Flight 268

I am not to speak to you.
I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
I am to wait. I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not
lose you.
- Walt Whitman

thanks, Uncle Walt.

“I just wanted to live again. For years we shared this secret, that we would be wonderful in the world. I didn’t exactly know how, but just the possibility kept me hoping. How pathetic is that? … I saw a whole other future. I can’t stop seeing it. I can’t leave; I can’t stay. I’m no use to anyone.”

well said.

India.

What does the word bring to mind?

For me it would have to be: Slumdog Millionare, amazing food (Naan ftw), best tea in the world, Nigel Barker (”Noted fashion photographer extraordinaire”), AP World History projects, Mohenjo Daro, super addicting Sri Lankan music (fly like paper, get high like planes. now.), and…… outsourcing, 12th largest world economy, information technology, 2nd largest movie industry (Bollywood, gogo)… and FLAT CLASSROOM-MUMBAI!

oh yesssssssss

But… it’s only going to be awesome, if KIS can go.

So why SHOULD we go? 0-o

1. Because we would get to show off.
Admit it, its nice to be at the top. When KIS went to the Hong Kong Flat Classroom conference that is exactly what we were; we blew everyone out of the water (in a nice, school appropriate way ). I never realized we were so nerdy (nerd is good) . We totally dominated the wiki-editing, imovie-creating, ning-navigating, appropriate-keynote-picture-finding, podcast-recording aspects of the conference. And why wouldnt we? about 50% (and sometimes even more) of the work we do at school, every day, is exactly what the conference called for. 2 weeks ago, the international learning community got to see just how awesome we are, at KIS. Why not continue the trend, and further immerse ourselves in this community of ‘pioneer’ learners?? (see!! i was listening during the conference’s keynote presentation!)

2. Because it’s necessary
We use technology to such an extent that it would just be wrong, not to go to this conference. Not only would teachers (and students) get to see the reasoning behind the 1:1 program, they would see the benefits of it, and how it is giving them an advantage over other students.

Another reason as to why it would be necessary is because it would give teachers the chance to collaborate with each other. I know im not a teacher and i haven’t taken a masters class on ‘education theory‘, but even i can tell the difference between effective teaching methods and not-so-effective teaching methods (the difference being: one involves a lot of fidgeting and daydreaming and discreet clock watching while the other doesnt). Making projects that the entire internet will have access to, and being able to see the work that other students do really drills the point home ‘you are not alone in this. other people are also learning what you are. learn from what they are learning.’ Need some evidence of this ‘internet-learning’ theory? clickclickclickclick.

Some teachers havnt really grasped the idea yet. Others are striving to find even better alternatives to it. Others still, are facing difficulty applying this kind of ‘open teaching style’ to their material (cant really force ‘linear functions’ into a project, can you?). But that’s where flat classroom comes in.

There is such a limited number of teachers (so far) who use technology in their classroom as extensively as we do at KIS. This means that there arent that many people who they can ‘compare notes’ with. And where would you find a room full of teachers who use technology in their classes? A flat classroom conference!! (no wayyy!) A learning conference such as this would give teachers the perfect opportunity to share teaching methods and see how they could improve. Hey, even teachers have room for improvement.. (right?)

3. Because it makes complete sense, mathematically.

Flat classroom = way to adapt learning to fit the ‘modern world‘ = way to reach more students & way to reach students more effectively than: ‘lecture, take notes, quiz on chapters xyz tomorrow’ = a way to motivate students to become active participants in their own education = students doing more than memorizing&regurgitating = happy teachers

And now a short testimonial! (I didnt pay for it, i swear. The quote was given completely voluntarily and approved. lol) :

I feel like education on the whole hasn’t changed as much as it needs to in response to the fundamental shifts occurring today. The FC Project actually reflects what is REALLY happening in the world and it empowers students to own their own learning instead of just receiving and regurgitating it in a passive manner. The FC Project is founded on the idea of collaboration; a concept which, through the help of web 2.0 tools, can be taken to the next level. I truly believe that in order for us as teachers to successfully aid students in becoming active and positive agents of change, we need to facilitate opportunities like this workshop.

- Ms.P

Flat classroom = chance to apply our knowledge about the ‘tech‘ world to ‘real education‘ (facebook + english= the possibilities are endless) = a chance to see how everything is related = a chance to see why learning is important = a chance to learn the value of education = a chance to realize that school is way more important than it seems sometimes (a lot of times. no, just kidding.) = a chance to feel as if theyre doing something worth while (even if it doesnt always feel like it) = happy students

Flat classroom = happy students (see above equation) = happy parents (quite simple. isnt it?)
* if this wasnt the case, id be sincerely worried for that student.

Flat classroom = happy students (see above above question) = happy parents (see above equation) = parents who feel as if they are receiving their ‘ money’s worth ‘ from KIS = parents who arent complaining = happy administrators (again, quite simple. isnt it?)

Happy administration + happy parents + happy students + happy teachers = happy KIS

THEREFORE:

Flat classroom = Happy KIS.

(genius, i know. )

4. Because it could make a difference. A real difference.
This definitely goes more into the student perspective, as i have no idea what went on in the adult conference. However, im sure it could apply to the educators as well.

For the students, flat classroom was more than a chance to get out of school and go to Hongkong. It was more than just a chance to meet people from other schools. It was more than a chance to be on skype&msn&twitter&flickr&delicious 24/7. It was more than a chance to increase the number of our facebook-friends. It was a chance to learn about a real issue that involved technology, and how we could involve other students, all around the world, in the effort to solve that issue.

That feeling of self worth, of making a difference, of having a larger impact on the global community than just ‘another student hoping to go to a good college, get a good job, contribute their country’s economy, contribute to their country’s population, lead an average life before passing on’; It doesnt come so easily. But conversing with other students at that conference? sharing ideas about how we could possibly organize some project to solve this issue? discussing how we should get the rest of the world- people we dont even know- involved in a collective effort to combat this issue? that was cool. very cool.

At one point, i stopped thinking ‘this is just a project’. i stopped thinking ‘you will never have to look at the icky-orange background of this wiki after next week’. i stopped thinking ‘omg- this is never gonna work’.

I actually convinced myself: ‘this is a real project. this is going to involve real people. this is going to have real, tangible effects. this is going to affect real people. this is going to solve a real issue.‘

So why stop at one conference? Why stop when some of the ideas generated at these conferences could actually be implemented in real life? Why limit the creative genius of the people who know best, how to relate to each other, and what will provoke a response in other students?

Why stop here?

5. Its just THAT awesome.
’nuff said.

xoxo
(read it, love it, comment plz)

Now that its over, i realize how awesome flat classroom was.

what i learned from flat classroom?

I have wayy too much practice with wikispaces. While others in my team were freaking out over the various toolbar options i was speeding through; adding text, adding pictures, adding links. It all just went to show me that our school (KIS) might place just a little too much emphasis on doing wikispace-project, or other internet oriented projects. But, its a good thing: I never realized i was so nerdy…

Through this conference i also learned that the internet is an amazing tool for connecting with people all over the world. This point was really drilled home when overnight, our group recieved 100 votes. something that really wouldnt have happened if the internet did not exist.

From the internet also spring a zillion other social networking tools like facebook, delicious, flickr, and skype. All are amazing places, and i would have died if i had been unable to keep in touch with friend back home. late night skype calls= a lifeline.

The last thing i learned is that maybe sometimes ’simple is better’. All of these new mac applications are great, but why fix something if there wasnt really anything wrong with it in the first place. I learned this in my group, as we struggled to edit our imovie presentation. At least 30 minutes of our work time was deidicated to spazzing and feraking out over the seemingly unnecessary functions of imovie.

lastly:
- tinyurl’s are a convenient way for lazy people (such as myself) to remember superlong URLs.

“http://hkworkshop09.flatclassroomproject.org/” –> “tinyurl.com/hk-flat”

- facebook is fun, but face-to-face socializing is better. wayyyy better

this was just a short blog. its basically the same blog that was on my ning page.

xoxo
HongKong♥

Blogs on steroids? oh yessssssss.

for anyone who hasnt heard: theres an awesome amazing mind-blowingly-cool ‘technology’ conference in HONG KONG in….. LESS THAN A WEEK!!!!!!!

the whole point of the conference is to learn how to use technology effectively in the classroom; to get rid of the physical walls of the classroom and expand education to include the “outside world”; To become able to use technology in a way that is meaningful, in a way that lets me tell some random person in Brazil (or some other internet-addicted country) what i happen to be thinking; to be able to convey those ideas, maybe into the hands of someone who will do more with it; someone who has the resources and the opportunity to make an even bigger difference; someone who could take my thoughts, and somehow incorporate them into something real.

….. which is nerd-speak for: i get to go to Hong Kong. and hang out with fellow nerds (nerdfighters, made of awesome). and facebook (not really). and twitter. and blog. daily (i hope). and basically talk about how we use macbooks in school to gain a more ‘global’ education.

cant wait

xoxo

Lost in this world
I even get lost in this song
And when the lights go down
That is where I’ll be found

OK… so maybe Anouk was singing about being in love. That doesnt help me feel any less lost. at all.

I feel so ‘blah‘ these days. It’s like im melting into a Dongju-sized puddle of goo. (though, that might have something to do with the heat- can you believe the insanely hot weather?). I blame it on the fact that i have no idea what im doing.

Im completely and utterly lost. Its only been 2 days since school has started, but im already asking everyone else what the homework was. Dont get me wrong: I have a post-it with the assignments written on it. But a post-it doesnt give me enough room to write all the explanations for how to do the assignment. Neither do any of these pink frilled, “girlified” excuses for planners that they sell in korea. I need a school agenda. badly.

so i started asking around as to the fate of the beloved blue planners. I think i received 30 different answers, but most of them went something like this:

“Just get a notebook and use that!”

sorry. i need something with a calendar in it, so that i can write in all the project due dates and test days and whatnot. As much as would like to, for simplicity’s sake, i cant really carry around the Pizza School calendar thats hanging in my room. Gosh, i still have SOME dignity left.

“You never used the agenda anyways, whats the problem?”

Excuse me?? Do you not hear the complaints? I USED my agenda (quite efficiently, i might add). I come back this year and find: ‘oh hey guys, we wont be giving you agendas this year. suck it up and get something else to write in.‘ (not in those exact words, of course). oh yeah, i dont know why im complaining either. i think it’s just my inner spoiled-princess acting up. she does that from time to time.

“You’re a junior now!!! you should be able to keep track of your assignments!”

Gosh, well that would be a lot easier if i had my agenda. i mean, ive only been using my agenda to keep track of stuff since…. maybe…. 7th grade? I’ve been using my agenda since the school decided to start making them. And now theyve taken away my only hope for an organized year. (The inner spoiled-princess is traumatized. She keeps rocking back and forth in my brain, chanting ‘there goes your junior year…. you’re dead… junior year… junior year… junior year…’)

I’ve gone as far as to color code my notebooks and binders by subject. AP Bio is green, Pre Calc is pink, Spanish is blue, AP Econ is orange, English is grey, AP US is yellow, Psych is red… but none of that is any good if i cant keep track of hw. For that, i need an agenda.

“Oh, we are gonna have agendas, but you guys have to buy them.”

Wow. I realize that with the 1:1 laptop program comes the responsibility to be more earth-friendly, and with that comes the responsibility to use less paper (save the rainforest!!). But does that mean you have to charge students for agendas? I would understand if we were all irresponsible idiots that would ask for a new agenda every month, but (contrary to popular belief) we’re not. Couldnt they give us our first agenda for free, and then make us pay for the next ones? Even my phone company gives me a better deal than this -_-.

Maybe im over-reacting. Maybe they’re just late to come in from the printers. Maybe HOPEFULLY Mr. Otis is going to walk into the advisories next week, with a huge box full of free agendas.

But at this point, im not hoping for much. I just need some answers.

That way i can decide whether or not i need to steal my sister’s middleschool agenda . If i dont do it soon enough, shes going to plaster it with stickers photos and god-knows what else…. and if that were to happen, i might just be better off with the Pizza School calendar.

or i might buy a middle school agenda….. :/ there isnt a rule against that, is there?

xoxo
here’s to the beginning of another school year

** This blog post is not intended as an attack on the highschool administration (or whoever decides stuff like whether or not to give us agendas), it is merely an expression of pent-up frustration.

Ive been trying to blog for the past few days, but i couldnt find the right words.

I actually started out by writing a different post about goals and Parenthood (the movie), but it got so frustrating that i stopped. I didnt even know it was possible to get writer’s block while blogging. Thats pretty fail.

For those of you who have been living on mars for the past few years:

Anyways, ive lost my blog-touch. I used to be able to sit down and write up a post within a day. Now i have more drafts than actual published entries. I know it might be weird that i write drafts before publishing, but its just a habit. Even if this is a casual blog, it’s still something that reflects me. If some random person were to miraculously get to my blog because of all the Hugh Jackman tags, i wouldnt want them reading some half-a$$ed entry that i wrote while i was sleep-deprived and delirious.

But..thats probably why im having so much trouble writing these days. I dont want to publish anything that doesnt sound right, or fully express the idea that im trying to get across (wow, do i sound nerdy or what?). So I end up writing drafts, and then going back to add more, then link to another site, then fix a few things, then erase a few sentences before adding a few more. you get the idea. It takes me a zillion years to get to a point where i think i can publish an entry without having it bombarded by comments about my typos or under-developed ideas or whatever.

Where do words come into it? Theyre they whole reason it takes me a zillion years. Some words just dont sound right in conveying the meaning i want it to. Take ’serene’ and ‘tranquil’. They both mean the same thing, but ’serene’ just sounds more like its definition. ‘Serene‘ reminds you of warm weather and breezy afternoons in the park. ‘Tranquil‘ brings to mind tranquilizer guns and pissed off zoo animals. (or maybe thats just me) No thanks to the whole connotation-issue, i end up going through my brain and desktop-thesaurus, just to find a word that sounds right.

I dont really get what the point of this super-nerdy blog was. I was hoping that by writing about the problem, it might disappear. Like i said to someone on MSN:

“im blogging… about why im having trouble blogging :/ Heres to hoping it works.”

xoxo

Today, i broke up with my boyfriend.

We had been going out for a little over a year, yet im not really sad to see him go. Looking back now, i dont really know why i agreed to start dating him.

I dont know why i didnt break up with him sooner. We started out great and i had really high hopes for the relationship. Then, around the middle of the year, things started getting strained. I wasnt always sure if he was listening to what i said, and he just stopped answering my questions. I couldnt understand him. In the last few weeks, he’s been a total pain in the @$$. He went from being a lingering presence in the peripheries of my life, to this needy & clingy… thing.

It was then that i learned of his hidden perfectionist/control freak/OCD disorders. He wanted to control my entire life and he wouldnt let me have a worry-free moment to myself. Not only was he self centered and immature, but he didnt like the fact that i played soccer OR that i wanted to focus on my GPA. In retrospect, he was a really bad influence. I think i became more short tempered and impatient because of him. (thought ive always been a little impatient..) Dealing with him was draining me of all my energy, and even the people around me noticed how much i had changed.

However, no longer will he wield such tyrannical control over me.

So here’s to the end of 2 am conversations, regardless of how one-sided they were. The end of desperate attempts to understand him. And the end of all the traumatizing moments, when i realized that i didnt even know the most basic things about my boyfriend.
.
.
.

lol. did i fool you??

i dont know what’s sadder:
The fact that i took the time to write all of this? (which isnt actually sad, considering I NOW HAVE TIME TO BLOG!) Or, that fact that AP has been my only boyfriend this entire year, and that i was in such a devoted relationship with a test?

-_- i dunno, you choose.

xoxo

try to guess who im describing:
- he is a (fictional) professor of religious iconography at Harvard University
- he played collegiate water polo
- was a diver at Phillips Exeter Academy in prep school
- he suffers from claustrophobia
- and the books make him sound pretty dang sexy

Prof. Robert Langdon, winner of ‘hottest academic’ 2 books in a row.

now, try to guess who im describing:
- a forehead of beluga-whale proportions.
- a hairline that seems to disappear at a rate faster than that of venice or the polar ice-caps
- multiple chins
- a (seemingly permanent) furrow between his eyebrows, that rivals the depth of the grand canyon
- a voice that makes nails on a chalkboard sound like one of the greatest symphonies ever composed.

oh.. and he’s playing Robert Langdon in Angels and Demons. even after butchering the character in Da Vinci Code.

casting fail much??

Tom Hanks is one of those people who should have just taken their 10 (or so) years of fame, and then stuck to voice acting (hes the voice of woody in Toy Story). If he had stopped after ‘Big’ i would have no problem with him…

But Im supposed to accept it that THIS,

THIS, is supposed to be the face of the world’s sexiest non-existent harvard professor???

REALLY??

I THINK NOT.

oh my friggin pantokrator.

FAIL

FAIL

JEEBUSomgnskdjksljdslkjdioshdnkjsnc

after watching ‘the Da Vinci Code’ (horrible movie, btw), i felt more sympathy for the MONK than i did Langdon. thats not supposed to happen. How is it, that they cast the MONK to be more attractive than the main character?? huh?

LOOK AT ALL THE ALTERNATIVES:

Hugh Jackman?

Gerard Butler?

Ewen McGregor?

ERIC BANA?????

They just had to choose the least attractive person out there, to play Langdon. And im not just being superficial. The visual of Tom Hanks, combined with his voice speaking lines that should sound more….. intelligent makes it hard to actually immerse myself in the plot of movie. The (mis)casting of ONE character, albeit an important character, is what makes the whole Dan Brown series yet another ‘book to movie FAIL’.

i think im gonna study. just to get away from all this fail-ness.

xoxo

oh. by the way, this is a beluga whale:

the other day i went to math hakwon. i sat through 2 hours of gibberish trying to understand what the teacher was saying, and why the eff X did that while Y did that, and how Cos(Θ) and Sin(Θ) were related to it all. Thats when i realized: math is a friggin elitist.

If you understand it then you are qualified enough to know the wonders of how to find the whatever of some super complicated shape, using only ONE FRIGGIN ANGLE!!! (im not even sure if this is possible). but if you dont understand it then youre not smart enough, and it condemns you to a lifetime of being called ‘the defective asian’.

i have never felt such an intense hatred for anything else in my life.

math.

just the word makes me want to go on a bloody rampage. it is almost humanly impossible to grasp the concept of how much i hate math, so ill give you examples of what i would do if math was a person.

expulsion of the jews
think the jews had it rough when the romans kicked them out? math is going to wander the hallways of school, forever wondering why it is no longer included in school curriculum.

crucifixtion
theres a reason that pontius pilate subjected Jesus to crucifixtion. it’s friggin painful. not only do you have nails hammered into your hands and feet, but youre suspended in mid-air with all your weight resting on your (newly dislocated) shoulders. and id say that math deserves the pain more than Jesus did. -_-.

the mongols
the mongolians had amazing ideas when it came to torturing their enemies. like boiling them alive. or letting young boys use them for target practice. and generally inflicting the maximum amount of pain possible. if math was a person, i definitely go mongolian on its @$$.

the medieval era
torture was a defining characteristic of medieval “justice“. You could be tied to a rack, then have all the bones in your body s l o w l y pulled apart by ropes attached to your wrists and ankles… You could be sandwiched between 2 boards and then have people add rocks to the top, until your lungs collapsed (or you turned into sandwich filler). They could decide to ‘hang draw and quarter’ you (hanging, disembowelment, and beheading! a package deal!!!) And of course you could be flogged, poisoned, branded, have limbs cut off, be burned/buried alive, and just a huge variety of ways to die a gruesome death. In the case of math, i think i would just go for severely maiming it.

the reconquista & crusades
the spanish reconquista was when the spanish decided they were sick of the cordoba caliphate, and decided to kick out all the muslims. Similarly, a strategic campaign to eliminate math in all schools, complete with mass slaughter, should be …..satisfactory. ever seen Kingdom of Heaven? THIS is the scene im thinking of:

actually i was thinking about the part where the guy has his head chopped off… but i couldnt find any pictures of that

The spanish inquisition
i think the spanish were on to something. they were determined to root out heretics and anyone not-catholic. im gonna target math, and all its followers. if the starving, isolation, and suspension torture doesnt get to it first, all the nasty diseases like consumption and god-knows-what-else will.

the west congo
The A-holes running the colony figured that thanks to social darwinism, the native people werent worth the bullets it took to kill them. So they used machetes. And just for the laughs, they though they would chop off hands and feet, and STILL require people to fill their quotas. sounds like fun

“Ethnic” cleansing
we’ve all heard about Darfur, and Nanking, and the Khmer Rouge, and Somalia, and Bosnia, and Kosovo. Math is going to be completely wiped out and replaced with nicer subjects. like KIS-sleeps.

—–
my original list of “ways i would kill math, if it were a person” is actually a lot longer than this….
but this post is getting WAYYYYY too dark. and plus, i need to update once this week. ^^;

Considering i have the SAT2 math this saturday, and my APs are in 2 weeks, i dunno when my next update will be.

xoxo till then <3