Blog Post 8 - Have you had a good semester?

Hello again ladies and gentlemen. Today we will talk about this semester and how it has been.

This semester has been a very good one. It is the second semester, after 6 years of research and spending every day alone in an office, I decided to return to teaching.

Obviously at first this was a challenge, as it had been a while since I had taught full time. However, this is not always a bad thing and actually worked out very well. I have met many new people and discovered many new places.

However, if everything were perfectly this would be a romantic comedy, not reality. There hasn't actually been anything terrible, but probably the worst thing is changing from a job at a place with a reliable, regular salary, to a little more financial insecurity. Don't get me wrong, it is still not a problem to go to a nice restaurant when I want to, but payment is not always as regular as maybe would be preferred. Not the end of the world though.

Well, probably the biggest achievement so far has been finally finishing the design of my algorithms that I've been working on for quite a while. One less thing to do, but obviously when one thing is finished, there are always a hundred more appear!

Basically that is it so far, but there are a few more weeks to go, so lets see what happens before the end of the semester. Fingers crossed it is all good.

Blog Post 7 - Winter Holiday Plans

Places they are going to / would like to visit
People they are going to / would like to be with in winter
Activities they are thinking of being part of
If they are planning to work/study in winter

240 words

Hello there again everyone!

So today I will be talking about my plans for the winter vacation. 

I think that this winter I would like to go somewhere in the countryside. Probably the South of Chile. Enjoy a little tranquility, lots of lamb and a few glasses of beer or wine (only for the digestion of course). I actually don't have anywhere specific in my mind. Maybe I will just get on a bus and see where it takes me. Something like that. It could be very beautiful and interesting. It could also be the story of a horror movie!!!

Of course, as with every day there are people I would love to be with. Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman maybe, but I doubt that will happen, so I'll probably spend some time with good friends. Maybe even make some new friends, who knows?

Mostly, I will probably go to the South of Chile and teach children from rural communities for a little while. I think it will be a great, fun experience.

The rest of the time I will continue to work on personal projects. Writing reports and analyzing data. It probably sounds boring to many of you, but it's really not so bad when it's something you decide to do and create yourself.

So that's it guys. Tell me what it is you think you will do or would like to do and let's see if it is more interesting than my plans. I hope so!!!

Best as always,
Andy

Blog session 6 (Week 9) - A Photograph I like

Write about a photograph you like.

Say:

Who took it
What it shows
When it was taken
Why you like it
Upload it too

Include any other information you'd like to mention.
Write at least 170 words.

Comment on your teacher's blog and the blogs of 3 of your classmates.

This photograph was taken by one of my students of PENTA at La Catolica. It shows me with some of my best students in the class that I have known for around 4 years. It was taken on Saturday, two weeks ago. 

I like it mostly for sentimental reasons. I have been teaching on the course for almost 7 years and I have watched my students develop over these years from children to young adults. The students in the photograph have become my friends over this time and I have helped them many times with different personal questions and problems.

Also, this photograph is important to me as this was my last class ever on the course, as I decided to leave to focus on other work. It was a very emotional time for everyone and I will miss them all very much, but obviously I will stay in contact and help them in any way I can for the rest of their lives.

Blog Session 5 (Week 7) - My Future Job

- What kind of job would you like to have? How do you imagine it?

- Outdoors /indoors?

- Would you like to travel a lot in your job?

- What about the salary?

- What major are you studying / are you thinking of taking?    Explain why

- Add any other related ideas.

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher's post.


Hello again ladies and gentlemen.

Today I will be talking about what job I will have in the future.

Possibly in the future I would like have my own educational research and development business. I can imagine it would be a job full of meetings with interesting and intelligent people. I also imagine it being filled with interesting problems to solve and questions to answer, relating to how you can improve and accelerate educational functionality.

Of course it would most probably be indoors. Most likely in an office, but hopefully a nice one with a great location and beautiful view.

I would love to travel in this job. I would visit many countries throughout the world to investigate the different ways people teach and learn and use this to make many future developments to help everyone internationally, regardless of money or social status.

A lot of the reason for this is that I have studied many different areas of both psychology and education in my lifetime and this has given me a great interest in different ways people use to enhance learning and help people to improve their future possibilities.

I feel that is a great way to minimise the gap in opportunity between people of different cultures and social levels, giving all the best opportunity possible.

Blog Session 3 (Week 5) - My Favourite Piece of Technology

Write about your favourite piece of technology

Say:

What it is.
When you got it.
How you use it.
How often you use it.
Why you like it.
What life would be like without it.

- 130 words minimum.
- Include a picture.
- Comment on your teacher's post and 3 of your classmates’ blogs.

Hello again boys and girls!

Today I will tell you about my favourite piece of technology. Well, more machine but something that changed my life.

Many, many years ago, before cellphones or even most PCs, when wolves walked the streets at night and people would hunt with rocks and spears ....................... (only joking!).

Anyway, a long time ago when I was 13 years old I had the chance to buy my first car, a shiny red VW Golf. Now as I'm sure you know, I was not old enough to drive at the time, but it was the idea of my Engineer father that I must know how these machines worked.

Sadly, due to my age I didn't have many opportunities to use it as expected, but more to study, take apart and put back together. This resulted in many hours of 'fun' (cuts, bruises and some victory!).

I liked it as it started my following career as a car mechanic, well, more restorations than mechanics, but this introduced me to a new subculture of people and allowed me an interesting way to make some money, even when at university.

I think that without it, life would have been different, as from this I developed an understanding of how systems work and was certainly an influence on my later career as a psychologist. I don't have or need a car anymore, but I will always have an understanding and appreciation for these machines.

Blog Session 2 (Week 4) >> How I Chose My Career

Write about:

- your dream jobs when you were a child

- other career options that you had at the moment of applying to university

- what made you decide in the end

- your experience at university until now

- the kind of job you would like to have

People have many different reasons for why they choose what to do with their life. It could be love, money, fame, or one of the many others. For me it was possibly novelty.

You may ask what I mean by novelty? Well, let me tell you a little story............

As a young boy, the son of a coal miner in the North of England during the time of Margaret Thatcher, things were a little more limited than they are these days. The spectrum of options spread from getting a manual trade, such as a painter or an electrician, to possibly an office job. Now an office job in those days was a little different. It essentially meant that you could work in a call center or possibly get the stability of a low paying government job.

However, there was a third option! Education at that time was free for all, so this opened the doors to possibilities the likes of which I had only dreamed of before. My mind was made up and off I went to college to study art and start my career to fame. Of course, you needed to choose at least 3 subjects, so I decided to choose Business Studies (should I have to face the reality of office work in the future, at least I could be office manager) and a new subject that was offered for the first time, Psychology!

Since then, my time both studying and working in Psychology have been incredible. I have learned more than I ever thought possible. In the end it was a great decision.

Blog Session 1 (Week 3) >> My Auto Biography

For today, and as the first post of this semester, you have to write your auto biographies.
Include:

- Birth info
- Studies info (elementary/high school/ univ)
- Family Info
- Hobbies
- Others...

> Number of words: 120 (minimum)
> Make comments on three of your classmates posts and also leave a comment on the teacher's post.

Andrew Higham was born in Merseyside and raised in Greater Manchester, where he lived with his family until he was 18 years old.

At the age of 18, Andrew left home to study Psychology at the University of Reading, which he completed with honours. After this he then decided to move to Cardiff to study an MSc in Organisational Psychology, followed by a PhD in Educational Psychology. It was during this time that he started to teach classes at both Undergraduate and Masters level.

After completing his PhD, Andrew then decided to move to Taiwan, to experience a new and interesting culture. He stayed there for almost 2 years, teaching English classes and eating as much as possible.

In late 2007, Andrew applied to do Post-Doctoral training at the Catholic University of Chile. A job he would stay in for 6 years, from 2008 until 2014, when he made the move from La Catolica to La Chile. A job he has remained in until this day.

Andrew's main interests are in the design of methods to accelerate the transmission of knowledge and, on a lighter note, cooking and eating as many different types of food as possible and he can often be found hanging out in different restaurants serving all types of food. From fine dining, to burger and fries.