Friday, July 30, 2010

3rd Week

Fuhh! I feel like I just entered University Malaya and now I’m already in third week. At the moment the only task that we have to do is updating our blog with weekly reflections. I’m glad because after these three weeks, I feel that we are getting closer to Pn. Foziah. During the first week, Pn. Foziah will be talking and when she asks our opinion, everyone will be quiet. Probably because we are still new to University Malaya and we are not familiar with the lecturers over here. She encouraged us to talk and she told us that she wants us to be a part of the classroom discussion. So today we really had a good time in Pn. Foziah’s class as there were two way interactions between Pn. Foziah and us.

Today we were divided into 6 groups and each group was assigned a topic. Pn. Foziah allocated 1 hour for us to discuss the topic and after that we need to present it to the class.


My group consists of 7 members and our topic was about “The Instinct for Interaction and Talk”. At first when I read the notes in the book, my understanding of the topic was just at surface level. But after discussing with my group members, I have a clear understanding of what the topic is all about. In short, the topic is about pupils’ own initiative to indulge in an interaction. In the slide show we included the definition of the topic, the benefits of instinct interaction and the role of teacher in developing instinct interaction in a classroom. Based on the topic that we had presented, I do realize that whenever possible, a teacher must indulge the pupils in group discussion, language games and group activity. In a classroom, there will be pupils with different kind of learning styles, attitudes and characteristics. Thus as a teacher, our responsibility is to understand them and find a way to indulge them in an instinct interaction.



We were the second group which presented today, before us there was a group presented about “Children’s capacity for Indirect Learning”. The group had done a good job because their explanation enabled us to understand the topic thoroughly. Indirect learning is something regarding “subconscious learning” and when this situation takes place pupils will acquire the language quicker. The types of activities that can be integrated in classroom to foster indirect learning are broken phone, hang man, and also word puzzle.


From what the group had presented, I learned that in a lesson we can integrate both direct and indirect learning to make teaching and learning more meaningful. Direct learning is the teaching part where input are delivered to the pupils and this direct learning can be carried out in a presentation part during a lesson. Where else, indirect learning which emphasizes on learning through fun can be integrated either in set induction or production part.

Due to time constraint, only 2 groups got the chance to present their topics. The other 4 groups will be presenting in the next class. In today’s class I learned a few things as what I mentioned above and it will be very useful for me as future teacher as I can implement it in my classroom.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

2nd Week

Time flies very fast, today is my second day in this class. I was waiting patiently right in front of MK2 entrance. The door was open but I dare not enter in without Pn.Foziah’s instruction. This time around I was determined to sit in the front row, because I do not want to miss any information and instruction given by Pn. Foziah. Unfortunately, before I enter in, a group of students rushed in and took the front row. But its okey, I still managed to get a place in the centre.
This time around the class was under control because our group which consist of 75 students were separated into two groups. Thanks to Pn Foziah for making such changes as it will be very helpful for us. This is because Pn. Foziah can give closer attention to all the students in this smaller group. Next Pn. Foziah started to explain to us about our course and what we should be able to do at the end of this course. She explained about the five modules which she expects us to master at the end of this course:



1. Computer and blog, Internet skills
2. Photo editing skills :
3. Video editing skills:
4. Audio editing skills
5. Software for ESL skills


In photo editing, we’ll be taught on how to edit pictures, for instance we took the picture in Malaysia but we can edit it as if we were in any other place or country. Secondly in video editing, if there is certain part that we do not want it to be in that video, we can cut it. For instance, if I record a programme on making a kite from television and want to show it to pupils, so I can cut out the advertisement and just show the pupils the process of making a kite. The same goes for audio editing but it involves sound. “Don’t you think its “GREAT?”. I was so excited when I heard the explanation given by Pn. Foziah because frankly speaking, I do not possess most of the skills that she mentioned. Thus learning the skills above will definitely benefits me as I will be able to produce better teaching aids for the pupils in future.


Next, Pn. Foziah asked the class if anyone of us could type by just looking at the screen and not the keyboard. He,he,he if not mistaken only 3 or 4 of them nod their head indicating that they have that ability but the rest of the class just kept quiet. I was also quiet because I do not possess that skill. Anyway I just give a try and start typing. For your information, I was just typing without knowing what alphabet I was typing. It was so kind of Pn. Foziah because, she gave us the software which enables us to master touch typing skills. Learning to type faster is crucial as it helps us to save our time.

Besides, she also exposed us to “Windows Live Sky Drive”. This is the place where we were given 25GB free online storage. This is very useful for us as we can store all our projects that we will be doing throughout this course. I salute Pn.Foziah because I do not know anything about it until she shared it with us.
Last but not least, I am lucky as I got a chance to study for this course. I will make sure at the end of this course I will be able to master all these five skills. Mastering these five skills will enable me to create an exciting and interesting teaching learning activity for my pupils.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

1st Week

Name: Dhachaini A/P Prabhakaran
Matric Number: PEH080008
Ok, this is the first time I’m entering this class. The title of this course is “USING AND DEVELOPING RESOURCES FOR ESL CLASSROOM” Fuhhhh!! Such a long name, don’t you think so? What is this course all about? Just by listening to the course’ name, my stomach was filled with butterfly. I was asking my peers, what are we going to learn in this course. They said “May be we are going to learn on how to make teaching aids like puppet and flash cards”. “Really? But we have learned that in our Maktab”. So I was just waiting anxiously, wondering what we are going to learn.

The moment I entered a lab called MK2, I was shocked. “Hei! What is this???? Are we going to do puppet in computer lab?” IMPOSSIBLE!!!! So I took my place and waited for the lecturer. Thousand and one questions were running in my mind. What are we going to learn? Who is the lecturer? Man or Female? Strict or friendly? After a few minutes our lecturer entered. HOOREY!!! She is female and I’m happy because I feel more comfortable working under female lecturer as I think they are more caring and I was absolutely right. She introduces herself and her name is Pn. Foziah. I was sitting at the back and I saw Pn.Foziah talking to my friends who sat at the front row. By looking at her, I told myself “Hei girl, don’t worry. You are going to have a wonderful time in this class because Pn. Foziah seems to be a friendly person”.

The class was congested as 75 students were sitting in the lab. So could you imagine how the situation was? Pn. Foziah was quite stress when she look at the big crowd which was so noisy. Moreover everyone was excited as they got the chance to browse internet. To speak the truth, I just could not hear what Pn. Foziah was telling because the situation at the back was out of control.

Before the class ends, I ran to my friends who sat at the front row and ask them what Pn. Foziah told. They told me that we need to create a blog, buy 8GB pen drive, install Photoshop CS3 in laptop and also bring in a passport size photo.


But I do not really know what we are going to do in this class. May be Pn.Foziah explained to us but I could not really hear her. So that was the first day in Pn. Foziah’s class. Looking forward for next class to discover more about this subject and I promised myself not to sit at the back for the next classes as I do not want to miss any information given by Pn Foziah.

Monday, July 19, 2010

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Teachers who have a good personal well-being, progressive and scientifically-oriented, ready to uphold the nation's aspirations and preserve her culture heritage, promises individual devrelopment and maintains a united, democratic, progresive and disciplined society.