DSAI & LGE & AYOHCIK were riding on a machine made of man dressed in white and green turban - a very well oil machine - to take them marching.
While DSAI was at the driver seat with LGE sitting next to him, AYOHKCIK was just standing on the lowest step.
When AYOHCIK asked to share the driver seat, he was made fun of.
To save face, AYOHCIK was just smiling in jest.
AYOHCIK reminded DSAI & LGE on whose machine they were riding on.
Three to four men wearing white thaub and green turban came apparent from the moving machine saying that they pledged support to DSAI.
Then DSAI stopped to get DSWA to get up on the machine and sat next to him.
Then DSAI wanted to give the stearing to DSWA.
AYOHCIK said he wanted to get off the machine that looks like a bulldozer tractor and DSAI just laughed.
AYOHCIK wasn't holding on tight to the bulldozer and a slight bumped, he fell off it.
He refused to get back on eventhough DSAI reached out his hand to help get back up.
When AYOHCIK just stood there, DSAI started to move on with the men that manifest earlier took role as wheels.
But when AYOHCIK did not move, one by one the machine parts turned into men in white thaub and green turban came walking to stand by AYOHCIK.
DSAI, DSWA & LGE want to continue marching even though they were left with the skeletons of a bulldozer.
At one point, they get down and try to reorganise and turn it into similar machine albeit smaller and less powerful.
The wheels realised that they were treated merely as a mean to an end by the master, one by one distanced themselves.
Thus, the machine turn to a three wheelers, turned into a two-wheelers and lastly one last wheel broke down into pieces.
DSAI, DSWA, LGE came tumble down.
AYOHCIK and his men still have the knowhow and plenty of parts, reassembled and made a whole new and bigger machine.
This whole fiasco was watched by groups of people who lined up by the road sides.
The many different groups carry flags of different colours.
Red, white, blue, yellow and green.
Come 31st August, they all shouted, MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA!
Then, everyone went their own merry way.
#Nervous#ly waiting for #tomorrow#
May we all be guided on the straight path. Aameen.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Monday, February 11, 2013
Teaching Aid
During my father and mother's time, they used slate in the classrooms.
My mom used slate to teach me reading and writing at home before I started school.
Then when I started school, we use books to write on.
My primary school teacher told me that the school decided to plant a palm tree on the school compound.
It was suggested so that the teachers who teaches Geography, History or Bahasa Malaysia can use the palm tree as their visual aid.
For children who don't live in FELDA and have never seen what a palm tree look like, let alone its fruits, it'd be a bit difficult to explain the process of extracting oil that we use in our daily cooking.
Somehow, it must be explained to the school children how a plant of no value just a decade then, now fast becoming a money tree for the country.
That was in Standard 2.
I had my chance during the later year to circumambulating the palm tree, feeling it with our bare fingers, picking the fruits and I even got some fruits to take home as a part of the lesson in one of the class.
It was Bahasa Melayu's class, if I'm not mistaken!
Then one year, our class teacher asked fireman, policeman and postman to come to the class when learned about types of jobs that people do.
Our teacher even said that if he had known any pilot, he would have asked if the pilot would come to our class too.
On that day, we had a mobile dentist came to the school, thus we had a nurse in the classroom as well.
That was the first time I heard the term 'realia'.
Then came practical training teachers from UPM who seemed to be struggling with the mahjong paper each time they came to classes.
He didn't use mahjong paper the first time he came to our class.
We just introduced ourselves.
Then he suggested that we sing a song.
None of us know any English song really.
He came prepared with a cassette and a radio cassette player during the next class and wrote a chorus of a song on the blackboard using the chalks.
First, we listened to the song.
Here's the song lyric:
"Ku duduk termenung seorang diri
menanti di malam hari
seiring alunan seruling senja
begitu cinta ku padanya
The first paragraph was wiped out quickly when some of us giggled when looking at the word 'cinta'.
The teacher told us to forget it.
Soon after, the word 'kasih' was replaced by 'kawan'.
When I mentioned that my parents forbade me meeting even friends in isolated places, the word 'sunyi' was replaced by 'sana'
After much negotiation, the song lyric became:
"Teringat ku akan seorang kawanku
yang telah pergi entah kemana
oh angin sampaikanlah salamku
ku nanti nya di lembah sana
seiring alunan seruling senja
begitu kasihku padanya"
Thus, we sang our first song together by the end of the hour.
In the next class, he came with the revised lyric printed on the mahjong paper.
There after, he always came to the class with a bunch of mahjong paper.
That was when I was in Standard 4.
From then on until I was in the university, all of my classes were mostly listening to lecture and taking notes.
During my first semester at the university, during General Chemistry, Physics or calculus classes, the professor came to the lecture hall with rolls of projector screen or transparency with prepared notes and diagrams on it.
That was also the time when I had to punch the 0 and 1 number sequence on a card to print a two and half essay.
They said it's fortran programing telling the mainframe computer to print.
I used it once.
For the first time I used a word processor to type my essay assignment and print after two-page long since the RAM can only afford about two and half pages the most.
Since I normally have to turn in 4 - 5 pages long essays, I'd have to print it twice.
>>>Amstrad PCW8512 (UK 1985)
The PCW8512 was primary sold as a word processor. But it is really a general personal computer with a word processor program, LocoScript, bundled. The computer is running CP/M Plus operating system and BASIC and LOGO computer languages are provided. The processor is a Z80 CPU running at 3.4Mhz. The Amstrad had two (2x180K) disc drives and use a special diskette format as many computers did in the 80:s. A disc could be seen here. There is also one model of this computer called PCW8256 with just one 
disk drive and less memory (256 k). The computer and power supply was built inside the CRT-screen. The screen is a mono display with green characters and capable of displaying graphics at 720 x 256 pixels resolution. A matrix printer connected with a flat cable on the back of the screen is also included in the package.<<<<<
Then came the diskette and floppy discs where I can save the assignment and then get it printed elsewhere.
I was voice recording the lectures as well so that I can compare notes I was scribbling with the audio cassette.
Over the year, the size of the cassette and the player got smaller.
Video recorder was also out but somehow I've never had any of my lecturer using it for Teaching and learning purposes but I used it to capture my practice of delivering public speaking speeches and subsequently try to do better next time.
Through the video tape, I saw how my various body movements that can be distractive and how often I say uhhh and mmmm during the short 5-minute speech.
By the time I left college, the new computer lab had installed latest macintosh computer replacing this earlier version.
Macintosh SE FDHD (1988)
Switching from Mac to IBM computer was a learning the rope all over again.
IBM all there was here in Malaysia then.
Not many Mac were around.
Today, laptop computers are taken for granted.
All students and teachers alike are using it.
The younger generations X and Y are more advanced in technology that older generations.
Today generation Z are digital natives born with mobile smart phones, tablets and iPads as toys.
It's a common scene to see mothers with smart handphone, tablet or iPad in hand showing multimedia apps to 2 - 6 months old babies learning the alphabets.
Technology in education: Use what works.
So, what works?
As an English language teacher, I noticed that a student who can speak fluent English confidently, that somehow does not translate to good writing skills or with excellent academic performance and vice versa.
A student who can write well and perform academically is not necessarily speaking fluently in English.
Is it self-confidence?
Only partly.
A student maybe speaking in English language confidently but the message is not understood by the listeners due to mispronunciations, wrong stress or intonation.
Is it cultural? mother tongue's intonation interference? too tonal?
Only partly.
Ops! How do we define and measure language fluency?
What about the setting? Academic? or Social?
What apps available freely online that students and teachers can use to increase target language fluency?
Can a course be designed as a supplementary to help the target language fluency?
What about if done in collaboration with native speakers?
What gives? What do I get?
Google+ / voicethread / Skype / Facebook / glogster EDU /
PLE
lifelong learning
Where to start?
Need Analysis?
A learner contract?
What are the assumptions? A motivated leaner who is a digital natives. - a 21st century learner?
2Bcontinued ;)
My mom used slate to teach me reading and writing at home before I started school.
Then when I started school, we use books to write on.
My primary school teacher told me that the school decided to plant a palm tree on the school compound.
It was suggested so that the teachers who teaches Geography, History or Bahasa Malaysia can use the palm tree as their visual aid.
For children who don't live in FELDA and have never seen what a palm tree look like, let alone its fruits, it'd be a bit difficult to explain the process of extracting oil that we use in our daily cooking.
Somehow, it must be explained to the school children how a plant of no value just a decade then, now fast becoming a money tree for the country.
That was in Standard 2.
I had my chance during the later year to circumambulating the palm tree, feeling it with our bare fingers, picking the fruits and I even got some fruits to take home as a part of the lesson in one of the class.
It was Bahasa Melayu's class, if I'm not mistaken!
Then one year, our class teacher asked fireman, policeman and postman to come to the class when learned about types of jobs that people do.
Our teacher even said that if he had known any pilot, he would have asked if the pilot would come to our class too.
On that day, we had a mobile dentist came to the school, thus we had a nurse in the classroom as well.
That was the first time I heard the term 'realia'.
Then came practical training teachers from UPM who seemed to be struggling with the mahjong paper each time they came to classes.
He didn't use mahjong paper the first time he came to our class.
We just introduced ourselves.
Then he suggested that we sing a song.
None of us know any English song really.
He came prepared with a cassette and a radio cassette player during the next class and wrote a chorus of a song on the blackboard using the chalks.
First, we listened to the song.
Here's the song lyric:
"Ku duduk termenung seorang diri
menanti di malam hari
seiring alunan seruling senja
begitu cinta ku padanya
terkenang ku akan seorang kasihku
yang telah pergi entah kemana
oh angin sampaikanlah salamku
ku nanti ia di lembah sunyi
yang telah pergi entah kemana
oh angin sampaikanlah salamku
ku nanti ia di lembah sunyi
seiring alunan seruling senja
begitu cintaku padanya"
The first paragraph was wiped out quickly when some of us giggled when looking at the word 'cinta'.
The teacher told us to forget it.
Soon after, the word 'kasih' was replaced by 'kawan'.
When I mentioned that my parents forbade me meeting even friends in isolated places, the word 'sunyi' was replaced by 'sana'
After much negotiation, the song lyric became:
"Teringat ku akan seorang kawanku
yang telah pergi entah kemana
oh angin sampaikanlah salamku
ku nanti nya di lembah sana
seiring alunan seruling senja
begitu kasihku padanya"
Thus, we sang our first song together by the end of the hour.
In the next class, he came with the revised lyric printed on the mahjong paper.
There after, he always came to the class with a bunch of mahjong paper.
That was when I was in Standard 4.
From then on until I was in the university, all of my classes were mostly listening to lecture and taking notes.
During my first semester at the university, during General Chemistry, Physics or calculus classes, the professor came to the lecture hall with rolls of projector screen or transparency with prepared notes and diagrams on it.
That was also the time when I had to punch the 0 and 1 number sequence on a card to print a two and half essay.
They said it's fortran programing telling the mainframe computer to print.
I used it once.
For the first time I used a word processor to type my essay assignment and print after two-page long since the RAM can only afford about two and half pages the most.
Since I normally have to turn in 4 - 5 pages long essays, I'd have to print it twice.
>>>Amstrad PCW8512 (UK 1985)
The PCW8512 was primary sold as a word processor. But it is really a general personal computer with a word processor program, LocoScript, bundled. The computer is running CP/M Plus operating system and BASIC and LOGO computer languages are provided. The processor is a Z80 CPU running at 3.4Mhz. The Amstrad had two (2x180K) disc drives and use a special diskette format as many computers did in the 80:s. A disc could be seen here. There is also one model of this computer called PCW8256 with just one 
Source: http://pc-museum.com/officewing.htm
Then came the diskette and floppy discs where I can save the assignment and then get it printed elsewhere.
I was voice recording the lectures as well so that I can compare notes I was scribbling with the audio cassette.
Over the year, the size of the cassette and the player got smaller.
Video recorder was also out but somehow I've never had any of my lecturer using it for Teaching and learning purposes but I used it to capture my practice of delivering public speaking speeches and subsequently try to do better next time.
Through the video tape, I saw how my various body movements that can be distractive and how often I say uhhh and mmmm during the short 5-minute speech.
By the time I left college, the new computer lab had installed latest macintosh computer replacing this earlier version.
Macintosh SE FDHD (1988)
The SE model was introduced to the market in 1987 later followed by this FDHD model with Apple's new 1.4 MB high density floppy disk drive. 20 M hard disk standard. 1 Mb RAM Motorola 68000 processor at 7.8336 MHz. Built-in 9-inch, 512 by 342-pixel bitmapped B/W display. The only real change from the Mac SE to the Mac SE FDHD was the 1.44MB floppy drives. Otherwise everything else is the same. This provided 4.2MB of floppy-based storage! Plus the drives could read/write MS-DOS (IBM) floppies!
Switching from Mac to IBM computer was a learning the rope all over again.
IBM all there was here in Malaysia then.
Not many Mac were around.
Today, laptop computers are taken for granted.
All students and teachers alike are using it.
The younger generations X and Y are more advanced in technology that older generations.
Today generation Z are digital natives born with mobile smart phones, tablets and iPads as toys.
It's a common scene to see mothers with smart handphone, tablet or iPad in hand showing multimedia apps to 2 - 6 months old babies learning the alphabets.
Technology in education: Use what works.
So, what works?
As an English language teacher, I noticed that a student who can speak fluent English confidently, that somehow does not translate to good writing skills or with excellent academic performance and vice versa.
A student who can write well and perform academically is not necessarily speaking fluently in English.
Is it self-confidence?
Only partly.
A student maybe speaking in English language confidently but the message is not understood by the listeners due to mispronunciations, wrong stress or intonation.
Is it cultural? mother tongue's intonation interference? too tonal?
Only partly.
Ops! How do we define and measure language fluency?
What about the setting? Academic? or Social?
What apps available freely online that students and teachers can use to increase target language fluency?
Can a course be designed as a supplementary to help the target language fluency?
What about if done in collaboration with native speakers?
What gives? What do I get?
Google+ / voicethread / Skype / Facebook / glogster EDU /
PLE
lifelong learning
Where to start?
Need Analysis?
A learner contract?
What are the assumptions? A motivated leaner who is a digital natives. - a 21st century learner?
2Bcontinued ;)
Monday, December 17, 2012
As we go by
in our lives,
Many things we see
people we meet
questions we ask
places we visit
lessons learned.
Few gems picked up
wise words of old
common senses developed
wisdom some untold.
As much as life is about learning,
it's also about giving
sharing
teaching
coaching
mentoring.
There're must know things
there're silly things.
What joy to experience
what a gladness to glee
what a reward to receive.
How fulfilling life has been.
How else can we
count our blessings
Alhamdulillah,
Thank you Lord,
Thou art indeed
The Lord of Universes
Clicking away...
expressing thoughts and feelings
From the heart and mind;
Ummabdrahmaan
Tuesday (2:11 am)
Dec 18, 2012
I Kuala Terengganu I Terengganu I Malaysia I
ps: The rain has stopped . At least for now.
in our lives,
Many things we see
people we meet
questions we ask
places we visit
lessons learned.
Few gems picked up
wise words of old
common senses developed
wisdom some untold.
As much as life is about learning,
it's also about giving
sharing
teaching
coaching
mentoring.
There're must know things
there're silly things.
What joy to experience
what a gladness to glee
what a reward to receive.
How fulfilling life has been.
How else can we
count our blessings
Alhamdulillah,
Thank you Lord,
Thou art indeed
The Lord of Universes
Clicking away...
expressing thoughts and feelings
From the heart and mind;
Ummabdrahmaan
Tuesday (2:11 am)
Dec 18, 2012
I Kuala Terengganu I Terengganu I Malaysia I
ps: The rain has stopped . At least for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)