[Inspired] Honeymoon - Thailand

I don't seem to be able to turn off my education-oriented mind, even when I'm travelling.

Edit: I am going to start a series called "Inspired" for things that inspire me about education, since my random mind seem to be inspired a whole lot...

As mentioned, our honeymoon will take us through Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.  Right now we're in Thailand, and I've finally obtained some reliable internet, and a tiny bit of free time from the tours.

I've been making a list of things that have inspired me on this trip.  Because of the way my mind works, the things that inspire me may be completely tangential.

Ok let's start with the first country -- and the one that I am still in:

Thailand

• Schedule flexibility

My wife and I booked a tour for Thailand.  When I arrived I was a bit surprised to hear that the itinerary has been modified due to circumstances.  When I stepped back and thought about it -- all the important tour features are still there.  The big ideas are the important stuff that we need to deliver to students.  This is on multiple levels.  The first level is considering the main focus of the entire curriculum.  What are the important aspects of the curriculum that a specific class need to know and learn about?  Lessons can be restructured around those ideas, but it should never take over and become a rigid structure that leaves no room for creativity.  The second level is considering the main focus of math education.  What are the important transferable skills that we want students to obtain from learning mathematics?  Clearly we don't expect the specifics -- like factoring, differentiating, or integrating -- to be "practical" for every student.  What we want is for students to be able to challenge themselves to think critically and effectively.  A schedule (lessons/activities) can be modified according to situations that arises in the country (classroom), as long as the important attractions (focus of curriculum/education) are shown.

• Listening beyond what has been said

Our tour guide speaks English, but it's a bit choppy and not completely fluent.  This made me think about how we interpret emotion from other people's conversations all the time.  Our tour guide interprets some of my questions as complaints about the tour (completely mistaken!  Although tired, we are loving this trip and this country), and offers solutions and adjustments as we go along.  This reminds me of what we do as teachers.  In a class, beyond just facilitating discussions and conceptual understanding, we are constantly re-evaluating how things are going.  We are always considering whether certain concepts need to be elaborated on, reinterpreted, or re-approached.  This is precisely why I've never done a traditional lecture styled class.  While I can still readjust with an entire class while lecturing, it is more difficult to differentiate without losing students to boredom (because they already get it) or confusion (because they still don't get it).  In a group discussion, activity driven classroom, it is easier for me to differentiate by circulating, constructing activities accessible from multiple levels, ...etc.  It is also easier to listen to students individually, identify what they need, and address it immediately (either to the whole class, or to the individuals),

• Numbers as familiar concepts

I don't read or speak a word of the Thai language.  But along with the foreign language, I am also recognizing a whole lot of numbers everywhere.  By relating numbers as a familiar concept, I found that I was able to make sense out of some of the things that I am seeing.  I guess I need some picture examples... maybe I can edit this post and upload the later...  But for example, I saw a giant 5.00 with a different letter beside it.  It was on top of an overpass, so I knew that it may be something that is similar to "meters."  I confirmed this idea when I saw the same symbol along with another symbol on the high way which indicated distances (the other letter must've stood for "kilo").  This is what I took away from this experience:

1. familiar ideas obtained from mathematics (or anywhere) is useful for reinterpreting new ideas
2. numbers are universal, and the ways which we use numbers are fairly similar as well.
3. a sense of familiarity is helpful for building links to new understandings!

In any case, I will cut this short and write more about being inspired later!

(btw, this post will probably serve as an example of how random my mind is) Edit: and thus sparking a new series!