Thailand floods – 2011
(501 words)
The ongoing Thai flooding sucks with almost $50 billion in damages, including another $25 billion needed to get everything back to normal. And all of this is thanks to 20 billion cubic metres of rain. That is a lot of money and a lot of water, earning Thailand the dubious distinction of having suffered the world’s fourth-most-expensive natural disaster. The most expensive one also happened earlier this year, which was…? The Japanese earthquake and tsunami. This sure has been the year for natural disasters, hasn’t it
Moreover, this is to say nothing of the almost 13 million people who have had their lives turned upside down. That is roughly the entire population of Belgium or Greece! Yet, of the ten people I interviewed last week, not one was directly affected by the flood. While that is all very well and good for them, it would not be smart to treat this incredibly fortunate turn of events as anything but temporary… because it is temporary.
I do not want to alarm you, although alarm may be what it takes to get you into action. But we all know there is no stopping the icebergs from melting, which means the sea is getting more and more water, and we all know Bangkok is below sea level. Where we are concerned, that is not a very good combination. And this flooding? It pales in comparison to its predecessors, of which there have been many—six in the last decade alone (!). The worst, in 1942, had water levels twice as high as ours. Hence, “been there, done that…”—which raises the question of just what on earth the government, both old and new, has been doing if not making sure there won’t be another flood. I mean, isn’t that what they’re supposed to be doing?
Instead, they have been reacting to the crisis and, when that did not work, keeping us thoroughly confused. Take all these helpful quotations, for instance, in chronological order: the flood is coming; it is getting better; oh, it is not; but it will soon; not that soon; very soon. Is it any wonder, then, that some people, like myself and my family, decided that it was now every man and woman for themselves?
I live right next to this smelly khlong, which we did not care to have overflowing into our house. It had happened before, in 1995, when the water reached about hip height. With all the contradictions coming from the government, we thought, screw it—we would prepare for the flood first and ask questions later.
We had concrete barriers built around our front and back doors, bought sandbags, and hired the necessary manpower to lift the washing machine and refrigerator above ground level. And we bought a boat, too! All of this came to just about 10,000 baht, including the cost of demolishing the concrete barriers once we figured out the water was not coming.
But I was one of the lucky ones.
For others, the water did come.
Video Lesson – Rhianna lesson
Last week, my class had a week of lessons on the subject of music. I thought about who I should choose to focus on for one lesson, at least one quite famous popstar, so I chose Rhianna. This lesson worked out fine as they all knew her somewhat. I opened by asking if anyone knew Rhianna, and we got some facts up on the board. I, of course, did (had to do) some background reading as to show the students at least I knew something about her. There are many ways you can take this lesson. The video is Rhianna being interviewed on the red carpet at an awards ceremony, so meeting/interviewing famous people is what it is all about. What would you ask, what would you say? I ended up getting them to be popstars, and a showbiz reporter interviews them Grammy/Oscar style in front of the class for our own awards show. In the dialogue, below, I picked out phrases to focus on as a study part of the lesson. I was thinking about chunking language and how we use phrases and collocations that marry up to make sentences. I went through this before the listening part and blanked out the words as an exercise. Anyway here is the interview and video.
Interviewer: I was looking at a fact. You have been on the AT40 chart.. 177 consecutive weeks which is a record!
Rhianna: I did not know that. That’s sick.
Interviewer: It’s crazy. What does it mean to you, though, to have all of that success in such a relatively short time…at a young age?
Rhianna: It blows my mind. It’s hard to really grasp.. a hold of what’s happening . Really, I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe the success that I’m having. I’m just really grateful. More than grateful because it has surpassed everything I have dreamed of. So, it’s exciting. Now is the bonus.
Interviewer: Tomorrow on E-news right here. We’re gonna world premier the new video for your new single Stay. Lots of excitement for that.. and this is a song that has some breadth to it. It’s a very very slow.…finesse ballad. Tell us about the video.
Rhianna: The video was really really simple. I pretty much stayed put in a bath tub.. and we shot it really tight….really close. There’s Micky Echo in the video as well which is… you know.. this is the first time I have ever collaborated with him. So I am excited about that because he’s actually the one who wrote the song. I kinda just fell in love with it so much…in love with the tone of his voice. So, I wanted to keep him a part of it so you will see him in the video.
Interviewer: I would have to imagine you would have to get into a zone to sing that song. What is that zone you have to get into?
Rhianna: It’s very emotional song and it’s personal so you just think about.. it’s almost like telling a story. And that’s. When you tell a story even to yourself…you know…If you’re saying it out loud, expressing the way you feel. It needs to be powerful because it needs to be authentic.
Phrases
all of that success, blows my mind, has surpassed everything, world premier, collaborated with him, get into a zone, that’s sick, saying it out loud, lots of excitement, have been, needs to be, you know, get into
What salient aspects of XXXXX University and the students that attend do you see as a contradiction?
(895 words)
The topic that I chose to cover in my research paper was etiquette at an Asian University. In a lecture room with a vast array of cultures and backgrounds, some students seemed to have a different understanding of how to act in front of a professor delivering their lecture. During this project, some of the observations really opened up my eyes to the misbehaviors within the study environment resulting in astonishment at the results.
According to Wikipedia, etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group. My simple definition was: the way you are expected to act in a particular environment. My conclusion based on the findings of my research is that the word “etiquette” was left out of the university’s code of conduct and some of the students’ minds on campus.
To begin this project, I first had to come up with a list of the acceptable characteristics that would be deemed appropriate in any university’s rules of appropriacy, otherwise, I could not argue that the behaviors found in my results were questionable. I called these the “top 7 rules to create a peaceful classroom.” In many respects, these were not hard to propose as they had already been observed. These are as follows but not in any particular order;
- Not eating and drinking in class
- Not talking when someone else is speaking
- Not arriving late/leaving early
- Not addressing the Professor inappropriately
- Not answering a phone call, or habitually texting
- Not Sleeping, or laying your head on the table
- Concentrate on the lecture
Gathering information for this research project was done in a variety of different ways such as personal observation, controlled survey results, one-on-one interviews, and group discussions.
For the first part of my research, I counted and tracked the number of times the professor had to say “shhhh” to the class, or tell some students to “please be quiet”. This was tallied for the 3 hours before lunch, as well as 3 hours afterward. Before lunch, the class size was significantly smaller (by almost 33%) but still brought in 17 “shhhh” compared to 22 after the break. Every time, except twice, this was directed to the back tables in the lecture room. Although I made a variety of intelligent guesses as to why fewer people would command a higher “shhhh” count, none of them could claim to be 100% accurate. The seemingly most appropriate outcome for this result was based on calculating the results on a Monday after a weekend. Students were most likely talking about their weekend activities, and catching up on each other’s lives. However, a certain ignorance was notable as well as the lack of propriety.
In the second part of my research, I sat and monitored the different tables and the groups that formed together. This was a very interesting observation for me to take part in, and I noticed a lot of similarities between friends. At one table, I counted 8 Iphones on show. At another separate table were 6 girls all wearing uniforms, and at a different table 5 people all listening intently taking notes while the professor gave his lecture. The idiom I based on the congregation of students was “birds of a feather flock together”. I concluded that this plays a very important role in the etiquette of this university class. I believe that if I separated the groups into different tables, the results of my first observation would not have been as meaningful to my research.
For the final part of my project, I created a 15-question survey asking various questions regarding personal opinions and facts about students here at the university. On the top of my survey was a 7-sentence paragraph with detailed instructions that were meant to be read before filling out any information. This was a crucial paragraph to read and without reading it people would fill out the wrong information which would yield inaccurate results. Out of the 35 questionnaires that we passed out only 2 people read it and followed it exactly.
A few other interesting observations that I made whilst gathering information were;
- Students that wore the university uniform were hardly ever the ones to practice proper etiquette.
- Students that sat in the back of the class, were the ones that had the worst test scores overall.
- The majority of students that showed up late, were also habitual talkers.
- The tables in the back had more students sitting at them that 7 tables up front.
Conclusion
It is recognized that in some countries certain etiquette is often overlooked and study habits are non-existent. A lot of students that study here at the university are fresh out of high school and underestimate the value of solid and uninterrupted university education. Some students appeared to have been, in their life, surrounded by many influential models, such as friends within their peer group, teachers at school, and the school environment. These models provided them examples of behavior to observe and imitate albeit not to the established appropriate behaviour expected in a learning environment. Given more time, I would have liked to do similar studies at other international universities, as well as survey the rest of our campus that does not enroll foreign students.
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How much did Hitler’s upbringing develop his stirrings of hatred and anger?
(819 words)
In the multitude of years that humans have walked this planet, the German leader Adolf Hitler has to be one of the most evil people to ever come into existence. Not solely attributed, but largely as a consequence of Hitler, through his regime of Nazism, an estimated 11 million people were killed which included 6 million Jews. These are staggering figures but why so many Jews? Moreover, why did Hitler bring so much anger against the Jewish continuation as a people in his country and ultimately as a race? Considering Hitler’s hatred of Jews, it is clear this vehemence was not born the day he became The Furher. Hitler’s young life experiences can be taken into consideration. He was a product of his early environment. His burgeoning disgust of the Jewish race and his anger materialized from three experiences; his father, his grandmother, and growing up.
Summary of Research Paper
Bibliographic Reference: Little, S. G., & Akin-Little, K. A. (2008). Psychology’s contributions to classroom management. Psychology in the Schools, 45, 227-234.
Problem/Background: The purpose of this essay is to summarise a research paper that focused on an ongoing problem of student behaviour in classrooms and teachers’ effective classroom management (CRM). The background for this research paper has been brought about due to severe incidents happening at US schools. There was also the added recognition that student behaviour in the classroom was of major concern within the teaching spectrum. Evidence of psychiatric disorders contributing to the lack of discipline was also brought to the fore. This led the researchers to produce a survey looking at the need for empirically validated approaches to classroom management.
Method/Procedure: The method used for this research was in the form of a nationwide survey of 149 teachers, mostly women (81%) with the majority being regular teachers with various levels of teaching experience and qualifications who were attending in-service training in science education. The teachers were surveyed on their use of important CRM principles. The categories of CRM regarded the teachers’ use of (1) Rules, (2) Reinforcement of Appropriate Behaviour and their (3) Response to Class Disruption and (4) Response to Chronic Offenders. Each of these categories was broken down into specific items. The results were reported as a percentage of teachers engaging in that specific procedure at school. The survey was piloted beforehand by a group of 10 teachers to ensure comprehension. Additional questions were also asked regarding corporal punishment.
Results: The results found that with Rules the majority of teachers (98%) were involved in their own rule making although the majority of teachers said there was a school wide discipline plan while few involved the parents (8%). Teachers’ use of verbal praise (97%) scored high within the category Reinforcement of Appropriate Behaviour. Response Class Disruption was not so high with a verbal reprimand and moving the child closer (both 83%) as methods the teacher engages in. Response to Chronic Offenders also scored lower percentages with privileges revoked (63%) and notes sent home (62%). With regard to corporal punishment, 47% reported corporal punishment was allowed in the school.
Discussion: The types of further discussion relating to the results of this research starts with recognising that the teachers all fully engage in CRM, while on the other hand there was still a high priority on having safe and effective schools. The survey also highlighted students wanting attention, be it through praise or even discipline. In addition, there was still a high percentage of teachers leaving the profession because of stress brought on by poor CRM. Furthermore, there was a need for group reinforcement and not solely on individuals. The researchers had to add that there could be a discrepancy with the results and what the teachers stated and reality may not be the same.
Conclusion: To conclude this short essay, (school) psychologists have recognised the need to be proactive in their response to discipline and recognise the teacher’s need for effective CRM procedures with attention to behavioural consultation and effective treatment. Psychology has helped with CRM but there is still a need for effective training to overcome unruly students and stress-related from this.
