Change in Perspective

I recently wrote an email to several friends and family and mentioned to them that I have recently updated by Office software. In doing do so I stumbled upon a realization that I thought I would share. So here is the snippet from that email: "First things first, I just updated to Office 2003 and am realizing that everything is blue and am getting used to that. It looks so fancy and modern compared to my Office XP and it is this type of change that is scary and daunting. Moving to a foreign country and all that goes with that is good change and easily conquered. Having to change how your word processing and email programs looks -– insurmountable. I almost removed them this afternoon when I thought I couldn'’t bear it any more. It'’s just so BLUE! But slowly and surly I am getting used to it and will soon grow to love them as much as the other. I have to let go and embrace the changes. Sure as hell puts things into perspective."

The has been a lot going on recently and I haven't updated the blog in a while so I thought that I would add a few comments about the recent happenings. One big thing that happened was I reached the 1 year anniversary of my first arrival in Thailand. It is hard to think that one year ago I was arriving in Thailand for the first time. It is hard to think that a whole year has gone by since then; it doesn'’t seem that long ago. But then again, so much has happened since then that I canno’t believe that all has happened in just one year. It has been neat because it has stirred up memories of my first few days in Thailand arriving from China, getting picked up, meeting my host family, learning a new language and a new city etc. I did head to Chiang Mai this weekend and was able to meet a few of the new students. I had met the students from DU in the spring (and haven't seen them yet), but was able to meet a few students from Kalamazoo. It was really interesting to watch the and see them trying to learn Thai, getting over jet lag and getting to know their host families. It is an interesting position to be in - to be able to see someone else going through what you went through.

As for school, teaching has become easier. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, but I'’m creating my lessons in less time and am not as stressed out. I've become more comfortable in class and more comfortable understanding the mood of the class and determining if they are paying attention and on task or are uninterested and bored. I'’m still trying to increase their engagement during class and not lecture as much. But it'’s difficult given the subject material and resource constraints. I find that the later is much more difficult to overcome than any other obstacle. I simply do not have access to materials that would make learning much more interactive. I have noticed a bit of technological dependence on my part; I need things that are available in the US and are technological.

I'm starting to bridge the cultural divide and am very happy to be doing so. I do have thoughts about how I'm changing their culture to suit my needs and expectations and am not sure if that is true or how much credence I should put into those thoughts, but nonetheless they are there. In a sense, I'’m changing the perception of educators.

I gave a test in my M2 class recently and as of late I'’m really enjoying this class (they are the students I have struggled with). We seem to have reached an understanding of sorts and we can read each other better now. I know when they are getting tired and need a break and they can sense when I have stuff to cover or when I have a more relaxed lesson. They are also starting to ask questions in class which is good and I'’m sure that is helping them understand better. I held a review on Sunday at the school in the afternoon if students had questions and about 15 showed up. It was neat to see them outside the class when we could be more friendly. But we did review and go over material and I really enjoyed that. It was very relaxed - they did their own thing and asked questions if they had them. I then went home and was running some errands and ran into a group of them going to study and said they were struggling and asked me to come and help them study a bit more, so I did and enjoyed that. We just went to a little coffee shop and reviewed and what not.

As my relationship with my M2 students gets better, my M3 students are now becoming more challenging. We have been working on a circuit lab and they have been very unfocused. Maybe it's the weather (it has been rainy and damp) or maybe it's me or them, either way they are now becoming my challenging class.

I have a little over a month before the end of the semester before I need to start reviewing so time is flying.