District Level Teacher's Day Celebration 2012

Date     : 26th May 2012
Venue  : Pusat Islam Iskandar, JB

I love the venue chosen by PPDJB this year. All these while, the teacher's day celebrations were held at school halls. A change is definitely good this time. The event management was smooth-sailing and I would like to congratulate them for pulling this off successfully.

A speech from Tn. Hj. Bahrom Ali, PPDJB Officer.

The choir was spectacular! I think that the teachers performed really well and everyone enjoyed the musical ensemble. Kudos to Pn. Yeow, the conductor who is a GC from SK BBU2.

SMK Tasek Utara won three awards that day. First for Innovative Teacher Award, next is rep for State Teacher's Debating Team and last but not least, Active Teacher Award. Congrats Ali and Pn. Lim! You are the best!

I am awarded Johor Bahru's Innovative Teacher Award again this year. For me, every teacher has many ideas and wonderful ways of teaching in classroom and it would be even better if the ideas and experience are shared with others. Alhamdulillah, I perceive it as an encouragement for me to strive better in my future undertakings.

Met my TESL junior, Afidah. She's a bubbly and jovial person who is currently teaching at SMK Aminuddin Baki. We first met when we were judging the district level debate competition. It was certainly nice meeting you again :) I'm a bit sadden that this would be my last Teacher's Day as a Tasek teacher for I would be studying full time at UTM this September. Nonetheless, I am proud to be a Tasek teacher as my school has paved many ways for me to improve myself and to meet wonderful teachers and students who made my life colourful and wonderful.

Monthly Update

I was on a long hiatus as I was dealing with a lot of work-related and personal issues. Robbers broke into my house more than three weeks ago and it left a traumatic impact on my family and I. It is a painstaking task to deal with such horrendous experience especially when my husband and I were tied up by the robbers and threatened with life-death situation. However, I believe that eventually, I need to toughen up and move on with my life. Below are some of the other events that happened in the month of May.

Date : 7th May 2011
Event : Public Speaking Competition (district level)

24 schools took part in the competition, held at SMK Taman Sutera. All of the participants displayed their verbal prowess and some of the participants could really speak their minds out.  I was one the judges for the semi-final and the final round of the competition. Had the chance to work with Aishah Goh (SDARY) and Mr. Abd. Rahman (SMK Nusajaya). I had a pleasant surprise when a student from SMK Taman Universiti approached me and introduced himself as a follower of this blog. It was certainly a pleasure meeting you, Faiz. All the best in your upcoming SPM!

Event : Student Leaders Board's Meeting & Recycling Project

The Student Leaders Board held their 3rd meeting to discuss on upcoming projects. The first project is the 2nd Recycling Project that will be carried out at Titiwangsa Apartment. The second project is the Speak Like A Leader Programme that will be held on weekly basis. I am proud of my students as they are attentive and keen on improving their leadership skills. The students were presented with the Johor International Student Leaders Conference's certificates of participation by Ali Asyraf Mohamed, one of the SLB's advisers. 

The Recycling Project in progress. L-R: Adam Daniel, Roshini, Yi Wen (Project Manager), Jasmin and Bernard. Kudos!

Date : 14th May 2011
Event: General Meeting of Majlis Guru Cemerlang JB

The meeting was held at Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar's mini auditorium. The first session was a talk on Lesson Study, a collaborative teaching practice that is carried out widely in Japan, Indonesia and Thailand. The next agenda was the AGM meeting where new committee members were elected and I'm humbled and honoured to be elected as a committee member. Hopefully, I can learn more from the more experienced GCs especially under the leadership of the new President, Pn. Nor Rizah Bongkek (STF). 

Date : 16th May 2011
Event: Teachers' Day 

I had a splendid time celebrating Teachers' Day with all my beloved colleagues and students. I love the T-Day's theme for this year. I believe that as teachers, we need to constantly learn from our mistakes, be humble and upgrade ourselves to be professionally competent as each year progresses. I've learned that you need to persevere and stay optimistic despite the challenges that you may face along the way. At times, I felt so frustrated when my sincere effort in conducting action researches, presenting paper and writing was misjudged by some unfortunate souls. Why can't we support each other rather than spread unsavoury accusations? A good friend once told me that we cannot control other's actions but we can certainly control how we react towards them. I am glad that I have found solace in finding really good friends and mentors who inspire me to be a better teacher. We are the unsung heroes! 

Date : 21st May 2011

Event: Innovation Day & Teachers' Day (District Level)

Alhamdulillah, I am chosen as the recipient of the Leadership Award for Secondary School Teacher Category during the Innovation Day & Teachers' Day Celebration recently. This award only fueled me to improve myself and hopefully, to ignite the teaching drive within me. The pinnacle of awesomeness is when my school won 5 awards ; Anugerah Kepimpinan PK1, Anugerah Kepimpinan PK HEM, Anugerah Kepimpinan PK Koko, Anugerah Kepimpinan Guru Penolong & Pengurusan Kokurikulum. Go Tasek!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

I hope it's not too late to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year. It's been awhile since I've updated my blog due to the fact I was in the midst of moving to a new house. I was kinda caught up in the packing and unpacking frenzy. Thank God that everything turned out well but since I am nursing my knee injury, the process of sprucing up the place might take a bit longer than expected.

On 24th December last year, I attended the Innovation Day ( Hari Inovasi) organised by the Johor Education Department. Held at SM Teknik Johor Bahru, it's an event that highlights achievements and innovation made by the education personnels in Johor. Alhamdulillah, I have been chosen to receive the 'Anugerah Khas Kualiti' from the Director of the Johor Education Department, Y.B. Tn. Hj. Markom Bin Giran. I was nominated by my principal, Pn. Hjh. Zainab Bt. Ali and I am thankful that she believed in me despite the fact I was away from school for 4 months due to my accident. This is my second time receiving the same award but last year, I was unable to attend the prize-giving ceremony due to conjunctivitis. It was such a great experience being able to talk and share experience with some of the established names in the Johor education circle. I had the chance to talk to Pn. Fuziah Hassan, the headmistress ( Guru Besar Cemerlang) of SK Bandar Uda 2, one of the high performing schools in Malaysia. She has imparted a lot of great tips on how to excel in the education field. Thanks Kak Gee!

Elated and grateful. In the midst of hardship, there's blessing in disguise.

My no. 1 supporter and I.

 My colleague and I. Kak Nani was chosen as one of the 'Setiausaha Peperiksaan Cemerlang' in Johor. Congrats, you definitely deserve it! Our school received 4 awards that day. Go Tasek! 

 While flipping the event booklet, I came across a page on Patent and Copyright Act. It seems that Johor Education Department is encouraging the personnels to patent their work legally and they are helping us to do that. That's fantastic. Coincidentally, I was facing a dillema when I came across some sites that use my materials without acknowledgement and some even claimed those are theirs. As much as I love to share my materials with everyone, I was hoping they would have the courtesy and common sense to linkback and not blatantly claim other people's work as theirs. I know that to some people, this may come across as trivial matters but to me, it is vital that we learn the proper Net ethics and teach our students how to utilise the materials online well.

The first week of school was hectic. I'm back being the Head of English Language Panel but am still the Media and Resource Centre Coordinator until the District Education Office appoints another person soon. Thanks to Kak Rahmah for being my mentor and helping me out. Oh yeah, I have to juggle a lot of posts this year, trying to come up with a plan to manage various areas within such limited time and resources. We teachers are excellent multi-taskers anyway ;)

Climbing the stairs take longer time than before. I am so so thankful I have wonderful students who are very understanding and always there to offer help when needed. I hope I can be a better teacher this year and learn more things along the way. I hope to share more education materials on this blog as I believe we teachers can benefit better with broader networking. May you have a blissful year ahead!

19th MELTA International Conference 2010: A Photo Essay

The opening ceremony was officiated by HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah, the Patron of MELTA. HRH gave a thought-provoking speech on the evolving learning paradigms of ELT. It was interesting to bump into some famous bloggers such as RockyBru and Nuraina Samad (I was too shy to say hello) who  graced the ceremony as well. Power to the bloggers :)

The esteemed Dr. Hyacinth Gaudart conducted an engaging workshop 'Learning Is Fun!'. I bought her book 'Lively Language Learning' and it is worth every cent. A must have for every teacher!

Dr. Sultan Al-Sharief  from UQU, Makkah, Saudia Arabia presented his paper on CALL Authoring Software. Definitely gained a few pointers on how to integrate CALL in ELT.

Presenting my paper "Utilising Web 2.0. technologies in teaching the new KBSM English Literature Component".

Alhamdulillah, the presentation turned out smoothly and I also received good feedbacks from the audience.

  Noor Azliza Zainal Abidin from Wawasan Open University gave an exciting demonstration on ways to integrate games in learning. It was indeed awe-inspiring and fueled my enthusiasm to explore the realm of interactive games in order to sustain my students' interest in learning.

I presented MY LIT PROJECT, my school-based action research for the Creative Teacher Showcase. I integrated the use of Web 2.0 tools in enhancing the teaching of the new cycle of the English Literature Component.

The displays. I've used Blogspot, Youtube, Flickr, Hot Potatoes, Zymic, Slideshare and Macromedia Dreamweaver & Firework to develop this e-learning project.

Alhamdulillah, I won 1st prize in the Creative Teacher Showcase. The success was even sweeter when the Sultanah Johor herself, HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah was there to give away the prizes. She was indeed pleased when she knew I'm from Johor and her words of encouragement are definitely the cure to all the difficulties I had to face (it's a looooong story)  in order to attend this conference. It was definitely worth it!

Attending this conference was the best investment I've ever made. I've gained new knowledge, sharpened my oratory skills, networked with optimistic language practitioners and rejuvenated my passion for learning & teaching.

District Level Teacher's Day Celebration 2010

District Level Teacher's Day celebration at SMK Taman Sutera, Johor Bahru

 

 

Vibrant performance from the talented primary school students.

 

Waiting for my turn to receive my awards. I am the recipient of the Innovative Teacher Award as well as Active Teacher Award.

I received my awards from YB Tn. Hj. Md. Jais B. Sarday, Chairman of the State Youth and Sports Committee

Counting my blessings for having the opportunity to be where I am now.

Don't stop learning, keep on teaching, love what you do :)

Innovative Teacher Award 2010

 "Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by 

which they exploit change as an opportunity."

~Peter F. Drucker

Alhamdulillah, I  received a fantastic news that I have qualified to the State Level of the Innovative Teacher Award 2010. The action research that I carried out this year, My Lit Project was chosen to represent Johor Bahru in the Secondary School Level category.  The need to assist my students in revising for their literary texts gave impetus to my innovation. The learning blog maximises the Web 2.0. technologies and contains digital notes, audio-visual stimuli and interactive activities that could foster and strengthen the students' understanding on the current literary texts. So far, I've managed to cover Latif Mohidin's In The Midst of Hardship, Vivien Alcock's QWERTYUIOP and Bibsy Soedharjo's He Had Such Quiet Eyes. Hope I could add more contents as time progresses.

I took the initiative to develop this blog because I used to have more than 40 students in one class (yes, it's true!) and it is a painstaking process to gauge their understanding. Besides, majority of my students have Internet access at home and they are IT-savvy as well. Since it  is geared towards autonomous learning, students take control of the learning process. Based from my students' feeback, they really enjoy watching the YouTube videos as they trigger their interests in engaging themselves with the literary texts. They can set their own learning pace and retake the interactive exercises as often as they like. Nonetheless, I still believe there's always room for improvement and I'm trying to oversee and tweak some of the finer details of the aforementioned innovation. The winner of the Innovative Teacher Award is yet to be announced but I'll just hope for the best.

For those who are finding information on how to conduct an action research, I would suggest you check out the Johor State Education Department's Action Research Portal. It is very resourceful as it provides guidelines  in conducting your action research. You can download the user-friendly template as well. You can also download some samples of award-winning action researches such as the WordWise Techniques by Pn. Rahmah Sayuti. Yes, I know action research may sound a bit tedious especially when we are hampered with a lot of clerical works.  Honestly speaking, I used to have such perception as well but when I saw how the students immensely benefited from the action researches I've conducted, it propelled my optimism in finding ways to make learning more enjoyable yet fulfilling for my students. It's all part of the process of learning, teaching and loving what you do.

2009 JPNJ Quality Award

Salam Maal Hijrah and Happy New Year to everyone.
2009 has been such a blissful year to me. I've been given so many opportunities to learn and share my knowledge and it is good to know that everything is turning out so well. This morning, an officer from the Johor Education Department had just informed me that I'm the recipient of the JPNJ Quality Award! I won an award in the 'Anugerah Khas Kualiti' category for my Action Research project (L.I.T. Module) and my contributions at the international level as well. I'm so elated, alhamdulillah. The prize giving ceremony is going to be held at SMT Johor Bahru on the 28th December.

Oh oh. That's not good since I have to attend an important meeting affliated with the assessment body. Called the person in charge, explained my situation and the verdict? I can't attend the prize giving ceremony. Honestly, I'm crushed as I really want to attend it and accept the award myself. I know I've worked so hard and to be there would be the pinnacle of my career. Alas, I am aware that I've signed on the dotted line of the pink document so I shall have to abide by the rules and regulations required. Prioritise mon amie, prioritise.

Next year, I'll be the new head of the English Language Panel for my school. Although I've been the Head of the EST Panel all these while, I know I will face tougher challenges as it's the core subject in the curriculum. Phew, hope I can emulate Jey's enthusiasm and dynamics in navigating the team efficiently. On a personal note, I really hope that I can continue to improve myself and constantly learn more in becoming a better teacher. I hope to inspire more students and be more active in English Language conferences and seminars.

May you have a wonderful year ahead :)