Thursday, October 16, 2008
Promoting the use of computer lab...
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 8:27 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 13, 2008
My future classroom
My future classroom? The discussion on this issue may be unstoppable, since it is something that you want it to be in the future. You may add on something day by day in order to create your dreamed classroom, especially by integrating your classroom with high technology, powerful teaching aids that may sustain students’ interest throughout the lesson. Technology like Smartboard, Macbook, and Wii may be some of the elements that most of us really interested to integrate in their teaching, and I do admit that I may be part of those people. Since all these technologies have the ability to increase the effectiveness of the lesson taught in the classroom, it will be something worth for both the part of the teacher and the students to implement it in their classroom.
Although the word ‘my future classroom may be all about integration of technologies in teaching, we can widen this scope by speaking on the condition of our future classroom. In my opinion, my future classroom must be well-interactive. This means that the interaction is not just limited between students and teacher and students and students, but the scope of interaction can be increased between the learners and the teaching materials used. How can this happen? We can achieve this for instance by using Smartboard in teaching and learning process. Smartboard is one of the latest technologies that enable teacher to increase the participation of students in the classroom. For instance, the teacher may ask students to come in front and choose the correct answer on the spot using the Smartboard. In addition, Smartboard provide variety of interesting teaching and learning activity, for instance online games and quizzes that will create a safe, lively and non-threatening learning environment. Students may also get immediate feedback using the Smartboard, which will be very good in enhancing students’ motivation towards learning. Using conventional paper and pencil exercise, students may have to wait until one week in order to get the feedback from their teacher. At that point, the students may already forget about what they have learnt last week. As the result, students may feel less interested towards the lesson.
In addition, my future classroom should always be in a healthy condition. The atmosphere in the classroom must always be safe and non-threatening, as this has a big impact towards students’ acceptance of the lesson. This is in accordance with the theory proposed by Krashen which emphasizes that a threatening learning environment will increase the affective filter, and eventually result in the negative affects towards the emotions of the students.
In short, a future classroom may be equipped with all the technological stuff but it depends on the readiness of both the teacher and the students to apply and interact with the technology. Hence, it is essential for me as a ‘teacher to be’ to equipped myself with the knowledge in technology so that my vision of having a future classroom that suit with my demands will be achieved.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 11:03 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Fish philosophy
Besides that, a teacher should sometimes include the element of games in the lesson, and this is what we called ‘Play’. Why? We cannot deny the fact that students especially young children like to play, as this is like an escapism to them from the dull world of learning. Students also like the spirit of cooperation in solving the games, the same as the like the feeling of competition. Hence, it is important for teachers to wisely select the appropriate games to be inserted into the lesson, besides create a health competition among students. This will increase engagement of students with the learning process.
Furthermore, teacher needs to treat each student as an individual. Each of them has their own strength and weaknesses, and none of them are the same even though they are twins. Do not judge them based on their mistakes or mischievousness, but try to investigate their family background and daily life activities. Maybe the students just need attention from you. Make their day. Make them feel appreciated by praising them and give positive rewards, and not just punishing them without any solid evidence.
Last but not least, the teacher himself/herself needs to be a good role model to students. Choose your attitude. Be a professional teacher whether in your dressings or behaviour. Whether we believe or not, students are observing every inch of what we are doing starting from the brand of our shoes to our relationship with other colleagues. Therefore, being a good teacher in and out is very important since it actually affect the way our students treat us and our lesson.
One point that I want to add here is how the technology will help in the implementation of fish philosophy. We cannot deny the role that technology played in increasing the effectiveness of classroom teaching. But how is it related to fish philosophy? Of course yes. Using technology, we can also imply the four practices in this philosophy. A teacher can attend their students by using email, or having an academic discussion online with them. Besides that, the teacher may insert games using SMARTBOARD application in classroom, which will create a good, interactive environment in the classroom. Moreover, the teacher may give immediate feedback using the technology, for instance by replying an email to students regarding their homework compare to the conventional way of teaching. This will make students feel appreciated and motivate them to learn.
In short, fish philosophy is one among the other philosophies that is very useful to be implemented in the world of education. It depends on us as a teacher to make use of it for the benefit of our students.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 8:59 AM 0 comments
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Think again...
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 7:48 PM 1 comments
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Presentations and feedback
The presentation part was very effective for me since I managed to learn lots of things that I may have overlooked before. I now become aware that something that may look good at our eyes may become very irritating for children. Why? This is because the unique characteristics of children and their variability of seeing world is just not the same like us. For example, children are attracted to big, colourful, eye-catching pictures and we as ‘teacher to be’ need to consider this factor in our presentation. Based on the presentation, I noticed that there were many factors that sometimes being overlooked by us. For instance, too many wordings in a presentation for Year 1 pupils may be quite inappropriate for them. As we know, children have short attention span and they are more towards visual learners. Too many wordings will make them boring and confused, which will eventually affect the learning process for the day. Besides that, I noticed that the background that is being used in the presentation also have special effect towards our presentation. Hence, there is a need to be more careful in choosing the background for the presentation; a scenery background may not be quite suitable to teach mathematics for young children. Besides that, some comments were given to the animations used in the presentation. Although it is good to use animations to attract students’ attention, too many animations may distract the real teaching point of the day. Besides that, some comments were given to the fonts and the pictures used in some of the presentations.
In short, the class for that day was really useful as it acts like an opening-eye, lead us to be more sensitive with young learners’ needs along the process of completing our assignment.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 7:16 PM 0 comments
Monday, September 8, 2008
Searching and editing
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 11:36 PM 0 comments
Exploration time...
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 10:53 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 5, 2008
EFFORT...
Prof Maznah has given us the liberty to proceed with our SMARTBOARD assignment for the whole 3 hours class. Since she wants the assignment to be 90% completed by next week, each of us has started to put more and more effort in it. There were also some of us who just started to think about this assignment, and I cannot blame them since this semester is quite tough for us. Most of our works involve the use of technology, and this is not a common phenomenon when we were studying at the teacher-trainee college. Furthermore, I cannot deny that some of us are still adjusting with this so called ‘university life’. However, some of my friends seemed at the last stage of completing their assignment. I think this group of my friends were really wise in dividing their time for all the assignment, and this is sign that everything can be managed if we know how to handle it.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 7:02 AM 1 comments
Thursday, August 28, 2008
FOCUS...
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 5:10 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
SMART BOARD ASSIGNMENT
Salam...
The lecture was started by the reflection of the previous assignment that we have submitted last week. I got to know that there were so many other software that can be used for the video-making assignment, for instance PENCIL 4.0, U-LEAD, POWER DIRECTOR, and others. So, what we can said is that technology is something that never stop; once you find a software that you think is the best among the best, there will still be another software that you have never heard of it, and that software may be better than yours. Hence, the important point here is that technology is for you to explore it, and once you are familiar with them, most of your work will be easy to be settled with just the click on your fingertips.
In addition, Prof Maznah also commented on the way we make the storyboard and the details on the video clip, and most of the discussion were focusing on the misunderstanding of some terms, for instance the word ‘narration’ and ‘the media’ used for the video clip. Some of us have different interpretation for both, and as the results, the answer given were not as expected by the lecturer. I learnt that in certain situation, we as undergraduate students need to be more alert and inquisitive with whatever information that we have doubt in it, especially if it is regarding the assignment. Asking straightforward using ADEC, or just having a small discussion with members from other groups will be very much useful in solving all this sort of misunderstanding.
Besides that, we also received our next assignment, which is closely related with the SMART BOARD short course that we have attended last week. We have been asked to create activities for primary ESL classroom, and since this is a group work, 5 of us will be focusing on 5 different topics. Although this assignment sounds easy, but when the application of SMART BOARD is involved here, there is a need to put more effort in exploring this new technology, so that it may be integrated fairly with the activities. After getting into respective groups, we discussed about the different topic for 5 of us, and some activities suitable for each topic. I realised that we have to widen our scope in searching for the activities suitable for students, so that a more creative, challenging and practical activity will be produced as the output for students. Furthermore, Ms. Chin also displayed the ‘work of art’ of our seniors, which I thought was very much useful for my reference in completing this assignment. I got a wider picture of this assignment by observing the kind of activities producing by my seniors, as lots of creativity and thinking has been put on them. Some of my friends even got the opportunities to complete the exercise, which make the class very much interactive for the day.
Moreover, the latest SMART BOARD software which has been updated with new features especially the animation will promise a very enjoyable journey for us along the process of completing this assignment. A good activity cannot be described with one word, but it can be seen clearly only after we applied it in the real classroom. However, a good teacher will try to put as much effort as they can along the process, as the process is sometimes same as the result. Hence, it is my hope that I can produce my best for this assignment.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 11:47 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
SMART BOARD FOR SMART TEACHER
Salam...
Today’s lecture was quite different since we have been given a short course on smart board application in the classroom. This was like a golden opportunity for me since the use of smart board in Malaysia education context was not very well developed yet. In addition, this was not the first time we were exposed to this training, and this is like the refreshment of what I have been attended one year ago. In this short course, we have been exposed to the new version of notebook smart board software (version 10, if I’m not mistaken) which contains many new and improved features, for instance animation tools which is very interesting to be implemented in classroom context. Besides that, our facilitator for today’s training; Fenny was very good, funny and friendly, hence creating a very interactive and comfortable learning environment. Although the early session was quite ‘uninteractive’ since many of us slept quite late, and some didn’t sleep at all in completing the assignment yesterday (including me), the presentation part was very alive since a lot of creativity has been displayed in order to create a good, simple activity to be taught in the classroom. I was very amazed with one of the presentation, in which the presenter is trying to use the new feature in this smart board in order to create a meaningful, fun learning environment. (using spotlight to spot the transportation base on the pictures).
Throughout this training, I have gained a lot of input, especially in the basic function of using smart board. Learning can be made more interactive using smart board, since the participation of students in the activities presented by teacher can be observed clearly. Instead of paper pencil exercise, teacher may ask students to directly come in front and use the attractive, user friendly features in the smart board to solve the problem stated. This will give a very good impact in teaching and learning, since the participation of students are widened, and lessen the domination of teacher in the classroom. Besides that, many of interactive activities can be produced using smart board, for instance quiz and drawing.
Lastly, today’s training session was like an eye-opener for me, since I now realised that if the smart board is ‘well manipulated’ in the classroom, the teaching and learning process can be made more effective for both teacher and students. I cannot wait to explore this technology and the upcoming assignment will be the good place where the first step begins.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 8:12 AM 1 comments
Thursday, July 31, 2008
ONLINE EDUCATION WEBSITES
Salam...
We were in the fourth week and I felt that times flow like water...very fast. The lecture for today was more focusing on the available online references for teachers in Malaysia, and I did admit that I never heard some of the name! It may be a quite embarrased to say that because as a ‘teacher to be’, I should always be aware with any medium that was prepared for the betterment of teachers. In addition, the challenging world of technology today required teacher to be well-equipped not only with knowledge, but also will the current news and activities relevants to them. Hence, numbers of website like Cikgu.net, Eduwebtv, MOE, and many others has been specially prepared online in order to equipped teachers ,teacher trainees, and educators with useful, current information regarding the world of education. For instance, if we surf Eduwebtv.com, we can explore and make use of massive useful information relevants to teaching profession, for instance latest news on activities regarding Malaysian education that can be watched conviniently and clearly with videos.
Besides that, there was also tv pendidikan which I found very helpful not only for students, but also beneficial in the way that it accelerates ideas for teachers in classroom teaching. Besides that, another education website that I found practical for teachers was ETEMS (English for Teaching Mathematics and Science). This website is just like an alternative way for Mathematics and Science teachers in helping them to enhance their English language skills as the medium of instruction in teaching these two subjects. Interestingly, this website is equipped with modules for both teachers and facilitators, which is like an eye-opener for them in using instruction effectively in the classroom. As we know, since the drastic change of teaching of Math and Science in English, many Math and science teacher faced difficulties in adapting and using English as medium of instruction in classroom. Some of them were not very competent in the language, and others may lack confidence in using English while teaching, since this is not their native language.
Hence, the existence of EteMS can be observed as a practical tools in helping teachers to cope with this kind of situation. Therefore, it is a must for me as a ‘teacher to be’ to always be updated with all this online education websites since it is very useful for my future teaching, as it is loaded with many useful information and updates regarding my very own profession of teaching.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 8:40 AM 0 comments
Saturday, July 26, 2008
THIRD WEEK LECTURE...
It's already the third week! I feel quite tense since the video clip assignment has to be submitted within a very short period of time. However, I always bear in my mind that if I try to give my best for this assignment, everything will always be alright. The lecture was started by Ms. Chin, who introduced us to ASSURE Model and ADDIE Model. I found out that both of the model have their own benefits in classroom teaching. ASSURE Model, which is an abbreviation for steps of the model stands for analyze learners, state objectives, select methods, media, and material, utilize media and materials, require learner participation and lastly evaluate and revise. ASSURE model is like an eye opener for teachers as it provides alternative way in designing teaching and learning materials. Teacher does not have to depend fully on text book or exercise book. Here the application of technology comes in, and teacher were free to integrate their skill of using technology using this model. Hence, a lively, interactive and interesting classroom atmosphere will be created, compare when there is no integration of technology in the class. Another model which has been introduced to us was ADDIE model. It is a systematic instructional design and model consisting of five phases, which are analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. We can see that both models tend to help teachers and educators in their instructional design, by providing specific steps that are crucial to be practised in the classroom. We can say that both models are good guidance for teachers in enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning process, since it wider the range of conventional way of teaching into a more flexible one.
After the explaination by Ms. Chin, we have been given opportunity to continue our video assignment, besides explore and learn many other skills that were needed in producing a good video for teaching in the classroom. Without wasting time, I searched for the video clip needed for my assignment, under the topic of animals. Since it quite difficult to record real video for animals, especially the wild one, I decided to just looking for suitable video clip, and do some editing in order to make it interesting and contained the teaching points that I am going to teach. I found that there were some suitable video for my assignment, and there was some useful teaching points that match with the curriculum specifications that I want to insert in my lesson. Since this assignment prioritise creativity and originality, there was a crucial need for me to turn the video clip that I will download into something 'different' and unique for teaching in the classroom.
While searching for videos, one of my friend approached me and told me that our facilititor didn't actually like the way we downloading the video clip and use it for the assignment, since it doesn't replicate the originality of the idea. I was very worried about that, since my topic is about animals and I cannot imagine how I am going to video clip wild animals like tiger and elephant. In order to clarify this situation clearly, we approached Ms. Chin and ask her about the assignment. I felt so relieved then to know that we can use the video clip in the internet, but it is very important to edit and insert any important teaching points in the video, and the product must be different from the original video clip. Besides that, I felt really touched to see Ms. Chin and En. Hafiz searching for related video clips for my topics, besides giving me some tips in doing the assignment. Thank you...This incident taught me that I need to be calm and always directly refer to the lecturer if there is any doubt in doing the assignment. Besides that, I also got the opportunity to watch my friend's live video clip, which motivate me to do my best for the assignment.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 10:55 AM 1 comments
Sunday, July 20, 2008
VIDEO CLIP ASSIGNMENT...
The second week lecture was focusing more on the progress of the video clip assignment. After getting the feedback from Prof. Maznah about the details of our video clip, we were now moving into the production stage. There were three main objectives concluded by her which were to inform, to teach skills and to influence the students. Hence, a good effort has to be made in order to turn whats written on the paper into reality.
A good teacher has to be creative and flexible, and there were so many strategies available to be practised in our video making. Some of them were story telling, narration, animation, puppet, comedy, and so on. I realised that a good teacher has to widen their scope of teaching, by not just focusing on the conventional or similar method of teaching. This is due to the increase of demand of students' nowadays who are more attracted to colourful pictures, moving animation and 3D image, since they are exposed through this kind of stuff regularly through medias and internet.
Besides that, there was some uniqueness in the way we were evaluating for this video clip. Each group was given freedom in determining the criteria needed to assess their group , and this can be done by posting it to the forum. Honestly, I really interested in the way Prof set up the task for us.. It gave us freedom in learning and taught us to be an independent learner. Besides that, the credibility of the marks given will not be questioned since we ourselves determined the criteria. Besides that, the three stages of checking which were within group, tutors, and lastly using You Tube. This ensure the quality of the production and the creativity in the assessment process. Since it was for public viewing(You Tube), all of us were becoming more aware with our choice of teaching point, since it has to be clear enough for learning process to take place.
In addition, there was also examples of video presentation displayed in the lecture. This was really helpful as it gave a clearer view on how our video should look like. Now, we should start working on it seriously since this is like a good training for us in manipulating our skills in technology for the use in real classroom practice.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 10:26 AM 0 comments
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Assignment 1
# How technology is going to affect how your students are going to be learning.
# How you as a teacher will be learning.
In my opinion, technology was one of the practical, useful medium to be used in teaching and learning process in the classroom. It makes some of the ‘impossible’ things translated into reality, for instance the use of animation in teaching students about the concept of earth and universe for science. Imagine how much the effort will it takes by the teacher to prepare conventional teaching aids in order to show the circulation of the orbit, the change of night and day and the location of stars and galaxies. The amount of time and money spent will be so high and demanding, and possibly lead to lack of dedication and productivity of teachers towards their core business of teaching. This is the part where we are really afraid of, as it has massive impact towards the learning progress of the students. The environment of the class will somehow become so dim and depressing, resulting in the lack of the motivation of students toward their own learning. You may think that I am thinking too deeply or just dragging things too much, but we cannot deny the fact that this things may happen if the teacher himself/ herself lost their passion towards teaching after a long period of time.
In contrary, imagine the colour of the world if the technology is efficiently and optimisely applied in the classroom. There will be an interesting, lively, colourful, and interactive atmosphere in the classroom. However, I would like to remind that all these situation are not impossible to be created in the class without technology, but the effort and the effect may be quite reasonably different when you are using technology. Both classes have its pros and cons, and for sure we don’t want to underestimate the effort made by the previous generation of teachers. Stepping into today’s explosion world of technology demands for a better knowledge of a teacher in manipulating as much as the resources found so that the process of teaching and learning will become more effective.
Using technology, students will become more resourceful and independent, since the information was just at their fingertips.
Therefore, it is a must for me as a ‘teacher to be’ to equip and immerse myself into this world of technology, as the readiness of learning really depends on the total immersion in technology-based learning environment. All the important soft skills such as downloading, converting, editing and publishing must be in my grasp so that I can maximize the use of technology in my teaching. I am very grateful to be exposed to this subject of technology as it functions as a platform for me to explore, create, and even polish my skill in technology. However, it was really important for teachers to not be the ‘slave’ of technology and let it do all the teaching, while we just sitting ignorantly in the classroom. Hence, the basic skill of classroom management, classroom control, added with the glory of technology will be a very good ingredient in creating a successful, appealing classroom for both teacher and students.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 4:03 PM 0 comments
Reflection : 1st lecture
The first day in this technology class seemed enjoyable for me, although I cannot deny that the feeling of ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘uneasiness’ were always bugging in my heart. Why? The answer was this is the first time I’m taking technology class seriously and it seemed that 80% of the subjects I will take for this semester are revolving around the word ‘technology’. This was really a transformation for me, and I really hope that I will improve myself in this field.
P.L.E.A.S.E. This was the first lecture for this week. This word was an abbreviation for a very deep in meaning, and it itself stands for a very polite expression when we want to ask for something. It somehow portrays the gentleness and graciousness of being a teacher, in which we have to give all the best and contribute what it takes to ensure the best result for our students.
Teachers’ building skill are built through these six alphabets which stands for personalize learning environment and student engagement. The agendas focusing on personalize learning, engaging learning and action research. The way in which we personalize our learning really depends on the way we deal with the learners. Learners should engage in active, collaborative and critical learning in which the level of dependency towards the teacher was at its very minimum level. This will produce learners who are capable of thinking on their own feet and proactive, which sounds so easy but its effectiveness in Malaysian context was not really at its expected stage.
Hence, we can see the importance of scaffolding process as advocated by Vygotsky, one of the prominent people in this field. The role played by the students itself when engaging with his/ her environment, especially with the peers and teachers will be very much helpful if the students know how to make use out of their daily interaction in order to improve themselves.
As for my last words, it is my duty as a teacher to create a meaningful learning with students by involving them in the real –world experience of learning and this may be achieved by the help of technology –based learning environment, in which both teacher and students are ready to learn and live productively in a creative, innovative digital society.
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 8:10 AM 0 comments
Friday, July 11, 2008
Min aina ila aina...
I wonder how many people can understand my title. However, it is actually the only word that I have taught of in introducing myself. Don't forget to check for its meaning...
Anyway...
Posted by Nurul Husna Mohd. Taher at 6:51 PM 0 comments