Too sad...

Hi and Assalamualaikum WBT! Wow! It's been a while I didn't post up anything here since last week. Huhuu... actually I went to a camp for year 5 FELDA pupils as one of their crews there. The camp is called "KEM POTENSI 5A UPSR 2013" and it is specially for FELDA schools in Segamat area. The program was very good and informative for the students. The program was planned to help and guide the students on how to answer specifically in Science and English.

My involvement with the camp was really out of the blue. I thought I could go back home and start my holiday that Friday but suddenly I was called to attend the camp as the supervisor for the children during the camp which means I had to sleep for 2 nights there. How was it for me? Well... it was boring since I didn't get to do anything there except for sleeping, eating and watch over the kids. I thought I was the only teacher came but luckily I had a partner from our neighboring school, SK SRI LEDANG came quite late that day. Finally I won't be needing my pupils to accompany me sleeping the teachers' room that night. Phew...

One day there this one pupil who I couldn't remember from which school was experiencing pain while swallowing. She was crying and couldn't talk much. Well, all the teachers knew about it already and my partner and I were assigned to bring the girl to clinic but we ended up bringing her to a public hospital since all of the nearest clinics were closed.

Honestly speaking... I don't really admire the perception of most of the teachers I've met so far. Including some from the camp. Well... yes it's true we must set a boundary between us and the children. However do we know how to set it? Do we really need to set it up? I don't think so... For me, RESPECT? yes! BOUNDARY? no! Why? When we as teachers have boundaries with our students... we couldn't see the world they see when we actually needed to see it to attend their needs. Teach them about respects and not about setting up boundaries with people.

OK, why am I so depressed about boundaries so much? It happened in this "sick girl" incident. Some of the teachers said "Hmm... no sign of sickness outside... maybe she just want some attention..." That certain teacher did know that the girl want attention... she was crying... so...? What should you do as a teacher towards a student that only need an attention? Should you check out her background or her achievement in school or her behavior in school to give the attention she wanted? What was that?! Why don't we just give it to them?! We don't need to hug or kiss or be with them 24/7! All we have to do is... have a positive conversation and make sure they gain their feet back and nothing more! What is so hard about that? Sigh...

Oh well... here is my English Corner project I'm going to do next year.

ENGLISH CORNER

1.    What is an English Corner?

a.    It’s a small section in a classroom which provides a variety of English reading materials consist of books, magazines, newspaper cuttings, flash cards and etc.

b.    It’s a place where children can easily acquire the knowledge they needed through the process of reading.

2.    Where should we place English Corner?

a.    In every class, from Year 1 to Year 6.

b.    Any part of the class that we and the students desire and easily reached.

3.    Who should use the English Corner?

a.    Students are our top priority since they will be the one who stay in the class the most.

b.    English teachers are second because they are the one who will encourage and supervise the English Corner’s usage.

4.     Why we must have English Corner?

a.    To encourage students to read English materials a lot and at least on par with Bahasa Melayu.

b.    To show to students that how easy and fun it is to learn English.

c.    To educate the students beyond English Lesson’s period.

d.    To nourish the students their love in gaining knowledge slowly but surely and without feeling any burden.

e.    To create a language-rich environment in the class.

5.     When do we use English Corner?

a.    We should start building English Corner as early as possible – (rational) the children can start the routine as soon as they enter class.

b.    Anytime we desire, no restriction in time allocation – (rational) to make the process of learning less burden and be more natural.

c.    Teachers can also use the corner for any kind of activities especially for their lesson – (rational) Children will easily listen to teachers when their level of curiosity is increased rather than just teach in the same environment every day.

1.    How do we use English Corner?

a.    Teachers will gather all the materials needed to be put in the rack – Materials can be gained by:-

                                          i.    Borrowing some books from the library

                                        ii.    Asked the students themselves whether they have any kind of English reading materials at home.

                                       iii.    Make it ourselves

b.    Teachers will ask the class monitor and vice class monitor to supervise the usage of the English Corner.

                                          i.    Make sure the children give out their names if they want to use the English Corner. (Must sign in and sign out)

                                        ii.    Make sure the children recorded the title of the materials they’ve read in a record book provided by the teachers.

                                       iii.    Make sure all the materials are handled with care.

c.    Teachers can use English Corner for activity like storytelling, Big Book, Puppeteer, sing-along, and etc.

Extras:

1.    Sometimes teachers didn’t realize how much we have neglected our children needs just because of their misbehavior.

2.    We don’t need to wait for their parents’ action to start educating.

3.    We are their parents inside out whether we like it or not.

4.    Never give up in building up a child even if he/she is beyond our control.

5.    There is never “I’ve tried everything” answer in teaching because we have a lifetime more to try everything.

6.    We are not teaching but we are learning ourselves.

7.    We used to be like them so we have no right to comment on their misbehavior but look for their positive side to help them gain their feet back on the ground instead.

8.    Our shoe sizes never the same, so do our experiences.

9.    It is sad when some teachers said “Oh, they just want some attention from us” and these teachers didn’t do anything to give it even they know the children hunger for it. There’s nothing wrong by giving some. Who knows how big is the impact from our actions. What we really afraid of is they will negatively brought up and we keep on blaming them for couldn’t thinking rationally and the truth is we actually didn’t give them what they need from the start.

10. We never know how to learn from the start, so teach those children how to learn instead of giving them information rather than knowledge.

THE END

I don't care...

Hi and Assalamualaikum wbt! Yesterday was a very busy day and I was very stressed with loads of work to be done at the same time. People expected me to accomplish it all at once and I just wanna say I am seriously not good at multitasking OKAY?!

Alhamdulillah, finally I've finished key in the bands for the KSSR pupils, year 1 and year 2. English for year 1 BERLIAN and Music for year 1 MUTIARA and 2 BERLIAN... pheew~! It was like lifting up stones from my back! Hahaha! I also helped my colleague, Kak Ida to key in the bands since she is kind of slow in learning IT. I was so glad I could give her a helping hand.

Talking about key in the bands... I just wanna say... It's frustrating! Hah!... The system is so irritating which always made me do the same thing over and over again. I guess all the teachers out there understand what I meant... However seriously... this kind of thing is not gonna make me change my mind on KSSR system. It's the online system that needs to be fixed and upgraded so that teachers in rural area which has limited internet connectivity able to carry out their responsibility such as in my area. Our line is so slow that most of the time we have to wait for days just to finish our online tasks.

Well here are some examples of the problem I was facing days before while doing the SPPBS.

wait for 1 minute...

Tried to print out the results...

It's downloading...

Didn't work out cause the server was down... LOL

Sometimes I have to relog back automatically after I pressed certain buttons... I bet most teachers had experienced that as well . 

Just a thought...

Well... just a thought... I was keep on thinking on how to encourage teachers and parents to support and like this new education system here in Malaysia, KSSR. I was quite frustrated when lots of people I met were complaining how irrelevant is the new system. Deep within me saying that's not true. I felt like wanna shout at them and say "Hey! Don't just say things just to make yourself comfortable..."

The thing is... it's an option whether we want our children to learn sincerely or just because they were told to? I'm far more than just confident that most of our children come to school because parents asked them to and rarely to find one attending school just because they really love learning. We want our children to love knowledge and carry the responsibility to gain it voluntarily without feeling any burden.

In my opinion, if a truly dedicated teacher and sincerely wanting to help those children, they would think carefully before bashing or flaming the new system. I'm not blindly supporting KSSR because I'm a government servant but as I look into the eyes of my pupils and stare at their behavior I know this is the right system for them. How lucky they are cause I was yearning for this ever since I was in primary school. I would be very happy if back in my time all my hard work on arts were appreciated by getting good bands. Hehehe! ^_^ ~

Here are some of the poor but cute kitty pics I took while waiting my housemates to come back home and open the door for me...

A NEW LIFE!

Whoaaa!! One of our female rabbit just gave birth this afternoon! Whee!! My sis and me were so happy about it. Unfortunately we were too late since most of the babies were EATEN by its father... huhuuu...

here are some of the pictures of me helping the mom feeds her baby milk

this is my sis lol... she's trying to take photo of herself with the rabbit  

Welcome New Age!

Hi there, Assalamualaikum WBT! Oh yeah... I guess this is the second time I wipe off some dusts here in my blog due to loads of side works to be done in school other than teaching which is supposed not to burden the teachers but it worked otherwise. :( Oh well... aren't we the government SERVANT? LOL!

Anyway after a few days attending some courses and seminars... I have this new vibe running through my veins telling me I need to change myself and I have to wake the others too. What I meant by the others are the teachers in my school. It seems like we are so bound with our point of comfort in teachings methodology. We couldn't see the needs in the children of our school these days. When I think about it... It is so scary that the impact would effected not only one but some generations... Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and so on... What if we didn't realize our mistakes until the impact goes until Year 6 and keep rotating? It gives me the chills... Like listening to a ghost story isn't it?... >.<

People keep on saying... "Hey! This KSSR thingie is not applicable to our students! How are we supposed to know our students' ability by not having examination?", "We must know their ranks or we won't know how to give them awards for the best students in some categories?", "This new PBS system is a 'pain in the ass' for us teachers! How are we supposed to key in our students' band if the internet is so slow! How to make them reach even Band 1 or Band 2 if we have to cover the entire topics just to complete Band 1 criteria?", aaaand so on... Lots of question marks wasn't it? Not to mention how you read those dialogues with the correct stress and intonations. Hmm... Those are the most feedbacks I've heard so far from the teachers I've come across. Mostly are not satisfied and having so much trouble understanding the system. As for me... I like the system so much! :D OK don't flame me for liking it hahaha!

Why I like 'KSSR'? I love it because... I can say I'm in the quite different from other teachers category. :)! First of all teaching was not my passion... well actually even until now it is still not coming in to me. I was forced to become a teacher. Not a good thing to hear right? However I have to overcome this negative feelings towards the job so I need to find something that makes me 'INTO' the job with positive attitude. In the end I found out that what I need to be is not to become a teacher but being in school and become something else... A savior !  The children's savior! I'll become their fun from dullness, I'll protect them from being left out in the class! I'll pats them when they need encouragement! I'll give them whatever they really need from someone called teacher in the school! The truth is all those things I decided to do was actually the things I really wanted when I was at their age. I'm not the type who can learn something theoretically, I learn by heart and experimentally. I seldom being left out by teachers and friends at school before so I understand those kids who need different kind of education system which is not Exam Oriented!   I'm glad now people has started to open their minds about making our education world a better and colorful place. Nice~

Why we need to change our pedagogy? Our methods in learning and teaching? Where is the benefit in changing? Aren't we going nicely with just the old system? NO! The fact is we are NOT going any better with it... in fact we are facing a different waves right here right now! What are the waves? The children in our new era. They are those BIG WAVES! They give us tsunami! It's true! Just take a look when I was in my schooling age, lets say in 90's... I was in year 4 the same year as my sister now. My friends and I were busy talking about our favorite spare time... traditional games, playing cards, TV programs, popular artists locally and internationally, well almost like nothing much to talk about. Yesterday night I was having a talk with my 10 year old sister... She was actually talking about wanting to have a smart phone! She said she wants Samsung Corby..."I know my friend said the cheapest I can get is around 100..." WHAT THE HAMBURGER?! See how fast our children are growing right now? Totally different from us before. That's why every single thing that we have applied so far aren't applicable anymore now. Maybe some of here and there can do... but seriously it is dangerous to close our heart and mind and put this in a blind spot.

My hope? I just wanna be better learner not a better teacher in the future. By setting my mind like that I know I'm doing this for myself and also my lovely kids. However it may become next year, I'll overcome with lots of heart and sincerity. They maybe naughty, wild and noisy but without us they don't know where to go so just get along and have with fun the lessons!

Dusty~~

Assalamualaikum W.B.T, Hi, Morning! Ohayo! Well *cough cough*... Oh my... it seems like ages I've been neglecting this place. It's May already and I've made up my mind that I'll start to post up something here after I've finished my job in training my school's Choral Speaking team. Hahaha!

Well I've trained 35 of year 6 pupils for about one and a half month and yeah I couldn't get the best result...because of their level in absorbing new things kinda slow. I have to keep my pace the same as theirs. I tried to teach them some movement and a little bit longer stories but no... I can see their limitations... so all they can do is just a minimal movement and I just trained them to be in sync.

On Thursday, 10th May 2012, we depart from school as early as possible by bus to the stated venue in the letter they had given to us. It was supposed to be SK Bukit Pasir but it seems like there were some misunderstanding or disconnection for the changing of the venue. When we arrived at SK Bukit Pasir we didn't see any event going on so we asked the teachers. They said the venue has been changed to SK Panjang Sari.... #$%#^%^& i hate it... They supposedly make sure that all the schools must get the details so something like this won't happen... Sighs... well... this is our MUAR education world... not sure with other regions though.

We didn't win...didn't even know what place we got but yeah as expected... CONVENT got 1st place since their performance is WAAAAAAAAAAY better than my pupils. Oh well... all in all I am still proud with my boys and girls cause they did their best anyway. =)

Just a simple performance of Choral Speaking by SK Seri Jaya Bukit Serampang