Tenth Class reflection

Assalamualaikum and hello.

The tenth class explored the use of Microsoft Publisher application in producing product such as the book cover, template or brochure, news letter and many more. Before that, we have to submit our assignment 2 to Izyan. All the necessary hard copy and soft copy was collected and put in an envelope which represented specific pairs. Thank you to Izyan for helping us with the process of submitting the assignment.

The exploration of some of the Window’s application is crucial for me in the sense that there are still lots of basic applications that can be put into good use of the teaching and learning process in the classroom. Before this, I thought that the Publishers application was insignificant compared to Word and Power Point. But as we go along and gain new knowledge and skills, all the applications created are definitely have their own specific use and advantages that differentiate it from the others. Since my Microsoft office does not have the Publisher application, I have to install it and this actually gives me opportunity to learn new knowledge of adding the feature or part of the whole system to the Office application.

In the context of the teaching and learning process, the publishers can be optimized its utilization, by proving the teacher and pupils resources, material as well as ways to produce something that can benefit all the parties concerned. In particular for the teacher’s part, they can use the brochure for instance, to grab the pupils’ attention in the specific part of the lesson by making it attractive, colourful and importantly meaningful for the pupil. For the pupils part, they can learn to produce the specific product like for example, news letter that can be used as a writing activity, published and pasted either in the classroom or at a particular advertisement board. There are still a lot more of the application that can be explored and utilized in order to produce a successful and meaningful learning experience for the pupils as well as teachers.

All in all, every application has its own advantages as well as disadvantages. It is up to us, the ‘homo sapiens’ created by the God, to think and use His knowledge for the positive side. Thank you.

Ninth class reflection

Assalamualaikum and hello.

Patience and strong optimistic spirit in enduring the fasting month trial and challenges becomes a good experience in this life endeavor. It helps to mould a person to become a person with good characteristic in terms of spiritual, intellectual, physical and emotional. In other words, fasting month is a place to train my hearts and mind besides practicing myself to become subservient to the right path which can help me to become a successful individual. In the context of learning, it is crucial for every individual to train their hearts and mind so that they can cope with today’s globalization and knowledge explosion. One of my favourite concept of motivation in enduring life challenges is being optimistic or in the Islamic approach known as ‘husnud dhan’ which means thinking good.

In the first part of the ninth class, lecturer talked about the evaluation or in other word the assignments. It helped to pinpoint some of the problem and misunderstanding regarding the assignments. Hopefully there will not be any more confusing matters in myself regarding the task and assignments. I believed I have to take more effective and push myself to complete the task. I must use the optimistic approach in order to effectively complete all the task and assignments.

Learning involves adding and constructing new schemata or knowledge apart from reconstructed previous knowledge. I learned new things in the ninth class which include theoretical aspects of the teaching and learning process particularly on the suitability and appropriateness of applying specific teaching and learning materials, methods, style and approach which in turn affect the future learning experience of the primary pupils. Besides that, lecturer also introduced about new website named http://www.onetruemedia.com. Its is an alternative video making website which utilize three simple words namely ‘upload’, ‘choose a style’ and ‘wow everyone’. It was new and interesting for me. The interface looked beautiful and what most attractive is that, its easy and free (the main criteria). Instead of mind boggling thinking about what to choose and how to apply the effects and all sort of animation, this website lets its user to just choose the style as in its simple terms applied, and latter leave the rest for them to do the work. The product was good in the sense that, it looked professional even though the people who upload the pictures for the video making was just a computer newbie or beginner with a very little scanty knowledge of computer (more than just knowing about basic computer skills) like me. Furthermore, it can be used for the teaching and learning material in the classroom. Besides that, we can also teach other teachers in the future schools about the use of such application for their personal gain of knowledge or improving their teaching and learning process.

All in all, it was beneficial and learning new things definitely challenges the minds and heart. Motivation supported with good characteristics helps to cope with the trial and demanding situations. Thank you.

reflection (8th week)

Assalamualaikum and hello.

For every problem, there is a solution. Regardless of whether the problem is only a small petty thing or big as we can imagine, the solutions are there, just waiting to be grasped by us. There was quite a troublesome problem due to the lack of the computer knowledge. In other word, while trying to enjoy the free space after completing the given task which was E-book, suddenly, a friend messages interrupted the serenity of our free time. Her video cannot play the e-book sound after she downloaded it from the 4shared website. I was flabbergasted with the message since she had already produced the E-book with the appropriate way (I thought at first). Realizing that the same thing might happen to my E-book, I follow the process and to my horror, it was real. In addition, the e-book sound can only be played at the producer’s computer which contained the saved data of the sound. It was prevalent that my lacks of computer knowledge for even the basic Power Point application was not fully utilized to the extent that it leads to this problem. But as the day fly, the experience of having this kind of problem was essential so that I can be more prepared in terms of knowledge, motivation and so on. By the way, there are many solutions that can be used in producing E-book complete with its sound being ‘auto play’ by the computer.

On 8^th class, the class seemed short without the presence of the lecturer. But, the work was still the top priority and therefore we were given another task which required us to form a group of four people and develop and explain the materials that we intended to use in the classroom for the four skills which is listening, speaking, reading and writing. I realized that, it was the time for us to apply the knowledge and experience while experimenting with the previous task. Apart from that, we were also given a presentation task specifically using the notes given by the lecturer. Here, we assigned works to speed up the process. One of my friend from the other group helped to explain the notes and it helped me in the sense that, we were able to discuss and exchanging essential ideas and information rather than being a passive listener. Thank you to Hedayah and others for helping me in order to understand the notes. This relationship helped to build good bonds and communication which is essential in today’s life.

All in all, we as a human are not perfect and there is no perfect thing in this world. Sometimes, the problems that we faced today will help us to cope with the future. All the experience and difficulties are part and parcel of life. Therefore, accept it with the confident and strong spirit that Allah is always on our side. Alhamdullillah.

Thank you.

seventh week reflection

Assalamualaikum and hello.

Success or failures of the ELT materials or resource in the classroom are dependent on particular aspects. These aspects or what we called characteristics of successful utilization of teaching and learning material are the foundation of every successful learning experience. In other words, it is inevitable and crucial for every teachers or teacher to be like me to know the aspects. In the seventh class, we were introduced first to the e-book, a name that was not new but still its use in the education sphere was not prevalent to me.

Before this, I only knew that e-book that I usually found in the internet was in the form of PDF or in more particular, a magazine changed into the PDF format. Therefore, when the e-book presentation was showed to us, it opened up my mind and created new sets of schemata. Besides that, we were given the characteristics that are required in making the e-book successful and effective. This includes features of the e-book such as colour and clear organization or structure, background of the e-book that was also deemed important for successful learning experience, songs that must be wisely utilized in the e-book beside fonts that should be appropriate for the pupils such as using comic San ms font as it is more similar to the hand writing. In addition, effects in the e-book was also deemed essential as it can provide necessary attractiveness and condition that can make the lesson which utilize the e-book enjoying and successful.

Apart from that, we were also introduced to assignment 2 and assignment 3. The assignment 2 concerned with the manipulation of video that require us to download Michael Jackson’s Earth song and use it for teaching and learning process in the classroom. This includes how to use its and its rationale. While on the assignment 3 part, we were require to be in groups and produce an e-book. Actually there were lots of confusion regarding the two assignments but with the help of my friends the burden could be well alleviated to certain extent. More discussion needed and it is crucial for us to help each other. The assignments was definitely a new challenge for me as it requires certain degree of high consideration and thorough look and insights of the assignments in order to produce a meaningful and effective resources that is well exploited and utilized.

All in all, I learned new things and realized that success does not come easily. Only hard work, patience and ability to exploit important variables such as time will lead to success. Before I ended this blog session, I would like to share some of advice that I obtained from a book named ‘Don’t Be Sad’ written by Dr ‘Aidh bin ‘Abdullah Al-Qarni. It says, “Today is your day. Live it to the best as if you will die tomorrow and live it to the fullest as if you are going to live for another thousand years”. By means, it encourages us to do the best in everything we do.

Thank you.

6th class reflection

Assalamualaikum and hello.

The sixth class was particularly concerned with video editing. In other word, the importance of the video editing to be used in the classroom or other purposes such as entertainment or commercials was highlighted here. The class was first exposed to the video made by seniors of the first cohort. The video was rather simple and more towards slide shows made in Windows Movie Maker application but it was good in the sense that the message delivered by it was clear and simple. Next, we were showed another video which was more colourful and interesting, thus helped to deliver its desired purposes which was for the educational benefit as well as entertainment.

As explained by the lecturer, the half part of the semester is meant for exploring the knowledge of technology and building the skills before we are given the assignment. So in order for all of us not to be lag behind while exploring the application, tasks was given which required us to form a pair and group. On the pair task part, we were required to create a video which I opt for ‘merdeka’ title in conjunction with our independent day and later uploaded it in the Youtube. Along the way, we were expected to learn the skills of uploading besides the video editing skills. While on the group part, we were required to download episodes of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ television programmed from 8TV using the given application. Along the way, the six of us have to cooperate in producing what the task wanted which is downloading the raw or the original episode, combining the episode into one and extracting the important part.

Patience and hardworking is the keyword that kept all of us strong. Without it, even a small challenge can drift us away from the true path. There was lots of benefit obtained from the task even though it was tiring physically and mentally. But as I said earlier, patience is a very important factor in learning. Without it, the world would never become like today.

Thank you very much to my friend for helping me and not forgotten the lecturer who helps to clarify and assist in the tasks.

blogging for pupils

hello.

I found one of educational video which helps to address the importance of blogging for pupils. Before this, I only knew a little about the importance of blogging particularly for the pupils. Besides that, I was overwhelmed with the negative side of the blogging but now, I realized that everything that we do must be based on the positive side in order to benefit all the parties concerned.
Ok, enough of my mumbling. the video was obtained from http://www.teachertube.com
Enjoy it.

5th class reflection

Assalamualikum and hello.

Audio editing is one of the important skills in today’s teaching and learning process. In other word, in order to become an effective and up-to-date with today’s fast changing education environment, a teacher to-be like me has to master the skill with good understanding and application. Even a simple editing can make a different. This was seen when the lecturer viewed us to one of her edited song version. She only cut the unwanted part and it became better.

Theories and understanding developed by the experts is inevitably crucial. It helps to underpin the creation of the teaching material and resources that are deemed essential in providing pupils with successful learning experience. Thus, we were given notes on the importance of this theories and understanding as a complement to the exploration of various teaching and learning material. My group was given the topic of the significance way of treating mistakes. Fortunately, I was able to recall back some of the schemata from the previous class in the maktab. The understanding of Erik Erikson theory particularly, helps in giving information pertaining to the ways of treating the pupils’ mistakes in the right way without hurting their effort and enthusiasm.

At the end, I was given the task of presenting the notes to the others. It was a bit startling at first but I managed to get a grip on what we were doing. Alhamdullillah, I felt confident and managed to deliver the presentation to the end, even though not as good as my other friend. I believe the use of presentation was good and it helps me to build my confidence as evident in the presentation. All in all, the class was informative and constructive in a way.

Thank you to my friend and lecturer.