MGC National Convention Presenters Meeting, 1926 Heritage Hotel, Penang, 26-28 Mac 2009

Organised by the Federal Inspectorate (with Majlis Guru Cemerlang Penang as secretariat),this small but quaint hotel was the venue for sixteen paper presenters from all over Malaysia. More than eight lecturers (drs) from USM were present to give us one-to-one advice on how to improve our write up. I met Asha, a former colleague who used to teach in SM Sains Johor after 18 years! Had tea with another old mate, Mustakim, the chap who won RM16,000 in Who wants to be a Millionaire! Glad to know everyone is doing well. The MGCM YDP, Tn Hj Rozli did the opening speech and the Penang MGC took care of us. The venue for the national convention came down to three choices-Seremban, Terengganu and Sarawak (aye 3x)! This will be my third presentation and I am more than happy that my last minute submission was accepted. Thanks to Dr Tan who had some great pointers on my paper. Thanks for the nutmeg and balm Asha. It was good to meet you after all these years and Mustakim too! But dear me forgot to snap picts with both of you...

Excellent Teachers National Convention 2009 Paper Presenters Meeting, 1926 Heritage Hotel, Penang, 26-28th March 09

The 1926 Heritage hotel may be small and isolated in Georgetown, but the ambience it projected was a welcome. Written as 'Hotel 1926' in the calling letter, I wondered where this hotel was. But one need not worry about travelling in Malaysia as it is always made easy by our skilled taxi drivers. One such person was Mustaffa, who drove me right to the doorstep where a foreign (probably Pakistani)hotel staff carried my luggage inside. The old wooden double-storey hotel reminded me of a railway station! A Quaint hotel by a very busy road indeed. Inside, a cosy ambience greeted me and a small garden with wild orchids led to my room on the second floor. My roomate was Jariah from Kedah, a new GC. The first night session was merely a briefing by Mr OOi, the Penang MGC Chairman and opening speech by Tn Hj Rozli, MGCM Chairman. On the next day, we had more than six lectures (Drs) from USM to help us the editing of our papers. Sixteen papers were shortlisted for the coming convention including mine. I was slightly disappointed as they did nto provide any input on reseach methodology but Dr Tan (my supervisor) was very helpful. The venue for the national convention has not been finalised. It could be Seremban, Terengganu or Sarawak.

BLOG UNDER RECONSTRUCTION

I learnt how to change my blog to three columns recently. As a result many links and picts disappeared! Been pretty busy lately so will update as soon as time permits.

The road is long...

These were some of the sms messages I received after the SPM 2008 results went public. To those who did well, congratulations. To those of who didn't quite get what you expected, hey, don't fret. You're still young. There's plenty of time and opportunities ahead of you so use them well! All the best!

1. Teacher I get A2 for English. I din take EST

2. Teacher I din expect dis la teacher...Eng I got A1 bt EST i gt B3...I'm sorry teacher

3. Our sch is 2nd in Johor 4 harian. 29th out of 232.(the tai pan's message:))

4. Hi teacher, _______here...i get teachers number from eva, i gt 4b 4 bm, a1 4 english, moral 5c, sejarah n maths 84, perdagangan 7d, ekonomi asas 6c, ert 3b...

5. Teacher, thanx for your guidance and support. Without you, I won;t have gone this far. A big thx 2 u . Take care^^ frm _______

6. Hi teacher, I got a2 4 eng. I really work hard 4 eng. I'm really dissappointed. I'. very sorry teacher. I should have work harder. Actually I have hated eng when _______was teaching me but after when teacher was teaching i love eng. I'm really sorry teacher.

7. Teacher will be proud of 5S1. Most of us get excellent result.

8.Yes, I'm Ahmad Hafiz. Well, I'm great and fine. alhamdulillah. i scored all a1 4 my spm. (ex sm sains johor student)

9. Wow! gd results..itz all thx 2 ur wrk. patient tchings n lenience 2wards each and every1 of us--we owe our success 2u..thx lotz 4 everything u done for us...ur awesome!

10. Wao!! That's terrific! haha I guess teacher is hoppin here n there right now ^^

11. Teacher im _____4fm convent....u were my teacher english teacher in form 4p1 remember?

12. Teacher, i gt 2a's, 3bs, b 4c's. BM n BI A, PM, MAT b BIO B, n others c. Teacher my dad is asking to do fm 6 bt im interested in pharmacist. so teacher, wat is yr advice about tat? frm______

13. Thank u teacher...hw r u getin on teacher? misin u teacher

14. i wish to see how happy teacher is right now. We'll be in sch this coming sat. But only 6 60 7 comin.

15. ______here! i got A1 and A2 for 1119...thnx a lot for your help!

Salam and hi,
Apologies.blog under reconstruction.

Adjudicators Course, Teacher's Day Debates 2009, National Level

Salam and hi,

Date: 15-18 Mac 2009
Venue:IAB Jitra, Kedah
Top pict: from left Mohan,Kanageswary, me, Lee at far back, front row from left Naga,Kenneth, Mei Yin
2nd pict from top: the sifus, ffrom left Mr Latif, Mohan and Mr Tn Syed Putra
Bottom pict: Kanageswary and me

15 teachers attended the above course in Jitra. The Johor team consisted of Shanmuganathan, Lee Leng Song and yours truly for English. Hj Yahya Shuib came for BM. We were trained by Mr Mohamad Latif from International Islamic University and Mr Mohan Veerasamy, a seasoned adjudicator. Theory was followed by video sessions of IIUM debaters which I found inspiring. I was here to finetune my knowledge and skills and I must complement Mr Latif for his expertise in the area. Having judged and taken part in world debating championships before, he had plenty to share and learn I did! Except for the acommodation, everything else was fine.

SPM 2008

Congratulations to all 2008 SPM candidates on your recent success! SMK Canossian Convent was awarded the second best day school in the state and is ranked 29 out of 232 schools. After the PMR award, this is definitely another feather in our hat. For English, the students did us proud by amassing 47A1s and 7 A2s thus reducing the GPS to 3.72- I believe the best so far. I am proud of my girls in 5S1 and 5S2:

5S1(34 ss): 32 A1s and 2 A2
5S2(25 ss): 7 A1s, 6A2s, 6B3, 5B4 and 1C5

EST
5S1 (5 ss) : 4 A1s and 1 B3

All in all, both classes contributed 39 out of 47 A1s in the overall result. This result is important to me because I wanted to know if my teaching strategies worked as this was only my 2nd year in a day school. Michelle (ex 5S1) provided me with an important feedback today during the PIBG meeting -that my marking of ss essays was detailed and helpful. Thanks and congratulations Michelle for being the top student with 11 A1s and to Hazirah, Josie, Que Xi, Junni, Darchini, Shao Ting and the others for their award today.

Top Pict- outgoing PTA Chair, Mr Jordan Tang
2nd from top-parents
3rd from top-Hazirah and me
4th from top-Vani(English Panel colleague) and yours truly
Bottom Pict - with Michelle (SPM 2008 top student)

MGC Kluang 2nd Meeting, 9 Mac 2009, SM Sains Johor

Salam and hi,
I've not been able to update lately due to disruptions in service. On top of that, I just got back my notebook after reformatting so that explains..But it's nice to know things have been fixed! Thanks to norshafiza from selangor and a lady teacher from Hulu Langat (sorry I can't remmember the name for now!!) who gave me positive comments on my blog. InsyaAllah I will respond to your email asap. Before I leave for IAB Jitra tomorrow, here are some photos of recent events.

Professional Dev. 4:6 Mac 2009: Effective Teacher Talk & Questioning Techniques Course for SM Agama English Teachers, State Level, Selesa Hotel, JB

Professional Dev. 4:6 Mac 2009: Effective Teacher Talk & Questioning Techniques Course for SM Agama English Teachers, State Level, Selesa Hotel, JB

Salam and hi to everyone,
I was indeed privileged to be a part of the above course recently. The participants were thirty teachers of different ages and experiences from SM Agama from the state of Johor. I enjoyed my five hour session with them tremendously. It is always rewarding to be able to share teaaching and learning matters with other teachers. With me was Pn Atiffa Atim, our new English GC from SMK Belitong. She delivered a two-hour session on the PMR. The course coordinator, Pn Sahmsiah, from Jabatan Agama was very accomodating and efficient. I was impressed with how well the course was organised and was touched by her hospitality. Such a teacher to teacher iniative will undeniably provide the oppportunity to share and extend our repertoire as English teachers. To the course participants, I hope you will be able to use the knowledge gained for the benefit of your students. All the best!

Current Project: The Pearl (Fm 5 Literature Component)

Today, Groups 3 and 4 presented Chapters 1 and 2 of The Pearl. Prior to that Groups 1 and two presented the setting and characters respectively. For information on how its done, click 'Literature Presentation Schedule' under Teacher's Junction in the sidebar. Despite some hiccups (Group 3 had too many mahjong papers!), both groups tried their best to explain (read?) the plot the two chapters. The brochures they prepared for everyone in the class were brilliant (top pictures). As instructed they had the chapter summary, group members' names and most importantly, they selected one significant event in the chapter and gave reasons why the event is important. I hope by going through the process, my ss will pick up something through their reading, gathering information and presenting it in the class. In addition I'm also killing two birds with one stone by assessing the oral component for Form 5.