to get educated = )
The tests scores are customer feedback if the learning experience was actually a good one. If tests scores are bad against standards, then the actual experience of learning was bad. If test scores are good against standards, then the actual experience of learning was good.
If we expand this to a longer view, if students performs well in the industry, one factor could be that it knew how to learn given varying and changing circumstances.
Schools has prided itself with accreditation because it shows and proves that they have the resources for the best possible learning experience. But what is being measured is simply capacity. Never the outcome of that capacity. And this is where ABET is such a game changer. A pure uncut and unadulterated paradigm shifter for it talks about outcomes! Not inputs!
If Google ran my classroom, it will know how students actually learn by receiving design improvements on how to enhance the learning experience. If that is the case, then I have to totally open and ready to learn how my students learn = )
My mind is in such a state of rush.
Lord, thank you for the blessing. Enable me...
There are five companies I passionately follow, in no particular order other than it being random: Toyota, Apple, Dell, Amazon and Google.
I immediately bought the recent Businessweek magazine simply because of its cover story - Could Google fix Detroit? (What the search giant could teach automakers about reconnecting with their customers?) and made my mind played around (still is playing around) with this question - If Google ran my classroom, how will it do it?
For proper context, I also embrace the fact that one should obselete oneself and not let others do it for me = )
Google always involves its customer in product design.
If I transpose that idea to how my classroom is being ran, I will have to answer the basic question of what is my product?
In my analysis, the school's current product is really learning experience.
Curriculum is like the engine of a car. Where car's real value is transportation and that's the learning experience I am talking about. I mean, you do not buy a car because it has an engine. You buy a car because it will bring you somewhere. Also true for a student, one does not go to school because it has a curriculum. It goes to school to learn, to get educated = )
The tests scores are customer feedback if the learning experience was actually a good one. If tests scores are bad against standards, then the actual experience of learning was bad. If test scores are good against standards, then the actual experience of learning was good.
If we expand this to a longer view, if students performs well in the industry, one factor could be that it knew how to learn given varying and changing circumstances.
Schools has prided itself with accreditation because it shows and proves that they have the resources for the best possible learning experience. But what is being measured is simply capacity. Never the outcome of that capacity. And this is where ABET is such a game changer. A pure uncut and unadulterated paradigm shifter for it talks about outcomes! Not inputs!
If Google ran my classroom, it will know how students actually learn by receiving design improvements on how to enhance the learning experience. If that is the case, then I have to totally open and ready to learn how my students learn = )
My mind is in such a state of rush.
Lord, thank you for the blessing. Enable me...
Monday
privilege 1.0
I finished checking the papers last night. I am humbled how things turned out. Got three pleasant surprises. Gems. As in. How I wish I could write their names here but I won't. They might draw unwanted attention they are not yet equipped to handle.
Lord, they are starting to think and they are getting confident and bold with how they express things. I hope and pray it leads to something good, Lord.
It is truly a privilege to have front row seats as "beauty" unfolds right before one's eyes.
Thank you Lord for the privilege of being part of their transition from youthful exuberance to well adjusted contributing adults.
The experience blesses me, Lord.
Help me Lord to teach the way You want me to teach...
Lord, they are starting to think and they are getting confident and bold with how they express things. I hope and pray it leads to something good, Lord.
It is truly a privilege to have front row seats as "beauty" unfolds right before one's eyes.
Thank you Lord for the privilege of being part of their transition from youthful exuberance to well adjusted contributing adults.
The experience blesses me, Lord.
Help me Lord to teach the way You want me to teach...
seeing and getting
What you see is what you get!
What you do not see will get you!
... like the global financial crisis = )
What you do not see will get you!
... like the global financial crisis = )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)