The Curse, Catch Us If You Can & Step by Wicked Step

Based from my blog stats, I've discovered that there are quite a number of visitors who were looking for materials on the Form 5's novels ( The Curse, Catch Us If You Can and Step by Wicked Step). Although I blogged more on The Curse as that is the novel that I am teaching in my school, I thought it would be good to jot down a blog entry on all the three novels for easy reference. Enclosed are materials on all of the aforementioned novels. They are provided by the Curriculum Development Division (CDD), MOE and I've shared them on my Scribd as well. I hope that would assist any student or teacher who is in need of extra reading material.

Step by Wicked Step Catch us if you can The Curse

I Wonder & Heir Conditioning

For Form 2 students and teachers who are looking for PowerPoint materials on Jeannie Kirby's I Wonder and M. Shanmugalingam's Heir Conditioning, I would like to share the materials I've received from the Johor Bahru's English Language Officer. For more English Lit materials, do check out my Slideshare's site.

I Wonder - Jeannie Kirby

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Heir Conditioning

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Around The World in 80 Days

For those looking for materials to teach Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days, enclosed is the material provided by the Johor Bahru Education Office during the Johor Bahru's F3 English Literature Workshop recently. Thanks to Ms. Ruzana for the materials. Sharing is caring :)

Around The World In 80 Days

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ICELT 2011

I'm off to Lumut, Perak this weekend to attend the International Conference on English Language Teaching (ICELT) 2011. I'm representing JPNJ and the title of my paper is '3-2-1 Action! : Digital Storytelling in ESL Classroom' which is based on my Action Research with 4SN1 recently. It took me about 2 months to conduct it as it involves hands-on activity (workshop on Digital Storytelling, writing storyboard and editting videos) to my target group (my students) and the project-based learning coordination as well. Nonetheless, I am glad that my students really cherished the knowledge and experience gained during the project.

The students are also exposed to the integration of Web 2.0. media tools (YouTube, Picnik, Facebook, Blog) in conducting this project. They really work hard to come up with their digital stories. They even surprised themselves (me too!) when they come up with such creative and wonderful videos. I dare say some of them are way better than me and you know, that's practically fine with me :) It's all about tapping into the students' creativity and utilising their multiple intelligence in learning English Language more efficiently. I do hope that sharing the experience of teaching Digital Storytelling with the conference participants would help others to see the potential of Digital Storytelling in enhancing verbal proficiency, creativity, active learning and high-order thinking skills. I am looking forward to learning more from other presenters and networking with other participants from all over the world.

The M Project: Being Malaysians

In conjunction with the Merdeka month celebration in my school, I've came up with the M Project where the main themes of the lessons revolved around patriotism & Independence Day. In this context, the main educational emphases are on Thinking Skills, ICT, Knowledge Acquisition and  Multiple Intelligences. There are so many ways the teachers can inculcate patriotism and raise awareness on ethnic harmony, national unity and tolerance. Rather than forcing them to embrace the 'I must be patriotic because I am a Malaysian or else, get out from this country' doctrine, I believe we should lead the students to form their own perspectives and reflections on their country via positive and constructive manners. Oh yeah, what best way than using multimedia and visual aids right? Here are some teaching aids that I've used to enhance the students' interest and patriotic fervour towards our beloved country, Malaysia.

a) Petronas' Merdeka Advertisements

Using television advertisement is a very effectual method of generating students' interests towards the topic. I always love the series of Petronas' Merdeka Advertisements as they act as catalysts during brainstorming session.  You could use various questioning techniques (open-ended, probing and leading) to evoke responses. It works well, especially with weak students as the visual aids  help them to come up with possible answers.

b) Project-based Learning

I always find project-based learning as the best way of boosting the students' interest and understanding towards a lesson as it generates active participation, collaboration skills, high thinking skills and indeed, a more meaningful lesson.  For the M Project, the students work in group and produce a pamphlet on the topic 'Being Malaysians'. The students did this within 2 days and they really put strong effort in producing these pamphlets. Way to go! For more information on project-based learning, do check out Intel Teach programme.

Students' works.

The students' works were assessed and awarded.

 c) Vlogging
 This is the latest fad among the teens and I believe it can be fully utilised to teach English as well. Afterall, what best way to connect with the students then using the latest Web 2.0. technologies? Vlog is coined from video + blog = vlog and it's uberly popular nowadays. I've came across a lot of vloggers such as Mat Lutfi, Maria Elena, Anwar Hadi, to name a few. What I like about vlogging is that it fuses the elements of role playing and digital storytelling which make the viewing more engaging and entertaining. This is in parallel with my latest Action Research where I focussed on Digital Storytelling. Maybe we should encourage more students to try this out in class. That would definitely excite the students yet help them to utilise technologies in improving their language proficiency.

 I've shown the vlogs below to my students and they helped the students to understand the concept of patriotism in a fun and meaningful way. Vlogging is a great learning alternative to enhance their confidence, vocabulary prowess and language competence.

SPM Countdown: The Pearl Pop Quiz flashcards

I've discovered this awesome web-based application called Quizlet via Zaid Alsagoff. The site features flash cards, vocabulary memorisation and study games. Now, who says learning is a bore? To me, this is definitely a fun way to study. I find that it is an apt platform to assist English Language teachers in teaching vocabulary and terminology in the virtual classroom. Did I mention that it is also FREE OF CHARGE? :)

Another plus for Quizlet is it's a fuss-free application. Even for web-novice, it is quite easy to build your own set of  flashcards on any topic that one desires. For instance, I've decided to design The Pearl Pop Quiz flashcards to assist my Form 5 students in revising for their upcoming SPM examination. Even if I am not able to be in school to teach them, they still can retrieve the material 24-7 as long they are connected to the Internet. No reason for not studying even if the teacher is not around.

I love the fact that one can login via one's Facebook account. Since most of my students are perpetually online (especially checking out their Facebook accounts), I believe this would be a great way to coax them to study while oogling their friends' latest photos or updates. To me, the possibilities are endless with Quizlet. I intend to explore more with this freeware and hopefully, I can come up with more flashcard sets to perk up the students' interest in learning. Do check it out!

How to Write Better Essays

Slideshare is a great Web 2.0. learning tool where you can share PowerPoint presentations with practically everyone around the world. Based from the positive feedback, I believe knowledge sharing and collaborative learning would immensely benefit our Malaysian teachers and students as the knowledge that one possesses is not limited within the small community of educators in the same school.

Here's a good PowerPoint presentation that highlighted the essential essence of good writing. Sharing is caring :) Do check it out!

Writing Tips

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Teacher's Pets

Need creative ways to jazz up your lesson but no time to dabble with complicated application?

Fret not!

I would like to introduce two wonderful educational sites that coincidentally share the same name, Teacher's Pet.

Teacher's Pet

It offers freeware and teaching resources for all teachers. I love the fact this website provides user-friendly teaching tools to create crosswords, bingo cards, jumbles, word search puzzles, flashcards, cloze tests, pair-matching puzzles and much more. Rather than heavily relying on workbooks alone, trying to create our own worksheets might be a better alternative to cater to our own students' needs. Everything is easier, thanks to Teacher's Pet.

Teachers Pet 

Teachers Pet is a resource site that provides free printable PDFs that are very useful in our English Language classroom. It also provides interactive resources created using Flash application, which definitely appeal to the young learners. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) is also very appealing. If you are interested, you can follow the blog for latest updates on the teaching resources.

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.

Taking a breather

Things I did for the past one week:

*Documentation & execution of MY LIT PROJECT, my latest action research project (pheww!)
*Gave a talk to the Form 5 students at SM Teknik Johor Bahru, Johor  (I had a great time, such an attentive crowd )
*Formed the committee members for the School Website Contest - english version (dateline: 31st March *cringes*)
*Built website for the School Resource Centre (in progress)
*Marked test papers (sigh..5 failures for 5KN, need to do analysis item & module to overcome this problem)

Things I am planning to do this week:

*Take my sons out ( park, zoo, library,beach or some nice holiday spots)
*Catch up on my reading (check out the MPH Sale, great books up for grab!)
*Watch Alice In Wonderland!
*Set items for the upcoming JB's SPM midyear examination 
*Construct writing module, targeting on 5KN weak students (a simple academic writing template that would guide them to write better)

Have a nice holiday!

Songs on Peace

WHERE IS THE LOVE -BLACK EYED PEAS


HEAL THE WORLD-MICHAEL JACKSON


WE ARE THE WORLD

E-Classroom

One of the programmes that I've carried out with my students is The E-Classroom programme. Basically, it is a series of lessons carried out using the Internet and multimedia application at the computer lab. I honestly think that the teaching of English Language would be best enhanced with the accompaniment of the wonderful world wide web. Apart from using existing English Language websites, I've developed some e-learning modules to boost my students' interests in English Language. One of the modules is called L.I.T. Module, a student-centered learning programme that focussed on enhancing my students' understanding of the English Literature Component. Here are some snapshots taken during the lessons.

The Beautiful Imperfections

Much have been said about the beautiful works of the late Yasmin Ahmad. I have always been in awe of her talent in exploring the significant angles on banal things in life. Her expertise has always been in capturing the true essence of family bonding.

I used this YouTube video during my E-Classroom session with my students as the topic was Family. Majority of the girls cried at the end of the video clip and some even expressed how much they love their families after watching it. The boys looked unperturbed but I could see their eyes glistening with sadness, holding back their emotion.

When asked the impact of this video viewing to the pre-conception of family, the students stated that they know they love their families but sometimes, they took them for granted. Sibling rivalry, family squabbles and petty arguments are considered norms to some of them and personally, I'm sadden by this. However, I believe that by conducting brainstorming activities like this actually help the students to open up their minds and express their thoughts openly to their peers. Then, they realized that they are not the only ones who carry the burden as many of their classmates feel the weight as well.

From this experience, I believe that as a teacher, we must look beyond classroom boundaries in order to motivate our students to speak proficiently. The impact of advertisements is very strong to these young minds and could actually mold their life-long thoughts and perceptions.