My Story - A function at Dixon House Neighbourhood Learning Centre

Posted to Facebook on 31/1/2020 at 3:37 AM
My Story - A function at Dixon House Neighbourhood Learning Centre

Dixon House Neighbourhood Learning Centre hosted an event on 28/11/2019 evening to thank the volunteers. I was invited for being a mentor to job seekers and a guest speaker on an occasion.

A few weeks ago, as a guest speaker I gave a 10-minute presentation on Communication and Communication Skill. The content of the presentation covered how to handle Stage Fright.

For people who have met me in person can testify that I have no problems in communicating on 1-to-1 basis or with a large audience.

In my true form, I mingled with many guestsat the volunteer function, including the person who gave impetus for my presentation on communication.

Did he benefit from my presetation? Sure did, and he thanked me for the rechnique in hadling stage fright.

Thank you for reading.

Knowledge is everywhere - do not get bogged down with tunnel vision

Posted to Facebook on 30/1/2020 at 9:38 AM
Knowledge is everywhere - do not get bogged down with tunnel vision

Knowledge is everywhere. You can read it, listen to it, feel it, smell it and even taste it.

Be like a 4-year old child and asks why, then grow up to be like a 6-year old and asks how. Obviously, try to get to the bottom of it.

According to a source, "Corporate companies when interview fresh graduates lately found out that many youth including those who did very well in their studies are weak in general knowledge".

A book worm is only a worm. They crawl so slowly, in a very small area. While parents are partly to blame, they are not educators and likely do not possess wealth of knowledge.

Good students or rather smart ones should understand that knowledge does not come from textbooks / Dr Google alone, and colleges / universities do not prepare students to deal with myriads of life issues.

Seek and you'll find; such as talking with people from all walks of life and all ages, visiting places with open mind, DO NOT get bogged down on tunnel vision of religious belief, read all sorts of materials, watch various television program's, etc.

Thank you for reading.

Parents count the cost as classrooms dump textbooks for MacBooks

Posted to Facebook on 26/1/2020 on 11:47 AM
Posted to The Age (25/1/2020) on 26/1/2020 (comment not published by the newspaper)
Commenting on "Parents count the cost as classrooms dump textbooks for MacBooks"
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/parents-count-the-cost-as-classrooms-dump-textbooks-for-macbooks-20200125-p53uoi.html

With devices “connected” to a central server, updates of software including operating system OS is the job of a professional in the organisation. Any problems encountered is just a phone call away.

It is not just the cost of the device but also associated costs like new software, or upgrades of certain application software incompatible to the new OS.

How can a teacher supervise or stop a student from switching from one application to another in a class of 20 students when their back is turned?

It is a complete nightmare to “mark” assignments submitted online. Teacher has to be at a table or having the device on hand in order to read them. It is a bigger nightmare to comment on digital submission. Not every school has the proper platform to simulate or handle classroom environment. It is very time consuming to open and close each individual folder and identify the relevant submission.

Imagine an assignment having a number of pages, and at certain point, it refers to materials pages somewhere. With paper base submission, the pages could be spread across a table top for ease of reference. Even with digital links, the screen normally is suitable to display certain amount of information in a suitable readable size.

At younger age, students learn to write and draw the old fashion way. This is entirely different from a digital pen, and many children do have problems manipulating those digital accessories.

Watching a video on a device saves a lot of time, but do students understand what they are watching? Teachers are not able to see the body language of the students, and it is difficult to fix their problems aftermath.

I volunteer in a primary school helping teachers to help students require additional attention in their class work. The students use the school computers.

A lot of time is wasted to fix a computer problem in class, be it hardware or software, even with my experience. The rest of the students requiring help are put on hold, unless another “good” computer is available.

Teachers are not technical experts, and they are not paid to fix such problems. How do the teachers know that the digital “homework”, if any, is done by the students not someone else?

Thank you for reading.

Parents count the cost as classrooms dump textbooks for MacBooks

9 July is the most suitable day as the Australia Day

Posted to Facebook on 25/1/2020 at 8:08 AM
9 July is the most suitable day as the Australia Day

26 January has been celebrated as the Australia Day since 1935. Many Australians, especially the Indigenous Australians, are unhappy about the current date and want it changed. After some extensive search, I come to conclusion that 9 July is the most suitable day.

The following article was written on 25/1/2017

In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain.

On 13 May 1787 a fleet of 11 ships which came to be known as the First Fleet, was sent by the British Admiralty from England to Australia under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales.

The raising of the Flag of Great Britain at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, on 26 January 1788 marked the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.

British settlements led to the foundation of Tasmania which became a separate colony in 1825. The British Government formally claimed the western part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire.

The Australian Constitution Bill was drafted at a series of constitutional conventions held in the 1890s. Almost a decade of planning, consultation and voting in referendums, the final draft of the Australian Constitution was taken to British Parliament in 1900 by a delegation led by Edmund Barton.
ommonwealth of Australia,
Queen Victoria approved the bill on 9 July 1900 by signing the Royal Commission of Assent. The bill providing for the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia became law, enacting the Australian Constitution and the founding of the Commonwealth.

On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated. Before then Australia did not exist as a nation and was a collection of six British colonies under the law-making power of the British Parliament.

It was not until 1935 that all Australian states and territories had adopted use of the term "Australia Day" to mark the date, 26 January. However, Indigenous Australians regard Australia Day as a symbol of the adverse impacts of British settlement on Australia's Indigenous peoples. Historically speaking, 26 January was the proclamation day of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia only.

Several dates have been proposed to move Australia Day to an alternative date.

As early as 1957, 1 January was suggested as a possible alternative day, to commemorate the Federation of Australia, but was inappropriate as it coincided with New Year's Day.

Of all other dates being considered, 9 July seems to be the most appropriate because Queen Victoria gave her assent to the Constitution of Australia, thus forming the Commonwealth of Australia.

9 July 1900, Australia, the nation, was born!

Reference Sources
Wikipedia
Parliamentary Education Office
National Archives Australia

Silence is NOT golden

Posted to Facebook on 22/1/2020 at 12:13 PM
Is silence golden? Not necessary so

I never understood what this poster was about, until many years later. I saw a poster on a tram in 1970. I had no idea what it meant, who advertised it and for whom.

It was a drawing of a rather sad expressive face of a very young child, and the background was lemon yellow. I can still remember the words vividly, “Tell them you still love them”.

A lot of times, we assume everyone thinks the same, and reacts the same way. However, this is not the case.

When we live in Australia, there are certain accepted expectations for new comers to behave to be part of this country. No, I do not think these expectations are unrealistic. One of such expectations is "silence is NOT golden".

Generally speaking, most baby boomers’ childhood whether they were brought up in an Asian country or in Australia, many parents were very strict, and not expressive to show their love towards their children. There were some kind of unwritten rules that children should understand.

Unfortunately, many children might misunderstand that their parents did not love them because they never get any kisses or hugs. The parents would console and defend themselves by saying “we have given you everything, we sacrifice everything for you!”

What the children wanted was an expression of love, a simple sentence of “we love you!”

What do parents expect from children in return?

I was at JB Hifi. I child wanted to ”show off” to his mum that he could write on an iPad. He wrote, “I love you Mum”.

His mother told the child, “I am here. You don’t have to write it. It will mean more if you say it to me”

In my next blog, I shall discuss about the magic words, “Thank You”.

Thank you for reading.

Expert raises doubts over 'growth mindset' phenomenon

Posted to Facebook on 18/1/2020 at 10:13 AM
Comme nting on :Expert raises doubts over 'growth mindset' phenomenon"
https://www.theage.com.au/education/schools-will-dump-it-expert-raises-doubts-over-growth-mindset-phenomenon-20190913-p52r5d.html

Many years ago, a senior staff (in position) at Box Hill TAFE told me that I was not just a teacher, but an educator. There is a big difference between a teacher and an educator.

A teacher is one who knows the content, and presents the information to the students, while an educator makes relationship more important than content, and is proficient in all kinds of strategies including differentiation, meaningful and authentic assessments, etc.

While Edward De Bono promulgated Lateral Thinking, I like to go one dimension further and call myself a Spherical Thinker. Lateral Thinking implies 2-dimensional thinking, while Spherical Thinking goes far beyond the present accepted theories and arguments by the experts, and look into space, time dimensions, and abstract concepts. A Spherical Thinker is more open-minded, and listens to the views of the skeptics.

To be a Spherical Thinker, one acquires knowledge from as many sources as possible, in whatever form the knowledge is delivered. The knowledge is multi-discipline, spanning from ordinary sciences to cosmology, from supply and demand curve of economy to real life poverty, from Genghis Khan extending his empire border to European side of Russia to business partnering in globalisation.

Thank you for reading.

Expert raises doubts over 'growth mindset' phenomenon

Your stubborn child might just turn out to be more successful and wealthier, but lonely

Posted to Facebook on 18/1/2020 at 9:18 AM
Commenting on "Your Stubborn Child Might Just Turn Out To Be More Successful And Wealthier, Says Study"
https://understandingcompassion.com/articles/your-stubborn-child-might-just-turn-out-to-be-more-successful-and-wealthier-says-study/

Your household may not have boundaries, but the society at large has.

You may pamper them when young, but others can’t tolerate theIr behaviour when they become adults.

They may turn out to be successful and wealthy, but they may be very lonely too.

Many psychologists may not live the day to witness what stubborn children turn out to be when they grow old and live in aged care homes. These turn out to be the biggest pain to the carers.

Even when they become demented, they may not eat and spit out the food if they do not like it, and behave just as stubborn children as they once were.

Many children become as successful as any stubborn children when they turn adulthood. Obviously, the term success must be defined in a broader sense. A stubborn person may be a success in one field but regarded as complete failure in many aspects.

A child suffering from Asperger's Syndrome may be regarded as stubborn, but many of them turn out to be someone with totally unacceptable behaviour in a social environment. These may have IQ well over 140 or 180.

The real world does not pamper anyone, and therefore stubborn children that receive unacceptable level of attention may not survive easily when merge with the real people.

It is important to realise that motivation comes from within. No one can motivate another person if the recipient is a stubborn mule.

Thank you.

Your stubborn child might just turn out to be more successful and wealthier

My Story - What did my nephews learn by watching Superman II with me?

Posted to Facebook 9/1/2020 at 10:37 AM
My Story - What did my nephews learn by watching Superman II with me?

My wife and I hosted a dinner for in-laws of the same generation, my nephews and grandnephew.

My nephews are no longer young boys; three finished their university last year, and one will be in Monash this year.

More than a decade ago, two nephews live close-by, and they came with their parents to our house often. Although we do not have children, my love for children is no less than many parents. No matter how busy I was, I would stop doing whatever I was doing, and spent time with any young child coming to visit me.

I had watched Superman II with these two nephews at least 10 times. It was their favorite. Do they still remember the time I spent with them? I bet ya, they do, although not in entirety.

It was the same video tape, same story, but every time they walked away with different understanding and new knowledge. The following is what they learnt, but the list is not exhaustive:

1. Location of Niagara Falls of Canada (geography)
2. Reason for water falling downwards (gravity in science)
3. Explosion of planet Krypton (chemistry)
4. Clark Kent as a report (role of reporter) secret identity as Superman
5. Superman flies to rescue the child fallen off the barrier (speed - maths and flight - science)
6. Superman takes Lois Lane to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic (geography, formation of ice geology)
7. Superman flies alongside a Jumbo jet (air flow, and speed of sound, physics)
8. Superman files to Eiffel Tower (History of the Tower, general knowledge about the weight and height of tower, construction material used) in Paris, France (geography)
9. Criminals try to destroy the Tower (law and order)
10. Criminals force the President of the United States (role of a President) to surrender on behalf of the entire planet (explain what a planet is) during an international television broadcast

All three of us enjoyed the movie, and as many people put it, it was our bonding time. I believe many adults would have walked away if their children asked to watch the same movie again and again.

Thank you for reading.

A Lesson on Earthquake for a 5 Years Old

Posted to Facebook on 9/1/2020 at 5:14 AM
A Lesson on Earthquake for a 5 Years Old

A Lesson on Earthquake for a 5 Years Old

My grandnephew came with his grandpa and grandma from Sydney to stay with us in Melbourne for a few days. He is just over 5 years old, very intelligent and inquisitive. He likes to see and feed my gold fish in the pond.

On the day he arrived, he observed the crack in our kitchen ceiling, and was very persistent to find out why it was there.

Grandaunt (my wife) told him that there was an earthquake (earth tremor) in Melbourne sometime ago that caused the crack. Grandaunt also showed him another crack in the laundry. However, grandaunt could not satisfy his curiosity nor explained in simple terms what earthquake is.

That's how I was assigned the task to explain what earthquake is and the trail of disasters could leave behind after an earthquake.

I Chromecast some YouTube videos about earthquake from my iPad to the television.

To explain earthquake, he needs to understand the some basic terms such as world, Earth, globe, and country. He has a globe at home, and he can name some countries, including Australia, China, and India.

Then I proceed to explain that he lives on planet Earth, and the hard surface of the Earth is known as crust.

I ask him to look out of different windows and describe what he sees on the surface. I highlight that the surface is made out of different patches of things and plants.

He can imagine each patch is kown as a plate. Since the plates are not glued together, the joints that can be seen are known as faults.

Unlike different sections of the plants which can grow into another without causing trouble, the Earth plates can move and crash into other plates. When a crash happens, and it creates an Earthquake.

The severity (how disastrous) of the earthquake depends how hard the plates crash with one another. I showed my grandnephew the pressure pushes up parts of the crust causing a lot of damage including the collapse of houses, loss of power, destruction of roads, death of humans and animals.

The people on the streets have to hold on to something, some cars and buses stopped in the street and appeared to be dancing sideway, things in supermarket shelves are thrown everywhere onto the floor, things and paper in an office or home slide off the table and fall onto the ground.

When there is no electricity, it is dangerous to move around at night, and hospital cannot help others to get well.

Although the lesson is on Earthquake, I take the opportunity to show some video clips on recent bushfires. I make sure he understand not to play with fire, and not to allow his friends to play with it, too.

Should he notice a fire starts to burn something abnormally, he has to inform an adult nearby, or call 000, asks for fire engine, and clearly states his home address, or the address where the fire is.

I resume my lesson on earthquake. I explain that if an earthquake happens in an an ocean, it can create big waves. These waves are known as Tsunami. it can be as high as a ten-storey building, and moves towards the shore, damaging houses, flooding the streets, people and cars floating on top, bringing down power line and no electricity. Even ambulance cannot drive around to rescue people.

By now, he has enough for the day. There will be a revision on the spelling of some of terms used. He likes to have a lesson on volcanoes and mountains.

Why not use my step-by-step material and teach your 5 years old or young students?

Thank you for reading.