Today in the Daily Readings, God had me recall a pain I went through just recently.

I had my own share of sufferings that I need to go through to know the will of God for me. I went through the pain willingly. I knew that the pain will be over at some point, sometime in the future. I was able to go through it as it set in and linger. And shortly after, I know I needed to ask the Lord to take me out of the pain once I get to learn what I need to learn. God gave me the grace to see what God wanted me to learn in every step of the agony.
I also recall how God reminds me of about Humilty.

Every time, He teaches me humility in particular situations. I, now, get to understand His prodding. Every time I speak for a talk or do things in service of Him, and time comes that I get to deliver well, I feel God’s very keen eye looking intently on my heart. Then, if He sees that my heart becomes too susceptible to pride, He makes His wise move. He makes me forget what to say next, He makes me sweat more, He makes me words harder to pronounce, He distracts me. I feel that God allows these things to happen because He doesn’t want me to part from His side, from His presence.

This I learned when I get to experience contemplation as according to the example of St. Theresa of Avila and St. john of the Cross. The time you experience pain is the time you should ask God to take you a level higher in your contemplation. Then you would get to understand how He uses your experience to talk to you in your every day.
Today, God made me ponder and realize that, just when everything is out of your control, you are reminded to let everything fall into the right hands. God reminds you of His previous prodding somewhere in the past and assures you that He isn’t less good and less of a loving God as that time.

1) God’s plan is God’s love – During the first talk of a Youth Camp, we learned about God’s love and His plans for us. And as we go on with our lives and mission in YFC, we tend to forget that the pans of the Lord that we push ourselves to know and follow is also a big manifestation of His love for us. We start to be burdened with our response to the goodness of the Lord. We start to forget who Jesus is in our lives.

It is a constant reminder to us that  it is not just because God planned us to be here that we are here (wherever we are). It is vital that we remember that, we are here because God loves us and He planned that we reach where we are today so He could love us better.

2) Gods’ stream of love, of blessings – The Greatest Being, as the Cause of all and Mover of all should be and is Someone who ‘gives off’ blessings and love even in its passive state. If so, the there should be a steady stream of God’s blessings that  is ever flowing. It flows in a stream/river  that does not meet even the end of the horizon. Even if the Lord would want us to receive every bit of blessing in that stream, it is in our capacity to choose how near we want to be to that stream. We set our own pace of believing in God. We set and hold dear much control of the things around us. We seldom ask the Lord to take charge.

It is our choice if we would swim in that stream of His blessings or be contented with the spill of God’s love felt on the sidelines of that stream.

3) Giving up is giving in – In giving up things and other stuff for the Lord, I was reminded that people continuously give ourselves (things, etc.) to God not just because God wants to have them and just that. God wants us to make room for more of His blessings as we offer back what we have received. As we give things up as offering to the Lord, we give in to the continuous prodding of the Spirit – we allow the Lord to bless us with more and we make room for the blessings.

Consistently, God wants us to jump off the sidelines and submerge in the abundance of His blessings. He lovingly calls us, “Let me love you more, My child.”

Last year I was delighted to be short-listed for the Ed Wood teaching Award organised by the Centre.  I found the entire process very supportive, unobtrusive and prompting further refection of my own teaching practice.  Each of the finalists was asked to record their reflections of the process and these may be read in full in the Centre’s latest bulletin.  I have quoted my reflections below.

Put simply, the Ed Wood Teaching Award process is straightforward, supportive and highly beneficial.  When I applied for the award it was with a certain degree of trepidation as to what might be entailed, however I discovered that the most challenging part was completing the application form in a manner that succinctly conveyed the teaching practice I was offering up for consideration.

Once that was done and I had been shortlisted the rest of the process allowed for reflection on my own practice during the observed teaching sessions and the ensuing interviews and evaluation, culminating in the production of the case study.  This part of the process I found very helpful and unobtrusive given that the teaching observations and interviews were carried out during one of the busiest times of the academic year.  The case study was written by Sheryl and passed back to me for comment; the whole process being very supportive with minimal stress for the academic.

While I have benefited from a working environment where innovation in teaching and learning is encouraged, supported and rewarded,   the Ed Wood Award process allowed me to gauge how my teaching practice was perceived on a national level by peers and closer to home by my own students.  Applying for such awards is as one of my own colleagues described “like putting your head above the parapet”.  However, in terms of reflecting on your teaching practice and having it supportively evaluated and showcased on a national level I highly recommend being involved in the Bioscience Teacher of the Year Awards!

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A number of things came up that were not a huge surprise. They liked practicals, exams, class tests and essays but are not so keen on presentations and feel that we could do better on feedback.

What was a little surprising was just how much they liked getting feedback on electronic formative self-assessment tests in the form of a smiley . They described how they would attempt questions over and over again until the smiley appeared indicating they had got the correct result. Coupled with this was their comments on how they needed encouragement to build confidence as they made the transition to University study.

On reflection we realised that sometimes feedback indicators that in effect say “You’re doing ok” go a long way in giving students the reassurance they need.

Used in the right context could “smilies as feedback tools” be the next big thing?

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I have recently acquired a 32GB iPod touch to be investigated mainly for its use in a higher education context. I intend in this occasional series to reflect on the various features and applications that I have found to be useful. By implication these applications this will also apply to the iPhone but the plan is to talk about features that apply to both.

In the first of this series I want to briefly mention the “notes” application which comes as standard on the iPod touch.
I have found this feature to be most useful; in fact I am using it to write these reflections during a quiet moment in an examination board session as I wait for another course to be considered! Do these things ever run to time?!

Admittedly it is unlikely you will write a book chapter using this app but to capture ideas or make a quick note to yourself, it then comes into its own.

In a teaching and learning context notes could be used to make rapid feedback during practical classes or at presentations where background noise or the very disruptive nature of doing so might preclude recording audio feedback.

The beauty of this app lies again in the handiness of the iPod technology which is much more portable and more readily coaxed from standby mode than even the most agile laptop PC or netbook. Notes captured on this app may be emailed either to a group for feedback or to your own email account for use in other applications.

My uses or suggested uses are given in the list below.

Notes for feedback at student presentations
Notes for feedback during lab classes
Writing blog posts or sections of papers during spare moments
Notes during conference lectures if you are not tweeting!

Of course there are also situations where students could use these devices to record their reflections or for learning purposes. If readers are using Notes for other things in an education context, please add these as a comment below.

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