Thursday, August 31, 2006

A BuilD-UP


Still under construction...
Before I started composing this week's blog, I had risked the possibility of destroying lapace's bluish-polka dotted webpage. Just because of my own curiosity wondering whether I could alter with the codes in the template by pasting a video CSS codes- could turn lapalace into a mess. However, it's a beautiful Friday morning and there would be no other things that I could do better than reflecting on my PKEY3101 class that I had two days ago. Therefore, with heartfelt apologies and regrets, I would announce that lapalace is still under construction of upgrading in order to add in some animations rather than having mere pictures all the time.
Speaking of the class...
Talking about the class, I was not behaving like my usual self. Negativity was dawning on me. I was passive and had not much words to say. Perhaps it was due to the holiday season (and the long list of celebrations- I kept quiet when the Prof. query about the plans for Merdeka Day and HOLIDAY...shy~). Now, I regretted that I did not went up to the Smartboard and try out the coursewares (so did the rest of the class) that were presented by the Prof. She got them from the UK and it would be difficult to get them in our local market. However, I was trying out the activities shown by the Prof. in my head and I personally thought that the Mathematics activity involving the triangles and fractions was interesting. Although I'm minoring in Science Education, I understand that creating a Mathematics activity that integrates the Smartboard could be quite hard. The other activities were actually very simple yet innovative. So, when I stared at the activities shown to us I actually thought that- Hey, I should have thought of that when I was doing my Smartboard assignment. That was what would happen if one thought too much when doing things. As the Chinese saying goes, everything starts from the simple.
Assignment wise...
The jovial Prof. explained to us the details of assigment 3 which would require us to go on seedwiki and jot down our findings and progress (which reminded me that our group's table on seedwiki was still a stunning -blank-). Therefore, I set aside my passiveness (another symptom I got from the holiday mood) and quickly started looking for useful readings on the learning principle's regarding the children's curiosity while the Prof. left us to do our own research. Again I was confused for awhile as the Prof. said that we could complain to the Head of the Department of any disagreement of she leaving the class in an instant - hey, she IS the Head of the Department! Anyways, we got loads of fun work (work suppose to be a positive idea therefore to reinforce there is the addition of "fun") and in my view I was glad she was off the class awhile so that I could end up with something by the end of the class.
I was about to put my hands on the tables of criterion for our group on seedwiki only to realise that I had numerous questions that needed to be cleared off my heads. As a group we discussed but to clarify certain things we asked the Prof. To contradict to my previous view, I was glad she was in class again.
After listening to the Prof.'s explanation and advise on having no fear in carrying on with our ideas, I continued my search on children's curiosity. While the cat's curiosity would kill itself, the children's curiosity would instead act as a springboard along the way in their learning. Thus, leading us to the basis of Assignment 3 - how to meaningfully address the children's curious nature and instill a love of learning. At the moment, my group was still researching on the first topic for the group that was regarding "Curiosity in Children". My group did posted some related articles and if you were also as curious as me do go find out: www.pkey3101.seedwiki.com and click on my group: Group 1.
Old granny's doings...
As I sat on a rocking chair in front of my beautiful lapalace, I reflected back on all these while writing and stating my thoughts lines after lines after lines of words. It had been half a semester since the my very first post and I slowly evolve from the mildly technology-resisting girl into a not-at-all technology-resisting girl (yes, I'm still a girl- not lady, not woman). However, I'm still the girl who is quite afraid of getting my hands to do assignments- scary~.

Many happy readings-doings-thinkings-writings-typings everyone.
Happy holidays!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

sOme 1 GeTTin enGaGed?



Beforehand...
First of all, special thanks to everyone who have been keeping an eye exclusively to Lapalace. Although this might mean that I would feel greater pressure in producing my future writings, by being consciously aware that there are people out there interested in what I put in writing would keep me inspired to write and write and write...
Earlier on, before I scribbled anything on this week's blog, I had experimented with blogspot on whether it was possible t
o upload video and animated graphics on Lapalace. I found out that one would need the CSS codes of the videos and graphics and paste these codes in the template. Confused? Well, for now I have not successfully done it yet. I'm looking forward to share it here. So look out for up coming posts y'all!

Going in
side my head...
It was
another Wednesday, and there I was mingling with familiar faces. However, today my head felt so heavy because of the late night assignment completing the night before. As a post-result of the previous class, I wonder what the Prof. would bring to class today. New toy?Spongebob soft toys rather than toy fish? Nope. She brought along Mdm. Lim and Mdm. Foo to class this time. Realize the Prof. never fail to bring in surprises and something new into class each week? And the way she did it seem to be so effortless! I'm way too impressed. Anyway, let's wonder back to the main discussion.

As I was yawning away before the class started, Mdm. Lim came up to me and asked whether I was Siaw Hui. Hey, how did she know my name? I thought she was giving me a free lunch later in the cafe for having the "Best Yawn in B.Ed(TESL) Class" (my apologies: I Didn't mean to be so drowsy.) To my dismay, it was not about free food. Yet, it was about something more rewarding than a free lunch that I may find very useful in everyday work in the near future. It was about WIKI.

Taking In Something New...
A Wiki? Immediately I was thinking about Wikipedia. Almost everyone would be familiar to Wikipedia (it's the most frequently visited site when I'm doing my assignments. Nope. I DID NOT COPY from there :P). Mdm. Lim was kind and generous enough to explain to me and Mr. Sam about the fuctions of a Wiki and where we can create our very own wiki. It was very unexpected that it was actually very simple and free. You could just go www.seedwiki.com to generate a wiki that belongs to you. Sounds very much like constructing a website or a blog? One thing unique about Wiki is that anyone could edit the posts being uploaded by different authors.

I was still in confused state because this was my very first time being exposed to Wiki. However, I tried to think of the possibilities of Wiki to be used in my daily life. As Mdm. Lim mentioned, I could start my discussion page with my group members and anytime I could upload my files or messages. Thus, there will be no such a need to wait up to hours for my group members to get online so that they could send to my e-mail the required files or to have discussion through MSN messenger.

So, how about in education? In the future undertaking, my work in teaching should be the centre of my life and therefore I wonder what Wiki could be applied in education. I did a reading on the files that the Prof. had uploaded on yahoo!groups and found that Wikis had been used successfully in education (Collaborative Software Lab, 2000; Guzdial, 1999). www.profetic.org:16080/dossiers/dossier_imprimer.php3?id_rubrique=110 There are many cases that Wiki had been integrated in classroom teaching and teachers had yield positive results, for example, by doing classroom projects and as a Q&A site so that teachers and students could access on the Wiki itself. Another great thing about Wiki is that there are lesson plans that have merged the usage of Wiki which could be retrieved online for others to refer to and adapt into teaching.

As I listened intently to Mdm. Lim, the Prof. started her lecturer for the day. By now, I was wide awake because I realised that I had gained something new and useful and could not wait to try out the wiki. The class started as the Prof. began with pictures of students being
engaged. Therefore, this is the premise for the title of this week's post - someone getting engaged? Not in terms of the pre-marriage thing that most young and madly in-love couples do. Instead, it was students engagement in the lesson in class that the Prof. was talking about. Seriously speaking, there were students who went through the whole primary school education and still could not read nor write. In my perspective, perhaps students' engagement was the problem. Students came in to class, stared at the board for few hours as the teacher scribbles things only she could comprehend and then went back home. Have teachers ever wondered the stares of students to the front of the class really meant that the learning processes were taking place? So, what the teachers should do to ensure students are really engaged to the lesson? Grab a student and shake him real hard while screaming: "C'mon! Engagement! Engagement!"

Perhaps one of the way had been cleverly demonstrated by the Prof. o
n this week's lecture. She showed us some classroom pictures during the start of the class and we were trying to figure out what was her message through these pictures (Nevertheless, I was also identifying Mr. Sam's pictures that the Prof. have included on the slides). The class was engaged to her lecture, we did stare on the Smartboard but there were mental processes going on in our heads!

Another thing that I managed to take in during the lecture while I was exploring the Wiki was this poem:

If you seeIT,

Then you'll knowIT

And you'll poeIT.

OR RATHER,
If you poeIT,
Then you'll seeIT,
And you'll knowIT.

Anyway around, the poem means that teachers should take into account the students' needs, level of proficiency etc. in order to use the appropriate pedagogy of ICT teaching. Therefore, ICT in education will not only be the icing on the cake but rather a powerful resource that all children could enjoy and be engaged to. In relation to this, I could predict that there would be an assignment coming our way regarding how to use ICT in teaching while supporting the learning principles. As I predicted (well, actually the Prof. had been mentioning about the assignment since last week and no I do not have six sense), we had a new assignment now. The good thing is, I can have some fun using the newly acquired skills on functioning a Wiki on www.pkey3101.seedwiki.com while doing my assigned work.

Happy Working y'all!

References:

Fountain, Renee. (n.d.) Wiki Pedagogy. Retrieved August 24, 2006 from www.profetic.org:16080/dossiers/dossier_imprimer.php3?id_rubrique=330




Wednesday, August 16, 2006

sounDs kinDa' fiShy in heRe...




What I noticed...
Mr. Sam, the Prof's assistant walked into the computer lab with a posh, biege-coloured, square-shaped, ladies' shoulder handbag and looked quite peculiar. I was curious about the contents of the handbag. Something was kind of funny today. Squeaking sound came out of the bag as the assistant's hands went into the bag. Next thing I knew, the Prof was throwing toy fish around the classroom and I was giggling away while trying my best to avoid being a target - being hit means u need to answer questions!

Inside my head...
"The Day I saw fish flying, I found a better way to live and learn in school." (fish!philosophy)

I decide to do an online searching about the fish philosophy which was mentioned by the Prof. I figured out that it should be something outstanding as it is the reason the Prof. decided that this week there would not be any heavy assignments after we had hand-in our Smartboard lessons. The Prof. was in a vivacious mood today as she let us had some fun by throwing fish around the class, she wore her smile everywhere she went, answered our questions if we had any and lastly, no assignments for the week! How blissful life can get than this? Therefore, the fish philosophy had to be something.
The fact was, the fish philosophy came up from the Pike Place Fish Market which was very popular. Yes, the fish market, a place where they sold fish. Just in case if you were as lagging behind from the talk of the town like me, Pike Place Fish Market was the fish market which adopted the culture of throwing fish around and having fun with the customers which in turn helped tremendously in their fish sales. There were many sites on the internet that talked about the place and the awesome services that it provided to the customers and many brought their philosophy into their work place. One more thing, it even had its own websites where customers could order and buy fish online! This should be on Ripley's Believe it, or not!

I realized that the Prof. was imitating the fish mongers of Pike Place Fish Market. She threw fish around the lab and we were tempted to unleash our childlike innocence by having fun throwing fish to each other. So much fun, attention (despite those who were lost in their own world staring at their screen at the back of the lab), and laughters were generated. However, we felt a bit awkward as sadly, perhaps, it had been so long that we had any fun during lectures. All the class did was glued to the individual places and copy every single word the Prof. said like there was no tomorrow.

If only we could have that much of energy, enthusiasm, passion and fun in the classro
om, everyday will be so looked-forward to and memorable for the students and teachers. Students will be unwilling to leave school at the end of their schooling and truancy will be put to nil. I was put into deep thought as the Prof. asked the class: "Could you remember any teacher who was always there for you, who had left a deep impression on you that till now you couldn't forget?" Honestly and sadly speaking, none. When I go to school, I do not wish that I will be the spare entity to be forgotten by students, the one that the students can do without. How sad and hurtful could it be to hear from your students: "Huh? You used to be my teacher?"

The four tenets of fish philosophy:
1. Play: Have fun!
2. Make th
eir day: make people happy!
3. Be there: not necessary physically, mentally is good enough.
4. Choose your attitude: Be nice, don't be a pain in the neck for others.

Notice that the Prof. had accomodated the above points into today's lecture a
nd she had definitely had my heart for her future lessons. In my thoughts, in life as well, one should have the fish philosophy in them. From being a 'toxic' person who always be malancholy, negative, take things too seriously, and practise extreme sarcasm, one should evolve into a 'nourishing' being. Here, being 'nourishing' does not mean that you provide milk for a person till they feel their skin is soft and supple. 'Nourishing' refers to positivity, have fun, take things seriously but do not go overboard, and practise giving motivating remarks. Another observation that I would like to bring in is how niggardly Malaysians can get in giving positive remarks. When someone wears a brand new G-branded dress all they can say was: "New one ar?Where you buy?" or when someone finally got promoted all they will say was: "Finally. I thought you will never got promoted."
Back to the discussion. To me, the fish philosophy is like the carpediam attitude that most English women had during and post World War II in Europe. They lived life to the fullest as they did not know when it was going to end. Live life to the fullest by injecting fun elements into your daily life. When we have the appropriate mindset to do things, things can be done w
ithout us knowing it as we have enjoyed so much along the process of completion.

So, start being 'fishy' today. Adopt the fish philosophy into your life as I promise I will in anything I do.




References:
Work that's fun gets done. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2006 from www.grand-blanc.k12.mi.us/qip/fish!%20philosophy.htm

Thursday, August 10, 2006

NoT sO orDinary dAy iN MK2

Thoughts...
After a few weeks of preparing my teaching slides, finally, today was the day to show the rest my creations. I went in MK2 with the swarm of coursemates and successfully got a place at the end of the class. To my disappointment, it was a 'hanging' computer (meaning it hangs when I try to open my files in my pendrive). Nevermind, I will share the computer with my friends sitting in front.

The Prof. gave us an informative lecture and talked about her experience last week observing primary school teachers integrating technology in their teaching. These teachers had attended for technology courses before hand. However, the Prof. pointed out the mistakes or rather irony that happened in the classroom. Although there was the convenience of a lap top and projector for the teachers to use in their teaching, they still use the chalk and board to write their notes for the students. They could type in what they wanted to students to copy down in their exercise books or even prepare powerpoint presentations but perhaps they still could not kick off the habit of writing on the black board. Chalk and talk has been in our teaching culture for decades. It does need a little bit more time or effort to have technology as our main medium of teaching. Maybe a new batch of fresh graduate teachers like me can make a difference in schools? I will try to remember that I should never write with chalk if I have the lap top and have the projector projecting an empty slides as I draw happily on the black board. Never.

Then, it was time for presentations. No volunteers dared to go out first. All of us do not know what to expect from the Prof.

I voluntereed my group after the first group had presented. I had a mixture of feelings as I was quite worried that I would be bombarded with loads of questions (as the first group did) but on the other hand I was eager to know what the Prof. would say about my group's presentation. Me and my group member stand in front thinking bleakly, "Just shoot us!". To our relief, it was not so bad. Just few improvements needed to be made here and there. Phew~

Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision
As the Prof. wrote these words on the Smartboard, my mind went blank. I got confused for a second. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. Technology can support a vision but cannot be the vision. I repeated several times to get the sense out of it.

The phrase is definitely thought provoking. The development of our country in terms of science and technology has been a rapid one. We are on our way to achieve vision 2020 in which we will be a nation that develops fully economically, politically, socially, spiritually, phsycologically and culturally with the support from the advancement of science and technology. Therefore, in education, technology would support our vision to produce individuals who develop in terms of their physical, emotional, spiritual, social and intellectual. It should not be the vision as whether the technology help promote the overall development of individuals is still a question.

Where would the teachers stand if the technology is the vision in education? Would the teachers be superseded by technology? What happens to their future? Would they be out of job being thrown to the streets? In my opinion, technology in the classroom should be a tool for teaching, just like the text books, black boards, realias and so forth. We would need a professional to manipulate these tools so that information can be transmitted to the students. A professional who has background in learning theories and knows how to fit leaners' learning styles to the appropriate teaching methodology in order to maximize learning is in need. That professional will be a teacher.

Without a teacher, it would be like a very high-tech, brand new hammer without its master - the carpenter. It would be useless.

The future is here, and advances in technology provide unlimited access to learning opportunities never before imagined (Martin D.J., 2006). Teachers should use technology in the classroom to promote the richest education possible for the students and help achieving the vision in education - towards building wholesome Malaysians.

References:
Martin D. J. (2006). Elementary Science Methods: A Constructivist Approach. (4th Edition). Thomson Wadsworth. US.



Thursday, August 03, 2006

aN inDESCRIBABLE saTISfacTION...

Inside my head...

It was a long day and our lovely Prof. was away for official matters. For a second I thought I could relax, lay back and take time to clear things off my 'crowded' head. The next thing I knew I was staring at the computer screen again like there was no tomorrow after Ms. Chin came in and reminded us that the Prof. needed to see our draft on the assignment next week. We were required to construct at least five slaids on the Smartboard Notebook for educational purposes in the primary classroom. There was no time to waste.

SATISFACTION

As I stared blankly on the screen and my fingers tapping on the desk, suddenly I remembered the Prof. did say before that there were plenty of Smartboard lessons available online ready to be downloaded. Cleverly, I found some useful examples and I did adapt those lessons as my teaching slides. It was as simple as 1,2,3. I was kind of enjoying the adapting and creating my own lessons work when it started to rain so heavily and suddenly the lights went off. Ha!Luckily I did save my work just in time and had successfully avoided the most dreaded thing - after a hard day's work on the computer one did not save his precious work.

As there were no lights and internet connections, it was hard for us to continue doing our work in the computer lab. We left slightly early before 3 with my doubts from the previous class not being answered. I thought of seeking Mr. Sam's advice but he was in the other computer lab. I decided to solve my own problem.

A Couple of DAYS later...

Voila!I did it!It was a lovely Friday. Finally, I knew how to upload my self-recorded video into the Smartboard notebook. Never had I experience such great satisfaction when using the technology. It felt as if the very first time the stoneage man had invented the wheel.
Imagine the borderless possibility that I could now use the Smartboard to teach in the classroom. Rea-life images are now possible to be brought in front of the children's eyes for the purpose of learning. Therefore, visual learners will learn better with examples that they no longer need to imagine in their little heads as the teacher could barely explain.

Post satisfaction...

I am still trying to do my teaching slaids. This week will be quite busy as I will be loaded with work. However, I still have this deep feeling of satisfaction :).