CHRISTMAS is the best time to be GRATEFUL

When I came to school after the lunch break, I was surprised to see a Christmas card on my table. It was from my Korean student, Kevin.

The card made me smile. And I even thought, "This is the best I've got for Christmas." For me, this is more than a card. It is a sign that I've done well as far as being a teacher is concerned, this year. This card represents how my student appreciate me as his instructor.

If only all students are appreciative of teachers' effort, then schools would be the best place to work for.

**************

Later that afternoon, another Korean student -- also from ILI -- gave me another Christmas card after we had thesis consultation.

When I opened the card, I was quite surprised with the headline: FOR YOU, MOTHER.

Ha-ha! I never knew I am this old to be considered by a college student as a mother. I even thought, why would he look up to me as his mother, why not as his sister -- or a friend?

When I opened the card, the question I had in mind

was answered.

Charles was right -- that the headline of the card would make me laugh or wonder.

This card made me think about my being an instructor. For the past years, I've always been so grateful to students who appreciate my effort. Now I am sure that when you love your work and the people around you, love comes back more than a hundred times.

Comments

Management Lessons from GUNG HO

'I must recognize that man achieves the highest degree of efficiency when he plays. If someone says he works out of loyalty to the company, he is a damned liar.' ----Soichiro Honda Founder-millionaire Honda Motor Co., Ltd. When a company fails, who should take the blame? When the workers complain, who should do some reflections, the management or the workers themselves? Hunt Stevenson, in the movie GUNG HO (means to WORK TOGETHER) , needed to do some reflections before it was too late. His failure to do some actions would result in closure of Assan Motors, thereby leaving hundreds of American laborers unemployed. According to Robert Heller, the author of the article EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT: TAKING RESPONSIBILITY, "How the boss behaves has a profound effect on how other managers perform - and thus on the performance of the entire outfit. That's a self-evident truth, acknowledged by most people. But few bosses acknowledge the corollary: that inferior performance is partl

Levels Earned, Lessons Learned in SHAIYA

The holy week was not really holy for me. This was time of the year when I played hard. Really played hard, as in trying to make the toon level every time I logged in . And to help my toon level up, even my husband and my daughter would play with her. This year, my toon is DanieGanda. Danie, for the record, is my daughter's nick name. But I thought of adding the word "Ganda," which is a tagalog term for Beauty. DanieGanda is a human priest in the normal mode. As the rule in Shaiya, a player won't be able to create a character in the hard mode [here, toons are stronger] without first reaching level 40 in the normal mode, which is a level lower than HM. When DanieGanda started, she was power leveled by king-kruller, whom DanieGanda met while my daughter was playing the toon. King_kruller was als o Danie's first friend in Shaiya. At the moment, he's already level 58, UM. The experience was good for Danie was able to meet players from different walks o

My SHAIYA battle for a week

A duo with -kamikaze- MMORPG. Online games. Virtual world. SHAIYA. The past holy week signaled the beginning and end of my battle in the virtual world. I started playing an MMORPG for a week -- trying to level up my character named SexySteffi in an online game known to players as SHAIYA . It wasn't as sophisticated as Wow but most things are basically the same. The best parts would be killing monsters to level up and killing darkies to get higher ranks. Another good thing about online games like SHAIYA is the opportunity to talk to people or gamers from different parts of the world. I've met gamers from Columbia, Chile, Texas, Australia, Canada, etc. Gamers really come from different walks of life. Some are young, some old, some married, some single, some just fooling around, some serious about leveling up. As a priest, SexySteffi is in demand in the game :-) Some players would always invite her to a party so that they could conquer the monsters without getting killed a

My Socially Constructed Reality

Search This Blog