8th Week

Here Come Another Assignments

This week we were not having class but we were given some tasks to do........Pn Foziah said this would be the task which we needed to complete during the Raya break. Every year, my holiday is filled up with lots and lots of assignments. This goes the same for this year too. Well, I was quite used to it and I was ready to face the challenge. Nothing can turn me down as I will always stay strong to face the challenge.

For the assignments, we need to complete Module 3, Teaching Aids and Lesson Plans during the holiday.

Module 3:
This module is on audio editing by using Audacity. Thank God that this time the module is not as thick as Module One. At least I can still manage with the other assignments. With Audacity, we can use it to record sound and add in other sound effects to make the recording more interesting.

Teaching Aids:
In this assignment, we need to create interesting and attractive teaching aids (technology and non-technology) from Year 1 to Year 3. The teaching aids can be in the form of picture cards, video, power point slides, stick puppets, task sheets, songs, video clips and etc. With the use of these interesting teaching aids, this can help to enhance the teaching and learning process.


Lesson Plans:
For the lesson plans, we need to plan 4 lesson plans based on the chosen topic. (3 Lesson Plans for 30 minutes and 1 Lesson Plan for 1 hour) My group had chosen year 3 - Fun times and each of our lesson plans focus on the 4 main skills which are listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills.

From the assignments given by Pn Foziah, I realised that it is important to have a good time management in order to complete the required task. With this, we can always make sure that we can finish the work within the time given. Do not procrastinate. Start to do now and don't wait until last minute.

7th Week

Continuation of Module One

For this week, we were allowed to continue our module one during the class. With this, we are able to complete the assignment within the time given. Really thank Pn Foziah for letting us to complete our module during the class. Still, I had a lot of steps which were not completed. I need to work harder on this in order to complete the task given.

6th Week

Surprise and shock were the two words which I can use to describe my feeling when I received the 1st module from Pn. Foziah. Oh my god, it is such a think module. A lot of questions keep on wondering in my head. Am I am able to complete the task within the time give? Am I ready for this challenge? Can I do that? I was quite worry at the first time. After Pn Foziah gave us some motivation and moral support then only I could stay clam to complete the task given.


In this module, we were required to focus on computer and internet skills. With this, we need to print screen the steps of completing the task, for example: how to download a song from 4shared.com. After going through the module, I found that there are a lot of things which I do not know. This has definitely widen my horizon in the world of technology.

Besides learning the steps given by Pn Foziah, we were allowed to put in extra information regarding computing and internet skill. This provides a golden opportunity for me to explore and learn more on computing and internet skill.

5th Week

What's So Important About Teaching Aids?

Do not ever look down on the usage of teaching aids in the classroom. Teaching aids are the MAGIC WAND to beautify the teaching and learning environment in the classroom. Without this magic wand, the class will be boring and lifeless. If the teacher uses the magic wand appropriately, it can lead the children to the wonderful magical world of learning. It bring fun and curiosity to the children. With a swing of the wand, colourful picture cards, songs, videos, word cards, fantastic story book, cute little stick puppets, box puppets and mask can be shown to the pupils. I can assure that none of the pupils will dislike these. Even I as the adult learners love them too.

These teaching aids are able to help the teachers to deliver information and knowledge to the pupils and pupils are able to learn better through these teaching aids. This is because teaching aids are the concrete items to be used to explain on the abstract ideas. For example, when telling a story, it is difficult for the pupils to imagine the situation of the story or the characteristic of the characters and it will be very boring if the pupils are just listening to what their teacher is talking. Through the implementation of teaching aids such as puppets and picture cards, pupils can listen to the story and at the same time look at the movement of the puppets. The use of puppets can also lower the affective filters of the pupils thus pupils will not feel tense during the lesson. Besides, teaching aids are useful for the visual learners as they see they remember. Therefore, as the teachers, we should prepare a variety of teaching aids for our lessons.

Due to the importance of teaching aids, this week Pn Foziah assigned us to work in pair in order to design technology-based teaching aids for 3 topics in Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3. I found that this task is interesting as we need to put ourselves in the pupils' shoes in order to know what the pupils need in their learning process. The topics which were assigned to us were:

Year 1, Topic 2 - Making Friends

Year 2, Topic 2 - My School

Year 3, Topic 2 - My Neighbourhood

Year 1, Topic 2 - Making Friends

In this topic, my partner and I have decided to use video, pictures, story, stick puppets and song. All of these teaching aids suit various types of learners as they can see, listen and move. As they are Year 1 pupils, they are still fresh and most of them still prefer playing rather than studying. Therefore, the teaching aids used must be simple, interesting and colourful to prevent boring. Teacher plays an important role to demonstrate the teaching aids an

d fully utilise them.

Year 2, Topic 2 - My School

In this topic, we had chosen pictures, Smartboard and power point slides. By using these teaching aids, we can let the pupils know their places in the school. Besides, teacher can ask the pupils to compare the places they can find in the school with the pictures shown. Teacher can also ask them to name the places which they can find in their school

besides the pictures shown.

Year 3, Topic 2 - My Neighbourhood

We use pictures, videos, power point slides, Tux Paint and poem in teaching the lesson. By using the tux pain, teacher can ask the pupils to draw the neighbourhood of the pupils. Through this, pupils can be trained to think creatively. After they have drawn the neighbourhood, they have to provide reasons on their selections. This activity is able to guide the pupils to think outside the box and to think creatively. Besides, the use of colourful teaching aids can arouse pupils' interest to focus on the lesson too.

4th Week

Don't You Think That Children Are Interesting?

This week is another week for group presentation and my group was the first group to present. Our topic is "Children's Ability To Grasp Meaning"

After the presentation, I realised that teacher plays an important role in the class. The children will get clues and ideas from their teacher. In other words, teachers are the role model for the children. During language class, if the teacher applies appropriate teaching strategies and use wonderful teaching aids during teaching and learning process, pupils will definitely understand better. Pn Foziah stressed on this aspect as she said that a teacher is the key element in the class as they are the only one who can provide clues to the children in order to understand the meaning of the words and the shape the children as well.

Next, it was the presentation from Ash's group. Their topic is on "Children's Capacity for Indirect Learning."

As teachers, we need to always bear in mind that there is only PLAY in the world of children. Try ask your kids what they want to learn, they will definitely say I WANT TO PLAY. If a teacher carry out the lesson by only asking the pupils to sit and listen, I can assure that they can't learn anything. Instead, if the teacher integrate games, songs, stories in the lesson, definitely the pupils will be interested to participate in the classroom activity. They will learn indirectly. For example, words guessing game. The pupils can have fun in the game and at the same time learning the new vocabulary. Life is all about play and fun, so why not we let the children to have fun during their childhood. As the saying goes all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Besides, from Woo's group presentation on "Children's Creative Use of Language Resources", I realised that the usage of songs, games and stories as creative resources is important. Although they have limited knowledge on the language, they still will have fun and be creative. Some of the children may say, don't unring if he wanted to tell a telephone caller to wait and Switch off the dark when he wanted the light to be put on. They create their own

words creatively.

The last group was Nizam's group, they presented on The Role Of Imagination. Children's mind are full with many unrealistic things and sometimes adults will say that it is nonsense. Well, do not do this to your children, this will indirectly demotivate them to think creatively. The types of activities which they had suggested were role play, essay writing, hot seating and story telling. There are fantasy in children's world, why don't we let them make full use of it?

After the presentation, we were assigned with tutorial task. In this task, we have to learn how to download mp3 songs and videos via moyea youtube downloader and show the steps in power point slides. Moyea youtube downloader - another new vocab to my dictionary.

That's all.... Bye...

3rd Week

Working with Young Language Learners

What is the very first thing that comes into your mind when you are asked to work with young language learners?

i) Troublesome? Irritating? Annoying?

ii) Fun? Interesting? Cool?

Well, we, as the adults won't understand the world of children. However, we must bear in mind that working with children is fun. Young children do not come to the language classroom empty-handed. They bring with them curiosity, instincts and other characteristics which will help them to learn new knowledge.

This week, we were assigned to work in group of 6 and each of the group was given 1 subtopic to read and present. "Children's ability to grasp meaning" was the topic given to us. This topic is about how the children understand what the adults say although they do not know the meaning of each words in the sentence.

How do children understand us?

Intonation, gesture, facial expressions, actions and circumstances can help the children to understand the unknown words, phrases and sentence. For example, you said, "It's dangerous! Don't!" by saying it in a deep tone. Young children may not understand the word 'dangerous' but through your facial expression and gesture, he knows that he should not go near to that place. They might not know why but they know they should listen to you because there might be something there.

In learning a new language, children will apply the same method to interpret new words and new sentence structures. As language teachers, we should be the actors which are able to demonstrate good gesture, intonation and facial expression during teaching and learning session. For example, children can learn language through story telling. While telling story, teacher can show picture cards to the pupils when he/she is expressing something. This can help the children to understand better of the story they are listening to.

2nd Week

What Have I Learnt Today??

"SKYDRIVE", do u come across this word before? Honestly speaking, i have neither heard nor seen this before. Is it a program? Or is it a software? Nononono..................

Windows Live SkyDrive is part of Microsoft's Windows Live range of online services. It is also a file storage and sharing service that allows users to upload files to the computing cloud and the we can access them from a web browser. (Wow, thanks Pn Foziah for introducing this to us, this has really broaden my horizon as i am one step further from yesterday) I am a Windows Live user but i know nothing about Windows Live SkyDrive. ~blush * blush~

Apart from introducing SkyDrive to us, Pn Foziah also emphasized on the importance of "TOUCH TYPING". Am I able to do this? (This was the 1st question that came to my mind)

Touch Typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. This will increase the typing speed rate and you can get your work done faster. Well, i think i still need more practices in order to stop looking at my beautiful keyboard when I am typing.

And finally..... Our first assignment is here - Blog (20%). In this assignment, we have to update our blogs with the weekly reflections and also our thoughts regarding this subject. Well, although it is my 1st time blogging, I really enjoy the process of creating a new blog and beautifying it.

See ya next week....Adeus.....