Sunday 14 June 2009

Dr Basil Wijasuriya Award, MELTA 2009

sallina and I
my session in progress...
Dr Basil, me and Dr Ganakumaran


Carol- story-teller extroadinaire





The 18th MELTA (Malaysian English Language Teaching Association) International conference came to a close yesterday in Puteri Pan , Johor Bahru. We had a plenary by Carol Read and I enjoyed her session very much. This time around I managed to follow the conference till the end and it's kind of sad that it had to end. As is usually the case with conferences, you must pick your sessions carefully because sometimes you may end up disappointed. I had two such sessions! I didn't really want to go to Dr Malachi's session but the Mutiara room was located on the second floor so I decided to stay put- what this meant was I had to listen to Dr Malachi's unsymphathetic comments about teachers not doing what they were supposed to be doing in the classroom! Mind you , I have attended a few of his sessions and the slant and tone were always the same-that we teachers are not really doing our jobs!! Well, that's food for thought for you out there. We've got to ask ourselves whether this is really the case. However, I think it's so easy for someone who has a PHD to make such comments because you are not there on the ground to go through the motions of teaching in schools. Perhaps he had a stint in school (and left for greener pastures...) but it's not the same as being there through and through.

There are two things I want to share. First, I won the Basil Wijasuriya Award as the best teacher presenter in the conference! This was something totally unexpected as I came with the intention of only sharing my action research with the participants. In the midst of my presentation, I suddenly coughed and a gentleman sitting in the front row handed me some lozenges (the original fisherman's lozenges mind you. What could have been better for my itchy throat!). It was only when I returned the pack that I saw his name tag and knew that he was Dr Basil! He had come to evaluate the session obviously. Well, I took home RM500 and a certificate from MELTA. A special thanks to Fiza @Pizza (a good friend who's pursuing her PHD now) for taping my session and to all friends who came to my session. Second, a teacher from Johor Bahru (she won first place in the teacher's showcase competition) approached me to tell me that I had inspired her to take part in the competition. By chance she stumbled upon my blog and was inspired by it. That's really great isn't it? That's what teachers should do- be inspired to do something they have never done before and to go to unchartered territories. I feel deeply humbled if I had inspired her through what I do and write in my blog and I hope to inspire many more. On top of this, I also met old friends, Dr Zahariah Pilus and Dr Nuraihan Mat Daud from UIA after 20 years! This MELTA is definitely something I will remember for a long time :)Thank you God!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Asmkm,
overjoyed to hear u received another award n accolade to add up to all tht u've received so far. Wonder where u display all those awards. d school shd be proud of Ur achievemt. its a feat i've not gotten so far s m 2 busy doing other things in school NOT related to T & L. M sad n disappntd bt ths but I cant go against the managemt less they say I "besar kepala" jst becoz my DG is higher than HM!!!
M very interstd in R & D but cant find the time juggling betwn scxhool wk, family life (no maid) wth all schl going children. Any suggestns? TQ 4 any help...

Rahmah said...

thanks anonymous. it was just my luck i guess. you've got to find time to do research and do it as part of your teaching. all the best!

Ija Mozac said...

Kak Rahmah..congrats again. Would like to know about this: WORDWISE: Using Pictures and Explicit Vocabulary Teaching Strategies to Improve 5S1 Descriptive Compositions. Pls email me. TQ

hidaz-chan said...

hi teacher!!
im in pahang now
first day not so good
but today going on kinda well
at least i can laugh n joking with my new classmates^^
my class just hv 27 students n out of 8 r boys (luckily >_<)
ahaha how's my ppr teacher?
must b bad...sorry for dat teahcer..
n congrat to u..winning another prize i know u deserve it^^

Rahmah said...

tx ija. i was lucky i guess hehe. i think i've emailed you the action report earlier.

Rahmah said...

hi there,
don't worry it takes time to adjust to your new surroundings. u must miss home and smcc eh? well, u can keep in touch with me through my blog anytime. i gave the papers today but i left the marks in school. think you did quite well. your essay was good. thought you wanted your papers?

Anonymous said...

Hi Pn. Rahmah,
My name is Nor Fadzleen and I was the one who approached you that day. I didn't win first prize though, I was the 2nd runner up. Nonetheless, I was genuinely motivated to participate in the Teacher Showcase because of you. It was nerve wrecking, competing against Master Teachers and academicians, you bet. However, I believe that if you are really passionate about something, you should go all out and everything will eventually turn out well.
I seriously hope I could emulate your dedication and dare I say, achievement one day. Thank you so much for being an inspiration :)

-Fadzleen

p/s: Sorry to hog your comment space, I would come up with my own blog pretty soon, tee hee)

Rahmah said...

Hi nor fadzleen,
congrats all the same! it doesn't have to be a competition you know..just enjoy what you are doing. i feel humbled and touched when you approached me. Me inspiring someone? hmmm...anyway, I look forward to your blog. as you can see mine is very simple. i learned eveything from scratch and am still learning. today i managed to do cloud tags although a basic one. one day at a time- my own time. thanks for dropping by :)

hidaz-chan said...

really teacher?? lol i really afraid my essay will not suit ur standard...yeah teacher why not? i also wanna take a look at my ppr but abigail already told me my marks^^

Rahmah said...

hidaz chan, u can always ask abby to post the papers to you k :)