My Favorite Group of Students

Students come and students go, but every once in a while I would feel very close to a certain group of them. This time the group that I am attached to comprises Hadi Jumaat, Iqbar Abdullah, Hakim, Azwana, Aliking, Hafdzan, Harris and a few others whose names somehow slipped my mind, but I will always remember their faces.

It seems that they just registered for the first time at KPTM but suddenly, it’s time for them to graduate and leave the College already. I feel so happy that they made it through until graduation but very sad to see them go. I wish all of them great success in whatever they do in life. I hope there will be another group to take up the empty space they left. Good luck to all.

Happy Mother's Day

I received this tribute to mothers through a forwarded email from my friend Sharifah Fatimah and thought of sharing it with all mothers (and fathers too) out there:


Before I was a Mom ,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom ,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on..
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom ,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom ,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt..
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much..
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom .

Before I was a Mom ,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom ,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom .
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom .

A master’s degree does not supersede a bachelor’s degree

Logically speaking, once you have a master’s degree in a certain field you would be qualified to teach even if your first degree is not in the same field. Or at least that’s what I thought. WRONG! MQA doesn’t work that way. I found this out when I went for an interview for a promotion late last year. As usual, the most popular question the panel would ask was “would you be willing to transfer to another course center?” Being a mother of 5 growing children between the ages of 5 and 15, my answer was a definite no. I do not wish to see my children being split just for the sake of me getting a higher grade and a few extra hundreds. Since I just finished a master’s degree in TESL I offered myself to teach English at my current workplace instead of being transferred to another center as an administrator. The panel said they would look into the matter. When they consulted the MQA, they were told that a person has to have the first degree in the same field in order to be qualified to teach. I guess it’s not my luck!

No Pain No Gain

I have been going to the gymnasium in Sg Isap since the beginning of the year. There are a few regulars whom I always meet whenever I go. They are definitely serious about building up muscles on their bodies and I also noticed that they like to look at themselves in the mirror. I guess they are quite please with their accomplishment. I guess that’s natural.

Majority of them lift weights with proper care and technique. They also wear appropriate attire except for a few guys who like to exercise barefooted. That is really dangerous because there are so many weights around and freak accidents do happen. I did mention the safety issue with them but their answer was “it’s more comfortable without shoes”. Well, I have done my social duty and the rest is up to them. I just hope that I won’t be there when the weights rip their toes!

Another thing that I feel a bit frustrated with them is their belief in the old philosophy of No Pain No Gain. From what I have read about weight lifting (at least the safer way), the current philosophy is Slow and Controlled. That’s why we have to keep up with the current researches and publications. Ignorance is not an excuse especially when it involves our health and safety.

Revival

This blog has been dormant for many months after I finished my master’s program. Rather than letting it go to waste, I better start writing and publishing something. Since I have another blog dedicated specifically to my family events, I will use this blog to write topics which are not directly related to my family. As a start I will write about what happened at work yesterday (Friday 3 April 2009).

I have been under a bit of pressure at work lately. I guess it’s due to the fact that I can not really concentrate on my main duty which is processing new applicants for this May 2009 session because I have been busy with matters pertaining to students’ loans. As usual when it’s close to final exams, many students will come to get my verification whether they have received their loan or other wise. It’s not a difficult task but very time consuming plus I have to entertain telephone inquiries from candidates or parents who want to know about programs offered at our college. Worse, I have to deal with frustrated and angry parents who blame me or my unit for the failure of their children’s loan applications. On top of that I had to attend meetings which take up a lot of my time which could have been used to process all the new applications.

I guess I should have discussed the matter with my bosses but I thought that would reflect on my incapability of dealing with my own problems. Boy, was I wrong! I should have asked for help instead of keeping the problems to myself and I finally burst! I guess I am only human.

Self Evaluation: Final Entry

10 April 2008 - Finally… The long awaited e-portfolio is ready to be submitted. If I wait, I can still find more things to change, or more amendments to make but I will reserve that as part of my maintaining this portfolio. The journey needs to come to an end. Looking back at what I have done to prepare for this e-portfolio, I think I have spent more hours on developing it compared to time spent on any other assignments! I can confidently say that this is the most challenging but the most rewarding piece of work I have done for this Masters in TESL program.

I can also confidently say that I have turned from a techno-idiot to a techno-savvy, based on my own standard of course. I think I have confronted my fear of exploring what the technology has to offer. I really recommend anyone who is in the teaching field to venture into creating an e-portfolio because it is such a very helpful tool for teachers, students, as well as the administrator or advisor who is evaluating the concerned teacher.

E-portfolios are so versatile due to their nature of being accessible to practically anyone who has access to the Internet. It also promotes the concept of the paperless society and of course the benefit of developing oneself professionally. As an administrator, I do not have much material related to teaching which I can display in my e-portfolio. However, I managed to include a few lesson plans which I have developed for two of the courses I am taking this semester, namely Advanced Oral Communication and Literature in TESL.

The final e-portfolio has eight pages which are Home, Personal Details, Lesson Plans, Blog, Auto-biography, Photo Album, Guestbook, and Links. I chose green clean as a whistle as the design of my e-portfolio because green is my favorite color and it soothes my eyes and my soul. Besides this particular design provides me with a lot of empty spaces which I can use to develop my own personal touch. I also prefer the design because it lists the titles of the pages across the top as opposed to listing them vertically on the side area. I chose “To err is human to forgive is divine” as my slogan because as a human being I can not run away from making mistakes. No body is perfect and that is all the more reason for me to keep on developing myself personally and professionally.

In “Home” page I included a brief information of myself as an introduction to viewers. I included my academic qualifications and work experiences in the “Personal Details” page. The next page which is “Lesson Plans” contains lesson plans which I have written as part of assignments in Advanced Oral Communication and Literature in TESL classes. I am not very satisfied with the way it is currently presented. I am not sure how to link them so that viewers can get access to them right away without having to find them in an obscure spot in the Save-file site. However, for now that is all I am able to do. I will definitely continue to upgrade it after the class is over as part of my continuous professional development.

“Autobiography” page contains a detail story of my life including my struggles learning English as a second language. All of the pages have background music which I chose from the selections provided by the site provider. All the songs which I have chosen, are purely on the basis that they are all my favorite songs except for the Photo Album (FPA) page. I chose the tune entitled Dust in the Wind from a group named Kansas. The reason I chose that particular song is because my husband is from Kansas and most of his siblings reside in or near the state of Kansas, USA. In the last page I have included some links which I hope will be useful to viewers. I plan on adding more as I find more interesting and useful sites in the future. The page entitled “Blog” is a link to my e-journals which is also part of the course requirement for this Professional Development class.

Overall, I have gained a lot of new knowledge from developing the e-portfolio as well as the blog. I would still be unable to develop both if I had not taken this class. The whole process of developing them is so challenging and yet very rewarding.

Feedback From a Friend

3 April 2008 - It has been more than half a month since the last time I wrote my journal entry. I have been busy with work as well as assignments for my classes. In fact I am now in KL attending a four-day workshop at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA headquarters. It is very hard to juggle work, family, and study all at once but the experience makes me a better person. The knowledge which I gain while doing all the assignments is priceless and I would never trade it for anything in this world.

During the coffee break at the workshop I met with Harold Poong, another student for M.Ed TESL with UPM. I showed him my e-portfolio so he could give some feedback on its design and content. He commented on my content and he suggested that I remove two pages but transfer their contents to My Personal Details page. In fact the two pages he suggested to remove are the two new ones which I just added. But I think it is better that way. He also suggested that I use a table for the content of my personal details to make it look more “professional”. I made all the changes that night in my hotel room. Fortunately, the hotel provided a free internet service in each room. I still have to make some final touch ups but I don’t have much time before the due date is here.

I am also excited that I have some pictures added to My Photo Album page. Thanks to my husband who helped scan those pictures. Since I don’t have any pictures taken with any students, I decided to include just family photos.