I am not a big sport fan. But I do follow the development of sports in Malaysia (not religiously though).
Lee Chong Wei has made our country proud. It is not a shame to retire after 19-year career in badminton. Not many can reach that level. He wishes to focus his time more on his young family. He has two children now. Perhaps, this is best time for him to do so.
I had students with the status of UM [Ulang Matapelajaran] before. But, somehow another I don’t feel any attachment with them so when they fail a course, I don’t hesitate to retain whatever grade given to them.
This time around it is different. Why? I have known this student since 2012. Yup. We have known each other quite long. I remember this student in particular because there was a male student in the same cohort who passed away drowning while saving others’ lives. I have some emotional attachment with this cohort because I just finished my PhD at that time and excited to teach again after so many years of studying. This class is also special because the students had swimming class before mine so, my class was the perfect time for them to take a rest after physically taxing swimming class. Well, I tried to do some activities which required them to move around. They moved around alright but the moment they went back to their seats, their eyes seemed to shut down automatically. The faculty combined the class with TEASL students. What a ying-and-yang combination! Indeed.
Years passes by quickly and before we know it, I met this student again in my masters class. I had a quick chat with her after class. She seemed a bit shy around me. When I asked her if she took my Educational Psychology class in 2012, she sheepishly acknowledged that. Then, I asked if she was in the same class as the late Miji (only a nickname), her face went pale and gloom. Without looking at me, she looked down on the floor before replying “Dr still remember Miji?“. I told her that I normally remember my students’s faces. It is just that I don’t remember their names. To lighten up the atmosphere a bit, I asked her if she has settled down. Looking down at her shoes again, she replied “I am still single, Dr. I am busy with my work. Many of my friends have got married. I further my masters because I want to improve myself as a teacher“. With a light pat on her hand, I assured her that the time will come for her to settle down. She told me that she teaches Malay Language now even though she majored in Sport Education. She is still a sport education teacher though. So, she has the opportunity to teach what she learned at UTM. Since that quick chat, I never have any chance to talk to her again.
When I graded her assignment, I notice that she only took the quiz once and she did not get good marks for the quiz. She did not get good marks for her final as well. So, relying on her proposal assignment alone, she got below 60 marks. To be exact, her final marks are 58/100. Just a shy away from getting a passing grade. I crack my head to increase the marks. I can’t simply increase the marks unnecessarily and without any valid evidence. I look again the quizzes that I have given them (some are graded and some are not graded). I notice that she never tried to take the ungraded quiz unlike others. This makes me feel sad. Others took the opportunity to improve their grades by using whatever things that I provide them to the fullest. I notice that there are several students who took one ungraded quiz more than three times. Since I don’t give the answer, they have to try as many time as they could until they get the right answer themselves. So, in this case, they will “force” indirectly to refer to their notes to find the answer. This is a part of self-regulated learning.
What should I do with this student? After all, she is in her 8th semester. A dilemma indeed.
It has been 5 days since my cat (Batman) went missing on Sunday 9 June 2019. I try very hard not to cry because I am having on-off fever. Feeling feverish at certain time but feeling better after taking medication. So, even though I search for him around the house (up to the neighbours’ houses), I still could not find him. Robyn (Batman’s sister) seems to know that he is missing. She does not want to eat her biscuit when I feed her every morning. She will linger around and lie down instead. Only after I leave her alone, she will eat.
I try to search any prayer to find my missing cat. Well, there is no specific prayer but I found this instead. A prayer that Rasullullah SAW taught Ummu Salamah’s husband and he later taught her this prayer. She lost her husband in the battle of Uhud. She later married Rasullullah SAW and became one of the important people to narrate his hadith.
Batman went missing is a tragedy for me. Why? I am so used of having him to bug me when I am doing my work or chores around the house. He would always linger around me, nearby. I really hope I will find him soon and he would be back to bug me again.
I have been thinking about this long time ago since I was doing my masters at IIUM. I had a chance to be supervised by a great mentor who teaches me about value and ethics. I learn that from him. Taking several classes under his tutelage was a privilege that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I would email him quite regularly when I have qualms about my teaching practice. I would always get a straight-to-the-face kind of answer. No filter. Nothing. It always serves as a reminder why I am in this profession. He had retired now. No email. Just occasional Whatsapp message. But, it helps me to feel better when I am feeling blue.
Now, I am no longer have the privilege to email him like I used to do. He rarely checks his email. With a younger wife, he is pretty much preoccupied with his retirement life. So, I normally will find motivational videos about teaching. One of my favorites is a TED talk by Rita Pierson. She passed away not long after giving the TED talk. To know more about her, this is one of the articles written about why it is important for teachers to know their students better in order to make impact on their lives.
Alhamdulillah. I have finished marking all of the assignments and exam scripts. Now, it is time for me to prepare the report via OBE system. But before that, let’s jot down some of the points that I want to include as parts of my CQI in my OBE report.
Assignments: I had given my UG students two types of assignments: Individual and group assignment. For the individual assignment, they have to create a concept map for each topic discussed. To assist them, I suggest they submit it on weekly basis, not compulsory though. Majority submitted their concept maps religiously every week. Only a few of them NEVER did that, not even once.
As I graded their concept map assignment, I notice that one student did not submit his assignment. I also remember quite well that he never submitted any concept map before. When I look closely at his overall performance, he could not do well for individual tasks like final exam, quiz and such. This shows that he is struggling but he never told me anything when I asked them in class or never even once let me know through other means. He is the quiet type in class. When I did a jig saw activity in class, I notice that he is the “listener” type. When he was urged by his friends to give his opinion, he did not elaborate in detailed, rather give short explanation. But, it does not explain why he failed to submit the concept maps. After all, I told them that to be self-regulated learners, they need to have certain routines. To create a concept map means that they need to understand the overall concepts (and its interconnectivity). It is not an easy process. After getting my feedback, they could improve their concept maps which many did so and it can be exemplified by the marks they got. Doing all these would involve them to engage in all of the process of three different phases based on self-regulated model as proposed by Zimmerman.
On the exam day itself, I told them (via Whatsapp) to double check whether they have done their second quiz on the elearning and those who did not submit their concept map after the exam can do so by going to my office on the next day to submit their concept maps. I did remind them about the course work even during exam period. Now, the exam period has ended, so it is kind of pointless for me to bug them during their holiday about the course work.
For the group work, there are no glitches that I was not aware of. Alhamdulillah, the students were proactive to meet me and discuss about their group assignment. So, all of the groups did well. They are also reflective about the things that they observe at schools. Some groups did interview. During the presentation day, one of the guys (Yusri) wore full attire with a coat. I gave a special mark for this because he makes the attempt to be presentable. The only person who did so.
Final examinations: There are two types of exam questions given (MCQ and short answer questions) for 40 marks. Even though it is stated the marks would be 60%, but we convert it into 40% later on. I find that some students could answer the short answer questions really well. Some of them got full marks. However, some of them did not able to answer one or two questions. Few even just “skipped” and didn’t answer one or two questions at all. So, they lost 10% right there and then. What a lost! But, it is their choice. I have no right to question their decision of leaving few questions unanswered. I should be emphatic in this case.
Overall: Some of the students did very well. They got more than 80% marks. Good job! Well done!
CQI: Based on student performance, I plan to revise my instruction for the both assignments. I think the current instruction is not being perceived as emphasising self-directed learning by some students. Based on the feedback that students gave on concept map assignment, some perceive it does help them to study or revise. In this case, they perceive it as a burden despite the evidences i.e. journal of concept map research that I show them [I suspect that they do not read the journal articles that I shared in elearning]. But, majority perceive that concept map is useful, so I will retain this activity in future.
