Category: Personal

Promotion video: Durham University is the best

When it comes to promoting and branding university, one of the things that would be highlighted is the uniqueness that the university has (and could offer to its students).  I miss Durham off lately.  I find this video (why don’t they make such video when I was in Durham?  Why?  Why? But, I guess none of the actors and actresses in the video are PG students.  Perhaps I was wrong in this though 😀 ) 

I also find video about UTM.  There is nothing wrong the UTM’s video though.  It is just that somehow I feel less nostalgic as compared when I watch Durham University’s video.  

The importance of having self-control

I attended the workshop on improving our solat.  Little that I expect that the ustaz will talk about self-control.  He said that when we find ourselves having difficulty to stay khusyuk in our solat, it means that our heart has lots of layers of hijab.  That’s why we can’t see “nur” from Allah.  We are not living in the time of the Prophet Muhammad SAW and thus, it is easy to stay astray than to remain steadfast in our belief. 

He also advises us to be careful when using the social media and whatsnot.  He exemplifies the way we can multiply sins through our fingertips.   The best way is to delete any information that could case misleading, chaos, fitnah, disharmony and such even though it might be true about a person or others. 

In psychology, researchers have conducted numerous studies about self-control.  One of the famous ones was by Walter Mischel on delay gratification.  Of course, there are some criticisms about his idea and proposition, but it is worth while to reflect how important self-control in our life.  It is not easy to maintain one.  I do admit that.  But, in the end of the day, it is about our efforts to stay in the right path.  There would be four things that could divert our attention to the main goal of this life: 1) worldly matter, 2) people, 3) syaitan and 4) nafs al-ammārah.

إِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ

“Indeed the nafs that overwhelmingly commands a person to do sin.” (12:53)

May Allah continuously bestow His guidance upon us and let’s try our very best to be a better Muslim each day.  

Special du’a when you reach 40

This is the special Du’aa related to the age of forty years old.

In Surah Al-Ahqaf (46): 15, Allah Ta’ala Says.”

وَوَصَّيۡنَا الۡاِنۡسَانَ بِوَالِدَيۡهِ اِحۡسَانًا​ ؕ حَمَلَـتۡهُ اُمُّهٗ كُرۡهًا وَّوَضَعَتۡهُ كُرۡهًا​ ؕ وَحَمۡلُهٗ وَفِصٰلُهٗ ثَلٰـثُوۡنَ شَهۡرًا​ ؕ حَتّٰٓى اِذَا بَلَغَ اَشُدَّهٗ وَبَلَغَ اَرۡبَعِيۡنَ سَنَةً  ۙ قَالَ رَبِّ اَوۡزِعۡنِىۡۤ اَنۡ اَشۡكُرَ نِعۡمَتَكَ الَّتِىۡۤ اَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَىَّ وَعَلٰى وَالِدَىَّ وَاَنۡ اَعۡمَلَ صَالِحًا تَرۡضٰٮهُ وَاَصۡلِحۡ لِىۡ فِىۡ ذُرِّيَّتِىۡ ؕۚ اِنِّىۡ تُبۡتُ اِلَيۡكَ وَاِنِّىۡ مِنَ الۡمُسۡلِمِيۡنَ

{And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months. [He grows] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches [the age of] forty years, he says, “My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed I am of the Muslims”} (15) 

Concept mapping and meaningful learning

I am thinking about refining assignments that I would assign to students next semester.  I don’t know if I would teach undergraduate courses this coming semester, but I think I will give them a concept mapping assignment like the one I gave my students this semester.  There are research done which has shown the effects of concept mapping on student learning.  Some of the research are 

 

Are we rebellious by nature?

I am in a midst of crafting assignments for my next semester class.  Yup.  I had enough of people taking my class assignment instructions and use them without proper credit, so I decide to change mine.  Well, this is in line with the curriculum review.

As I was googling stuff over the internet, I have problems to decide on a theme.  Yup.  My assignments have themes, y’all.  I will teach human development class next semester.   I have some ideas in my mind but I haven’t decided which will be one that I would use in my class.  While browsing for articles (yup, my class activity would involve reading articles.  If it is not journal articles, it would be something similar.  Perhaps a layman-version-research-based articles such as what they publish in Psychology Today), I came across this article about rebellious angst among teens.   

Note: When I took this picture in Venice, I was not a teenager but in my early 30s.  But looking at the signage post of “Do not sit here please” prompted me to sit beside the signage and strike a pose.  😀  Perhaps I still have the teenage angst in me somewhere that would be displayed when the right time comes.

Future Ready Educators: Start from small

After the talk, we were divided into several groups.  For each group, there was a leader.  I was in Assoc Prof Dr Jamaluddin Harun’s group. 

He briefed us about the aims and tasks that we should do.  One of the aims is to have supportive community of practitioners of a NALI.  For example, if I use case based learning in my class, I would be grouped in a group of practitioners who also use case based learning in their classes.  So, we can exchange ideas and information about our own practices.  From faculty level, we can later on have university level community of practitioners of case based learning.  But, rather than having a leader or whatsnot, it is more about how the community helps each to enhance their teaching technique.  

So, what should we do?  First thing first, reflect back on our own teaching practice.  What have we done so far?  How well we document our practice as evidence i.e. through e-content?  How often we share our practice with others i.e. formal like conference or informal like talk with others over lunch? 

Second, think about the areas that we need to improve on our teaching practice based on the evidence that we have (i.e. students’ narrative feedback etc.).   Be open-minded about this.  Don’t rely too much on the eppp rank.  

Third, plan and implement the things that we want to improve.  This is when the community of practitioners would be needed to provide additional feedback other than our students to ensure that whatever we do are in line with NALI.  Simple?  

How on earth am I going to do this?  I really had enough of colleagues who like to plagiarise my work (technically take the whole thing and claim it as their own).  I don’t mind to share provided you do something similar yet you use different instruction in your class.  

P.S: Someone asked during the session, how would it benefit him by being a member in one of the community in terms of ELPPT?  I roll my eyes.  I rest my case.   

Future Ready Educators Talk By Assoc Prof Dr Naziha Ahmad Azli

I attended the talk about Future Ready Educators (FREE) by the Director of Curriculum Development and Innovation Unit (CIDU) at D05 yesterday (8 July 2019, Monday).

 So, what is Future Ready Educators actually?  Simplified version (i.e. my version): It is educators who are equipped with knowledge and skills (whatever necessary) in teaching future generations including the millennials by using technology in their teaching and learning process.  Well, everybody must think that “I use powerpoint i.e. technology, so I am already future ready educator“.  Err, it is more than using such tools in our class.  It is about how we engage students in the learning process with the use of technology. 

So, for example, rather than lecturing various theories of motivation, what I did last semester was, I gave each student a copy of material which contains information about theories of motivation.  Then later on, I divided them into several groups.  Within one group, there would be five members/students.  I gave them a written instruction that they can refer to if they do not understand what they should in their discussion.  Ok, now, where is the technology that I had used here?  Wait.  Please continue reading.

It looks like a normal discussion.  Well, it is not because I used “jig saw technique”.  I gave them specific instruction to follow.  

Cooperative learning [Jigsaw activity]

Instructions:

  • [Individual task. 10 minutes]: Each member has been assigned with a sub-topic. Each member has to read on his/her own for 10 minutes of the given sub-topic from a textbook.
    • While reading the given sub-topic, write down anything that is confusing that you want to ask to other expert in your expert group.
    • Write your own notes to summarise your understanding from your reading.
  • [Expert group. 25 minutes]: After 15 minutes, those who are assigned with the same sub-topic (for example, behavioural theory Group 1-11 should gather together and discuss the sub-topic based on their individual reading. Since we have 11 groups, so there will be two groups for each topic.  Meaning, representative of each topic from Group 1 to 5 will be in Group A and representative of Group 6 to 11 will be in Group B).
    • Take turns to explain what you understand based on your reading (3 minutes per person).
    • Take turns to record important points presented by each member.
    • Ask any question that you might have or anything that need to be clarified based on your individual reading in this group.
    • Please help each other to understand by clarifying or giving examples.
    • You should spend 25 minutes on expert discussion [3 minutes x 5 or 6 students = 15 or 18 minutes. Additional 7 minutes for recording/refining your notes].
  • [Original group. 30 minutes]: After 25 minutes of discussion in expert group, each team member with different sub-topics gather as a group [refer to your group assigned to you].
    • Take turns to present each sub-topic to your group member (5 minutes x 5 sub-topics = 25 minutes).
    • Ask any question that you might have or anything that need to be clarified during discussion.
    • Please help each other to understand by clarifying or giving examples.
    • Take turns to record important points presented by each member.
    • Recorder(s) and leader should record important points presented by each member.
    • You should spend 30 minutes on this session [5 minutes x 5 students = 25 minutes. Additional 5 minutes for recording/refining your notes]
  • [Individual task. Short quiz of 10 questions using Quizziz. 15 minutes]: Answer all questions.

So, where is the technology here?  After I ended the discussion, to make sure that they understand from peer discussion i.e. jig saw activity, I gave them an online quiz.  Based on the online quiz, I would know if some of them are still struggling to understand certain things.   Previously, I could just ask them orally about what they have understood or give them paper-and-pencil test.  But, to allow them to digest information that they have learned, I gave them ample time to revise on their own before answering my quiz.  When I looked at the quiz a few days later on, I noticed that majority of them could answer the quiz well.  Meaning, out of 15 questions, majority could get 12 or 13/15.  Not bad.  So, when I met them on the following week, I just quickly rectified some misconceptions (based on their answers, I assumed that it is due to misconceptions).  There you go.  

Some of you might say, why did I provide the material for the jig saw activity rather than asking the students to find on their own?  Well, in this case, I want to make sure that everybody will use the same material.  If I ask them to find the materials themselves, they might find different materials.  Well, isn’t it better in that sense, right?  Well, not necessarily.  It depends.  In my case, I notice that NONE of my students had a textbook.   So, the material that I provided is from a textbook.  My stance is, at least, they read extensively one whole chapter based on the material that I provided (i.e. I photostated ONE whole chapter for them).  😀 

Here is an example of cooperative learning i.e. jig saw activity which I added with an online quiz (technology).   Am I a future ready educator?  Well, I can’t claim myself as such if I only use active learning in my class, right?  I need to diversify my teaching techniques and activities that I give to my students.  I have a long way to go.  

Note: En Fuad Ahmad took some pictures.  I looked so intense in this picture.  Don’t ask me what I scribbled in my small notebook.  It is not something important.  😀

Why values are important in your life?

I think about this (what matter most to me?) over the weekend.  Teaching the 6 struggling students give me a sense of purpose.  Seeing them struggling and yet feel enlightened after discussion/brainstorm/activity, it motives me to help them unconditionally (I am not paid to teach them, nor I gain monetary thingy from it). 

I find an article about how values important in our life.  The first three sentences resonate with what I was thinking, “Values are what bring distinction to your life.  You don’t find them, you choose them.  And when you do, you’re on the path to fulfillment”

How to change negative emotion to positive?

It has been more than 3 years since the incident with a student that I called as minah-t-test-tak-tahu.  At times, some of my colleagues notice that I still cannot let the incident gets off my mind.  Well, I can forgive, but never forget.   This is my art of letting go.  

Learning Adjustment Psychology with Amber Hague taught me to improvise things when “things” happen in life.  Even though I create a case based on the incident which later on I use in my Personality Psychology class on regular basis (her case is the “must” discussed case) as a mean of healing, some colleagues consider it as an unhealthy endeavor.   

Well, I read somewhere that to change negative emotion to positive is the best way of healing.  HOW?  Channeling negative thoughts and act into something productive and positive.  In my case, rather than concocting revenge on the student and her family (this is a normal reaction but it is negative thought), I choose to do something more productive such as crafting cases for discussion in class and such (this is positive and productive act).  I am struggling to find research findings on this approach for a while.  After searching for a while, finally, I find an article about it from Psychology Today.  

Where do I get the grammar posters?

When I did my Latihan Ikhtisas, I was struggling to find materials for my class.  Teaching university students does not require worksheets for weekly discussion.  But for secondary students, you need to use worksheet for activity, most of the time.  This is to save time for them to copy what you write from the white board.  😀

There are several websites for teachers by teachers which provide materials that teachers can use in their teaching like posters, handouts, worksheets and such for free (as long as you use it for teaching and not making any profit).  Some of the websites require you to register.  But others are not.  Some of the websites are such as

EnglishClub

Busyteacher

TeacherPaysTeacher

ESLPrintables

To know more, you can go to this website which listed around 50 useful websites for teachers to find teaching materials, tips and ideas for their classroom activity.  

https://teach4theheart.com/50-best-websites-for-teachers/