Day In, Day Out

Parking Lot has been considered as one of the best practices in the 21st century classrooms besides the famous group seating arrangement. In Malaysian public schools especially in Sekolah Amanah, it is a mandatory  to prepare a space or an area in the class to put up a Parking Lot. Per contra , to date, teachers are having a lack of proper guidance on the use of Parking Lot as a consequence of  the non-existence of a blueprint or a printed guide from any Malaysian education departments on this practice . Worst, the knowledge of Parking Lot is succinctly dismantle to teachers while they are having courses on 21st century classroom or learning, during Professional Learning Communities (PLC) sessions or during department meetings. It is through these short sessions or meet-ups that Malaysian teachers are made aware of the benefits of Parking Lot. Even the practice could benefit both teacher and students, the lack of understanding on the practice  results failur...

A month ago, as a result of students coming across the word 'New Year's Resolution' in their reading text, I made them list their 2014 New Year's resolution. The fact that I am teaching creative kids has always made me prepared myself for surprises in their work, be their idea or their bombastic word usage. Though I was as always prepared to read, digest and analyse my students' wonderful work, the resolution task brought me shock in regard to the existence of a worrying resolution. It was: Having an imaginary friend.  I was in shocked particularly because I believed that kids with imaginary friends were suffering from emotional issues as a result of loneliness, lack of love and lack of attention. For heaven sake, why would a kid seek to have an imaginary friend if unlimited amount of love, affection and attention are given to them? I presumed imaginary friend as a cause for concern thus having a kid who wishes to have an imaginary friend  by the end of 2...

Last Thursday, I decided to do something different with students of 4 Ibnu Sinar (the first class of the form). I went into the class and invited students to share on things that they do when they feel frustrated or emotionally depressed. I made efforts to direct the discussion to the word self-talk and yes, the objective of the lesson was to study and improve on students' self-talk.     Self-talk provides a kind of program that our subconscious minds respond to. Our minds work something like computers: Our brains are the hardware, and what we say to ourselves is the software.   (Isaac & Ritchey, 1989, p.3) Self-talk was chosen because from readings, I discover that positive self-talk helps to raise students' confidence. Scholars believe that raising students' confidence is essential as self-perception predicts learning and student performance. Thus, self-talk can be of much help to my group of student as I discover that the students are suffering fro...

Since the Government introduces MBMMBI, many are complaining on the limited amount of time students are exposed to English or the L2. As an English teacher, or a going-to-be an English teacher, I was made believed by media and people around me that MBMMBI is a policy that will, in a long run, result in the deterioration of English proficiency among Malaysians. However, today I realise that some people who are proselytising the above are being selfish as today I discover that the efficacy of MBMMBI should not be solely judged on its impacts on Malaysian English development but also on Malaysian Malay language development. From my point of view, MBMMBI is indeed a brilliant policy as it embarks on preparing a good foundation to uphold Malay language among Malaysian students as their standard of Malay language is disappointing. Whilst Malay language teachers in major cities in Malaysia are reading Malay language essays that are filled with bahasa rojak and language of texting, Malay ...

This school has a routine in which in every two weeks, there will be an informal assembly; basically, a formal whole school meeting where teachers can bash students . Though assemblies are the most useless school agendas for me, I find no harm in it yet there is something that really bothers me. It is the routine of calling a 'misbehaved' student on the stage and bash him/her in front of the students and teachers. Last two week, I saw a girl student standing on the stage and was scolded for wearing a slack insteaf of a tracksuit. Though I consider it as a public humiliation, I take it positively. I make myself agree to call it an act of reminding students on what they should wear. However, today's story hit me. A 13 years old boy was bashed for his hairstyle. It was not that bad. It was an everyday boy hairstyle that one sees in their everyday life. I wont mind if the boy standing there is a 17 years old boy with scars everywhere on his body as that kind of boy mi...

There was a softball friendly match in my school today. It was between my school and a good softball team from a nearby school. I saw my students (the girls) pitching and catching balls since 3.30pm. Yes, since 3.30 and the game might end around 6. Under the hot sun, they practised very hard. The weather was not an obstacle for them to give their very best. I was stunned. I was once a student and I was once an athelete but to have games around that time were next to horrible. I was sitting somewhere under a roof observing my students when a question hit me. What's the point of this? What's the point of having students bathing under the sun for the sake of ...?  Are schools manipulating students? Are schools using students to get extra money to furnish their schools? Hurm. If it is for students' health and stamina, we can have students having their matches at 5 when the weather is kind but not at 3. If it is for students' future, comeon, this is not a sport schoo...