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”

I-PHEX 2019

 

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from CETaL !

It gives us great pleasure to share with you the call for participation for TLIF 2019, held October 4th this year at CETaL , in conjunction with Hari Akademia Malaysia on October 5th 2019

TLIF this year will run together with the International Innovative Practices in Higher Education Expo 2019 (I-PHEX)

Submit your abstract: 1000 word extended abstract limit before 9th August 2019

Download TLIFxI-PHEX 2019 abstract template at: http://bit.ly/2PUv1Fm

Submit the abstract to: iphextlif@gmail.com

Register your submission at: http://bit.ly/2JtjP14

TLIFxI-PHEX2019 is jointly organized by UTP, Society for Engineering Education Malaysia, International Federation of Engineering Education Societies & IEEE Malaysia Section Education Society

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.  

Integrity in the workplace

There is this talk by one of my senior colleagues about professionalism and ethics.  I have been thinking about the same issue for quite some time especially after the incident of “minah-t-test-tak-tahu“.  I am lucky that when I was called by the Dean, the late Prof Bahar, he told me to buckle up knowing how difficult it is to deal with such student.  He told me to stay true to myself no matter what.  His emphatic view is something that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  For others who blame me for being irrational and take sides on this obnoxious student, aren’t you being hypocrites?   I find this article from Psychology Today about integrity in the workplace.  Yup.  It is worth to have a stand rather than being “boneless” or “chameleon”.  

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/

 

 

 

Grammar oh grammar_Part 2

One of the things that I find it difficult to teach is preposition (grammar).  Why?  In Malay, the word “di” could be used to refer to location/place in generic form.  But in English, “at” can be used to refer to a location/place and time.  “At” is used when you are referring to a location/place which is in a smaller scale as compared to a place like where you stay.  “At” is also can be used to refer to time which is specific (hours).  

For “in” (which is not included in the diagram), it can be used to refer to generic place and more specific place.  A more specific place like room, kitchen, store, veranda, toilet, classroom, office.  For example, “See me in my office”, “Where is your mom?.  She is in the kitchen” 

I found this on this website 


When I teach them preposition for place, I made some adjustment.  I made my own handout.  There are other examples of prepositions for time, and movement.