Tasty English©

The Cool Bunch a.k.a. the 1K club

2012-01-17T09:23:00.001+08:00

Well, this has been delayed for too long but here goes:

The English Language Society

Getting teachers to pose properly is more difficult than getting the kids to

FINALLY!!!

This group of students have really showed their capabilities.

Even more so the president which did most of the work!

Getting everyone to stand still is indeed a gargantuan task

Well, only the pro at the left knows how to rock a picture

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

2012-01-17T08:07:00.000+08:00

Just yesterday, our English Language Society had a Mandarin Orange Peeling Competition which saw quite a good turn out... the kids were more excited in joining it than actually designing the oranges.. but I gotta say that the final results were more than satisfactory and some even came up with very good abstracts!

Congratulations to all who participated, the winners will receive prizes and get their designs/pictures posted on the bulletin board!

Pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Chinese New Year Quizzes

2012-01-09T12:26:00.000+08:00

As usual, the English Language Society is at it's best again!!!

GONG XI FA CAI TO SMK BUKIT GARAM II WITH QUIZZES AND COMPETITIONS!!!

Here are the ads and what we are doing:

Sorry for not being able to rotate it... bladdy uploader.. Anyway... this first contest is just a simple quiz but being wrapped inside a red packet... they get random questions pertaining to Chinese New Year and place those contest cards into a box in the staffroom. Prizes for 20 students who get all answers right!

If you've not read the ad already, it's going to be a peeling contest/designing competition whereby the kids will be given a specific amount of time and oranges to design something cool. Anything goes and just RM1 per entry. They get 2 oranges to design and carve so everyone is a winner anyway with a minimum prize of 2 oranges! hahahaha...

*cue cheezy Chinese New Year songs

2011+1

2012-01-09T10:57:00.000+08:00

Let's just start this new year by showing this:

2 Years. It has been 2 years that I've brought up this class and geared them up for their SPM. I wish all of them the very best and I know they can be successful if they put their hearts and souls into whatever they plan on doing. Cheers Dalton. Nice t-shirt too.

Many aren't in the picture, but this collection of teachers certainly are a different bunch of people. They can really crack you up and drive you up the wall at the same time. Nevertheless, stellar and... certainly eye-opening.

Only one of the 7 English teachers isn't present. She must be busy (as always) and Rosnah will always be the most senior teacher in the school. Longest serving in SMKBGII. The other flowers around the fruit as you can see above have been nothing less but vigilant and inspiring. We bid farewell to one of our beloved teachers, Kak Su who will spread her knowledge and 16++ years of experience in Sibu Sarawak. We welcome a new teacher, Rafley who has big shoes to fill but we can already see his determination and excitement in filling in our voided chalice. Cheers to the English Panel of 2012!

Erm.... this one is just to prove that we are all a bit crazy. Well, they say that teachers have the highest probability of high-blood pressure right? So, this is a way to unwind. Some... did unwind more than others!!! AHHAHAHA

Happy New Year 2012.

Looking forward to having more excitement and adventures ahead!

English Workshop for SPM

2011-09-29T20:27:00.000+08:00

Today, the students from SMK Bukit Garam II were given a special treat with the arrival of one of Sandakan's English gems by the name of Madam Santhi - who was kind enough to spare some of her precious time to give our SPM students a hint or two about their upcoming exam.

I thought her session was beneficial and students who were focused on her lecture would have definitely benefited a great deal just by noting down the things that she has said. She focused on Paper 1 (techniques of identifying and writing out certain formats that were targeted to come out) and literature. Unfortunately, we needed more time as how English teachers will always tell you how they do not have enough time once they get things rolling but I'm just glad with this short session with the students.

Thanks a lot.

Enjoy the pictures!

Zurinah Hassan's Guilty Song

2011-09-27T21:23:00.000+08:00

So, the SPM examination is creeping near and we're all busy trying to get the students to remember back all the literature components. Trust me, they know the stories, poems, and novels but getting them to actually embrace the content is a whole different story. Almost every kid I know taking their SPM would be lining up to get those Memory Trainer Guide to Literature or Top Ten Literature Questions or You Got Literature Problems? We Have It Translated into Malay!

Being a traditionalist, I ain't gonna fall for all those. So I had to have a different approach in how to get these fellas to remember the gist of Zurinah Hassan's poem.

What I told them to do was to find a song. Since Zurinah felt guilty and was longing for the artist's song, it is only natural that I told them to find a song that they thought gave them the same sense of guilt and longing for something. It could be a Malay song or even a Hindi one (which they are required to translate into English) and write down the lines of the lyrics that they thought had the same meaning as guilt or the sense of longing for something.

Even the naughty notorious ones actually rose to the occasion. I think songs do speak to these Sabahan kids. They seem to love the idea that songs are part of their classroom tasks. Is it really that interesting? Maybe they just like to express themselves in the form of music... well, they should know that music and poetry aren't that far off. Melodious, rhythmic and lyrical with a hidden message in between - these characteristics are the embodiment of both song and poetry.

Literature-singing... anyone?

The Life Teacher

2011-09-26T22:57:00.000+08:00

First of all, if you were wondering how come I went AWOL or somehow went on a sabbatical or something, rest assured that it wasn't THAT cool....

Being a teacher IS taxing. Work will bog you down and you can't blog NOT because you don't have any free time, but because free time becomes so valuable, you tend to want to spend time doing other things rather than blogging.

Finally a breather this week from many other things that I could not possibly blog here because they are completely unrelated to English. That's right. I'm an English teacher and for the past 1-2 months, most of my work is completely unrelated to English. Har Har Har.

I hate to start of the blog after such a long time by saying something negative but I think that the students have started to deteriorate - not in their English per se but they have started to degenerate altogether. I can understand if the notorious or rowdier ones are giving me an attitude but now even the best classes are starting to show lack of enthusiasm. I can only count a small handful who are still exuberant and full of initiative to improve themselves.

After teaching for awhile, especially these 2 months of non-English related work, I've come to realise that I am not primarily an English teacher. I think teachers are never primarily their major subject teachers anymore. It's important to review back what the word teacher means. It is not about teaching subject matter and everything else revolves around that... instead, it's more of like being a teacher has many revolving things around you, and your subject matter is part of it only.

This is the part that probably I'm not exactly good at. I'm not that good in doing many other things in life. I might be good at certain things but to me, it doesn't feel like I'm qualified to teach 'life' to kids. It's something that I feel so daunting and so responsible that I find it almost impossible to teach without having a small smirk in my mind saying "Yeah right Adrian, as if..."

Could this sense of self-righteous-irony be my downfall? Is it really hard to teach life to kids? How does one start? How does one correct life? Is discipline life? Is manners or studying life? Maybe I should break it down.

Life is about lessons. Lessons also means something or a situation that prompts us to try and in trying, we improve no matter what the end result is. These lessons do not teach us, they train us to identify options and weigh the consequences - not to necessarily make the right decisions but to understand that we learn no matter which decision we take at the end of the day.

Life is about rules. Written rules are only a tangible object that reflects our innermost common sense. It is not because it's a rule not to kill that we choose not to kill. It's because inside of us we know that it is wrong to kill and that's why we choose not to kill. These rules do not have to be written and we follow them inside our minds and our hearts which what makes us human. People who are mindless in obeying rules just because they are written are nothing more than advanced computers.

Now how am I going to get my students to embody those?

Best Friends or Just Friends?

2011-07-28T19:45:00.000+08:00

For friendship day, the teachers and English Language Society decided to conduct an activity that had the students answer questions about their best friends and check if they really knew each other well.

It was so serious and not like what I thought it should have been like but we had our fun. At least the teachers had some fun anyway.

The students were very excited about the activity anyway. So, the turnout was pretty decent. Congratulations to all who participated and made it happen.

Here are the pictures:

Nature

2011-07-28T11:43:00.003+08:00

Was trying to get my weakest form 4 class to imagine how the four seasons mentioned in the poem were like, so i described to them how each season looked like and they had to draw them in four sections in their exercise book.

1. Spring - flowers are blooming, it's colourful, birds, butterfiles and bees are all out happily.
2. Summer - it's hot and fruit season starts now!
3. Autumn - trees are wilting, leaves falling, all the green leaves become red, orange, brown
5. Winter - snow! Frozen! Everything is white!

So I drew this along with them:

THE APPROACH - Paragraph Writing for Mature Weak Students

2011-07-21T20:30:00.000+08:00

Teaching paragraphs to 0 proficiency students is indeed challenging. I'm given the task to try to get a bunch of form 5 students to try to write proper paragraphs about simple topics and it is indeed very challenging.

No.

It's MIND BLASTING~~~ BLASTING I TELL YOU...

Refer to Russell Peters Red White and Brown if you don't get the joke in the above statement. HAHAHAHA can't stop laughing..

ANYWAY~~~

So how does teaching paragraph writing go for classes that have nearly NO proficiency in English? It has to be done step by step.

1. You have to provide example paragraphs. I know it isn't WHAT I WANT EXACTLY, but getting them to copy an example paragraph does help a little bit. At least, they can envision how the paragraph looks like.

2. Omit a few sentences for them to place their own. Use the simplest of sentences. I always like to use sentences like:
I like to...
I don't like...
It is...
... because these sentences somehow ring some bells even with 0 proficiency students. Mind you that these are still 17 year olds who still in one way or another stumble upon sentences like these.

3. Give them background information about the topic you are writing. This is essential for mature students. Let's say the topic you're writing about is about haze, it is good to explain something extra for the students to take back. Background information empowers them and they feel that they know about the issue or topic that they are writing about which makes them more comfortable trying to make their own sentences.

4. Split the lesson and try not to do too many things in one lesson. Yes, this will slow you down and you can't do much with them but bear in mind that these are 0 proficiency students. Better do 20% successfully rather than do 80% with only 1% of success (I know some of my lecturers would ask Just how would you measure that percentage? I CAN'T OK?? It's just gut instinct telling me if the class was successful. Teachers are allowed that sort of privilege). Sometimes, I give them breaks in between and talk about something light and out of topic, just so that the sleepy ones don't get too exhausted trying to do something heavy like paragraph writing.

Aih.... let's hope this works.

Breathing Desolate What???!!?

2011-06-22T08:03:00.001+08:00

Obviously... This HAS to be one of the most racist statements ever written by any student...

As they were doing corrections for the mid term exam, they had to write out sentences from the form 4 poems... And one of the poems had a line (In The Midst of Hardship by Latiff Mohidin):

breathing desolate sighs...

so... The student wrote:

breathing desolate singhs

does he not know what is the meaning of singhs?

That ignorance itself is racist.

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY?

2011-06-21T07:52:00.001+08:00

Forgive the long sabatical for being the Panel Head does takes its toll from a blogger... It shouldn't be an excuse because I realised that some readers have actually mailed/PM-ed me in facebook to ask me if I was gonna still update this blog. I will continue this blog but looks like unless someone takes over my Panel Head position, posting here in Tasty English© won't be as regular....

Teachers' day??? Ain't that like a month ago?? You're absolutely right. In fact, this post seems timely because in our school, we had the day (note that i'm not using the word celebration/event because that would be just downright lying) on the same day we had report card day. SAME FREAKING DAY!! TEACHERS' DAY WAS LIKE DONE IN 2 HOURS. Yup.

Somehow, the song Don't Cry for Me Argentina (the Madonna version; with her hands up and she staring from the balcony) seems to be ringing in my head all the time as i'm writing this in my phone.

Here's the deal...

When i look at all my other non-teacher friends all earning more than me; getting 2-3months of year end bonus, spending lavishly on themselves, it does make me wonder why i decided to choose the teaching profession. Truly, being in the government sector of the education department isn't supposed to promise you spoils of war but to me... I knew that would happen. To me, it was going to be worth it...

... What will make all this worthwhile?

Job Satisfaction
As cliche as this may sound, the real truth is, there are some parts of the job that just cannot be put into numbers and calculated empirically. The part where I feel MOST fulfilled is the parts that you cannot consistently replicate like a monthly income or a year end bonus. It's the nice spontaneous things that happen throughout the job i.e. A sudden gift from a student, building relationships and watching kids grow, seeing students make significant improvements where you never thought possible... These are the things that make it really special.

EXTRA STUFF you do that other sectors don't
Things like friendship day, teachers' day, mothers' day, celebrating sporting events, having fashion shows, dance training, singing competitions, the list practically goes on and on with stuff that I really like to do. These are the unwritten, unscripted events that constantly SHOULD unfold in schooling years that a teacher directly gets a piece of. To me, these things are what makes the job so unpredictable and colourful; you never know what's coming and being surprised makes the job so exciting and eventful.

So, what happens when all these things that I love and distinct it AS the reasons i chose the profession disappear?

Many a times, I realised that I've been longing and wanting for these occurences to happen. Nothing brings me down more than the fact that I am not able to enjoy to the fullest these extra features of the profession since that is the only thing that seems better compared to other professions. If all I wanted was the month-ending salary or income, I WOULDN'T be a teacher. If all I cared about was the year-end bonuses, I'd do a litigation or business professional career instead (i know if i put my head into it, i can)... But no!

I wanted something else.

Teachers' day this year has shown how demoralizing it can be for a teacher like me. Excited, full of energy but with absolutely near-to-nothing celebration in my school just completely dampens my spirit. I was lucky enough that the English teachers, ELS and some very thoughtful students (thanks for all your wishes, gifts and roses) were kind enough to cheer my teachers' day up a bit. I wanted a piece of that laugh-till-your-anus-hurts day where I didn't think about anything else but just having fun with everyone in school... Did it happen? No.

To think that when i was asked by a friend "was there ever a point where you regretted teaching/being a teacher?" And I said no. I still think I was being very honest and I don't think that will change anytime soon...

... But things around me are SEEMINGLY trying to change my mind

Tawau!

2011-04-27T08:41:00.002+08:00

Yo! Am currently in Tawau for Phase 3 & 4 of MBI course. It's a continuation of the course that I attended few weeks ago. This time, the letter came in early, so at least I had some time to arrange my transport etc.

I drove all the way to Tawau. My longest drive ever! Think that Sandakan-Kinabatangan roads are horrible? Try driving in Lahad Datu's road. Gravel roads for quite a stretch because they are currently upgrading the roadworks there. Poor car.. I left Sandakan with a Granite Grey car, reached Tawau in a Muddy Grey car.

Having a car is super flexible! When I am at a new place, something that I will always do is to ask 'What are the food that are to die for here?!' and I did just that. The Tawau people recommended 'Pisang goreng cheese', 'pisang goreng penyet' and mango sago in this place called Indo Cafe. We were all excited to try out the food stated above.

Indo cafe is actually situated in town. With the help of a map drawn by Lili (thanks dear!), we managed to find it.

We ordered 2 sets of pisang goreng cheese and pisang goreng penyet, 2 avocado sago for Eva and Peter (Teachers from Lahad Datu) and one mango sago for myself. How was it? Let the pictures do the talking.

The ultimate banana fritters! Pisang goreng cheese - fried banana with cheddar cheese and brown sugar! To die for!

Pisang goreng penyet - not nice.. not our taste..

Avocado sago - very milky and 'eggy' according to Eva

Mango sago - yummy! Rich in mango taste.. smooth

We were banana-fied that night! We ate so many bananas till we're like super full! The entire meal cost us RM29. Then we went to Vincci! Tawau has a Vincci store! Me love!! Bought a pair of studded wedges.. was in love with it!

Well, trip for food in Tawau so far so good! I mean the food trip.. :P

More updates to come!

Choral Speaking of 5 Ibnu Sina

2011-04-26T15:45:00.007+08:00

Last week was a hectic week in school. On Saturday, the Chief Minister of Sabah will be coming to officiate our 'Hari Anugerah Iltizam SMK Elopura 2'. The entire event was brought forward by one week! We had less than a week to settle everything..to make sure that all the programmes run smoothly on that day. I was actually in charge of organizing the price receivers.. thus, not much preparation to do.

The banner and colourful balloons..

Cikgu Nik, the PK HEM told me to help out with the choral speaking team. The school doesn't have a choral speaking team. This team that I am talking about is actually students of 5 Ibnu Sina. They performed choral speaking for English Day which is held every wednesday of the week. I was suprised by the quality of their performance although they had only practice for about a week. Due to still splendid performance, Cikgu Nik suggested to make them perform in front of the Chief Minister.

Camwhoring while waiting for the arrival of CM :P

The nail biting thing is that they have to learn all the moves and gestures within 2 days! 2 days! I was worried myself. Puan Shanti, their English teacher and myself were watching over them like a hawk. They practiced the entire day, trying to perfect the moves etc. Tired faces shown all over their face but the teachers had to keep encouraging them, telling them what a golden opportunity this is and how IMPORTANT is the

performance.

CM giving his speech

On THE day... they were all nervous and starting to realize how important their performance will be. Don't talk about them, I myself could feel my heart thumping loudly. I was nervous too despite putting a brave face to the students. I crossed my fingers behind my back as they walked up the stage.

'Oh please God, let them remember all the moves and be confident', my heart whispered.

The 6 minutes performance was a nerve wrecking process. As they finished, I heard loud applause from the audience. They were awesome! I was very proud of them. They smiled, remembered their lines and moves and very confident.

5 Ibnu Sina rocking the stage

The best part has yet to come... before the CM left the school.. he gave us a BIG gift.. he gave us

RM 2 500 cash for the choral speaking team! wooootttt!!

CM loved their performance! I am so PROUD of all of them... very proud! There's just a very satisfied feeling.. I personally feel that this is a big recognition for the students.

5 Ibnu Sina... I AM PROUD OF YOU! You rocked the stage!! WOoooooooooooooooooooo.....

Finally the event is over! Posing with students' gifts.. hehe

p/s: The CM also awarded another RM 2 500 to the Kadet Koreksional for their awesome marching and formation! They really deserve it!

Huff and Puff...

2011-04-02T20:44:00.002+08:00

I've been teaching English for a year plus now. Follow up 2 classes from Form 1. My special attention to my kids in Form 2 Al Biruni now.

It's really difficult to get these kids to speak English in the classroom. They are not confident, worried that they'll be embarrassed because they're weak. Some are okay.. but most of them hardly speak English except when they need to go to the toilet. (I won't let them go to the toilet unless they ask in English...*evil grin).

After teaching them for a year...nurturing trust and love towards these kids... I see a big leap this year compared to last year. At the first few lessons, a few very weak students still showed reluctance to speak or participate in any English activities especially speaking. Immediately, I expressed my disappointment towards them. I said,

"Teacher very sad. Sangat sedih.. disappointed..kecewa..because you don't want to speak English. I said many times I wont scold you.. saya tak akan marah. You don't read, I marah'

The entire class turned quiet.. a few outspoken ones urged their classmates to speak because they know that I was upset. I turned to other students and ignored them.. deep in my heart, I was indeed very disappointed that they still refuse to speak English.

But to my surprise, in the next class that I entered, I again tried to make the weak students to speak out, they actually DID!! I can't describe my happiness...(i know it's silly..hehehe).. I encouraged them to read text..parroting me slowly.. they read..although with some wrong pronunciation here and there. Quickly, I praised them... telling them that that is what I want to see - to see them read and try to speak in English.

I am trying new ways to make them more familiar with English. I used the idea given by my boyfriend, Adrian about putting up sentences on the board and make them learn the sentences. They actually like it. I am going to change the sentences next week and they can't wait to learn new sentences.

My next project will be a reading corner - something that I wanted to do since last year but failed to do so. I have already collected enough materials to start one. Really hope the corner will make them attracted to English.

Gambate 2 Al Biruni! You've been progressing well and you have no idea how proud am I!!

Hello....

2011-04-01T09:02:00.008+08:00

Hi Hi... Announcing my arrival for year 2011! Haha... been ages since I pen down..sorry..type down anything for the year. Here I am!

Currently in a class for a course, in IPG Tawau English Proficiency for Teachers - especially for non-option English teachers.

Personally, I gained a bit here and there from this course, especially when the lecturer swayed away from the topic, talking about how to teach this and that, which I think it's more useful for us, the newbies to ESL world.

I really hope they will conduct another course for methodology/ pedagogy in English. I think that'll really help us all.

I really cant wait to go back! Tonnes of work waiting for me back in Sandakan!

p/s: Here are some pictures to share!

My group members for the course - nice people!

Our imaginary superhero for ultimate reader - Bibliotecha! Sexy right? hohoho..

Dinner at this place called Taste Two.. about 40mins away from IPG Tawau

With Eva - the Amber Chia look-alike.. ;P

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2011-03-02T13:44:00.000+08:00

The best way to start March is with non other than the Top Ten List

Just marking essays by form 5 students.... obviously not the best of students (proficiency-wise)

THE TOP TEN LIST OF ESSAY SENTENCES... unedited for PURITY

10. For example,around drain will grow robe buny.

9. This is the signature of the formal letter: Yours trulk,

8. The forest fires will cause oil spills which kill the fish and prawns.

7. I will go to the hospital of the injured.

6. The toilet boys are very dirty.

5. The walls of the toilets are vandalising irresponsible people.

4. We will call the doctor from the animal clinic to given we all a little pit talk.

3. Secondly, pollution causes the thinking of the ozone ozone.

2. Cars, lorries, and buses have a lot of exhaust because they use diesel in 2005.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.and....

.
.
.
.
.
#1....
.
.
.
.
.
.
Fish will be destroyed and will be endangered causes from oil spirit.

*cue big band jazzy ending with a spray of oil into the aiR!

Go For Gold!!! Twister!!!

2011-02-24T10:27:00.000+08:00

This year's sports is all about RED HOUSE. TWISTER managed to bag 25 gold medals to lead the pack by a total of 7 gold medals.

Big up for the athletes, cheerleaders, marching contingent and OF COURSE~~~ those lovely teachers who were MORE ENTHUSIASTIC than I was throughout the entire duration of sports' month. You guys are the driving force/backbone/pulse of TWISTER and will always have my FULLEST gratitude!

TWISTER GO FOR GOLD!!!!

I can't really comment on every picture.... I think the journey is summed up nicely with the pictures themselves. ENJOY!!!

Credits to Idzwan for taking some of the most memorable pictures... he's from Twister *thumbs up

The Happy Teacher

2011-02-23T09:50:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I posted my last entry. Been real busy... busy busy busy... doing:

... and

... well... you can almost guess what my story was all about..

More importantly, it is being out of school, hanging out with friends, and enjoying yourself that makes you an effective teacher. Simply put, a happy teacher is a good teacher. You can't be effective when you're not having a good time - in EVERYTHING. Your life, your school life, and having good people around you to joke and laugh about the difficult times.

Be a happy teacher

Then? Do What?

2011-01-25T16:18:00.000+08:00

I feel that it's common for us educators to tell our kids what to do and what not to do. In fact, it has become so ingrained in our everyday communication that we forgot the reason why we were given such power to command kids to do or not do something.

In fact, sometimes I feel that I forget that the reason why we tell kids to do or not do anything is for them to realise that there are many things out there that they need to know about. Not only is that crucial but it's also important to realise that telling them to do something means that they will have to change themselves... believe me when I say changing yourself is not easy.

At least by saying do that, it is directed and there is a good idea about what we require them to do. In fact, most of the time, we'll say things like:

Do your work.

Do the exercises following the instructions given.

Go into your groups.

These are very direct in terms of focus and the kid knows exactly what to commence next in his actions. However, most of us take the action of don't do to be similar. It is not as directed as do that. In fact, when you tell someone not to do something, what happens is it creates a void (assuming he follows you).

The commands don't do must always be followed by do that. A lot of teachers take that for granted. We cannot expect the kids to know what has to be done to fill that gap that we told them to create. We should similarly direct them to do something to fill in that gap.

Even I miss the point sometimes.

Leading the Pack

2011-01-23T10:15:00.001+08:00

To be a good leader, one must first learn to follow.

I believe strongly in the idea of strong and authoritative leadership. In fact, these leaders are the ones who get things done with their no nonsense attitudes and headstrong decision making abilities. It's not an easy task in any way which makes it so revered and respected when one can attain those attributes. However, being able to step down and micro-manage your colleagues is no easy task as well. In this case, it's not a leader who necessarily steps into character but a co-worker.

I believe that good leadership is reflected also by how well and willing the comrades aid the leader during battles. A good general is always the first one to hoist the flag and the last one still holding it in the heat of battle. He is one that steps out first to battle in order to boost the morale of his army to join him in the crusade. He is also accessible and at arms reach to watch the backs of his privates and is the first one to save their butts when their legs can hold them up no longer. A good leader must be able to gain the trust of his comrades.

To be able to be with kings but not lose the common touch.

Many leaders end up segregating themselves with the commonfolk. Unknowingly or consciously, they tend to set themselves apart in ways that would only create uncomfortable bonds and to lose the soft skills among the people you work with is only going to make things more difficult. A leader I believe to be swift in duty is also swift in supporting the welfare of his comrades. A general cannot win the was with wounded soldiers let alone angry and demoralized ones.

With that being said, I humbly serve you first in order to gain your trust and cooperation.

The Curse Literature Module

2011-01-10T16:16:00.001+08:00

I've just gotten the latest literature module for the latest novel The Curse by Lee Su Ann.

Any takers can just email me for a free one!

Twit Twitted Twitting

2011-01-10T10:41:00.001+08:00

For some unknown reason... I sorta had a revelation in my volatile brain to make bird sounds..

And due to that peculiar fancy that probably lasted for 5-7.5 mins, I've just decided to set up a birdy account. Yup. Tasty English's author and authoress are now officially twitting.

I've so far twitted 4 times when this post was written.

Will be twitting more as the bird-mood is still there.

Twit me if you can. I'm at adriantan_85 if you come flocking around...

Now... How do I add that button here... Hmmmm

The Golden Voice of Columbus

2011-01-06T09:27:00.001+08:00

I stumbled upon this video while reading the news online. This dude called Ted Williams is not just homeless, he used to struggle with drugs and alchohol addiction. He looks scruffy, unpresentable and just like your typical bum...

But don't let that smock and unpolished look fool you...

Here are 2 cliche proverbs for you today:

"don't judge a book by it's cover" because "there is more than meets the eye"

sorry I can't embed the video... I am just using my phone to blog and I can't seem to load the embedding codes from youtube... Trust me though... It's worth the time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou_XuEEGQA8

edit: managed to get the embedding working on my phone... Here's the video. Enjoy!

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2011-01-05T18:58:00.000+08:00

This year's first top ten list is courtesy of my wonderful form 5 class.

Wonderful.

Since it was the first topic of the year, I was doing something light related to the topic Reaching for the Stars.

They have to imagine they have Bill Gates fortune worth USD50 billion and write out the things they would do with the money and how much was the estimated cost of it.... here goes:

THE TOP TEN LIST OF THINGS THEY WILL DO IF THEY WERE A BILLIONAIRE
.... and the costs...

10. I will give money to my perents. USD 10 000

9. I will go to China for enjoy. USD 150 000

8. I will invest in seafood restaurant. USD 5 million

7. I will keep safe in bank. USD 2 billion

6. I will give money to my couple. USD10 000

5. I will buy a car and a home. USD 70

4. I will buy 4 RXZ, 1 Mazda RX8, 1 Nissan GTR, 1 Ferrari Turbo. USD 5 million<---guess the gender

3. I will give money to my couple for honeymon. USD 100

2. I will give money for marry my sweetheart. USD 15 million <-- guess the gender
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.and....
.
.
.
.
.#1!!!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
I will buy a car and house. USD 30 000 billion

*insert big band jazzy ending with lots of confetti and USD 100 bills

Getting the Word Out

2011-01-03T15:59:00.000+08:00

I have the honour of teaching the first 2 form 5 classes. They are the previous form 4 classes that I have thought for a year now and they are result of hard convincing and trying to get them to liken English.

Yup.

Not improve in English, but just to liken English..

I think that's a fair objective. It's important to first and foremost try to get your students to love English. I'm not sure if it's entirely a good thing but also to love you and everything that you do and are in the class. I deeply believe that a students who loves the teacher and the subject (no matter who the teacher is) will somehow have a significant advantage over one that hasn't any inclination towards likening that subject.

Therefore, I gave the students a year-long project.

Each student has to encourage/promote/improve another person in school from a lower form to liken English. That's right. I told them that it is their duty as a person who already likes English to spread that emotion and connection to at least another individual in school.

How?

I told them that if you can get 1 other person in school other than yourself to like something that has to be seen/heard/read/talked in English, that would be a major breakthrough. In fact, I went as far as to say that the failure or success of the person in the language itself is not important - getting their interest in that English subject (subject being any form of media or form) is already good enough.

Spread it out!

Tell the tales!

Share the music!

Trade pirated DVDs!!!.... erm... OK, maybe not that (*disclaimer)

By the end of every month, they'll just have to submit a short and simple profile report of that person they are trying to influence to me for evaluation and responses.

I hope that at the same time that they try to promote something about English to another, they develop deeper interests towards this subject.... and by teaching another, they learn faster and practice more.

We'll see how my promoters use their monthly quota.

In the eve of battle

2011-01-02T19:54:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow will be the first day of my sophomore year as a teacher.

Am I geared up? You could say that... I've made sure that I packed my weapons and utility bag to hop into the battlefield once more. I'm not going to play the same game nor am I going to layout the same strategy plan.

It's going to be different this year.

I don't want to go on doing or hoping for the same things again and again. It's just not right. I wouldn't even go to someone's party if that person was just doing the same shit again and again every year round. I want to make sure I don't get stuck. It's so easy to get stuck... trust me, you can become too complacent with the way things are.

I'm not going to become that guy who just became a teacher and went in and out of the class without getting anywhere... I'm inspired to do more. I WILL do more. I can't word it in the right way yet nor can I explain what I mean by that... all I know is... it'll be different this year.

Different.

End of the Year Holidays

2010-12-06T19:02:00.001+08:00

It has been a long while but because it's the school holidays, Tasty English will be on sabbatical until the 4th of January 2011.

Sorry dudes,

Teachers need the break!

Waiting for Superman

2010-11-24T16:02:00.003+08:00

Waiting for Superman

That is the title of the latest documentary movie that has been released.

This movie is about education or more specifically what is lacking of it in the US education system. It states and I quote a lot of good and effective English teachers but also containing a lot of very ineffective ones. According to The Oprah Show and the guest starring in that documentary Michelle Reed, this is one of the major reasons why the education system is failing and the fact that even a few of these ineffective teachers are in classes everyday, 5 days a week is detrimental to the vision and future of young ones.

If you have 3 effective teachers going in for 3 straight periods, versus 3 ineffective teachers going into class for 3 straight periods, it heavily guides or misguides the path of students - Michelle Reed in The Oprah Show

I think this is phenomenal and not to mention not new. It has been under the rugs for too long that the acceptance of ineffective teachers are always compromised. At what expense? The education of the students. Michelle Reed purportedly fired more than 1000 teachers in the public sector in the US for not being effective teachers even with a system similar to ours; a teacher's union that heavily guards the security of not just the teaching profession but the security of being a civil servant as well.

Being a civil servant and a teacher gives a lot of security blankets to individuals. Not only is it difficult to fire a teacher, it is also difficult to make that teacher's life difficult. You can, but it is not easy. It isn't new that there are a handful of teachers who abuse this sense of security and abuse it the best they can. Some are smart about it and tend to fix their attitudes every now and then to ensure that they are safe just in case there are people watching over them.

I find this sense of security to be VERY unchecked. Don't get me wrong, I think that having security and a union is brilliant and ultimately necessary but if this leads to unchecked abuse of those within the system, then you're just covering up one hole by digging another. Job security should not immediately equal to I-can-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-and-no-one-can-talk-smack-about-it. Once again, I'm not saying that the system is impervious and invincible, I'm saying that it is made so difficult to crack, it'll take more than a sledgehammer to break those walls.

I can understand the sentiment brought up by those in the Oprah Show. I also hate it when I see some slacking off around me while others are doing their mighty best to improve the people around them. I hate it when I see people giving tonnes of excuse while others take it with a don and force themselves to work harder for the betterment of others instead of themselves. I feel that our system of Guru Cemerlang is excellent in paving the way for teachers who want to become better and strive to improve their students. I think that there should be a thorough check and balance system to make it easier to recognise these tireless teachers and credit them for their uproaring efforts and success.

Until then, I really wanna watch Waiting for Superman.

Why doesn't it appear in ARES?

Freshman Year Part II

2010-11-16T10:43:00.001+08:00

Following up with my year end analyses, I think it's important to keep things brief as well. I think being a civil servant and teacher has taught me a few lessons rather painstakingly.

Well, some things can't be taught or told. You have to experience it yourself. It really is very 'eye-opening' to work with civil servants. You really get a mixture of a 'variety' of characters. I hardly want to divulge detailed information about these relations... Because it's just not professional.

I think keeping your workplace and work ethic tip top is the key. I know this has nothing to do with professional development but it helps you stay focused. In the end, it's very easy to feel imbalanced and untethered to your duties. You feel like you're leaving too many things hanging and you don't know which to commit to first. Organised - that's the keyword for the year.

Following up to the word 'organisation' is management. I think student management cannot be undermined here. The idea is - you manage them well, you can have any activity. You 'teach them to self manage' and they become 'instintively creative'. My ultimate goal and resolution for 2011 would be just that.

Get students to become their own managers and think-tanks. Make their dependancy on teachers to be near zero.

2011, here they come

Freshman Year Part I

2010-11-09T10:09:00.001+08:00

As the year draws to an end for school, it's important to have a little bit of reflection about the year. I can't seem to put it in more comprehensible writing so I guess I'll be splitting it into parts.

First up, the students

i think they have been very appreciative of what i've been trying to do. I feel very blessed to have them not to be my students but to teach me how to become a better teacher. Seeing it's my first year as a full-fledged teacher, the things I've learned are important and will stick for a very long time.

... No matter what they give to me, i'll give back two-folds.

1 Dalton Storytelling Competition

2010-11-08T12:34:00.000+08:00

I had a storytelling competition with my form 1 class and it proved to be quite the hit among the kids.

I should do this more often to boost the confidence of the students to speak in English. I've already posted the album in my Facebook account (link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266075&id=507101837 )... So I'm not going to post it here. I'll just post the winners here as a small prize of appreciation.

Enjoy:

Consolation prizes:

2nd Runner-Up:

1st Runner-Up

Winner

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!!!!

KEEP IT UP!!!

Painful Pens

2010-11-08T12:11:00.000+08:00

Since this is the first time I'll be going graphic, it's kinda... sad that I'm posting about punishment. This kid skipped my class and had the nerve to hide from me as I spotted him from afar. I just had to punish him but I did not want to resort to barbaric and crude assaults.

So I assault his brain.

*note: some of the images could be very graphical. A teacher's assistance while viewing is advised.

Enjoy:

Honestly...

I should have given more...

Stage Fright

2010-10-31T16:17:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow, 1 Dalton will be having a story telling competition. It's important not only as an enrichment process of speaking English, but performance wise it helps a lot in confidence.

CONFIDENCE

If there is one thing that students need more than anything, it's confidence. Importantly, you get a lot of kids who are noisy, full of energy, and very out of bounds when it comes to personal hygiene... Well, this isn't going to change that last bit...

... moving on....

Most of the time, you'll get students who are so energetic and outspoken but are complete wusses when told to come up to the front of a crowd to speak. It is important to break that irritating affective factor and get them out of their comfort zone; not to freak them out, but to freak them out now. So that they will get the chance to say "Been there, done that".

I'm very happy that I'm going to do this for the form 1 students.

Being Specific

2010-10-28T16:27:00.000+08:00

Well, just so you know.. if you're going to be a teacher, there's such a thing as item analysis.

I'm sure you're wondering what that is.

It's basically counting what your students answered, how they answered it, and what were the options they missed. It sounds complicated when I put it this way... in other words, you do:

1. Take a students answer sheet and type in Microsoft Excel:
a) what was answer number 1? A
b) what was answer number 2? C

... and this goes on for ALL the questions.

So, fellow teachers... imagine if 1 paper has 40 questions...

You have 30 students per class,

Multiply 5 classes.

Well, I'm not that good in maths anyway.

I just know it's a lot.

English School Song

2010-10-22T09:14:00.000+08:00

I'm proud to announce that after a long period of discussions, evaluations, and talking...

SMK Bukit Garam II has an English school song.

AN ENGLISH SCHOOL SONG!

I'm proud to say that 4 Dalton managed to do a decent job with my help to translate/rewrite the song. I didn't know that they started singing the English song EVERYDAY instead of the BM song! That just shows how excited they are and how patriotic they are now with a song that they created on their own.

SMK Bukit Garam II

English School Song

SMK Bukit Garam II

The school that we really love,

With our pride we proclaim its name,

The hope of our glorious land.

All the teachers kind and diligent,

Always educating us,

Towards fantastic achievements,

To bring the best out of ourselves.

Our lovely school full of harmony

Knowledge is our cherished prize,

Our academy, we pledge loyalty

to be bright, astute and devout.

We are students of the greatest school,

Always steadfast in our strides,

To be the best of all mankind,

Victorious now and for all time,

Victorious now and for all time.

Glossary

proclaim – say out loud

glorious land – great country

harmony – peace and calm

academy – place of study

pledge loyalty – give commitment

cherished – care about deeply

astute – smart/honourable

devout – committed

steadfast – don’t easily give up/steady

strides – forward movements/walking with big steps

Written by 4 Dalton 2010

Supervised by Tan Shueh Li @ Adrian (English Teacher)

Approved by Siti Suraya Jamil (Head of English Department)

Approved by SMK Bukit Garam II Principal Tuan Haji Mordin Bin Haji Mohd Daud

Testing Taboo

2010-10-20T00:09:00.001+08:00

Watching my students do their exams really gets my mind going about writing about testing and evaluation of English in our curriculum. It's really interesting to see the test split into the different sections - different aspects of the language are being tested. Of course, upper forms and lower forms have different sections (though some might seem similar).

I think that if you look at the details of the exam, you would find that it actually encompasses a wide range of compartments of English that might prove very valuable for testing. Simplistically, the test tries to handle both comprehension and grammar. More interestingly, I would like to talk about the balance between these 2 components in the exam.

Personally, I don't see many components of the exam testing a student grammatically. Which explains the second language idea because comprehensible input/output is one of the biggest issue in second language learning.

Let's take a look at the 1st paper of the lower forms:

SECTION A - Graphical Cues
SECTION B - Rational Cloze
SECTION C - Phrasal Verbs
SECTION D - Reading Comprehension
SECTION E - Literature

I think almost all the sections deal with comprehension accept the Rational Cloze. Sometimes, in the literature section, they could ask about definition but that's not a whole section dedicated to grammatical functions.

It clearly shows that there is a solid structure for testing the students. Therefore we should conclude that the original idea of the structure of the exam is VERY valid.

So why are the standards dropping?

Some things, you know... but you just can't say it.

Feelings o Feelings

2010-10-16T01:25:00.002+08:00

Announcing my re-appearance after a long absence. I am feeling a bit emotional these few days.. reasons? Not too sure..

To come to think of it, being a teacher is difficult.. not difficult because the students drive you up the wall because to me, it's the nature of the job. The most difficult part is not to let your own feelings control you and release the feelings to the students.

I had experienced this situations before when teachers released their anger or negative emotions to the students. Back when I was a student, I just dislike these teachers because they treated us that way.

I wouldn't deny that I did it before. But... I am glad that I realized it and will switch the mood immediately. It's not fair to the students.. not knowing what happened, they'll be scolded and scowled at.

But I am only human.. have feelings too.. get moody once in a while..

but..

being a teacher... I guess.. I just have to learn how to control it and not channel my negative energy to the students.

I love my students to be cheerful... my class to be fun and not dead silence.

Being a teacher? Not easy.. but I will never give up.

Going Graphic

2010-10-14T23:08:00.000+08:00

Just an announcement...

Starting next week (not exactly sure when), there'll be some interesting additions to the blog posts.

At least, I know I'll be adding something more which I never had.

I always thought that the site was kinda missing something when it didn't have that. I'm glad that I can now contribute a little bit with the additions. I'm sure the message will also become clearer and it'll be more interesting to the readers who have yet to see...

... pictures.

Share the Love

2010-10-13T09:14:00.000+08:00

Well, after blogging for a while and realising that this blog has a small following... I thought it's time to take this blogging thing up a notch.

Yeah... I think I should take this thing seriously..

With great power, comes great responsibility...
-Ben Parker-

I recently purchased a Canon MP245 printer with 3 in 1 functions (printer/scanner/photocopier). Having now taught for a little while, I think sharing and giving things out to other teachers is crucial if I were to be really serious when I talk about trying to improve and making a difference.

I wanna make a difference. That is one of the many reasons why I wanted to be a teacher. In fact, probably it's one of the biggest reasons why I decided to be a teacher.

Therefore, I also want to say that if there are any teachers who want certain exam papers from Sabah, or are not sure about some of the schematics and answer schemes for the School Based Oral Assessment (SBOA) and other things, I am willing to share these documents (which aren't confidential anyway) for free. 100% FREE.

Not sure what I mean or how this whole thing goes?

Let me break it down to ya:

1. You want to see the PMR trial exam paper from Sabah.
2. You email me at adriantan_85@yahoo.com; or just message in Facebook; or if you know me personally, call me and tell me what you want.
3. I'll tell you about the availability of the test and if I can share it (only if it's confidential).
4. I scan the paper, and email it to you.
5. You receive the email.
6. You jump in joy and give me virtual kisses and hugs.
7. I slap you with a restraining order.

Well, you can skip steps 6-7 if you're not a stalker...

... but teachers (being professionals), I think you know how this goes. This is just to show that I really appreciate the followers and readers who have been loyal in reading my blog entries.... this is just something I can give back.

Plus... I just want to share the love.

Hanging on

2010-10-12T16:09:00.000+08:00

Following up with my debating programme...

Looks like the only people who are truly enthusiastic about the whole thing are 2 students. I don't think it is because of them not grasping the language and cannot understand the language that is being used while the discussions are ongoing but I think it is the nature of debates that are scaring people off.

I thing this whole debating things is enigmatically shrouded with fear.

I would assume that debates aren't for everyone but I was kind of hoping that students were more interested since they have never gotten the chance to do something like that.

Maybe I'm just rubbing it in more by saying that I think that those who are interested could probably be just holding on because they don't want to disappoint me.

Fingers crossed

A Teacher's Blessing

2010-10-06T08:05:00.000+08:00

Really sorry that I've been going AWOL just like that.... ahhh ahhHHH AHH CHOOO~!~~~!

As you can see in the previous sentence... I've been caught with the flu that's been going around here.

Lately, there has been not much going on.. even in classes because everyone is too caught up in exams (flu as well). Everyone is busy prepping for the exam... even form 1,2, and 4 are on holidays which is good because... AHHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!!~!.... you get the picture...

Well, I know it's kinda late cause they have already started yesterday...

GOOD LUCK PMR STUDENTS!

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-09-28T21:46:00.000+08:00

This month was all about the festive celebration of the Muslim's Hari Raya. It's a really big occasion no matter where you are in Malaysia. Trust me, the number of open houses you will go to is proof of the grandeur of this festival.

So important; my class had a version of it

Being the usual prying and nosy teacher, I tell my students to write about their celebrations.... which of course leads to....

THE TOP TEN THINGS THEY WROTE ABOUT THEIR HARI RAYA

10. My kampung is come by all family during the 1 syawal.

9. My hari raya is the eat eat eat only.

8. My hari raya I watch TV only. I am boring.

7. I eat biskut bangkit, kuih, ketupat, chicken and a lot of eating time.

6. I steal RM1 from each family's prepaid to my phone and SMS my friends very much.

5. I'm very much happy because for visit a house, the tuan rumah give me RM5.

4. I have not so many ang pau this year.

3. I have many housekeeping to do in the kitchen.

2. I talk at my cousin the whole night.

... and...

I shake my mother and father and apologise.

*insert big band jazzy ending with sounds of meriam buluh shooting every now and then

Totemic Figure

2010-09-27T21:10:00.000+08:00

I think it's natural that students find it a little intimidating that there is someone else other than the teacher in the class. Students tend to become very alert that there's a person behind them and they do divert their eyes to the person behind every now and then.

Well, not really ALL the time.. just enough to make it a distraction.

Especially if the person seems to be observing the classroom while ticking boxes in his/her checklist. It becomes a distraction because students want to know what's going on. Of course, being the usual spontaneous me, I NEVER tell them when there is an observer and they are always caught by surprise. I want that genuine response and I don't want them to fake it out when they know another teacher is going to observe them the next week.

It looks like sometimes, this can backfire. They aren't going to be themselves anyway. They become very reserved, more tentative and less daring to try the things that you throw at them in the class. It's a complete back-flip to what I usually get in the class if not worse.

Should I tell them the next time?

Maybe I should.

First days

2010-09-20T20:32:00.000+08:00

Coming back after a long holiday requires a teacher to be a trip wire or a jump start.

You have to be able to jump start 200 over students from 5 classes to make sure they get into the groove of studying. They've been lazying around for a FULL 2 weeks. Trust me, getting them started won't be easy.

You can choose to do some other thing or something more subtle to get them warmed up but that's not how the sadistic teacher would do... no no no... you wanna spice things up right?

Well, go ahead... I was subtle.

*yawn.... wasn't it tough trying to get up this morning?

Cause I looked like a zombie too.

Bite me.

Trembling knees..

2010-09-01T21:06:00.003+08:00

My school held a Choir Competition for Patriotic Songs just last week before the Merdeka's Day Celebration. It was divided into 2 categories - upper and lower secondary.

My kids were pestering me about entering the competition. Of course I encouraged them to enter but I told them to check with their History teacher instead since it was the History Department's program and their History teacher should be taking care of it instead of me.

The next day, they came to me again telling me about the rules and regulations of the competition. They told me that the History teacher was not really helping them. They looked disappointed.

I asked, 'You all betul-betul nak masuk?' They nodded their head frantically. They were really eager in entering the competition, it's just that there was no one who was willing to help them..train them. Therefore, I agreed. The competition was like 2 days away! That night itself, I went back to search some simple songs and downloaded them.

The next day, I sacrificed my double periods of English to train them the song and movements. They chose to sing Warisan by Sudirman and Warna-warna Malaysia by Siti Nurhaliza. Simple songs that they can memorize and sing within that short period of time.

I was suprised that they can actually sing! They remembered their movements..their lyrics and sang their heart out.

BUT....

It was a different story on THE day of the competition...

First we had problem searching for a power supply because it was held in the canteen. (I know..not conducive at all!) Thank god for a few good fellow teachers, we managed to get one. Second, my kids had to perform first! They were already practically shaking in fear!

They lined up and faced the audience. They bowed at different time because they were so nervous.. they were like robots forced to sing..they forgot all their moves! Poor kids.. As I was recording it, I was laughing at their performance. Their head hung low...refused to look at the audience..they were so shy!

When it was over, they came to me and said,

'Teacher, teacher...takut sangat tadi!'

'Teacher.. kaki macam kaku sudah tadi!'

'Teacher... kami macam robot kan?'

I just smiled and told them, 'It's ok...yang penting kamu sudah cuba'.. the next minute they were back to their active bubbly self.

I guess this is what stage-fright can do to you. You can be very confident and sure...but when you're placed in front of hundreds of sets of eyes...you just turn into jell-o. To me, it was a good exposure to them. And more importantly they enjoyed themselves!

THE GOOD NEWS?!

They won the second place for lower secondary category! I can't describe how happy and proud I was. The teachers were amazed...amazed that the weakest class can get second placing..

1 Al Biruni.... Teacher Hoong is so proud of you!

There's Always Room for Improvement

2010-09-01T10:04:00.002+08:00

What better way to start the new month than having a whole new look?

The Feminine Touch

With wise feminine opinions (see, I knew I needed that in my blog) by my beautiful co-author(ess) peNakLukduNia, we finally came to an agreement to put this whole cheerful with lots of things going on at the header of the blog as a reflection of what the writers are feeling about the blog right now. I always like to change the outlook of the blog to keep it fresh and new for the readers...

Honestly, having a lot of spare time helps~

After a grueling night of modifications and browsing, finally, the site is complete (hopefully... until I find another irk that bothers me) with new functions that I think should help upgrade the website into another level. First of all, the most important function that I've added is the Facebook Like button at the side below the Blog Archive. Talk about vanity by the Author. I also added a Share It button on each blog-post so that readers can easily share it if they feel it's worth clicking. I see this to be a popular function in websites and many people find this better than linking it by themselves which is a real chore. This way, just click and share...

SO CLICK IT!

I don't know if the summary of blog-posts is helpful but I think it should be good - readers don't have to scroll a long way down to look at the previous entries. I know now that they need to click the posts to read more but I guess... since I've added the new clicking Share It button and the Facebook Like button, no harm adding another clicking option to the blog site.

SO CLICK IT!

You Got To Put Your Behind~ In Your Past... Eh???

2010-08-31T13:34:00.000+08:00

Until today, The Lion King is one of my most-est best-est favourite movie of all time. It's funny, visually breathtaking, culturally colourful, and of course... the music - hmmm... perfecto.

With scenes like this one, can you not watch it?

When I asked my form 4 students if they've watch The Lion King, as usual, only 1 or 2 said yes. The rest of them, even some who seem to be better in English and should be exposed to some form of English media shook their heads when I asked. They know it's a cartoon and they've seen posters or ads about it somewhere but watch the movie? Natha.

I think as their English teacher, it isn't really about giving them exercises and lessons all the time. What I did the past few lessons was to show them these classic English movies (cartoons actually) and they really appreciate the time off. Of course, this is because they did such a great job in their previous exercises hence this movie screening is some sorta reward. Just my way of telling them Don't think I'm gonna show you movies all the time without you guys giving me somethin' somethin'...

There's really no justice in my world if their English teacher didn't give them the chance to watch these kind of movies. It's really sad if throughout their lifetime, they don't get to watch these classics. It's my monumental responsibility that all my students get a chance to watch that movie. It's my duty to let them watch that movie. It's not a waste of time; not a pointless 2 period wasted just watching a movie. In my opinion, these priceless moments of someone finally showing us this English movie we never got to see is important in a student's life. For any cynic out there saying that watching movies is just an easy way out for teachers to relax.. well, I've only got one thing to say to you:

Hakuna Matata

The Land We Spill Our Blood On

2010-08-30T12:16:00.000+08:00

The Colours of Freedom

We're celebrating independence day.

Remember to hold it up high

Yep. It's time for us to hold up our flags high, hoist it to the highest point and let the wind glorify our nations glorious stripes with the breezy gushes. Ah, seeing our jalur gemilang really does bring about a sense of belonging - it does.

Lately though, there have been more chastising commentaries trying to undermine that patriotism. How stone-age-esque are these people to even think that by chanting such vulgar words, the ingrained love for our land can wither just like that. It's by far the worst insult ever; not the fact that our possession towards our homeland is being questioned, but the fact that they think by saying that, we will feel threatened.

Almost every single day since I was a 7 year old kid in Ho Seng Ong (M) till now (being a teacher is the reason why) I've been proudly singing our national anthem with my best bass voice. It's not really about me trying to out-sing others with my melodious and commanding voice, it's the feeling of love towards the land we spill our blood on that keeps the spirits high. Here is something that we would always have as our own, our home and the feeling of being home is warm and comforting.

In other words, if you do not feel you love your country, then I'm truly sorry for you. If you feel that you don't belong to this country, then I'm truly sorry for you. If you feel that some other person can make you feel unattached to your country, I'm even more sorry for you. Never ever let another person make you feel like you're less of a person when you've been living and contributing to this glorious country we call Malaysia.

No one can make me feel like I'm not Malaysian; or not Malaysian enough.

I love my country. It is mine as much as it is everyone's who was born a Malaysian. Be proud of it.

Happy Independence Day.

Kinabatangan's Project Runway

2010-08-27T14:00:00.000+08:00

This entire month was fashion month.

That's right... fashion month.

Girls love fashion

As usual, I love to talk about things that make my students tick. Both my form 4 classes are dominated by girls. In fact, one of the classes only has 2 boys in it. So, fashion is something that definitely the entire class can learn to appreciate (in fact, the boys hopped into the bandwagon too).

The entire month, we talked/debated/designed and even had a fashion show at the end of this month. You'd be surprised at how much they know and don't know about something that they adore so much. As a teacher, I'm glad to be able to bring in topics of discussion that students personally feel attached to. Honestly, it's difficult to talk about things like Christmas or maybe outer-space travelling when they have no personal attachment to it at all. Having said that, sometimes we still forcefully introduce alien topics to them too. It's all about enriching their present knowledge.

In this show, students have to present out clothes made out of recycled materials or things that people don't want anymore. I told them that the cost to make the clothes should be near 0 because I didn't want anyone to take out any money to make the outfits. This was mentioned a month earlier so that the students have 1 month to design and amend it before the fashion show. 25th of August, 2010 - 2 fashion shows that were even attended by my colleagues (thanks guys) were held and I was really, truly inspired.

My kids can really design.

Seriously... they looked almost like this (too bad I have no camera)

I just want to say BRAVO to the students for coming up with jaw-dropping designs that took me by surprise! I can't believe how talented they are in designing/sewing/improvising unwanted materials into exquisite designs.

Fantastic. I'm really impressed.

Race... That Mean Race Car Ah?

2010-08-20T08:30:00.000+08:00

First of all, let me just say that this is not something you would expect at least during the merdeka month. Not because of patriotism or because you're trying to beat the 1Malaysia drum - it's just not smart. Up until now, there is no conclusion if it was really true and if the alleged person was truly uttering such noxious words.

Of course, I'm talking about the accused Hajah Siti Inshah Mansor (accused because there is no real verdict yet) and her alleged remarks about passengers of this country. If you would take it blindly and accept that whatever that was quoted is true, then I'm sure you are baffled and boggled by the atrocity and idiocy of such behaviour. Not just because the words were completely gut-curdling and blood-boiling but because such a person who is supposedly learned, educated, influential and sophisticated was the one who uttered them.

I seriously feel that instead of heading towards liberalisation and transparency in our country, we are heading towards barbarianism and complete ignorance. Issues like racism, favours based on race, any racial based policies should slowly disappear. Instead, we're taking the highway to more fascism and megalomania I've ever seen reported in the news.

Even worse, this bad news seem to surface in education. My bread and butter; my plateau of hope. There is not 1 excuse for such things to be happening in school because there should be no outlet for these things to be practiced whatsoever. Imagine the times during skin-heads and lynching - are we going to reinvent these barbaric periods of the early 20th century? I certainly hope not and I certainly will give my utter best to shove that stupid (yes, that's just the right word - stupid) mentality from the minds of our youths.

I remember when I was a school student. I was in SMK Seri Putera and it was probably 50% Chinese, 30% Malays, and the rest Indians and Punjabi students. There was nearly no recollection of serious racial tension whatsoever. Of course you'll get the occasional gangs where they consist of one race but that is not racially charged. It's just sorta like a brotherhood where language proficiency bonded them together (Chinese spoke Cantonese and therefore bonded well with others who did the same... etc) - not because they saw race and colour of the skin. I remember all the Malays, Indians, Sikhs, Chinese playing soccer during physical Education, cursing, teasing their fathers' names (very popular among Indians especially), playing pranks on each other, without ever wondering if we can or cannot mix because of our race.

In other words, racial issues were not the crux of our disciplinary problems. I think this didn't just extend to the students but the teachers and everyone who was in SMK Seri Putera as well. I lived in a blissful environment where everyone got along or didn't get along because of who you are as a person without thinking about race. Seriously, it is sometimes very hard for me to comprehend how this whole racial thing suddenly existed in my life because I never had to encounter such radical racist issues in my student-lifetime.

That's the kind of paradise that we should encircle our students with. To never let them notice or realise that there are such things as racial tension. We must try to emulate that life that I once enjoyed in my schooling years to my students now. Make them blind about these things and it'll all work out. Seriously. I want them to be blind about racism and do not know about these kind of things. So, when they see someone from a different race, they are ignorant about affiliating themselves with others based on the colour of their skin.

Yasmin Ahmad's ever endearing ads

I'm in no position to verify these accusations of Hajah Siti Inshah Mansor until there is finality in the reports and investigations but these are the links to what you should see for yourself and judge on your own.

The Star Online reporting that harsh action should be taken if allegations are true
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/17/nation/6869117&sec=nation

The alleged police report (source unverified)
http://joshuaongys.com/2010/08/racist-remarks-by-school-principal-from-johor-hajah-siti-inshah-mansor/

The Face of the Accused
http://margeemar.blogspot.com/2010/08/face-of-racist-principal-hajjah-siti.html

A Fundamental Right

2010-08-18T15:23:00.000+08:00

It's great that the Education Ministry of Malaysia is giving away netbooks to students in my school who do not have these books. These are how the books are given to the students:

1. Only 1 per family
2. Low income families receive it
3. Parents must come personally to take it.

I think this is a great step to emancipate students from a non-tech world. I can't accept it if my students tell me that they do not have a computer or any access to technology at home. This is a good response from the government to ensure that these people are covered in some way. I'm sure the netbooks aren't avant grad in any way but this is enough.

I have to say though that although skeptics would like to talk about political agendas, this act itself is very good for the people receiving these netbooks. You have no idea how many kids I teach tell me that they do not have access to the internet. They don't even know what is Microsoft Word and what it means when I say,

Just go home and Google it if you want to find out more.

The many functions of Google

Even worse is that when I talk about all the technology and the easy access people outside their little world are receiving, their eyes say it all: they want it; they long for the taste of tech. I remember reading an article in BBC once http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8548190.stm saying that access to the internet is now known as a basic fundamental right. I believe so and agree to the argument that one cannot compete in the world if one does not have access to the internet.

Well, the government didn't give free internet access.. just the netbook with a wireless device. The only free wireless internet they can get is if they choose to access the school's wireless network... wait... even that is barred with a password... wait... kids can't bring netbooks to school right? How are they going to enjoy the internet access then?

Hmmm... a free netbook doesn't necessarily mean free internet access eh?

Let's take it step by step, OK?

Visiting Morgues

2010-08-13T21:10:00.000+08:00

It's normal that teachers approach different classes differently. It's not that you're using a different method in teaching your content. You're approaching the students humanistic-ly in different manners.

Put it in uglier terms, you like classes, and you like certain classes less.

Is that OK?

I find myself being very biased lately to certain classes. In these classes, I become very pretentious and fake when teaching. I think it's not that obvious to the students because partly I'm kinda good at covering up my emotions - I think a Screen Actors Guild Award would do just fine.

It's not really important whether or not I can or cannot portray that interest in teaching the students. I think it doesn't affect the students that greatly because I still manage to make a boring class into something less burdensome. I don't know why but I think it's just in my innate nature to make sure that my class stays vibrant even if we're not doing much... sometimes, just reading and writing exercises can become light if I manage to bring a light mood into the classroom.

I'm more concerned about self-fulfillment. It's not so fulfilling when you're not genuinely interested in the students participation. It's not fulfilling when you are jumping up and down, being spirited, hyped up; come out an hour later feeling as if you just visited a morgue. Not just any morgue, a morgue where the corpses have been there for ages because no one comes to claim them.

This ain't an oven

I don't like morgues. I don't know who does. That's a good imagery actually... *pats self on the back

I honestly don't like the fact that I'm feeling that way. I want to be able to go into each and every class and come out from it feeling like the kids really felt some importance in remembering that day's lesson.

I try bringing about themes for the month, I try to discuss about things that they are interested in, I even let them go about debating and arguing. I believe that these activities are not just important to break the affective factors that might be put up so evidently by some students. Does it work? Nah-ah~

... well, maybe it does to some students.

Keeping yourself motivated. That's a teacher's challenge.

My challenge.

They're special...

2010-08-12T23:49:00.000+08:00

They may not be academically inclined as the others but they'll always have a special place in my heart.

Here is Scenario 1:

Left hand carrying my textbook and my right hand was carrying a rather heavy bag filled with manila cards, old newspapers and some stationaries. As I walk up to the second floor, kids from 1F came running to the stairs, stretching out their hands.."teacher, teacher..saya ambilkan"

About 5 of them came when the things that I was holding only needed 2 kids to carry. One carried my red bag... another carried my textbook and record book... the third kid carried my pencil box. The other 2 were trying to snatch away what the first 3 were carrying.

Here is Scenario 2:

I was carrying the same things that I carried to the first class. This second class of mine just watched me from afar... watched me struggled with these heavy things. When the class ended, my hands were full but not a single help was offered. They were more eager to chase me out of the class so that they can head back home. Many of them waiting eagerly at the door to run out of the class. RUDE...plain rude.

and...

this is supposedly the smarter class...the smarter kids.

Who will have a special place in my heart?

Enough said.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-08-10T15:11:00.000+08:00

This is just great... after the exam, I realised that students in desperation can come up with the craziest of sentences. It doesn't even have to be relevant to the topic or question. The things that they write can really drive you up the wall; laughing like a cackling witch.

THE TOP TEN LIST OF FUNNY SENTENCES IN EXAMS

10. Devi is got down from the man.

9. Devi continued staring at the man and apologised and continued.

8. The teachers advisors accompanied 35 students to our home of spastic children.

7. Teachers fed and helped nurses to battle the physically disabled children.

6. The instruction of the section for directed writing was:
Devi and her friends were shopping at a mega sale. Write the events that occurred after that based on the pictures above. Here are the names they used instead: Mei Ling (twice), Kak Halimah, my sister, me (himself), Era, and not forgetting kakak.

5. The food, clothes, toys, disabled children for all the collect by teachers and students.

4. Devi held up the bag and the man held up the porch.

3. The man hurriedly followed to porch Devi.

2. She went for the bustop to wait for bustop.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
and...
.
.
.
.
.
#1
.
.
.
.
.
Devi banged man nearby and apologised with bag.

*insert big band jazzy ending with lots of confetti and blow horns!

Behind Closed Doors

2010-08-10T09:11:00.000+08:00

Recently, this video made headlines in TV3. It showcased the presence of a few teachers and 1 student bickering in what appears to be an office or staffroom. The student was obviously being taken in for some disciplinary action (whether or not that student is at fault is not something I will discuss) or just for plain discussion.

What is more interesting to talk about is not about who is right and who is wrong. I feel very uneasy to talk about that because there are just too many variables and questions that cannot be answered just by watching the video. For example:

Was the student really guilty of something he had done?

Did the teacher say anything to insinuate such behaviour?

Was the exchange by either person before the recording cynical or demeaning in any way?

Is there already recorded past behaviour that led to the hostility between these individuals?

Until these actions and questions can be proven, I dare not say who is right or wrong. In fact, it'll be unjustifiable for both sides to be judged based solely on this video.

What interests me more is the actual recording of this event.

How did this manage to proliferate among outsiders and get into youtube.com?

How is it possible that the recording staged could have been even made public knowing that the faces of both individuals are clearly seen in the video?

Why should there be a recording of such behaviour anyway?

Are we supposed to expose these behaviours in school for others to help teachers discipline children?

What happened to the confidentiality between disciplinary cases to protect the identity of both children and teachers?

I find this action of recording and posting it up on youtube.com to be very invasive.

Au Naturale

2010-08-02T15:34:00.000+08:00

How did I become good in Bahasa Melayu?

Talking about how I acquired this second language of mine is really interesting.

I don't recall the first decent conversation I had in Malay. I remember some classes in school, I remember the first time I told the kacang putih auntie that:

Itu saya mahu 10 sen. *while pointing at the flying saucer (tapioca) kacang putih.

There's just no recollection whatsoever about my first few experiences using Malay. I don't even remember how was it exactly that I managed to suddenly get over the awkwardness of a new language and started using it just like that... let's think back a little bit..

I remember I had problems talking to a lot of people in primary school in Bahasa Melayu. Not that I refused to speak in Malay but I had too little vocabulary in the Malay Language. I couldn't converse with others and sometimes I even used Mandarin to speak to others; which led my mom to say:

Don't talk to them in Mandarin... use English or Malay. They don't understand Mandarin.

I remember very clearly me having this problem. In fact, shortly after that, I had 2 friends who are Chinese, who can speak Cantonese and English without a problem who conversed exclusively in Malay to me. When the 3 of us hung out in school, we'll be speaking in pure Malay and it just felt natural to us. After that, in secondary school, again I had a Chinese friend who had no problems speaking in Cantonese or English but spoke Malay to me. We didn't feel awkward at all. Completely natural. I'm not even talking about vernacular Malay; I mean, talking to each other almost native-like in Malay.

Why?

A teacher in school told me that sometimes if the first contact between the 2 individuals was in a certain language, then naturally it will continue on no matter who you are. I feel that this could possibly be true and it'll be important for me to realise this fact. My students are going through the same process when learning English. It is that one split moment when they use English and it leads on no matter where they are and whatever their condition, when that scenario fits, they will automatically use English.

I need to get them that one friend that they speak in English naturally to.

I need to give them that one situation where they feel so natural to use English.

I See It Now...

2010-07-28T23:22:00.001+08:00

Back in action after a week! Finally got myself a decent keyboard.

Today I received a letter from an unknown student.

'Cikgu, ini surat daripada VVVV... murid kelas cikgu'

I took the letter and hesitated to open it up. Not because I was afraid that it's a love letter or whatsoever, but everytime I received his letter before, it was about him not being able to attend school because he did not have enough money to pay for the bus fare or he had to stay at home to take care of his siblings.

This student of mine is from a poor family. He is always absent and when I asked around, I found out that he has to work from time to time to help feed his family. According to his friends, he sometimes has to sell fish from house to house just to earn some money to feed his siblings. His father is jobless and his mother is a full-time housewife. It's rather sad that at such a young age, he has to bear such huge responsibilities when he is supposed to concentrate only on his studies.

Back to the content of the letter, his mom wrote:

' .... memohon cuti kerana kasut sekolahnya rosak dan tidak boleh dipakai....tidak mampu membeli kasut baru....perlu menunggu sehingga mempunyai duit untuk membeli kasut sekolah yang baru...'

I felt sad... pitiful....

He is a good kid.. he studies when he gets the chance to come to school; never causes any problems. It's sad to see that he can't go to school because of his spoilt shoes...it really saddened me.

I used to read stories..just stories about this kind of situation. Now I am seeing it happening.. that it is real. What can I do? I am gonna either give him some money to get a new pair of shoes or refer his case to the school.

He deserves this... He deserves a better life...a life as a kid..as a student.

Tomorrow Never Dies

2010-07-28T09:59:00.000+08:00

Today, I was rejected.

That's right.

Rejected.

Rejected because a student was not willing to participate in a dialogue. Not only was he not interested in participating, he was almost aggressively hostile when rejecting my order to try out a few lines. It ain't difficult, it's just 2 lines for each student. Very reluctantly and almost fiercely he stood up to speak out those lines after some hustling (quite aggressively on my part).

2 things I realised. He did not want to reject my encouragement and he did not want to speak out too. There was like a small argument going on in his mind while he was being very reluctant and unwilling to participate when told to. I realised that at that point in time, persuasion was not going to work. I told him blatantly that if he ever acted out like that again, not only will it make me furious, it'll only make me more interested in going after him for these scenarios all the time in classes.

He knows he can't get away with it. He knows that eventually he'll have to cave in. He even knows how much of a losing battle he is fighting when it comes to not wanting to participate in my classroom. He isn't a bad student (of course, this whole class is a weaker class) but just poor in proficiency.

After the class, very sternly I said in front of the class:

Pumpkin (not his real name), see me outside.

I wrapped my hands around his shoulder, he was already starting to tear up while I started talking, and asked him what was his problem. He started to say how embarrassed he feels because he is so weak in English (he is, but that's not my worry) and doesn't want to make a fool out of himself in front of the whole class.

Malu cikgu, kawan ketawakan nanti.

... his words.

I told him how proud I am with him that he was willing to tell me this. Not only did I need to encourage him, I told him that things are not going to change if he just sat at a corner and hoped that I wouldn't notice him. I said that his friends aren't worthy to judge him at all. I, being the teacher was the perfect person to tell him if he's good or not. He seemed to give in a little bit and started saying that he was going to try to be a little bit braver the next time. I had to make it clear that I didn't resent him as a student. I only resented his action of rejecting my offer to try to improve.

Of course, throughout this conversation, English was minimal.

However, getting the message across this time was important. I needed him to know that whether he liked it or not, he'll have to face the fact that everyone's opinion about his proficiency aren't important. At least, not more important than me trying to make him become better in English.

Tomorrow will come and I'll once again call him out to practise English.

Tomorrow will come and he'll have to stand up and try his best to speak out or do exercises that I give him without fear of embarrassment and failure.

Tomorrow will always be there for me to challenge him again and again till he becomes good or better than what he is now.

He can't run from it.

I'll always catch up.

Suiting Up

2010-07-26T22:15:00.000+08:00

Well, as usual, I love to have specific themes when going into my classrooms. It sort of puts students in a prepared mood and I like tuning them with a certain idea but shocking them with a twist whenever possible. It's sort of like them expecting it to be something (because they know the theme of the month) but they will always be caught by surprise every now and then..

... this month for my form 4 classes is Business and Corporate Month

For this theme, I told them that it's high time they started thinking like working adults. Not just about ambition and thinking about some product but to be like a professional and act out like a professional. Therefore, each group in the class (which was already decided a long time ago) must conduct 1 interview of a personality they thought was celebrity-like or admirable.

Of course, conducting an interview with someone respectable requires them to gear into professional and corporate mode. They'll have to prepare questions, write out simple transcripts of the interview, and complete basic information about the personality they have interviewed. The good thing about this is that they can choose anyone they liked i.e. teacher, relative who is successful, village head, head prefect... the list goes on.

This one can be slightly time consuming so it's a month long project. They have to make sure they use English most of the time because the transcript and the questions have to be in English anyway. Of course they can use their native tongue while interviewing (I won't be there to monitor them) but a simple talk with the teachers they are interviewing would give me an idea of how they conducted the interview. I recommended the interview to be short and simple with the questions just pertaining about basic information about educational history and achievements. Students must show me their list of questions before conducting the interview. Students must also make sure an appointment is made before conducting the interview as well.

So far, the groups have completed their interview.

I can't wait to see their results.

Gifts Ungiven

2010-07-26T21:52:00.000+08:00

I'm honestly very irritated by my students not completing my work. I'm being dead serious when I say that all my work does not take any real hassle to complete at all. Most of it is probably already done in class and students have to just complete it at home. There's really nothing much to fuss about. If I realise that the work is slightly difficult, I give them ample time to complete it; fully aware of competency being a problem and it'll take time to finish.

I told them that if they still could not produce something for me within that given time, it really does show problems not in their levels of intellect but their interest in personal development. I have no problems working with students with poor proficiency or have many errors in their work. The point is to complete the work with those errors so I can help them where they are at a lost. If you don't do it, I have no idea which part of the puzzle is missing in your English labyrinth.

The greatest pride that my students can have is my undying interest in their work, progress, and development. I told them that if they continued to show inconsistency in completing my work punctually, they will end up losing that privilege that I give them so loosely. I can revert to your ordinary by the book and don't ask don't tell teacher. I can just do that - nothing will happen to me, life still goes on for me. It's them that need this attention. You can't expect me to continue being interested in someone who is not interested in his/her own development. I'll push for it of course but everyone has their threshold when it comes to persuasion and encouragement.

In fact, if I selectively and consciously tell them that I am only interested in people who show me that interest, they will find themselves set aside while those who are punctual and proactive continue to advance due to my keen attention towards them. Never will I tell them that I completely neglect them forever. Just until I see some initiative from them; to start showing some backbone and put their backs in completing my work. I will never give up on them even though they stop. It is purposeful neglect that I do to push them to gain back my attention and confidence in their work - which is something I constantly remind them that I'm so keen to be involved in their development.

I don't give up.

I stop giving.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-07-24T14:51:00.000+08:00

The one thing that I have zero tolerance for is tardiness and neglecting to do my work. I am an extremely flexible teacher and I would like to think that I'm cool when talking to my students. Well, even if I'm not perceived so, I try my best to make sure that my students know that I'm pretty relaxed and won't be up their grill all the time like how some teachers might be.

So, when kids come up to tell me that they did not finish my work...

... it really calls for:

THE TOP TEN THINGS OF RESPONSES TO STUDENTS WHO DON'T FINISH THEIR WORK

10. "OK... my work is not done... Great." *turn to the class monitor. "Pass me the machete."

9. "Very good... Everyone, please give a round of a applause to our greatest achiever. Really, don't be shy. Give him/her a hand... c'mon... you there, put down your pencil, give him/her a hand." *make sure they applaud for a good 5 minutes.

8. Drop down on your knees and start crying. Whip out a knife, put it to your throat and threaten suicide until he/she puts the work in front of you.

7. Give him/her a warm embrace. Hug him/her real tight. While hugging him/her, pat his/her back, give a slight tug every now and then for a good 30 seconds, and whisper in his/her ear, "You better watch your back kid.."

6. Stare at the student straight at the face with your nose right in front of his/hers (like you are almost kissing). Clasp the students shoulders, clench your teeth and tell the kid about how you once killed a cockroach with your spit.

5. Lift up your hand suddenly as though you want to slap the student; while he/she is trying to avoid or react, give the student a nice smile and just pat his face (almost caressing). Give the shake of the head slightly, chuckle every now and then, and keep on repeating the name i.e. "Hmm... he he he, Charlie, Charlie... Oh, Charlie, Charlie..."

4. Roll your sleeves, unbuckle your belt, push your hair to the back, gesture that you're wiping sweat off your brow, squat, stomp the right leg wide to the right followed by the left leg wide to the ride; slam your palms on your knees, and start the haka.

3. Walk up right to the front of him. Don't say anything, stare at the student straight to the face blankly, every few seconds, turn your head around his/hers as though searching for something, then scream at the top your lungs "HELLO!!!!!!!!?????? ANYONE HOME?!?!?!?!?!"

2. Slap him/her on the behind and purr like a cat.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... and...
.
.
.
.
.
.
#1
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Tell the student to address him/herself as The One Who Forgot Homework when talking to you until The One Who Forgot Homework remembers to bring it. Everyone in class must follow this rule when referring to The One Who Forgot Homework.

*insert big-band jazzy ending with lots of exercise books thrown into the air

To Expect The Unexpected and to Accept the Unaccepted

2010-07-24T10:30:00.000+08:00

I always tell myself that students are only hampered by their proficiency in the language. That doesn't mean one slightest bit that they are mentally retarded or do not have the capacity to generate ideas. Even if they are passive, most probably they are just not trained to bring up these ideas even if it was lingering in their heads.

So, for my better form 4 classes, I told them that it's time they were treated as adults. It's time to talk to them about serious things. It's good to talk about issues that really matter.

I started talking about globalization.

A world without speed bumps.

I didn't expect them to suddenly start spewing out their ideas and conceptual opinions about globalization immediately. I know that it is a topic that doesn't scream either fun or lively. I just thought that the kids would appreciate being treated as adults and would want to stake their claim as equals when talking to their teacher.

BIG mistake.

They just have no idea what is supposed to be said and had no idea what the topic was all about. They just could not participate because they have no idea what is going on and could not provide their opinions because they had none.

Now that becomes a problem.

The concept of discussion can be flushed down the drain because they can't provide any opinions. So I just ended up informing them about what goes on and what is to be expected if ever globalization comes full circle. They were amazed and astonished by the idea of a borderless world. The lecture became somewhat one way and did not muster into the engaging situation I had hoped for. I always want my class to be lively, full of opinionated students even if their ideas are sometimes immature and incomplete in details.

Although I do lecture sometimes; I've never really appreciated that sort of teaching. I only do it if the class is really weak and they need a lot of examples beforehand. In other words, some classes require >70% of time allocated in the preparation step of your lesson plan. I feel this is really old school in terms of the style of teaching. I'm a person who believes in students coming up from their seats and making the mistakes in the classroom during the learning process.

In this class of globalization... I was trying not to resort to that... but I did.

... I guess it's OK.

Seeking Equilibrium

2010-07-22T22:25:00.000+08:00

After going through a seminar today, I think I just need to make a few things clear.

Marking papers need consistency. You can't say sweeping statements too casually i.e. Marking these answers is holistic.

I'm sure for a longer essay where students are supposed to utilise their language prowess to the full extent, marking the language aspect can be a little bit difficult. For example, it's hard to decide which one of these sentences deserve more marks:

I have something important to do tomorrow.

I have an urgent errand to run the next day.

Tomorrow, there are some chores that need fulfilling by yours truly.

In a long essay of 350 words, probably you don't look at individual sentences to mark language. You look at their general usage and maybe notice a few good sections in their paragraphs that show a good command of the language. It's not individual sentences. In other words, marking an essay has a completely different approach compared to marking summaries or novel answers.

The summary and novel section of the PMR exam focuses more on content. If you can provide an example or evidence from the novel you have read, points are allocated. If you are capable of giving reason(s) supported by proof from the novel, points are allocated. In terms of giving them grades for their language, if they are capable of explaining these things needed without any errors, I think we should consider not penalising them at all. Contrastingly, penalise them when they commit errors.

If a student says:

I love the character Mr. Enfield because he is brave. He felt no fear in his heart when confronting the evil Mr. Hyde when Hyde was caught trampling a poor young girl in the streets.

or

I love the character Mr. Enfield because he is brave. He is not afraid of confronting Mr. Hyde when he hurt a young girl.

For this section, I don't think the second sentence should be not given the same marks for language if he did not write similar to the first sentence. I think both made their point clear with the right evidence without committing any grammatical errors.

For this section and summary, I think it's important to be consistent in giving them marks for language.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-07-21T13:51:00.000+08:00

According to my blogger dashboard, this post right here is the 100th post.

As always, it's good to recall back the reasons why I write here at all. I'm not sure if there's any real following at all, honestly. Therefore, just to satisfy those who do read my blog..

... it calls for...

THE TOP TEN LIST OF REASONS WHY PEOPLE READ MY BLOG

10. You've seen me before. You know you want a piece of that hot stuff.

9. You have no idea how to exit from your Firefox or I.E. browser ever since you visited my blog for the very first time.

8. English and teaching is of interest to you because you're probably very good in English but you have NO idea if you are or are not good in teaching.

7. You are addicted to THE TOP TEN LIST

6. You want to know if this Chinese dude would soon crack and one day post the blog entry of Planning a Murder and Making It Look Like an Accident.

5. You realised that reading the education section of The Star or NST isn't your trusted, unfiltered, badgering, fun-filled, and insightful source of information about the education system of Malaysia.

4. You love how students that I write about remind yourself of your ol' dumbass self.

3. You love how the teachers that I write about remind you to rethink about your future plans of having children and sending them to public schools.

2. You don't want children, you never went to public schools, never wore Pallas Jazz shoes, never ever plan to go near children, have no idea what students look like and have no idea that they wear corduroy outfits, had teachers who suck your toes and place altars of you in their homes which makes whatever that I write here completely flabbergasting to you.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.. and
.
.
.
.
.
#1~~
.
.
.
.
.
.
You love the fact that you don't have to be a teacher to experience all the shit that I'm telling you right now.

*insert big-band jazzy ending with lots of paper shredded confetti

*Love is in the air

2010-07-20T12:46:00.000+08:00

Love...love...love

I have this special affinity and bond towards my own class, 1 Al Biruni. They can be the naughtiest and weakest class, but they definitely have a special spot in my heart.

They can be screaming on top of their lungs for attention; wanting me to go to their desk and pay extra attention to them..helping through their homework. I just don't care... because that is what that makes the class lively. One thing that I am worried about is just that they are too noisy. That's it.

Honestly, these kids call me Mother. I don't really care though sometimes I get weird looks from other teachers. I sit down with them to teach them, play with them...I actually do feel motherly when I'm with them. The majority of them are from poor families and single parent homes. I am protective over them... proud of them when the teachers say that they are good.

Plus they are really sensitive... they know when they should behave because their Mother is angry...they know when to say things to make me happy....and even go all the way to the staffroom to check if I need help with books.

Sweet eh?

These are the lil' things that make me happy...

1 Al Biruni will always be special to me...

When Pussy meets Pushy

2010-07-20T09:09:00.000+08:00

Using nursery rhymes to teach can really help when teaching pronunciation or just speaking English in general. In fact, if you get nursery rhymes that are lyrically melodious, students find it so interesting because almost all of them have never heard of classics such as:

Twinkle twinkle little star. (OK, this one is more popular...)

London Bridge (Not the Fergilicious version)

Little Jack Horner

Two Little Blue Birds

Ride a Cock Horse to Banburry Cross

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive.

Sing a Song of Sixpence

... and many more.

This one particular nursery rhyme that I was teaching was interesting, good for introducing some form of WH-Questions and tenses.

Pussycat, Pussycat.

"I did, I did taw a puddy tat!"

For those who aren't familiar with this nursery rhyme; it goes:

Pussycat, pussycat where have you been?
I've been up to London to look at the queen.
Pussycat, pussycat what did you dare?
I frightened a little mouse under her chair.

So... what seemed like a harmless nursery rhyme turned out to be one of the FUNNIEST shit I've ever done in class before. What's even more endearing is the innocence of it all.

It all started when the kids started to say pooshycat (pu'ʃɪkæt) instead of the appropriate pussycat (pu'sɪkæt).

So, as their teacher... it's important to correct them right?

Me      :Class!!! Remember... it's not Pooshycat. It's PussYcat,

Class :Pussy ah sir?
Me      : Eh.... yeah... 'C'; not 'SHI'
Class : *talking to each other: Pussy la... pussy. Bukan pooshy. Pussy la. Sir kata pussy.
Me      : *Giggle
Class : Sir, Pussy right? Pussy kan?
Me    : Yes... it's 'C'. not 'SHI'.
Class : Oh.. OKOK.
Me    : Say Pussycat for me to hear.
Class : PUSSYCAT!
Me    : Good. Say it again.
Class : *some kids. Pooshycat!
Me      : NO!!! not... NOT... 'Shi'. It's PUSSYcat.
Class : Pussy!
Me      : *burst a slight chuckle. Yes. One more time, please.
Class : PUSSY!
Me    : *index finger signaling for one more. ONE MORE!
Class : PUSSY!
Me : Very good. Class dismissed.

....Zzzzzz....

2010-07-19T21:57:00.000+08:00

Ola!

Making my grand entrance with my very first blog entry in my love of my life's blog. Glad that I am blogging with him... we both have many things in common..we are both teaching..and we are teaching English. The difference is that he majors in English and I don't.

If you noticed my title, you must have guessed it right that I am gonna complain about something boring.

Just a brief intro about what I am currently teaching. I am an English teacher to three Form 1 classes.. one below average class and 2 weak classes. So you can imagine how much I have to go through to teach these students English which is actually a foreign language to them. Not only are they weak, they are really hyperactive, especially their mouths. Non-stop talking and giving remarks every now and then, in fact sometimes giving irrelevant remarks that can drive you up the wall.

Just 2 weeks ago, I was given a timetable for extra class. I was assigned to teach 3A English during the extra class. I was happy getting a good class because teaching will be easy and the chance to use English would be more. Today was the class, I went in cheerfully hoping that the class would be active and responsive. To my disappointment, it was the other way round.

The class was awfully quiet. Pin drop silence. They can't or should I say don't want to answer my questions at all.

''Class, have you done active and passive sentences?''

Silence. *Eyes all staring at me

''Do you understand what I am saying?''

Silence. *Still staring

I was like ''Ah..what a dead class...''

I am used to having kids jumping up and down.... screaming out answers in my class. My Form 1 kids are very active...they might be weak but they actively participate in my class. That is what I prefer though sometimes it's tiring and I have to keep nagging them.

No doubt, this A class is easier to teach, you only need to explain once and they grasp the idea. No need to explain again and again....but if the class is so quiet, it's really awkward. I'll be wondering if they can understand or think that whatever I am teaching is just too easy for them. A lot of questions will run through my mind. Maybe I should do something to provoke them, break their protective shell... or are all the smart students so quiet?

After this experience, I really appreciate my experience teaching weaker students who are more responsive and active. I do like their participation in the class.. laugh at their stupid remarks and quirks. They actually make my teaching experience more interesting.

Well...at least this is my preference.

Na Tamil Pesena Ni Bayenderave!

2010-07-19T21:25:00.000+08:00

Let's be frank. Learning something foreign is scary. It's not just scary, it's very difficult. Imagine me trying to learn Tamil. It's not completely out of context and something foreign as our country has a lot of Tamil speakers. It isn't something completely out of the question as well because there are plenty of teachers who are excellent in teaching the subject as well..

... but if you told me to write an essay in Tamil in not less than 350 words...

I think I'll just stare blankly as I read the topic of the supposed essay:

The Bachan family empire.

OK, maybe the topic is taking it a little too far off... but I don't see any difference in difficulty of that topic or...

My Favourite Hindi Movie.

Therefore, we have to put ourselves in this position and understand that to some kids, this is the situation. They've heard of English before; they know that there are materials somewhere that can be accessed if they tried; they know that there are people who they can speak to; they know that there are even TV shows that they could tune into if they wanted to get some form of exposure (hint: Thangathirai).

Proof that being funny pays off

So, I find it somewhat interesting when I try to motivate and show to my students that learning a new language shouldn't be too stressful because it can't be done just within the classroom. In the classroom, I show them how they can acquire and learn the language on their own by showing them how it can be done. It's not going to be solid enough if they just treat that language practice session as the only time where they learn and try to improve.

Motivating and showing them a good time helps

I end up showing them the way. I don't teach in that sense. I'm just telling them how to learn by themselves. Sort of like a guide. A tour guide doesn't really educate a tourist about his surroundings. He just shows them around and tells them about the place and the background... maybe a short history (if you get a nice dude) of the place. Then it's up to you if you feel that place is interesting and deserves further attention, if you'd want to write up about the place or further inquire for more information.

If I was forced to speak in Tamil or write in Tamil when doing all these things, I'm sure there will be significant improvement as time passes me by. I might not master native like capabilities but I'm pretty sure communicative situations won't be that big a problem. My students need to know that the first thing that has to happen is to feel motivated in learning the language.

Na English Pesena Ni Bayenderave!

The Captain's First Mate.

2010-07-19T12:39:00.000+08:00

Nothing is valuable if it cannot be shared.

I love the fact that now I have someone I love and admire to help me in my blogging endeavours.

She's smart, beautiful, and the best person I can think of to share my blogging space with.

L'Amour de Ma Vie.

Get ready to be in touch with your feminine side.

Brisk, Bright and Brief

2010-07-15T10:27:00.000+08:00

It takes a happy teacher to be a good teacher. Doesn't mean that the teacher has to be a funny teacher or someone who can make the class burst out laughing just by snapping his/her fingers; just cheerful would do.

Going into the class with a smile of on your face or going in with an upbeat feeling is important. It doesn't make you vulnerable or make you feel like you're compromising in terms of discipline (I'm sure a lot of you will detest to that idea but this is based on my short experience). In fact, control can be done when one is able to attract the audience to be interested in what you are doing or showing.

Sometimes, to be frank, I do lose that control. I lose the attention-grabbing factor that has to happen if you want the class to be on their toes. In fact, it is the best way to control the students that are rowdy and overly active. They want to do something interesting or discuss about something that is of appeal to them. If you rant on and on about something that they feel is a little bit irrelevant to them, I'm sure you'll get restless kids doing everything but your work.

It ain't easy to come up with something interesting all the time. As a teacher, it is quite difficult to come up with something quick and easy. I talked to a very experience teacher/headmaster before and he told me that his lessons are brisk, bright, and brief. I think this is a really important strategy when dealing with kids. No matter what age they are, you have to be able to create these environments.

I might not have my very own teaching philosophy yet. I'm sure I will come up with my very own one soon. Until then, maybe I too can be...

BRISK, BRIGHT AND BRIEF

The Walking Wiki

2010-07-13T20:54:00.000+08:00

Probably because I am a graduate that has the word English in its name, the people around me tend to use me as their walking dictionary, thesaurus, and mini English-Wiki. I don't mind it at all because it's just natural that someone would turn to an English teacher to ask about something related to the English language.

Grammar

Syntax

Phonology

Semantics

Vocabulary

Pronunciation

These are the common things that people ask if they feel they are not feeling that confident about something. Most of the time, providing the correct alternative/answer is pretty simple. The slightly difficult questions that surface is always when people ask why.

Why do we use 'We are happy' instead of 'We is happy'?

In fact, being a TESL graduate, it's important to break it down in laymen terms so that someone who might not be that knowledgeable in grammatical jargon can understand. For the example given above, it's easily explained with singular/plural examples. Many times people will ask clarification about simple structures or pronunciation that can be easily explained.

What if someone asks Why is 'is' for singular and 'are' is for plural?

Why are there different pronunciations when the word structure is the same?

I.E: deaf, leaf,

but

Similar pronunciations when the word structure is different?

I.E: chief, beef, give,

Beats me.

I'll ask a German.

un-English

2010-07-05T21:59:00.000+08:00

Is it a given that you're supposed to speak to each other in English if you're TESL students?

Probably you're not supposed to speak in English but I'm sure if a situation should prompt you to, speaking in English shouldn't be a problem right? At least there shouldn't be any impediment to use the language when needed.

I'm not going to bear the responsibility of proving that you must speak in English the majority of the time if you're speaking to another English graduate. I'm sure if you find someone who is of similar native tongue, I'm pretty sure it comes naturally to speak in that native tongue.

Would it be weird then since it's not a blatant rule to speak in English to each other that English graduates never speak in English to each other?

Of course, we're dwelling from one extreme end to another but I can't help thinking of a situation whereby the native speakers of a certain language become so natural in using that language to converse that they might actually never utilise English in their conversations. Even when discussing about tasks that are related to the language.

Having said that, is that alright? I'm sure it's not going to hurt anyone and I'm certain it wouldn't affect the quality of the work if the parties involved are already very proficient and efficient in what they're doing. Just the idea that English isn't the choice of communication seems to make me feel a little bit...

... un-English.

Based on my own experience, I had good and great friends who were in the TESL department that didn't really speak in English to me. These people still managed to complete their tasks and we were able to cooperate with each other without any problems when doing a task. It's not really going to hinder or compromise the end-product but the process to me is just as important. I'm sure a lot of English graduates will agree with me saying that the final essay/assignment/thesis doesn't shroud the importance of the time and effort taken to get it done. The grueling debates and discussions, burning of midnight kalimantang and all the researching is very enriching even if the end product did not arise.

So... based on that, it is important to review the importance of communication during the task completion process. The words, vocabulary, style, and language is of utmost importance to ensure that we also gain something from that experience of using English. In fact, what I try to enforce onto my students is the discussion and everyday conversations should be in English. I said there's no point presenting something out in English when the wholesome process of discussion was 100% in their own native tongue. I think there's a lot to lose if they do not try to use that time to speak in English as well...

... then I took a step back to review my past experience.

I don't think my course-mates and I did that completely too.

*slaps face

QWERTYUIOP

2010-07-05T12:00:00.000+08:00

There is not one thing that can shake up my classroom more than the mentioning of the word - ghost. It's a real taboo in my school. I think it's not just a taboo in my school but the entire Kinabatangan population. There is a certain trauma that they go through when this topic is unearthed... oops, I mean... discussed.

Can anyone blame them? I think not. It has been a real emotional turmoil for the children to have seen and heard things that have been explained to them as supernatural. Not only has it been imposed to them as something out of the ordinary... or otherworldly, sometimes, the blame is being put on them. I'm not 100% in agreement with that although there are some diva cases that are obviously fake and need to be given a good sucker punch to the gut.

So, being the person who dares tread the barren moors, I told them to write a paragraph about their ghostly encounters!

OooooooooOOoooooooooooooooooo

OOOoooooooOOOooooo~~~~

Seeing the looks on their faces says it all. They were excited but freakishly scared at the same time. It was like telling them that:

OK, for the next class, I'll bring Emily Rose, we'll practise exorcism for 2 periods.

Remember to bring your very own wand tomorrow. We'll practise Patronum on the Dementors tomorrow.

I just love freaking them out.

Don't you dare come back with a clean shirt!

2010-07-02T11:44:00.000+08:00

I've always been very active in sports. Even when I did stop playing tennis for a couple of years, I still actively went out for other sports i.e. swimming and basketball. There is really no real explanation to why I love to go outdoors and sweat it out. It could probably be a guy thing, but I know many ladies would relate to the same idea.

Of course, this continues on even now when I'm in Kinabatangan. I'm not a stranger anymore at the courts and I'm also not new to other games that the teachers play. In fact, it has become a culture for me to go out in the evenings for sports. It's in the blood. It's in the mind. It's in my heart.

I don't think that this comes naturally. I wasn't born with that idea of going out for sports every evening. I feel that a big part of my addiction for sports comes from my family. Both parents of mine play tennis. My brother is a tennis player himself (starting to beat me too) and my sister is not just a certified lifesaver, she's a frequent visitor to her local gym every other evening. It is this surrounding personalities that hone the mentality of sports. We weren't really told about sports being good for health and it will steer you away from vices and all that; we were just took to places for fun. Sports was fun - simple as that.

Practicing on the wall in school really draws a crowd. In my school hall at 4pm, I'll be whacking the air out of the fuzzy yellow ball which does create a very satisfying echo that makes nearby students stare and watch. In fact, some boys go as far as sit behind my bag and watch me hit the ball on the wall as though they were watching an elephant ride a unicycle while juggling 3 bananas and a fruitcake. I don't mind it at all as they become very excited ball boys when one of my shots goes astray.

More importantly, after hitting for awhile, I chatted up with one of the boys watching when I was taking a break. Apparently, he isn't interested in sports and does not want to get involved in any sports even though it's so readily available in school. I find it very puzzling and incomprehensible. I for one always had the idea of going out, coming back with stains all over my shirt, getting the stares from mom (but no reprimanding required), and doing the same darn thing again the next day. In fact, my parents would find it strange if I didn't go out cycling for a day or if I came back too early that day.

Well, maybe not that dirty...

Talking to the boy; the only words that came out were:

Go! Go play football now. Volleyball is good too... these sports don't cost anything. Just one ball.

I couldn't accept that a healthy looking boy was not at all interested in playing anything! Not even some other game like table tennis or achi duduk. This can't be. I will not allow anyone of my students within my reach to be not active in outdoor activities. A simple activity like cycling can be a great sport if taken up seriously. Jogging or running can boost a lot of stamina and it is fun to do if you take it up seriously and try to research the best ways to breathe and cut your running time in half. It takes a little bit more effort but in the end, the results are more than worthwhile.

Boys are meant to go out and run. Girls in turn, can join in the fun

I'm now going to create that environment that made me into a sporting freak.

2nd Semester, 3 goals Part 2

2010-07-01T18:48:00.000+08:00

During these 2 weeks, I've been able to set my mini-plans in motion. I don't consider it as a major change. It's not even something original and probably some of you would consider the moves that I made something that I must do as an English teacher...

... y...e.....s...

... but no as well. I've come to realise that the profession can make you lazy, placid, and contented with your status quo.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to initiate the mini plans I've mentioned in my previous blog (2nd Semester, 3 Goals). In fact, I kind of feel that a new teacher like me has an unwritten contract with the students to bring in ideas and programmes as I see fit.

So far, the ones that have been going smooth-sailing-ly are:

Staffroom = English Speaking Only Zone.
So far, I've managed to mistreat, abuse, and enforce my power as the white man in the staffroom to my students. Reluctantly, they have complied and accepted the fact that I will not back down with the I don't get you though I know Malay statement. They play along with great resentment but hey~~~~ it seems to be working. Even the weakest kid who talked to me was practically miming out his words with his hands.

Monetary Punishment. Class = English Speaking Only Zone
Bringing THE JAR OF PUNISHMENT really freaks the students out. They know each time I hear them speak in Malay, 10 cents is going into that jar. I don't think it's so much of the money, the humiliation of contributing into the jar is more dreadful. The form 4 class was very obliging to my enforcement of this rule. It resulted in them being absolutely quiet but I guess they were still a little bit responsive when I prompted them. They didn't become unresponsive which is very relieving for me because I feared that they would just end up being mutes.

Form 1 Debating Team
After careful monitoring and selective tasks, I've managed to identify 3 kids with the appropriate foundation to start a debating team. It hasn't started as of yet but I've already told those 3 kids exclusively that they will be involved in a long term project; it's going to be arduous and it's going to make them become the creme ala creme. They seem eager, proud, and nervous about it because they don't know what to expect yet and I'm very sure that it would kick off with an excellent start the moment I blow the first whistle. This project in particular would be really time consuming but I'm going to make sure I follow up as much as I can.

By the way... THE JAR OF PUNISHMENT has 20 cents.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-06-29T09:50:00.000+08:00

Well... I told my form 5 kids that back when I was a kid.. I used to dream about being a monster truck driver.

That's right. A monster truck driver.

So, I told them that when we were all small, we never feared dreaming BIG. As we start to mature, a lot of us tend to think small. So, I told them that it was OK to be unconventional and different. In the pursuit of your dreams or ideas, it is OK to be daring enough to say that YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Hence...

THE TOP TEN LIST OF JOBS THEY WANT TO DO AFTER FORM 5

... unedited as always
#10 Pro skateboarder

#9 I want to become a pirate! tapi tak bunuh orang.

#8 Ratu Cantik Fillipina

#7 Buat muka Hagemaru untuk semua orang.

#6 uses costum Mickey Mouse and dance at shopping mall.

#5 Patung Barbie yang comel dan wujud.

#4 I want to become a first man penyembur haiwan ternakan yang paling sihat.

#3 I want to be teaching a monkey tree.

#2 I want to become a model man baby.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... and
.
.
.
.
.
.
#1
.
.
.
.
.
.
Mengintai cicak

*insert big band jazzy ending with the beautiful song Melangkah Megah.

Gotcha!

2010-06-25T08:28:00.000+08:00

It really is sweet when a class throws you a surprise birthday party.

No matter how you feel that they shouldn't have.

You just feel so happy that they did.

There really is no other way to describe it. Students can really catch you by surprise and do things that make your heart flutter. Just the fact that one of them brought cake or kuih, you immediately feel so appreciative and become so embarrassed that you were posting THE TOP TEN LIST about them yesterday.

Thanks kids.

I'm very happy.

Why so serious?

2010-06-24T20:31:00.000+08:00

I can't stand it. I try to become a different, more serious teacher just to see how I can shake things up a little bit and make my students wonder about my moods. I like the fact that I can get quite unpredictable at times, catching them off guard with my antics (whether good or bad). I feel that it's kind of important that students don't get you too well and start to assume certain things from you even before you enter the classroom. I also don't like it if students are not in the mood or are feeling too stressed out when listening to your class. It's of course my doing as well if I have made the classroom into something less tolerable but... I try. I do.

So, my comfortable place in the classroom is when I crack jokes. I can't help it. I'm this joke cracker. I'm this wise guy who tries to make fun out of everything I see and it is well accepted (I think) in my lessons. At least, I know some of them are genuinely tickled by some of my jokes or pranks. However, I do feel that it is also important to not let the students feel like you're a clown and allow them to make fun of me. They can make fun of my jokes but not me.

Anyway, getting that line clear is not the problem. The problem is how do I try to change my pesona every now and then. I want to be the teacher that has multiple personalities. They can't put a pin on me. I want them to be on their toes at all times so that I can catch them off guard instead of them getting into a rhythm before I even start the classroom.

Probably though, it's not entirely a bad thing. Maybe if the kids are already into a certain rhythm before I enter the classroom, it's not entirely a bad thing. Assuming that they are all out to study, maybe getting into the groove before the classroom will make things more smooth sailing. Maybe it's just me thinking too much about things that don't really matter. I realise too that I feel the need for people to become too existentialistic. In other words, I feel that sometimes the actions of a person though very noble can be completely bogus if I know that what they do does not equate to what they want to do.

Well, having said that, I feel that students already know that they can expect a few laughs in my classroom. They know that I know my stuff and they can't shrew away from it. They know they can't cheat me in terms of the language or try to get unruly while I'm around. They know that there's an unwritten contract if things get too ugly and I don't like it, they're bound to suffer bad consequences. I guess, probably they are waiting for those jokes and tricks to surface at times because they want to break out from the placid norms of the everyday classroom. Probably the other classes are not getting the necessary endorphin excretion that they are longing for these short bursts of Hu! Hu!'s and Ha! Ha!'s.

Why so serious?

-The Joker-

Sabah bah

2010-06-24T18:02:00.000+08:00

Recently, I had a friend (who is also a junior in my TESL programme in UPSI) who was very enthusiastic about coming over to Sabah. Apparently, she wants to venture to another place and really loves the idea of living by the ocean i.e. Sempoerna. I think it's really good to hear that there are other people who are very enthusiastic coming into the battle.

Watch out! Orange power a comin'

Not just a fellow teacher... an English teacher. Aren't you welcome!! Besides Kota Kinabalu (which I still don't believe is flooded with English teachers) the entire state of Sabah or the entire country is in need of your power. Your caped crusading antics (I heard, she loves an orange cape) are all needed in this part of the world. Don't just swoosh in and leave an orange trail.

Help them realise their potentials.

I really like it that she's not just enthusiastic but apparently going against the wanted path by her folks. Talk about taking the road less traveled by.. (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken). It takes a lot of guts and rebelliousness to take a whole new step in life.

I know some of those people who have been there and done that are looking at this and going,

Ah... young blood; always fiery and hot blooded at first.

Well, so what? Aren't we all supposed to be like that? What makes this even more necessary is that we want this to keep on as long as possible. We shouldn't snuff out this fire burning in this individual trying to go far and wide. It's all about passion. The driving cataclysmic emotion is important. Especially when you're young (including myself) you need this type of burning effect in your mind. Don't let the blue waves hit your beach just yet. Let the Krakatoa sink the island first, an isle will soon emerge with paradise right in the middle.

A mission.

If you're coming to Sabah with a mission in your head, I foresee great changes around you. In fact, I would love to say that the word changes undermines the true meaning of a situation that will definitely happen for your students when you start stampeding through; and that word is progress. We are not interested in change if you're just going to let the leaves wither around you as you walk. We invite people who are bold enough to step forward, claim that they will make a change, and indeed take the arduous steps to enforce those changes. The Martin Luther Kings and the Nelson Mendelas who take hold no prisoners in their believe that it takes just one person to flip the entire book of history...

... OK, maybe it isn't that dramatic.

But..

For those about to take such bold steps, it's important to realise that this is a step that you must choose without regret. There is no point taking this wonderful first step and then not willing to go through all the way. I will say this that any step you take after the first step is not as easy as they claim to be. Probably after many years, you might get used to many things but at the beginning, it's going to take some toll out of you. It's not meant to shut you down. It's meant to poke on your burning flame. You're supposed to burn it right back.

I welcome such fire.

Sabah bah.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-06-24T15:06:00.000+08:00

There's something about presentations that scare the hell out of people. I think the fact that you're in front, especially if a teacher is watching and analysing every movement of yours makes one person babble the funniest things.

THE TOP TEN LIST OF THE FUNNIEST THINGS KIDS TALK ABOUT TRAVELLING

10. I want to go to see the Dubai in India.

9. Student A: I want to see the many animal species in Africa.
    Student B: How many species there at Africa?
    Student A: 20 000
    Me: *Gasp. Hmmm... I don't think so... but I think he wanted to ask how many species do YOU tend to see there?
    Student A: Oh... 2000

8. I want to go to Australia. What I want to do there is to can touch the water.

7. I want to go to Mount Everest in India.

6. Hmmm.. Haha... Hmmmm... hahaha... Hmmmm.. hahaha... I want... I don't know

5. We go to the seafood restaurant in Tanjung Aru. We spend about RM1500.

4. We went to the India factory to buy the original saree. Is RM25.

3. The best is go to Japan and take plane to Horishima.

2. That Japan we arrive, then we take a boat to the city.

.
.
.
.
.
...and...

.
.
.
.
#1
.
.
.
.
.
1. In Japan, we go to the musuem to see the animals. EH!!! No... zoo ka?

*insert big band jazzy ending with lots of elephants trumpeting

A picture paints more than a thousand words

2010-06-22T11:07:00.000+08:00

I'm surprised.

Hmmm

I'm very surprised.

Hmmm Hmmm

Ghastly.

Yes sir.

Shocked.

Indeed sir.

... sorry. Just had to say a couple of modified lines from the Gulp and Gasp drama in the form 4 literature component.

The reason why I mentioned those words was because I realised that my students who are born and bred here in the beautiful land of Sabah are not as Sabahan as I thought they were. I mean, of course they are Sabahans but I realised that most of them... no, no, A LOT of them have not been to the places that I have since I arrived here to teach English.

When I talked about the beautiful island of Mabul and Kapaalai, they were in awe and bespectacled by the pictures and images that I show them. When I talk about the hot springs and canopy walks in Poring, they listen attentively as though I was talking about a journey to Phuket. Seriously, though these kids might be citizens here, I feel slightly more patriotic than them about Sabah. I guess that's kinda weird but not completely surprising.

A picture is definitely worth more than just a thousand words

Anyway, as the person who has been to those places, I thought I'd share with them the pictures of the places that I've been to in Sabah. I told them to pretend to be promoters of these places. In fact, I told them about how the people who are tourist guides and trekkers were pretty eloquent in communicating in English even if they were very lowly educated formally (I have to say formally because being educated is such a relative term).

They have to know that being highly educated is not the due credit to become proficient in anything at all. It is not entirely dependable on the things you do in class that lead towards the improvement of English. It is the embodiment of your entire commitment to embracing the need and desire to learn the language that makes you move forward. I'm not kidding here when I say, if you only want to learn English in the classroom and expect it to make you improve without any other form of experiential learning; there is very little future ahead of you.

He huffed and he puffed and he blew the cot down

2010-06-11T09:35:00.000+08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ran8ZgE7uT0&feature=related

Sorry for not being able to post the video here... I'm honestly quite lazy to figure out the HTML needed to post the video. Anyway, let's not make this about me.

Just a couple of days ago (I know this is old news) I went to search for this purported (confirmed true now) video about a 2 year old toddler smoking packs like my uncle who has been smoking for the past 40 years.

2 year old toddler. That's right. Just in case you didn't take me seriously.

I mean, as a teacher, reading this sort of news, watching the video of the baby puffing Dunhills like it was a pacifier really makes me feel wrong. That's right, there's no other word to describe the feeling when I was watching the video. It was just wrong.

Just which part of the toddlers upbringing included cigarette training? Did the parents send him to cigarette training school? Did they look at him and say:

Oh look, he's crying. Give him a ciggy.

Oh look, he's tired of his toys. Give him a ciggy.

Oh look! He said papa! Give him a ciggy.

Oh look! He laughed when I peek-a-booed him! Give him a ciggy.

Something is imbecilic and perverted in the minds of those who educated him that way.

The people who caused his addiction or neglected in forms of inaction should be given some sort of punishment.

2nd Semester, 3 Goals

2010-06-09T11:40:00.000+08:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything in the blog or in my Facebook account. I guess being back in Ipoh really reverts me back to my old self where I don't even bother socialising virtually because I don't find the need to do that back home in good old Old Town Original Kopitiam.

This really reminds me of the need to utilise the internet facility back in Kinabatangan to the fullest. I really feel that the internet is an escape from the ongoing conditions of a non-English-speaking society in that area. Don't get me wrong; Sabah/Sandakan is a completely different place - I get to speak English almost everyday with the people I mix with. The tennis players and the social circle back in Sandakan is well-versed in English and the community there is similar to what I can find here in Ipoh. Besides, it's just about an hour away from good ol' Kinabatangan.

However, I must not forget my initial goal of staying in Kinabatangan. For sure the area is not English speaking primarily or secondarily; my goal is to create a schooling environment that forces/encourages/persuades (I personally like the last word) my students to learn English. The beginning of the second semester is the starting point. The second semester is the time where I cannot say:

I'm still trying to settle down. I'm still not sure about my own welfare yet.

I'm already settled down (I would like to believe so anyway). It's time to take some drastic actions now. I'm sure I'll face resistance and troubles from students or administrators as well. I'm sure enforcing English and nearly pushing aside their native tongue will come with significant resistance. It isn't just going to be a short NO or Cikgu, lebih baik jangan la ya... susah kalau buat begitu. It might be silent negligence or evasion from taking action (which to me is worse).

I have drawn out 3 main plans for my vision in that school. Being as realistic as I can (cause my girlfriend says I'm too idealistic), I figured that if I can get these 3 things going in the 2nd semester, I'll be pretty darn happy with myself.

Here are the 3 ongoing plans in my head right now:

My form 4 class is English Speaking Only. This is also extended to the 1st form 1 class that I teach too.
I told this to my form 4 class that I'll enforce penalty systems (monetary) and I'll make the class an English Speaking Only Zone (ESOZ) whenever I'm around. In fact, for the class that I'm holding, I become and ESO teacher with monetary penalties that I see fit. They agreed to it - very encouragingly in fact because they never had anyone enforce such strict English Speaking rules to them before. They seem to be interested and afraid but most of them seem positive about this new amendment. I'm not going to back down on this one. We'll see how they rise up to the challenge. I hope it's not just warm chicken shit (translated from the famous Malay proverb).

English School Song
Of course this is going to be really difficult. I'm not going to change the melody nor the minus one because I don't have the facilities to record a new song altogether. I'll just think of a way to translate the old Malay song into an English one or rewrite the entire school song altogether in an English version. I feel that since the students are being forced to sing songs everyday in the assembly, getting one English song in there would be of great change (notice how I say change and not improvement; I'm not sure of its eventual effect). Also, I realised that in Ipoh, the good schools that are English speaking primarily all have English school songs. This brings up the question of: Did they have an English song because they are using English as their main medium of instruction or did they force this whole English school song to signify that they want to become English medium primarily? Either way, I feel that an English song would be fresh and LIFE CHANGING for all of the students.

Form 1 Future Debating Team
Lets face it. The form 4s and 5s are alright but not that promising if they are sent to tournaments. I can't expect the school to dump out money as well for a team that I cannot promise any achievement at all as well. It's difficult to teach old dogs new tricks and although many of them are high in spirit, time is just against their interests. I'm really sorry as their teacher for saying such demotivating things to them but I'm trying to be realistic. If they wanna join as their own personal enrichment, I fully encourage them to do so; future tournaments in 1 or 2 years time, I'm banking on the younger generation. Train them for a year or 2, and send them to tournaments when they are in form 4 or so. (of course, the new form 1s that come in next year will be enrolled the same way. Pelapis (new blood) is important.)

My form 1 class is showing very good potential in speaking and forcing themselves to use English. I think due to their young age, acceptance to forced change is easier because they are more disciplined and are probably afraid of my stern-tiger-eyes. Anyway, as a reward for their excellent responses, I want to take 3-6 students out from that class and isolate them for hardcore debating practices. I don't care if they like it or not or see any future in their own life, this is my judgment as their teacher on what will help them become more competitive later on. Hopefully, this will spawn an elite English speaking group that is envied, revered, and sought after by all students who aspire to be good in English for a reason. That's right, if their society does not show them a clear example of when, where, and provide a platform for using English; Sir Adrian Tan will show them the yellow brick road.

Breaking it down

2010-06-02T11:25:00.000+08:00

How is Sabah?

That's the typical question that they ask me when I get back to Ipoh. I don't really know how to answer the question because there are many aspects of the place (which I assume that they're asking about my teaching career here as well) that are too different to be chunked into one definitive answer.

Being the typical cynic, I always give an answer which doesn't directly answer the question but in turn questions back the person asking the question. I know who you are and I'm sorry. I don't mean to evade the question. I'll try to break down the answers here as much as possible.

Kinabatangan
Your typical semi-rural area. Not really a down-and-out place but just quiet enough to make you want to get out of it occasionally to let loose. The place has nothing interesting besides nature sites which you have to drive for a couple of hours to reach. Small town, definitely livable and comfortable if you don't plan to live in your typical 'terrace house' or don't plan to do anything but play sports all day (sports facilities that I go to are all free of charge: tennis, badminton, volleyball, soccer. Futsal is not free by the way). My place is a really low populated area which means you can get anywhere comfortably with a bike. Also, being a small place, everyone knows everyone. Even if you don't know their names, you know their designated positions in the area:
1. The Electrician
2. The Rich dude.
3. The Pirate
4. The teachers/PPD fellas
5. The Restaurant Fella
6. The Boss
7. The Samseng
8. The Nice Aunty
9. The Nice Uncle.

The list goes on, but you get the idea. Living there is OK I guess, if you're the kinda guy that can tolerate lesser standards and don't mind having NO entertainment besides sports and what you can get in your own home, Kinabatangan is a fine place to be. In fact, being the new guy there, everyone gets a little bit excited about you. Really.

Job
Nothing surprising. Nothing in the system can catch you off guard anymore. I'm not surprised by the lack-there-offs or the red-tape that comes with the job. I'm also not surprised by the level of education in the area or the one or two EXCELLENT students you can get from such a place. In fact, I think the only thing that surprises me is the size of the school I'm working at vis a vis the size of the place surrounding it. Generally, the people there (colleagues and staffs) are very nice people. There are of course a select few that you wish you could burn alive but nothing surprising. I'm sure you find these sort of bums wherever you land in. The teaching aspect... hmmm... it's kinda challenging because I feel my TESL course is a little bit irrelevant most of the time. I feel that in most of the classes, a TEFL student would really feel comfortable because that's what it is most of the time... foreign.
But... don't let that get into your head. Being a teacher is challenging regardless of the type of challenges you're facing. You'll just trade off one for another so might as well be happy with what you are given. Just remember that whatever challenges you face is your problem, not someone else's. Give your kids a break; don't make them your outlet.

Holidaying
I've never been island hopping like this ever! There is not better way to write up about holidaying in Sabah than just giving you the link to my facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=182085&id=507101837

A picture paints a thousand words.

You have to experience it. Even the pictures don't justify the beauty that I've witnessed in Mabul and Kapalai. You have to go there and feel it on your skin. Come back, and post your pictures for others to drool at.

My Relationship
Long distance? No? Are we always together? Are there any problems stemming from career starts? I would say that everyday becomes a challenge in terms of having to understand each others' position. We've been having more bickering sessions (most of it coming from me) but I cannot help but think that I've been really lucky to have the best woman in the world. Whatever problems we could have now or would probably face in the coming years, the best thing that could come out from all of that is that...

... we'll be facing them together.

In the words of Robert Frost,

and that has made all the difference.

So, how am I going to answer the question,

"How is Sabah?"

My answer:

"Still feels like the fresh prince,"

Lazy Man's Chair

2010-05-27T07:41:00.000+08:00

The best thing about being a teacher is....

After a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong semester...

... you'll have a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong HOLIDAY!!!

3 weeks baby!

See you in 3 weeks!

Happy Holidays!!!

p/s: if you're not a teacher, BITE ME!

Cutting little holes

2010-05-25T10:17:00.000+08:00

Haven't been blogging for awhile... as usual... busy busy...

and Mabul Mabul.. hehehe... check my FB profile for insane pictures.

Well, marking exam papers ain't that difficult. Especially if you're teaching weak classes where students sometimes hand in blank papers...

... so far, students have been answering as expected from their level of competency.

Anyway, that's not the reason why I'm blogging here today.

Lets check the Schedule for Giving Out Exam Slips

21st June 2010: Subject teachers give marks to the class teacher
22nd June 2010: Class teachers compile results
23rd June 2010: Teachers hand in the results to the office to be signed by the Principal
24th June 2010: Teachers take the results from the Principal.
25th June 2010: Parent Teacher Conference

Seriously... does it take a genius or semi-experienced teacher to notice the schedule is completely bollocks?

Poor teachers with classes of up to 50 students.

Poor Principal only given less than 12 hours to sign all 1000+ exam slips.

Good luck and happy holidays

They follow the pattern of the wind you see.

2010-05-16T16:27:00.000+08:00

I think what our Education Minister highlighted in his Teachers' Day speech was indeed interesting. He mentioned 7 things that were going to change to improve the lifestyle of teachers in school. They are:

1. to reduce the number of positions and bureaus in schools.
2. to reduce the number of internal exams.
3. change or revamp the clerk system in schools.
4. to standardise important courses.
5. to give promotions to certain positions and grades.
6. to reward teachers who improve school results
7. to allow teachers in rural areas to transfer to town areas (under observation still).

These items definitely have received thunderous applause from some especially when there are important keywords like reduce, promote, reward and transfer.

Mind you, I'm all for those things mentioned. I just have a few queries related to those things mentioned.

1. Reduce the number of bureaus in schools = are there any bureaus in schools now that are not needed or irrelevant? If yes, why were they established in the first place? If he did not mention this, would the bureaus in schools remain?

2. To change the clerking system? What is wrong with it? Is it because there is abuse? Do teachers feel like they're being dog-pounded by a very abuse prone system? Are teachers RIGHT NOW suffering from the current system? Has it reached a breaking point that there HAS TO BE some sort of change or there'll be serious repurcussions?

3. RM1800 for teachers who improve school exam levels? How is this going to be given? Raise in the basic salary? Annually? Monthly? Why aren't teachers in the current system being rewarded for good performances? If they are, why is it not enough? What is the current lapse within the system that does NOT recognise teachers' contributions?

4. Transfer transfer transfer. Isn't there a system now that monitors a fair exchange system? Aren't GURU CEMERLANGs supposed to be sent to rural areas because they get higher salaries? Isn't there a grace period where new teachers are supposed to replace old teachers in these areas so that teachers don't remain in those places involuntarily for too long? Is that system not working?

I find it troubling when these questions arise.

Me? Mock Daddy?

2010-05-12T13:25:00.000+08:00

So, being a teacher means you go into class eh?

Lesson plans, eh?

Sports day, eh?

Going out bringing students for competitions, eh?

Going for courses, eh?

.
.
.
.
.
.
How about bringing kids out to the doctors? Sitting in the waiting room waiting like an anxious father-to-be?

ehehehehehe.

Believe me. You'll have to play daddy or mummy while the kids are in school. Especially if they are young small kids.

WTF is THAT?!?!

2010-05-11T09:12:00.000+08:00

Teaching a poor proficiency class is really challenging. It's challenging not because it is difficult to come up with a level which suits them. It's not challenging in terms of coming up with materials or exercises. It becomes difficult because you know that there is 1 kid that does not fall in the same category as them.

One of my form 3 class consists of very, very slow learners. It isn't their fault and it's really nothing to do with attitude entirely. I feel that these kids just lack direction and are of course a little bit slower in terms of their mental capacity. They aren't special ed kids but I would say they aren't too far away from that level. It really is very difficult for them to catch simple concepts and remember them. Drilling becomes a very popular choice here and to me, it is kind of effective for them.

That isn't the underlying problem in my class. I find it most disturbing that there is this one kid who is a clear level ahead of the rest of them. In fact, he is a good 5-6 levels ahead of the class in terms of English competency and mental capacity. I don't mind him being smart at all, the only thing I could wish for is for my kids to be as bright as they can be; the slower classmates become overshadowed completely by his ability to keep up with the materials that I present to the rest of them.

Telling him to cool it and let others have a chance isn't helping him either. Being the active and exuberant kid that he is, he finds it very demotivating to be told to cool down and let others try to answer questions or solve problems that he could demonstrate very easily. At a student's perspective, I can understand how unsatisfying that learning process can become.

Having said that, I told the other teachers about this one kid who should be shifted to a class where he would benefit more from - at least in his English. Many other teachers concurred that he was a clear cut above the rest and some even said that his Mathematics belonged to the 1st class and was very hampered during these classes. I told the class teacher who also identified this issue and brought it forward to the administration. Here is the following excuse:

We cannot transfer him because he registered late in the school. He also has low marks for one subject (if I'm not mistaken, KH) and therefore cannot be shifted to a better class. More importantly, we cannot transfer him to a better class because of his late registration in the school.

I know...

You're going "HUh!??"

I'm going WTF is THAT?!!

Common Grounds

2010-05-09T16:15:00.000+08:00

I guess it's just normal for someone who has been put out of place to seek refuge within their own walls of solitude. It's not really reflective of that person's personality and I personally don't think it has anything to do with insecurities as well.

Some like to give names to these conditions i.e. inferiority complexes or superiority complexes. Sometimes, names can get even more foul as the titles and nicknames that surface become more crude and unrefined. I think it's just normal for the people to lash out at something they find not fitting to their own norms before analysing the situation or individual past skin deep.

I would say that people just need to seek common grounds. It just takes one person, one situation or one topic of conversation to break the metaphorical walls surrounding that person. I also feel that in a working environment, there is more than just colleagues-at-the-office relationships. It is only human that people tend to develop more solid relationships surpassing work-related-professional-emotionless-hi-goodbye standards.

We're all in this together
-High School Musical-

Being someone completely inept in EQ or SQ situations or discussions, it is quite intriguing to observe how people are so influenced by these qualities till it affects their life tremendously. Rationally, an adult would be more independent and equipped to deal with these emotions because of life's experiences but I commonly see the opposite of it. It isn't quite understandable from my observation as to why simple emotional issues could have been dealt with more maturely - or even better, shared.

It isn't really about seeking counseling or seeking help from professional psychiatric/social doctors. We just need some time off to rethink and reevaluate the situation. Time will definitely be tinkered for different individuals. However, time does not become an issue here, what is is neglect and denial. When someone is trying not to solve that quotient problem, then it isn't about when will the problem be solved, it becomes a choice about dealing with it, or running away.

To most people, running away becomes standard-operating-procedure.

I feel that in some people as much as I feel that it applies to me as well. Being a teacher in a different place calls for alterations and possibly complete flips in lifestyle. It's not wrong and it ain't something drastic too. Dealing with it seems like a more arduous choice but that makes someone stronger instead of a runaway.

In the end,

we're just fitting in, eh?

Snatched Saturdays

2010-05-07T08:52:00.000+08:00

This Saturday, my school is having a Latihan Dalam Perkhidmatan (LDP) which basically means a course that teachers have to go through to improve their services in school. Great right? It's really great that the system is trying to take some initiative to improve the quality of its members.

The course we're about to take is stress management.

Stress Management

Seriously... stress management? Stress management?

On a Saturday? Dragging teachers out from their weekends to go to school for the ENTIRE afternoon to go for a stress management course? Dragging teachers from the only time they can let out all the stocked up pressure and workload back to school is supposed to be less stressful?

Say it with me...

You cannot be serious man!!! You cannot be serious!!!
-John McEnroe-

Speaking of tennis, yours truly was supposed to go for a tennis tournament this Saturday WHICH IS mind you, the BEST way he releases all the stress. How would that person feel if he is supposed to not go to that tournament and instead join a stress management programme in school?

On a SATURDAY mind you...

When he was able to go to a tournament just last week, he came back to school with such a big smile on his face and students all painted smiles on their faces as they basked in the shine of the teacher's glorious bright face. Isn't that good? Nothing beats the expressions of a teacher who has managed to get some time off from his regular routine to do what he loves. He comes back with more vigour and stamina to run the miles and hike the hills of the ever landsliding hills of PnP.

On a SATURDAY!

SATURDAY!

p/s: just love the text size changes. Should use it more often.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

2010-05-05T20:11:00.000+08:00

Students love watching the movie Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Even though some of them have watched the movie, only now they really pay attention to the details of the movie. They draw conclusions and make deeper analyses and comparisons that they wouldn't normally do when watching the movie.

All thanks to the graphic novel in the new literature component.

Jules Verne's book of the same name really is an interesting and easy-to-read book that really brings a lot of excitement into my classroom. Although I was supposed to do the short story Flipping Fantastic with them first, the healthy response from the students prompted me to start of teaching them the novel first. In no time, they grasped the characters and plot of the story because of the uber effective pictures and short texts in the novel.

Really easy novel, very easy graphical cues, very effective word association with the pictures, very simple language use, and tons of possibilities in terms of activity-creation. I found teaching this novel to be as simple as going into the classroom and just giving them activities to do. I highly recommend teaching this novel if you feel that your classroom seems rather passive and unresponsive at first. It's a good way to jump start their learning braincells.

Thumbs up to the novel.

Oh, probably Brendan Fraser helped too.

Making English Friends

2010-05-05T12:14:00.000+08:00

Although I already did informal letter writing with the students, I thought that it would be wise to repeat the class one more time. This time, I told them to write to a pen-pal that they didn't know. The letter would be introductory and that someone in the class would be the recipient. They should take NO initiative to try to find out who they are and must try their very best to keep each others' identity a secret.

They really like that concept. I told them that since they don't have friends that they converse entirely in English, this is a good chance to mail each other letters in English. They sort of get an English Writing friend.

As a reward, if these mail system goes smooth sailing, I told them that I would try to get them real pen-pals from overseas. After researching for pen-pals online, I realised most of them are emailing each other instead of writing letters.

I think that should be fine. I can get my students to mail them personally and hopefully, responding to each other would be really good. I hope to get my whole class to make at least 1 foreign friend and mail each other letters till they are form 5. That would be really interesting.

The Little Things

2010-04-26T16:58:00.000+08:00

The best thing about being a teacher is not the praise we get from the school's administrator for doing a good job in a Mercu Jaya PMR event.

The best thing about being a teacher is not about receiving an extra bonus at the end of the year.

The best thing about being a teacher is not about getting enough materials to start a TOP TEN LIST.

The best thing about being a teacher is receiving gifts from your students.

Yes, I said it.

Not expensive-out-of-the-world type of presents. The little things.

Cards, letters of appreciation, little tokens with those...

'Sir is the best teacher I known you,'
'Good sir the best!'

... sentences that require a little tweaking here and there grammatically.

It somehow makes you feel good about yourself. When you feel bad and out of place, these little things make you feel on top of the world. I might be getting a little ahead of myself but I really love these small tokens and gifts from students. Especially when the whole class decided to give you something.

It really makes a teacher feel good about himself. Suddenly, you don't need to take those Prozacs no more. It really makes you feel like you're reaching out. No matter how much you think you're failing to do your job appropriately, they come out to tell you how much they love you and love what you've taught them all this while.

I love my students with all my heart.

Sarcastic Saturdays

2010-04-24T11:33:00.000+08:00

Don't you just love Saturdays?

Isn't a beautiful Saturday morning FULL of cartoons on TV and you just seem to have tonnes of activities lined up for that wonderful weekend starter?

TETTTTTTTTTTTTTT!! *buzzer

You have to go to school, with probably a classroom filled with joyous hostel students (all 8 of them), and you have to prepare your lessons and activities for them. Isn't that just joyous?

TETTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!! *buzzer

Your classroom has such wonderful energetic kids and they just can't wait to do all your work and activities on that Saturday morning. May I add that the mornings on Saturdays always seem cooler and cozier with just a tad bit of morning dew.

TETTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!! *I think you should know what this is by now.

Put a smile on your face, enter the classroom and start the day with.

Good MORNING CLASS!!! Isn't it a beautiful morning today?!

*get the stares from your happy cheerful students

Say it with me...

"TETTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A country full of B's and C's

2010-04-14T16:41:00.001+08:00

A few hours ago, a teacher asked me a very intriguing question.

Adrian, how would you grade an individual in an oral test?

Of course, the teacher was referring to the SBOA or School Based Oral Assessment and her attempts to try to evaluate her students who are having zero competency in English. A fruitful discussion soon sparked between us and we shared our ideas about how we grade individuals orally. Many issues soon came up and I'll talk about all of them soon in my other blogs. In this blog, I would really prefer to open up the issue of:

What is the value of an A vis a vis a B, C, or D?

Importantly, when we say,

This student got a C in his oral assessment.

What does that really mean? How do we value the C? I mean, as far as laymen impressions go, we all know that A is the dream and it's damn good and an F means your English is probably rotting somewhere in the gutter.

What about the B's and C's?

How would you say that this student was a B and not a C? What is the empirical standard? What are the measuring instruments used to validate that a person was a B speaking person? I know this sounds a little fuzzy; trust me, if this has got me to think, I'm pretty sure you, reading my confused thoughts are riding on the same ol' truck. Here's another way to look at it: imagine each sentence below was spoken orally and you are supposed to grade their levels based on these sentences.

My teacher is very the fantastic because he is very good in his teaching.

My teacher are very fantastic because he makes very good teaching class.

My the English teacher is the best teacher because he good in teaching.

Him English teacher very good in his teaching class in my class.

My English teacher is very fantastic is because he has very good teaching method.

Now, none are of the A category. These students should not be failed either (at least I won't fail them because their messages are completely comprehensible). These are perfect examples of B's and C's.

So, which one is a B? C? Do we count the number of errors when they speak? I'm sure some of you reading almost immediately begin to correct the errors and think that the value should be based on the number of red ink on their sentences. Remember again, this is an oral test. Even if you did have the liberty to correct their every sentence individually (which by the way, in my opinion, complete bullshit if you say you can), are the syntactical rules in spoken English exactly the same as that of written English?

I'm pretty sure your answer to the last question is "Not really,"

Going back to the question:

Which one is a B? C?

Based on my discretion, I would grade all of these answers a C accept for the 4th sentence which would get a D. This has nothing to do with intrinsic knowledge about Universal English Standards, it's plain ol' Adrian's experience in life of using English and his own damn validation of what's good and what's bad. Fair? Not fair? Let's try not to judge too soon first.. read on...

If all variables are set aside and the only things taken into consideration are the capability of a student conveying his/her message(s) and variety in utilisation of English sentences to convey more effective messages; the 4th sentence lacks that of the other sentences. I try to quantify that by saying that in the other sentences, the students try to say 2 things:

1. The teacher is good/fantastic.
2. The reason behind that claim.

The 4th question only has a claim without reasoning. This is of course believing that there are no other sentences besides the ones mentioned above. This is a typical method used by almost all teachers to give grades. Compare, contrast and then make an eventual grade based on the first grade given. If the first sentence deserved a C, the second sentence had to be more effective or proper to get a B. This completely skips the process of quantifying a B and instead just focuses on the exact quantification of a C, and revolving around that grade (better or worse). Again, judging already? Wait, I'll get more empirical about the formal standards soon enough, patience...

Fiuh...

I'll ask another brain-wrecking question. How do you say in the beginning that the first sentence deserves a C? and in oral assessments as well?

If you take a look at the M.U.E.T. oral standards (see, told ya), they say things like:

Highly expressive, accurate and appropriate; hardly any inaccuracies.
Expressive, accurate and appropriate but with minor inaccuracies.
Generally expressive and appropriate but with occasional inaccuracies.
Fairly expressive, usually appropriate but with noticeable inaccuracies.
Lacks expressiveness and appropriacy; inaccurate use of the language resulting in frequent breakdowns in communication.
Inexpressive and inaccurate use of the language resulting in very frequent breakdowns in communication.

*Taken from the scheme of the M.U.E.T. band standards in Communicative Ability.

Note the bolded words and then ask one more time.

Which one of those words refer to the C? Which one of those words refer to a B category?

If you feel you can pinpoint out exactly how it's done, give me a holler.

I appreciate your awesome effort in trying to spark a debate.

THE TOP TEN LIST!!!

2010-04-13T14:32:00.000+08:00

So, teaching them the graphic novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth really is interesting. There are so many things that you could do right from the introduction step to the following chapters. What I did with them in my lesson was Coded Messages.

I told them that they had to think like Arne Saknnussem in the novel. They'll have to write out a coded message that could be deciphered by their friends using very simple numeric codes given by me. After writing down the codes, they'll give the books to me which will then be shuffled and given back randomly to different students to decipher. They LOVE it!

For example: A = 1, B = 2, and etc...

So, for a message that writes Adrian has sexy legs would be coded as:

1/4/18/9/1/14 8/1/19 19/5/24/25 12/5/7/19

I mean, it doesn't have to be sexy legs... it could be:

Adrian has sexy arms
Adrian has slightly larger than average but not visibly obnoxious testicles
Adrian has the most well shaped Adam's apple
Adrian has the most well-toned beer belly.

... you get the picture...

Kids really like it that they get to make secret codes and leave secret messages in their books. Even if it's as simple as this. Eventually, I changed the numeric code into other symbols based on my discretion which made it more difficult but they still loved it. I highly recommend it to teachers as a great activity for the first chapter or the introduction to the great traveler Arne Saknnussem.

So, here goes... unedited as always

THE TOP TEN LIST OF MESSAGES THEY CAME UP WITH

10. Don't touch my book. Please give me back.

9. My father has en airoplane he has bought from USA.

8. The doctor was poking about among the rows of printed circut inside the colum.

7. I love my family forever and ever until I die. (awwwwww)

6. Hurry! Climb the tree and take the rambutans!

5. I will kill you if you tell my secret.

4. When I grow up, I want to go to the centre of the earth.

3. Gukky bear.

2. Today is my birthday! (so happened, it really was her birthday!)

.
.
.
.
.
and...
.
.
.
#1!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
My teacher English is very handsome.

*insert big band jazzy ending, with lots of confetti, balloons dropping down from the dome ceiling, can-can girls dancing, Jessica Alba holding out the award for Most handsome English teacher of the year and me sobbing my brains out saying "You really love me!! You really, reallly love me!" as I walk up to the podium to receive my well-deserved acknowledgment. End all of this commotion with a gentleman's bow from mua and pyrotechnics going crazy with neon lights blinking "Most Deserving Recipient of the Year".

I say... I really know how to make myself feel good.

Resisting the Dark Side of the Force

2010-04-11T13:12:00.000+08:00

OK, I didn't like the previous layout because it had a very demotivating vibe going on whenever I opened it...

It sorta looked like:

The Blog for People Planning their Suicide

The Blog for Those Planning to Murder Their Spouses and Make It Look Like an Accident

The Blog for Cat Autopsy Surgeons... no, no... The Blog for Kitten Autopsy Surgeons

The Blog for Rat Whiskers Pullers

The Blog for Goldfish Deep-Fat Fryers

... you get the picture...

The Untouchable(s)

2010-04-11T11:00:00.000+08:00

If you have students who have problems with simple English syntax, how can you train students to do activities i.e. choral speaking or debates? Here is the path I took to make sure that students get things done quick and efficiently.

That's right. Last minute panic. Not for me, but that's the idea you have to screw into your students when they are given an activity or task that requires quick completion. Personally, I didn't really feel quite comfortable with this type of approach because I like it that my students are stress-free. You know, my suggestopedia (refer to previous blog).

Based on my short observation, getting students all panicked and having a sense of urgency is beneficial in its own way. It's not the only way but it can certainly be utilised to great effect. I tried it out in one of my activities and it was certainly effective in getting their brain functions into high gear.

So how do I create this last minute panic situation? Simple, as the arbitrary power among the students, I give them a do or die situation. Tell them the severe immediate consequences that will be enforced if they do not come up with something in the next 2 minutes.

I swear, if any of you do not come up with a version of a rooster call when I want you to, I can promise you certain elimination from this group.

Boom! Everyone starts cockle-doodle-doing away like me going into a barn-sale with my best (and worst) roosters. You even get the voiceless roosters trying to call out the morning alarm at her very best even though she never had a voice before.

Smart you say?

Well, it's not the last minute rule that is hard to come up with. Anyone can come up with elusive threats. Trust me, if there is one thing that teachers can do awesomely well, it's threats. BIG GINORMOUS threats.

The difficult part is the build-up before the threat. As a teacher, you must be clever in creating an environment and condition where everyone believes dogmatically that you are the divine power. You have to make sure that at the snap of your fingers, students get in line and sell their soul to the devil for a dime.

Of course, I don't wish for them to sell their souls to the devil.. unless by the devil, you mean me... course.

So, in order to do that, what I do is clear demonstration of prowess. Trust me, nothing gets your students more hyped up and confident when they know their in good hands. You must show that you are the penultimate example of awesomeness. You are the one they aspire to emulate. You are the only source of guidance and solace. That is difficult. That is not just difficult, it takes time. You must create this situation with constant demonstration of your ideals and ideas to make something work.

Demonstration is crucial not just to show that some things are attainable but also to eliminate the possibility that some students just do not know what is the benchmark of your definition of success. Show it to them; show them that it is attainable with their current ability and knowledge. Show them that if they fail to reach it at that moment, you are there to ensure that they do. Make sure that they get the message that if they can't reach it, it is the lack of their participation/enthusiasm that is the factor; not the flaw of instruction on your part.

Make your position untouchable and unquestionable. It is difficult but well worthwhile when done.

Besides,

Why should the students believe they can reach something when you are not showing that it can be reached?