Hands of Honour

'Hands of Honour' is one the the activities we did during the English Camp. I thought I would try it out with my 3Q students as a pre-writing task.

They were supposed to write 'What I Am Passionate About'. What I really want was for them to write about what they absolutely love. I do not want them to merely write about their hobbies.

The 'Hands of Honour' works like this: Students trace their palms on a piece of A4 paper. They then write down 5 things that are synonymous with them.

I gave them a simple exercise on synonyms first (casual=informal, incorrect=wrong, etc) before asking them to write the 5 most significant things about themselves.

To further clarify the task, I gave a few examples:

"Contohnya, bila saya tengok Arif je, saya teringat silat; kalau Azfar, rubix cube; kalau Fahmi pulak, tenis."

(Yes, I codeswitch in class!)

Pretty soon the rest of the class wanted me to do/"read" them/their friends.
"Kalau saya pulak Cikgu?"
"Teacher, buat Adam pulak"...

Eventually, they settled down and began writing. Then, they had to swap their paper with a friend's and proceed to write 5 things about that friend.

Only after that do they start writing the actual essay. Yes, the pre-writing task was too long and it seemed to go on forever but I need to get my students excited about the topic first as they are chronically allergic to writing essays.

At the end of the lesson, the students handed in their essay and their "palms". I had fun reading the 5 things they had written about themselves and their friends.

These are among the ones that made me laugh out loud:

1) "If fight learning, lots man have falls". Confused? Fret not, a Malay translation was provided next to it: "Kalau lawan belajar, ramai yang kalah".

2) "Look kind, his heart still in investigation" = Nampak je baik, hati tu tak tau lagi"

And this one made me raise my eyebrows in serious doubt:

"Never misses 'Indahnya Iman' on Astro Oasis"

Then, I came across this:
Somebody had done the 5 things for me. I asked 3Q the next day and the mystery author turned out to be Mas Dayana.

So, thanks Mas, you had made my day! :)

'English Is Just Awesome' Camp

The Form 3 and Form 5 students of SMA Rembau were forced to attend the above mentioned camp (co-hosted by the school and KRIM Negeri Sembilan). So naturally, most of them had negative preconceptions about it.

But on the last day, after speaking English for 3 days; after doing all the fun language-based & non-language-based activities; after bonding with the facilitators, good feedback was received from the participants... Alhamdulillah...

I thank Allah for the opportunity to be a part of this programme. Credits to my juniors in IPBA who formed the backbone of the organising committee. They had to do all the required planning, preparations and arrangements in the midst of their assignments. May Allah ease their tasks for them...

What made this experience special was the people that I was surrounded with. I love my fellow facilitators (Fariena, Izyan, Saqinah, Abby, Thuaibah & Safura) who were very fun and enjoyable to work (and drink teh tarik) with. I admire their enthusiasm, creativity, confidence, humour and their overall nice-ness.

And the participants were wonderful. They were eager learners, punctual,courteous and oh-so lovable.

So different from the students I'm used to having... :p

It was heartening to observe students who were initially reluctant and hesitant to speak English gradually shed their self-consciousness as the camp progressed. We even caught participants speaking English to the canteen operator and on the telephone to Mum and Dad! :)

All praise is due to Allah for the camp's success. A teacher there even suggested that the camp be held annually from now on.

Hopefully, the camp's positive impact will last for a long time instead of being a short-term thing. And may all our sacrifices, difficulties and hard work be counted as good deeds in the sight of Allah SWT... amin...

Read other accounts of the event here and here.

Lest We Forget

You know the feeling when you've read/seen something so significant that you just want to make it known to others?

That feeling was constantly on my mind when I was watching UK's Channel 4's 'Dispatches' programme: 'Children in Gaza'.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza was over a year ago. We all remembered it. The intense media coverage engaged everyone. People were enraged by the whole thing. Feeling helpless, people did everything within their power to help; donations poured in, prayers were offered, certain products were boycotted, rallies & talks were held, etc.

Sadly, people moved on. We rarely think about sufferings for a long time especially when those sufferings are not ours. So, Gaza was somewhat forgotten.

I'm guilty of the same disengagement. Though I do sort of keep up with what's happening (the site http://gaza.tumblr.com provides an excellent coverage of Gaza), the level of concern and anxiety has been less acute.

Thus, when Ibraheem said, "Whilst they are playing, we are sad", guilt and shame came over me as I felt that he could very well have been referring to me.

The documentary reminds me of the tragedy and why it is important for us to never forget it. Through the eyes of Ibraheem, Amal, Mahmood and Omsyatte, we could comprehend just how destructive the attacks had been to their country, their family, their home and their physical, mental & emotional well being.

These children are articulate, honest and brave. Their stories moved me and I felt that their honest remarks cut through the issue like no other "analysis" written by any journalist could.

I strongly urge you to see the documentary for yourselves at this link. I couldn't find the code to embed the video in this entry... sorry for that.

(Pictures taken from: channel4.com)

Dato' C Q Teo - KDU Debate Challenge 2010

I accompanied my students for the above-mentioned debate last Fri-Sun (March 12-14).

Our school sent two teams; SMKTM A (Aiman, Dakshan & Yusintha) and SMKTM B (Nabihah, Amal & Sable). And three Form 3 students came to observe to gain some exposure (Dev, Shyam & Alya).

Both teams lost their first round. They were a bit down and demotivated by that. Pn. Paridah tried to cheer them up by saying, "Takpe, there are 4 more rounds coming up!". But to this, Aiman replied, "Teacher, that's not a relief!" Haha

For many in the teams, it was their first time entering an unscripted debate competition, so they were quite nervous. But after the initial nervousness had died down, they showed a vastly improved performance in the next round. Both teams won Round 2. *applause*

The event ended around 6.30 to 6.45pm. But the traffic was so bad (it was Friday night after all) that the journey which normally takes around 25 minutes took a whole hour instead.

A funny thing happened on our way back though. Dev commented, "You drive very well Teacher".

"I do?"

I was surprised by the comment and was feeling very pleased with myself when he added, "Yeah, for a girl" (!)

I was laughing so hard that I did not anticipate the car in front of me wanting to turn right. Instead of slowing down and stopping like a courteous driver would, I overtook the car from the left on a rather narrow road.

I was expecting Dev to say something along the lines of, "I spoke too soon" or "I take that back" but instead he said, "See what I mean? No lady driver would dare do that!"

Errmm...

I think Dev has 'recklessness' and 'skillfulness' confused but since it was working in my favour I let that comment passed :-p

Day 2

The remaining preliminary rounds were conducted today (Rounds 3, 4 and 5). Round 5 was a silent round meaning that the adjudicator would not reveal the winner nor provide any feedback like the other rounds. SMKTM A won Round 3 but lost Round 4 while SMKTM B lost both rounds.

By the end of Day 2, everyone was just so exhausted by the day-long, back-to-back debates. And things were further complicated by whether or not we should come tomorrow. Team A still had a mathematical chance of making it to the final 16 but not all team members were optimistic.

Day 3

Dakshan, Aiman, Amal & Yusintha came with me on the 3rd day. Unfortunately, we didn't break through. But most of us stayed on to see the last 16 and the quarterfinal matches. The teams that we saw were awesome. No wonder they managed to chalk up 5 wins and high speaker scores in the preliminary rounds.

At 1.30pm, we decided to call it a day. We didn't stay on for the semis and the final.

Overall, we had a great time. Kudos to the organisers for a well-executed event. I think that the students benefited a lot from the competition. They not only got to debate, but they also received invaluable constructive feedback from the adjudicators, they got to socialise and meet new people who share the same interest, they gained more exposure, improved their language abilities and discussed "intellectual" stuff that they don't normally talk about (world politics, human rights, the law, etc).

Hopefully the experience will make the students love debating more. With a strong commitment and with proper, regular training, inshaAllah, we'll do better at subsequents competitions :-)

School holidays (again)!!! Woohoo!!!

After an interval of 3 weeks, it's time for a break again! *grin*

I remembered a friend's remark after she glanced at my yearly planner, "Banyaknya cuti!" I thought I detected disbelief coupled with envy in her tone... hahaha.

The thing is, I feel this year, we have fewer holidays. 4 public holidays fell on a Saturday (Thaipusam, Wesak, Labour Day & Agong)! FOUR!! Where's the fairness in that??

And to make it worse, the Raya Puasa holidays coincide with the mid-semester 2 break (!).

At the beginning of the year, while mapping out my 2010 planner, life appears bleak indeed :-p

Only after that remark did I realise how lucky I am. So, no more complaints about having fewer holidays!

Having a break to destress yourself is important but I've never been able to make full use of the school holidays (not when I was a student, and not now, as a teacher). Of course, you start off with all the best intentions: to mark your students' books, to enhance your subject's content knowledge, to declutter your workstation, to read for leisure, to spend quality time with your family (shouldn't this be first?), to get done the things you've been putting off, etc, etc, etc.

But rarely did these intentions materialised. Maybe about 20% did. But the rest are what we call "angan-angan yang terkubur".

Despite my embarrassing track record, I couldn't help myself from setting ambitious targets for this coming school holidays as well. There are 2 weddings and 1 engagement feasts to go to (congratulations to my lovely friends Faizah, Mass and Nada!!) and the rest are same old, same old (read: things mentioned in the previous paragraph).

I just hope that I won't oversleep, overeat and surf the internet excessively.

Fa is coming home from Marudu so I'm counting on her and Nada to engage me in fruitful activities :-p

As for my beloved students, here's something that you can join:

May you come back to school with a rejuvenated body, revitalised energy and a rekindled iman.

Oh, and a refreshed mind too so that more grammar items can be stuffed inside there :-)

For more info, visit http://krimgombak.wordpress.com/

ICAS 2010

ICAS stands for International Competitions And Assessments For Schools. It is conducted by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) annually. Our school (SMK Tmn Melawati) is one of the participating schools. The subjects assessed are:

1) English

2) Writing

3) Mathematics

4) Science

5) Computer Skills

ICAS is an international competition which is also conducted in Australia, Brunei, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, South Africa, Vanuatu and the USA. So, participating in the competition will earn you the highest extra-curricular marks for participation, regardless of whether you pass or fail the test.

(Remember your extra-curricular marks come from Attendance, Participation, Designation and Achievements)

To participate, contact the teachers-in-charge for the respective subjects.

For English, it would be Pn. Norfidzah but the Form 3 students may give their names to me. Register your names by this Friday and the fees will be collected after the school holidays.

Yes, the fees...

The entry fee is RM25 per subject. Except for writing which costs RM55.

The dates for the exams are as follows:

Tuesday, April 13th 2010

Computer Skills

Tuesday, April 27th 2010

Science

Tuesday, August 3rd 2010

Mathematics

Wednesday, 30th June 2010

Writing

Tuesday, July 20th 2010

English

I strongly encourage you to enter this, as it will really test your language abilities.

For more info, visit the website: www.eats.com.my

P.S. The closing dates (for the 5 subjects) differ, so do check with the teachers-in-charge so you won't miss out!

Ladies' Night

Naiiemah did an awesome job with the poster design. Loved it! And it translated well in the forms of bunting and banner too!

The main objective of the event is to strengthen the ukkhuwwah between Beliawanis KL members. Hopefully, that objective is achieved to some degree.

Ukkhuwwah is such a common phrase. It's a common tazkirah topic as well which may get some people to think "not again?!" or "heard that before". I used to think so too.

But since entering the working world, being apart from close friends from college made me value ukkhuwwah that much more. Though you get along with your colleagues; it's vastly different isn't it?

After that last day in IPBA, after the teary goodbyes and promises to "keep in touch", after surviving 1 year as a teacher alone, who do we still keep in touch with? I mean really keep in touch (not just random responses to their facebook's posts). Friends who we still (occasionally) meet up with, talk to over the phone, SMS, remember their birthdays, fret over their well being, take an interest in their affairs, etc...

I've just realised that my circle of friends from college has shrunk. But of course, we do meet new people and make new friends. Hopefully we can practise everything that we've learnt from all the ukkhuwwah tazkirah that we've heard with our old and new friends :-)

"None of you truly believes (in Allah and in His religion) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself" (reported by Bukhari & Muslim)

facebook groups

Today's the last day of my 9-day CNY break *sigh*

I wish the break can be extended but maybe work is good for me; as it means less hibernation and more productivity :-) Besides, the following week is a non-teaching week. The students will sit for their February Test *yeay!*

Though I feel sorry for the students, I just can't express how much I love exams --just as long as I'm not the one setting the paper and I only have to mark MCQ answer sheets :-)

To my students who might be reading this; Life is unfair, I know... :-p

So to brighten up their day, I'm listing the groups related to teaching/teachers I've come across on facebook.

They are meant to elicit a few laughs, but as a teacher, they sort of remind/caution me of what not to do.

Most probably, you've already become a fan of the following groups:

1- I love when teachers tell the class stories that make the class waste time.
2- Teachers trying really hard to tell a joke... it's sad to watch. [*ouch!*]
3- I love it when teachers come into the class and say: Please do your own work.
4- "It's so easy!" "Of course you say it's easy!!! You're a teacher!!!"
5- We pay for an education, not a lecture on how we look.
6- Sitting in class thinking WHEN AM I GOING TO USE THIS IN MY LIFE!!

I haven't come across many groups that teachers create and join but I think Guna's status post can be converted into one. He wrote, "So you think you can teach? My class can be a new reality show".

Another good one is, "I'm a teacher, GET ME OUT OF HERE!" which is the title of a book by Francis Gilbert and Tasha's blog entry.
It's easy to see the love/hate relationship between teachers and students, no?

CNY Holidays

Alhamdulillah, the holidays are finally here. Toward the end of week 6, I was getting chronically disoriented, totally frazzled and a bit insane.

I have serious time-management issues. Though I stay back after school and continue to do some work at home, I still couldn't keep my in-tray manageable.

Many times, I didn't come into class with a well-thought of lesson plan and the unmarked books kept on piling on my desk mercilessly. These unfinished tasks just made me feel like the most incompetent teacher ever.

So I kept praying for the holidays to come since Feb 1.

X X X

Talking about time management, I read a very interesting interview in The Star the other day.

The person being interviewed was Steve Leung, a "trendsetting Hong Kong architect" who was named "World's Best Interior Designer".

He was asked, "When and where did you receive your training in design? What was the most valuable lesson you have ever learnt?"

His reply was: "...The most valuable lesson was in time management. I wasn't the most "hard-working" of students, only one-third of my time was used for study. I like sports a lot (all sorts of sports, such ball games, swimming, track and field, etc.). I was an athlete in several sports and I was the sports captain. Therefore, one-third of my time was for sports, training and leading my team. Another one-third of my time was for personal interests, including learning French and doing design-related freelance jobs. I wore several hats but needed plenty of rest at the same time, therefore, I realised the importance of good time management in order to succeed in all my roles."

I thought the answer encapsulates what educational institutions are all about. We learn so many subjects in school (Biology, Chemistry, Add. Maths, Grammar, etc.) that we may or may not use in real life.

But what will certainly be put to use are the values and skills subconsciously taught through all those subjects and through our involvement in extra-curricular activities and through other experiences that schools have to offer.

Values and skills like time management, public speaking, cooperation, learning how to learn, punctuality, discipline, problem solving, decision making, etc.

I've touched on this issue before but this is to illustrate again why our exam-oriented culture is detrimental to students in the long run.

X X X

Anyway, the past three days have been great (i.e. stress-free); no lesson plans, no school-related work, no register, no students... Aaah *sigh of contentment*

As much as I love my students, some do cause me high blood pressure. So, a loooong absence is needed for the heart to grow fonder again.

I've been to 2 places so far: The National Zoo and the TIMES Warehouse Sale.

The former was for my nieces and nephew's sake but I had a great time as well.

The latter was very therapeutic. Book browsing has that effect on me. What makes it even more pleasant is that there weren't many people around. So, there was no need for jostling and I took my own sweet time checking the books aisle by aisle.

I wasn't planning to buy cheap books by the truckload since I still have many unread books on my shelves. But I found so many tempting titles which I KIV-ed. I only bought one so far which is Ali Smith's The Whole Story and Other Stories. What made me buy the book was its very engaging (and cute) opening passage:

"There was a man dwelt by a churchyard.
Well, no, okay, it wasn't always a man; in this particular case it was a woman. There was a woman dwelt by a churchyard.
Though, to be honest, nobody really uses that word nowadays. Everybody says cemetery. And nobody says dwelt anymore. In other words:
There was once a woman who lived by a cemetery"

So do come to Sunway Giza if you like book sales like I do :-)

Happy Chinese New Year!
Enjoy the holidays!

(Oh, btw, driving in KL is so pleasurable these past few days. The roads are deserted!)

Tennis and Debating

The Tennis Club and the English Debating Team are two of my responsibilities this year. I'm kind of excited by both. I've played tennis before in school so I'll not be completely clueless when taking charge of the club like I did last year with Pandu Puteri. I knew nothing about marching, panji-panji and whatnot. The only contributions that I could offer them were my chauffeuring and chaperoning service.

I have very enthusiastic players in my tennis club. So, managing the team is a breeze. We hit a major stumbling block trying to find a suitable place to practise. But once that was settled, we had a great first training session and hopefully, subsequent sessions will be as well-attended and enjoyable.

During the training though, I realised just how great the divide is between the haves and the have-nots in my school. The majority of the tennis players come from a well-to-do family. When they gave me their mobile phones for safekeeping, they handed over Blackberries and other expensive-looking phones. In contrast, I know of a student who has a hard time paying the 50 cents per week class fund.

Then, there are students whom English is their communication language and there are those who think that the verb 'rise' is nasi.

When I was first posted here, I wondered why I was given this school. Maybe the school is a microcosm of our society -- it reflects all the social injustices, imbalances; and other stuff that I have yet to discover.

As teachers, we are also privy to our students' lives. You wouldn't believe how complicated their family problems are. When you got to know of their background, you sort of understand why certain students came to be problematic individuals in schools -- they just don't have that stable family life or strong parental figures to guide them.

I'm totally digressing from my main story here...
So yeah, tennis is great so far! hahaha
Hopefully, we'll get to win a lot of medals in the coming MSSD competition :-)

My second responsibility is the English Debating team. I never thought that I would be in this position. I was a lousy public speaker in school. Wait, I think I still am. I'm not really the talky-type but last year, I got the chance to see UIA's annual debating competition. And I am hooked on debating ever since.

I think these student-debaters are just amazing. Where do they get the confidence, the charm, the excellent speaking skills? I was just so impressed that I wanted to see more debates in the future. I guess my wish came true.

So, last week I met the aspiring debaters. The number of students who showed up exceeded my expectation I gave them motions to prepare over the weekend and the first mock-debate was successfully conducted today (Feb 8).

The motion was: "Public Schools Are Better at Educating Students Than Private Schools".

Some of the students were visibly nervous and were not well-prepared. But they could certainly do better with the benefit of training, exposure, practice and more preparation time. Two of them really impressed me though. They have the potential to do very, very well.

There will be 3 other mock-debates and the motions are:
1) Exes Should Remain Friends
2) A Jack-Of-All-Trades Is Better Than A Master of One
3) Men Make Better Bosses

After the debate, I told them that the main purpose of joining the team is not to win trophies or collect extra-curricular marks. They should take the opportunity to develop their public-speaking, critical thinking and effective communication skills which will serve them well later in life. Even if they do not get selected, they should still come for the mock-debates and competitions to get exposure and tips to polish their skills. They can always try again next year. So they shouldn't give up or think that they are not good enough!

See how bersemangat I am about this? haha