Posts

Showing posts with the label Educational

Featured Post

Menchu of Menchuna: A Hidden Gem in Tobesa, Punakha

Image
Nestled in the serene village of Menchuna, Tobesa, Punakha, lies the mysterious and historical site of Menchu. As its toponym may suggest, Menchuna is a place where tradition and nature intertwine in fascinating ways. Once renowned for its medicinal hot springs, Menchu has a story that reflects both the resilience of its people and the enduring allure of its natural gifts. Here’s a journey into the intriguing tale of Menchu and its place in the heart of Bhutan. The Legacy of Menchu: A Once-Prominent Hot Spring Menchu was once celebrated as a revered hot spring, its waters believed to hold remarkable healing power with medicinal as well mineral properties. For centuries, the people of Bhutan trekked to Menchuna, as it is ideally situated near traditional Punakha-Thimphu trek trail. The hot springs, with their mineral-rich waters, were a vital source of therapeutic relief, providing solace and healing to countless visitors. The Struggle and the Change However, as is often the case with p
Post a Comment
Read more

"How to Hug a Porcupine" by Julie A. Ross - A Review

Image
"How to Hug a Porcupine" by Julie A. Ross is a self-help book that offers advice on dealing with difficult people with challenging personalities referred to as "Porcupine". What is  porpupine? Purcupine is used in this took to describe and represent defensive human behaviour. Here are some key lessons from the book Understanding the "Why" : It delves into the reasons behind frustrating behaviors, helping you navigate personalities prone to defensiveness, negativity, or stubbornness. This "decoding" allows for better interaction. Understanding the Why : It explores the reasons behind difficult behaviors, helping you navigate personalities prone to defensiveness, negativity, or stubbornness. Setting Healthy Boundaries : Learn to establish boundaries that protect your well-being and self-respect. The book provides practical strategies for creating these essential fences in your relationships. Empathy and Compassion : The book encourages approaching
Post a Comment
Read more

Code Monkey Teaching Learning Materials

Image
The presentation materials are created and shared for educational purpose only thus, t he copyright of the images, videos and informaiton used here remians with CodeMonkey studio.  Click on the link to access the materials CodeMonkey Jr. Introduction for Upper Primary CodeMonkey Jr. for Lower Primary        Dodo Does Math- Angles Dodo does Math: Distance                  Coding Advanture 1 Read More Here
Post a Comment
Read more

How can public servants escape antagonistic role?

Image
Exclude few exceptional, self-less and top notched public servants, many of the public servants have taken antagonistic role. "Antagonistic role" is a grave description to describe any public servant without well founded justification. Anyone using this phrase, including myself, could run into turbulence of criticism and public hatred. After neatly weighing all possible outcomes of post, I choose to publish this. How public servants have assumed antagonistic role? In rendering our services, rather than orchestrating the confrontation of impediments to progress, we have made ourselves the impediments of progress. The vicious art of impediments have been crafted in manners described below.  1. Publicity and popularity seeking has became the top priority over efficiency of service delivery because of which we deliver third class service and write first class report. 2. Promotion to higher grade is more important than production. For this reason, farm production report is more th
3 comments
Read more

Busyness without Business? A corrective reflection

Image
Six years into the teaching service, I have never felt relaxed and accomplished. I hardly had time for myself. Every evening, right after school, I feel so exhausted, even to prepare a refreshing cup of tea. It takes at least an hour for fatigue to leave my body. Somewhere in my mind being busy has acquired new status, and it has been wrongly synonymous to being important and productive. However, series of introspection revealed that, at the end of the day, nothing great has been achieved; sometimes it has not even been attempted, I decided to look up and write this piece. Why was I usually busy? In lieu of doing something, I have actually experimented with too many trivial activities that are neither part of my goal nor organization’s requirement. I have normally packed my days to brim which are typical of adrenalin junkie. The trickiest part of getting trapped in adrenalin junkie is that we are in busyness even without any serious business. I now realized that a day fueled by adrenal
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I write this blog even without reader and follower?

Image
One thing that every blogger crave, care and boast about is number of readers and followers they have. Number of follower is proportional to their circle of influence, or atleast assumed that way. Yet here I am, writing, but without followers and readers. It takes buckets of courage to write which I derive from story of astrophysicist and Noble Laurate Dr. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Today, I write this to remind myself of his great story.  Subramanyan Chandrasekha r Dr. Chandrashekar was a brilliant astrophysicist and remarkable man who achieved stellar success in his field of his interest. Despite his stellar success in later part of life, he worked in relative obscurity when he came up with revolutionary ideas and discoveries because scientist took about 30 years to accept his ideas and works realted to stellar evolution. Despite rejection of his work, scornful remarks from his mentor, and disappointment he faced, he overrode the momentary failure by focusing on subject of his inter
Post a Comment
Read more

Embrace Blended-Learning or Face the Failure

Image
The choice is yours. You hold the tiller. You can steer the course you choose in  the direction of where you want to be-  today, tomorrow, or in a distant time to come.  - W. Clement Stone                          In what can be praised as bold and decisive move, schools re-opened and students are back into books. It is a national achievement to rejoice. We have experience over-load from keeping schools closed. Should experience be the best agent of positive change in education system, COVID-19 was the best, but, wait; it is underwhelming to witness schools driving back to same-old-themselves. A recent viral ‘ban and shame’ photo of someone carrying a smart phone to school is one revelation of schools heading back to old-selves. Numerous school re-opening Office Orders and Notifications shared on social media (by schools) showcased how reckless and indifferent schools are to students owning cellular phones. We have not learnt the lesson. This can never lead us to victory. Peop
Post a Comment
Read more

Education during COVID-19: An Introspection

Image
When the voices of children are heard on the green,  And laughing is heard on the hill,  My heart is at rest within my breast,  And everything else is still.  -William Blake (Nurse’s Song)  We miss our students on the school lawn. We missed your entry and exit at gate. We have nothing but wish for you to be with us; sharing your dreams and aspirations. We miss the fun with you and run after you. We miss your cheers and dribbles on the playground. We dearly miss your smiles and stories. We miss your voices and ideas. Your art and handwriting too. No matter how unintelligible and indecipherable they are, they are dear to our heart. “Only know the lights when it’s burning low” make better sense now.  COVID-19 labored hard to interrupt the assumption and popular understanding of education and schooling though it took us by surprise. Schools, the cradle of future Bhutan is missing her visionaries, thinkers, writers and artisans. Leaders, planners, and makers of Bhutan in making are a pause.
4 comments
Read more

Why should we become great teacher? (A Reflection)

Teachers should not aspire to produce enlightened students if we live a constipated life. Teachers must live an enlightened life to produce enlightened students. We must first become great teachers to have great students and great education, but how should I become great teacher first? This question irks me every day. In the wisdoms of His Majesty the King, “Good is not good enough.” Mediocrity is not our trait, it is not even ‘good’ because we live in a great nation. We have great leadership in the form of His Majesty the King and great vision is already vouchsafed upon us in the timeless wisdoms of their Majesties. When the nation has great leader ad great vision, if we however have only good teacher expecting to produce great students, we as teachers, are nowhere close to the logic. Jim Collins, an American author, consultant and lecturer said, “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” If teachers settle to just being good teachers, we are pulling down the national visi
Post a Comment
Read more

Teaching Habits that Helped me Reduce Waste of Energy

Image
I eat four heavy meals a day from Monday to Friday. I do this to replenish the depleting energy that result from tiring teaching hours. However, I realized that eating four meals a day does very little to replenish the lost energy. To sustain my interest in teaching and to hone by teaching capacity, I had to undergo habit diagnosis with deep introspection of my daily teaching habits. Today, I will share with you some practices and habits that helped me replenish my energy from morning till evening every day, all round the seasons. 1. Have fun with students Most of the time I was too much into rules, maintaining the order, disciplining the children, managing the class, controlling the noise level and running the class smoothly. If I am not in one of those, I was into far serious business of making myself clear. As I engage and hang on more and more to such practices, I have failed to realize what I now realized. I hardly liked what students enjoy and students seldom enjoy what I
2 comments
Read more

Cheap Books of Jaigon Street

Image
Jaigon Street Books If you are a keen reader who ran out of books; this is where you should come. Books of Jaigon Street are exceptionally cheap. The prices are beyond reasonable. For an example, Sapiens; A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (one of the Top Ten Bestsellers of Sunday Times) is sold at 70% of the actual cost. With some bargain, I bought the book at around 50% of the actual price. Isn't it cheap? It is right! Other bestselling books such as "Making of Michael Obama" and Stephens Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly effective People” are also sold at almost the same discount rate of actual price. Save for the few dark or blurred picture inside, books are of reasonable quality. The prints are good too. I bought some books such ‘Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’ in the past too and I'd issue with the neither the content nor the print.  If you buy the same book with same paper quality and print from renowned book stores, you pay the exact p
Post a Comment
Read more

Why jobs get frustrating? How do I manage? (Prismatic Refraction)

Dasho Chewang Rinzin, Director of RIGSS puts “Above the clouds every day is clear day.” On certain cases, working for an organization isn’t always above the clouds for many reasons. We juggle a lot through the clouded system, unpredictable weather of superiors and muddy team who could juice out the energy. We get messed up through the maze. These reasons are often circumstantial. What is not circumstantial is our approach and strategies to face the challenge and get above the clouds. To save myself my frustration and humiliation, I use Non-Expecting Approach to get the things done at my work place. I don’t expect recognition, reward and sympathy from other. I simply do my job for the love of doing. A Non-comparing Approach is great tool to practice. Few people has big circle of influence for the irrational reasons and they enjoy privilege of recognition without sweat and effort. I practice non-comparing attitude. I still do my job like a pro. Truth, at times is like ‘Acho Dhaka’ w
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Support doing Away of Cut-Off Point to Study Higher Secondary Education? (Part I)

In gratitude to my Great Druk Gyelpos Had the basic education not been free, I would be tilting mud and chasing oxen without slightest understanding of larger world. Having enjoyed seventeen years of state funded education, I can now tilt the mud and chase oxen peacefully and proudly if I have to.  Sincere gratitude to my Kings for free seven years of education. With the current government and Ministry of Education doing ground work to provide free education up to class XII by doing away with cut-off point benchmarking system, the move is worth the support. From the perspectival lenses of educationist, I would like to justify why we should support this change. 1.Education is Privilege of all Education should not be privilage of only best, bright and rich. It is weak and the poor who need more educational support. Although nothing is wrong with current policy of benchmarking based on grade to qualify students for Higher Secondary studies- considering the past financial s
Post a Comment
Read more

Teacher Attraction VS Teacher Attrition

Image
Gentle tides of ocean attract more beachcombers to beachfront, but this one is Tsunami.  Annual Education Statistics 2018 reveled one of the highest teacher attrition rate of 4.02%, the highest being 5% in year 2010. By liberty of choices and likes, attrition is normal trend of human resource dynamism indicating living nature of an organization, however, by our standard ‘4.02% Teacher Attrition’ is of skyrocketing level which is cause of concern. Of 355 teacher who left the system, 263 resigned voluntarily which calculates to 2.98% of total teachers. This indicates that 263 teachers had been thinking of resigning from education system almost every day and in every session s/he taught. This may not sound logical conclusion but it is likely conclusion.  On average, from the available data of past ten years around 2.32% of teacher resigned voluntarily. Thus, it may not be wrong to predict that at least 2.32% of teachers will think (consciously/sub-consciously) of leaving the teachi
Post a Comment
Read more

Story of Sweets

Image
I went to a shop for a cane of fish. I  The fact in the above story is shopkeeper is gaining small amount of profit at the cost of his moral conduct and character. Is it worth it? Will you repeat his dark doing?  charged Nu. 72. I paid the shopkeeper Nu. 75 who gave me 3 sweets instead of Nu. 3. I confessed, “I don’t eat sweets” but he insisted on keeping them as he does not have change. Next day I went to same shop for a bottle of tomato sauce. The Maximum Retail Price was Nu. 97. I paid Nu. 95 and gave back two sweets. To my surprise, shopkeeper rejected the payment. I said that was the same sweet he gave me the other day, but he said that’s a different case. I protested for a while yet he again claimed and debated about the cases being different. He frowned a bit at me too. So I paid him Nu. 5 and he gave me three more sweets. Liverpool University Image  I wondered why those two cases are different. To me, both of us are doing business whether buying or selling and cases a
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Slash Classes on Saturdays: A Perspective

When most of the Civil Servants were exempted from going to office on Saturdays, hands were raised in agreement. Now, with talks of doing away with classes on Saturdays around eyebrows were raised by most people on social medias except by those in schools. To keep the skepticism at bay here are some logical explanations on why Saturdays should be Sunday for schools. 1. Relaxation from Academic Fatigue Academic fatigue for both teachers and students as a result of engaging in teaching-learning from Monday till Saturday seriously injure the achievement and enthuasim. Considerable weight of job-hatred is also induced by academic fatigue. It will be sound policy to have enough leisure time. 2. Learning is not only schooling business Our intuitions are wrongly framed to associate all learning to schooling. This association should be wiped off by the fact that learning is also a business beyond schooling. Learning is Jigsaw puzzle and there are missing links because we compel student
Post a Comment
Read more

Call for Mindful Change in Education System

Education system is everybody's  piece of dough to knead. What are we making out of it? While we're  green with envy for outstanding education system (such as Finnish Education System), our education system may become butt of all jokes and failures. All of us including educators like me are in rush hour to change the current education system before clearly understanding what the problems are how could they be addressed. Most people demanding change in education system, driven by shallow flippancy, aren't  sure why and how education system should be changed. The consequences of change are in our dream land too, yet to fall. We're  all looking forward for dynamic and next to perfect education system. Thus, change is inevitable. But how? We've  asked enough questions and probably some of us have answers too. In fact we have already embarked on the journey to change. But are we doing it right? Aren't  we putting round pegs in square holes? Aren't  we bein
Post a Comment
Read more