Cat got your tongue?

I have received several e-mails from students who asked me ways they can improve their verbal proficiency. Honestly, I believe the secret is practice, practice and you know it, practice. As much as I encourage students to read books with utmost fervour, I think when it comes to speaking eloquently, you just need to open your mouth and start yakking away, people!

Believe it or not, I used to stutter when I was a kid. It wasn't that obvious but I tend to struggle with conversation whenever I'm plagued with stress and insecurity. Some kids made fun of my speech impediment..kids can be nasty sometimes and the impact may mar a child's self-esteem. It used to make me feel alienated and sad. However, I count myself lucky as my mom motivated me to speak up and listen to a lot of English songs. I discovered that miraculously, I did not stutter when I was singing. I guess fun has its way to chase away the misery. Alhamdulillah, I am thankful that by practising and conversing in English frequently, it kinda help me to be a fairly good orator :) I guess that's why I have soft spot for using songs for English Language teaching..I feel it's the greatest medium to encourage students to explore various skills and enrich their vocabulary.

I'd like to share some ways we can encourage our students to speak up  and engage in conversation confidently. I honestly believe we can improve the standard of English Language among students if we revamp the current assessment method for ULBS and PLBS. Instead of asking them to have prepared speech, I believe doing impromptu speech is the better way of preparing our students for the real world. 

If you ask my students, they will tell you I conduct 2-3 minutes impromptu speech as weekly speaking practices in classes. The topic may vary according to their verbal proficiency. If they are in elementary stage, you can start by asking them to string 3-5 sentences together on a topic of interest. The topic can be anything under the sun, but I reckon the best way is to scaffold more challenging topics as they advance to the next proficiency level. If your student is a wee bit reluctant to speak, using realia or prompting would help. Honestly, we need to train our students to think critically and to express their views and not merely regurgitating chunks of info from textbooks.

Do check it out!

Ushering new possibilities

Hello, I am still alive and kicking albeit my blog inertia :) Alhamdulillah, I finished my final examination early this month and boy, how I emphatize with my students more after cracking my brain trying to revise for those examinations. Yay, I survived Semester 1 of my IT Management course. I used to doubt whether I could pull it off as I have no academic background in IT, just banking on my meagre IT experience, learning DIY style. So far, I'm enjoying the opportunities to expand my learning horizon and network with respected lecturers and awesome classmates. I certainly hope that 2013 will usher new posibilities for all of us, perhaps a chance for us to improve ourselves as learners and educators. The possibilities are endless.

The best learning curve was learning more on how to manage effectively. I am grateful as my lecturers have been so accomodating and  helpful. I was given the chance to spearhead the excursion to The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) for my IT Planning & Management class. Thanks to Dr. Razak for trusting me. Alhamdulillah, it turned out well and I'm indebted to those classmates who helped out and make it a success. I love ITPM and yay, I got A+ for final exam, the top 3 scorers for this subject, alhamdulillah.

Best team ever!

 

The best learning experience ever was IT Project Management class...the best class ever! Thanks to Dr. Zaidi for inspiring us. I've learned ways to do proper project management and network with my team members to handle IT Training classes and raise profit for our business. It was a great experience, lots of bittersweet memories but the best lesson I've learned from managing business is to have faith in your team, rectify issues and find solutions. We aspire to keep on our IT Training and we plan to conduct Endnote trainings, SPSS, CMS Web Development etc.

This year, I've decided to make a very bold move in my life management. I've decided to focus on my studies and aim on publishing papers for high-impact journals. I had to turned down some book publication offers because I don't think I can manage to do everything at once. Perhaps, once I've finished my Masters, I'll resume writing English reference books again. This year, I've submitted paper for IGCESH 2013 and I've submitted another paper for ICALT 2013, an IEEE conference in Beijing, China this upcoming July. I am also conducting freelance proofreading services and at the moment, I am proofreading JISRI journal for UTM. Although I'm still an amateur, I feel it's good to give it a shot and hopefully, that can hone my skills in exploring new expertise. Hopefully everything will turn out well.

This Saturday, I'll be flying off to Miri, Sarawak to deliver a series of talk for Cluster School Programme. Thank you to Pn. Sawaran Jit Kaur and PPD Miri for inviting me..am humbled by your invitation. I'll be focussing on fun ways to teach English by optimizing online resources and gamifying classroom learning. Apart from that, the knowledge sharing session will help teachers to network with others on best teaching practices and ways we can motivate students to learn better and effectively. Can't wait to meet all of them :)

May 2013 bring wonderful surprises and perpetual happiness to all of you! :)

Leaders In Action & Hutan Kita @School with YB Tun Jeanne Abdullah

Date: 9th April 2011
Venue: SIGS

Last weekend, I was given the opportunity to attend the Leaders In Action programme at SIGS, JB. Organised by the school's Student Leaders Board, the event was officiated by YB Tun Jeanne Abdullah, the chairman of Landscape Malaysia and ENO (Environment Online) Mother of Malaysia.

My students who attended the programme. Syafiq, member of the Johor Student Leader Council, Shahiman, the Head Prefect and Azizah, the President of the Pre-U Students Council.

The forum in action. The topic was Mission Go Green For Green Living. It was brilliantly executed. Kudos!

I represented my school in accepting a tree seedling from YB Tun Jeanne Abdullah, in conjuction with the Hutan Kita@School programme. 75 schools in the district of Johor Bahru took part in this programme. The programme aims to spread awareness on the importance of maintaining our greenery and inculcating love towards Mother Nature.

Tun Jeanne during the tree planting ceremony.

She is so down to earth and motherly. A staunch supporter of global biodiversity.

This programme opened my eyes on various environmental issues. There are many ways that a teacher can spread awareness on the importance of sustaining the natural resources. Apart from that, students can also play a pivotal role in taking care of our environment. Do check out WWF Malaysia, ENO Malaysia and Lanskap Malaysia for more information on preserving our lush floras and fabulous faunas. In the word of Captain Planet "THE POWER IS YOURS!!"

Batam, Brunei and Beyond

SMANSA & SMKTU

The principal a.k.a Kepala Sekolah SMANSA, Ibu Dra. Lely Suriani

Two days ago, my school was visited by the Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 1 Batam delegate from Indonesia. Widely known as SMANSA, the school is one of top schools in Indonesia that boasts on its integration of IT in education. As the Coordinator of the Internationalisation Programme, I was given the task to set up the committee members and organise programmes for our visitors from the neighbouring country. Alhamdulillah, despite some technical glitches, everything seemed to turn out well, thanks to wonderful colleagues who helped out. The visitors were given a briefing on the HeadCount system by the principal, Hajah Zainab Bt. Ali. Then, they were shown some multimedia presentations by the ICT Unit and  the school 's Broadcasting Team. The team is headed by Form 2 students who represented Johor in the 2010 KWN Training Camp recently. I guess we left a lasting impression on our Indonesian guests as another batch of SMANSA teachers will be visiting our school next Monday! We plan to visit Batam hopefully by the end of this year and learn more about the school management and the Indonesian education system.

 Today, I attended the Brunei International Excursion meeting organised by PPDJB at Sekolah Angkatan Tentera, JB. Two of my students were selected to go to Brunei for one week and live as sojourners with their adopted families. The excursion is scheduled from 1st August to 7th August this year. Wow, imagine that! They are indeed lucky as they are given the opportunity to experience all that at such tender age. On that note, PPDJB will also organise a training camp (5-7 June) at SIGS for all the 56 students. Have fun and hope you will share your experience with all your teachers and friends!

I've arrived in school just in time to conduct the KMK Workshop with my fellow colleagues. KMK stands for Kumpulan Meningkat Mutu Kerja where it aims to enhance the quality of services that translates to Total Customers Satisfaction. Hence, creativity and innovative ideas are inculculated to overcome any adversities faced either by teachers or students. We were fortunate that our former colleague, Mr.  Norazam Abdullah, now the newly appointed PPD Counsellor (Congrats Azam!) briefed us on KMK last Saturday. Guided by his explanations and examples, I've assisted the teachers in constructing their proposals and managing their teams. I was glad that the teachers were attentive and responsive (despite the ad-hoc announcement) and I could say they did a brilliant job. Well done everyone!

Explaining the KMK framework

The Language Department is planning to build a Vocabulary Enrichment Blog :)

Weekly Updates

Event #1: Teacher's Day Celebration
Date          : 17th May 2010.
Venue       : Dewan Sri Tasek, SMK Tasek Utara, Johor Bahru, Johor.
Organiser  : MPPU, Prefect Board and KEBIRU SMKTU.

Of all the day, I had to be stuck in a massive traffic jam on Teacher's Day! Due to a minor accident and road construction near Rustica BBU,  I arrived just in time to belt out 'Kami Guru Malaysia', just my luck! By the way, I was nominated by my school to receive 'Active Teacher Award', an award that would be given during the Johor Bahru's Teacher's Day celebration. I think the main objective is to acknowledge those who prolifically contribute to the district level education programmes & activities. Ah well, I've handed in my form to my PK1 and I'll just hope for the best. When I checked my pigeon hole that morning, I was surprised when I read a fax from SK Tampoi Utama, asking me to fill in the profile for 'Innovative Teacher Award', in conjuction with the District Level Teacher's Day Celebration. And get this, I had to send it on the same day! Yikes! In between the manic frenzy of T-Day celebration, I had to slip out to the office to fax the form.  Frankly,  I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't stay until the end of the T-Day's celebration as I had to rush to Pontian at 1 p.m. for Event #2. 

Event #2: Mesyuarat Peningkatan Akademik Bahasa Inggeris Negeri Johor.
Date         : 17-19th May 2010.
Venue      : Hotel Pontian, Pontian, Johor.
Organiser : YPJ and JPNJ.

I joined 71 other English Language teachers around Johor to build modules based on authentic materials. We were lucky as we were guided by experienced facilitators such as Mr. Ismail Juned, GC from SIGS, Pn. Sallina Hussain, Principal of SDARY & Chairperson of the JB English Language Panel, Pn. Vasanthi, GC from SMK Tun Habab and Mr. Zainal, GC from Segamat (sorry Zainal, I forgot the name of your school).
Although we had to endure sessions from 8 a.m. to 10.30 p.m., I can vouch for the other participants that we gained  a lot of experience via the item building session and the intriguing pedagogical approaches that we could apply in our daily lessons. Meeting new friends and rekindling bonds with old friends were the highlight of the sessions as well. I'll share with all this blog readers the materials we've constructed when time permits. Do watch this space!
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Event #3: PMR Talk & Writing Workshop
Date         : 20th May 2010.
Venue      : Language Lab, SMK Tasek Utara 2, Johor Bahru, Johor.
Organiser : English Language Panel, SMKTU 2.

The next day, I went to the neighbouring school to share my knowledge and experience with the Form Three students on PMR Answering Techniques. Since there are 6 classes altogether, I've conducted two sessions that stretched up to 4 hours. I've also conducted Writing Workshop with the students and alhamdulillah, everything turns out well. Thank you Rasheeda for your warm hospitality and patience. I was pleasantly surprised to know that Rasheeda is one of my blog readers and she was the one who nominated my name to the English Panel for this talk. I am honestly flattered and I do hope we'll keep in touch  yeah :)

Event #4: LDP- Talk on Blogging & My Lit Project

Date         : 22th May 2010.
Venue      : Computer Lab 2, SMK Tasek Utara , Johor Bahru, Johor.
Organiser : SMKTU.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my latest Action Research, My Lit Project with my fellow colleagues. Then, I'll conduct a workshop on Blogging and demonstrate how blogging can greatly maximise the learning experience. I know some might have qualms on blogging as they might think it's a bit time consuming but honestly, I perceive blogging as a powerful tool to ignite the creative sparks and illuminate the manifold possibilities of learning paradigms.

Have a nice weekend!

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!