Use a Daily Planner or Organiser

Keeping a daily planner or organiser with you all the time helps you keep track of your daily activities. Doing this requires a lot of discipline and conscious effort but it is rewarding in terms of time management. Here are some tips:

1.Carry your daily planner or organizer with you everywhere you go.

It is advisable to buy one that is not bulky and mobile. If you are technology savvy, you could invest in an affordable PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). If you are not interested in carrying a book or PDA everywhere you go, you could resort to a more traditional method by writing down your plans for the day on a brightly colored piece of paper (to avoid from misplacing and forgetting it) and keeping it in your purse/wallet or your bag/ file that you bring along everywhere you go.


2.Note down all activities, deadlines and appointments into your daily planner.

If you have new activities or appointments, note the important details down in the planner. This helps you arrange and plan your time effectively and consciously.

3.Look at your organizer the first thing in the morning before you start working on any task to remind yourself of the tasks that you need to accomplish or the appointments and deadlines you need to meet.

4.Look through your planner from time to time. Cross out the tasks that you have already completed so that you know what you have accomplished and what you need to do next.

5.Be flexible and be ready to make changes in your plans for the day. Have empty slots in your daily plans so that you can fit in any emergency plans without disrupting the other planned activities.

never thought i will act...part2

i was quite nervous actually cause its like my first time acting...

i have been on stage since secondary school but it is usually for public speaking, speech, mc-ing etc but never acting...

i seriously thinking of skipping class...hehe

but how could i just left my friends like that....

thus i just endure the moment and i just like....don't think and just do it

when my group turm come...we just go on with it...

its really akward....but i think we managed to pull it off

of course its not really up to everyone expectations

but as its our first time....i'm satisfied and its really a good experience

still its really embrassing...my face become red actually

really never thought i will act...

never thought i will act...

this sem i'm taking the drama class as it was one of the TESL subject

actually the class was fun...because there are a lot of new things and experience that we can learned...such as voice projection, drama etc.

we also get to move around and there is very little 'lecture' going on so its certainly not the boring type of class...

hmmm....however one of the requirement of the class is to act

as the subject itself was call drama right?

theory must come with practice....then today as the assessment we need to act out a sketch...

its not just a sketch but a very sad one...

how am i going to act sad????

still i need to try right....better try then give up, right?

so...our group sketch was entitled "A moment to remember"

I'm playing the character of a soon to be an amnesia wife who will forget everything

i have a husband and a 'cute' daughter...

continue....

my reflection as a trainee teacher

There was an old phrase saying that theory without practice is insufficient; practice unguided by the theory is aimless. Thus teaching practicum at school is indeed a once in a lifetime experience for trainee to blend both the theory and practice at the same time. It’s the place where we as a trainee teacher try to implement everything that we learned in university. So, when I reflected back my experience at school after almost four months, there are a lot of things can be reflect upon to especially in terms of philosophy/values/beliefs held by the school. If we want to simplify it, there was the education philosophy or the instructional strategies imposed by the government to the school then to the students, the teacher beliefs/values and condition of the pupils themselves.

Firstly the Malaysian education philosophy imposed by the government to the school and to the students. This mainly about the way the school implements and managed the instructional strategies outlined by the government. As we know one of the key points of our education system in Malaysia is the examination oriented curriculum. The just can be seen by mere mentioning of the word ‘school’ and images of grades and examinations come to our mind. Indeed students spend a lot of time and energy preparing and sitting for examinations. For example in my school, to prepare the students for the PMR and SPM examination, curriculum activities for them are very limited. Every week they are bombarded with test, quizzes and homework. The styles of teaching by the teachers also were more to drilling as to prepare the student for examination. There were very limited time and opportunities for them to just simply enjoy the lesson and learning for the sake of learning.

I agreed, along with preparation for examination, students gather a string of qualifications as well as knowledge and skills. These are crucial since they are the stepping stones and the foundation for the future. They can help students to secure a good job and successful career. These examination oriented strategies also affecting the other classes especially during the test and examination weeks. Thus put us trainee teacher in dilemma as whether we should just follow the school situation or implement new things that we learned in university. And as for me, I choose to combined both ways that is before the examination weeks I will tried to teach based on the students condition and interest at the same making sure to finish the syllabus given by my supervisor and during the examination week, give the students exercises and notes for examination.

The most interesting parts about my school were the principal himself and the teachers. The reason I said this because the principal held a very different views about education and school management compare to other teachers. We found out about this during the one hour meeting that we had with the principal on our first day at school. He told us that he beliefs in giving all his students equal chances, treating all the students equally without caring who their parents, he doesn’t beliefs in using cane to discipline the ‘bad students’ and teachers all should work together to achieve academic excellent at the same. He also believed in grouping student according to their performances in academic to achieve better result. For example because of the poor result of the PMR mock examination, he changed and organized back the students best on their results. If we look from the good students point of view, it a good action since they can be together with the other students who are interested in studying. However if we look from the other perspectives, the situation is not good for the ‘bad students’ as teacher will put all their attention only to the good students. This also will help materialize the teacher prophecy effects.

The teacher on the hands, give a really different points of view because many of them think teaching just as a work like any other works. Some of them did not even bother to enter the class especially the last ‘bad’ class. They are not treating the students equally like what the principle wants. During the first month, the situation was really uncomfortable because there were senior teacher who underestimated our hard work to prepare teaching materials. For them, it is just waste of time because they said when we went to teacher after graduation, all of that will not be used. I’m really afraid of becoming that kind of teacher. Thus, it’s really important for us trainee teacher to have I own principles and beliefs before we enter the world of teaching in reality.

Moreover, the ones who got affected by the instructional strategies and belief of the teachers are the students. As I said earlier ‘the teacher prophecy’, caused the students act based on the teacher attitude and expectations of them. Because some of the teacher attitude and values towards the ‘last’ class were very negative, thus the students behavior negatively and did not cooperate with the teacher. Teacher not entering class because they think there was no use in teaching those students, making the situation even worse. This kind of the situation really gave me a bad impression towards the teacher at the school. However, I can understand that different people have different ways of teaching. However, for me teacher had to trust their student’s ability may lies outside of academics field. We also cannot give up on our students because it’s a responsibility that we need to bear if we want to deal with human beings.

In conclusion, an underestimated truth about education is that knowledge can by no means be conveyed without students' good will. If you come to think about it, good teacher, like a good chef, should always prepare a variety of sauces for the dish he/she is serving to make it most appealing, while the task of tasting and judging the dish is always left to the guest. Effective teaching is just another way to help make the outcome enjoyable to both sides, and I hope my students will retain the taste for learning, questioning and discovering long after my classes.

'creating my own blog'

never thought its going to be this way...

last night 7/2/09 was my first time learning how to create a blog..

its a funny experience though....

never thought its going to be this complicated.....

but in the end got the hang of it....

this morning i already started to design everything myself....

well it a start, right?

let wait and see what the outcome is, will you...