Rabu, 31 Desember 2014

Dogs

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I love dogs. Since time immemorial dogs have been men’s best friend. Even from religion point of view, we consider dogs to be near-to-human form of life

Nowadays, more and more dogs have come to live in our school campus. May be they are giving the school extra protection when everybody has gone out for winter break. This is absolutely what they have been doing for ages-sincerely guarding home and property when the owner is out. And it is fine to have dogs in the school at this time. I can hear them bark at night. I can see them bark at strangers. They are at their best in doing what they have been doing for ages.

But sadly, men grossly misunderstand dogs. We consider them to be a social menace. We condemn canine howling for disturbing our sleep. They are often beaten up or shooed away. That's exactly whats been done to the dogs in the school. And what worse! Most of them are infected with diseases. They are suffering from mange and recently an unexplained skin lesion is getting rampant. The infections are getting worse by the day. But no matter how bad their infections are, they never fail to carry out their duty for men. My heart simply aches to see them in pain. They need medical treatments.

Lesion
Lesion
Mange
Lesion
Earlier in August, I took three sick dogs to the veterinary hospital with the help of few students. Two made to normal lives while I lost one. Last Saturday I caught two more by setting up snare traps. They had lesions on their body. One had it on its butt and the other on its abdomen. Unfortunately the veterinary hospital was closed. So I tied them up to give my version of treatment. I had the leftover of the medicines I got from the veterinary earlier in august. They became anxious and skittish when I went near them. I had to maintain distance for safety. I sprayed the medicine on the infection and let them free.

But my little actions for these dogs are too insignificant. I am fighting a losing battle. The treatments I give them are not doing much good. The wounds are not healing. The infection is spreading on to more dogs. There is need for more significant intervention from responsible organization.

Dogs are by no means social menaces. They are social animals rather, and it's obvious to have them living among human population. And much like men they get sick and that's when they need our help. When they are rabid or suffer from other diseases it wouldn't be right to beat them or chase them. Their sense of friendship with men is unwavering. But men need to change their outlook on dogs. 

It is apt to bring in Carey Ford's quote-'Trained well, men can become dog's best friend'

PS: This is the last post for the year. I wish all the readers a very Happy New Year. May the new year shower you with bountiful peace, happiness, success, health and prosperity. Until next time with another post, its goodbye.



Minggu, 21 Desember 2014

Adventures of a Creative

This year has been such a rollercoaster and it's certainly flown by. 

Personally and professionally I've experienced so many changes - many of which I wish I'd done a better job of chronicling here - but all of which I've hopefully learned from in one way or another. 

One major shift over the last few months is that of seeing myself as an actress who likes to dabble in writing and producing to seeing myself as a creative person, period. I've been doing a LOT of writing lately, much more writing than acting actually (a big part of that is simply because you don't need to wait on anyone to hire you to write, you just DO it) so the thought of being able to make a living as a writer and in turn using my writing to open up more opportunities for me to act, is very appealing. I did resist this shift at first because it felt like a change in my identity, and I talk about that resistance in an interview I did with Lisa Nicole Bell on her podcast, "Behind the Brilliance." Ultimately though, I have let go of my need to define what I do by one label. Yes I'm an actress, but I'm also a writer (I have a literary agent now, whaaaat?!?), producer (packaging the feature version of Muted is priority numero uno), event planner (I don't get paid to do this anymore but I have an event series for women in the industry in the works for 2015 that I'm excited to plan) and baker/cookie decorator (I DO get paid for this and it's been a lovely thrival job during the holidays - www.sugarswag.com), not to mention someone who loves to sing and dance (yes I will be in a musical again one day!). Simply put, I'm a Creative.

With this revelation, writing a blog under the "Adventures of an Actress" heading, no longer makes sense. It doesn't fit who I am anymore since my adventures now fall under many creative categories, not just acting alone. So in the new year I'll be changing my blog to "Candid Confessions of a Creative".  With a new blog name comes a new web address so please add the new link to your bookmarks or subscribe via email if you'd like to stay updated since it won't automatically switch over your subscription. 


I hope you'll continue to take this journey with me as I start a new chapter but if not, it's been quite a lovely ride. :-)

May you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and for those of you continuing on, I can't wait to share much more in 2015!

Cheers,
B

Kamis, 04 Desember 2014

Abstract of My Paper Published in RABSEL: The CERD Educational Journal, Volume XV, Autumn 2014.

Patterns of Teacher-Student Verbal Interaction in the Tenth Grade
Biology Classes in Samtse District
Tshewang Rabgay

ABSTRACT
Grounded in the importance of classroom interaction in teaching and learning, this study examined the pattern of teacher-student verbal interaction in grade ten biology classes using Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS). The sample of the study consisted of 8 teachers and 383 class 10 biology students from three higher secondary schools and a middle secondary school in Samtse district. Seventeen grade 10 biology classes were observed using a coding chart. The data obtained were analyzed using the decoding process prescribed in FIAS. The study was significant because its findings and conclusions may stimulate teachers to improve their interaction practices in order to maximize students learning.

The findings revealed that 75.71% of the time was used for ‘lecturing’ making it the most popular approach. The findings also revealed that teacher talk (85.23%) was much more than student talk time (11.38%) which indicated that classroom interaction was dominated by teachers. It was also found that teachers’ used more direct influence (77.27%) through lecturing and giving directions than indirect influence (7.96%) which include behaviors like accepting students’ feelings, praising, encouraging, accepting or using students ideas and asking questions. By and large the findings indicated that teacher dominated classroom interaction continues to be the dominant teaching trend in teaching tenth grade biology in Samtse district. The study confirmed previous studies done in Bhutan which reported similar findings.


Key words: Classroom Interaction, Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS), Biology Class.
PS: Read the full paper in the 'Research and Publication' page on the left sidebar