englishoasis

Friday, 23 July 2010

EnglishSMART Programme

Date: 17 July 2010 (Saturday)
Venue: Kluang Lake

The ELDSS of SMK Canossian Convent organised a programme called EnglishSMART today at Kluang Lake. We invited five schools to participate- SMK Teknik, SM Belitong, SMK Tun Husein Onn, SMK Tinggi Kluang and SMK Bandar T6. Altogether, we had 60 students and 26 facilitators. My biggest fear was the rain but I already had a contingency plan for that with the cooperation from the city hall of course. It did rain the night before. Awakened by the rain at 4 a.m., I couldn't sleep anymore thereafter!! Talk of anxiety...But all praises to God when we arrived at 7.20 the next morning. The rain had stopped and we could run our five activities smoothly till 12.30. We had the front of Dewan Tunku Ibrahim, Kluang Lake all to ourselves as the tai chi group had finished their routine. We had five activities lined up: Ice-breaking, Wordsmith, My Story, Puzzlemania, Find Me. I was impressed with the groups' presentation for 'My Story' particularly.

Overall, I was very pleased with the programme and I must thank the ELDSS committee members, some of whom deserve mention- Abby (president), Chandrika (secretary), Balkees (treasurer), Farah Yasmin (Vice-president), Dewi, Sahsirekah and all the 26 facilitators. Good job girls!! The evaluation we received was positive and encouraging. Thanks to all participating schools and to Mr Cheng Meng Ang (GPK Co Curriculum) for kindly consenting to give away the prizes and not forgetting Pn Nur Atiffa Atim (Head of Panel, SMK Belitong) and Cik Farhan (a young and enthusiastic English teacher from SMK Tun Hussein Onn) for assisting me as judges that day. It was all worth it! I hope the ELDSS committee members picked up some very valuable skills on how to organise a district event such as this in the future and of course leadership skills too. With a little bit of imagination, anything is possible. Bravo to all!!

Who snapped this one? I love this!!

My lovely facees!! Girl power!

Sunday, 18 July 2010

SPM Excellence Seminar for Felda Southern Zone

Date: 10 July 2010 (Saturday)
Venue: Hotel Sri Malaysia, Mersing

A total of 28 selected SPM candidates from the southern zone Felda scheme invited me for a talk. This was arranged a month earlier and I couldn't refuse as it was jointly organised by JPNJ. The number of participants was ideal, as usually one has to cope with over a hundred students. I asked the students to write down their grades in the PMR and the recent mid-year exam on a piece of paper so as to know my clients and to pitch the talk at the right level. Despite the claim by the organisers that they were 'cemerlang' students, many obtained 50% and below in the mid year exam. I did what I could but I couldn't help feeling that I haven't quite achieved what I wanted to achieve...However, I wish them all the best in the SPM.

I have some issues though for thought. I think it's time organisers and counselors rethink their programmes. Little can be achieved if you want an exam techniques talk for low proficiency students. What they need is a lot of practice with the language in the classrooms- emphasise on what teachers do in the classrooms. What happens in the four walls of the classroom is most important. You will agree with me that if students are proficient in all the four language skills then they are ready to sit for any exams. The MESSAGE is teach for proficiency. Exam techniques is secondary, as a way of polishing their performance. I know some of you out there may disagree with me but we really have to change the way we do things. Doing the same things over and over is a definite recipe for failure! Counselors, don't do things for the sake of doing things... Think for a moment- can such a talk really benefit low proficiency students? They are already struggling with the language and do you really want to give them exam techniques? Why not have regular language workshops where target groups are given a lot of language practice in schools instead of a one-off exam techniques talk? Focus on the low and average groups and get teachers to do workshops for them in school.

British Council Connecting Classrooms Meeting

Date: 15 July 2010
Venue: PPD Kluang

Today we had the second meeting to discuss the state and national seminars for the BCC programme. I really had to drag my feet to this meeting...as I was very unhappy at the way the tasks were allocated in the earlier meeting. I felt 'cheated' as my school had not been registered and therefore technically we shouldn't even be in the committee. Being given the task of MC for this state event was unfair as this is a specialist job. Not everybody can be a MC!!! My suggestions for an experienced MC was rejected despite the fact that she comes from one of the 10 original member schools in the programme. And what has my DG got to do with the whole thing? I found this most annoying!! The 10 original schools should have been given the most important and challenging tasks (as they had enjoyed the perks from the programme) but I guess they didn't have much confidence at emceeing in the first place :)) This was the reason why they volunteered for 'JK Persiapan Tempat', 'JK Pendaftaran' and the likes.. and guess who got away with many things? In addition, I couldn't stand the passivity of some members of the committee, hardly saying anything and contributing anything. They seemed afraid to voice out their feelings and ideas. It was as if they needed some sort of approval from someone before they could say anything. It was only half-way through the meeting that the magical word 'help', yes that's the right word I'd been waiting for, appeared. So they needed 'help' from my school!! Say so lah from the beginning!! So they finally acknowleged that my school had not been registered. and that's why they needed 'help'. But why the heck were we given MC and not say registration???