"University Social Responsibility"

Some great initiative project for our society! This project is initiated by Dr. Janya Pukkayaporn, Vice President of Sripatum University. The thing that I like about this project is that we, teachers and other participants, are returning good deed to our society without gaining anything in return. There will be series of meetings and lunchoens (kind of like getting together and exchanging ideas of activities or academic ones).

This project concerns different areas such as environment, education, and other things. We are going to run an activity for people on campus and in the area to pay respect to the King and Queen and to promote good doings by having a religeous ceremony for those men who would like to be in the monkhood....

Sripatum Academic Forum: Research and Innovations for Sustainable Development

August 13, 2008. Today there was an academic forum on the title of Research and Innovations for Sustainable Development held at Sripatum University. What I liked the most about this forum was the keynote speaker in the afternoon. Asst.Prof. Kanok Wongtrahgan, Ph.D. He gave a talk on Education in Thailand.

He noted that Thailand had become greater than many countries like Australia in terms of reinforcing people to receive higher education. As we can see that there are many students have entered to universities. In juxtapose, not many Australians (or New Zelanders)pursue their education after finishing high schools. However, many of the Thai students who have graduated can find no job or are not capable of working. Like my students, for example, they have learned English all their lives, yet they can't communicate with foreigners effectively. In conclusion, we have focused too much on quality, but lack in quality. Unlike people in Australia, after high school, they would go on training to apprenticeship to learn skillful tasks/jobs to become , for example, a locksmith and so forth.

Now, there is a new challenge/ weakness for the education system of Thailand to have to solve the latter problem and solve a question on how to take the burden of the parents and society of new graduates not getting a job. We can't just keep producing people with higher education, but lack of knowledge,competency, and proficiency.

In order to become successful and famous, according to the speaker, university should learn to blend in with its community, help people in the community (acknowledge what the university can do for the community, not what they can get from the community). Here, community and university should be united. For instance, Columbia University in New York used to separate itself from the New York City, so they were not quit successful and could not build as good reputation as Harvard University. Later on, they changed the management and strategy, they were more involved in the city and open the university to the city and tried to be a part of it by opening more schools that are in high demands in the job market in the NYC. Then, they became famous.

Furthermore, the speaker also mentioned about the goal of UNESCO of the basis of learning. UNESCO (2005) came up with the Basis of learning: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be.

Key Skills from Dan Buckley: Communication skill, Problem solving, Evaluation own and others, Information and communication technology, and working with others.

Now, education is not just some one's responsibility. It's every one's. We need to teach our students how to think, not what to think or do. They need to be able to apply the theoretical knowledge they have learned in classrooms to the real situations. They need to be able to answer the questions of their companies about what they do know, what they can do and how they can solve problems.

The speaker left a good note on students' imagination. Imagination is important and many times teachers spoil their imagination, so that they don't make progress and do not know how to think! It's very sad, but true!!

"The Best Practices in Teaching and Learning" KM Workshop at SPU

Friday 8 August 2008

I was invited today to attend a KM Workshop on Best Practices in Teaching and Learning at(or what I would put it as "Professional Development")initiated by Dr. Numthip the Director of the Library of Sripatum University as part of Knowledge Bank Management. I was very pleased to attend the seminar and workshop as I learned more good teaching practices through the real role models (teachers from Assoc. Prof.Dr. Umporn, Srinakharinwirot University; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Somtawil, Kasetsart University; and Dr. Anuchit, Sripatum University). The keynote speakers are very knowledgeable and the one thing that I noticed during their speeches was that they are "born to be" teachers. They have their hearts and souls in this profession, so that they always learn new ways or strategies of teaching. According to the speakers, there is no such a thing as the best teaching and learning practice. It all comes down to serving what our students' needs and what is right for them. What I gathered, furthermore, good teachers are not merely those who know what to teach, how to teach, but also those who are perseverance and creative. Having a natural gift in teaching is one thing that help teachers imparting knowledge to their students more effectively. More importantly, the art of teaching can be developed since everyone has the capacity to learn, to change and to grow. Teachers should have good attitudes and mindset. Also, good teachers should have good knowledge in any subject matters and have good morale. Here, I have to say that I say all this traits in this three speakers and I was, inevitably, satisfied and energised or somewhat empowered to do my very best in this profession while I am still a teacher. There are also many teachers whom I met in Brisbane during the exchange program. Also, I am sure there are many other Thai teachers who are as good and dedicated.

One speaker mentioned about "Learning Community." I was very mesmerised by the term and kind of hoped that we have such community at Liberal Arts, Sripatum University. This place will be an ideal place for teachers to learn...learn how to teach and help one another to solve problems and develop our teaching skills and the courses we teach.


There are also many good teaching techniques, according to the speakers, as the following:
-writing a good and lengthy course syllabus,
-using role play, case studies, games, and other communicative activities
-assigning external reading and keeping journal logs
-teaching or giving advice on how to ask questions
-giving students a second chance for any small tests
-explaining to students about objectives of each lesson and activity taught and done in classroom
-providing teaching time in different phases: Lecture/teaching, Practice/action, Presentation/evaluation
-encouraging and valuing students' work in public or to share with other students in and out side of classroom
-teaching students to recognize their own potentials and each other's strengths and to socialize
-teaching students by following the MEAT model: Man, Edutainment, A...., Technology
-etc.

By and large, I have learned so much from this seminar and workshop. I learned that everyday has the capacity to change to learn and to grow.

A question left hanging in my mind though after the workshop. As a teacher, is knowing what we teach enough to make students become complete human beings with knowledge, morale, good spirits, and other good traits? And is knowing how to teach enough to help them stand on their very own feet with pride and courage to help support their own family and develop their own community and country after graduating?

PD session on Thai Phonology given by Piboon Sukvijit at GELI

Friday 18-Saturday 19, 2008

Today I woke up quite early to make sure that the house was spic and spin before I returned the key to Rick, the landlord. It’s my last day here in the house and at GELI. Time has flown by very quickly and I just could not believe that I will be leaving Australia for New Zealand very soon. Anyway, as soon as I arrived the office, I went right to my desk and reviewed my PowerPoint presentation for a PD session on Thai Phonology. Then, they had a little farewell for morning tea for me. Annette brought a lemon pie with lots of strawberries on it…It was very touching for me to see them telling how they felt about me fitting in the place real quickly and that I became part of them. I was very proud of myself to represent the University and country to be there and did my very best on getting to know people, the program system, the teaching, and other things that they offered over there. I thought that I did a tremendous job there.

Then, I went to Nathan to meet up with Hilda for a coffee and the graduation for DEPs. The celebration reminded me of my graduation in America and I was very happy for them to see them became successful in the program. Then, I took off to another event, which was the Aboriginal performance. I even danced with them and I got some white dots on my face as part of their culture and the show. I thought it was very cool. There I met with some Thai students who were in the ETP (English for EIALS Test Preparation). The performance was very interesting and we all enjoyed it so much. Other students there had a chance to pain a boomerang in accordance with their year of birth. I was not there, unfortunately, since I had to prepare for the presentation and help with the lunch.

The presentation went great and everyone really admired my delivery so much that some of them came up to me and said very nice thing about my speech and the topic. I started off the project with some background of the Thai Language and I had a VDO clip on from YouTube to show them. After that, I started talking about the difficulties Thai learners, as well as others second learners from Asian countries have. The presentation was very relaxing since I intended to make it that way yet they learned some new thing. By adding a bit of the problems that Vietnamese students have in terms of pronunciation came handy since there are more Vietnamese students than Thai students and many teachers have problems understanding them. Many teachers brought some food to share with others. Joy brought very nice sandwiches with some Kangaroo meat, others brought fruits and rice, and I brought American Pie that I baked the night before. We enjoyed both the PD and the food.

Since I was the one who did all the talking, so I did not have a chance to eat lunch. However, it was a good idea that I did not eat a lot since Judy and her family invited me to a show in Gold Coast called “Outback Spectacular.” Judy and I left early this afternoon, so we could go pick up my belongings from the house. We got to the place half an hour earlier, so we decided to just have something to drink. We ended up at McCafe and had a Latte. We got to the Outback and I did some gift shopping for my brother. The place was packed that night and the atmosphere was just blew me away. We got a cowboy hat each, which was part of the price including a meal. Inside, people sat down in a horseshoe layout. The show was great and really was spectacular just like its name. I enjoyed it big time. During the show, dinner was served to the audience. We had a salad, a Stake with some steam veggies and some bread; we finished off with Pavlova! The food was great and we just loved it. The show was about an hour and a half and by the end of the show, I had to say that I got some goose bumps since there were cowboys and cowgirls riding the horses and were holding Australian flags. It was right there that I felt like I was in Australia. I thought they must be very proud to be Australian which is true that they are very lucky ones!

Tonight I stayed over at Judy’s house since we decided to do things together on Saturday together. We went shopping for things and ingredients for a Thai dinner. I made Massaman Kai (Sweet red curry with drumsticks). It came out quite well. We ended having fried rice and the curry for my course and had ice-cream for dessert. Judy and her family enjoyed the food a lot.

More EAP and Pre-DEP classes and a PD session

Friday 11 July 2008

Since it's my last day at Nathan with EAP classes, I decided to observe more classes from different teachers. I went to another EAP class with a male teacher. I found that students, especially male students, were more relaxed and both teachers and students were relaxed and friendly with each other. It's also because of the fact that he has been teaching them for 10 weeks now. Anyway, the teacher always asked them lots of questions and asked for logical reasons for their answers. This I think the teacher wanted to be certain that they understood. Then, a couple of students had to give a presentation (just like the other EAP class). Here, the teacher wrote down words that the speakers had difficulties with pronouncing them; then, after each speaker finished, he asked the whole class to repeat the words. What I would do further is to perhaps also give some feedback on their presentation skills.

In the afternoon, we had a PD session on Islam in the West: Challenges and Opportunities. I thought the topic was very interesting. The speaker, one of the staff member in Help Program, talked about how we, as teachers and Australian citizens, could do to help make Islamic students, and others in general, feel welcome and be part of the society or be as other human beings. What teachers could do is to understand their culture and be mindful of what we do in and out side the classroom. However, no matter what ethical background all of us have, we should all think about other's first and stay conscious to whatever we do. It's also a two-way thing, as one teacher brought up during the discussion. They also should try to open themselves, learn new cultures and try to get the best out of it while they are studying here without interfering or giving up their own identity.

Great Day at Work with Robynne and a PD session!

Tuesday 8 July 2008

It was very interesting to experience another dynamics of this group of students in an upper level. I learned that teachers' characters play such a big role in the class dynamics and atmosphere, which sometimes does not have much impact on students' motivation and learning achievement.

This class had two different teachers: Robynne (a teacher on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) and Joy (a teacher on Wednesday and Friday). These two teachers have different characters, which was claimed by many students that it was a good balance.

Robynne is a traditional kind of teacher, who is strict and serious, yet she is very in depth with insightful details when it comes to explaining any subject matters being taught in the classroom. Many students who seek for improvement in English really like her. Today, she started off the class with a grammar exercise since she learned that there would be latecomers. Giving out the exercise as a revision certainly benefit both who show up in class on time and late. This way it would be fair for both side including the teacher since she won't have to repeat the new materials. The exercise was on mixed verb form based on compositions written by students who were members of a multicultural class, which is perfect for the students. While they were working on the exercise, the teacher called on some students with their writing assignment. She pointed out their errors in order for them to be aware and try not to make the same errors again. I quite like the method and would adopt it to my class, so I won't waste any second in the classroom. Moreover, I would try to find an answer to their question as much as I could at once, so I won't leave them hanging with the misery of the untold answers to the questions they have. However, if the situation gets too carried away and they would always rely on you to correct their mistakes, I might have to ask them to try to go back to their past mistakes and learn from them independently.

After the students completed the exercise, the teacher answered the questions and explained each answer with insightful details. As I could tell, students learned a lot from her explanations. Then, this is awesome, she had her students read the exercise with the correct answers out loud. She said, "Make as much noise as you can!" How great is that to have a noisy classroom! The teacher said this was the way to improve their English--learning how to speak English or write English grammatically correct by sound. As many native speakers always say when they correct try to understand something, "That sound good/sound right to me"

Then, students practiced their note taking and summary skills by watching a VDO program on Baroness and the Brain. Here what I did was preparing and setting the VDO program for the teacher. The topic per se was very interesting, so it kind of captivated students’ attention. While watching, the teacher stopped once every often to pinpoint and write down some keywords and expressions on the board, so students understood the program better and be able to take notes and write a summary. About the program, it was very intriguing to know that we can actually improve our brain connection by using our imagination or just by thinking. This means that if we want to be able to play piano, we can literally learn the theory of how to work out our fingers and then just practice it by using an imagination. It is about using positive thinking to succeed in doing something. This is a study of Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield. Her research showed that people can think themselves to better brains! The research was initiated by her concern of children being very passive nowadays—consuming too much animated media and living in such animated lifestyle, which deprive them from activating their brain. Watching TV too much or doing something too much with technology seems to destroy their brain connections. Thus, as teachers, they need to learn how to put students’ ideas to practice. In other words, they need to learn how to teach students to improve or stimulate their brain connections.

After students finished taking notes, they had to write a summary and shared it with their partner by reading it out loud to each other and constructive criticized each other’s work. Meanwhile, the teacher and I walked around to help out and guide them on their summaries.

After lunch, we had a learning vocabulary hour. The book we used was Focus on Vocabulary (mastering the academic word list) by Diane Schmitt and Norbert Schmitt. The teacher discussed the words with students.Here, she came up with a game to help practice the grammar points that they were weak at. The game was called Word/Sentence Game. We divided them into two groups. The teacher wrote down a word (learned in the classroom from the VDO program they had watched) on a board on both sides each round and had them one-by-one build a sentence around the given words. The last person had to finish and correct the sentences. Then, they had to switch the players and started with the second student first for a new round with a new word.

At the end of the day, I was so thankful to help the teacher and observe the teaching simultaneously as I learned a whole lot of good activities to be used in a writing course. Not only does the teacher teach grammar to the students, but she also teaches them how to think and organise their thought through integrated skills--by using games to improve their sentence structures, by having them watch VDO programs as a tool to improve their note taking and summarizing, by having them read articles as a tool to better their skimming and scanning skills. They learn more than just writing in this course; actually, they are able to employ and practice all their 4 skills.

Also, I have gathered good traits of teachers in general. 1) have good general knowledge on different areas or else they have to prepare material and find more infor about the subject matters ahead of time. 2) recognise students' problems and find ways to go circumvent them. For example, we could help late comers by starting the class with a warm-up activity.

Extra activity: PD at lunch time on Dictogloss by the department member Jacqie from MEAP (Mixed English for Academic Program). This is a grammar activity which is suitable for any levels. Teachers just have to adjust the means of doing it or they can cover tenses or whatever grammar points that have been taught in class. The aims of dictogloss are (1) to provide an opportunity for students to put their grammar knowledge into practice, (2) it encourages students to find out what they do and do not know about English grammar, and (3) it upgrades and refines the learner's use of the language through a thorough analysis of grammar and language choices. In short, dictogloss is divided in to stages: (1) the teacher prepares the students for what is to come, (2) the teacher reads or plays a tape of a short passage, (3)the passage is read at the speed of a newsreader, (4) The students write down what they can--usually content words, (5) students then reconstruct the text by pooling their notes, and (6) at the end, the text is analysed carefully.

"Experienced teachers" Makes No Difference?

Thursday 3 and Friday 4, 2008

Well, the topic seems a bit critical and arguable, doesn't it? However, I am not saying that less experienced teachers are as good as, better than, or not as good as the teachers who have been teaching for years or all their lives, nor am I saying that the latter group is more successful in teaching. It all depends upon circumstances, situations and passions.

These last two days, we had two relief teachers for each day in the class. Since it's a language institute, there are more permanent casual teachers and relief teachers to fill in the teachers who call in sick or on a business leave. Having helped the two experienced teachers, Kathy and Kristine, I learned that, in some matters, there was no such a thing as who could do better and be more satisfied with teaching between experienced and inexperienced teachers or between full-time and casual teachers in regard to teaching performance. Being a relief teacher could be satisfactory, yet challenging at times. It’s all about passion. They both have tricks and plans up their sleeves to keep the class go. However, it usually takes quite some time to get the “feel” of the class dynamics and students’ needs. As a result, meeting them for the first time, and only once, would not be able to serve their needs and smooth out the course outline easily. Then, you feel a bit unprepared and depreciated about your outcome or performance. Sometimes, you feel you feel nervous, especially when you assign them an exercise or some thing that they have already done. It also happens with those who are less experienced in teaching. The difference is that the experienced teachers have a lot of tricks, activities and techniques up their sleeves. They are able to conceal their anxiety versus the inexperienced ones would project it in the class, and therefore it creates tension in the classroom.

My observation in the classroom conducted by the two teachers, I found that they contained good attitude once they were right in front of the students. They explained the topic matters in the book and inserted explanation through examples and their real-life stories. They asked questions and tried to have them talk as much as possible. Students had a fine time discussion. All of the above, they were satisfied to be learning their students’ interests and exchanging intriguing cultural experience in the classroom. Time had flied by very quickly after all.

Having no students’ education background and plans often makes it difficult to capture their interests, to make them stay focused, and to get them understand the subject matters easily. It then comes down to how we, as teachers, go about finding the right approach to the right group of students and their learning capacity and pattern, which is required more experience. However, it can be proved that well-prepared teaching plan can make the class enjoyable and satisfactory no matter you are an experienced or inexperienced teacher. With this class, students lack writing and spelling skills (they also have no interests in writing much); therefore, we should write down instructions or expressions we explain on the board.

"It will work if the teacher makes it work!"

วันพุธที่ 11 มิถุนายน 2551 วันนี้ตุ๊กตื่นแต่เช้าเพื่อที่จะได้ถึงมหาวิทยาก่อนใครและเริ่มต้นวันใหม่กับการหาอ่านวิจัยที่หาไว้เมื่อหลายวันที่ผ่านมาเพื่อจะได้สรุปย่อสาระสำคัญ แต่อย่างไรก็ตาม มาถึงมหาวิทยาลัยประมาณ 7.10 ซึ่งก็ยังช้ากว่าอาจารย์บางท่าน น่าทึ่งมากเพราะตุ๊กมาช่วยแม่บ้านเปิดตึกซะส่วนใหญ่ที่มหาวิทยาลัยศรีปทุม พอสายหน่อยตุ๊กก็ช่วยอาจารย์ท่านหนึ่งเตรียมอาหารขบเคี้ยว เพราะช่วงกลางวันมีปาร์ตี้ในที่ทำงานกันเล็กน้อยให้กับอาจารย์ท่านหนึ่งที่ได้งานทำที่ใหม่ ที่นี่เขาทำกันเป็นประเพณี ในเทศกาลต่างๆ เช่นวันเกิดเพื่อนร่วมงาน ในหลายๆ ที่เขาก็พยายามทำกันอย่างต่อเนื่อง เพื่อทำให้บรรยากาศในที่ทำงานน่าอยู่ และเพื่อนร่วมงานก็จะได้มีโอกาสได้พูดคุยสังสรรค์กัน จึงทำให้บรรยากาศเป็นหมือนบ้านอีกหลังหนึ่งของอาจารย์หลายๆ คนที่นี่ ซึ่งอาจารย์เหล่านั้นก็จะรักองค์กรเป็นอย่างมาก ได้คุยกับเจ้าหน้าที่และอาจารย์บางท่าน เขารักที่จะมาทำงานที่เขารักทุกวัน บางคนอาจจะไม่รักงานที่ทำมากนัก แต่เขาบอกว่าเขาอยากมาทำงานทำวันเพราะเขารักเพื่อนร่วมงานและรู้สึกอบอุ่นเหมือนบ้านอีกหลังหนึ่งซึ่งมีคนคอยให้การสนับสนุนและกำลังใจ ย้อนกลับมาที่งานปาร์ตี้อาจารย์หลายๆคนก็นำอาหารมาแบ่งกันกิน แบบง่ายๆ แต่ได้ความสนุนและสบายใจที่ได้พูดคุยกันนอกเรื่องบ้างที่ไม่ใช่แต่เรื่องสอนอย่างเดียว ตุ๊กก็เอาอาหารไทยมาแบ่งให้ทานกันเหมือนกัน เขาชอบกันมาก

ช่วงบ่ายตุ๊กเข้าร่วมการประชุมเรื่องการเปลี่ยนแปลงหลักสูตรการสอนเพื่อให้เอื้อต่อความต้องการของนักเรียนมากขึ้น ซึ่งจากเดิมที่นักเรียนต้องเรียน 10 อาทิตย์ก็เปลี่ยนเป็น 5 อาทิตย์ ซึ่งถ้านักเรียนสอบผ่านก็สามารถเลื่อนชั้นได้ หรือเข้าเรียนในระดับปริญญาตรี โท เอก ต่อได้ตรงเลย เนื้อหาวิชาก็จะยังคงเดิมโดยการใช้ หนังสือและเนื้อหาในหนังสือเป็นหลัก ซึ่งตอนนี้เขาใช้ Straight Forward Book ทุกสัปดาห์ก็จะสอนไปตามหัวข้อเรื่องของบทนั้นๆ ซึ่ง อาจารย์แต่ละท่านจะได้ lesson plan ที่ออกแบบมาให้สอนเหมือนกันหมด เพราะเนื่องจาก ระดับหนึ่งๆ มีหลายห้องเรียนซึ่ง แต่ละระดับจะมีอาจารย์สอน 2 คน ซึ่งสลับกันสอนตามวันที่เขาสามารถสอนได้ ซึ่งอาจารย์เหล่านี้ส่วนใหญ่เป็น part-time teacher เนื่องจากที่เขาไม่มีนโยบายรับอาจารย์ประจำจำนวนมาก ดังนั้นอาจารย์ชั่วคราวต้องผลัดกันสอน เพื่อให้การสอนเป็นไปในทิศทางเดียวกันของทุกห้อง และนักเรียนเองจะได้ไม่มีข้อสงสัยเกี่ยวกับปัญหาการสอนหรือให้คะแนนที่แตกต่างกัน ดังนั้นโครงการสอนจึงเป็นแบบออกแบบมาให้ค่อนข้างเป็นระบบที่ต้องสอนตาม ซึ่งอาจทำให้อาจารย์ไม่สามารถจะมีโอกาสได้ปรับเปรียนกิจกรรมการสอนในห้องเรียนเท่าที่ควร เพราะต้องสอนตามคำแนะนำหรือ กิจกรรมที่จัดให้ในโครงการสอนแต่ละสัปดาห์ แต่อย่างไรก็ตามทั้งนี้ อาจารย์ก็ไม่จำเป็นต้องทำกิจกรรมที่แนะนำทั้งหมด สิ่งที่ดีอย่างหนึ่งที่อยู่ในนโยบายการเรียนการสอนแบบใหม่นี้ก็คือการที่จัดให้อาจารย์มีสอนร่วมในการสอนให้นักเรียนรู้จักการเรียนอย่างเป็นระบบมากขึ้น เช่นจัดให้ทำแฟ้มเก็บกิจกรรมเป็นของตนเองอย่างเป็นระบบ แยกเป็นสัดส่วนอย่างเห็นได้ชัด เช่น เอกสารสำหรับการอ่าน พูด เขียน คำศัพย์ เพื่อง่ายต่อการจัดเก็บ และเป็นการสอนนักเรียนให้รู้จักการจัดการการเรียนของจตนเองให้มีประสิทธิภาพมากขึ้นไม่ว่านักเรียนจะอายุเท่าไหล่ก็ตาม ควรจะมีสิ่งนี้อยู่เสมอแม้กระทั้งจะทำงานแล้ว การจัดการทำงานให้เป็นระเบียบ หมวดหมู่จะช่วยประหยัดเวลาและสร้างความเป็นระเบียบให้กับตนเองมากยิ่งขึ้น นอกจากนี้ที่นี่ยังให้ความสำคัญในเรื่องของการเรียนของนักศึกษาในเรื่องของการเรียนด้วยตนเอง และความเหมาะสมในเรื่องของเอกสารการเรียนที่เหมาะสมกับระดับความรู้ของนักเรียน และแยกว่านักเรียนระดับใดควรได้รับความรู้ในทักษะใดตามความเหมาะสมกับตัวนักเรียน เช่น นักเรียนที่อยู่ในระดับ เริ่มต้นและสูงขั้นมาหน่อย จะเน้นให้เรียนในเรื่องของทักษะในทุกๆ ด้านที่อยู่ในหนังสือมากหน่อย และจะต้องเรียนในเรื่องของการสะกดคำ ออกเสียงและคำศัพท์มากขึ้น เน้นการอ่านให้มากขั้นเพื่อจะได้เรียนรู้คำศัพท์เพื่อนำมาใช้งานได้จริง แต่พออยู่ในระดับสูงมากขึ้น นักเรียนจะได้เรียนรู้ด้วยตังเองให้ชั่วโมง SAC (self access center)มากขึ้น ทั้งนี้นักเรียนจะต้องบริหารการเรียนด้วยตังเองตามความสนใจและความต้องการในการพัฒนาทางด้านของภาษาโดยมีอาจารย์คอยให้คำแนะนำ มีการให้นักเรียนเขียนรายงานอยู่อย่างต่อเนื่องจากสิ่งที่นักเรียนอ่าน ซึ่งจะมีหนังสือให้อ่านนอกเวลาและนำมาคุยกันภายในห้องเรียน หรือให้นักเรียนได้อ่านบทความ หนังสือพิมพ์ หรือสื่อต่างๆ แล้วให้เขาแสดงความคิด วิจารย์ ต่อสิ่งที่อ่านและเขียนลงในสมุดบรรทึกของตนเองทุกอาทิตย์ ดังนั้นนักเรียนจะไม่มีเวลาว่างที่จะหาความริ่นเริงมากนัก นอกจากนี้นักเรียนแต่ละคนจะมีสมุดคำศัพท์เป็นของตนเองเพื่อจดคำศัพท์ที่นักเรียนเรียนหรืออ่านเจอระหว่างที่อ่านในห้อง SAC เพื่อที่จะให้นักเรียนได้เพิ่มพูนคำศัพท์ให้กับตนเองและสามารถทบทวนในชั้นเรียนกับอาจารย์อีกด้วย นอกจากนี้ยังมีการอ่านในห้องเรียนซึ่งจะอ่าน Penguin Reader และมานั่งคุยกันในห้องเรียนเกี่ยวกับสิ่งที่อ่าน ซึ่งตรงนี้อาจารย์สามารถให้นักเรียนเขียนรายงานได้อีกด้วยส่วนเรื่องของการวัดผล ที่นี่เขาจะวัดผลโดยขึ้นอยู่กับการเรียนตลอดทั้งเทอมที่เรียนตามการพัฒนาการในสิ่งที่เรียนในชั้นเรียน ดังนั้นการสอนจึงไม่ใช่การสอนเพื่อให้ไปสอบ ดังนั้นอาจารย์ที่นี่จะต้องสอนในสิ่งที่ชัดให้ในโครงการสอนแต่ละอาทิตย์ตามหัวข้อที่กำหนดให้ และนักเรียนเข้าห้องเรียนตลอด ก็จะไม่มีปัญหาต่อการประเมินผลการเรียน อาจารย์ที่นี้ก็ยังให้ความสำคัญในการให้คะแนะและตัดเกรดมากโดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งเวลาที่มีผู้สอนหลายคนในชั้นเดียวกัน อาจารย์จะมานั่งตัดคะแนนด้วยกัน และปรึกษาและเทียบความแตกต่างของคะแนนกันเพื่อไม่ให้เกิดความแตกต่างกันในเรื่องการให้คะแนนอย่างเห็นได้ชัด ส่วนเกรดที่ให้ก็จะเป็นแบบมีคะแนนที่กำหนดให้อย่างชัดเจน ดังนั้นนักเรียนจะทราบว่าจะต้องทำให้ได้คะแนนเท่าไหล่ถึงจะได้เลื่อนระดับชั้นหรือให้ได้เกรดตามที่ต้องการ


The GE 2 teachers who teach General English 2 classes and above had a PD (Professional Development)session today. This time, it was more like a meeting to discuss and clarify on the new curriculum. There are some changes with a classroom management which allow flexibility for students to enter on a 5 weekly basis and study for as long as they wish versus 10 weekly basis. Moreover, students will have to select Options classes in areas of need/interest at GE 2 and above. The teachers were given out a Language Instructor Handbook and a course outline designed systematically each week. Thus, it is imperative to follow the week's theme (first week theme is "My Place", for example) based on the textbook. There are suggestions for all skills including resource choices. Basically, they introduce a prescribed course outline and lesson plans for the teachers in order to diminish dilemma with students' scores. Thus, there will be some kind of moderation in scores in different classes.

As for the students, they have to learn up to 25 hours per week. 17 hours are Core classes and 8 hours are non-Core. Within 17 hours of Core classes, 7 areas of studies have been provided-(1)Integrated Skills (intensive study in all skill areas, based about the week's topic. The main focus, therefore, is solid, contextualised structures and vocabulary input and practice. Every Friday, 2 hours will be dedicated to revision of the week's grammar and vocabulary in the form of communicative activities, the Grammar and Vocabulary test and immediate feedback on the test. The tests are marked later), (2)Reading and Writing (There are two functions: Written Communication Skills Option and Written Communication Skills.Written Communication Skills Option focuses on Reading and Writing skills, the Core classes are intended to be more general in nature. However they are centered around the week's topic, whereas the Written Communication Skills will focus heavily on development of micro skills such as scanning,skimming and so forth. WCS aims to develop students' ability to write accurately at sentence level and also incorporate genre-based input and practice. The length and time of writing expected a teach level is also contributed in the Language Instructor Handbook. These word lengths and time limits are designed to enable students to build up to the writing requirement of tests such as IELTS and ISLPR as well as exams in tertiary environments. For example, Beginner writes up to 75 words in 30 minutes). (3) Speaking and Listening (There are also two segments here: Speaking and Listening section(provides students further develop language skills in the topic area)and Conversation Power Option (provide opportunity for student presentations, longer listening texts and listening micro skills).(4) SAC (which I already explained)(5)Language Lab (used for speaking and listening activities related to the week's theme, to practice grammar and vocabulary taught in the week's core classes and for speaking or listening assessment items).(6)Spelling and Pronunciation (are specifically taught at the lower levels. (7) Computer Lab.

There are certain activities that students are to follow. The routine ones would be reading logs, vocabulary books, individual learning plans, journals and newspaper.

As for assessment, it is achievement-based and therefore covers the work taught in class. Thus, it is not necessary to "teach to the test" or do any special preparation for the tests. All parts of assessment items are collected by the Instructo so that they are not circulatred by students. The grades are marked numerically and converted.

At the end, I thought the new curriculum is very tensed, which is better for the students and they are to work very hard to be promoted. On my very last note for the longest log yet, there was an utterence expressed by Kerry, The Director of Studies,that really caught my attention and impression. Kerry said this after she explained to the teachers about having their students purchase a folder to keep all their papers organised. Here, the teacher teaches them the system of learning on how to learn. Then, students will become indipendant learners and have a sense of ownership. Overall, Kerry said, "It will work if the teacher makes it work!" It really kind of hit me right there.