Reflection.

What I like most about blogging is it is an ongoing diary or commentary by me, even if my blog is never read by anyone but myself. In addition blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on my life and my work especially in this course. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Blogging also helps me to expand my thoughts and feelings immediately with friends particularly in this course. They can comment on my writing and this will give some ideas to improve in whatever that had been commented.

However, blogging sometimes give me headache since i had had no ideas to write particular topic. Besides, typing on blog may require a lot of time plus the internet connection problem. So, it might waste my valuable time just to wait and think what to write on the blog. Apart from that, some of my writing would be misinterpret by the people who read it. It is because, some of things seem hard to be explained through words and might cause misunderstanding among readers.

On the other hand, blogging had thought me to be more critical in viewing things and solving problems. Besides, it makes me think rationally before act. The most important thing i have learnt is to be very, very, very patient for all the works and problems that come to you. Besides, i also can get advice and response from other bloggers about my problems. Slowly, also try to improve my language skill and enrich my vocabulary through typing the reflection and comments or article. In addition, i also enable to enhance my technology knowledge through blogging. For example, there is some new software that had been share my friends to be experienced by me. Besides, i also learn to decorate my blog using other URL and to be more creative.

What i like most about the course is i can learnt many ways on how to using and develop teaching resources. Apart from traditional ways that i have learnt before, there are lots of other ways using technology to be used in the class. So, there are lots of technology skills that I have learnt. I think it would be very useful to be used in my future class. Then, i hope that my future classroom will be well-equipped with all the technology facilities so that it i can apply all my knowledge there. Apart from that, i also can use the skills for my personal purposes during my leisure time. Insya Allah.

A I said above, lots of things that i have learnt regarding technology in developing teaching resources such as e-book, animation, video and audio editing. It never come to my mind that i will learnt all this. I feel like a Multimedia student. if i want i can take another degree on this course. Living in this era of technology i need to b well-equipped with all the stuff regarding technology as i do not want to be left behind. It will be such a waste if i do not know all this stuff since i can use them to enhance my professionalism in future.

The other thing i will uncomfortable about this course is there are too many task given every week. Somehow it is beneficial, but, for some extent i think that we have learnt too much without consider what we have gain from the entire task given. I think we can just focus on some task and give suitable time to learn and hand in them. It is because not all of us including me have a good internet connection. We had waste a lot of time to wait for downloading and uploading. It sometimes had taken my sleeping and eating time. That’s bad because it can lower down our motivation and energy to learn more. We just a human not a machine. Besides, i also surprised that we just learn on how to use and develop materials totally using ICT. What about other ways. I think it should balance between traditional and technology way. Since some learning process traditional way are still relevant and meaningful. So, we shouldn’t abundant the traditional way.

Exam in progress, please keep quiet!

salam,
Alhamdulillah, the final test is over, so now i can concentrate to prepare on my portfolio. the test was quite tough and it was like a war for me..fuh.... I hope everything will be fine.Insya Allah.

WallE...

Have you watch the movie?It was awesome and give all thumbs up to the director Andrew Stanton.Bravo..although it was few dialogues through the story, i still can laugh out their jokes and wept for the poor Walle. Besides, they are cute and adorable too.

on top of that, the story is powerful for the message to the people who still can't put off their eyes from the screen(laptop, PC, Tv etc). the message is, there are lots of wonderful REAL things that worth looking than watching them on the screen. Real world is beautiful and amazing...start to realize it.

In addition, the story also picture to us clearly the impact of technology...it tell us what will happen to earth after the aftermath of technology that had been misuse. morever, the impact that we have to live in space is more worst as there will be no real life. we just depending on the robots to do everything and as the consequences we will became very fat that we can't even know how to work..it is a real nightmare.

the worst nightmare was there will be no LOVE at all.only Walle, the Robot, realize it. How pathetic. can you imagine the world and life without LOVE?

"On top of all this, WALL-E also comes with a message about responsibility to tell children and parents alike. When you stop paying attention to the world around you and you let your chair be your entire universe, it effects more than just you. Moreover, you miss out on the things that are truly important and the amazing things you can experience when you actually live your life instead of watching it on the TV. Sneakily, Andrew Stanton (who also directed) peels away the curtain of what he feels is societal wrongs, but makes you feel good that you peeked behind the curtain. How often can we be told what we are doing something wrong, face it and still love the experience?

Exam Tips...

Exam tips:
Handling Test Anxiety
Many people are anxious and suffer from stress before and during an examination. They may even make simple errors that are not typical of their usual behavior. People who take licensing exams often experience greater stress due to a need to succeed because the results will determine whether or not they will be able to enter their chosen field. It is therefore important to prepare yourself emotionally to take your license exam.
Part of being prepared emotionally is for you to be able to recognize the symptoms of stress and anxiety. Stress is often strong enough to lead to incresed heart rate, shortness of breath, trembling hands, shaking legs, nausea, sweating, etc. Test anxiety and worry lead to a series of negative results including poor concentration, confusion, negative attitudes or moods, negative self-orientation, fear, anger, and even panic.
Often a person develops poor coping strategies such as becoming involved in negative self talk. A common psychological defense against these negative feelings and thoughts is giving up and becoming helpless or paralyzed during a test. The ability to perform well under pressure, however, is a skill that you can learn. Several strategies for overcoming test anxiety follow.

Adequate Preparation
The major factor involved in test anxiety is a lack of preparation. Most test-anxious people have poor study habits and have not prepared adequately for the test. They then attribute their poor performance to a lack of ability or capacity to perform.
Take an objective look at your approaches to studying. If you are lacking in good study habits, you may want to take a study skills training course. Set realistic study goals with ample time for quality learning and repetition. One rule of thumb is that for each hour of class time, study one or two hours at home.

Relaxation
Often the test situation, the examination room, the large number of candidates, and being watched by the person giving the exam intimidates candidates. It is important for you to feel confortable and relaxed in the testing situation.
Knowledge about taking exams helps people relax during the actual exam. Keep information about the date, time, and duration of the exam in mind.
For more information, please choose the appropriate Candidate Information Bulletin document for your desired license type, containing examination tips, study materials and sample test questions for the exam. Since these are Adobe PDF files, you can save the one that applies to you, after it opens in your browser, and then, at your convenience, print the document for reference.
The method of progressive relaxation involves tensing a muscle system and then relaxing it. Tensing a muscle will produce increased relaxation when the muscle is subsequently relaxed. Start at one end of the body and work to the other end. Practice every day for 10 to 15 minutes until you gain the increased ability to relax at will.
Alternately tense and stretch various muscles in your body. Concentrate on the difference in being tense and being relaxed. Tense your whole body, and then relax your whole body. Practice every day until you notice the gradual improvement in your ability to relax. This will give you confidence and the ability to relax when you take the exam.
Another method is to breathe deeply and slowly, letting your body go limp and allowing every muscle in your body to relax while you concentrate on your breathing. Start with your hands. Imagine them to be warn and heavy. Repeat to yourself "my hands are warm and heavy" several times. Maintain a slow, patterned breath rhythm. Progress to the arms, then the shoulders, and countinue until you relax your whole body. Do this 5-10 minutes a day. Look into other, different methods of relaxation. Many books about relaxation techniques are available.

Avoid Negative Thinking
Test-anxious people tend to be preoccupied with themselves. They concentrate on their negative thougths and feeling instead of concentrating on solving problems or answering test questions. The way to cope with this is to monitor your thinking. When you hear yourself talking negatively, be aware of it. Stop talking negatively and start positive self-talk.

exam fever..

Alhamdulillah...this course has coming to an end...lots of pain and lots of gain...now, it's time to be ready for the war day...exam is around the corner...many things need to be covered. notes..notes..notes..notes.. where are you...anyway..wish all of us the very best and good luck

identifying priorities.

Identifying priorities

• teaching which is based on the skills and instincts children bring with them to the classroom;

• the development of attitudes and responses which contribute to the process of developing competence in another language;

• ways of working with the language for real.

• If we take these priorities seriously then we are obviously no longer talking about classrooms where the children spend all their time sitting still in rows or talking only to the teacher.

• We are also talking about teaching which will sometimes involve teachers in adapting the textbook or in devising activities of their own.

• In both respects we need to be realistic.

checking understanding

Current practice in second language classroom

• the teacher expects the pupils to understand each and every word in a sentence.

• teacher perceives idea that pupils will not be able to understand unless they can give exact mother tongue equivalent.

Negative effects of this practice:

• Time consuming

• Lost interest

• Lower motivation

How we check pupils’ understanding:

• facial expression

• gestures

• TPR

tips..

Selecting and Developing Teaching/Learning Materials:

· Content

· Level of difficulty

· Instructional issues

· Textbooks should have support for learning

working with young learners.

Working with young learners:

• Children’s ability to grasp meaning

• Children’s creative use of limited language resources

• Children’s capacity for indirect learning

• Children’s instinct for play and fun

• The role of imagination.

• The instinct for interaction and talk.

Young children did not come to class empty handed but are equipped with an already established set of instincts, skills and characteristics to help them learn.

lesson plan..

salam,
just settle with the lesson plans. it was tough but i had try my best to complete the lessons for all the skills. it is because i need to produce teaching aids using both technology and non-techno as it will be as another if one won't work. well, it will be a practice to make a better one in future. Insya allah

taugh as ever..

We had another assignment to do in groups. This time we have to download some videos from 8tv.com on 'So you think you can dance'. that's was taugh at first because we need to download the videos and play them using certain players such Real player. Alhamdulillah, my laptop already had the player. however, when i tried to download the videos, it took a very long time to start dowloading. i think it took almost an hour to start downloading the file! then, i had to tried it again and again until it worked. Thanks to Hafiz for the help..

after spend my half day downloading the videos, another problem occured... my group member who had try to join the file using the software given by the lecturer in adec but failed. i am also tried to join the videos using video movie maker and power director but it made my loptop stop working when i wanted to produce the final videos. it repeated for several times i tried to produce it. it nearly drive me crazy!

oh yes.. before that, the other problem was when we were trying to convert the video into avi. it was our mistakes when we had mistaken use the converter..hehehehe..so, we had found a new converter that was old one that had successfully convert the videos into avi though it also take almost the whole night to convert 6 videos.

the bad part was when i still fail to produce the joining part and the edited video and the day after was the day of i'm going back to my hometown and as well as my other group members. this will make our work difficult as we can't met as a group to finish the video. so, we had decided to divide the task to everyone of our group. Lastly, the final touch we had ask Kamal to do it because he is staaying in Selangor. so, he didn't had any bus to miss...

then, after some discussion we were ready to went back home..

Photo editing 2

Salam,

It was hard but exciting for me to learn how to edit photo. I find that lots of things can be done to create an attractive and creative photo. Although we can capture the pictures it saves a lot of time just editing it. Besides, using photo editing software teachers can produce interesting teaching aids to the pupils. This concrete object will help them to comprehend the context though in the class. As a saying say that ‘Pictures worth thousand words’. Teacher can carry activities that can build their creativity and encourage them to think out of the box. For example, in enhancing their speaking skill, teacher can ask them to get them to give their opinion based on this picture:

Teacher can ask them some questions to prompt them to speak like:

1. -How many animals you can see on the picture?

2. -What are the animals doing?

3. -Where do the animals live?

4. -Do you think that that the duckling is the bear’s baby?

5. -What we call the bear’s baby?

These questions can be if the teacher wants to teach about animals and their babies. The above picture had been edited using AnvSoft Photo Manager soft ware (thanks to azliza). The soft ware provides many frames to decorates our picture for example Magic frames, stickers shots, cards etc. We also can create our own cover magazine.

Besides, i’ve also learn how to animate the picture using Adobe Image Ready. That’s amazing. (thanks to hudapauzi for the knowledge). This will glue our pupils to the picture, i bet. But, either there will be more noise or they are quiet is depending on how we control the class. However, the picture will try to help us.

Photo Editing...a step to go.

assalamualaikum and hi,
I think it would be very useful for me to know about photo editing. It is because through this process we can modify any picture to suit with our learners need and interest. Besides, using photo editing there's a lot to discover. For example, we make the photo interesting by adding our picture or the students picture in the picture that we going to display to the students. It would be fun and captivating which is it would attract the students to the lesson that will going to be taught on that day.
But, there's a lot more for me to discover on how to use photo editing software.For the time being i just downloading the Adobe Photoshop that i took from my friend. So, i need to explore many things on the software to be able for me to use as maximum as possible. Wish me Luck;-)

Using and Developing Resources in the ESL classroom

As a teacher it is important for us to know our students so that the process of teaching and learning will go smoothly. It is because every children in our class is different even they are twins or triplets. that's what we called as individual differences as God has created every human being with their own unique personality. As for the children, i can simplify them as active, imaginative and creative in developing their language. From small we are created with the sense of curiosity so, the children learn language as part of the curiosity. therefore, they learn the language by creatively use their limited language resources to convey the message. they also learn indirectly by guessing the adults gestures, facial expression and body language to interpret the meaning of the message. although they tend to be wrong, they still can learn the language as practice make them to near perfect. they also learn language through games. children are active and can't stay still for a long time. their attention span is short, just about 10-15 minutes ( Penny McKay,2006). however, when they are playing they have the opportunity to use the language while interacting with their peers.
from all the characteristics stated above, I've learn that as a future teacher, i should aware of these characteristics and find alternatives to cater their ability. there are many ways that i can take in order to provide them with suitable input. one of them is through myself . That's mean, i as a teacher should be more expressive in conveying messages to them. Apart from making my instruction simple and clear it should come together with my expression and body language so that if they can't get the language they can interpret my gesture to understand the message. besides, during the teaching and learning process, i need to provide concrete materials to present the content so that they can experience by themselves. it is because according to a psychologist, Jean Piaget, at the age of 7-11 years old, they are at the concrete operational stage (lightbown and Spada, 2001). therefore, the technology can take the part to provide interesting and interactive learning materials. for example, to teach topic on 'Sports', i can download any video or pictures from www.youtube.com or at www.picturebucket.net to share with students as a way to induce them for further input. besides, they would get a clear and real picture of some sports that they never come across.
In addition, apart from just lecture and homework, they can learn through games. It is because through games, we can boost their confidence and self-esteem and games are also essential, integral part of children's language learning (Carol Read, 2007). For example, a simple games like Simon Says, Cards game, Guessing game and etc. using the Internet we can benefit by searching for any interactive games such as cross puzzle to enhance their vocabulary and spelling which help to develop their visual spatial awareness, creative thinking and numeracy. for example for learning mathematics in fun way you can try this link http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/robot/robotCalculator.htm. I think it would be best if we can design a game that involve their physical movement as they have a very short attention span. besides, it also help to develop their physical coordination and psychomotor skill (Carol Read, 2001).

in addition, threre a lots of activities that i can use to be used in the classroom. therefor, it is up to me to start hunting for the sources.

usefulweb:
www.enchantedlearning.com
www.teachingenglish.org.uk.

It has begun...

A long journey start with the first step..and the first step that we begin had met us with a lots of work to finish..i think this would be tough for me because I'm still crawling like a baby in this technology 'business'.but, lucky for me coz i have wonderful group members to help me.
firstly, i do not understand we supposed to do for our assignment..but, after discussing with the group members i feel better and i can see the way to go. actually, we have to come out with a material from the net to be used in teaching and learning process in Year 5 class. so, we have been told to refer to the Curriculum Specification for the details. then, we have to describe the process of saving and storing files for our project.it is to help us in future if we happen to use it again. i think this will be interesting because i will learn how to exploit the materials in the net to be used in the classroom. i can imagine that our pupils will be excited and enjoy the lesson. that's what technology for in educational field.
i also have get some new input on where to encode the data, save file download videos, songs and e-book that available in the net to help the teacher.
On the first day in this sem i have learnt how to build my own blog..(thanks Suhaili).it was easy, but, i never try to explore it before..i just have to go t0 http://www.blogger.com and follow the step by step there...then, you can start blogging...it simple just like ABC..but, you have to make sure that you already have an email address.
besides, i also had share with Zarne on how to download the clip from youtube.com..first, we need to go http://www.youtube.com and type our desire videos..before that, we have to open a new windows of http:www.keepvid.com..then,after we choose our clip videos, we need to copy the URL address of the clip and paste it in keepvid.com browser that we have opened. then, we can start to download the video...
in addition of the information, Fadliyana had told us on how to encode the clip into MPEG file so that we can view it using window media player and other MPEG file. first, we have to download the Total Video Converter in order to be able to encode the clip. Then, copy the clip that we have downloaded from the you tube to the total converted after finishing the installation process. after that, we have to follow the step stated. Thanks a lot Yana for the inf0;-)..
besides, Joshua had make our life more interactive as he had built a forum for us to had discussion about any issues and share information to upgrade our knowledge in this field..it would be fun...thanks,Josh..you can visit us at http://cohort3family.forumer.com and have some chat with us...
i hope to learn more through out the sem. as i said before the journey has just begun...

no pain, no gain...

Everything will be tough for the first time, I try to motivate myself.. it will be tiring and lots of work for me because i’m not into this technology stuff before.

I feel like to quit doing this, but i realize that hard work paid someday,huh?..God Willing. Now, i’ll depend on my wonderful friends to help me. Please?

Now, it also open my eyes wide open to the usage of technology in finding resources for teaching apart from the manual way of producing the teaching aids. Although i will still use the manual way if it is no electricity on that day or it is a very rural area...still, technology offer easier way,rite?

There’s a lot i can find in the net such as e-book, video clips, and songs as teaching aids in teaching and learning process. Besides, i may edit the clips or songs from the net using video editing to suit with my students in the class. It would be more interesting and fun to the students whereby, it might increase their interest in learning English.

Therefore, i’ll try my best to get myself equip with the technology gadget so that it would not be a waste to live in IT era and do not make any use of it.