Thursday 29 March 2012

Mesyuarat Penyelarasan Perlaksanaan MBMMBI for SMT/SMV/Kolej Vokasional, BPTV, MOE

Date: 19-22 March 2012
Venue: Vistana Hotel, KL

Alhamdulillah..the national level course organised by BPTV, MOE for 45 Heads of English Panel was successfully conducted by Hajah Normala, my very good friend from Seremban and I. Pn Bayani, the Assistant Director (BPTV) took care of all of us right from the beginning. On the first night, we had a session with Tn Hj Ahmad Tajuddin, director of BPTV, MOE who welcomed all participants and shared the latest in technical and vocational education. The course aimed at sharing programmes carried out for MBMMBI and promoting English in school. I thoroughly enjoyed being with the mixed group and hope they felt the same. What is knowledge if not shared? I personally found the participants very sporting. It's been some time since I trained, so this was a welcomed change indeed.

A special thanks to my co-trainer, Mala from SM Teknik Ampangan, Pn Bayani, Pn Hajah Norrohani Othman (Principal Assistant Director BPTV) and Din for helping with the technical aspects. It was great to meet Asha (now Dr Asha), and old friend from Penang! I certainly hope that the interactions help particularly the young heads of panel and rejuvenate the senior ones.

May  ELT be a more meaningful vocation :)










The Thinking Teacher





Gold Medal for SASEM : Fully Residential Schools International Symposium (FRSIS) 2012

Date: 26-31 March 2012
Venue: Mozac, Melaka

SASEM won a gold medal in FRSIS 2nd conference!  23 schools were awarded gold medals and SASEM is in the pool. The conference showcased 63 local and 32 international presentations in line with the theme "Global Culture Generates World Unity". Foreign participants came from Indonesia, Laos, Portugal, the Netherlands, Singapore, Czech Republic, Italy, Thailand and Brunei. The host for this year is SM Sains Muzaffar Syah @MOZAC in Air Keroh, Melaka. Congrats to Bindiya (4 Bukhari) and not forgetting her teammates, Azwan, Tarmizi and Izzati for winning the gold medal. We are proud of you!  Congrats to Rozila and Azhar and thanks for all your help. This was a classic example of teamwork amongst teachers in the panel.

To be honest, I wasn't confident that we would win anything. This was because 95% of the other presenters touched on very serious matters such as 'Culture through history', 'Breaking barriers, widening horizons' and being a newbie, I only wanted the students to be exposed to SBP programmes and take this as their training ground so we will come back stronger next year :) I must say though, that in comparison, our presentation was different in that we touched on how food unites Malaysians besides sports and how we can promote our food globally. I felt that some of the presenters sounded older than they were...talking about 'xenophobia' and the likes. I'm glad ours was simple. Although Bindiya was a little nervous (lacking sleep), she did well. Will upload photo of team as soon as it's available :) Well-done! Sleeping on the double-decker in the dorm seems worth it now albeit for one night :) Congrats to MOZAC for a well-organised symposium. And oh! meeting and listening Tun Mahathir Mohamad (our former prime minister) was more than a bonus- it was a gift from God...

This was our abstract: 


 
Great Food Great Nation:
Celebrating Diversity


Bindiya a/p Arasu

SM Sains Sembrong, 86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
 rahmahs@yahoo.com



ABSTRACT

Food is the other thing besides sports that unite people. We are proud of our food, which is part of our diverse culture. It is more than a commodity that we consume every day. It has a role of uniting people instead of differentiating people. In a culturally rich country such as Malaysia, food is something that all of us enjoy, although in different ways.  It reflects the unique ‘faces’ and culture of the races associated with the food. Globalisation also means that the world has become smaller and information spreads at the push of a button. Because of this, people around the world have become more adventurous with food. Hence promoting local delicacies to the international arena can be made faster and simpler. This is not only profitable for businesses but also instils a sense of pride among Malaysians when our own delightful delicacies go global. In this paper I will talk about the variety of food that reflects the diverse races in Malaysia and how food can play a role in uniting people from all walks of life. I will also recommend ways in which local delicacies can be promoted worldwide as a way of promoting Malaysia’s ethnic and diverse cultures.

Keywords: food, local, unity, globalisation, culture




the delegates from 63 residential schools

Wang Dan (a teacher from Nanyang Girls' High School, S'pore) and I



Our dear Tun Mahathir delivering his keynote address..

Tun Mahathir fielding some questions from students...


School reps from left: izzati, tarmizi, bindiya and norazwan

one for the album :)



The Thinking Teacher




Tuesday 27 March 2012

The Railway Children- CDC Module


 
 

Here's the module for The Railway Children that Mohana, an English teacher from Sabah emailed me, courtesy of CDC. Sharing is caring :)



The Thinking Teacher



Sunday 25 March 2012

Around the World in Eighty Days- Form 3 Novel

Calling Form Three teachers!



If you're looking for the CDC module on 'Around the World in 80 Days, click here. Thus far this is the only module I've received from a friend. To those out there who already have all the resource, do share. Teachers, let's share to make our lives easier and to make ELT a happy vocation :) 

Happy teaching!

 


The Thinking Teacher


Vocabulary Learning Module

To Kzee and Anonymous who would like the vocab module, here you are. I've decided to upload for others too. You can also find this link on the left sidebar under "Tried and Tested".

 The 1000 Word Little Language Vocabulary Book
 Key


By the way, I could not find the files for the other modules. Apologies. 
Happy teaching!




The Thinking Teacher

Tuesday 20 March 2012

In the Midst of Hardship- a reconstruction activity

Hi all,
It's been some time since I posted anything to do with best practices, so here goes... This was something I carried out in 4 Bukhari two weeks ago. I don't have a name for this particular activity (perhaps 'reconstruction'?) but it really did require my students to creatively reconstruct the poem by Latif Mohidin as they understood it. What I did was type the poem continuously without any punctuation and got students to work out the poem's lines and stanzas based on their understanding of the meaning of the poem. On top of that they had to punctuate and reconstruct the poem into stanzas. But of course, you must ask the students to close their textbook while doing this activity. As a follow up, call some groups to read the poem. It was interesting to note the different versions the groups had. A gentle reminder..this was a pre-reading activity or an 'appetiser' if you like before you delve into the poem. Try it and your feedback is welcome!







The Thinking Teacher



Sunday 11 March 2012

UNIFI for faster connection

Hi all,
Am leaving for Korea and Vietnam today but I'd like to share these offers with those who want to use UNIFI but do not know the details. The following are three attractive packages for you to choose from. You can also find these details if you click UNIFI on the pages tab above. Contact person for the packages is:
  • Md Noor Hayat (012 2816913)










The Thinking Teacher