LXD, learning and self-development

Pieces in April 2024 (mainly holidays and yet I learned so much)

On self-studying Poetry

Poem of the day:

🌸 by Ocean Vuong,

Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong

Ocean, don’t be afraid.

The end of the road is so far ahead

it is already behind us.

Don’t worry. Your father is only your father

until one of you forgets. Like how the spine

won’t remember its wings

no matter how many times our knees

kiss the pavement. Ocean,

are you listening? The most beautiful part

of your body is wherever

your mother’s shadow falls.

Here’s the house with childhood

whittled down to a single red trip wire.

Don’t worry. Just call it horizon

& you’ll never reach it.

Here’s today. Jump. I promise it’s not

a lifeboat. Here’s the man

whose arms are wide enough to gather

your leaving. & here the moment,

just after the lights go out, when you can still see

the faint torch between his legs.

How you use it again & again

to find your own hands.

You asked for a second chance

& are given a mouth to empty out of.

Don’t be afraid, the gunfire

is only the sound of people

trying to live a little longer

& failing, Ocean. Ocean –

get up. The most beautiful part of your body

is where it’s headed. & remember,

loneliness is still time spent

with the world. Here’s

the room with everyone in it.

Your dead friends passing

through you like wind

through a wind chime. Here’s a desk

with the gimp leg & a brick

to make it last. Yes, here’s a room

so warm and blood-close,

I swear, you will wake –

& mistake these walls

for skin.

-------

The following pieces are completely raw!!! (in other words, they are my first draft)

glowing faces of people at LXD <3

23 April

The Kindergarten design book introduces the concept of “Flow” through the psychologist Mihaly Robert- meaning: fully immerse in the process. Learning will be more complete with critical reflection. The reflection touches on our consciousness which can be referred to the teachings of Paulo Freire. I just borrowed both books (Flow and Pedagogy of Indignation)! I think Learning should be both challenging, fun, must entail a debrief reflection on the entire learning process with initial goals. So, the role of teacher/ facilitator is to prompt the right questions that invite learners to pause and think upon the takeaways.

Learning can be like composing a poem. It allows a sense of freedom, for the sake of expression and telling stories, and also to entangle the inner mind over events. It can be intimidating and powerful as it reveals the wounds, the hidden stories, thus, it challenges the learners to be aware of their feelings as they are being exposed in the most vulnerability. That vulnerability makes learning to be authentic to both learners and teachers. At the same time, good poems are made out of several drafts. Learning with quality requires efforts to review, refresh and relearn. The first draft is often full of thoughts on the surface level. Taking time to compose the “learnings” needs mindfulness for the finetune of personal recognition.

The learning of poetry is a new path for my personal connection and self-love. And I think it benefits my ID role in a way that my narration of content in different forms (verbal, writing, passive, internal) can be that creative and “defamiliarizing” which might inspire the audience. In the coming time, I will have to deal with the development of lots of texts and stories through video scripts and storyboarding of the Learning Management System. How to make my narration humane and respectful to the online learners, and to the instructors? Keep this questions in mind while diving in the poetry journey.

22 April

Feel like a life time has gone.

I need a new notebook for my work. To find this evening. I just sorted the fine of book overdue. I am glad that we spoke up, thanks to Touch’s help. The fee per day is 7 times more expensive than standard fee, by the Architecture faculty. Will tell Ajarn Tao about this weird injustice, as if their books are super rare?! So, speaking up for the justice gave me free of charge! So why being silent? Keep this advocacy up! Thank you Sasin for being my home.

The whole day burying myself with data science and visualization. The short observation of Ste’s filming actually enlightened me to become the “principle” designer of this course. He appeared so friendly, his teaching was pretty easy to follow. He did bring up the human elements behind this course topics, so I’ve got something to hold on to. For example, the typography of data is crucial for cognitive load and readability of users. I wasn’t under pressure to digest the essence of all topics, but mainly step back to find the magical connections of topics, and constructive alignment. The design process with Ajarn Amm has solidified my ID skills. I am on the way to be more intuitive! I will make it happen within this year, as my initial goal. I will create my own style of instructional design which breathes in my personality, values and characters.

So, I’ve reviewed at best, with the morning call with P’Sun, seeing her previous work on this course. Just now briefed some key points down to share with P’Ted tomorrow morning. I don’t expect compliments or pressure. Will share my understanding, and ideas to proceed.

What’s in my mind is a sense of wonder: how this course will turn out to be, how the development journey looks like, how myself and Stefano will collaborate, how open-minded and listening we could be, how curious could we be. Will bring about my respect, my curiosity, my care for the well-being and the present moment, and to create a trusted relationship among us.

Carrying on my mindfulness spirit from the Songkran Retreat in Plum Village, this little soul is filled with love and gratitude. I right now don’t suffer but welcome everything to myself. Knowing that there must be some reasons behind, and I will take my time to see its root. I find its root, I find my root, and the relationship between myself and the sufferings will be handled. My root will be the source to hug the sufferings of others, and have them feel seen, feel heard, and feel hugged. My root, hopefully, will heal myself, and those who are being bothered by their sufferings.

Sending my wish to Ajarn Amm, receiving her reply “Anumotana”, I feel heart-warmed. She must also care about our well-being and humanity. She is another flower in my garden of life. And Stefano will be one. I am ready to water these flowers with care and awareness of my own needs and goals. Thank you for this challenge, of building blended learning experiences, the one that I had never thought I would do (a few years ago). I am really turning a new page, the oracle card read quite accurately! “refreshing” was also a key lesson in the retreat. What to refresh? - it also means to attend a new journey. My journey will be with myself, building the sense of concentration on everything I do, holding my breath and keeping up the smile.

This lays foundation to other refreshing projects I am with:

• Taking a break from Consumption and Marketing Management

• Resume actively with Business Analytics for Decision-making

• Refreshing dive in Urbanism Research

• Creative Writing (non-fiction and poetry) and Blogging with brand new website storage! (also write more in Vietnamese)

• Cooking fresh food and journal freshly

#journal

#whatkeptmealive

#notesatLXD