REFLECTION WEEK 9

           

  

         This week was such a wonderful and exciting week since I had a great time from some of the events that were going around in this institute such as annual dinner, the election of the JPP and also our choir performance during the dinner which I think the most valuable experience in my life. Indulging myself in those activities and events have given me the chance to learn new things especially the choir and at the same time helped me to reduce my stress. Many people came during the annual dinner which was held at the ballroom at Mega Hotel, Miri and each one was wearing their own beatiful and fashionable costumes. The event started at 7.3opm until 11.30pm and it was officiated by the Director of IPGKS, Madam Hajah Nuri Binti Udin. There were so many performances during the annual dinner such as contemporary dancing, singing performance and also our choir. It seemed that all of the students and lecturers have enjoyed watching all of the performances including our performance. I hope that we will this kind of enjoyable moment next year.

       Meanwhile, within this week we had no classes to attend since all of our lecturers have gone for several affairs and for that reason, we were asked to use that time to do our assignments and so on. I used most of my time to finish up my assignments in order to make sure that i would be able to complete them before the holiday. I realize that being a teacher trainee is not an easy thing to ponder about as we need to really internalize the skills and real attitude as a teacher including the way we think, speak and walk. If we are not aware of all these things, we would end up as an ineffective teacher. On the other hand, for Educational Technology, our lecturer, Mr. Sarihan just asked us to use our free time to carry on with our assignment on article review which will need to be handed in shortly. My group has finally finished after each and everyone of my group member has put a lot effort in completing their own parts of questions. 

       In addition to that, we were also asked to prepare a powerpoint presentation on our article review and we have presented it on Friday.  Initially, i was so scared to present our powerpoint since our lecturer has asked many questions to the previous group and that's why I scared if he do the same thing to our group but at last i managed to control my emotion and be more confident when i was presenting my part. When i was presenting, i tried to explain my points clearly and confidently so that my lecturer and my friends will understand it even though i know that I am not good enough in oral presentation but i believe that there is always a room for improvement for each and everyone of us. I am so grateful because after we had finished our presentation, our lecturer has only asked few questions compared to the previous group and all the questions that he asked have been answered correctly by my group members and I. After giving some comments on our article review presentation we decided to edit our essay so that it would be more organized and flawless.

      So, that's what basically happened in this week. Wait for my next reflection and i could not wait for the year-end holiday which is on the next week .:)

       

REFLECTION WEEK 8

          

                                                                 

        We have attended lectures after a week of break (Deepavali Holiday) and it is undeniable that we were still in the holiday mood especially for those who went back home during the holiday. As usual we we spent most of our times in the classroom to do our tons of assignments since some of the lecturers were not around such as Madam Ira, Mr. Sarihan and Madam Hairani, so they just asked us to use that time to work on our assignments.  I am so happy and grateful for being able to finish up some of my assignments and some have not been completed yet. The most tiring day was on the friday where we attended for the TITAS lecture for about 6 hours which started from 3.00pm until 8.00 pm luckily we had some tasks to do during the lecture which was to present our TITAS assignment. 

         Meanwhile, there were also some events that were going around in this institute during this particular week such as talks on Gagasan 1 Malaysia, BSN and so on. We attended for the talks just to learn something new and to gain meaningful experiences. Not only that, my friends and I were so busy with our choir practice for the annual dinner which will be held shortly which is on the next week. This is to brush up our performance and aso to make sure that we are able to perform well during the upcoming dinner. I had such a great time during the choir practice as I managed to mingle around with different students from othe classes and got to know them all and had a nice conversation with them. They were so friendly and easy to communicate with especially the new juniors who also join our choir team. Besides, this will also help me to improve my social skills and the importance of making friends regardless of their race, religion and so on.

       For Educational Technology, our lecturer was not around in the institute but he has assigned us to use the free time to do our assignment. Our assignment for this subject which is the last assignment that need to be completed is to write an article review about any topic which is related to educational technology issue and we decided to choose Web 2.0 as our topic. We have already divided the tasks to each of our group member. For that particular assignment, we were required to find different information from different sources such as journal, book, magazine, newspapers and encyclopedia. Even though the topic that we have chosen was quite vague and for the fact that its too general so we have narrowed it down to the implication of web 2.0 on the education 1.0. Not only that, our lecturer also asked us to update our respective blog by posting our own reflections for every single week. 

      I think those are basically the things that were going on in this week, so wait for my next reflection next week!!! Happy Learning and Have a nice saturday morning!!!

      

                                                                               

 
     

REFLECTION WEEK 7

                                         Week 7- Deepavali Holiday

         After having 6 weeks of interaction hours, finally we managed to get some rest in this particular week where a week of holiday was given to us in conjunction with the Deepavali celebration. Some of my classmates went back to their own hometown on the 21st  October 2011 and 22nd October 2011 since all this while we were suffering with terrible homesickness. Unfortunately, I did not go back to my beloved hometown at Kota Marudu, Sabah during this holiday because the flight ticket was so expensive and besides the year-end holiday is coming soon and I would rather go back during that particular holiday which is on the 19th November 2011 until 2nd October 2011 so that I would not waste too much of my money. Altough, it was very upsetting to see the others dragging their own luggage to go back to their own homes, but I tried to control my feelings and sometimes my tears just falling down on my cheek. Everyone of us miss our parents right?? and I myself too and for that reason I called my parents everyday within this week to ask them how are they doing and so on.

       Maybe the holiday was too short for the others but for me it was too long because I spent most of the time by staying alone in my room and it was so boring that I almost wanted to go insan. Luckily, some of my juniors went to my room to accompany me and we had some conversations with each other. The worst thing is that we were showered with tons of assignments to be completed for all of the subjects. The worst of all is that we need to hand them in next week.Perhaps, some of my classmates did not have time to spend their holiday with full of enjoyment because of completing their assignments. In order to fulfill my free times during the holiday, I decided to start working on my assignments and I managed to complete the Teaching Profession's assignment, Linguistics' assignment and TITAS. I was so happy for being able to motivate myself in doing my work as to avoid myself from procrastinating my work and I am still in the process of getting rid with that behaviour. 

        Meanwhile, for Educational Technology's assignment, we were asked to write an article review based on any articles which is related to Educational Technology subject. The information in the article review must be from 10 different sources and consists about 15-20 page. For this assignment, Nigel Lawai Willie, Norhilman Bin Hussin, Josman Ghani Ak Robert, Vanessa Cordilia Ak Paterson and me were in the same group. Before we start doing this assignment, we have discussed with each other to choose the topic for our article review assignment and finally we came to a consensus to choose Web 2.0 as our topic. The reason why we chose that topic is that we already familiar with that topic during our Computer In Education last semester. I think we have been exposed widely about this topic so it would be easier for us to write our article review.

        Last but not least, I would like to dedicate my warmest Happy Deepavali greetings to all of Malaysian citizens who are celebrating deepavali. Have Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) 

                                                                                       

     

REFLECTION WEEK 6

                                        

         

         If I were to choose which week is the most exhilarating week for me I will definitely choose this week because I had a lot of fun from some of the activities that I have participated such as choir and karaoke competition that were held in this institute. Our choir team was asked to perform two malay songs in conjunction with the Innovation Day which was held on the18th October 2011 which is “Malaysia Inovasi” and “Guru Pemangkin Transformasi Pendidikan Negara”. At the same time, our semester 6 Visual Art seniors organized the “Pesta Seni” and there were few competitions for all of the teacher trainees who would like to join such as karaoke competition, battle of the bands and dancing competitions. I decided to join the karaoke competition and luckily I managed to enter to the final together with my roommate, Christter Ritter Badon. I have gained a lot of experience of joining those activities for instance I learned how to increase my self-confidence whenever we perform in front of the public. I would never forget this memorable moment in my life.

        Now let us back to business where this week for mr. sarihan’s class we were so busy completing our assure lesson plan and also the video to be used in the teaching and learning process and our targeted students is form 3 students. In the process of completing this task, we decided to divide the task for each one of us so that it would be easier for us to focus on our own part and at the same the task is divided equally to each person. For our assure lesson plan, we decided to choose people as our theme, so we focused more on the famous people in the world. Inside our lesson plan, we put the subject, day/date, form, time, theme, topic, previous knowledge, moral values, pedagogical strategies, references, teaching aids, learning outcomes, objectives, set induction, activities and closure. Through the completion of the task, I have gained a lot of experience for example the techniques or skills in creating an effective lesson plan for the students, self-motivation, self-esteem, collaboration and cooperation skills.

       After we have finished doing our ASSURE lesson plan, Mr. Sarihan asked us to present our own ASSURE lesson plan in the classroom. Personally, I think each group has done their good job in creating their own lesson plan which shows that all of us have put a lot of effort in finishing the task. Accidentally, we have chosen the same theme with the fourth group which is ‘People’, but our lesson plan is different from their group. Our ASSURE lesson plan is one of the group works and there will be marks for that. Mr. Sarihan has evaluated all of our lesson plan presentations individually and I hope I will get a good mark for that presentation. Not only that, he has also commented on our respective lesson plans so that we will know the things that need to be improvised on. From the comments that he gave, I realized that there were a lot of things that need to be taken into considerations so that the teaching and learning process will become more successful. After knowing what the things that need to be improvised are, we decided to edit our lesson plan especially our PowerPoint presentation.

        All in all, the presentation has given a lot of benefits in terms of social skills, presentation skills and so on. Last but not least,

HAPPY HOLIDAY TO ALL MY CLASSMATES WHO WILL BE GOING BACK THIS DEEPAVALI HOLIDAY!!!
SEND MY REGARDS TO MY FAMILY!!

HAPPY LEARNING PEOPLE!!!

       

REFLECTION WEEK 5

      

      Days went so fast and this week is the 5^th week of lecture. For educational technology subject, each lecture that I have attended really helped me in improving my ICT skills through the completion of tasks that were given to us. Not only being able to build up knowledge on ICT skills but I also learned about social skills (communication skills), cooperation skills and so on. Even though attending lectures are extremely tiring for me but there were many benefits that I have gained through them.

        For educational technology lecture, this week our topic was on CASPER Model. Basically, from my own understanding, this model is a method or skills that can be applied in creating an interesting PowerPoint presentation. As we all know, we as teachers should be able to utilize all these skills because nowadays the education world has changed which require the teachers to incorporate ICT in their teaching. So, in order to become an effective English teacher, we have to comply all the requirements and start to build up knowledge on those areas. CASPER is an acronym as follow :-

C-Contrast  

A-Alignment

S-Simplicity

P-Proximity

E-Emphasis

R-Repetition

      After Mr. Norsarihan has explained to us about this model, I managed to have a good grasp about the ways or methods on how to make interesting PowerPoint presentations. All this while, I did not realize about all these things because we were not being exposed to these techniques. Based on this model, when we create a PowerPoint presentation, we should not put too many words in our slides as it will create a distraction to the readers for example they might get bored with our presentation since they might spend their time by reading the slides instead of listening to our presentation. Not only that, we should not also put too many pictures or graphics in one slide as it will look messy and the message or information would not be delivered effectively to the readers. Besides that, if we want to emphasize certain words or phrases, we should bold them so that the readers would get to know or understand the main ideas of our presentation.

Last but not least, I wish everyone happy weekend!!Happy Learning!! And happy working on your assignments!!

REFLECTION WEEK 4

                                          

       There were many interesting things that were going on in this week and one of them is we have attended for the Sarawak Chief Minister’s drama competition in our institute which was held from the 3^rd October – 5^th October 2011. Actually, our institute became the host for the drama competition this year and it was held in Dewan Muhibbah IPGKS. I was so excited to watch all the performances from every Teacher Training Institute in Sarawak such as Batu Lintang Teacher Training Institute, Rajang Teacher Training Institute and Tun Abdul Razak Teacher Training Institute and also our own beloved institute. The place was crowded with a lot people to watch the outstanding and wonderful performances from each Teacher Training Institute. I think every institute has done their very good job and I myself could not even guess which performance would become the winner, but finally Rajang Teacher Training Institute was announced as the winner of the drama competition, 2^nd  runner up is Batu Lintang Teacher Training Institute, 3^rd runner up is Tun Abdul Razak Teacher Training Institute followed by Sarawak Teacher Training Institute.  I gained a lot of experience from the drama competition especially in drama techniques which involve a lot of important aspects to create an outstanding drama.

        Back to business, in this week we have also presented our own blogs to Mr. Sarihan and he has given marks for that presentation. During the presentation, I have tried my best to explain every single thing that I put in my blog so that my lecturer and my friends would be able to notice the distinctions of my blog from the other people’s blog. This is because, there were certain marking criteria that we need to fulfill in order to get a high mark for our blog presentation where we need to put different features inside our blog such as flicker, picasa, audio, chatbox and so on. I have included those features inside my blog and for that reason I have chosen the best design for my blog which I uploaded the image from my computer. I chose to put the green background because for the fact that I like green and usually learning is often associated with green colour since green is the symbol for environmental protection. In other words, though education we will be aware about the importance of keeping our nature clean. So, each person has done their very good job during the blog presentation and I was so mesmerized to see their amazing and beautiful blogs.

     Besides that, this week, we were also asked to discuss in groups of 4 regarding about the topics that were given to us and we need to make a power point presentation based on our own topic. For this particular task, we decided to stay in the same group that we have already formed for the video presentation task. Our topic was on Audio in multimedia.

     Lastly, I have gained many experiences from the task that we have carried out but I still need to brush up more on my presentation skills in order to become a competent and proficient English speaker.

Happy Learning Everyone!!!!

Enjoy your weekend!!!:)

REFLECTION WEEK 3

         This is the third week we attended lectures for Educational Technology subject and I found that I developed myself more and more especially my knowledge and skills in ICT skills. This is because, we all have gone through many practices on it where it requires us to apply the knowledge that we have learned in the classroom such as video editing, creating blog and so on. In my opinion, these skills are very crucial for me as a future teacher who is going to teach my students about ICT and how to utilize in their learning process. Nevertheless, dedication is very needed in applying these skills not just getting to know about it but he or she also needs to internalize these skills so that it would become more meaningful.

       Besides that, we also learned about the ASSURE model and also something on instructions. ASSURE model is a model or lesson plan that helps us to see the progress of our students and make the teaching and learning process to be more systematic and effective. The ASSURE model is helpful for designing courses using different kinds of media. This model assumes that instruction will not be delivered using lecture/text book only. It allows for the possibility of incorporating out-of-class resources and technology into the course materials. This model will be especially helpful for instructors designing online courses. A stands for ‘Analyze Learners’, S stands for ‘State Objectives’, S also stands for ‘Select Methods, Media and Materials’, U stands for ‘Utilize Media and Materials’, R stands for ‘Require Learner Participation’ and E stands for ‘Evaluate and Revise’. 
         I am so happy for being able to learn all these things and to be equipped with this knowledge as I would be able to impart them to my students later on. Not only that, I also have to make sure that the students have a good grasp on how does the knowledge that they learned on ICT skills helps them to improve their learning skills. In addition to that, our lecturer also has told us that when we go for our practicum later on we need to have sound knowledge in ICT skills because it is important when we carry out lesson plan as the applications of ICT skills in the teaching is very needed but it has to be done successfully and flawlessly without any mistakes. This is because the marks will be deducted. I think that’s all for this week and more reflections will come soon and hopefully I manage to cope with every predicament that I face throughout this course easily.

REFLECTION ON VIDEO PRESENTATION

       We were assigned to work in groups of 5 to complete the task that was given by our Educational Technology lecturer, Mr. Norsarihan Ahmad. I worked with Nigel, Hilman, Josman and Vanessa as my group members. The task actually requires us to create a video used to teach students about certain topics based on the form 2 syllabuses.  I personally enjoy doing this task as it deals with animation and video editing which can make the learning process to be more fun and interesting. So, every group was given the opportunity to choose their own topic and our group decided to choose a topic which is adjectives.

      In order to complete this task, we have discussed with each other to come up with different ideas on how to make the videos to be more fantastic. So each and every one of us has contributed our own thoughts and ideas and they were all taken into consideration as long as they make sense and appropriate. From the discussion, we finally had rough ideas and we started doing the videos. Besides that, we also decided to record our own voices to be included in the videos so that it will be more authentic. Not only that, we also sang a song by Yuna “Dan Sebenarnya” which we translated the lyrics into English but too bad when we transfer the video from the camera into the laptop, we could not really hear our voices clearly. Nevertheless, Hilman and the other group members decided to put my singing video during the karaoke competition last Sunday at Bintang Megamall. We also put some pictures in our videos to make it nicer and cool.

     So, during the video presentation in the classroom, we became the third group to present our video. I think all the groups have done very well just like our own group. The first group was about on how to teach drama to the students with beautiful and nice background wallpaper and the second group’s topic was about natural disasters and the fourth group was doing the same with us which was on how to teach adjectives.

      Overall, every group has done very good job in completing the task and it shows that we all have applied the knowledge that we have learned in the classroom. I myself also learned more about cooperation skills, communication or social skills and many more.

REFLECTION WEEK 2

        

          Day went by so fast and now it’s already second week. There were a lot of things that happened in this week where we were assigned with a lot of tasks that need to done and handed in shortly such as PowerPoint presentations, assignments and so on. These tasks are for subjects such as Linguistics for Language Teachers (Madam Ira), Learners Strategies (Madam Hairani), Teaching Profession (Mr.Ranjit) and Educational Technology (Mr.Sarihan). I am pretty sure that this semester is going to be the toughest semester compared to the previous semesters so it really requires our perseverance and determination since we have no choice but just to endure it patiently.

        For Educational Technology, Mr.Sarihan has entered the class and gave us few important inputs about this subject. He has explained to us in details on how technology benefits teachers and students and also our roles as future teachers in order to be able to utilize technology fully in our teaching later on. Besides, he also mentioned something about the importance of Web 2.0 which really plays an important role in this modern world. The examples of Web 2.0 including social networking such as Facebook, Blog, Twitter, MySpace and so on which are now among the most popular websites among the teenagers. I personally agree that Web 2.0 really gives us a lot of benefits but we must not misuse it for wrong purposes because it can cause negative consequences to ourselves. For example, for those students who have their own facebook account would might spend most of their time chatting with their friends rather than doing their homework or use facebook to discuss with their friends about academic stuff. In my opinion, the introduction of Web 2.0 has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on how a person perceives it.

        Coming back to the main topic which is about the things that I have learned this particular week where I learned how to create videos used to teach students. I think this is one of my favorites lessons in this subject as I like to deal with graphics, animation and video editing. In relation to that, our lecturer has asked us to work in groups of 5 and come up with a video that will be used in the teaching and learning processes. For this particular task, I worked with Nigel Lawai Willie, Norhilman Bin Hussin, Josman Ghani Ak Robert and Vanessa Cordilia Ak Paterson. In order to complete this task, we have discussed with each other on what are we going to put inside our videclip and also the topic of our videoclip which must be based on the Form 2 syllabus. We chose Adjectives as our topic and our videoclip will be more on how to teach adjectives to the Form 2 students. In addition to that, we have also borrowed the Form 2 textbook from the library to get a good grasp about the syllabus. Apart from that, we have also recorded our own voices to be included inside our videoclip and also a short presentation where we sang “Dan Sebenarnya” by Yuna but we have translated the lyrics into English Language so that it would be more appropriate. This videoclip needs to presented on Monday. Throughout the process of completing this task, I learned about collaboration and cooperation skills when working in a group. Besides, I also learned on how to improve my social skills especially when it comes to a group discussion.

In short, the tasks that have been assigned to us encouraged me to be more diligent and put a lot of effort in making sure that the tasks are done successfully and I hope I would manage to get more opportunities to improve my weaknesses in the coming weeks ahead.

Happy learning everyone!!! and

Have a nice day!!!!

REFLECTION WEEK 1

        After we have completed our short semester(Semester 3b), now we are having our new semester which is semester 2. In this semester, we are taking four subjects that we will be learning througout this semester namely Linguistics for Language Teacher, Learners Strategies, Teaching Profession, Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia(TITAS) and Educational Technology. I personally believe that these subjects are very tough than what we had on the previous semester since they are more to thereotical kind of subjects which require us to read extensively. Thus, we need to put a lot of effort in order to be able to master all the subjects very well. I am so afraid that I might be facing problems in coping with these subjects in terms of understanding the concepts of it but I hope that I can make it easily. 

      For Educational Technology, our who will be teaching us is Mr. Norsarihan Ahmad and we have attended his classes in this week. For the first lecture, he just explained to us briefly about the introduction of the course such as what is educational technology all about, types of assessments, lecture hours and so on. From this lecture, I managed to get a general idea on what we are going to learn in this subject. Actually, this subject is quite similar with the GGGE1155 Computer In Education which we have already taken last semester but I do not know why we were asked to take this Educational Technology subject again. I think maybe the reason why they do so is that they want to emphasize more on the importance of technology in our education system since our education system now is evolving so Chalk and Board technique is really effective in improving and enhancing our education system. Thus, we as future teachers should be internalized with all these skills or knowledge in order to be able to impart them to our students later on.

     He also told us about the assignments that we need to complete and get it done before we sit for the exam. Basically, the assignments were divided into two parts which is indvidual assignment and group assignment. When I looked at the questions I was so shocked that the tasks that we need to do in this particular subject are even harder than the one in the Computer In Education subject. So for the group work, we have already divided ourselves into few groups so that it would be easier for us to get the tasks done. One sad thing that really made me feel so depress is that we need to create a new blog again for this subject and we also need to write reflections for every week but I did not take it negatively besides, I perceived it from the positive side. I am in complete agreement that writing reflections would help me to improve my writing skills and thinking skills. 

       On Thursday, 15th September 2011, our lecturer has taught us about few topics on how technology help TESL teacher and its importance in our education system. Generally, I managed to get a good grasp of it even though it was the first lecture that I have attended for his class. Besides, we were also asked to create our own blog as I have mentioned just now,design it based on our own creativity, complete ouur profile, upload podcast in our blog and create our own wikispace. Just imagine, a first lecture with thousands of tasks have been assigned to us and I do not know what would happen in the few months ahead.

     As a start, I tried to get all the tasks that have been assigned to us for this particular week done so that it will not give too much burden to me. I will try my best to finish my tasks on time every time when we are given work or tasks by our lecturer. 

      I think thats all for this very first week and more reflections will come soon and hopefully it would not burden me too much. Happy reading my reflections and happy learning!!!