Ramadhan 1 Week Hols

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

Everyone says that the best thing about being a teacher is that teachers get loooong hols. Well, that is a little bit correct but as much as teachers like to rejoice on that statement, another statement gets in the way bashing teachers' hope to bask in loooong hols, that is;

Holidays or breaks are a privilege and not an entitlement!


Teachers are not really entitled to a time off, but as we do geddit, then we should be able to enjoy it. confusing noh? I say, a holiday is a holiday, if you call us for courses or seminars or whatever and we realize we hafta go, we'll go, if not, talk to the hand! =p


Anyway, no complains to getting a week of pleasure at home in Ramadhan and a week for Eid in spite of having to mark PMR Trials and after this, SPM Trials. I do feel down and blue though when marking because it dawns on me that majority of these students' English has fossilized and that I only have so little time to make that desirable change and not all students are manageable, siggghh~


Another thing is that I realize that a lot of students are not really into English and it struck me that why should they? Perhaps they are wise and hated this foreign language because the Englishmen did take over our country in the past so why must they uphold this language of the omputih? There are a zillion reasons that I could give on the benefits of learning English but students still fail to see and I'm not about to list em all here anyway, siggggh again!


I could go on and on sighing and it won't be of any use because students have to realize that even if they look back on the past or they foresee the future whereby they might not used the English language but in reality, my students and I live in a modern fast-paced world whereby the world is borderless and everything is at the tip of the fingers and in this modernization and civilization, we have to accept that learning English is the way to go! English is the INTERNATIONAL language!


So with that, I wish my students and all Malaysian, Happy Independence Day and a Blessed Ramadhan :)

Journal Alert! [LIGHTBULB PLEASE!]

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum



Calling all English Teachers
especially my coursemates, the awesome COHORT 2,
English Teachers wannabes,
English Language Enthusiasts,
TESL Educationists,
YOU! whose opinions I and many others value,


I have an idea!


I know I'm new in the teaching profession, and because my passion has still not wane, therefore I wanna start a project...


I find myself constantly asking questions about teaching and learning to teach and many more and it really bugs me that no one and nothing can give me an answer. Then I realize that perhaps I am not looking for a CORRECT answer, just that I wanted and needed guidance and always want and need for myself to move ahead, forward and change for the better!


Hence, I think a journal would be a GREAT way for networking so that I and others out there can reach out simply by reading and responding. In my Uni days, I had to always go through international journals and I find that these journals were really cool and helpful especially when I was doing my project paper on Readers Theatre. Malaysia was still new to the concept of students reading aloud from a modified script and for that reason, there were insufficient articles on the subject matter. Even as I read more and more, I found that journals like The Reading Teacher were beneficial in scaffolding educators to explore and excite students and this would indirectly make us become better teachers.


The downside to this is that I am aware that not many teachers read! Yes, as shocking as this sounds but as I asked around, I reiterate that not many teachers read. Teachers do read but as teachers are constantly bogged down with not just teaching but also secretarial work, as a result, teachers read only their students' homework rather than for recreational. But for those teachers who do read and love reading and frequently reads then this journal may be able to get hold of these teachers.


My hopes would be that I am the shaker and the mover for this project and that I have to be extra hardworking in making it happen. InsyaAllah with this project, it is hoped that I and fellow contributors would be able to bring a desirable change not just for us but especially to our students.


So what needs to be done is that I would like to pull anyone in to write anything whether its an article, lesson plan, reflection, stories, literary works, anything at all. and I would come out with a title for the journal or does anyone have any idea? Apart from that, I hope to rope in educators who I think has made a difference in education in English or maybe someone who should put in his or her 2 cents worth in the journal. Another thing is that I hope to spread the word on this journal starting with my coursemates first who are teaching around the whole Malaysia and then the whole of Shah Alam and moving on to Facebook and lastly ZOOM MALAYSIA.
BIG DREAMS are needed indeed~


I target that by the end of this year, I'll be able to make it on at least glossy paper be it black or white or perhaps, if I could get a sponsor, to make the pages colourful. Moreover, I aim for the pages to at least be 20. I dream BIG but I think I'll start small, for now.


Effort (and a lot of it!) + Prayers (sprinkle with rezeki) = Tawakkal.

InsyaAllah


So please email me with anything at all -

wanderfulmadnificent@gmail.com

I'm old and I just got my 1st Paycheck and its Ramadhan!

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

This year's birthday started out pretty ordinary..


teaching Form 5 and preparing students for their Trials after the hols by giving them another set of SPM papers like they couldn't get enough. and then when both teacher and students were discussing something I couldn't remember, one of my student asked me, Teacher, you look like a chill. I was like, wwwhhhaaattt?? [and this is coming from the top class of the Form 5]. chill, chill, or izzit he said, chilli? I couldn't comprehend and after deciphering what he was trying to say, it turned out that he wanted to say I looked like a child, LOL :p


I joked, maybe you wanted to say I'm cute, hehe and then they chortled. so I said to myself what the heck and commented, well, I have just gotten old so maybe after tomorrow I won't look like a child anymore!


*Blank faces and starry-eyed surprise*


-sigh-


You don't geddit do you? Never mind.


A Hermoine-like-raise-hand-shot-in-the-sky, Teacher, your birthday meh?


=]


yeah *maluuuu la plak, nyesal cakap :p*


and then I turned around to write something on the board and wanted to resume the discussion because I was like a bit embaressed, huhu


Yi, Er, San...


Happy Birthday Song


Wah, thank you all of you :D


But I resolve never to do that again! hahaha! It was just that my students ask something that coincides so I thought...nah, fuhgeddit!


I even did tuition with the Form 5 students from 4pm-6pm that day and they were fighting to get my attention for once, huhu, dunno if it was a ploy :p


That night I was attacked by prickly heaty itchy rashes all over my body and nearly spreading on my hands and my face and then Kaswina called and asked me where I was. I said I'm at home and before I knew it, she was shouting OPEN THE DOOR BECAUSE I'M OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE!


I was soooo taken aback and shocked and surprised!!! She drove 10 mins from her place dragging a company just to treat me to a petite Peanut Butter Vanilla Cake, aaaaawwww, THANK YOU SO MUCH KASWINA! From an ordinary day, it became extraordinary because of a FRIEND like you!



I'll never forget that night~

You made me smile =) =) =)

Graduation, Friends Forever, Family Never Ever Apart

Bismillah, Assalamulaikum



On Tuesday, 11th August 2009 at 8.45am, in a local institution of higher learning in Malaysia, I graduated with Honours, Alhamdulillah ^_^



and I dedicate my Degree to my parents!

Thank You Abah & Mama =)


Masters is coming up!


and those 6 years will never be forgotten~

Teaching is Love

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

I dunno why but I have a thing for modifying scripts, novels, short stories, poetry and song lyrics! Could be a hobby or something that strucks my fancy and inspiration!


This statement is scary but whenever I hear the song She is Love by Parachute, I think of teaching and how my heart has to be pure in order for the knowledge to pass to my students and how if my passion fades away, even if I try my hardest to teach but it will all be in vain as there won't be any drive to teach anymore thus I wouldn't want that to happen would I...

So perhaps there needs to be love...


"Ive been beaten down
Ive been kicked around
And the teaching takes its toll on me
And I lost my faith
In my darkest days
But my students make me want to believe


They call teaching love, love, love, love, love
Teaching is supposed to be passion
And I need to believe that teaching is all I need though I doubt this
And students need to take heed


Well I had my ways
They were all in vain
And the teaching and learning process waited patiently
It was all the same
All my pride and shame
sometimes put me on my feet


They call teaching love, love, love, love, love


And when the world slows down deep
And when those stars burn out here
And when I see my students there with wide eyes
And the thirst for knowledge
How could I resist

They call teaching love, love, love, love, love"

On a similar note, Ramadhan is slowly drawing nearer to us and we have to remember that there also needs to be LOVE for the holy month as when there is no devotion hence;


Citing the words of the Prophet Muhammad,
"Many are the people who fast, but who gain nothing from their fast except hunger and thirst; and many are those who stand praying all night but who gain nothing except sleeplessness".

A reminder to me and others, Wallahualam~

If Parents were Teachers, Teachers not need be Teachers

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum



A friend of a friend of mine blasts a parent at school as the parent said that why expel or suspend a student, it would only crush the students' motivation for schooling and no wonder that particular student never did well in school. It's all the teacher's fault because the teacher never gave that student a chance.


I heard and I was angry! As a teacher, who wouldn't?


and because I am, and another reason would be that I kept giving my students compositions to do as they are so weak in that certain area therefore I would like to make my own piece of essay.


To whom it may concern,


You know, you wouldn't have needed teachers if you were superhuman but you're not, so there. You have to understand that teachers are here and there and everywhere for a reason. If you have taught all that there is about life and everything that comes with it, teachers wouldn't have to do it for you.


Teachers are like second parents yet some of you are just so caught up with your own lives, you forget that you hand in your children to teachers to teach, nurture, to build character and all that just for your student to become holistic. If nothing satisfies you, perhaps you heard of home schooling? Yeah, home school has produce few famous geniuses.


You think you're so perfect but you're not and you say that no one is. Well, doesn't that apply to teachers too? Have you forgotten about teachers? Have you forgotten that the teacher standing in front of you and your child is imperfect?


Do you even know how hard it is to teach? and can you see why some teachers prefer the top classes? If your child is in the bottom class, do you know why? Do you even care? Have you try asking?


When your child makes mistakes, have you tried interrogating your child? or did you leave all those grillings to the discipline teacher? and if you do, are you satisfied? If not, why? What else could you possibly want?


Did teachers ever really crush a student's motivation? How? and why would teachers do that? Do they really? Must be some bad apples then. Could your child possibly be rotten too? Could you see pass that and investigate?


Do you know the meaning of expel and suspend? Get a dictionary or ask a language teacher to help. You look at your child and see a halo, well, that's not what the teacher saw, go figure.

If you gave your child chances, perhaps teachers would have done the same too...


How many points for this continuous piece of writing? maybe not much because there's too many questions. Could you have answer then?

Why some students just don't geddit and I don't either..

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum



My students, even the best ones in the top class grapple and struggle with the English Language and I don't blame em.


Some of em just don't seem all that interested in the subject.
Some of em are beyond passive about learning as they just plain resist it.
If students don't think they can learn, they often resist efforts that seek to make them learn.
Some can't see the reason they're learning such foreign language and I tell em they can just go to Japan then!
Some students are just afraid as they like doing what they already know. Why make life harder than it already is right?


and I as the teacher grapple and struggle too, because I and them are like magnets, opposing forces and we try so hard to stick, but alas~


These students have missing motivation and I am left with the tall order to find it for them!


and I'm human, what if I wanna move on? Would you let me?

August!

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

"Pinch Punch First Day Of The Month!"

"Slip Slap You Can't Do It Back!"

"Pinch Kick You're Too Quick!"


When it's the first day of the month and it was the school days, my friends from England would play this game whereby its like tag, you're it! except you have to pinch and punch because it's the first day of the month and then slip and slap that person and then, that person has to respond by pinching and kicking back because the person who started it first, had been too quick! Of course, everything was done in a fun manner with no casualties and until today, my grown-up siblings and I still do it, haha! When I did it to my roommate of 6 years, she looked at me as if I'd gone wacko and wanted to pinch and kick me for real, hahaha! :p


That's a domestic story, what about outside of my comfort zone?!


Well, let's relate shall we? and let's start with pictures...




These are perhaps normal everyday people with a cause and they are driven by the zest to fight for this cause and because their country is democratic therefore they can and without hesitance, voice out their opinions! They do so with courage and the confidence that what they are doing is right because they know they're right and they stand up for what they believe in!






The police, too, understands this and they respect what these people do because these people ain't hurting anyone. They know, that. There is no tear gas or water cannons, nothing like that. Just keeping an eye ya know.



Although these people block the roads with their bicycles, there's still no harm in that is there? and they even had their little picnic sitting cross-legged on the street blissfully unaware of the double-decker buses having to have to make a U-turn, huhu






A lot of people think a rally is a waste of time and energy, but I applaud them for trying, because sometimes there just isn't any other way to get what you want to say and be heard out there. If you want to wait for a change, well then, you've got a long damn wait ahead of you.

I may look silent but this vessel ain't empty, wallahualam~

Teachers do care so much and there is so much they can't control :(

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum



For the past 2 weeks, I had been quite idle. This is because I had no work given and nothing to really do except planning lessons for 3 Form 1 classes whereby there would be 2 or 3 periods only every day and I didn't know whether I should revel in that condition or otherwise. At the end of the day, I come out grateful because I want to just bask in whatever moment I get regardless whether its -ve or +ve as I should just live for the moment and do my very best at whatever comes


Now that I am teaching 2 Form 3 and 3 Form 5 classes, the pressure has trickled in and I like the challenges I get but spurn the strain from over thinking on THE VERY BEST WAY TO DEAL with these classes as their trials are coming up and I am so freaked out!


Sometimes I think to myself, why am I always putting these extra burden on myself whereas I could just mound all those PMR and SPM past years questions and enjoin for my students to do them and then we could discuss the answers together. But that's just the thing, I can't seem to want to do that because doing too many exercises and drillings would result in my students being bored, memorizing without understanding and lastly, that's just not what English is all about! However, not doing past years questions is also not the way to deal with students in the exam-oriented system. Are you confused? Well, I am


So my solution is to strike a balance. Once a week, the students have to do past years questions especially the Form 3 as PMR Trial Examination is just around the corner and they have to really start to burn the midnight oil in order to just pass and for the students who have a history of passing the English paper will have to strive to get at least a good B or target higher to achieve an A. I learnt that teachers need to be realistic and save those students that has potential whereas set a different target for those students deem not being able to make it through even a low pass.


Striking a balance between exercises and drillings as well as language activities and all those other activities I learnt back in my 6 years of study worked well so far and both I and my students look forward to teaching and learning. So far, I have managed to carry out 3 types of Journal Writing such as Personal Journal Writing (like from the movie, Freedom Writers whereby students get to write whatever they want with no word limit), Dialogue Journals (I gave students 1 question concerning a topic on their novel or the literature that they have learnt and students need to respond and I will give feedbacks once a week for this type of journal, thanks Nani for the idea at practicum!) and Persuasive Journals for the lower achievers as in this case, students should only write 1 sentence a day. So far so good and this is probably due to the fact that I got the 1st 2 classes of Form 5 and the 1st 2 classes of Form 3 so they understood instructions fairly well and they were gamed for the subject although some of them grapple and struggle with English. On the other hand, I did get the last class of Form 5 where there are 20 students but sometimes only 10 students are present in the class! Well, that's fine by me as long as there are some students willing to learn hence I would teach in whatever way I can.


Moreover, I am also doing Readers Theatre with those 4 upper classes and they seem to be very enthusiastic about practicing and performing and I can't wait either. The Form 3 will have to start after trials whereas the Form 5 will be doing so in the month of August. So far so good indeed~


As you can probably sum up, the upper classes are very responsive and I feel fine teaching them. Even if their English is not good but they want to learn and that's what matters the most. Apart from that, their attitudes make me delighted to teach them more and I almost always feel good when teaching them and when they learn from me. Alhamdulillah, it has been such a REZEKI to be teaching like this and at times, I feel like a lecturer because I get to do things that my lecturers did back in my degree studies with the amount of students and also with students' kind of personalities.


As for the last class of Form 5, I had to practically force them to learn, and even to write! Some students still want to sleep and I gave in to that after countless compelling but I do end up feeling frustrated. I had already ask the other teachers and even they said that there is not much they can do to coerce these students to learn as they are already mature (supposedly!) enough to understand what they're in school for. It bewilders me really on what I could do because after a week of coming up with ideal activities for these students, some of em still refuse to participate and learn. I said to myself that I just want to leave them be but sometimes, there's a niggling feeling that I just can't and I try to shove that feeling out! I resorted to reading but there seem to be no remedy for such cases as there is to just keep on trying. I am trying but for how long? and shouldn't I just focus on the students that do want to learn?


I pray hard and pray well that I'm just as good as I'll ever be but in the meantime, I'm not just a teacher but also a student as I am constantly learning on whatever it takes to sprinkle that miracle dust to my students not just for them to pass English but also for them to like the knowledge that I give to them~


Believe it when I say that:

Teachers do care so much and there is so much they can't control.

Change is Invigorating!

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

[Please click to make the picture bigger, at my most favourite comic strip of all time, Calvin & Hobbes and read how true yet cynical way of accepting change!]


I know that most of the time I am jolly by golly but really, lemme tell you that I wasn't on my first week of posting. Even if you didn't wanna know, I still wanna write and actually when I'm writing this, it's not just for me but also to my friends and especially to my coursemates of 6 years as well as to my beloved roommate of 6 years whom I miss truly madly deeply badly!


It sucks huh to get someplace far from home? and it's not that great to always be under your parents' armpits, haha, direct translation :p

So what do we really want?


Beats me, I don't know either because right about now, I consider myself as having it easy but will embrace the challenges more strongly ( I hope! InsyaAllah.)

In the 1st week of posting to someplace unknown, I was BITTER, yes, that was the word!

BITTER because:

1. Why la the Pahang state wants the budak2 Shah Alam and why can't the Selangor state call us back to our hometown since the Pahang state did that to their anak2 Pahang! Urgh!


2. Why can't it be a Chinese TESL teacher placed at that school since the majority of the students in that school are chinese? That would have sorted out the communication problems, why me?


3. For my friends who have to teach other subjects, I really think that's unfair! Well, yeah, it's supposed to be a challenge (everything is always a challenge huh) but we didn't take TESL for 6 freaking years for nothing! and if the state called us to fill in the empty vacancy for the post of an English teacher then why must the principal subject us to teach other than our option? In universities and other teaching institutions, there are all those fresh graduates from every options possible so what gives?! All this confounds me really...


I know that sometimes I have a hard time accepting change and although I know it's inevitable, I always keep wondering why things have to change and what I could've done to kept things the same but I always remind myself that change might not be such a bad thing as I may not know the reasons now, but I'm sure one day it will all come together and make sense, InsyaAllah, like the saying -> 'Everything happens for a reason.'

Alhamdulillah, I have pushed the bitterness away from me and I want nothing from it except that sometimes, some events make me so mad. but, Allah is Great. That should sum up a lot of things