hectic week...
first, got to teach everyday..
second, got to do up my thesis final submission - need to do some minor changes, get all the formatting correct, print a few copies plus binding, then bring to school to submit at some office... quite troublesome.. and just found out that i have to pay like 200 plus for thesis examination!
third, ministry stuff like revival camp stuff, CC worship song planning, meeting people, etc. finally, trying to keep up with my exercising routines.. but looks as if the running might have to go for this week, unless i find some other day besides today..
well, thank God that although i havent been getting enough sleep, i dont really feel that tired. (apart from really wanting to sleep in the office...). and im getting the hang of teaching... and a bit better at controlling the class.. hopefully i can keep more in focus on Him and not just handle one thing after another thru the week..
oh ya, and i've got a job interview on fri.
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
sleepyhead.
im getting up before sunrise this week in the name of education.
having to wake up before 6 is a challenge, really. but the real challenge, actually, is sleeping early enough. managed 11 plus last night - the earliest for a long time... but still, my head feels like lead today. think it's from the sleep debt the day before, when i slept at 1 plus..
they should put beds in staffrooms so that people can take quick naps. or at least, some sleep capsules.. haha.
having to wake up before 6 is a challenge, really. but the real challenge, actually, is sleeping early enough. managed 11 plus last night - the earliest for a long time... but still, my head feels like lead today. think it's from the sleep debt the day before, when i slept at 1 plus..
they should put beds in staffrooms so that people can take quick naps. or at least, some sleep capsules.. haha.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
a post out of nowhere
somehow, thought i'd post something on this as-good-as dead blog. boredom, perhaps...
anyway, i just gave my last tutorial of the year today. it was a make-up tutorial, cos of last week's deepavali holiday. nice to see the people turn up for this tutorial, so near the end of the sem (well, perhaps it's for fear that i'll deduct their participation marks). jason and a girl from another class came too, presumably to soak in the philosophical ambience, whatever that is...
before the lesson, jason took it to be his task to point out that this would be my last time teaching EVER in nus, if I don't take a Ph.D and come back in years to come. not that this made the tutorial more significant, since i'm just a regular tutor - not as if it was Plantinga's last time teaching or something. now if that happened, it'd be an event worth witnessing, a tale worth collecting for posterity.
so, i launched into the problem with customary glee - the zombie argument against physicalism. after some conceptual groundwork, i presented the argument in it's full glory and did the usual - split them into groups and await their bemused/pained responses. haha-at least that's what some of their expressions conveyed.
as it turned out, most of them could not figure out a way past the argument, despite valiant attempts. one group was particularly amusing, as they started off their answer with something like:
them: We can conceive of a round circle! [and thus you can conceive of impossible things, denying one of the premises of the argumet]
me: oh..... (feeling surprised that they could conceive this)
them (smiling): well, we can't honestly conceive of it, actually...
me (with a straight face): ah.... (pause) well, your, erm, honesty is... admirable.
(laughter around the class)
good to see some good old honest answers, though. as it were, they seemed rather convinced of the argument's conclusion - that consciousness cannot be logically reduced to physical states. and I was happily giving more examples and taking my time to round up the tutorial, thinking that there probably wasn't going to be a next class, when the tutor for the next class popped in with the customary, "hello, sorry, i have a class..."
argh. and so i ended in kind of a rush. no dramatic flourish, no earth-shattering pronouncements, just a simple remark on the significance of physicalism being false. 5 short and hurried tutorials for a whole sem, on something as deep as philo is just too little.
as we streamed out of the class, some students stayed back to talk further outside class, one student raised a good suggestion about the argument... after which i headed back to the philo grad room via a longer route, in order to avoid a lethal and dangerous creature which was on the normal path - in fact, a creature than which no worse can be conceived... a GIANT M---! well, that's another story for another time...
anyway, i just gave my last tutorial of the year today. it was a make-up tutorial, cos of last week's deepavali holiday. nice to see the people turn up for this tutorial, so near the end of the sem (well, perhaps it's for fear that i'll deduct their participation marks). jason and a girl from another class came too, presumably to soak in the philosophical ambience, whatever that is...
before the lesson, jason took it to be his task to point out that this would be my last time teaching EVER in nus, if I don't take a Ph.D and come back in years to come. not that this made the tutorial more significant, since i'm just a regular tutor - not as if it was Plantinga's last time teaching or something. now if that happened, it'd be an event worth witnessing, a tale worth collecting for posterity.
so, i launched into the problem with customary glee - the zombie argument against physicalism. after some conceptual groundwork, i presented the argument in it's full glory and did the usual - split them into groups and await their bemused/pained responses. haha-at least that's what some of their expressions conveyed.
as it turned out, most of them could not figure out a way past the argument, despite valiant attempts. one group was particularly amusing, as they started off their answer with something like:
them: We can conceive of a round circle! [and thus you can conceive of impossible things, denying one of the premises of the argumet]
me: oh..... (feeling surprised that they could conceive this)
them (smiling): well, we can't honestly conceive of it, actually...
me (with a straight face): ah.... (pause) well, your, erm, honesty is... admirable.
(laughter around the class)
good to see some good old honest answers, though. as it were, they seemed rather convinced of the argument's conclusion - that consciousness cannot be logically reduced to physical states. and I was happily giving more examples and taking my time to round up the tutorial, thinking that there probably wasn't going to be a next class, when the tutor for the next class popped in with the customary, "hello, sorry, i have a class..."
argh. and so i ended in kind of a rush. no dramatic flourish, no earth-shattering pronouncements, just a simple remark on the significance of physicalism being false. 5 short and hurried tutorials for a whole sem, on something as deep as philo is just too little.
as we streamed out of the class, some students stayed back to talk further outside class, one student raised a good suggestion about the argument... after which i headed back to the philo grad room via a longer route, in order to avoid a lethal and dangerous creature which was on the normal path - in fact, a creature than which no worse can be conceived... a GIANT M---! well, that's another story for another time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
