My effort paid off

Today the Education Ministry announced the results of SPM for 2009. One of the students I smsed to told me that she got an A+ for Malay. She was among the six students whom I coached as a tutor.

She was with me for three years from Form 3 to Form 5. All the students who are under me will have a strong grounding in grammar and vocabulary. I give them ample exercises too to make sure they are ready for the battle in the exam hall.

My effort paid off today when the leader told me that all of them obtain an 'A' for Malay.

Congratulations to all my students who scored and passed with good results.

The twins that I meet in class

In the course of my career as a teacher, I have the pleasure of teaching twins. As always, I will have to find a way to differentiate in order not to mistake one for the other.

Last year there was a pair of Indian boys in my Fifth Form Malay class. It was easier to recognise them because although both looked alike but they parted their hair on different sides, one on the side and the other on the right.

This year I have a pair of Indian girls in my Form 3 Malay class. I still have difficulty telling them apart because I have yet to spot the difference in features to differentiate them.

Usually, their language achievement differs as one will be better than the other although they are identical twins.

The odd boy out

I started to conduct my first lesson of Form 4 Malay when I realised that there was a boy who simply refused to do anything. He did not bother to take down the exam scope which I wrote on the board. With things to expect in an exam, pupils will have some aim in doing the exercises given because they have a bearingn on the real exam.

Then I gave a written exercise for my boys and girls to do. Again I found that the same boy just stared at the exercise given and did nothing too. Usually I will ask questions to make sure that my pupils attempt the exercise given, then I will ask for answers. I will pick at random someone to answer, and if he gives a wrong answer, I will explain how to get the correct one.

When I gave another exercise to my pupils to do, I invited the boy I mentioned earlier out for a heart-to-heart talk to see why he refused to co-operate in class. To my surprise, the boy told me that he could not understand my instruction and could not follow the lessons. Then I asked him for his PMR results for Malay, and he told me that he got a 'D' which is very poor. No wonder he could not comprehend a thing in class.

For such type of students, we have a foundation class of three months to drill them on basic grammar and increase their vocabulary so that they can join a normal class again. If he still cannot make it, then we have to ask him to go for personal tuition elsewhere.

How much are you going to give me?

Whenever I ask my students whether they can answer all the questions I give them correctly, one or two of them will say, "How much are you going to give me if I answer all of them correctly?"

I feel very sad because these pupils of mine always think in terms of money when they want to accomplish something. When I say, "I will give you a pen.", they will say that I am very stingy. They do not think of the reward given by the teacher as something to be proud of. Rather they sneer at the gift as something very inferior and not worthy of being its recipient.

They also forget the respect they get from the teacher if they can answer all the questions correctly, assuming that the questions I ask test them on what I have taught them before. Respect is something you cannot buy with money.

My first educational software

I enjoy programming using dBase 3+ and with this language, I made my first educational software which I called Tekata (short form for Teka Kata or Guess the Word).

I store words of 4 letters and 5 letters in a data base with which I ask the user to guess. The user will choose 4-letter word or 5-letter word and four or five blanks will be displayed. He will then venture a guess by typing any word of the required length. My program will then display the correct letter or letters in the correct position or positions iand the user will try to fill in the missing spaces. After three trials, and if the user fails to guess the word, the answer will be displayed. If he manages to guess correctly, he will be praised with the display of 'Well done!"

I use this program to reinforce the spelling and increase the vocabulary of my students as all the Malay words to be guessed are quite difficult ones.

How I learned Pinyin from my children

I was educated in the old school of thought when Pinyin (a system to denote the pronunciation of Chinese words) was not taught. The chance to learn Pinyin and simplified Chinese came when my eldest son entered Primary 1.

I learned together with my child how to pronounce the Pinyin notation. There are about well over 3000 words a Primary School children have to learn in Chinese to be able to read the newspaper and books. Well, I managed to learn all the 3000 odd words, both Pinyin and writing in simplified form.

Now I can pronounce any Chinese word given the Pinyin and read simplified Chinese strokes. I have no regrets spending learning Pinyin because you can use it to type Chinese words with the computer and have the words printed neatly.

A Job to be Shunned

For today's post, I am going to talk about my experience as a examiner. For most teachers, this is a job to be shunned.

I had been an 1119 English examiner for six years before I retired as a government teacher. Come to think of it, I don't how I sustained this long. Marking candidates' answer scripts is not an easy chore. You need to constantly keep the standard set out for you to follow. You must gauge all scripts as fairly as possible.

Before marking my share of answer scripts, we have to sit with our Chief Examiner for three days to do centralised marking. We will be marking dummy scripts and discuss marks given to see how close or how far we are from the marks determined by the overall chief. When our chief is satisfied with our marking, we will then be given our share of loads to be brought back and marked at home. However, we will have to submit thirty scripts to the chief so that he can do sample remarking to ascertain our standard of marking. If we are too lenient, we have to be stricter and if we are too stricter we have to be more lenient.

Marking 200 sets of answer scripts at home is both time-consuming and mind-taxing. On top of that, we have to give comments for the essays. Hence, it is a tough job to do. It is really a great relief when I managed to finish the last answer script allocated to me.

Despite the tedious job, I do find joy in marking well-written essays. I even gave perfect score to one student whose essay was very interesting and written with a wide vocabulary besides the apt use of words needed to make the essay shine among the others.

Panting for breath after reading

When I was studying in Form 1, my English teacher was Mr Ang Chek Ming. Through him, I learnt the intonation of English words. He was very forceful when he spoke. He encouraged us to listen to English news broadcast over the radio. I could not catch what the newsreader was reading at first. Later, I was able to follow the news. According to Mr Ang, if we really pronounce every word correctly, we will be panting for breath at the end of reading a long passage.

I tried what he had said and I was panting for breath after reading quite a long passage.

How to prevent cheating by students

Whenever teachers give tests to students there will always be students who try to cheat when the answer scripts are given back to them. It is especially so for questions where students are required to fill in blanks. Some students do not know the answers and hand up the scripts without filling in anything for the blanks. If the teachers mark a cross against each blank without an answer, students who like to cheat will enter the right answers when these are discussed in class. Then they will bring the scripts to the teachers for marks claiming that the teachers have marked the correct answers as wrong.

As an experienced teacher, I know how to prevent this from happening. I will mark a double cross for blanks without answers. Later if students come to me for marks I will call them liars and they will not insist on demanding marks from me anymore because they are cheating and I know it.

Congratulations, you are at school

Congratulations, you are at school

When I passed by the former school I taught in, I was attracted by the above sentence painted on the cement wall near the school gate. It is a very good way to encourage students to come to school by patting them on the back.

Students of this school like to absent themselves without good reasons. Their act makes the teacher even busier because they have to send the first letter to each student's guardian if he has been absent continuously for three days.

To congratulate a pupil for being at school is really a novel way of encouraging him to come to school daily.

Teaching is not an easy job

Teaching is not an easy job. You have not only to be able to impart knowledge to students but to discipline them too. With regulation that prohibits teachers from caning students for doing wrong, the teachers' hands are really tied and can't do a thing except to scold their students when situation warrants it. The scolding itself will cause damage to their cars too because the students who are reprimanded by their teachers may go after the teachers' vehicles such as cars by scratching them.

Besides, a teacher needs to have a loud voice so that the students at the back of the class can hear him. Talking loudly in this way really strain the vocal cords. Hence all teachers must take honey regularly to keep their voical cords in good condition. The voice is very important to a teacher as it is used daily to carry out his duties in class.

After school, a teacher has to mark exercise books handed in by his students. In Malaysia, a class can easily come to 40 students. Imagine the amount of time to be spent marking those exercise books.

Usually a teacher is in charge of a game, a club or a uniform unit. In other words, he has to be with the boys or girls when co-curricular activities are being carried out.

These are but some of the things a teacher has to do.

Reading the dictionary

Reading the dictionary of a language we learn really helps a lot. Dictionaries are known as ‘teachers who don’t open their mouths’. Even our teachers have to refer to dictionaries when they come across words whose meanings they do not know too. Hence, reading the dictionary is part of language learning.

I enjoy reading the dictionary because I can always come across certain words which I need in the course of my writing. Those words whose meaning I am not sure of are explained in the relevant entries of the dictionary. Besides, we get to know the correct pronunciation. For example, most people will pronounce the word ‘abalone’ as ‘a bay lon’ but the correct pronunciation as shown in the dictionary is ‘a bay lon nee’.

Whenever we see words which are new to us, the best place to go is the dictionary. I have this experience of asking my colleagues the meanings of certain words in the newspaper which are new to me and they shrug their shoulders, saying they are aliens to them too. Hence what better place to get help when this happens is the dictionary.

Fastening seat belts

Come first day of 2009, all back seat passengers in Malaysia will have to fasten their safety-belts or the driver will be slapped with a fine of RM300 until 30th June. From 1st July onwards, the fine will be a whopping RM2000 for non-compliance in this matter.

I think it is good that to enforce this law. Very often, during a collision for high-speed vehicles, the inertia will throw the back seat passengers forward, causing serious injuries to the driver in front. If they have fastened their seat belts, this can be prevented. Hence there is no reason to oppose such a law when it is for your own good. Back seat passengers who deem it troublesome to fasten safety-belts should bear in mind the driver's safety. With right thinking and having made it a habit to do so, fastening seat belts for back seat passengers will become a routine and hassle free then.

Happy fastening seat belts for your own safety and that of the driver.

Dictionaries in my pocket pc

Since I bought my HP iPaq hx2490 Pocket PC, it has helped me tremendously in my work. I bought Kamus Pro, a Malay dictionary, from The Name Technology for RM99 and had it installed in my pocket pc (ppc)so that I need not carry the big and bulky Kamus Dewan Edisi 4 with me when I go to class. With my ppc around, I can check up the spelling and meaning of any word whose meaning I am not sure of. As teachers we do not know every word in any language and hence a dictionary helps us find its meaning.

Besides, I also bought Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary installed it in my ppc too. As a bilingual teacher, that is Malay and English, I need to have both Malay and English dictionaries in my pocket pc for checking up words that I have not come across before in the course of my teaching.

The unmotivated learners

Have you come across students who simply don't want to study? Well, I have.
These students have very poor foundation when they are in the primary schools. Being unable to follow the language lessons taught in secondary schools, they give up altogether. That explains why they refuse to study. To them, it is pointless studying since they are not going to understand a thing.

Secondary school teachers like me have a tough time making them understand lessons. The exam-oriented system has no place for such students. Hence they will fool around in school until they 'graduate' from Form Five because the promotion from Form 1 to Form 5 is automatic in my country.

I really hope that the retention of students to repeat the same form if they fail will be reintroduced to enable them to study the same lessons all over again. Ideally, they should be in remedial classes where lessons are simplified and taught according to their progress. In this way, the uninterested students will be motivated to study since they can see improvement in their learning.

Warranty card can wait

My dvd recorder ran out of order after three months. So, I brought it to the shop to have it repaired. The man who attended to me happened to be my ex-pupil. This is the advantage of a pupil who tried his best to help you. You see, I just took the computerised invoice cum receipt to the shop and my pupil asked for my warranty card which I left at home. He thought for a while and told me that he would process the repair document anyway and asked me to bring the warranty card the next day.

I thanked him for his help and promised to bring the warranty the following day.

How nice to have a pupil who does not stick to the rule in doing things for the sack of his teacher!

Reading helps in imagination

School children today lack imagination. This is clearly shown by their inability to come out with their own ideas when writing essays.

If I am mistaken, they like to watch television or movies when everything is shown visually and they don't have to to visualise the scenes in their mind at all. That explains why they seem to be unable to imagine things or events. On the other hand, pupils who like to read can write better essays than those who don't. This is because through reading, one has to imagine what is being described by the author. After constant reading, the reader will have no problem building mental pictures of the words that they read.

Hence, school children should be encouraged to read not only to increase their vocabulary but also sharpen their ability to visualise things.

Some students are too materialistic

In schools, sometimes we had to have students to help us arrange the chairs for certain functions such as the Teacher's Day celebration, Speech Day and so on.

I observe that some students are very materialistic. They won't do anything if there is nothing to gain. For example, arranging the chairs for the teachers needs sweating out without getting any monetary gain.

Hence when I ask for volunteers to help me arrange the chairs, many will not oblige.
However there are those who really do not mind helping out. These are the students I like and I despise those who are too materialistic or selfish. The latter will come to you straight away if you mention that application for scholarship is available.

The tell-tale sign of pupils about their background

I was reading the sentences made by my pupils when curiosity got the better of me. You see, this pupil invariably involves her mother in the sentences she makes. In one sentence she wrote, "With trembling hands I handed my report card to my mother, getting ready to be reprimanded."

After class, I talked to her. Sure enough, she comes from a divorced family. Her father left her mother when she was four and her brother two years older. Since then, her mum took over the role of father and mother to bring them up. Luckily the single parent is an engineer. My pupil hated the woman who snatched away her father from her mum and she told me that she would strangle the woman if she were ever to meet her. Such is her hatred towards the woman

An Act of Kindness

I was on the bus from Sungai Long to the Pudu Raya Bus Terminal to board my express bus back to Penang. The bus went through a few housing estates picking up passengers on its way. At first not many passengers were in the bus. Soon the seats were slowly filled. At one bus stop, a few passengers alighted the bus. Among them was an old lady. I wanted to give my seat to the lady but I had a big luggage bag on my lap and the bus seat was very small.
Then a Malay young man stood up to vacate his seat so that the old lady could occupy its place. I praised the man right inside my heart. What an act of kindness. This type of kindness is lacking in places such as towns. I hope more people would emulate this man's kind act to help the elderly.