~Life where Module begins~

In this week's class, we were given self-preparation from last week's class on the coming module, which was the 1st module. Well, luckily all the modules were not complete yet. So, we were given only the first module first to complete. Guess what? The thick 1st module had to be completed in two weeks time! I wonder if I could finish all of it but I'm certainly going to try my best. So here I am, almost 1 am, but I'm here writing this blog because I had to rush all the tutorials for 1st module. Hopefully I could finish it soon...

Well, all these work were actually to train us, who were the future leaders to be techno-savvy in finding resources or teaching aids using technological tools like internet, different kinds of downloaders and so on.. All these were actually to equipped us to be able to master all the tools before we graduated and off to teach in school.

Well, it was not a bad idea actually. Although the work would be hectic and tiring, the outcomes would certainly be satisfying.. So, let's just do our best and let our skills developed and expanded! That's all for today. =)

Cooperation in Pair Work

In this week’s lesson, Pn. Foziah started the class with the excitement of graduation event that had just recently passed. One advice from her was that to study well so that in the next two years, she would be able to see all of us graduating as well. Then, we were back to real business. This lesson’s task was to find a pair, which consisted of a male and female student so as to make the pairing balance. Then, each pair was given three topics based on the Primary school syllabus.

My given topics were Year 4- Looking Good, Year 5- Travel and Adventure and Year 6- I’m Proud to be Malaysian. What my pair and I needed to do was to find as many technology’s teaching aids as possible for example like songs, videos, flash cards, games, stories and so on. This task was given as a preparation for our assignments yet to come. So, here were some examples of software used to search for my assignments.

Through this task, I learnt that communication was vital in making sure that each of us understood what we had discussed and planned. Then, from there, cooperation with my partner took part. Cooperation was very important as it assisted us in guiding and helping each other. Without the spirit of cooperation, we would not be able to produce a good quality task and pass it up on time.

All in all, this task had taught me many things, not only finding for teaching aids but also in terms of the value of group work.

Exploration in Learning

Today Puan Foziah started the class with the continuation of last week’s presentations on the topic, ‘Working with Young Learners’. By listening to my friends’ presentation, I gained an insight that students do really enjoy play and fun in their learning. Well, when I talked about ‘play’ and ‘fun’, many people might have a mindset like ‘WHAT? Go to school just to play and enjoy?’. Well, play was actually a biological, psychological and social necessity that leaded to healthy development. Hence, what I had actually gotten from this topic was that children could have enjoyment in their lesson as it was part of their indirect learning. Children actually engaged in many indirect learning, either in or outside the school through real life situations, play and fun.

Besides, another presentation of my friends talked about children’s creative use of limited language resources. In here, I could see that children actually did learn and that they were very creative with the grammatical forms. They knew on how to use the language, but somehow just confused with the forms. For example, ‘Don’t unring me. I’m not around’ or ‘Switch off the dark’. This showed that students could use the language but the usage was very limited. Hence, the role of teacher was very important as he/ she played an important element in prompting the students to understand better.

Moreover, another suggestion for students’ learning would be the imaginative play.

This was whereby students indulged in make-believe play. Through this, they would be able to practice their usage of proper language while engaging themselves in self-dialogue. For example, in make-believe play with friends, children would use language like, ‘How much would a muffin costs?’ and so on. This helped children to practice language as if in a real life situation. Hence, it acted as a basic foundation to prepare students for daily life conversation.

Well, all this of course, would be useless if the element teacher was not there. Hence, teacher needed to play their part in assisting them as well so that students would not side-tracked or go astray from their learning. That was why Pn. Foziah emphasized on the role of teachers in teaching and guiding the students.

After the presentations, Pn. Foziah again, brought us to a new exploration. We were asked to search and download songs and videos from any downloader, except from youtube. After letting us to explore on our own, we were then introduced to a downloader called ‘MOYEA’.

This moyea was a fast and efficient downloader.

Hence, our task for today was to find Shakira’s World Cup song, download it, together with video and lyrics. We could also add on any additional songs that we like but we needed to state out the steps on how we downloaded them one by one on powerpoint. This was to show our understanding and skill on how to download them.

Pn. Foziah then, patiently and slowly guided us on how to write out the steps and so on. This helped to make our work easier as every step was guided by her. So, today’s lesson was indeed very interesting and I wish to explore more of it. So, I better get going. Bye!