Saturday, November 24, 2012

Highlights of Thailand (ICEC Teacher’s Conference and other such adventures)


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.

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