Category: Teaching

COVID-19: A gift from a student

One of my postgraduate students asked for my home address. I was reluctant to give it to her. But then I remember that she borrowed my book when she started her research. So, I don’t have other choice than to give my home address for her to return my book.

It was nearly maghrib when I heard someone was talking outside my house. I went outside to see the person. It was a delivery guy. The package delivered was for me. Who is the sender? I didn’t buy anything online. Well, the only thing that I buy online is book. It is essential.

The package that I received was carefully wrapped. As I opened layers of bubble wrap, I finally saw a box. A watch? A pen? I looked at the name written in the box. Unfamiliar name. I googled it. I find out about this company that I never knew exist.

There is a card. There are only few students who addressed me (inaccurately) as Prof. I cringe whenever people call me that. I am not one (yet) and do not aspire to become one either.

I remembered when she asked me what I want for a gift. I told her that an e card that she can make using Canva is sufficed. FOC. But she said that it is not enough to show me her appreciation. I don’t need material things. The watch that I got from a former student lies on top of my dresser. Rarely been used. I never bought myself such an expensive watch nor gifted someone with such an expensive give. The pen that I got from another student also was left unused in my office.

When I opened the box, I was speechless. I saw an engraved pen with my name as I opened another smaller box. This will be the second pen that was gifted to me that I would probably will not use. Let’s face it. The most expensive pen that I use costs me less than RM10 (highly recommended by fellow teachers). My favorite pen costs me RM1 which I bought in bulk (when I was at school in 2018 which I still have until now).

Now, what should I do with this gift? I cannot regift it because it has my name on (tongue in cheek remark!).

COVID-19: Reading marathon

I bought some books. But never had a chance to really finish reading one book in one sitting. I really had enough of online webinars or whatever sessions. I feel overwhelmed with back to back online sessions. I feel I need to take a break from all those things, and read.

It is not easy to finish reading in one sitting. It has been a while since I am able to do that. Most of the time, I would be disturbed by “other” things.

Reading these two books make me review and reflect my life as a teacher and educator. I know that I am not Erin Gruwell. My students are not like hers. But a stint in a school for a year gives me a glimpse of what a teacher has to face on daily basis. It depends on the school and students that one might have. But at the end of the day, it will come back to the question of “What did I do to make a difference in these students’ lives?” That question has no single answer but it serves as a reminder than teaching is not for the faint-hearted.

COVID-19: Dear former student

An FB post that you posted on 21 September 2021 caught my attention. I could not stop thinking about your well-being. Being a mother of two young children is not easy while working at home to teach due to the pandemic. I know you are strong, but there are times when you might falter. It is just a phase. A tough phase to deal with by a tough lady like you. It is ok to be sad, frustrated and hopeless with certain things but do not let it drag too long.

Take one thing at a time. It is so common to hear people say that. But it is true. Sometimes, we need to break things down into manageable chunks that we can deal with. There is no need to rush on doing things.

I am so proud of you. With what you have done and accomplished so far, I believe and always pray that you will go far in your life as an educator. There were times when I was your teacher, but now, you teach me more than I can teach you. I learn from you and others so many new digital tools that I can use in my class. I learn from you and others to persevere despite the challenges that we might face in life. I know that you are a risk taker in changing hardship into success. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often“. Together in this journey as educators, you are not alone. We always have each other. We might have been through hell and back in life. But we have a choice not to remain there. If we choose to live in misery, we will be miserable in life. I know you will make a better choice than that. I pray may Allah ease the challenging process.

Senarai semak sesi segerak

Ada orang beri cadangan untuk letak senarai semak (checklist) untuk sesi segerak (synchronous session). Senarai semak ini digunakan setiap kali sesi segerak sebagai ingatan kepada semua yang hadir. Kalau dalam kelas, sebagai sesi induksi – sebelum memulakan sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran.

Dulu aku tidak pernah terfikir pun nak buat poster macam ni. Tapi bila dapat tips dari Cikgu Sam yang hebat, aku cuba untuk ikut apa yang diamalkan. Cikgu Sam pun ada pesan untuk tiru apa yang dianggap amalan yang baik. Jadi aku cuba la untuk buat juga. Walaupun aku mengajar di universiti, tak semestinya apa yang cikgu-cikgu guna tak boleh diamalkan dalam pengajaran aku juga kan? Learning happens when we teach. Indeed.

Getting 5 marks for e-content materials

It is a bit cliché to say that “Just do your best to create teaching materials for your class”. Well, everybody aims that but the real thing is, how far we are engaging students in learning process with the materials that we give or with the instruction that we give?

I never get full marks. That is the fact. But I never aim to get full marks when I create or craft my teaching materials for my students. It is just that when people ask me about “how to get 5 marks” for ELPPT bonus, I feel sad because I could not help them much in this thing.

But nevertheless, even though it is stated that the materials should be interactive yada yada yada, I do not know what it means. I am a bit slow in this but for this semester, one of the experiments that I do to improve my teaching is to use Padlet as a platform for students to showcase their presentation as well as discuss about the topic of presentation using asynchronous mode since some of them have to share devices and there are many of them have internet accessibility issues.

This is the example from one of my classes – CLICK. This is not considered as e-content.

Why does it not being considered as e-content?

ONE: Padlet is only used as a platform to collect and share students’ assignment. There is no interaction UNLESS we give an EXTRA instruction in which they have to give feedback on each assignment which is showcased in the Padlet. I did not do that. So, it is not considered as e-content.

TWO: The instruction given is too generic. You have to be more detail in giving the instruction. How to do this? First, think about “What is the thing that you want to accomplish – Is it students’ interaction? Is it just sharing information? Second, use simple, compact and concise wording. This is the most challenging part, for me personally. I am struggling with this. What I normally do is, I will brainstorm with another colleague how to rephrase the instruction. Sometimes, to have another person to brainstorm ideas is better than doing it alone. I am blessed to have such colleagues around me even though there are just a handful of them. Well, they are the best. It is most important. Quality. Not quantity.

Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya ……

I purposely put the title in Malay using one of the famous idiom: “Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat akhirnya jatuh ke tanah juga”. No doubt academic status especially being a professor is a goal that some people set as academicians. There is nothing wrong in that but in the current practice of academia, sometimes to chase fame and glory, some people do not hesitate to cut corners and resort to unethical practice even. It is kind of shame such practice happens. One of the latest is by a renowned researcher (or known as one before he was caught), Dan Ariely. I first came across his name through TED Talk. Unlike some other well-known researchers in psychology like Phillip Zimbardo, Carol Dweck and such, he is not that famous when I was an undergraduate students.

Dan Ariely’s research was about honesty. It is really interesting to know what makes people to be honest or dishonest and can one’s honesty be “changed”? His research provides an insight about that but later on when other researchers tried to replicate his work, they found out otherwise. This is when some people start to dig deeper. Later on they found out that Dan Ariely concealed some data and thus, ironically when though his research is about being honest, yet he is dishonest about his own research. The evidence that researchers found about his work is compelling. Click HERE to know more.

So, I would rather be true and honest to myself and others than being famous or getting the highest position of academic accolade i.e. professorship. I create this post as a reminder that what is important that I should focus on and do not jump into the bandwagon of unscrupulous practice.

COVID-19: Can you teach us how to use Genial.ly?

Since COVID-19, I aim to learn at least one online platform or application per semester. I know I should not set my target that low but, I know myself better. I learn better if I can focus one thing at a time. Multitasking is a thing of the past.

I posted some videos that I created using Genial.ly on my FB because I want to share it with my friends (an example of videos that I created using Genial.ly). One of my university friends and my former roommates during undergraduate asked me if I can teach her and some of her colleagues how to use Genial.ly. Rather than feeling flattered, I was scared because there are many things that I need to explore and so many things that I have yet to discover.

Since then, I make a point to allocate at least 30 minutes per day to improve my skills on using Genial.ly. It could be either watching YouTube videos on Genial.ly (an example of YouTube video) and immediately I will try out following the instruction while watching the videos repeatedly or I do the exploration myself – this is trial and error.

I should know better that sometimes, when solving a problem it is better to have a guidance rather having no guidance at all. So, when I set the time (to monitor the progress) learning while watching YouTube (by following instruction simultaneously) or learning without any guidance, I find that I learn better and faster after and when I follow instructions from YouTube.

This makes me realize that I need to do something about my teaching. So, I prepare some videos which involve steps by steps explanation and give it to students to watch it first before coming to class (synchronous mode) and discuss or have a hands-on session. However, I notice that some students are still struggling despite all the efforts that I have made to make sure that I provide the best guidance and support through online learning. I realize that it is not my lack of efforts that contribute to the lack of progress on their parts, but rather it is due to technical things that they cannot control i.e. lack of internet data-plan and such. What should I do now?

Oh my Padlet: Part 3

This is week 12. How time flies! Indeed. With ramadhan and Eid Adha, it seems that time passes by like a blink of eyes. Like last semester, I use Padlet extensively but unlike last semester, in which I did not explain much about why I use Padlet in my teaching, this time around I explained it to students earlier this semester i.e. first class and I also showed some examples of students’ work and class activities on Padlet pages.

Some students find Padlet as a new thing so, some are struggling to use it. When I gave an example of Padlet page, one student accidentally deleted some posts by previous students. Well, it is my mistake because I should change the setting first before sharing with the current students. But, I learn something from this incident.

Of course, the student was panicking but I told her, “Things happen. So, don’t worry. I have already evaluated the previous students but please make sure that when you want to copy-paste anything, don’t delete anything of the original post”.

There are many pages of Padlet that I have created since last year and I think it is worth to subscribe Padlet (as long as it is still affordable – tongue in cheek remark).

One example of Padlet pages that I created last semester for my MPPU1024 Research Methodology in Education class was this.

Proctoring

How to monitor your students while taking online examination? Well, since you are not physically there to monitor them while they are taking the examination, you can use proctoring. But there are few things that you need to consider:

  1. Availability of camera/webcam
  2. Internet bandwidth (at least 1000mbps)
  3. Sufficient internet data plan

If our students are lacking in either of the above, we need to think about another alternative of administering the examination.

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