No Way Through

I was deeply affected by the following video.

It tells of the severe mobility restrictions in the West Bank.

X X X

Around Jerusalem the average ambulance journey time for a Palestinian is now almost 2 hours, compared to 10 minutes in 2001.

In the West Bank alone there are more than 600 internal military checkpoints and road blocks.

At these checkpoints, Palestinians in need of immediate medical attention are:
-routinely refused passage
-denied medical help
-forced to give birth
-injured and even shot dead

X X X

Ctrl.Alt.Shift Film Competition Winner: No Way Through from Ctrl.Alt.Shift on Vimeo.

PMR 2009

That morning, on the first day of the PMR examination, the traffic was heavier than usual. Parents probably took the day off to give moral support (and chauffeuring service) to their kids.

In light of the H1N1 virus, several health-related precautionary measures were taken:

1) Each student's body temperature was taken. They will be quarantined if their temperature is above 37.5 degrees Celsius.

a student's body temperature was taken using the infra-red thermometer

2) Face masks were distributed and students had to wear them before going into the exam hall.

They told me, "Cikgu tak nampak, tapi kami tengah senyum ni!"

3) Hand sanitisers were also deployed.

Some teachers even brought raisins. The students swallowed them like they are some kind of magic pills (!).

Despite yesterday's briefing, some students still came late, and around 36 students forgot to bring their IC or examination slip. Thus, the school had to produce Surat Akuan to certify that they are indeed students from this school.

Besides the health checks and Surat Akuans, the students also received some last minute tips from the subject teachers. The informal assembly ended with the recitation of the doa. Several visibly-anxious parents looked out from afar, taking all the goings-on in.

not everyone was attentive when the subject teacher dished out some last-minute tips

People cope with pressure differently. Thus, some students looked cuak, some tired and sleep-deprived, some way too cheerful, some excited and some indifferent.

note the different expressions
dia kata dia pening tapi nampak sihat dan ceria je...
he fell from his bike the day before, hence the wounds. he looks so innocent! (but you know what they say about judging a book by its cover...)
3M and 3N boys who cause me so much grief in the classroom (but admittedly, they selalu menghiburkan hati jugak)
3K boys (who says budak kelas depan2 senang sikit nak handle? it's pure myth! they give you a fair share of headaches too)

Raya musings

Last Thursday was the last day of school before the long Raya break. The end-of-school bell was greeted by loud explosives of mercun. I was curious about the type of mercun the students were using because they were LOUD. Extremely loud! Like what you would hear in a battlefield. Something that could cause a person with a weak heart to have a heart attack.

The sound of the mercuns has been going on for more than a week. Despite repeated warnings (delivered through the PA system) of automatic expulsion, the perpetrators were bold enough to lit more mercuns and evade capture.

But on Thursday, nothing could sour the mood of both teachers and students. The teachers went about their business cheerfully and even the students who sat for the Ala PMR 2 exam looked happy. Everybody is in their Raya mood already.

At 12.30pm, the office was crowded with people clocking-out and embracing one another, asking for forgiveness. Mutual enquiries on "Bila balik kampung?" and "Kampung kat mana?" were carried out.

It was amusing to hear how grown-ups too get excited about balik kampung. There was one teacher who had finished packing her bags and her children's 4 days in advance! Another had even planned to leave at exactly 12.50pm on Thursday. Her husband would be waiting outside of the school gate with their kids and bags in tow. They would leave directly for kampung without making any detour.

All these elaborate plannings are quite alien to me. I don't have a "proper" kampung. My grandmother resides only 15 minutes away. So, there's not much to plan for.

I remember how I wished I had a kampung when I was a kid. I have this mental picture of an idyllic countryside; of a stately wooden kampung house overlooking paddy fields; of fruit orchards and a running creek...

Now I know that most kampung do not fit into my mental picture. And as I grow older, I begin to appreciate celebrating Raya in the city - where one does not have to endure long journeys and be stuck in nightmarish traffic jams.

People who are used to it, don't mind it at all. They have the stamina for it. But I don't. When travelling for more than 3 hours, I will get restless and start to fidget, asking periodically "Are we there yet?"

When I was a kid, I remember KL being a ghost town during long Raya breaks. They say the same thing now, but I can tell you that it's different. Now, there are more people who call KL their hometown, so the city is not as empty as it used to be when Raya comes. Back then, the streets in KL were almost completely deserted.

This year's Raya will be different because I will no longer receive duit Raya. Instead, it will be my turn to give them out. I've just finished putting the notes in green packets. I've only started working for 9 months, so I couldn't afford to give a lot. So, I've joined forces with my sister so that the sum in each packet would not seem so pitiable... hahaha

Oh, Abewan and family will be celebrating Raya in Muar. That means, I will not have my nieces and nephew with me on the first day of Raya. That will surely make the day less ceria.

Irfan & Damia

But I can always count on sembahyang Raya to lift my spirits. It's my favourite part of Hari Raya - where you find everyone congregating in the masjid wearing their best attire, looking very cheerful. And after the solat and khutbah, when people shake hands and embrace each other. That always brings a lump in my throat.

This entry hasn't really got a point. Just Raya musings that I want to have written down.

Selamat Hari Raya everyone.

Eid Mubarak!

Hopefully, we all can istiqamah/be consistent with our Ramadan routine outside of Ramadan (with regards to our congregational prayers, recitation of the Quran, eating less, waking up before dawn, qiamullail, etc)

Takabballahu minna wa minkum [May Allah accept (the good deeds) from me and you]

I think this card is cute!

damage control

I knew it would come to this. I knew that I would procrastinate marking my students' trial papers until it was too late.

Thus, I had worked out a PLAN: I would finish marking the objective questions first. That's the easy part - a bit tedious, but relatively easy and pain-free.

Then, I would move on the the structured questions in the Moral papers. This requires a slightly more effort but still, quite tolerable.

After all the easier parts have been completed, only then would I mark the dreaded essays. I have 136 scripts to mark. It's very much lesser than the 200+ I had to mark when I taught the afternoon session. But these 136 scripts also happen to be much, much longer! (unfortunately, they took me way too seriously when I told them to write beyond the expected 120words)

Even after I've separated the question papers from the answer scripts, the pile still looked insurmountable.

But I've worked out a plan for that too. I would mark around 20 papers per day. The school break would be 10 days' long so, I would dedicate the first three days doing the easy bits, and the rest doing the essays.

See. My PLAN is workable, and failure-proof.

*cue for laughter*

But fast forward to today - with only 3 days left before school reopens - the PLAN obviously didn't work.

I haven't started marking the essays and the Moral papers.

Apparently, buoyed by my success with completing the objective questions, I stopped adhering to the PLAN. Figured I needed a break. Only the break lasted a little too long.

So, now that I'm jolted back to reality, I've come up with another PLAN.

Hahaha (Don't you dare laugh. Only I'm allowed to laugh at my own misery)

I'm going to concentrate on the 3 classes I teach on Tuesday first. Since I can already anticipate their "Did I get an A?"/"What did I get for English, Teacher?" questions.

Hopefully, by Tuesday, I will finished marking their papers and hand in their score sheets to their respective class teacher. Because, even if you're NOT efficient, you have to look as if you are... hahaha

Then, I will clock-in how many OT it takes to complete the rest of the marking.

X X X

Do you think the plan will work?

Petua Berhenti Merokok

The Ministry of Health has given out posters on '12 Petua Berhenti Merokok' to schools.

Anticipating the students' backlash, the PK HEM warned the students not to tear the posters which will be put up in each classroom.

The announcement was made in the weekly assembly. Less than half an hour later, I went into 3H for Moral. The said poster was already up.

It was still intact. However, there are a few alterations which completely distort the original message:

1) Instead of 'Jom Berhenti Merokok', the poster now reads: 'Jom Merokok'

2) 'Bebas Daripada Rokok' became 'Bebas Dari Ada Pokok'

3) 'Petua Mengatasi Keinginan Merokok' ---> 'Tua Mengata Ingin Merokok' (!)

I know that I have to assume the role of the disapproving adult, but I cannot help but marvel at the students' creativity and be amused by their sense of humour.

Moral Quandary

I had a rather horrible past few days. There were many incidents which convinced me that today's kids are horrible. I dreaded going to school and making my way to class when the bell rang. And once in class, time seemed to pass very s l o w l y...

I truly felt for the first time that I might just hate my job.

My theory is that the academic calender shouldn't stretch more than 4 weeks long. This current stretch has been in session since 15th June! 7 weeks down, 3 weeks to go. 10 weeks in all! Adoi... There should be little breaks in between for the sake of the teachers' sanity.

Alhamdulillah, that dark phase had past. With only 3 weeks to go, I'm beginning to see the faint light at the end of the very long and dark tunnel... hahaha

Anyway, marking the Moral papers for the first time provided me with some comic reliefs. Marking is generally a very tedious job. But there are bound to be a few scripts out of the whole pile that will set you off laughing out loud.

Example A:

There are bound to be students who will leave a personal message, expressing guilt or appealing for compassion.

Example B:

You will encounter numerous spelling errors. Some of these errors will inadvertently distort the points that the candidates wanted to convey.
Keluhuran Perlembagaan means Keagungan/Kemuliaan/Kebesaran Perlembagaan.

But KeLURUHan Perlembagaan means the disintegration of the constitution (!)

Other distortions of Keluhuran:
-Keseluruhan,
-Kehuluran
Example C:

The question asks the students' opinion about someone who opted to forgo a higher-paying job overseas in order to serve and contribute to her own country's growth.

The expected answer should run along the lines of:
-Cinta akan negara: mempunyai perasaan sayang dan ingin memajukan negara.
-Sanggup berkorban untuk negara: rela pulang ke tanah air demi berkhidmat ke arah pertumbuhan negara.

Most of the students wrote something similar to the above answer. Except for one. He answered:

Unfortunately, I couldn't award marks for politically-incorrect answers, no matter how honest they are.

-----------------------------------------------------

Based on my first experience of marking the Moral papers, I think that we need to do away with such tests all together since they are invalid.

If I remember my EDUC265 correctly, a test is valid if it measures what it is supposed to measure.

For example, if you have a test which requires the students to write everything they know about WW2 in 5 minutes and then proceeded to mark the students' papers based on the number of words the students had written, and not their content, then your test is invalid.

It might be valid test to measure speed-writing but not a valid test to measure the students' understanding of WW2.

Similarly, the Moral tests are not measuring anything worthwhile. Why then should we continue administering them?

I'm not proposing to do away with the Moral subject all together. The syllabus does contain important issues for the students to be acquainted with. But how do we make sure the students internalise the theoretical knowledge found in the textbook? Is it even possible for teachers to inculcate the listed values in the students simply by spouting their importance 160mins a week in class?

There has got to be a better way of doing things...

TIMES Warehouse Sale

I've abstained from buying books for a few months now. I vowed to finish reading the titles that I have already before buying yet another book.

My reading list and my 'books read' list are embarrassingly disproportionate.

Yet, today I felt like breaking my vow. I just have to buy some new books. Not just a new book, but some.

So I headed down to CapSquare to take advantage of TIMES' warehouse sale. It felt so good to peruse all the books, with all the nice covers and inviting titles.

One title made me laugh out loud: Portrait of a burger as a young calf.

And the venue's nice too. It's well-lighted and airy.

The crowd wasn't too big, so I took my own sweet time to check out the books systematically, row by row :-)

After an hour or so, I have 5 books in my hand. Chucked one out and proceeded to buy the other 4. They are:
-Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri,
-The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler,
-Teacher Man by Frank McCourt, and
-The Hapless Teacher's Handbook by Phil Ball (I just love the title!)

All 4 books cost RM77.75


I bought the first 2 books because I love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing and anything that has got to do with Jane Austen.

I bought the last 2 books because... well it's pretty obvious isn't it?

I said in my last entry that my students live in an insulated world. I'm now convinced that so am I. I've written little else apart from teaching ever since I've started working.

Like now, even though the entry is supposed to be about the books I've just bought, I'm going to tie it to teaching.

In today's and yesterday's newspapers, I happened to read articles criticising teachers. I couldn't help but take the affront personally.

I really hate it when people say that those who took to teaching did it because it was their "last resort"

In my case, and in many, many other teachers, it's NOT.

And to those who think that teaching is such an easy job, read this extract from an interview with Frank McCourt:

Interviewer: You describe teaching as the 'downstairs maid of professions'. Why do you think that many parents, pupils and social commentators have so little respect for it?

Frank McCourt: People in general look down on teachers the way they regard members of their own family: they think they know what teaching is all about when the fact is they don't have a clue, any more than they know what surgery is all about. Also, many people think teaching is easy. Oh, you simply walk into a classroom and blather and the kids sit and listen. Hell, no.

X X X

Hear Hear!

Wanita Insan Istimewa

The above title is actually Topic 25 in the Form 3 Pendidikan Moral textbook.

To get the students to recognise the many achievements/contributions by women around the world, I asked them to list as many famous women as they can according to these categories:
-leaders/politicians
-athletes
-authors
-scientists
-corporate figures
-NGO workers

I was appalled by their lack of knowledge on general issues.

Most of them could only name Nicol David in the athletes' category. When pressed to name other female athletes, they went blank.

They were clueless about the other categories (excluding celebrities) as well.

Here are snippets of what happened:

Student A: Teacher, I don't know what to put for politicians.
Me: Well, who's the Minister for Women Affairs in Malaysia?
Student A: *blank*
Me: Er... Minister of Tourism?
Student A: I don't know la Teacher...
Me: Okay, she doesn't have to be a Malaysian... Who ran against Obama in the Democratic Presidential Election?
Student A: McCain!
Me: No, before that. Obama went against...?
Student A: I don't know la Teacher... I only know Obama
Me: *pressing on* She's very famous. Her husband used to be the former president. Before George Bush.
Student A: Really? Before Bush?
Me: Yes. Have you heard of Bill Clinton?
Student A: Ooo
Me: What's his wife's name?
Student A: *exasperated+trying to get me to back off* Megan Fox!

Yes, people. Megan Fox ran for presidency (!).

They students couldn't name/didn't know: Dato' Sri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Dato' Sri Ng Yen Yen, Marie Curie (one student exclaimed: "hey, it rhymes!"), Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, J.K. Rowling, Aung Suu Kyi, etc

And they didn't know what NGO stands for. And when I gave MERCY as an example of an NGO, they said they had never heard of it....

I think today's students live in such an insulated world of school, tuition centres and the latest Hollywood movies.

I don't think they read the newspapers or keep in touch with what's going on in the world. Which is a pity since life is so much bigger than their PMR, SPM and Megan Fox.

Howard Gardner

How many times have you quoted/cited/referred to Howard Gardner when doing your EDUC assignments?

Today, there's an article about him in The Star newspaper. You can read the online version here.

Here are my favourite bits of the interview:

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions.”

"...if you are trying to change somebody’s mind, try to listen and understand the other person. That is an important way to change their mind... But there are instances when it is difficult to move the other person. This may be because they have been holding a certain point of view for a long time, they have an emotional connection about it and they have spoken publicly about it. So if you are a leader, you try to convince those who are sitting on the fence, rather than the extreme." <--- This quote reminded me of the unending PPSMI debate

“A person may be intelligent in various aspects, but have poor people skills. Today, this is known as emotional intelligence. There are other forms of intelligences; linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily kinesthetic and so on. This means there is more than one way to teach, just as there are many ways to learn.”

melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya

A huge fight broke up in my school yesterday. A group of Form 5 students fought with a group of Form 3 students. The situation got out of control so the police had to be called in. All the other students got excited and they rushed out of class to watch the spectacle from the balcony. We teachers had a hard time shooing them back into the class and keeping them seated at their place.

It was a total chaos.

Until today, it was the only topic discussed when teachers get together in the staff room, the canteen, the corridors, etc. Information concerning what started the fight and who were involved was gathered and shared. Teachers who happen to teach these students would then share what they know about them.

Amidst all these goings-on, one teacher's comment caught my attention. She said:
"Ada budak yang nakal, tapi hati dia lembut lagi... you can still reach out to them. Tapi ada budak yang nakal dan hati diaorang memang evil... and there's nothing you can do about it."

That gave me food for thought. I agree with what the teacher had said. I've encountered many problematic students, and you can sense whether the students are "reform-able" or not.

And when I've experienced teaching in both the morning and the afternoon sessions, I can certainly say that younger students are easier to mould. They are more impressionable and they actually listen to what you have to say. Thus, it's easier to put sense into their head, teach them right from wrong, and inculcate good values in them.

But once they are older, it's much more difficult to do so.

So I think that teachers should grab the chance to reach out to their students before the window of opportunity closes. Identifying the "potentially" problematic students is not really difficult, is it?

If we can "reform" them when they are still young, then, we'll save ourselves a lot of trouble later on.

When I think about today's kids in general (and the students in my school specifically), I shudder at the kind of people we're letting out into society.

For two days in a row now, after the last bell has rung and my students have left the class, I would stay back, slumped over my desk, feeling utterly defeated.

But I guess the moral of the story is to not give up on your students (even though their actions may at times cause you to have murderous thoughts about them). Try your best to reach out to them, to love them, to think well of them and to pray for their well-being. Avoid hurting them with your menyampah glance, comments and actions.

Remember:
"In all situations, it is [your] response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated; and a child humanized or dehumanized" -Haim Ginott-