MGCJ Convention 2011

Date: 24-26th May 2011
Venue: Damai Laut Resort, Kota Tinggi

The convention this year took place in Damai Laut Resort- all expenses paid by GCs themselves. As a matter of fact, we have been paying all the expenses for the past three conventions. Syabas to all GCs! We received a lot of input from invited speakers. Everything was perfect except for the AGM which was a damper  (not worth writing about here) and the poor accommodation. There were cockroaches in my room and bathroom. Luckily my super roommate (Ust Hasnah) disposed them all swiftly. Frankly, the rooms are not fit for use- soiled carpet, dusty lampshades, dirty bathroom, etc (i was sneezing by the second day). That stale smell lingered all day long...

Professionally speaking, there is a need to raise the standard of MGCJ conventions. We need more academic presentations. Since this is called a 'persidangan', papers would be what you would have expected. However, we had a lot of input about what the higher ups expected of us and I mean a lot! It wasn't easy just sitting and absorbing the input... I developed backache on the second day...well, just my luck. I was hale and hearty and enthusiastic when I started! The talks were:

• Integriti GC Dalam Pendidikan (Pn Tg Azuana Mohamaed, Penasihat Sekolah Amanah)
• Peranan GC Dalam Membantu Kecemerlangan JPNJ (Tn Hj Ramli , KSA, JPNJ)
• Keynote Address: En Mohd Nor Ghani (Director, Johor Education Department)
• GC Pemangkin Kecemerlangan (Tn Hj Zakaria Yusof, Ketua JNJK, Johor)
• GC Penjana Kecemerlangan , (Tn Hj Hassan Topit, Pengetua Cemelang, SM Sains Kota Tinggi)
• Closing Ceremony officiated by YB Datuk Dr Adham Baba, Pengerusi UniKL, ADUN Pasir Raja)

For future conferences, perhaps the committee can invite GC's to present papers that are academic in nature as you would find in conferences. This will definitely get GCs to learn how to research and present papers.

All in all, a well-organised event. Congratulations to MGC Kota Tinggi.

Me, Che Hasnah, my roommate and Roshizan

Tengku Azuan- Advisor to Trust Schools

Input on Trust Schools

 

Azmi, Yahya and Shukor....looking smart!

Yours truly...

Tn Hj Zakaria, Head of Johor Inspectorates

~the thinking teacher~

Majlis Guru Cemerlang Negeri Johor (MGCJ) 1st State Level Action Research Competition 2011

Date: 3 March 2011 (Thursday)
Time: 8.30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Venue: SM Sains Johor, Kluang

En Norazrin Amirhamzah, JNJK MOE

Finally, the planned Action Research seminar took place today. Majlis Guru Cemerlang Kluang played host to this maiden action research seminar for the state. The objectives of the seminar were to :

• promote research as a culture amongst GCs
• encourage academic writing
• identify problems in ss learning and ways to overcome the problems
• share knowledge and expertise

The seminar was attended by En Khair (JPN Johor), En Norazrin Amirhamzah (JNJK, Ministry of Education, Johor GC Coordinator) and about 80 GCs fom Kluang. Ten districts sent their representatives for the primary and secondary categories. The evaluators were:

Secondary Category

• En Yap Poh Lai (Muar)
• En Norazrin Amirhamzah (JNJK, KPM)
• En Khoo Khai Boon (Johor Bahru)

Primary Category

• En Mohd Yusof Mohamed (JPNJ)
• Tn Hj Abdul Kahar Ismail (Pontian)
• Tn Hj Solehi Mansor (Kota Tinggi)

Winners list:

Secondary Category

•  1st: Segamat (Pn Sia Peng Yee, SMJK Seg Hwa)
• 2nd: Kluang (Pn Che Hasnah Nuh, SMK Spg Renggam)
• 3rd: Batu Pahat (Pn Hajah Hairani Razali, SMK Seri Gading)

Primary Category

• 1st: Pontian (Pn Noorjannah Mohamad, SK Belokok)
• 2nd: Kluang (Pn Maimunah Juraimi, SK Seri Intan)
• 3rd:  (need to confirm)

Hj Jalil Satari (PPD Kluang), representing

  the

 Director

The seminar was officially closed by Tn Hj Jalil Satari, PPD Kluang, official representative of Johore State Education Director. Hj Jalil stressed on the importance of action research as a culture rather than a task amongst GCs and the fact that the SKPM emphasises innovation and creativity in order to get a score of band 6 in teacher's evaluation. He urged all GCs to think of variety in research (there were too many using acronyms) and to play an active role in the transformation process taking place in education.

My take on the seminar:

• Research issue- One particular action research caught my attention in that it did not deal with a significant issue/problem that warrants a research. If you intend to teach your ss how to convert years to century vice versa, you just have to show them some examples! There is no need for a research. One of the criteria for action research is the issue must be a significant one and for a subject such as History, there are many more significant issues such as why ss find it hard to memorise facts, why ss are not able to elaborate their answers, the use of graphic organisers to break down facts, note-taking in History etc. etc.

• The use of acronyms- Many used acronyms...it was as if an action research must have acronyms or probably only a strategy to make it attractive. One research used an acronym that was negative despite all the researcher's good intentions!

• Presentation skills- 85% of the presenters need to polish their presentation skills. The slides were cluttered with too many words and please, don't read your slides... You might as well ask the audience to read them themselves. Have a maximum of 6 lines to your slide with bigger fonts. Stand when you are presenting. One presenter coolly sat down throughout her presentation! Make sure the flow of your presentation is clear. Some were very complicated. Use about 10-12 slides for a 15 minute presentation.

• Commitment- much needed commitment from all Kluang GCs particularly the appointed committee members. I arrived at 8.00 a.m. to find the hall empty except for Ismail Yon (MGC Kluang Chair), Roshizan and one or two others. We couldn't start the briefing of judges and presenters on time because they were either late or not instructed to proceed to the briefing room. I was fumbling with my mobile to get in touch with the relevant committees. Roshizan managed to get her friends to be timekeepers in the nick of time. The lack of coordination resulted in a briefing room that was almost furnitureless and only two reports handed in by some presenters despite the four required. Hjh Roshizan and I played the welcoming committee as well because the welcoming committee was nowhere to be seen!!! We practically chauffered the VIP to the dining hall for breakfast and they tagged us to the briefing room too. The VIPs waited in the briefing room and listened to the briefing too! Am tired of  playing saviour...my dear GC friends...please...forget your DG for a while. Get your hands dirty and get to work!

• Documentation- there was a suggestion from the evaluators that the softcopy and hardcopy of the reports be distributed. 

It is one thing to claim credit  for a job well-done, it's another to do a job to impress...By all means, take all the credit you want but please do a good job first. I was made the advisor of MGC Kluang and I'm doing just that- ADVISING :)

p.s Thanks to Roshizan for helping me. We had a great time despite the madness :)

Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor Convention 2010, Selesa Hotel, Pasir Gudang, Johor

Majlis Guru Cemerlang Negeri Johor will be organising a convention from 1-2 July 2010 in Selesa Hotel, Pasir Gudang, Johor. Here's the programme:

ATUR CARA PERSIDANGAN

1 JULAI 2010
7.30 – 8.30 pg : Pendaftaran & Sarapan
8.30 – 9.00 pg : Taklimat
9.00 – 9.45 pg : Ucapan Ketua Sektor Pengurusan Sekolah -
En Mohd Hasidin bin Hj Zaini
9.45 – 10.30 pg : Pembentangan Kertas Kerja 1 – “Mengurus Kecemerlangan”
– Tn Hj Ismail Bin Rosdi (Pengetua SMK Taman Desa Cemerlang, Pasir Gudang)
10.30 – 12.00tgh : Pembentangan Kertas Kerja 2 – “Menganjak Ke Kanan”
- En Yew Kok Leh (Pengetua SMK Jalan Mengkibol, Kluang)
12.00 – 1.00 ptg : Pembentangan Kertas Kerja 3 – “Standard Guru Malaysia”
- Penceramah dari IPG
1.00 – 2.00 ptg : ‘Check-in’ / makan tengah hari / solat
2.3.0 – 4.30 ptg : Pembentangan Kertas Kerja 4 & 5 – NKRA & KPI- Pn Norhayati Bt Alias (Timbalan Ketua Nazir Persekutuan, Putrajaya)
4.30 – 5.00 ptg : Sesi Bergambar
8.30 – 9.00 mlm : Pembentangan Kajian Tindakan Sekolah Rendah
- Pn Azlinda Bt Ahmad (SK Bandar Putra, Segamat)
9.00 – 9.30 mlm : Pembentangan Kajian Tindakan Sekolah Menengah
- Cik Deep Wei Wei ( SMK Sri Mersing)
9.30 – 10.00 mlm : Perbincangan Akademik


2 JULAI 2010
7.00 – 8.00 pg : Sarapan
8.00 – 9.00 pg : Perkongsian Ilmu 1 – Guru Cemerlang Jusa C (MT Tambahan)
- En Yap Poh Lai (SM Sains Muar)
9.00 – 10.00 pg : Perkongsian Ilmu 2 – Guru Cemerlang Jusa C (BM)
- En Azizulrahman Bin Abdul Rahman (SMK Datuk Sulaiman)
10.00 – 11.00 pg : Pembentangan Kertas Kerja 8 – “Program Immersion”
- Tn Hj Aminuddin B Adam (Pegawai PPD Johor Bahru)
11.00 – 12.00 tgh : Ucap Utama dan Perasmian Penutup
- Yang Berbahagia Tn Hj Sufa’at B Tumin (Pengarah
Jabatan Pelajaran Johor)
12.00 tgh : ‘ Check-out ‘ & Bersurai 
(credit: mgc kluang)

I shall be joining them in the late evening as I have a talk with Segamat teachers in the morning.

Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor 6th Meeting

Date: 5th November 2010
Time: 8.30-3.00 p.m
Venue: SM Sains Johor, Kluang

The 6th MGCJ meeting was held today. Also present were Pn Haizan from Johor State Jemaah Nazir dan Jaminan Kualiti (JNJK) and En Samsudin Haron, Assistant Director, Johor State Education Department who are coordinating officers for excellent teachers in the state. The issues discussed were:

1. Johor contingent's task as the Committee for Documentation and Video in the upcoming national conference of Majlis Guru Cemerlang Malaysia in Seri Pacific Hotel, in Kuala Lumpur from 21-25th Nov. There will be 226 excellent teachers attending the conference from all over the country. The official opening ceremony will be graced by the Deputy Education Minister, Dr Mohd Puad Zakarshi. Invited speakers for the plenary sessions will be Hjh Serina Saun (Senior Principal of SMK Sains Miri, Sarawak), Dr Sidek Baba (UIA), En Mohd Noh Daipu (Singapore) and Dato Nik Faizah Mustapha (former Ketua Nazir). There will be 16 parallel sessions and I will be presenting a paper too. This will be my third participation in the national conference.

2. Also discussed was the distribution of the MGCM 2010 diaries of which Johor will receive 400 as allocated by the national committee. The meeting also endorsed the formation of standardised bureaus for the state and districts and updating data for all MGCJ members, the MGCJ Roadshow and financial report.

3. En Samsuddin Haron (JPNJ) touched on a very interesting issue i.e the marketability of our students (the lack of it rather) globally. The MOE is concerned about this finding after recruiting a foreign consultant to do a study on the education system. One of the findings was that the curriculum did not focus on creativity and inovation. He further mentioned that Excellent Teachers are the main group of teachers (kelompok perdana) that will be focussed on to spearhead creativity an innovation amongst students. This explains the recent recruitment of many Excellent Teachers by the MOE. The meeting continued at 2.30 but I had to leave for the briefing for Kluang excellent teachers as SMK Taman Kluang Barat.

'Best Practices in T &L Course', Kluang District, MGC Johor

Date: 30 July 2009
Venue: SMK Taman Kluang Barat, Kluang
Time: 8am - 4pm
Target Group: beginning teachers/non-optionists SPM English teachers
Trainers: Hafiz and Pn Rahmah
Schedule: 8.30am-10.30am- writing
10.30am- 12.30pm - listening/speaking
2-4pm - workshop and closing ceremony

Today, both Hafiz and I conducted a six-hour course for 38 English teachers from Kluang. This was a programme organised by the Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor for the state. Although we had some glitches at the beginning, I must say I was very pleased with the course participants for their excellent participation. I conducted the Writing and Workshop sessions, while Hafiz conducted Listening-Speaking. During the workshop, four groups displayed their creativity in creating stories from newspaper pictures and another four groups presented a consensus-seeking activity. Some stories were just hilarious! Congrats to all teachers! The following are the participants' reflections and suggestions:

1. I feel motivated to go back to school and teach listening and speaking. More courses to refresh our T&L activities.
2. Learnt a lot as a new teacher and able to gain and share ideas with others. Good course but don't drag the ending.
3. I really enjoyed what was offered! It was indeed helpful and I pray real hard that I'll gain my confidence to be as good as you Kak Rahmah. What you shared was pricelss and may you achieve what you've not achieved yet. Keep up the good work. Please do inspire teachers from rural school.
4. Interesting.
5. The sessions were good and beneficial...especially for me as a new teacher. Have more of these sessions in the future. More hands-on activities. Reduce the fee..haha..Tq
6. Very useful to me as a new English teacher.
7. The 3 sessions were amazing and it gave some insight on how to be a good English teacher.
8. I find the activities for the workshop are fun and interesting. I hope to use them in my classes. You can and should conduct referesher courses for optionists as well.
9. Attractive and practical. Encourage active participation. More workshops for Eng teachers.
10. Interesting. Good, well-planned time, punctual.
11. I like the course very much. As a very new teacher, I really need the information and new ideas for my teaching. Thank you so much! I would like to suggest that the modules are prepared much earlier so we can refer to it straightaway during the session.
12. The course was wonderful and it had taught me a lot. Need to have grammar course in future. Thanks!
13. A good session. Very informative. Hope to have more courses like this
14. Very good and informative. I learned new ways approach to teach my students.This type of course should always be carried out from time to time.
15. Coruse was ok and nice. I like it very much.
16. Fruitful sessions. Meaningful sharing moments. Time to know each other well. (So excited to have my own blog to share!) I'll learn/work on this.
17. The activities today are very intersting and we can see you have put much effort to make this activity a success. Thank you for what you have done for this session. We will apply whatever we have learnt here in the classroom.
18. I do enjoy myself attending the course today. I was unhappy yesterday when I was asked to attend the course at the first place. However, it is totally worth! If I can't make it today, I will regret! This course is very helpful esp in my P&P and the mateials are very interesting/useful for PLBS. Therefore, I got 2 in 1 benefit at the same time. TQ Pn Rahmah & En Hafiz! Please provide mineral water for teachers :)
19. I really gained a lot of useful skills and techniques in teaching listening and speaking. It's wonderful, enriched my knowledge. Helping me in doing P&P. TQ very much. Need some mineral water and sweets.
20. I've gained a lot of ideas in carrying out listening and speaking activities in my school. I enjoy this course and it made me realised I did very little activities with my students in L&S skills.
21. I enjoyed the session so much. I forgot how much I enjoyed the songs in lessons. I would start using it again in my future lesson. Furthermore, the course has opened up my mind to the many ways of teaching the language to students.
22. The activities were good and helpful and can be used in school. Organise more courses on the various stimulus which we need for our activities.
23. A very interesting, useful, knowledge-packed sessions especially during the workshop session. It helps me in terms of broaden my style of teaching and what's more important, taught me a lot of things even though some of the stimulus and materials presented were already learned and created before by myself. Perhaps the organisers should ask the participants to present more of their masterpieces rather than just sit and listen and relax.
24. The course is very useful to new teachers like me.
25. Satisfied and fulfill the teacher's need.
26. Very informative. Activities carried out were interesting and applicable in classroom.
27. All went well. Well done and keep up the good work! For lunch- shoud be more interesting. Lack of varieties.

Thanks to Hafiz, my co-trainer, Ismail (Chairman, MGC Kluang) and the secretariat for the smooth-running of the course. I find sharing with teachers always rewarding!

Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor Meeting

Top: meeting in progress
2nd from top: pensive me
3rd from top: meeting in progress
Bottom: the catching lobby of SK Kota Jaya which greeted guests..

Date: 23 July 2009
Time: 8am-2pm
Venue: SK Kota Jaya, Kota Tinggi, Johor

The MGCJ committee had a meeting to disuss its role in the national convention which will be held soon. MGCJ is responsible for Documentation, Photos & Videos and Evaluation/Report. The meeting was chaired by the Pn Norizah Rahmat, the Chairperson. Many decisions were made and will be brought forward to the national committee meeting. Amongst them, CDs of candid shots and photos of state contingents will be given and the tentative programme was discussed. The idea was to invite the PM as the guest-of -honour. The list of the Johor contigent was distributed and each member was given a nice piece of material to be worn at the national convention. My only concern is whether my tailor is willing to accept another order as Hari Raya is fast approaching and she would have been loaded with tailoring orders by now!!

MGCJ Module Building Meeting (2), PKG Kluang, 2 July 2009

The second module building session for sharing best practices in teaching was held at PKG Kluang and we had a fruitful although tiring meeting as it ended at 4 p.m. The module builders and trainers were Adeline (Batu Pahat), Tan Bea Lea (Segamat), Syeikh (Mersing), Norzieha (Pontian), Ramesh (Johor Bharu), Manyamaran (Kulai) and Rahmah and Hafiz (Kluang). I had to rush to school at 12.15 to carry out the LET and panel meeting for my English panel and returned to the PKG at 1.30 p.m. Halfway through the discussion, I thought the panel was not paying attention anymore to the pesentations. Everyone was busy editing his own material! It was actually very tiring to listen to all the presentations and to make comments alone. And yet it had to be done so that we have the best materials to be presented during the course. Besides, producing quality materials should be foremost in a GC's work. However, all in all, we had a variety of materials to choose from for the training session later. Reaching home that day, I grabbed 'lunch' at 4.45p.m (there was no more lunch at the PKG by 1.30) and hit the sack at 9 p.m. The dummy is now with me and I will proceed with the final editing. Thanks to all involved.

MGCJ Module Building Meeting, PKG Kluang, 25 June 09

Today, I chaired the state level meeting of PMR and SPM module-building session for Majlis Guru Cemerlang Johor 2009 roadshow in PKG Kluang. As a matter of fact I was in charge of the SPM English group but Suresh, the MGCJ secretary had asked me to brief the PMR module builders too. The meeting went well except for some frantic calls from teachers who did not receive the calling letter in time :) The SPM group agreed to deal with two areas namely, writing and listening/speaking where we intend to share best practices in the classroom. I personally think listening and speaking have been neglected in the English classroom for a long time. We had a great discussion on what should be included in the 6-hour course. For writing, we will look at controlled, semi-controlled (guided) and free-writing and for listening/speaking, we have decided to focus on practical pair work, group work and large class approaches. We will present our parts during the 2nd meeting on the 2nd July 2009 for team feedback and editing. My team consists of nine English excellent teachers: Adeline (Batu Pahat), Ramesh (Johor Bharu), Norziha (Pontian), Sheikh Fauzi (Mersing), Mrs Jacob (Segamat), Manymaran (Kulai), Hafiz (Kluang) and Renuka (Muar).

MGC Johor Meeting, SM Sains Johor, Kluang, 28 May 09

I had to rush to this meeting after receiving an sms. No letter was issued to me and the president apologised about this. With us was En Shamsudin hin Harun from JPNJ who patiently followed our discussions and 2009 programmes. Amongst others, we intend to organise an Effective Teaching Course where we will share best practices in teaching the selected subjects such as BM, English, History, Mathematics and others. Kluang has been given the task to host English for UPSR, PMR and SPM English. Discussions also included finances and we were pleased to note that we are quite RICH!! :) How about that Sarawak trip that is long overdue?

Seminar Kecemerlangan SPM, MGCJ, Kluang, 11th June 2008

Been wanting to upload many photos for some time so there.. the Kluangans (about 250) who attended the English slot. It was good to see my ex-students from Sains Johor after almost a year and a half. How time flies

Seminar Kecemerlangan SPM, MGCJ, Mersing, 18th June 2008

Mersing students taking part in the SPM English seminar held this year. I had a great time with them. A total of 200 students took part and I was priviliged to share exam tips with them. The more you give, the more you will receive!