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It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop

I wrote this essay when I was teaching form 4 student Narrative Composition [Continuous Writing] back in 2018 [this was the time when I did my Latihan Ikhtisas].  This is based on my own story.  The students were amazed that I use my own life experience to write a short narrative like this as an example that I gave them.  I still remember one of them said this “Teacher, ini cerita pasal Teacher ke?  Wah, Teacher pun tak suka sekolah ni ke dulu?”[Translated: Teacher, is this your story?  Wow, did you also dislike this school?”].  I replied by rolling eyes while saying “Yes, like some of you, I also dislike this school but my mother requested me to stay until I finished form 5.  Now, go back to read this essay again and highlight any word that you don’t understand.  Later on, find the meaning of the words that you don’t understand from the dictionary”

NARRATIVE COMPOSITION

Tips and techniques

  1. A narrative tells a story. The main purpose of a narrative is to explain in a story telling manner.
  2. Know the difference between
Question What it means
i)       Write a story based on

ii)     Write a story beginning with ….

iii)    Write a story ending with ……

 Your story is about …..

You must start your composition with the line(s) given

Your story ends with the line(s) given

 

  1. Sometimes the title of the composition is an idiom or a proverb. Be sure you know its meaning before you start on the composition.
  2. Note the specific structure and language feature of a narrative composition.

Write a story ending with a proverb by Confucius “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop”

    My fists were clenched.  Hurt and angry, I glared at my mother.  She whispered softly, ‘This is the best chance for education, Dear.  Behave yourself’.  I did.  Not because of my mother or any need for studying that I might have stayed at this school.  It was the feeling that I needed to prove that I would never be the black sheep in the family that made me stayed at this school. 

   With three older siblings who were graduates from local and overseas universities and another one was studying at a local university doing Accountancy, I felt pressured to excel in my study too.  I felt hopeless when I could not change to a different school that I wanted that has science stream classes.  I hated myself for being a weakling.

  As the youngest in the family, many might assume that I was the baby in the family and pampered by my family.  It was a far cry from the truth.  I was never being pampered.  In fact, I was consistently compared with my older siblings who were high achievers.  Being a late bloomer, I was never academically high achiever during primary school.  As I started to bloom during my adolescence, I was still struggling to get the kind of excellent grades that my parents could be proud of.  Yet, deep inside my heart I knew that I could become someone that I envision myself to be, rather than someone that anyone would expect me to become. 

   The question was how could I prove to all that I was a good student, a high achiever like my older siblings?  What should I do?  These questions gave me nightmares.  I started to think to find ways to be a better student.  But, I still did not know how to become one. 

  One day, feeling especially sorry for myself, I huddled in a corner and refused to talk to anyone.  After a while, my friends started to avoid me and treat me invisibly.  A senior who saw me sulking muttered ‘Stop wallowing in self-pity’.  With that, I realized that even if I did nothing to change my current situation, I was actually made a decision.  I thought to myself that ‘Decision is not only being made if I do something, it is also being made if I do nothing’. 

   Rather than doing nothing, I decided from then on to study hard and be persistent even though I might make mistakes or fail along the way to be academically high achiever.  Finally, what Confucius once said made sense to me ‘It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop’.            [442 words]

Picking up yourself from failures

Life is full of challenges.  Sometimes, we fail to achieve what we have hoped for.  If that happens, we feel miserable because our hopes are crushed.  We think our lives are meaningless and there is nothing worth to live for.  However, failing in something does not mean that we are a failure.  

When we face failure or setback, we have two choices.  First, we can lie down and stay there in misery.  Second, we can choose to learn from our failures or setbacks and get on with life.  The choice is really ours.  But if we choose the latter, what should we do next?

We must change our attitude towards failure.  Everyone at some point faces failure in their personal life or career.  Thus, we must learn to be resilient and strong.  We must stop having self-pity, even though life is hard at that time.  But we must always remember that we are not alone in facing failures, setbacks or challenges (whatever you want to call it) in life.  Other too have face problems and sometimes they also have it really bad.  So, if we continue to feel miserable, cry or sulk over a long period of time, others will not care about us after a while.  We will lose their sympathy and concern.  So, do not wallow in our misery for a long time.  Set a time to allow ourselves to feel sad or miserable but after we reach the dateline, move forward and live on.

Remember to stay positive (even though it might be difficult at times).  Do not blame others for our failure.  Look at other ways of achieving our dreams.  Change our strategies if we have to.  Be sure to surround ourselves with cheerful, supportive and caring people.  Negative people will get us down and feeling hopeless towards ourselves.

In addition, do not work alone.  Get help and advice from others if we face with difficulty or if we need to brainstorm some ideas.  There are many people who are expert in certain fields or those who have undergone similar setbacks before.   We will lose nothing by talking with them about our difficulty.  Talking to others and getting help makes life easier or bearable.  

Lastly, when life tosses us some hard knocks, do not act as it we are the only one with problems.  Do not make a big deal about it.  Get up from our failures or setbacks and move on.  Take the first step forward.  We will be alright.  

P.S:  I found this article from one of the files that I used when I did my Latihan Ikhtisas.  I don’t remember when I wrote this or if I took it from somewhere.  But I think I used this for my form 4 class (Directed Writing).  

What did I do while undergoing my Latihan Ikhtisas (LI)?_Part 2

I had a blast when I went for my Latihan Ikhtisas last year, even though at first I was thinking about doing a post doc instead.  Why a blast?

After so many years of teaching at university i.e. more than 10 years, I can compare the challenges being a teacher and a lecturer.  Well, I find that teaching at school is not that “challenging” as compared to teaching at university.  I might be bias in this case given a fact that since I am not a real teacher, so I was exempted from doing many of the other things that teachers have to do on daily basis.  For example, I didn’t have to fill in any information at SSDM (Sistem Sahsiah Disiplin Murid).  SSDM is a system to record students good behaviour and misbehaviour.  Yup, it is expected that teachers have to do it on daily basis.  But of course, it is very rarely for them to do it unless they are the discipline teacher or school counselor.  

I was also exempted from managing the “elearning” kind of thing known as Frog VLE.  Why?  ONLY Malaysian teachers, students and parents can use it.   They can register and thus they will have username and password.  I am not a teacher, student nor parent so I can’t create an account.  On top of that, I was also exempted from fill in any information about the students on different system such as PAJSK and such.  So, what did I do at school then other than teaching?

Well, I created lots of exercise worksheets.  You name it. I have it all.  I looked at various sources such as Busyteachers and others.  On top of that I also created some cute posters using Canva (Example: Dueling Proverbs).  I shared with my English panel teachers so we could print it out and posted it on the notice board.  But, cute things don’t last long.  The moment a teacher posted it, it only lasted for few hours.  Sigh

I also wrote some essays as examples of continuous writing compositions.  Some of the essays from my own experience.  So it does make it more real to the students because they can know a little bit about me through the essays.  2 in 1.  Teaching and getting to know me better.  

To be continued…. 

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Al-fatihah to the former President of Egypt – Mohamed Morsi

The Muslim community has lost a great leader today, Mohamed Morsi.  Al-fatihah

I followed the news of the chaotic moment in Egypt back in the 2011/2012.   Later on within a year after he was elected as the president of Egypt, he was ousted from the office in 2013.  Indeed politics are complicated to comprehend.  But I remember vividly what my former lecturer once said in his political science class “Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Indeed.  May Allah grant him eternal bliss.  

 

What did I do while undergoing my Latihan Ikhtisas (LI)?_Part 1

Some colleagues have been asking me this question “What did I do at school other than teaching?”  Well, to think back about it, there were so many things that I did.  Most of the things were fun, new and challenging.  I never thought that I would create a mural (I still need to touch up some of the drawings though :D) 

Other than that, I would also never thought that I would harvest pineapple which they planted within the school compound.  At first, we had to pay but if we harvested it ourselves, we could get FOC.  So, armed with a small machete and gloves, I harvested the pineapples while wearing my baju kurung.   I also experienced cooking using wood (so traditional and basic!).  But of course, I was not the one who made the fire.  The fire was already made by the students.  As teachers, we don’t do the dirty works, for obvious reason.  That’s what the students are for!  But as the evaluator [uhuk uhuk judge], we were entrusted with the task to evaluate the students’ survival skills that they have to show during a 2D2N camping such as making fire.  So, we have to let the students “show” their skills to make fire etc.


 

What else?  To be continued….

 

 

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