Hong Kong Teacher

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 06:02:28 -0400

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

- Mark Twain (via unejeunedemoiselle)

nayyirahwaheed: he said: ‘my absence is strong and warm. it will hold you. it will teach you how...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:15:38 -0400

nayyirahwaheed:

he said:

‘my absence is strong and warm.

it will hold

you.

it will teach you how to miss.

how to be without.

and

how to survive anyway.’

- how my father raised me, nayyirah waheed

"what massacre happens to my son between him living within my skin drinking my cells my water my..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:19:48 -0400

“what
massacre
happens to my son
between
him
living within my skin
drinking my cells
my water
my organs
and
his soft psyche turning cruel.
does he not remember
he
is half woman.”

- from, nayyirah waheed (via yasodhara)

"We need quiet places and noisy places, places full of books and computers and others full of paint..."

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:27:44 -0400

“We need quiet places and noisy places, places full of books and computers and others full of paint and clay. We need adults with the freedom to make spontaneous decisions—shifting the conversation in response to one of those “wonderful moments” and deviating from any designed curriculum. Teachers need the time to mull over what they have learned from student work (written as well as observed) and collegial time to expand their repertoires. We need feedback from trusted and competent colleagues. We need time for families and teachers to engage in serious conversations. We need settings where it seems reasonable that kids might see the school’s adults as powerful and interesting people who are having a good time.”

- Deborah Meier, Bridging Differences. This is what makes schools work, and what separates “good” ones from not so good ones. Read the article here. (via unlearningschool)

classroomcollective: betheteacheryouloved: Clear, beautiful...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 18:41:42 -0400

classroomcollective:

betheteacheryouloved:

Clear, beautiful anchor poster for #descriptivewriting

Awesome descriptions of writing emotions

miguu: moonmarkedandtouchedbysun: کیفیت: Daughters give me hope. In Urdu, we...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 04:43:11 -0400

miguu: moonmarkedandtouchedbysun: کیفیت: Daughters give me hope. In Urdu, we...:

moonmarkedandtouchedbysun:

کیفیت: Daughters give me hope. In Urdu, we say that a daughter is rehmat…

kefiyat:

Daughters give me hope. In Urdu, we say that a daughter is rehmat (blessing) but society turns her life into zehmat (inconvenience).

Gonna teach my daughters to be loud…

"Today three of my students recorded their first segment for their “Nepali Teen Talk”..."

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 06:10:15 -0400

“

Today three of my students recorded their first segment for their “Nepali Teen Talk” which will air on RTHK, a Hong Kong radio station. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I knew the topic was love, and then I heard one of them say, “bell hooks’ perspective….(some Nepali talk)…knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving…(more Nepali talk).” Nepali teens from a band three school discussing bell hooks on Hong Kong radio. Wow.

These are my form 2 students.

”

Penn Museum Color Films

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 10:24:29 -0400

mikasavela:

Penn Museum’s YouTube channel has quite amazing colour films from 1930-60s. I love the sensation of normality that colour brings to these. (And that there are no cars.) These snapshots are from Hong Kong, 1945.

Discontinuity, continuity, change

"Whether we help change systems of privilege depends on how we handle the belief that nothing we can..."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:49:29 -0400

“Whether we help change systems of privilege depends on how we handle the belief that nothing we can do makes a difference, that the system is too big and powerful for us to affect. The complaint is valid if we look at society as a whole, because we aren’t going to change it in our lifetime. But if changing the entire system through our own efforts is the standard against which we measure the ability to do something, then we’ve set ourselves up to feel powerless. It’s not unreasonable to want to make a difference, but if we have to see the final result of what we do, then we can’t be part of change that’s too gradual and long term to allow that. We also can’t be part of change that’s so complex that we can’t sort our contribution from countless others that combine in ways we can never grasp. The problem of privilege and oppression requires complex and long-term change coupled with short-term work to soften some of its worst consequences. This means that if we’re going to be part of the solution, we have to let go of the idea that change doesn’t happen unless we’re around to see it.”

- Allan G. Johnson (via wretchedoftheearth)

Keep fighting the good fight

(via blackinasia)

"Far from despair, the idea that each of us recreates reality with each encounter fills me with..."

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:49:03 -0400

“Far from despair, the idea that each of us recreates reality with each encounter fills me with wondrous hope, empowerment, and community connection… . if it is true that we co-create reality, which in turn creates us—then we are called to a new kind of community. If I can only ever be part of the creation I must act humbly. I’d take that over being a goddess…”

- Maureen O’Hara, “Constructing emancipitory realities” in The truth about the truth, edited by W. T. Anderson. NY, Putnam, 1995, p 155 (via shrinkrants)

Newspaper Story My students and I, along with Dr. Angel Lin from...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:55:00 -0400

Newspaper Story

My students and I, along with Dr. Angel Lin from the University of Hong Kong, were featured today in a South China Morning Post newspaper article discussing the use of popular culture in teaching English to students from “less privileged backgrounds.” The writer does a good job of making our academic talk sound a little more intelligible to a wider audience.

The full article can be found here: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1250689/pop-culture-helps-students-learn-english

Here are some of the bits that mention me and one of my students:

“My Form One students come to me with a huge range of English abilities, but we all study together as one class. The special challenge I have is not just building their ability to pass an exam, but developing their academic literacy, and their ability to use English as a communicative tool.”

—————————————————-

“Soto, who is also in the final stages of a PhD in education at HKU, confirms the need to reach out to students in areas that interest them and at their level. To do this, we try to build bridges between students’ family and youth cultures and the academic texts we want them to study,” he says.

“We don’t use textbooks, and instead study music, films and documentaries from around the world, read stories and poetry, play games, and do work online. We use Facebook groups to communicate and to do writing, and each student has their own blog. This year we joined quadblogging.net to collaborate on blogging with three classrooms around the world. I learn about the conflicts they face in their lives, and use English as a way for them to learn about themselves and learn to solve problems in their communities.”

—————————————————-

“Teachers often ask Soto what they can do to motivate students. His advice is to stop asking that question. Instead, educators should explore other questions such as: Who are our students, what is their place in society, and how can English become a tool to empower them? In what ways, besides exams, can we have them show their learning? How are their lives already multilingual and how can our teaching promote multilingualism?

Kiran Kaur, one of Soto’s Form Two students, agrees.

Throw away the textbooks and learn something which is not written in the books; that is how our class learns,” she says. “We do learn a bit from books but our class power is movies, which is almost everyone’s favourite. We learn new words from Mr C through some talk. We listen and think about others’ ideas. We learn in our English class by looking around the world.

“That’s all I can say: less words, more understanding.”

fresh. hkstreetart: FEVER in Yuen Long

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:31:23 -0400

fresh.

hkstreetart:

FEVER in Yuen Long

badethnography: …then find out from the News source you trust.

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 01:00:36 -0400

badethnography:

…then find out from the News source you trust.

Photo

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 21:10:06 -0400

27 ways to increase participation

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 00:24:34 -0400

27 ways to increase participation

Resisting Conformity in Thailand's Schools

Fri, 31 May 2013 10:35:14 -0400

Resisting Conformity in Thailand's Schools:

Thai schools are a drill sergeant’s dream. Discipline and conformity rule, but some students have begun calling for the abolition of the “mechanistic” education system.

Living with disability – and planning a good death

Fri, 31 May 2013 10:26:59 -0400

Living with disability – and planning a good death:

People with disability are at significant risk of a “disenfranchised death”, which is when death is not openly acknowledged with the dying person. In such instances, the dying person is socially excluded from the process of dying and deliberately excluded from the decision-making process.

In their last days, many people want quiet reassurance. They want to know that whatever they are worried about is going to be fine. A disenfranchised death can leave a person feeling lonely, disempowered, frightened and anxious before they die.

A good death does not happen spontaneously; it requires careful consideration and planning to decide what happens, where death occurs and who is present. This includes:

knowing that death is coming and having some understanding of what to expect

having an opportunity to say the things you want to the people who are important to you

having some control over pain and symptoms.

I never considered this before.

Sometimes I cant decide if I’m being too hard on my kids, or not hard enough. Do I need more Tiger...

Fri, 31 May 2013 09:20:00 -0400

Sometimes I cant decide if I’m being too hard on my kids, or not hard enough. Do I need more Tiger mother or more Nikumbh Sir?

anniekoh: A 2004 interview with artist/provocateur Zhao Bandi....

Fri, 31 May 2013 04:54:11 -0400

anniekoh:

A 2004 interview with artist/provocateur Zhao Bandi. This fashion show may be the least obviously political work of his that I’ve come across. I do like the Olympic track suit a lot.

hipsterloli:

All of his collections are inspired by pandas, but are used to criticize social problems of China like falsification and cheap products, poisoning of children by toxic powdered milk, the cult to the USA consumerism, and others. He is quite a controversial figure in his country due to his political, sexual, cultural and social statements using the image of pandas.

But then again, normally he uses photographs with captions, which require no interpretation.

My favorite work overall is the first one I saw. A Tale of Love Gone Wrong for Pandaman (2003, Video, black-and-white, sound, 15 minutes)

Good stuff here to help my students think critically about contemporary China.

"The first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money - the..."

Thu, 30 May 2013 09:26:53 -0400

“The first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money - the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art”

- Create the businesses, show the appreciation, celebrate in healthy ways, live with integrity.

Charles Palanhuik (via sweetcheeksaremadeofthese)