|SHARE | Notes of reflection: Orientation Day

In the past months, I participated in the SHARE project. The projects provide varied training sessions for the development of teaching portfolios, teaching philosophies, and instructional strategies. This note is dedicated to the project with my sincere gratitude. I also write to remember what I consider to be extremely valuable for a young educator like myself. I will try to write separate posts on each topic. The first one dedicates to our Orientation day

We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience (John Dewey)

On the first day of our course, we thoroughly enjoyed our training outside of Hanoi. This is the first time I have listened to my colleagues discuss teaching. I recall Dr. Tam's 4H teaching philosophy to this day (Heart, Head, Hand, and Hope).

Developing a teaching philosophy and a portfolio are efforts that resonate strongly with me.

This is the sole reason I maintain this website. What's new is how each subject should incorporate with a different teaching philosophy. It serves as the foundation upon which we build our lesson plan. The concept that each lesson should be a movie with a plot also impressed me. Simply because stories connect people. In addition, we were introduced to reflective practices:

the act of thinking about our experiences in order to learn from them

So why should we reflect?

• Think about future plans

• Put self-talk voice to use when learning from what has been done or when moving forward

• Give areas to improve on or develop knowledge & skills

• Spark new ideas & ways of thinking

• Challenge assumptions & see things from a new perspective

• EI developed from reflection is a useful skill for own wellbeing & when working with others.

• Maintain a healthy work/life balance by offering a defined process for thinking things through.

How should we reflect?

Some models were introduced by us are

• ERA Cycle (Jasper, 2013): Experience => Reflection => Action => ....

• Driscoll's What Model (Borton, 1970; Driscoll, 1990s): What => So What? => Now What? => ....

• Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1984): Concrete experience => Reflective Observation => Abstract Conceptualization => Active Experimentation.

Here is one of examples on our reflective assignment

This day has left me with many questions about who I am as a teacher and how I should proceed in the next chapter of my career. It also a pad on my shoulder that I am going toward the right direction.

A photo I would love to keep just for future reminder

Thank you for the exprience!

I am forever grateful <3

|Stumbling with words| Recommendation N.12

I should stop starting my blog post with “It has been a while”. Just because it started to be so repetitive. Yet… This video of Ocean Vuong made my comeback.

It felt like a burden to have the potential to change someone's life in the same way that my teachers changed mine. Each year, as I assisted others in their development, I witnessed my own progress. I am grateful for the teaching experience because it allowed me to (for the first time!) envision myself in five years.

Books

Two books I have read in the past months are: Expecting Better and Cribsheet by Emily Oster. These books are quite regression while tackling parenting with empirical evidences. If you're as preoccupied with scientific reasoning as I am, you're like me. Here are your two available book recommendations.

Podcast

This might save you time if you spend a significant amount of time contemplating aging. In this episode, Dr. David Sinclair discussed techniques for delaying aging. The Wim Hof Method, frequent exercise, and intermittent fasting are options. According to Dr. Sinclair, the main takeaway from this podcast is to expose oneself to unpleasant environments (extreme heat, hunger, physical challenge, etc.)

I have been religiously listening to Midnight Talks for the last month. These discussions helped me understand our nation through the perspective of its history. If you are interested in listening to anything other than economics, I strongly suggest this podcast.

Lastly, I must highlight this episode of Have a Sip. Ms. Xuan Phuong is 90 years old. She worked many occupations throughout her lifetime, during both war and peace. I saw the flexibility her mindset. Something I usually suggest to my students. To be flexible and never adhere to predetermined orthodoxy. What stays in my memory is the reminder that we often see (nhìn) things but fail to notice (thấy). We lack attentiveness while seeing and listening.

Movies

The film In our Prime focuses on education and teaching. This film reminds me of a society that is grade-obsessed. In the classroom, it results in academic dishonesty. I vividly recall the scene where the math professor (our protagonist) used this Pi song to illustrate the beauty of mathematics. Ultimately, integrity and intrinsic motivation are what sustain and deepen true knowledge.

Songs

Simple and very catchy song from Vinh Khuat, hope you like it!

Summertime

Hello again!

I've been a while since my last post. I have hibernated to reflect, struggling to be motivated. Sometimes, all you need is a vacation to recharge and restart. This post is just a hello from me; yes, I will write more often.

The highlight of life recently is the Mixtape podcast by Scott Cunningham. If you learnt from me, you might remember the video of Kathryn Graddy on perfect competition.

The recent podcast from Scott reveals the story behind her fish research. It is always inspiring to learn from another economist and the intuition behind their research. Should the economics teaching more research-led? I need you, my readers, for your opinion.

Should economics teaching be more research-led?

• Yesssss
• Nahhh

Until then, I will try to write more post on research I came across.

Thank you for keep hanging around <3