Quiet quitting

There are times when I feel overwhelmed with things around me and I admit that I have difficulty to reorganise those things according to priorities. What I normally do is, I will categorise things accordingly based on urgency and importance. But I will remind myself those urgency and importance should be related to what is really matters to my identity as a Muslim and how it will impact my relationship with Allah. This is challenging. Every time.

This is already October, another two months before we reach the end of 2024. What have I done so far this year?

Off lately, I find myself just do a minimum without caring going extra miles to do something. This is especially relating to things which are instructed by others which I have to do. I have been wondering what is the cause of this even though I can guess. I remind myself that I should not rely on my guess without concrete reasons to avoid su’u zahn (opposite of husn zahn). While listening to a radio this morning (17 October 2024), the radio DJs talked about “quiet quitting”. It is a term to refer to a phenomenon at a workplace where its employees just do bare minimum required in their job, without the motivation of doing more than what is required. It does not mean the employees are demotivated to do their job well, it is just they do what is required. Nothing more, nothing less. The thoughts of “why should I do more?”, “why should I care to go extra miles to contribute?”, “if other people do not care, why should I care?” would always linger as a subconscious reminder which leads this phenomenon to thrive.

No doubt we have to adapt to changes that happen around us. Yet, to balance between the needs and wants are not easy. We need to do our job well and protect our mental health and personal time. Quiet quitting is when we do all that without formally resigning. In this case, it serves as a coping mechanism of finding balance in life and perhaps can be seen as a personal assertion between work and personal life.

I do not know what else to write here. To end this post, I asked ChatGPT to compose a poem based on what I have written above. Enjoy!

The world surrounds, a sea of demands,
Urgency whispers, yet slips through my hands.
I stand overwhelmed, priorities unclear,
Yet deep in my heart, I know why I’m here.

I sift through the noise, sort urgent from small,
What truly matters, what matters at all?
I pause and reflect, what will this mean
In the light of my faith, the unseen, the serene?

With each task, each step, I seek to align
What echoes forever with the Divine.
But still, there’s a weight I can’t deny—
This pull to do less, the question, “Why?”

Why should I strive when others stand still?
Why climb the extra mile, climb the hill?
Perhaps I’ve quiet quit, in more ways than one,
Just doing enough, until the day’s done.

Yet balance is fragile, this life, a test,
To protect my soul while giving my best.
I find myself torn, between needs and care,
Seeking peace in the midst of this quiet affair.

As the year wanes, I ask with a sigh,
What have I done? How? Why did I try?
In moments of silence, I find what I seek—
A reminder of strength, though I may feel weak.

Quiet quitting, perhaps, is more than it seems,
A way to balance, to cradle my dreams.
But still, I must strive, for in my heart I know,
The true path is where both faith and effort grow.

E content 2023 and 2024

Well, beginning 2023, the ELPPT teaching assessment includes e content (5% – depending on what you provide), thus it is important to submit ANYTHING that we have developed and used in our class in previous semesters. So, for this year, don’t miss a chance to submit our e content starting 5 September (Friday) until 15 October 2024. Yup, even though we might get the marks for our ELPPT at the end of the year, but for e content, the evaluation starts early and ends BEFORE December 2024.

Here are some FAQs that I got from my colleagues, so I will spare you the time to ask me similar questions by reading this post. (Tongue in cheek remarks ONLY).

How many materials that I submitted last year (2023)?

I submitted 4 materials (4 categories: gamification, video based learning, collaboration tools, and communication tools). Since I did not have any micro-credential materials, I have to diversify my materials. But since I like to try out new things in my class, so, I have to use more than one platform and thus, my materials are varied. So, what are the comments that I got last year?

What comments that I received last year?

Disclaimer: I know this might be considered confidential but for the sake of learning from my experience, I will give the “friendly” version instead (Don’t get me wrong. The remarks can be interpreted according to how we wish to perceive it, so it can be perceived either positively or negatively).

Here are the comments:

  • Teaching slide (R1)
  • Teaching instruction video (R2)
  • Text quiz (R1)
  • Non-interactive, using more than one external and internal link media (My own note: Can you guess the rank?)

One of my colleagues and I taught a same course (pair teaching). So we did a little experiment last year. For the teaching slide, I got R1, and she got R2. THE EXACTLY SAME TEACHING MATERIAL that we submitted but we got different marks. This is a good example of lack of reliability assessment. I believe that both of us were evaluated by different evaluators and thus, the different marks.

It might be considered as teaching slide because it appears to be like normal PowerPoint slide. But using Quizziz, I added some questions in between the slides. For example, the first question that I pose is on the 7th slide. So, for the evaluator who just look at the first 6 slides, he/she will only see explanation about a topic. But the evaluator of my colleagues might go through the next slide (7th slide) and thus, he/she might encounter the first question that I pose. For Quizziz, whenever there is a question, students have to answer the question before moving on to the next slide. In this case, there is an element of INTERACTIVITY between student and the material but, my colleague got R2 (Receptive-closed) and I got R1 (Receptive-basic). Isn’t it confusing that a same material of the same category is evaluated differently? I can’t help but laugh out loud. What can I do about it? Of course, Dr Nihra will always suggest me “Tolonglah semak markah ELPPT bahagian e content” but please take his advice seriously, unlike me.

Want another example of a confusing case? I submitted a material as collaboration tools in 2022, I got I2 (Interactive-closed) but a similar material from the same platform (for a different course) that I submitted in 2023 as collaboration tools in 2023 was evaluated as R3. Even though the materials are for different courses, but the types of materials and platforms are similar (there are class notes, online quiz etc.). Isn’t it confusing because what is the difference between R3 (Receptive-open) and I2 (Interactive-closed)? To tell you the truth, I was confused as well. But unlike 2022, all of the materials that I submitted were approved and thus, they were evaluated (and thus, got some marks). For 2022, there was a material that I submitted which was not approved but a similar material which I submitted in 2023 was approved. Both materials were developed using the same platform (Genial.ly).

Do I subscribe to the platforms where I develop/create my T&L materials?

Except Youtube, I subscribe several platforms such as Prezi, Quizziz, and Genial.ly. I still use the free version of Wakelet with limited features (when I started to use it a few years ago, it was free with cool features. But now, I have to subscribe to enjoy the cool features). To be honest, “upgraded” features and subscription plans seem to change on a continuous basis. It is a lucrative business. Indeed.

What an honor….

It’s been a long since I’ve posted anything here. I was preoccupied, and an unexpected family tragedy in June left me feeling numb. Writing a blog is therapeutic for me.

One of my colleagues informed me that a highly respected academician whom I admire (aka Prof Dr Abdul Karim Alias) had asked her to send me a message. Me? Does this individual know me? Really? I was in disbelief until today. A tiny anchovy like me would never imagine of being recognised by someone like him.

Additionally, my colleague said to me “I got this message from him. I will send it to your WhatsApp”

Please share my blog with her:
https://profkarim.medium.com/

Note: I am such a stalker. So, I already “stalk” Prof Karim from his blog (other than Facebook).

The 2nd International Action Research Competition (i-ARC) 2022/2023: Should I?

I was devastated when the article that I sent to a highly recognized journal in August was rejected. So, I changed the article a bit and sent it to another local journal publisher. But I have not hear anything from them yet until now. I got a response from the former journal within two weeks but it is nearly two months since I heard anything from the latter. *sigh*

One of my friends suggested that perhaps I should consider i-ARC 2023 and get some feedbacks that I can use to improve my research. Perhaps the problems lie in the way I conducted the action research. Reading action research textbooks makes me realize that there are many models. Some are highly theoretical and others are more practical. May be there are things that I overlook while conducting action research in my class. If this is the case, I need to get feedbacks. One of the ways that I can think of getting feedback is through sending my article about the action research that I conducted in my class to be evaluated by others.

It took me a few hours to shorten the article which I originally had planned to submit to a refutable Action Research journal. Well, I admit that I recycled some ideas from the rejected article. It is a normal process to edit, adjust and recycle ideas from different article. Is it plagiarism? It is from me as the author. It is my work and the data was collected by me over more than 4 semesters (until Session 2021/2022). But, for i-ARC2023, I only used data that I collected last semester (Semester 2, Session 2022/2023). Why? The data that I collected from Session 2019/2020 until 2021/2022 has already been used for another article. Also, I think I need to make sure that I would not overpublish my data. I have seen some had done it before but personally, I try to avoid this practice.