He, She and Them

This is a story about a passionate lecturer, a passionate tutor, and their students.

He is a lecturer who has many ideas to share with his students. He came out with the idea of debates (on topics related to the syllabus) and exhibition (for the students’ assignment). He is well-prepared before he entered the class. He has all the information. He gave his students lecture notes, extra notes, show video clips related to the syllabus, created a blog to post even more information for his students.

She is a tutor who is so care about her students. If her students have any problems, she would be there to help them. No matter what the problem is, she will try her best to help. She teaches her students as like teaching her children. She will make sure her students understand and learn something in her class. She planned to show her students a movie related to the syllabus (interesting way of learning) and she even planned to take their students for a visit to kindergarten (learn in real setting).

Their students are not supportive. Complaints on the debates, complaints on the exhibition, complaints on the video clips, complaints on the movies, complaints on the kindergarten visit, complaint on everything! They even complaint to the management board. Why not deal with the lecturer or the tutor face-to-face instead of going to the management board?

The students think that all those activities are problematic, wasting their time, increase their workload do not help at all. In fact, all those activities are for the students own good. The purpose of having those activities is to let the students able to learn more and be more interactive.

The students started to complaint since the semester started. Here are the results of complaining: debates are off, movie screening is off, kindergarten visit is off and holding back many activities for the exhibition. The students seemed to be very happy with the outcome because it decreases their workload.

The lecturer and tutor keep changing their plans to tolerate and work out with their students. The lecturer and tutor tried so hard to find win-win solutions for everything but what they get in return? Their students not appreciate what they did to them, keep complaining, keep blaming, and keep making them mad and hurt.

My comments……
I think the students are not mature enough. Why keep complaining? Those activities do no harm! Why can’t the students tolerate with the lecturer and the tutor? I may nag a bit of why the lecturer and tutor give us so many things to do. I nagged to release stress. I just nag to myself and some of my friends. I will not complaint to the lecturer, the tutor or the management board. Because I know it is the responsibility of a student to complete the tasks given by the lecturer or tutor.  I think the tasks were interesting and fun! In one way or another, it improves the interaction among students and between students and the lecturer and the tutor.

I can imagine how the lecturer and the tutor feel. I can imagine how much they feel hurt, stress and fed up. They came out with ideas, the students ban everything. They came out with suggestions, the students not support them. They came out with plans, the students complaint on them. What they did are for the sake of their students. Until now, the lecturer and the tutor still tolerate with their students. The lecturer and the tutor tolerate with their students because they are open to suggestions. They wanted to be democratic instead of autocratic. With this kind of students, maybe they should stand still with everything, stay firm with their decisions.

Four Happy Presentations

Another four presentations done for this semester! I am glad that I did well on them and received good comments from evaluators! I felt so happy! All the hard works paid.

Introduction to Political Science presentation on March 13, 2008
My topic was Human Rights. It was an average presentation from me and Zu. I felt happy because in the end of the presentation, the evaluator asked for a soft copy of my PowerPoint slides of presentation for his own record, which he didn’t ask other groups to do so.

Abnormal Psychology presentation on March 13, 2008
My topic was Dissociative Identity Disorder. It was a more than average presentation from me, Nai Ma, Bread Face, Meaty, and Gan. I felt happy because the evaluator was happy to see that our presentation contained some video clips. The purpose of inserting video clips in our PowerPoint slides was to have a more interesting way on presenting on the topic instead of just present on psychology terms, so that our audience can easily understand our topic.

Child Development video clip presentation on March 22, 2008
My topic was Conservation. My group members including Nai Ma, Zu and Meaty. A very special thanks to Wan Sia, Chris and Mark for making it a successful one. We were the casts and crews for the video clip. I felt happy because the evaluator said that our video clip was very good because we were able to put in all the facts with clear explanation, the flow was smooth and most importantly it was funny. I received compliments from my classmates too ^_^

Organizational Psychology presentation on March 24, 2008
It was to present on a company that we created for our assignment – The Knot. My group members including Nai Ma, Zu and Meaty. We did a website for our company for the presentation because we were not allowed to use PowerPoint for the presentation. I felt happy because the evaluator said she was impressed with the website that we made and asked for a soft copy of our works for her own record. I received compliments from my classmates too ^_^

I have 2 more presentations to go. Hope that I will get good comments from the evaluators too. I will work hard for them too! ^_^

~~Thank you all for making the presentations a successful one!~~

Peanuts: Snoopy Transport

This time I am going to show you part of my McDonald’s collectibles – Snoopy Transport! A set of 8! All the following Snoopy Transport figures were from McDonald’s Restaurants released in 2004.

Snoopy Transport No. 1 Snoopy Train

Snoopy Transport No. 2 Snoopy Rickshaw

Snoopy Transport No. 3 Snoopy Bus

Snoopy Transport No. 4 Snoopy Motorbike

Snoopy Transport No. 5 Snoopy Taxi

Snoopy Transport No. 6 Snoopy Plane

Snoopy Transport No. 7 Snoopy Speed Boat

Snoopy Transport No. 8 Snoopy Vessel

Unobjectionable or Directness?

Most of the time I heard people say that, “If you are not agree with me, just tell me your thoughts. If you lie to me or do not voice out our opinion, I will never know that I am wrong and I will never know how others view me. So if you want to comment on me, just tell me directly. I am open to suggestions.” I feel that it is so true. When you are doing something wrong, but you think it is right, it will be great if someone beside you can ‘pull’ you back to the right track instead of keep ‘drowning’ in the wrong track.

I always voice out my opinions in an unobjectionable way. I think it is the best way because you will never hurt other peoples’ feelings. But there is a problem with speaking in an unobjectionable way, the person you speak to may not get what you mean or misunderstand you. So it is important to make sure that the person got the same message as you wanted to let them know. It requires more techniques, patient and times.

People around me keep talking about directness. They prefer other people to be directness to them instead of unobjectionable. When they say that to me, I was thinking, “Do you mean what you said? Can you really handle it?” I think in that way because I think that not many people can accept other people to be directness to them. For me, I can definitely accept directness. So, I decided to do some tests. I decided take away my objectionable and put in directness for few days. In that few days, if anyone ask for my opinions, I will show them my directness. Here goes my report!

Subject 1: She can accept my directness. Accept it completely. Because she has no problem in accepting my directness, I tried to be strict to her. I commented on every small thing she did. She is still can accept my directness! The result was expected but I still felt impressed!

Subject 2: I said her work was boring. She showed a ‘sour’ face. But she was okay after a moment. My friend beside me said to me that I should not have say that, so direct, the person might feel sad. Well, my motive was to see if directness can be applied to them or not because they always wish for directness. So I have to be as direct as I can. For subject 2, directness can’t apply on her frequently.

Subject 3: She was trying to get new attire and she was kind of like it. I told her I don’t like it, it didn’t suit her, not nice on her. Although she didn’t showed a “sour” face, but I can see that she felt down and quiet for awhile. Again, another friend beside me said to me that I should not have give opinions in such a direct way, it may affect the person’s feelings and I should give my opinions in an unobjectionable way. Well, my motive was to test whether they can accept directness. I must be as direct as I can. I can’t talk in an unobjectionable way. So, for subject 3, the result was the same as subject 2, directness can’t apply on her frequently.

Subject 4: I didn’t apply directness on her. I saw another person apply directness on her and I observed it. She was totally can’t accept directness. She will be mad at you most of the time if you show your directness to her. For other time, she will show “sour” face. So, directness can’t apply on her.

Subject 5: This girl is a bit difficult to analyze. Sometimes she can accept directness and sometimes not. She will ask for more opinions when she can accept directness. But when she can’t accept directness, she will show “stay away” face and keep quiet. So I think directness can apply on her in certain situations.

As a conclusion, not all of the people meant what they said. It is easy for you to say that you can accept directness but there would be another story when someone is applying directness on you. Who do you want to blame when you feel that your feelings get hurt? Blame the person who is being direct to you? No. It would be unfair to the person because you said you can accept directness and he/she just talk to you in the way that you wish to. Blame yourself? I think most of the people will not do that – how come they will hurt their own feelings? It doesn’t make any sense to them.

So, how would you like other people to talk to you? You prefer the unobjectionable way or directness? Think about it. Don’t blame other people because of your own fault. I prefer other people to be directness to me and I will be unobjectionable to them. For those who felt that your feelings get hurt because of my directness in the past few days, please accept my apologize. I didn’t mean to hurt you all. My intention was to know whether directness can be applied to you all – it was no harm and all good. Don’t worry, I am back! It is about time for me to take away directness and get back my unobjectionable – back to the usual me again!

Counselling Methods and Techniques II Presentation

I have done my Counselling Methods and Techniques II presentation today. The first group for my tutorial group to present. My first presentation out of six presentations for this semester. It was a group presentation with me, Bread Face, Nai Ma, and Meaty. The presentation was to give a seminar on teen pregnancy prevention.

“Very impressive!”, the feedback from our evaluator, Ms. Annie. I was so happy when I heard that. I never expect to receive such a good comment from Ms. Annie because she is kind of hard to please in oral presentations. All the hard works paid.

Not all of my previous presentations were not good and I was not happy about them. It is the matter of receiving excellent feedback from the evaluators. I have been in university for more than 2 years and I have done many presentations. This was the second time I felt very happy for my presentation because of receiving excellent comment from the evaluator.

The first time was my Sociology presentation and the evaluator was Ms. Charanjit. She was not an easy going person. “It was the best presentation”, that was the feedback I received from her. At that time, my group got the first topic (means the first group to present in my tutorial group) and the last tutorial group to present (there were 5 tutorial groups). So it means that 5 groups present on the same topic and my group was the last group to present on the topic. Because we (me and my group) were the last group to present, and the previous 4 groups didn’t present well (lack of information), the evaluator has high expectation on us and we were so stressful. In the end, all the hard works paid again. The evaluator very satisfied with our presentation and our ability to answers all the questions from her and members of the floor during questions and answers session. I was so happy! Same like this time!

I have 5 more presentations to go. Hope that I will get good comments from the evaluator for all the 5 presentations too. I will work hard for them too ^_^