Reflection

1. What I like about blogging?

I like blogging very much. It is very good for interaction and communication. On other words, blogging enables me to have social interaction with my friends. I can add commentary after reading one another’s blogs. Besides that, blogging is like an interactive online diary for me. I can express my ideas through my postings.

2. What I do not like about blogging?

So far, I do not have any bad comment about blogging.

3. What have I gained from blogging?

Blogging really encourages me to write. As I did not write essays for so long time, I can feel that my language now becomes rusty. So, it is the best platform for me to improve my language again as well as develop critical thinking skill.

4. What I like about the course?

This course gives me guidance on how to develop teaching resources using technology as well as non-technology in order to help me in carrying out a good teaching and learning process. Besides that, I have gained some skills like photo editing, audio editing, video editing, and converting files using a lot of free software in the internet.

5. What I do not like about the course?

This course is very time- consuming. It requires me to spend most of the time to practice all the skills and finish up the tasks within a short period of time.

6.What I have learnt from the course?

I have learned that in order to deliver a good teaching, teacher must use good and suitable teaching materials/ resources in order to help the pupils’ learning. With good teaching resources, it makes pupils’ learning become meaningful and interesting.

7. What I do not expect but have learnt from the course?

The thing that I do not expect but I have learned from this course is blogging.

8. What i expect but have not learnt from the course?

Mostly, what I expect to learn is taught in this course.

9. If i can change anything about the course, state what it is and explain.

In my opinion, this course should combine with another subject that is Technology in ESL Classroom. The skills and contents are almost the same. It is like a redundant. Thus, by having only a subject, we can save our time and apply for another elective course.

TEST

Hurray!..my heart had swollen with joy as I had sat for the test for this course. Basically, the questions were a little bit difficult to me. Even though I have read all the notes given, I did not feel very satisfied with all the answers that I had written. It was because, all the questions are application questions, no more direct questions which we have to remember the important facts and terms.

However, I had put my effort to the maximum revising all the topics until the midnight. So, how much I get for the marks, it’s all up to my lecturer. I really hope that I could pass the test, InsyaAllah..

Educational software.

Recently, a number of games have been generated and created with regards to help children learning and acquiring some fundamental skills e.g- writing, speaking, reading, listening and counting. Even though there are some issues arise regarding to children’s eye strain, it is the parents’ and teachers’ responsibility to control and monitor the appropriate amount of time for the children to engage with interactive and computer-based learning.

There are a number of educational software that consist of interactive and fun games which can help children to develop important skills that are necessary to bloom. An important example includes software that are designed towards developing reading skills. These games combine the use of phonics with word families, while using colors and music to enhance children's retention. As reading is one of the most important skills a child should develop, more and more educational companies are starting to realize this. As a result, parents and teachers should not worry to search for suitable games for young children who are eager to read.

Besides that, educational software can help to build fundamental math concepts. Through the games, children will be given insight into basic addition and subtraction, as well as basic geometry, especially with regards to shapes and their names. As children age and their skills and understanding broaden, these educational games can provide an exciting means of learning about multiplication, division, time, and more.

Apart from that, using educational software do not only bring benefits for children’s academic development, it also reinforces children’s emotional and mental development. Emotionally, it makes children feel less bored and make positive progress in their learning. Lastly, in terms of mental development, they will make positive progress to more advanced concept as they mature.

How has the pattern of my school holidays changed as I have grown older.

When I thought back about my childhood, many vivid memories sprung to my mind. The most vivid memory for me seemed to be going for a drive in my father’s car. As my father and my mother had to work all the week, the only time they could take the family out was during the weekends or school holidays. During school holidays, my parents would bundle all of us in my father’s car and take us to visit some interesting places. Sometimes, we went for a picnic or shopping. My brothers and I really did enjoy these trips. So, what can I say is life during primary school was one big round of enjoyment and happiness. We had nothing to worry about. We only knew how to enjoy the life and play!
Growing up has changed things a bit. School holidays now seem mostly fulfill with homework and assignments. During this Hari Raya holidays, I pushed myself to finish up some assignments. I glued myself in front of my laptop, browsing some information regarding to my assignments from early in the morning until the afternoon. I stopped for a while and continued until the evening. My parents especially my mother wondered, “Why there were so many assignments during the holidays? Just ignore them laa. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. When I heard my mom told that, I laughed very loudly. Then, I had to stop doing all the assignments for a few days. I knew why she told me like that. She wanted to have some chitchats with me as I rarely went back to my hometown. So, I entertained her by going out to Bazaar Ramadhan together, cooking new recipes, watching television and others. Furthermore, as my mum now suffers from lung cancer, she really needs support and attention from all the family members. She lost her weight from 72kg to 46kg. I felt so sad. I could not see any happiness from her face. She is now extra sensitive. She could easily cry if we did very simple mistakes. Huhuhu..
All in all, I could say that the pattern of my school holidays changed as I have grown older. It was from playing and changed to have some commitments. I thought this was part of the process of growing up. My small world of the family is gradually changed and now it expanded to include my friends, lecturers and doing assignments. Perhaps in the future the pattern on my holiday activities will change even more. I cannot say for sure what they would be but I have to face and do them when the time comes.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA..MAAF ZAHIR BATIN

First of all, i would like to wish Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir & Batin to all my lecturers and friends..So, i would like to put my hands together and ask for forgiveness if I ever make any mistake or offended anyone in any of my postings.

Today, i'm leaving for my hometown..yeah!!! i am looking forward to meet my abah and ma, my sweet and naughty cousins, Athirah, Muahz, Ifah and Sumaiyyah.

After packing all my things, i have done a list of assignments to be done during this holidays.. oh my God! i have 7 assignments: Resources, Mathematics and Assessment. Huhuhuh.. it is too much for me..i don't know whether i manage to do and finish up all the assignments or not. i try to comfort myself telling everything is gonna be OK. Raya tetap raya..but with good time management and self-discipline, InsyaAllah, i try my best to finish them up..

Responsible for our own learning.

Studying in MPIK and UM has a very big difference for me. I felt very secured and comfortable learning in MPIK because most of the lecturers are friendly and love to ‘spoon feed’ us. Some people might say that it is not good to ‘spoon feed’ the students all the time. We must work on our own or be independent. When the lecturers gave all the important notes and fullest guidance, I knew that I was on the right track of learning. When the examination days, I felt well-equipped with all the information and ‘vomit’ them to score high marks in the exam J
Unfortunately, in UM, I have to be really independent and responsible for my own learning. No more PowerPoint slides, no more extra notes and no more spoon feeding. L. I have to have my own alternative routes or strategies for attaining the learning goals, correcting my errors and redirecting myself when my work plans do not work. At first, I felt very tension to face this new learning situation. Now, after 3 months in UM, I could say that I am able to adapt myself with this campus life which has no free time to enjoy and ‘honeymoon’ J. After experiencing 3 months of self-regulated learning, I could say that I am able to know my own strengths and weaknesses and know how to deal with them productively and constructively.
The second assignment challenges me a lot. I am required to design two lesson plans using any resources in the net and manipulate the resources to the maximum level. However, the lecturer had given a resource to be manipulated for the first assignment, that was a video of “Earth Song” sung by Michael Jackson. For the second one, I have to find out any appropriate resources on my own. Before this, the lecturers will suggest and recommend a list of websites which are suitable to get learning materials. It saved my time and energy. Not for this time, I had to sit in front of the laptop, browsing the best and appropriate video to be manipulated for my lesson. I should say thank you for those who have contributed useful videos in the net. They are all kind people who really help other people like me which I can download them for free! Hehehe.
Own, forget to say, this assignment has to be done in pairs. What I learn through this co-operative learning is about tolerance. I have to tolerate with my partners as we have our own ideas on how to use the resources well. Sometimes we argue when I think my ideas are good enough and my partner says no and vice versa. Here, tolerance takes place. What we do is we list down all the ideas and use all the ideas, if possible.
I think that I have to recharge my energy. I really-really hope that my lecturer would not give any task for next week, InsyaAllah. J

Teachers : Being realistic.

For the last week, we had to work in groups and prepare a presentation. Each group had been given a topic and my group had received a topic ‘Being Realistic’. First of all, let me define what ‘realistic’ is. Realistic means being sensible and understand what is possible to achieve in particular situation or showing things as they really are. Therefore, teacher should be realistic in bringing about success in English language learning among pupils.
There are many things that should be taken into considerations in order to be realistic in teaching. Firstly, in selecting activities, teachers should questions themselves when they want to select or design an activity to use with the pupils- e,g- “Will it be difficult for pupils to carry it out?”, “Is the language suitable for the level?”, “Which skills does it practise?”, “Does it create a good atmosphere?” and so on. By doing this, teacher will have specific, clear and explicit purposes in their mind and can deliver the learning successfully. On the pupils’ side, they will enjoy learning and process the learning more deeply.
Secondly, it is undisputable that motivation is an extremely an important factor in determining success in pupils’ learning. Therefore, teachers should be realistic in teaching in order to arouse pupils’ motivation. In this case, familiarity of the subject and their cultural background knowledge help to increase pupils’ motivation. When the pupils are familiar with the topic, they will eager to participate in the lesson to the maximum level. This is good in order to ‘settle down’ pupils who are restless or active and naturally pay attention during the lesson. For those who are weak in learning process, providing familiar topic and their cultural background knowledge enable them to ‘feel’ success and motivate them to further their learning to the fullest.
Teacher should also be realistic in term of providing support to the pupils. Pupils really need support or assistance in order to carry out the activities that they are not able to do unaided. When teachers provide support to the pupils, they will gain confidence and eventually able to function independently. For example, teachers can support pupils by giving pictures to comprehend text, gestures, related vocabulary and others. However, teacher should know how to adjust, reduce and match support to pupils’ understanding and experience. It is not appropriate to provide fully support the advance students. They might feel that teachers do not appreciate their own capability. Besides that, it might reduce the level of challenge and pupils might not experience learning progress.
Lastly, lesson planning is just a guide or reference to teachers for smooth and efficient teaching. Sometimes, what they have planned does not work at all depending on the pupils’ mood and classroom situation on that particular day. For instance, pupils might be passive in the morning lesson. If the teachers want to do reading activity, I am sure that they won’t give full participation. Teacher should be realistic by not continuing teaching according to the lesson planning, but being flexible by asking the pupils to sing songs or do physical movement activity. This will help to awaken the pupils. Therefore, teacher should be realistic and flexible in teaching in order to suit their mood and interests.

Frustration Leads To Success..

Some people might say that determination leads to our success. Yes, I totally agree with it. Through my experiences learning this course, I would say that frustration leads me to success.

I had experienced and faced a lot of obstacles and failures when learning this course. The main reason was I am not a computer literate. This was the first time for me having a serious learning about ICT. Learning all the technology terms, applications as well as exploring softwares through the net had enough made my heart beat very fast, had a sleepless night thinking about the projects and so on. When my lectures gave me a task, and I failed to do the based on my target, I felt very frustrated and that time I started to cry. Only by crying could rejuvenate me. Sometimes, I text (sms) my mum, sharing all of my failures. One day, she text me back “Can you recall what were your experiences of doing things for the first time?”

Then, I started to think about it. The first time I jumped into the sea and tried to swim, I sank. I had to bear the choking taste of salt water running into all the openings of my body. My eyes smarted, my nose felt awful and I was unable to hear properly. The first time I tried to ride a bicycle, I crashed into tree. Skinned knees were the testimony to this fact. Now, I got what my mum tried to tell me. She indirectly tried to motivate me. When we had painful failures for any first attempt, it did not mean we will fail forever. Success came only with practice-lots of it. It did not come easy.

After learning photo editing, audio editing and video editing, I manage to apply all the skills that I had learned during the first three tasks. I did not face too much problems doing this task. For example, I managed to edit the songs by cutting them down into parts using MP3 cutter, converting a file into another format using Total Video Converter Software, Uploading files into internet storage, Downloading video from the internet source etc. When it came to a thing that required skill, only time and effort will ensure success.

I felt overwhelmed with joy and relief that e-book task was finally over. I finished. It was a testament of my determination and perseverance. As a conclusion, “Success Is Surviving Failure and Learning From It”.

Video editing: Groupwork

Is life too hectic to enjoy fully? For most of us( B.ed Tesl Cohort 3 students) today, the answer to the above question would be a definite "Yes". First and foremost, we had to attend lectures. After spending five hours in class, we had to do group discussions. Finally when we arrived home, we had to have a bath, had our dinner and if we were lucky, got to watch television for awhile. Then, its back to the grind: finishing out assignments. Now, we had had abundance of tasks and assignments to be settled within a period of time, not only this course but the other courses.

For this week, our task was video editing that should be done in groups and pairs.
I had some painful experiences doing video editing for group work. We had to edit the video from one of the 8TV’s famous programmes- ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. Firstly, we had faced problem downloading the series of videos because it took very long in duration. If I was not mistaken, I took about one hour of each series. Unfortunately, while waiting for the downloading process, I could not do any task using my laptop because the downloading progress would be slower and of course I took longer time. Therefore, I had wasted my time gluing myself in front of the laptop and waiting for the downloading process to finish.

Secondly, we had to combine all the series of the videos and edit it to make a new video. Thanks to my group members, Zarne, Mukmin and Faizah for doing well for this part. Then, it was time to convert the video to avi format. There was no problem in converting to avi format. However, we had problems during uploading the files to the ADEC website. We had to upload raw materials of Episode 4 of the programme (4 series), the combined video (1 video) and labeled videos (14 parts). Therefore we had 19 things altogether that must be uploaded. However, each of us only could upload 3 files. Meaning that each person had to upload 3 files and there would be 4 files left. We failed to upload the 4 other labeled videos. We had posted this issue in the forum but sadly there was no reply.

I had tried to upload all the files from midnight until tomorrow morning but I was successfully uploaded only 1 file out of 3 files. Wai had a sleepless night waiting for the uploading process to finish. Therefore, I pushed myself to go to UM’s library and uploaded all the files there. Alhamdulillah, I managed to upload all the files. I felt so relief. I went back home with a sweet smile to show that all my works had finished before I went back to my hometown.
As I was on my way to my hometown, I sat comfortably on my seat in the bus, looking through the window to see the scenery of that evening. I could see a flock of birds flying freely and chirping happily. Sometimes, I got very jealous with them because they could go anywhere they like, flying freely like they have no problems to face off. As I wanted to sleep, my phone rang. Zarne called me and told me the latest news of our task. As many of us failed to upload the files, we had to combine all the works in DVD format. Oh my God! I still had works to do. Then I started to panic because I did not bring back any document of my project. Thanks to Zarne for doing all the latest tasks.

As a conclusion, such a hectic life is not for me. I prefer a slower pace of life where I can savour each moment as much as possible. It is crazy to rush and not see so many things around us. Maybe we can learn something from William Henry Davies’ immortal lines:
What is this life if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

Audio Editing

Music is an amazing tool for teaching languages, especially to children. If the teachers enable to choose good song, it will bounce around in a learner's head long after their lesson is over. Experts agree that music can strengthen children's minds and serve as a fundamental skill of learning. I simply agree with this statement because when children are listening to music, they will pick up vocabulary, grammatical structures and the rhythm of the language. How? They will simply do what they already love to do…s.i.n.g..

Some say music "nourishes children's brains". It is because, music can stimulate brain connections and can actually make children smarter. However, teacher must make sure that the music and songs should be appropriate to the children. It is irrelevant to give children to listen to the ‘rock’ music which contains inappropriate lyrics. If the teachers find that the lyrics of the song is good but the music is not good enough, teacher can make some modifications towards the music of that song.

For this week, I had given an assignment about audio editing. At first, I felt that it is not necessary for me to make some editing on a particular song because it is good enough and that is why it is allowed to be heard to the listeners. However, considering to the children’s level, it is necessary to make some editing on the particular song.

I had edited some songs like ‘Uptown Girl’ by Westlife, ‘Everytime’ by Britney Spears and ‘I’m Lonely’ by Akon using Goldwave Software. Among these 3 songs, I managed to edit ‘I’m Lonely’ song well. I had changed the pitching, add up some echo, made the beat slower and faster at the certain part. Compared to photo editing assignment, audio editing was much more difficult for me. It was becuase, I could not identify which part of the song I should edit. I was not sure whether the song would be nicer or the other way round. :).

At last, after 2 days having try and error, I successfully edited the song by Akon, ‘I’m Lonely’. It was my first time doing audio editing and I hope that I could do better audio editing next time.

Photo Editing

I feel better now. I can have a long sigh of relief. I can feel a sense of peacefulness. My breathing is easy and effortless, my body relax and my mind work easily and peacefully. I slowly begin to regain my emotional balance. I am getting more and more relaxed and calm inside. Why? I have finished doing my photo editing assignment. Oh, Thank God, it was all over!

It was my first time experiencing with photo editing. My eldest brother is very good in photo editing. He voluntarily wanted to teach me how to edit a photo before but I ignored it. Now, I suffered a lot. As I have no background knowledge about photo editing, I have to start from A to Z. Pity me,right?
I started with exploring as many photo editor softwares as possible. Based on my experience, my favourite photo editors are:

ACDSee Photo Editor
Adobe PhotoShop Extended cs3
Corel Paint Shop ProPicasa
Turbo Pro
ArcSoft Photo Impression 4
ZealSoft Funphotor

Among all these, I have chosen the best three softwares, that are ZealSoft FunPhotor, Photo Impression 4 and, Adobe Photoshop Extended cs3. ZealSoft FunPhotor is very fun and easy to be used especially for the beginners. With a few short steps, i can blend my portraits with well-known artwork to create comical images.

ArcSoft Photo Impression is another imaging software that are suitable to be used for the novices and skilled users alike. It contains a great series of creative contents, including frames, clip art, greetings and FunnyFace. At the same time, I used this software to adjust the size, colour and crop pictures.

Adobe Photoshop is good, I can’t disagree with that. Unfortunately, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how, rather than actually playing with the pictures.

As a conclusion, I would say thanks to technical advances, because one can produce high quality pictures and make the pictures look more professional.

All children are unique in what they bring to the classroom and in their ability to absorb and process information. They are also unique in their personal preferences and emerging learning styles. Therefore, what can I conclude here is, different children bring different strategies, experiences and motivations to their learning. At the same time, each child is influenced by their culturally background, first language, educational background and type of preparation or prior knowledge. As a teacher, we should aware with all these differences and we should cater the differences properly. In this way, it gives us guidance to prepare learning activities that work best to the children in the classroom as well as lead to create optimal condition for language learning.
Talking about optimal condition for language learning, teacher may like to consider 6 elements of children’s abilities as a tool for helping us to create optimal learning condition , to maximize children’s learning and to give opportunity to all children in the classroom to blossom and succeed. The elements are:

a) Children’s ability to grasp meaning
b) Children’s creative use of limited language resources
c) Children’s capacity for indirect learning
d) Children’s instinct for play and fun
e) The role of imagination
f) Children’s instinct of interaction and talk


As for the young learners, they usually make sense of their learning if the teacher teach concrete vocabulary items, include repetitive elements and well-illustrated teaching aids.
It is because, they are able to see and touch the things. Repetitive elements provide opportunity to recycle the vocabulary. These meaningful learning experiences enable children to grasp meaning easily. Children’s vocabulary is very limited. Therefore, young learners initially learn chunk of language, which combine vocabulary and grammatical patterns in an unanalyzed way. Children actually are trying to use as creative as possible their limited language resources in order to communicate with others. Due to this, teacher is not advisable to make too much explicit corrections if the children are trying to communicate. As they grow older, they are gradually pay attention to grammatical features and apply more analytical skills in their learning. Learning occurs in two ways: direct and indirect learning. Direct learning is a formal learning where indirect learning is informal learning. Children often appear to learn in indirect experiences. They subconsciously acquire certain knowledge and skills. The best part of children’s learning is when they can learn and have some fun. As pupils’ concentration span is short, teachers should keep in mind to provide and prepare activities that include both these things. It enables teachers to create non-threatening learning atmosphere, therefore it can optimize children’s learning in the classroom.
Does imagination plays a role in learning and success in life? In a word, yes. Children who actively use their imagination reap a host of benefits, such as playing cooperatively and being successful in school. Besides that, it helps children to grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who were imaginative person often become good problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers.

I am a BLACK sheep.. :(

I became more confident to enter the class for this time. I had ‘injected’ myself with some of technology knowledge based on the previous lesson. I did read about some of the downloading software and it gave me crystal clear view on how they work. Ahaaa, before I forgot, my 4GB thumbdrive!!! My heart had swollen with joy, as this was my first time having 4BG thumbdrive. Then, I could make a simple conclusion, the bigger the bite, the larger amount of teaching resources I could store, so, the bigger chances for me to prepare outstanding teaching plans. Am I right? Hehehe..
For today’s lesson, the lecturer had given Assignment 1. We had to do the assignment in groups of 5 with multiracial groupmates. First of all, I should say thank you to my lecturer for this. I agreed with her idea of having multiracial group members because in my opinion, it was good for us to exchange ideas with different people instead of working with the same groupmates for all the times. Besides that, we could get to know each other even closer. Unfortunately, there were some people who still cannot accept this idea. They think that working with their best friends is better than working with their other friends.
After all the class members got the permission to select the group, one of my friends and I had randomly selected a particular group. Suddenly, we heard our names being yelled out by someone. It seemed that we were not invited to that group or we should not be in that group. We were like the black sheeps of the group. Then, our names had been deleted..how bad we felt at that time..thanks to our current group for accepting us..
Until now, we still feel that it is useless to be kind with all people because I won't be paid the same..Friends..Be Courteous..

A POOR teacher, A GOOD teacher, An EXCELLENT teacher, An OUTSTANDING teacher.

As saying goes, “Teachers are born and not made.” As I was born not to be a teacher, to be a ‘good’ teacher is not easy. In order to woo and win the pupils, it involves many words with ‘ing’ endings- innovating, motivating and facilitating. A poor teacher is always telling. A good teacher is always facilitating. An excellent teacher is always motivating. An outstanding teacher is always innovating. Therefore, these three words should be blended together as they are crucial factors in promoting effective learning in the classroom. I wish that I could be an outstanding teacher soon, InsyaAllah.. J
Therefore, to be an outstanding teacher, I should be equipped myself with fountain of technology skills and knowledge. It is because, in this globalization era, technology is needed in every field including educational field.
I felt very enjoy learning this subject. It teaches me that technology can be one of the medium for teaching resources. I can assess the internet and search for inexhaustible supply of free teaching materials and downladable lesson plans which really help me to prepare effective teaching and learning activity.
During the 3-hour-lesson with my lecturer, Mdm Foziah Mahmood, she had shared about web search, downloading, encoding and saving, and storing files;
a) Web search – www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, www.msn.com
b) Downloding files – keepvid, save2pc, video downloader, real player II, limewire, bittorrent, flashget, orbit downloader, ares, internet downloader manager.
c) Encoding files – flv converter, super converter, daemon tool
d) Saving files – hard disk, thumb drive, external hard disk
e) Storing – CD, DVD.

I realized that all these things are necessary components of the educational matrix nowadays. As I have no previous knowledge about the above things, I was wondering whether I could manage myself with all those things. What if I failed?...and I started shivering..huhuhu..ops..should I feel nervous? No..no..no..!!!! Be confident, dare to fail first and I will achieve success soon,InsyaAllah.

Welcome To The World of Resources

Before i attended the class, i kept on wondering what this subject was all about? I kept on telling myself that this subject required me to create, produce or find out as many as possible the teaching resources so that they were all would be useful to be used in the classroom.

So, after listening to some explanation from my lecturer, that was Mdm Foziah, it cleared all my doubts. Yes, this subject was about producing resources that can be used in the primary classrooms. Instead of using non-technology materials, i had required to use technology.

In addition, i also had to answer a few questions that were posted by our lecture to us in adec. The questions were all about my level of computer proficiency and what i really expected in this course.

I also was advised by my lecturer to buy a 4Gb thumb drive so that i could store many files in it. It was really good as my lecturer told us about this on the first day. It gave me sometime to go and look for one.All in all, the three hour class were filled with so many activities. It was really compact as we were all occupied with the tasks given. I thought 3-hour lesson was dull and boring. Personally, I really enjoyed the class as it was fun, enjoyable and exciting.