Teacher Talk : Journaling

Been a while since I posted teacher talk matters. Here's one I received today :)

 

......@gmail.com>

To

rahmah

Today at 1:06 PM

 

salam puan..how are you? i hope school is better this year compared to 2015 :) remember last year i wrote to you about journaling project? i actually started it out with my form 3 students this year (on the 2nd week of school). i asked the students to write once a week (and of course they can write more if they want to) My question is that, am i suppose to read and give comments only OR should i underline the mistakes that they did (without correcting them) ? im not sure what i need to do after reading all of their entries. hihi.. so far im enjoying myself because the students need to do all the hard work while i just need to mark once a month ( at least this can the only reason for them to write outside of the classroom) if its not too much to ask, can you share how you mark your ss journals? hope to hear from you soon. May ALLAH bless all your hard work (teaching the ss, sharing materials on your blog etc etc) 

 

regards,

xxx

                                                                                             

A lovely journal by one of my girls in SMK Canossian Convent :)

 

My reply

Wassallam, i'm fine Alhamdulillah. Good to hear from you and happy to know that you are taking up journal writing ☺. Since you want to encourage ss to write, comments will be more suitable than endless underlinings. I would encourage writing fluency in this case. You can highlight some glaring errors if you want but i will not do it too often. That can be done in the other tasks you give them. I hope you dont mind me sharing this in my blog. Your name will be anonymous of course. All the best!

 Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Once Upon a Conference...ICELT 2015

After a three-year hiatus, I decided to present in TEFLIN Bali last September followed by ICELT in Equatorial Hotel, Melaka. The turnout was surprising really (full house) given my paper's title. But seriously, I really had to drag my feet to the conference this time around only deciding to pay the fees at the very last minute. I was self-sponsored as usual which wasn't really a problem. The problem was getting excited about it all...like I used to. Maybe it was the end of the year? Maybe it was because I've presented here before? Anyway I was there early on the first day of the conference.

For first timers, their enthusiasm was expected, many of whom were sponsored by their institutions. It was a pleasure to see many young teachers in the conference. However, by the end of the first day, I was still feeling awkward and less than enthusiastic. The first parallel session I attended was Dr Abdullah Nawi's from UTM. We crossed path when he was an English teacher in Bandar Tenggara but he is a Dr. now, having completed his PHD in Drama in New Zealand and a senior lecturer  from the business card he gave me. It's good to know many teacher friends have moved up the academic ladder. His paper was on how to reenact the (boring) textbooks we have in school. I must say it was a novel idea getting students to role-play the characters/parts from reading texts in the textbook. Variety is the spice of life after all and variety is what doesn't kill our students in class haha! However, as much as I'd like to embrace drama techniques in my T n L, is there an easier way to do this? For people like me! Poor old me would be huffing and puffing more than Dr Abdulllah did in his role-play! He definitely had that acting ability which I think is a bonus. Another talented person who came to mind almost immediately as I was watching Dr Abdullah is Ahmad Adnan, an old friend who is now teaching in SMK Dato Hj Hassan Yunos, Renggam. He would love this idea of turning the textbook into drama! It will be his cup of tea!

 

I have no complaints about the professionals- the invited speakers. They were in their element. Alan Maley was as always in his best and I always like his plenary because he makes me think about what it is to be a teacher although he is somewhat too familiar a figure in ICELT and MICELT. He is always well-researched and profoundly knowledgeable. Jan Blake was her usual self and the others too (too many to name) but somehow I wasn't really there. Between sessions I cursorily glanced at the books (although I did purchase more than ten books because they were very cheap!) and thought the booths were not very exciting this time around. I thought past conferences had many booths and great resource books to choose from. I miss the earlier MICELT conferences where I learned not only new knowledge but also how to present a paper, a workshop or a poster. Whatever happened to those presenters? They had a lot of substance and research rigour.

Jan Blake I think....

I decided to go to a few sessions by the local presenters- Mara teachers to be precise to learn what creative teaching they wanted to share. One title attracted me but surprisingly the presenter did not present a paper. It was merely a sharing on how to use "Google Slides" in her class. She even used the slides from Youtube to sort of sum up what Google slides could do. No question time, no research methods whatsoever. It made me think what a paper was supposed to be by conference standards. It wasn't a paper but rather a sharing of a teaching tool readily available online. Granted there's nothing wrong in sharing something that is not yours but to be given a medal for that is something else. I didn't bother to go to the other sessions. Perhaps they could have been given 10 mins each to showcase teaching and learning tools/activities as they did in ICELT 2010 in Ipoh. For a seasoned conference goer, I felt the standard has somewhat dropped. Previous ICELTs were much better and meatier. In contrast, the TEFLIN Bali conference I attended had a strong research rigour although it did not have the band from Melaka's Hard Rock Cafe for entertainment! I don't know. I just felt something was amiss in that parallel session.

 

Met Cynthia and her friends from Sabah :)

Perhaps I need this much needed end-of-year break to rejuvenate and bring back my enthusiasm. I was honest to Jenny (SISC + Perak and my co-writer) when I said that I'd  lost my drive. Jenny reassured me that it will come back. I truly hope it will!

Happy holidays peeps! Be good!


Those who can DO, Those who can do more TEACH

Keep writing! 4 Bukhari and 4 Syafie Journals

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the journal entries from 4 Bukhari and 4 Syafie.  As a matter of fact, some of the boys (Azam, Ikhwan, Daniel) and the girls (Izzati, Farzana and many more) really surprised me at what they are capable of doing. Through the journals I get to know my students better and therefore able to develop rapport with them although convincing others to believe in journal-writing may not be an easy task. Over the years, I've been promoting the many benefits of journal-writing to many teachers but sadly, not many believe in the power of journals. Granted, we have many constraints but this is entirely the learners doing all the work so it must be good.  All  teachers need to do is check them once in a while and reward them. I wish my teachers had asked me to keep a journal in my school days. I would have shared a lot of things- my feelings, reflections, frustrations, ideas etc. The best thing about journal-writing is my students are continuously using English even outside the classroom! Keep up the good work :)

The Thinking Teacher

4S2 wonderful journals...

Well-done to the girls in 4S2 for diligently writing their journal and keeping them up-to-date. Keep writing!

4S2 Students Journals

Student Journals

My students usually stop writing their journals in August as they focus on their trial and what not. These are some of the best journals that they have done. These are Fwee Ping's, Zin Lei and Leni's journal entries. I must say they are all good at painting and drawing too. Fwee Ping's journal is just beautiful! Journal-writing could also be a way for them to destress from exam pressures...Soon I will be giving prizes for the five best journals throughout the whole year. After two years of journal writing(this class started in Form 4), their writing has improved considerably and they have plenty of ideas to write. I believe they will not be facing writer's block in the exam. The fluency is already there. Well-done girls!

Class Journal (5S2)

I've decided to share with you an entry written by ___ in the class journal. I'm a firm believer of journal writing. My students have an individual journal and my classes have a class journal. The class journal is a platform for students to write about the lesson we just had and to voice out suggestions. Some students voice out things they are normally 'scared' to mention to me directly! Of course they write nonsense too at times :)But they find comfort and freedom to write and I will have achieved my aims because they are using English!! In addition, we are also constantly ommunicating for the betterment of our English classes. You'll be surprised that your 16-17 year olds have a lot to say and they say it honestly. I think we should also listen to our students (within reason of course) as they are our clients and best judge. Here's an entry I'd like to share. (Ignore the mistakes - they are still learning :))

9/7/2009

Yo, yo, yo! _____ here ^^ Let me tell you a small secret. At first when I heard that our English teacher is a Guru Cemerlang, I felt very nervous and scared. This is because I always thought that Guru Cemerlang will be very fierce and the way they teach will be very boring. But teacher you make me change my mind. The way you teach is very interesting (Except the extra class, very tired and boring).
The most I like is group work becaue I don't have to figure out all the answers by my own. I can share an opinion with my group members. Beside that, the song activities is also very good for us. Even though I am not really a good singer but I really enjoyed the atmosphere during that time, Everyone in class seem very close to each other ^^
I hope teacher will happy and enjoy every moment that we spent together. I also hope teacher don't always complain to me. I feel stress and dissapointed. Believe to me , less complaint your life will be more happy. But I still want to apologise to teacher for what our class has done^^. Please keep in contact with me all the time, even though after SPM^^Thanks for your love and We Love You Also.

The pen is mightier than the sword- keep writing girls!