~Group Presentation Part 1~

Hey hey everyone! Hope all of you are still riding in the same boat (Hopefully no one's sinking or being left behind!)

So far in the previous 2 weeks, we have been talking about things related to computer or technology, such as blog, adobe photoshop, sky-drive, moyea etc. I am sure all these things are very useful and extremely beneficial to learn, but somehow I felt the "fresh breeze of air" in this week's class. In the 3rd class, we finally did something that we have been accustomed to doing for the past 4 years - group work / presentation!!

Yes, I know that some people will say group work or presentation is boring because we only get to hear people talk and talk and talk. All talk but no hands-on. For me, I will just say that there is a time for everything; meaning to say there is a time for hands-on as well as group presentation.


Anyway, this week, we kicked off with the 1st chapter of our textbook - Working With Young Language Learners. As usual in every group work, we formed 6 groups whereby each group is supposed to take one subtopic and do a presentation on it.

For my group, we did a presentation on the subtopic "Children's Ability to Grasp Meaning". What I understood from it is children are truly unique creatures because they are able to understand what is being said to them even if they may not understand the meaning of individual words. It is like the child will understand if you're angry because of your tone of voice or action, but he/she may not necessarily know why you are angry. Isn't that special?? I find it amazing how children are able to do so even though they don't understand the meaning of words. Therefore, I as the future teacher need to be very "demonstrative" and full of gestures so that my pupils will be able to grasp the meaning better. Also, I believe that they will remember what they have learnt even better when the new knowledge is accompanied with something concrete.


Chin's group did a presentation on "Children's Capacity for Indirect Learning". I find this extremely true because from my own experience, children have very inquisitive nature. Whatever that catches their eyes, their heads will just turn and their attention is deviated from the teacher. But that is where indirect learning takes place. Children have a great talent in internalising learning on their own. I personally feel that the more you force them to learn something, the harder it will be for that knowledge to sink in because children love to find out things on their own and experiment with it. That is why games are a very good way to get pupils to learn meaningfully. Here, learning meaningfully means they acquire something new yet enjoying themselves at the same time. My role in the future would be to provide different situations for my pupils for real language use. This can include playing language games with them, for instance Simon Says or Charade.


Lastly, Dhachaini's group did a presentation on "The Instinct for Interaction and Talk". Basically, children need to talk. They need to be given the chance to talk in authentic situations. Yes, it is true that when pupils are very talkative, it gets too noisy and becomes uncontrollable (I have experienced a "fishmonger" classroom before). However, that should never limit the children from talking. Especially for language subjects, it is very essential for any learner to use the language. There is no point if a child has a lot of head knowledge about a language but is unable to utilise all the knowledge in a communication.


Since we were short of time, we only managed to have 2 group presentations (Mine was done halfway.) That's all for this week's class. Hopefully I'll learn something more when the other groups have presented. See ya!

~Blind-typing, Skydrive and Moyea~

Today in class, our lecturer, Pn. Foziah, stressed on the importance of touch typing. This means to type without looking at the keyboard.


I have no problem doing this since I trained myself to “blind-type” four years ago. At that time, I had the long SPM break so one of the things-to-do that I listed was this – to be able to type only by looking at the screen. Truthfully, it was hard to do this at first because I didn’t know where to place all my fingers. Through sheer determination and lots of practice on my part, right now I don't have that problem. In fact, I feel thankful because now I can literally "think on my feet" and type at the same time. That is why at times I prefer typing to writing because my typing skills is so much faster!

After that, we were asked to answer a questionnaire, mainly about our competency in using the applications and softwares in a computer aside from the usual personal details. After completing the questionnaire, I then realised that there are still so many things I have yet to learn! I don't even know the first thing about editing a photo properly (unless changing the colour shade is a skill, otherwise I'm totally a noob!) Also, I don't know how to edit videos and audio files. I'm not even sure how to download them properly without having any errors! For me, the questionnaire was good because it alerted me to other softwares available which I lack skills in. Frankly, I feel quite excited to learn how to use these softwares, create my own materials and try it out on the younger ones.

Once we have completed the questionnaire, we were introduced to a few applications:
1. Sky-drive


2. Moyea


All these are new applications to me and I'm really curious about it. All I know is sky drive is where we can store additional documents or "artifacts". Moyea... I really have no clue, but I'd like to learn more about it soon! Hopefully when it comes to learning how to use the applications, it won't be too complicated for me to understand and fully utilise it for future use. This is because I realised that when I learn something new, I know I will be fine as long as there is a guide to teach me the basics. Most of the time when I am left alone to explore something new, I get drowned and that first impression already makes me feel "hostile" towards the application.

Lastly, we were given the opportunity to see one of our senior's portfolio. It's SERIOUSLY thick!! To think that I'll be producing one of those by the end of 14 weeks is by itself mind-blowing! Everything in there is full of pictures, CDs and coloured papers. Wow! That's a lot of effort (plus time and sweat and blood maybe?) put in there. I hope that I will be able to produce one as good as it by the end of the semester (or even better!)

I think that sums up today's class. See ya in the next week!

~Introduction to Resources class~

Hello people! This is my first time having a blog, an educational one for that matter. It's really a different experience because although I have read a few blogs before, I would say that none of them are along the education line. They're either mostly about popular stars or gossips about certain "hot topics".

So how am I supposed to make mine educational?? That was the first question I ask myself when I was told I had to maintain one. Thank God that at least there is one way of maintaining it, which is through my weekly reflection from each week's class. I was never one who dedicated myself to follow up on people's blogs and give comments, but for this course, that will be my first priority. Though I find it a bit tedious and time-consuming, I realise that this is one unique way of learning. People feel more free to express themselves here and they have no fear of getting "thrashed" by anyone because everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Since it was the first class, Pn. Foziah was very lenient with us and gave a brief description about the course. Using and Developing Resources for the Primary Classroom is basically WORK, WORK and more WORK!! That made me feel nervous, yet, I believe that it will be fun to actually design teaching and learning materials for my future use. There is surely a reason why all of us teachers-to-be need to go for this course. I'm sure it is going to be a beneficial one where I will learn a lot of new things! Like what I always believe, there is a first time to everything.


Pn. Foziah also gave us some reminders:

1. Buy a 8GB pendrive


2. Install Adobe Photoshop CS3


The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear Photoshop is edit photos. I have seen the product of an edited photo done by my sisters and honestly, I don't have the skills to produce such effects! Oh no!! Am I required to give a total outlook change on the pictures?? How am I supposed to do all that?? Those were some of the questions in my mind and truthfully, they scare me a little. Then again, as I've said earlier, there is always a reason why I have to do this course (aside from it being a core subject). Therefore, I will really try my very best to learn it and learn it WELL!

I guess that's the end of this week's entry. See you!