You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Master of Teaching’ tag.
Today’s seminar marks the end of not only this course, but also the entire MT Program. It’s been a long two years, but also a really fast degree. Sometimes I can’t even believe how fast two years have flown by. It doesn’t seem like so long ago that I was sitting in my first Prosem class. Even more surprising is that today is also the end of 20 years of formal schooling. From kindergarten all the way to the end of a second undergrad degree, it’s been a long journey to get here.
Our SIPS class has easily become my favourite on-campus course of the entire program. The focus on technology and how it can be used to great benefit in the classroom has been both engaging and exciting in ways I’d never imagined before. It’s been such a great class, that other classmates have even agreed that this is the course that everyone should take. I’ve probably gained more from this single semester seminar than I have from several different seminars combined. It is THAT influential.
Greetings!
You’re probably wondering why you’re reading this. Or why I’m writing it. There really isn’t much of an answer to that other than to say that this is somewhere I can share my ideas with you, the reader. I often find myself thinking about all sorts of things, ideas that come and go, but which never really end up anywhere. I’d like to begin sharing those with you now.
You’re also probably wondering why the name, Bamboo Sensei. Well that’s a good question. The simplest way of explaining it is to break it down. I was born in Canada, the son of chinese parents, though I don’t necessarily identify as “chinese.” When asked what I am, my first response is Canadian, but in a country of over 34 million citizens, I guess some ‘labeling’ is necessary. Hence the “Bamboo,” but that’s not where this ends. Choosing this particular kind of greenery has several deeper connections. The first is its colour, green. Earlier this year, I was privy to a professional development seminar in which our personalities were typed by colour. According to the Four Colours Personality Test, I am almost completely “green” (as opposed to orange, gold and blue). I could get into the details of what that means, but I’ll save that for another post. The second reason for bamboo is that, as you probably already know, it is incredibly strong and resilient. These are qualities which I think aptly describe qualities of excellent teachers. The third reason is simply that “Chopstick Sensei” was already taken.
As of this very moment, I am just over a week away from completing my teaching degree at the University of Calgary. They call it the Master of Teaching program, or MT program for short. As a master of teaching, the term “Sensei” seemed appropriate. Before I knew it, the Bamboo Sensei was born.
Although I have set the stage for this to be a site dedicated to teaching and my journey therein, I will from time to time post ideas that I find interesting in the most general sense. Sometimes they’ll be nonsensical, and sometimes they’ll be personal, and sometimes they’ll be completely wild. It is my hope that you can take bits and pieces from here and use them as you like, as long as we’re sharing knowledge.
Hopefully you’ll come back and visit me soon, I will do my best to stay current and engaging.
/bow
P.S. If you would like your own blog or site to be linked, just leave me a comment and I’ll add it to the Blogroll.
