Category: Other

Perkhemahan Akademik Fasa 3 SABK Madrasah Alattas Alarabiah: Hari Kedua

Today is my session (1 August 2019).  My session should begin at 830am.  But the students came at 9am.  I was mad.  They took their own sweet time to have breakfast.  Ita apologised because she did not forcefully urge the students to be quick.  What is wrong with this situation?  Why did the teacher has to apologise on the behalf of students?  I hate to deal with situation like this because the ones who should apologise are the students who came late.  Not the teacher who is in charge of the programme.

I met Fatin who was participating in a team building programme with the TNCPI office during lunch.  Fatin must be amused looking at how I was flocking by students who chatted non-stop about what they like about the camp.  What they liked about the camp?  Well, they got a smartphone courtesy of the hotel in each room.  So?  What do you expect?  Yes.  They stayed up late and got busied updating their Insta post.  They also said that it is quite rare for them to have opportunity to stay overnight at a hotel.   Some of them belong to B40 families.  Indeed it is such a rare opportunity for them.  Alhamdulillah the hotel gave them a good deal.  They have printed logo and signage in each seminar room.  So, students took pictures and whatsnot.  Me?  I took pictures for documentation purposes.

 

Perkhemahan Akademik Fasa 3 SABK Madrasah Alattas Alarabiah: Hari Pertama

Today (31 July 2019, Wednesday) is the first day of the academic camp.   My session will start tomorrow (1 August 2019, Thursday).  But I came today because I want to check out the venue and Ita asked me to help her taking pictures for documentation purposes.  Since they cannot use DSLR camera, we are relying on each other’s effort to take pictures throughout the sessions by taking turn using our smartphones instead.  Here are some of the pictures.

How to get started using people.utm.my?

Just to remind myself on how to use this website, I put the instructions here for my reference and others who might need it

  1. Go to https:people.utm.my/write your own name (the one similar with your formal UTM email)
    1. You will only see the “existing” webpage in preview format.  
    2. You cannot edit anything here.
  2. To edit the webpage, you need to log in by going to https://people.utm.my/
  3. You will  be directed to a page where you need to key in your name and password (the one similar with your formal UTM email and password for email).
  4. You will reach to the page where you can start editing your webpage.

How to edit the page

  1.  Click Pages (with 2 paper pages icon on the left side of your device)
  2. Fill in the information that you want to write on your webpage
  3. You can change the fonts, add pictures/images or link
  4. After you finish your work, please Click Publish (the blue button on the right) if you want it to appear in your webpage.  If you just want to save unfinished work, Click Save Draft (the grey button on the right corner, on the left side of preview).   If you want to preview of your work, Click Preview.

How to edit a post.

  1. Click Posts (with thumb pin icon)
  2. Fill in the information that you want to write on your post
  3. You can change the fonts, add pictures/images or link
  4. After you finish your work, please Click Publish (the blue button on the right) if you want it to appear in your webpage.  If you just want to save unfinished work, Click Save Draft (the grey button on the right corner, on the left side of preview).   If you want to preview of your work, Click Preview.

If you want to know more information, you can download some handouts from here https://humanities.utm.my/education/download/

Go to Webometrics UTM and check out the handouts to know more about it!

P.S: No more excuse not to update your personal profile 😛

Using song to teach grammar_Part 2

“Sooner Or Later” by Alan Parsons

Oh what a price we pay
For the things we say
And the closer I get to you
The further you move away

All the lies we tell
In the games we play
And the longer I think it over
The harder it is to stay

Sooner or later I’ll be free
To leave the past behind
Sooner or later you’re gonna be
The last thing on my mind
Little by little I’m finding out
The truth behind your eyes
Maybe if I don’t show
I thought you might like to know
You’re gonna be the last thing on my mind

You didn’t want to know
I could have told you so
But the moment I think it’s over
The further there is to go
Just a little word
Such an easy way
But the longer I think about it
The harder it is to say

Sooner or later I’ll be free
To leave the past behind
Sooner or later you’re gonna be
The last thing on my mind
Little by little I’m finding out
The truth behind your eyes
Maybe if I don’t show
I thought you might like to know
You’re gonna be the last thing on my mind

This is the song by Alan Parsons.  This is a breakup song.  Indeed.  Well, my intention was not to teach the students to be romantic.  It is far from it.  But as teenagers, they need to learn how to regulate their emotions such as handling with rejection, break up and whatsnot.  To motivate them to learn English is not easy.  Song is one of the ways to teach which is widely used.  There are numerous research done this.  One of the examples is by a team of researchers from Turkey.

I have not yet conducted any research on this issue. Last year, when I was undergoing my Latihan Ikhtisas, I had contemplated this though.  Since I only taught one class for one form, i Ikhtisas, I had contemplated this issue. Since I only taught a single class for a single form, it was difficult for me to “perform” quasi-experiments. I was specifically assigned pupils with limited English skills. Therefore, it is comprehensible why the other class had higher grades than mine, despite the fact that my instructor never used songs in the classroom.  The students become more receptive to my teaching style, that much is certain.  Some of them are in under my special care until end of the year.

IsDB-TWAS Research Grant

The World Academy of Sciences and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are offering Grant for Research Collaboration in Sustainability Sciences. 

Deadline: 12 September 2019

The grant amounts to a maximum of USD 50,000 per group ­­– USD 100,000 total per grant. A grant is normally provided for a period of 24 months. The programme will choose one project per year.

Research Areas

The Research Grants programme provides support for research projects in the following fields (please refer to the guidelines for details):

  • Sustainable Agriculture

  • Education

  • Education for Sustainable Development 

  • Climate Change

  • Energy

  • Sustainable cities

  • Responsible growth

  • Waste management

  • Population growth

  • Green chemistry

  • Biodiversity

  • Plastic pollution and Micro-plastics

  • Water and hygieneFor more information, go to HERE.    

JADUAL KLINIK SISTEM UTM TES: TERKINI

esi Klinik bagi akses dan penggunaan Sistem TES (TESDCP) UTM kini dibuka bertempat di dewan PPICTP, Aras 3. Jadual klinik bagi Sistem TES (TESDCP) adalah seperti berikut:

Sesi Klinik bagi akses dan penggunaan Sistem TES (TESDP) UTM dibuka bertempat di MAKMAL CICT 2, CICTKL.
Jadual Klinik bagi Sistem TES (TESDP) adalah seperti berikut:

TARIKH HARI SESI PAGI SESI PETANG
2/8/2019 Jumaat 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
5/8/2019 Isnin 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
6/8/2019 Selasa 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
7/8/2019 Rabu 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
8/8/2019 Khamis 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
9/8/2019 Jumaat 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
12/8/2019 Isnin CUTI HARI RAYA AIDIL ADHA
13/8/2019 Selasa 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
14/8/2019 Rabu 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM 2:30 PM – 5:00PM
  • Penambahan 30 minit setiap sesi sebab Isnin 12/8/2019 Cuti  – Hari Raya Aidil Adha jatuh pada hari Ahad.

Penundaan Tarikh Akhir Penghantaran Data Bagi Sistem Teaching Excellence System (TESDCP) UTM

Sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa Universiti melalui Pusat Kepimpinan Akademik UTM (UTMLead) telah bersetuju untuk melanjutkan tarikh akhir penghantaran data bagi Teaching Excellence System (TESDCP) kepada 15 Ogos 2019.

Untuk makluman staf akademik, link untuk rujukan bagi proses kemasukan data sistem TES (TESDCP) boleh di perolehi melalui modul TES (TESDCP) dalam kursus ini: https://bit.ly/2YMZIQ7 manakala akses kepada sistem TESDCP adalah melalui portal MyUTM.

Sesi Klinik bagi akses dan penggunaan Sistem TES (TESDCP) UTM kini dibuka bertempat di dewan PPICTP, Aras 3. Jadual klinik bagi Sistem TES (TESDCP) adalah seperti berikut:

JADUAL KLINIK SISTEM UTM TES
TARIKH HARI SESI PAGI SESI PETANG
29/7/2019 ISNIN 9.30AM – 12.00PM 2.30PM – 4.30PM
31/7/2019 RABU 2.30PM – 4.30PM
1/8/2019 KHAMIS 9.30AM – 12.00PM
4/8/2019 AHAD 9.30AM – 12.00PM 2.30PM – 4.30PM
6/8/2019 SELASA 9.30AM – 12.00PM 2.30PM – 4.30PM
8/8/2019 KHAMIS 9.30AM – 12.00PM
11/8/2019 AHAD 9.30AM – 12.00PM 2.30PM – 4.30PM
13/8/2019 SELASA 9.30AM – 12.00PM 2.30PM – 4.30PM
15/8/2019 KHAMIS 9.30AM – 12.00PM

Who will assess our TESDCP?

One of my colleagues and I have been wondering about this: who will assess our TESDCP?   The next question that keep bugging our mind is how would they assess us?  We know that there are rubrics and whatsnot but there is NO concrete example of those who get full marks for example for Self-Assessment and Reflections.  On what basis the evaluation of our Teaching Philosophy would be?  Based on the length of our explanation of the Teaching Philosophy?  What would it be then?  

One of my senior colleagues has an idea about writing his teaching philosophy in less than 40 words.  His justification?  UTM philosophy is written in 35 words (to be exact).  So, does his teaching philosophy would get better evaluation than those who write in near to 4000 words (maximum)?  Or would it be vice versa?   The longer you write your teaching philosophy, the better your evaluation would be OR The shorter you write your teaching philosophy, the better your evaluation would be.  Which is which?  

Coming back to the question “Who will assess our TESDCP?“, the answer given by Dr Nurbiha, the Manager of Creative Multimedia and Learning Technologies (CMLT) of UTMLead, the assessors would be all of the Program Directors and a special task committee who will be formed later on as evaluators.   They will be assigned to assess and evaluate our TESDCP.  For example, at School of Education, there are 3 program directors.  All of them would be the assessors.  This is similar with the current ELPPT style of evaluation.   The only difference is (I guess) is the time frame given to them to evaluate i.e. 2 months.  So, within August – September, they have to look at each and every single TESDCP of academicians under their programme.   There will also be other assessors assigned to assist the evaluation process.  

Remember about the senior colleagues who wants to write his teaching philosophy in less than 40 words?  He said that his programme director has high BP condition.  So, he is helping his programme director by writing “a short and sweet” teaching philosophy.  No need to increase others’ blood pressure by torturing them to read your lengthy teaching philosophy, right?  Shouldn’t it be that way?