Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 bob and robin, where are you located in florida? susan schiff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 especially for materia medica teachers: i'm just finishing teaching my first round of mm classes (in fact i've got the final exam going on my other computer right now). i've gotten a lot of positive feedback from students, i made a series of handouts in table form -- which took much longer than i thought it would -- put in things from Jiao and Subhuti and Yang, etc, and in general i feel like i worked pretty hard at it. there's just one problem: i can't escape feeling like the class is just boring and tedious. how to escape that " next in the blood-moving category, Ezhu, Rhizoma zedoariae, warm acrid & bitter... " line-'em- up style of teaching? or is the process of teaching 300-odd substances in 15 weeks just inherently tedious? what are teachers here doing to make the material more alive? i realize curriculum, student population, individual motivation level, language, etc, all figure into the equation, but i'd be interested in opinions, suggestions or experiences. thanks, robert hayden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 It is boring and tons to cover. Personally I have found the process of tasting and smelling each herb extremely helpfull. But add some fun to it, Ju hua tea during summer class, or sheng Jiang tea before/after lunch. Put all the varations of ginger together and have them compare tastes...Depending on where you are grow some of them....they will never forget an herb that they see start from a seed. Richter's sells many Chinese herb seeds. What about local varietals...take an herb walk on a summer day. Here in florida we have local varieties of Huang qi, sheng jiang, Man jing zi, huo xiang, ma chi xian, pu gong ying, ling zhi and bunches more. I was assisting classmates on herbs a few months ago and decided to do an herb walk just in my yard and not counting what I was growing we found 15 chinese herbs and 3 westerns. got to taste, see, dig up and replant....everyone still talks about it and mention how they have used those herbs since...and these are the ones who hate the mention of herbs my 2 cents from an herb nerd.... bob --- kampo36 <kampo36 wrote: > especially for materia medica teachers: > > i'm just finishing teaching my first round of mm > classes (in fact > i've got the final exam going on my other computer > right now). i've > gotten a lot of positive feedback from students, i > made a series of > handouts in table form -- which took much longer > than i thought it > would -- put in things from Jiao and Subhuti and > Yang, etc, and in > general i feel like i worked pretty hard at it. > > there's just one problem: i can't escape feeling > like the class is > just boring and tedious. how to escape that " next in > the blood-moving > category, Ezhu, Rhizoma zedoariae, warm acrid & > bitter... " line-'em- > up style of teaching? or is the process of teaching > 300-odd > substances in 15 weeks just inherently tedious? > what are teachers > here doing to make the material more alive? i > realize curriculum, > student population, individual motivation level, > language, etc, all > figure into the equation, but i'd be interested in > opinions, > suggestions or experiences. > > thanks, > robert hayden > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 , Bob Linde <bob_and_robin> wrote: Here in florida we have > local varieties of Huang qi, sheng jiang, Man jing zi, > huo xiang, ma chi xian, pu gong ying, ling zhi and > bunches more. I was assisting classmates on herbs a > few months ago and decided to do an herb walk just in > my yard and not counting what I was growing we found > 15 chinese herbs and 3 westerns. got to taste, see, > dig up and replant....everyone still talks about it > and mention how they have used those herbs since...and > these are the ones who hate the mention of herbs > my 2 cents from an herb nerd.... > bob thanks, Bob, very good suggestions! where in FL are you? i'm teaching in Miami. rh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 , " kampo36 " <kampo36> wrote: > > there's just one problem: i can't escape feeling like the class is > just boring and tedious. how to escape that " next in the blood-moving > category, Ezhu, Rhizoma zedoariae, warm acrid & bitter... " line-'em- > up style of teaching? I learned chinese Herbology initially from Subhuti Dharmananda. His course material were more immersive than rote. Lessons centered around strategies and introduced formulas and herbs used in those strategies. the series of 50 or so lessons was designed to systematically present about 300 herbs and 150 formulas. I really liked this approach. It was based upon natural language learning techniques. I think SIOM's progam actually does something similar. Can anyone comment? I would like to take such a framework (Subhuti's content is somewhat outdated at this point) and add cases designed to elicit the strategies from students as a jumping off point. Student would still have to memorize the herbs and formulas, just in a practical context. I am just not convinced that any amount of rote learning gets the goal accomplished. I have heard some say on this list that the fact that some students can learn in his rote way basically means the others are just lazy. Even if that is true, we need to teach the students we have and if another approach to teaching gets better long term retention with less rote drilling, then who loses? I am currently taking on a private student who will be taught in this fashion as a pilot project. I did a preliminary stab at this back in 98, but I am much better prepared now. I will keep everyone posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2003 Report Share Posted July 27, 2003 I'm in st. Pete, Some plants would certainly be the same but Miami is much more tropical than us here. Bet long yan rou and pi pa ye grow great for you down there... also zi su ye is exploding at the moment, bet it would work for you as well. ....got caught up in the silliness of FITCM closing and now in the teachout with East/West college of TCM....Almost there.... bob --- kampo36 <kampo36 wrote: > , Bob Linde > > <bob_and_robin> wrote: > Here in florida we have > > local varieties of Huang qi, sheng jiang, Man jing > zi, > > huo xiang, ma chi xian, pu gong ying, ling zhi and > > bunches more. I was assisting classmates on herbs > a > > few months ago and decided to do an herb walk just > in > > my yard and not counting what I was growing we > found > > 15 chinese herbs and 3 westerns. got to taste, > see, > > dig up and replant....everyone still talks about > it > > and mention how they have used those herbs > since...and > > these are the ones who hate the mention of herbs > > my 2 cents from an herb nerd.... > > bob > > thanks, Bob, very good suggestions! where in FL are > you? i'm teaching > in Miami. > > rh > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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