I ought to be grading or lesson planning because I am in no
way ready for school this week, but I would much rather write a blog post.
Anyways, I’m on the bus on the way home from the airport, so I don’t really
feel like I am wasting time because I could be sleeping.
Eating:
I “celebrated” Thanksgiving in Thailand by eating spring
rolls, red Thai curry, mango sticky rice, and mint gelato. Not quite what the
pilgrims ate, but I think they would have appreciated the coming together of
cultures. (Is that not at least part of the original intent of their
celebration?)
Adventures:
Since my purpose for being in Thailand was for the
conference, I did not have a great deal of time for adventures. However, I
would say that I got probably the coolest adventure that I could have gotten
out of this trip: Riding an elephant! It gets even better; I got hugs and
kisses from the elephant as well. I think that I have seen an elephant in a zoo
or two, but I do not have vivid memories of it, and I certainly have never been
this close to an elephant before. Their trunks are prickly and rough, almost
like a leather cucumber. These trunks have a firm grip; I felt slightly claustrophobic
when two elephants had their trunks around me. Though it was more like a hug
from two affectionate children.
Elephants might have just moved up to one of my favorite
animals because they are just so stinkin’ cute (though they shall never surpass
the platypus). To top it all off the elephant ride cost about $30, which in my
mind is not a bad deal at all. I would say that it was worth every penny.
The Conference:
Here is the part where I give you full permission to stop
reading. If you care about my professional development, then you are more than
welcome to continue, but I won’t be offended, if you don’t care. To be honest,
I am writing this part more for myself then I am for you.
I would not say that I learned any earth shattering new
information that I did not already know before the conference. It was mostly
just a good refresher. There were few take-aways though: 1) During job-a-likes,
one woman told us about a reading workshop she does that is more intense than
normal peer-editing. It also seems to be more effective because it asks the
students to edit their own work as well as their peers.
2) I have thought for a
little while now about starting blog where I post stuff that I have created for
my classes. I follow a blog of a teacher who does this, and I think that it
would make me a more reflective teacher (even though it is in my nature to do
this anyways). I also think that it would be good to get feedback and to share
my resources. Anyways, I went to a workshop about using social media to develop
professionally, and I think that I would actually like to do this. I just have
to find the time to set it up.
3) I really want/need to create a culture of
reading for fun. To be honest, for being an English teacher, I do not read
nearly enough. There are far too many books that I should have read that I haven’t.
Not only that, I also need to model for my students the idea of reading for
enjoyment. How can I expect for my students to enjoy reading when I am always
making them read for school. Or they feel like they have to read to improve
their SAT score. Their SAT score will probably not stick with them for the rest
of their lives (even though they think that it will), but a love of reading
can. Plus, “A well-read person is less likely to be evil.” The biggest issue is
how/when will I put this into practice. I have a few ideas; I just need to
flesh them out/ implement them.
Final Thoughts
1) The conference was good, but exhausting. I don’t feel
like my body ever recovered from the 1:50 am pick-up time on Wednesday morning.
I think that Monday is going to be a bit rough.
2) It was excellent to see the Qingdao-ren, and I really
miss them even though I am very happy with my new family.
3) I would go visit Thailand again since I did not really
get to experience a ton of the culture. Though I would probably not ever live
somewhere so warm.
4) I’m really blessed by my job and by the people whom I
work with.
