Old notes

1) Great leaders lead people to reach the higher level of morality.
2) Do not be leaders who have “personality chameleon” syndrome.
3) To achieve justice, you need to have courage, wisdom and temperance in a state of balance directed by god-conscious
4) Do not let the technology to take control of your life. You control the technology, not the other way around
5) To change the environment, you need to be a balanced individual (Wisdom, Temperance, Courage, Justice guided with God-conscious).
6) Stick to your principle, have courage to change and redefine/retheorize things around you. Don’t simply accept things without critically examine it in terms of your context.
7) Always self-examined (muhasabah) if you are not in a balanced state (W, T, C, J and G-C). Having self-examination on regular basis will maintain your spiritual Qalb. Do not lead it get polluted to the extent that you are losing integrity and become incompetent, greedy and frivolity

Note: Great leaders are willing to stand out and defend their principles at whatever cost. Some even lost their lives. Like what Kelly Clarkson once said “What doesn’t kill you make you stronger”.

My dad’s younger sister

She was in coma for nearly three weeks.  I visited her with my eldest sister two weeks ago.  I took a leave on a weekday and off we went to visit her.  She was immobile.  Unmoved.  As I hold her hand, she did not make any reaction.  At that time, it reminds me of my late dad.  He was in similar situation.  The only difference was he was at the hospital and my aunt is at her home.  Both suffered brain hemorrhage due to a fall.  With such an advanced age (my dad was 75 years old and my aunt was 85 years old), they were physically fragile.  A mere bump and fall could lead to catastrophic consequences.

As caregivers, it is not easy to provide the best care especially if we are not medically trained.  One of my cousins, my aunt’s daughter is a retired nurse.  She is trained medically to provide medical care to people yet when it comes to caring her own parents, she finds it difficult to care for them.  It is not due to lack of training, but due to emotional burden that she feels every time seeing her mom or dad whimpering when they were in pain.  Indeed.  It is never easy to care for our ailing parents.

On 30 July 2019 at around 10pm, my aunt passed away.  May Allah bless her soul.

 

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 classroomThe 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.

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?  

Bila ALLAH Tidak Redha

✍? Catatan Ustadz Maududi Abdullah,  حفظه الله

Bila Allah tidak redha dengan kita, 

Allah akan sibukkan kita dengan urusan dunia.

Allah akan sibukkan kita dengan urusan anak-anak.

Allah akan sibukkan kita dengan urusan menjalankan perniagaan dan harta

Allah akan sibukkan kita dengan urusan mengejar kerjaya, pangkat dan jabatan.

Alangkah ruginya karena kesemuanya itu akan kita tinggalkan.

Sekiranya kita mampu bertanya pada orang-orang yang telah pergi terlebih dulu menemui Allah Subhana Wa Ta’alla dan jika mereka diberi peluang untuk hidup sekali lagi,

Tentu mereka akan memilih untuk memperbanyak amal ibadah

Sudah semestinya mereka memilih tidak lagi akan bertarung mati-matian untuk merebut dunia, yang sudah jelas-jelas tidak bisa dibawa mati

Karena tujuan kita diciptakan adalah untuk menyembah Allah, beramal dan beribadah kepada Allah

Kita mungkin cemburu apabila melihat orang lain lebih dari kita, dari segi gaji, pangkat, harta, jabatan, rumah besar, kenderaan mewah

Kenapa kita tidak pernah cemburu melihat ilmu agama orang lain lebih dari kita

Kita tidak pernah cemburu melihat orang lain lebih banyak amalan dari kita

Kita tidak pernah cemburu apabila melihat orang lain bangun di sepertiga malam, solat tahajud dan bermunajat kepada Allah

Kita tidak pernah cemburu apabila melihat orang lain setiap hari solat subuh berjamaah di masjid dekat rumah kita

Kita hanya cemburu apabila melihat orang lain ganti kendaraan dengan yang lebih mewah

Kita cemburu apabila melihat orang lain mampu setiap tahun bercuti mewah

Kita hanya cemburu apabila melihat orang lain bergelimang harta, tahta dan wanita. Cemburu kerana dia dilantik jadi pemimpin, memegang jawatan dan pangkat

Tetapi jarang kita cemburu apabila melihat orang lain yang dapat khatam Al’Quran sebulan dua kali

Kita jarang cemburu apabila melihat mualaf yang faham isi Al-Qur’an

Kita jarang cemburu apabila melihat orang lain berbuat untuk menegakkan Akidah Islam

Kita jarang cemburu kepada orang yang berjihad di jalan Allah

Kita jarang cemburu kepada orang yang mewakafkan dirinya dan semua Hartanya di jalan Allah

Setiap kali menyambut hari ulang tahun, kita sibuk mau merayakan sebaik mungkin, tetapi kita telah lupa dengan bertambahnya umur kita maka panggilan Ilaahi makin bertambah dekat

Kita patut bermuhasabah mengenai persiapan ke satu perjalanan yang jauh, yang tidak akan kembali untuk selama-lamanya kerana Hidup di dunia menentukan kehidupan yg kekal nanti di akhirat

Sesungguhnya

MATI itu PASTI

ALAM KUBUR itu BENAR,

HISAB itu BENAR,

MAHSYAR ALLAH itu BENAR,

SYURGA dan NERAKA itu BENAR

Penyesalan itu selalu terlambat
Menunda Taubat menunggu usia Tua
Itupun kalau masih sempat
Sebab syarat MATI tidak harus tua, tidak harus sakit

Penyelesaian masalah hidup adalah melalui iman dan amal.
Iman sebesar zarrah pun, Allah muliakan dgn syurga 100 kali dunia

Oleh yang demikian, mengapa kita tidak mahu menambah bekal hidup kita dengan Iman, Ibadah dan Amalan baik?

Mudah-mudahan hidup kita selamat di dunia dan Akhirat dan selalu bermanfaat untuk Ummah dan kita termasuk orang-orang yang Allah redhai untuk masuk ke syurgaNya…..

‎آمـــــين يا ربّ العالمــين

“Islam Adalah Sunnah”

Swap challenge

One of my friends linked a video on swap challenge on Youtube.  I find it quite interesting.  I was thinking to do that with another friend.  But I don’t want to burden her to think about the things she should buy for me in exchange of what I give her.  So, I have this weird idea instead.  I asked her office address.  Since she is still doing her PhD, I got some relaxation stuff.  I can’t hardly wait to see her reaction.  

Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan (HLP)

Few months ago, my former student who works at Kolej Matrikulasi Pontian messaged me asking for my assistance to prepare an interview for HLP.  It has been a while since he went for the interview.  No news.  So, I messaged him asking if he heard any news about it.  He said that he did not get the scholarship.  He sounded sad.  

I remind him that Allah has the best plan for him.  Perhaps now is not the best time for him to further his study abroad, far away from his mom.  She suffered a minor stroke last year and is still on medication and has to undergo physiotherapy on regular basis.   To leave an ailing mom in Malaysia while you are far away in a foreign country is not easy.  I had been there.  I had decided to quit my PhD after my dad passed away in 2009.  I felt hopeless.   

But, Alhamdulillah, at that time I had my late mom, family and friends who gave me strong supports when I needed it most.   So, I persevered until I finished my PhD in 2012.  I never told this story to any of my students.  But he is the first one to know.  Well, of course I simplify the story because I don’t want him to think too much about the possibility of such thing to happen to him.  

To Z, the best timing will come sooner or later.  I always pray for you to be one of young academicians who will make difference in our future generations lives in Malaysia.  You are one of the gems.  

 

It’s her birthday today

I checked my FB just now.  On the notification, I saw a birthday notification.  It is her birthday.  But she passed away two years ago.  It breaks my heart.  Al-fatihah to Mimi Iznita Iqbal.  Mimi, you are sorely missed by many.  Indeed.  

Dunning-Kruger Effect: What is that?

A senior colleague and I were discussing about an issue relating how people overestimate their ability level.  Meaning, sometimes we might find people who think they know a lot but in reality, they do not know much and they do not even realize it.  Ironic, isn’t it?  But this is the reality.  Incompetent people think that they are amazing, genius (and the list goes on)

The cartoon strip is taken from The Business Times

This is dangerous in academia when you think that you know a lot and thus there is no need for you to learn or relearn something to upgrade what you already know.  There is always new thing that we can learn from one another or through reading or doing research.   Look at the diagram (taken from Marketcall), 

In psychology, it is called as Dunning-Kruger Effect,

People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” Excerpt from Justin Kruger and David Dunning (1999) article published in Journal of personality and social psychology.  

This is the opposite effect of Impostor syndrome.