Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Towards the end of the journey..


The journey has come to an end...Fourteen weeks of learning on how to integrate technology in the classroom makes me realize of the beauty of technology and its' benefits. Here, I would like to thanks to my lecturer and tutors for giving me a wonderful experience and great knowledge. I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to be in this course. Thanks a lot!!!

My Future Classroom...

One question posted by the lecturer make me think of what my future classroom will look like? Will I integrate the technology in my classroom?? The answer is YES..definitely!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Fish! Philosophy

Fish! Philosophy? Fish have philosophy? Sounds funny right? haha..But, after reading the article, I get to know what Fish Philosophy is. Wanna know about it?Let me explain to you.
Fish! philosophy is a skill that provides the process, tools and language to generate the skills necessary to design a workplace full of inspiration, creativity and innovation. FISH! philosophy creates a common language. A language that will help improve your culture by using four simple practices – Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude


If you want to get more information about Fish! Philosophy, feel free to visit this website:
http://www.charthouse.com/content.aspx?nodeid=17139

Being there...

"Mrs. Thompson and Teddy"

Her name was Mrs. Thompson and his was 'Teddy'.
As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.
But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.
Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant.
It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.
At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.
Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners ... he is a joy to be around."
His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."
His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death had been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."
Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class".
By now, Mrs Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents.
Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.
Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour.
On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.
Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."
A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs.Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favourite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer - The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.
The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs Thompson did.
And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs.Thompson's ear, "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

This story really touched my heart and made me cried even though I had read it for several times before. Being a teacher does not mean that we only need to teach and educate the students. It's more than that. What Mrs Thompson did is just a little spices in the "teacher's world". I hope that i will be like 'Mrs Thompson' when I become a teacher in future. One more thing, teachers can also learn from their students.

Help!!! Help!!!

I really need help in completing my SmartBoard task. I have the idea for the activities, but i don't know whether it is suitable or not.
I felt really grateful as I have a team members who willing to help me. They give comments and suggestion to improve my Smartboard task. In addition, the presentation from a few friends had helped me a lot in improving my work. Comments on strengths and weaknesses of their works were taken as a guide for me to make my work better.
Lecturer and tutors were also helped us a lot since they give suggestions and beneficial guidelines. The IWB article is very useful since it gave me clearer views and understanding on how to design activities by using Smartboard. Moreover, Ms Ng had posted in the forum in ADec about the things that we have to bear in my when designing the activites. The information are very useful and helpful.

These are the overlooked items:
1. FONT TYPE.Using TIMES NEW ROMAN for a standard TWO activity is a No No. again put yourself in their shoes. Have you all seen the FONTS used for most storybooks written for kids are in TIMES NEW ROMAN.
2. FONT SIZE.The font should not be small. You claim it can be read. For a small kid even till STANDARD 6, it is a big put off.
3. COLOUR.Please make sure the colours chosen for content can be seen or read. Remember what is seen in your laptop may not look the same on a big screen. Next, remember how kids perceived colours.
4. IMAGES.Images chosen have to be relevant with the content or it sends a message for the content.Images should be chosen not only because it is nice or cute or you like it.Remember the resolution of the images.Remember not to distort the images.5. ACTIVITIESEach activity should be linked to one another e.g an enforcement
6. SPACING.Spacing is needed between two questions. Do not SQUEEZE 4-5-6 questions such as MCQ, fill in the blanks, in one slide. why? to save space ?? The students will feel the pain of doing this type of activities. remember though the minimum slides is 5, you can go more than 5....means 20, 50 , 100, 200 can be done as long when you need the students to understand the activity the fun way.
OTHER THINGS--
Do not give us a plain background with MCQ questions (around 3-4) in one slide. You will be heavily penalised as you fail to utilise the function of the smartboard. As prof.RM mentioned, if you can do that in paper, why bother using the smartboard.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Discover a new experience with SmartBoard...

Here comes another assignment..
For this assignment, we are required to design activities by using SmartBoard software. As it is a group work, I was assigned to design activities for mathematics. I chose to design activities for teaching decimals to the Year 4 pupils.
This assignment did challenge me since I'm not really effiecient in using SmartBoard software. I hope I'm able to design good actitivies and apply the knowledge that I gained from the previous training.

Useful links for the teachers...

In my opinion, teachers either pre-service or in-service should be alert with the information and news regarding teaching profession. There are lots of websites that are important for the teachers to remark by which they can get the latest news in the teacher's world. In addition, they can also share their thoughts and views in the sites. And most importantly, some of the websites provides the teacher with teaching strategies and methods, suggested activities and resources that can be used to teach the students.

Here are the links...Feel free to visit. You will benefit from them!!Believe me..

http://www.eduwebtv.com/index7.php
http://www.cikgu.net.my/
http://www.tutor.com.my/tutor/etems/
http://www.moe.edu.my:8080/web/guest/home
http://www.tutor.com.my/
http://www.moe.gov.my/tayang.php?laman=utama&unit=utama&bhs=my

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Finally....

Finally, my video have been uploaded in the Youtube. I'm so happy. Thanks a lot to the teaching team.

Friends, please watch the video and give me some comments. Here is the link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MBKv4_cxtM

You can also watch from this blog. Just click at the video at the bottom of this page.
Hehehe... ;-)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Video...

I am so sad. Till now my video for assignment 2 still not being uploaded in the Youtube. My friends have asked about it so many times since i've already told them about it. Sometimes, I feel that it is unfair since the videos that were being uploaded earlier have more time to be viewed and commented compare to mine. Yet, I'm understand that there are lots of videos that Ms Ng have to upload. 78 of them..that's a lot!! So, I said to myself..'be patient'..hehehe.

Actually, I can't wait to watch my video in the Youtube. It is the first video i've ever done. I'm so excited!! Even though i feel that the video is not 'that' interesting, but i satisfy with it. I did it all by myself. It's my work..Plus I gained lots of new experience while doing it. Installing and exploring softwares that i never use before make me realize how wonderful technology is. So glad to be in this course.hehehe..

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Finally...



At last, i've done with my video. I'm so happy..Thanks a lot for those who lend their hands (especially Nur Asma). I'll really appreciate your kindness.


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

SmartBoard...

Tomorrow class will be on the smartboard training . I'm so excited to learn more and more about it....My friends told me that many things can be done using smartboard application. I'm looking forward to try it by myself. Perhaps I can get the software to be installed in my laptop. So, I can try it at home. .~ahaks ~ ;p

Thursday, July 24, 2008


The JOURNEY is still far...

The dateline of the assignment 2 is just around the corner. But my video is still not ready yet.huhu...i'll try to finish it on time. Wish me luck. Chaiyok Chaiyok!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Video clip Assignment

Shooting??Video editing??huhu...this is something new to me. I'm not a 'techno' type of person. Frankly, i never produce any video clip since i do not know how to do it. I'm so glad to be in this class since there are lots of new things (about technology off course) that i'd learnt. Prof Maznah and her team are also kind enough as they had given us guidelines in order to produce the video clip and complete the assignment task.
In additioon, I feel that the idea of grouping is very good since the group members can help me while shooting as well as give comments about my video clip (which has not been ready yet). So, I'm not alone!!!hehe..thank God..

Next Generation Learning


My Point of View
Technology..technology..and technology. Everybody has talked about technology no matter who are they, where they are coming from and in what area they are in. The revolution in educational field had emerged by which technology are used as the medium to teach the students. Both teacher and student can benefit from this but it still has pros and cons.
In my opinion, all teachers should equip themselves with the knowledge of technology and ICT skills so that they can use it in the classroom. The use of ICT is another method of teaching. The variation of teaching methods and approaches used are very benefial in order to prevent the students from getting bored and refuse to learn. For example, the young learners are usually visual learners. They need some visual aids to help their learning process. By using video clips as the teaching aids, they might understand the lesson better compared to wordy explanation that might make them confused.
Apart from that, the teacher can also save their time, money and energy. If they can use the resources from the internet, why they waste their time cutting and pasting pictures on the card? They may adapt and adopt the resources from the internet to fix with the students' interest and ability. The time that they used to cut and paste can be used to design nice powerpoint slideshow which I'm sure the students will love it.
Next, the students as the learners might change their learning style. From a dependent learner, they might change to a independent learners as they can search the infomation needed by themselves without only rely to the teacher.Teacher will no need to spoon-feed them anymore!!
However, to much relliance on the technology may affect the teaching profession. It is possible that somedays, students might feel that they do not need to go to the school since they can access the information or the lesson from their home. In addition, the teacher might not be important anymore since what they need are just a computer and internet access. So, we better wacth out!! Some rules and regulations must be set up so that the technology will not going to be misuse...

Monday, July 14, 2008

Technology...

First thing that comes accross my mind before I get into this class is how far technology can help the young learners to learn? Do they need all the gadgets and ICT tools so that they can learn better and increase their performances? Does the traditional way of teaching like 'chalk and talk' do not appeal anymore?I did agree that technology is very useful and benefial in today's world but I still have a doubt whether all learners can benefit from it. So, I really hope that Prof. Raja Maznah and her team could clear my doubt. I'm looking forward to attend the class...