Note To The Reader

Greetings fellow reader/colleague/random viewer,

Churchill once quipped, in his usual dry British wit: "You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something in your life." I am not a daft fellow, but I have been known on occasion to recognize the brilliance and meaning of a quote as opposed to merely finding humor in it's wordplay. So this leads me to the question of my growing concern: how do you become a good teacher that can meet the challenges of globalisation? The simple answer would be that you have to be willing to put your head on a chopping block and go for it. But taking such a daring plunge like that at least warrants further study and research. As if I was on an episode of Pee Wee Herman, the term: globalisation has become the word of the day and perhaps the word of my journey while studying abroad. To understand globalisation is to try to understand the mystery of the universe. Unless you're one of those fools who just answer "forty two" for the question of life, the answer to something such as globalisation could be to observe, incorporate, learn, and finally implement. But let's be honest: that definition is probably not right but to observe and learn from this world is undoubtedly true.

We live in an incredibly diverse world that is both absolutely amazing in terms of technology and frighteningly apocalyptic. As it turns out, the old rules of social darwinism have fallen to the wayside and now we must accept all forms of communication in this technological world. To prove my point about uneven diversity, go ahead and take a gander at the US edition of CNN. From people flying higher than the moon on bath salts to the ongoing rover mission on Mars, how is a student to sift through all of this information and say to themselves: "That's what I want." As time goes by from February to April, I will attempt to truly answer my question. Certainly it won't be a one time post where the light bulb goes off and a "eureka" is muttered. But rather bits and pieces of the puzzle gradually coming together.

Like any great idea or plan, failures and mistakes will happen. You will not agree with some of my viewpoints. Feel free to give constructive criticism. Part of becoming a good scholar is learning to take criticism and not pout about it like a fan gets when their football team gets destroyed. Comment, share, debate, do what you will. In the end, I will figure out the answer to this question (and I can guarantee other questions I wouldn't have even thought to ask).

All the best straight from Iowa,

Michael E Cortez
International Student at UCC Blaagaard/KDAS