Wake Me Up… When September Ends

The last day of September… Time flies…

It had been a really busy and hectic month with the beginning of a new semester after a long, long break. There was no orientation or get used to mode… =/ Everything needs to be on the go but the main problem is TIME!!! I don’t have enough time for everything. Nothing seems to be completed on time. It’s depressing to see the books and work pilling up on my desk in school and in my lappie.

I really need to manage my time better or I need to work even harder and faster or more consideration on the amount of work given… STRESS!!!

The IV

5. “Guide on the side” is often perceived as being absent

“We are paying you! You got to teach!”, “My teacher is not good coz she doesn’t give notes!”, “My teacher don’t give answers!”…

These are some common comments that we will hear when we are trying to “guide on the side”. The students are so used to the spoon feeding system in education causing them to be so dependent on their teacher on everything from notes to answers for their homework. So, without discussing the answer with them, they will not complete their homework especially the questions that require them to do a little bit of thinking. Discussion session will end up becoming a chit chatting session. They will ask the teacher to give them the answer or show them the solution. Therefore, those teachers who trying to promote self-directed learning, constructivist approach will be regarded as not a good teacher as they try to encourage the students to work on their own to solve a problem.

7. Learn while they learn

Learning is a life long process and there is no graduation from learning. When I was a student, I used to envy the adults who do not need to study anymore and no need to sit for exams especially the teachers cause they are the one who set the exam questions. Now that I am an adult, I realize that it’s not fun at all to be an adult as I still need to study to learn new things and sit for exams. It is important that teachers should not feel contended with their current state of knowledge because the world is moving very fast and we need to keep up with the current development of everything especially in the field of science and technology.

One of the things that I enjoy while I was teaching is the mutual sharing and communication between me and my students. I always find that teaching and learning is never a one way traffic process. Whenever the students came up with something that is not in their syllabus and I am not sure about the answer, I’ll check it out and this give me an opportunity to learn new things. I still remember the first time I conducted the frog dissection session couple of years ago. I was as nervous as my students. I’d prepared activity sheets for them, identify the parts and organs in the frog before the big day. Of course, there are a few misses throughout the process but as the time goes by I picked up more and learned more. This year is my third time conducting the dissection session with the form 4 kids and I was more confident than the first time and improvement on the activity was done. So, not only the students but I also benefited and learn something new. =)

22. It’s not all about you – let go of ideas and assignments that don’t work

Nobody is perfect. No matter how perfect the preparation work may be, different students have different cognitive level and when it comes to different students, teachers need to let go and alter ideas, worksheets and assignments in order to benefit the students to the max. For example, I prepared two sets of monthly test paper for two different class of students where one is the elite class while the other is almost the worse performing class in the whole form.The changes were crucial as to meet the cognitive level of the students. As teachers, we need to motivate the students to learn rather to “kill” them with difficult tasks.

29. Leave room for choice in assignments and projects – topic, team, individual/ group, live meetings, etc

Teachers are not dictators. When preparing the lesson, teachers will have all kinds of ideas and activities to be carried out but we also need to put into consideration the students’ interest and respect their ideas.

For example, students can make their own decision in choosing their team members to form their own group to carry out the project for their PEKA folio on the environmental issues. They are allowed to choose the topic they are interested and source out the information on that issue to be compiled into a folio. Besides that, they are also required to do a presentation in front of the class regarding the environmental issue in whatever ways they are comfortable with as long they deliver the message.

The Cool New Genz

Gee… I’m of Gen Y too… being born in different era does affect the way of living of a person. However, not all differences are due to chronological dates but its seems like those New Gens have a privilege of better exposure to the world of IT and this leads to some of the positive characteristics in them where  New Gens are affluent, better educated, comfortable with multitasking (with digital media) etc. On the other hand, researchers also found out that due to the conducive up-bringing environment, the New Gens are somehow selfish as they are being taught to put their own needs first and to focus on feeling good about themselves thus making them not competitive in the workplace and in the society. No wonder I notice the students now-a-days are so dependent on their parents or their teachers because they are over-protected and pampered.

“Having grown up with widespread access to technology, the New Gen is able to intuitively use a variety of IT devices and navigate the Internet. Although they are comfortable using technology without an instruction manual, their understanding of the technology or source quality may be shallow.”

The New Gens are IT savvy in  a way which interest them where they have no problem in surfing the Internet for games, entertainment or social interaction but they are limited when they are required to use the Internet in an educational way like searching study-related information, sharing knowledge etc. They will struggle to complete a task given as they are not familiar with using the Internet for educational purposes. As teachers, we need to keep up with the advancement in technology in order to make use of the technology in our T&L process. With proper planning and pedagogy, I believe, our lesson will be more engaging. =)

“In our twitch-speed world, there is less and less time and opportunity for reflection, which enable us to generalize as we create “mental models” from our experience.”

How true are these statements… Even I find myself is lacking on this matter of constantly reflecting on things and situations. The world is moving faster and faster. In order to keep up with it’s pace, we tend to be ‘touch and go’ on everything as long we get the job done without truly understanding the whole process. Most people cared more on the outcome than the process. In fact, we learn as we pass through the process. As educators, we “need to figure out and invent ways to include reflection and critical thinking in the learning. we must do more in this area.”

The Video

The unique challenge educators are facing currently is to prepare the students to face and survive in this ever changing world. But sad to say, our education system here focuses a lot on the examination grades rather than on the knowledge and experiences gained through the years the students are in school. Therefore, the teaching and learning process is moving towards excelling in examinations with flying colours.

Dr JSB’s question, “How learning must be a lifelong habit?” really strike me. Learning should be cultivated to be a lifelong habit. This means that learning is not only for the sake of passing exams or getting as many ‘A’s as possible in the exam. I think that’s the reason why after the exam, the students will forget everything that they have learned because the leaning process is for them to complete the exam and I doubt that the knowledge that they have learn is meaningful to them. So, what can we teachers do to help make the learning process meaningful to them? I need to get out from the condition of merely ‘pouring’ knowledge into the students’ brain.

Understanding is constructed socially. When students involved in a discussion trying to solve a problem, the learning process that happen during the discussion will be experiential to them as they construct their own knowledge. Therefore, teachers are playing an important role to lead and guide the students towards constructing their own knowledge thus making learning meaningful and real to them. I always feel glad when I hear a particular student explaining to his or her group member after getting an explanation from me. As the student explains, he or she will learn more. As mention by Dr JSB, nothing clarifies ideas better than explaining them to others.

With the help of technology, teachers will be able to extend the learning hours where students will continue to work on their assignments with their classmates in the virtual world of the Internet. So, it’s crucial that teachers have the knowledge on the technology to be use and with the suitable pedagogy to construct a virtual platform for the mutual sharing of knowledge among the students.


I only managed this much for this time... hope there will be more to come ^__^

The First Impression

It’s been quite some time since I have to wake up extra early on a Saturday morning. After gotten ready, I left home and headed towards the petrol kiosk (as my car was complaining me of not feeding it on time)… =)

The moment me and my fellow course mates stepped into the computer lab, there she was, already busy getting ready for the lecture. The first impression was, ‘Wow… I’m going to have a dedicated lecturer.’ After some brief introduction about herself, Mdm Ng Huey Zher started to introduce the course and the assignments that we will be doing throughout the course.  Some cool yet free websites such as Pixton and ToonDo where we can create our very own comic and Web 2.0 for social collaboration were introduced. This does hooked me as I have been trying to source out something which I can use to create a virtual platform for my lessons. I do hope I can explore more about all these cool stuffs.

The lecture went on smoothly… and at the end of the day, we left the room with three ‘homework’ to be completed by the coming Saturday. Now, what I really need is to start disciplining myself to face the challenges for this semester. =)