March...

It's been a crazy 2 months at work and I think the stress is beginning to show. Headcount.... I still can't get over the silliness of this HC thingy; as though we're in a factory and students are plastic products with controllable variables which you can so easily tweaked! Plus so many other distractions which do just that... DISTRACT!!! And oh ya! Did I also mention that the weather is extremely hot these days too? Every day, I feel like I'm being bamboozled by waves of heat... one after the other. Even my okra plants have become stunted from this extremity.

And if not for the water timer which we set for our garden plants, I think most of my garden plants would be withering away too... or stunted. Heat stunts!

Attended a wedding dinner last Saturday. Nice! I mean it was nice meeting up with old colleagues.... most of them have retired. They were the ones who sort of guided me when I was a rookie.... times have changed too. Met SA who used to sit in front of me when I was in the afternoon session. She used to get the office boy to buy all the kuih... and some would find their way to me! 8) She has retired too. Meeting up was nice.... Can't say the same of the food. The dinner has to be one of the longest wedding dinner I've been. Food took ages to appear. The RKC caterer really seemed to have problem with his wok! It was nice to see Mr. O who just flew in from Taipei... he takes the plane like how some of us take the bus! Commuting from one country to another every month... almost! LOL! How time flies...

I was actually thinking of doing another alphabet in my Alphabet Series.... but no mood. Writing mood got stunted too! I'm still feeling the heat finding its way out of my body after being 'cooped' up in a hall for 3 hours attending a briefing yesterday afternoon. Felt like I was slowly being cooked from the inside. These people want us to work but won't hold the meetings in the mornings... for a thankless duty. So I can still feel heat coming out... at this rate, either my mind or my body will break... and our bosses keep squeezing us for inconsequential stuff.... our education system is really getting skewed. We're more interested in data, paperwork than actual work.... I blame it on skewed perspective from skewed heads up there... heads who were incidental teachers, who taught only short periods before weaving their way into the office.

So, March is coming up... hot and bothered we are. Nerves fraying.... stress building up.... lambasted by the unabating heat everyday.... aargh!!!! From the floods to the protracted heat... the grass is turning yellow everywhere... my stunted okra... hopefully my basil grows. I've got tomato plants which my gal sowed but I don't know where to plant them. Perhaps I should start thinking about erecting one of these 'shelters' for them..... I am reading up about hydroponics but I wonder whether my fish in our pond 'pass out' enough to turn our water into hydroponic medium for plants....

The Most Exciting Job Now..

...for me I think it has to be journalist. The world is so connected now... and there are so many things happening everywhere at one go; natural disasters and political upheavals, the latter gripping many of our imaginations.

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen.... I never imagined that I would see such 'excitement' coming from that region. When I think of North Africa and Middle East, 2 words come to mind immediately - oppression and oil. Oil - everyone knows they are rich because they sit on a huge pile of black gold. And it has made them rich. I've never been there and my little knowledge is gleaned from the books I read and common sense. I think it's tough for the weaker sex there generally. Libya is not too bad where opportunities for women are concerned though. No rights, no identity... So if there is no oppression people will not be rising up to kick up all these long-staying leaders. Gaddafi has been in power 42 years!!!! That's almost like a monarchy.

I know see the wisdom of the old practice... a person sitting too long in the same office/position... power gets into the head. Pride and arrogance seep in. Complacency becomes a shadow.... China is worried. One party, one system; ideal for corruption to thrive... now they have the budding of their own Jasmine Revolution... (how's that for domino effect. Back in the 50s and 60s, they were afraid of the domino effect of communism spreading throughout Asia).

So to be a journalist, I guess would be the most exciting job for now. In Egypt a Google exec started a FB group which got the 'revolution' going. Imagine! The newspeople did a good job of getting info out. The dangers they faced and the possibility of losing their lives. I guess in such times, balanced and fair journalism is every regime's nightmare. Al-Jazeera is one such media institutions. Can't say much for our own mainstream media though....

I read with interest a Chinese school in Pahang turning down free Utusan paper. A friend of mine told me about the free papers given to Chinese schools a couple of days ago... Anyone with a fair sense of mind would agree with the Utusan paper is thrash. It eschews everything right, fair and balanced that is supposed to be the mainstay of good journalism. That's our Malaysian media.... mouthpieces for the masters they serve. I thought journalist are not supposed to serve any masters.

Anyway, I salute all those journalists who put their lives in harm's way to get a story. I salute their bravery and also their effort to make the world a better place.

Another Look At Our Education System

Do we get dumbed down by education? A thought provoking suggestion of a paradigm shift... All educators and parents should listen to this.

For those interested to learn and improve themselves, this video is found at The Educator's PLN (Personal Learning Network). I deem it a gold mine! The stuff they have on the site beat any courses that I've attended lately. Also, instead of making us waste our time pushing paper and data, they should inspire us, or at least give us time and space to educate ourselves since they are unable to. I've had these list of sites which I've been meaning to visit but did not have the time due to the senseless pushing of paper at work.

Or encourage the building of websites such as Shmoop which provides resources for teachers. This site is tailored for the US. I especially like their Biography, Shakespeare and Bestsellers sections... with ready write-ups. I've read many of the books on the Bestsellers list and I like what they do there. Great ideas for teaching... if you have kids with good enough command of English.

This is another one from StoryCorps about a Mexican family who crossed over to the US for a better life. It's done in a way to make us appreciate the diversity.

It's so different here in Malaysia. Take the brouhaha about Interlok, the literature component for Bahasa Malaysia. Many Indians are unhappy because they feel that the novel is subtly instilling racial superiority. Or the recent action of a Chinese school which decided to reject the free offer of Utusan newspapers because the Board felt that it's a move to brainwash kids. We do not celebrate each race's positive traits sincerely. Rather, we instill suspicion... we say we are integrating, but at the same time have practices which seem to sow all these seeds of disunity...

Education... we need to have another look at our education system.... if they are really serious about the 1Malaysia thing.

O for Old..

Old is often used as an excuse... for many if not everything. There are things in life which we cannot defy... growing old is one. But too often we use it as the excuse for whatever that suits us...

Everyone knows what osteoporosis can do to us. My mom has that and as a result it caused havoc with her backbone. Some of her lumbars have collapsed, literally crushed. We put her on meds and it slowed down the bone deterioration somewhat but the damage was done. Breathing is affected as the space got more cramped inside. Moving about is very uncomfortable and sometimes even painful. That was many years ago... but Mom has the discipline and determination which I never knew. She diligently exercised, stretched, built her stamina... she might have been wheelchair bound but thankfully still can move around. The breathing is still difficult though... she gets tired quite easily after a walk. But the exercise regime she puts herself through would shame most of us... while she realizes and sometimes laments in bewilderment that growing old is a painful process, she has not used it as a reason to stop trying.... and I appreciate her very much for that.

Over the years, I am often asked to teach friends computer stuff... quite a number fall into the old group. What I notice is a large number often use being old as an excuse not to be able to learn. But again and again, I also notice that if there is an impetus for learning, for example like to keep in touch with their kids or use it for something they are totally into, learning takes on a path of less resistance. They push themselves to plod on task by task till they learn to use whatever function they require. I took tennis lessons more than a year ago and among those in my group was an elderly man of 70. I thought people at that age wouldn't be picking up games like tennis... I learned something from this affable man.

However, this using of 'old' as an excuse is not only confined to the old people. Young people also display such tendencies. In all my years teaching, my students tell me that learning English is too difficult.... most of them have a very poor command of English. And because they convince themselves that, many continue to have a poor command. Of course there are other factors at play as well.

But very often we make excuse for ourselves or others using 'old'. We are often reminded to let someone off the hook because she is old... you know-lah, old people are set in their ways. Aiyah! Nevermind-lah. But I find this rather inexcusable. Being old and set in your ways doesn't give you the right to be vindictive, racist, mean and arrogant, which happens a lot at work places. Many take 'being old' as a license to be excused for things... if I were an employer, I might as well hire 2 or 3 young people to do the job of one 'old' people. But for saying this, I guess I would probably be deem not to have compassion.

A few years ago, I worked under a boss whom I greatly respect. I wish there are more like her. But in the teaching fraternity, she's one of the rare gems. She took an 'early' retirement. Instead of going for 58 (like what most are doing) she retired at 56. She wanted more time with her family. She felt that she wasn't able to give her level best commitment to her job. So she retired.... she could have stayed on, continue to draw a salary and cut down on her work. She could easily get away with that. And there's always the 'old' excuse to fall back on. They are few people like her. The 'old' group of people stay on... and they expect 'special' treatment. I think it's a bad move to retain such people....

Anyway, 'old'... all of us grow old and die.... if anything is to go by, being old should remind us that there is an end coming... or a another beginning if you believe in the world after... but how you live your life.... that'll be the reckoning. Tis a reminder for myself too....

N for Nitpicking...

Am in the mood for my own alphabet series.... the letter is N and the word is nitpicking.

Nitpicking is defined as being obssessively concerned about inconsequential things. And many of us are nitpickers at one time or the other.

We like to nitpick even though the things that we nitpick are of no use. We nitpick to find fault with people too because we are prejudiced. Nitpickers bog people down cos they are so tiresome to deal with. But I think they are tiresome because they are basically frustrated people. Or it could be nitpickers are unhappy people... they pick on the inconsequential because they are unhappy with their lives sometimes. So, they nitpick to make others misreable, as misreable as them. Happier people or those with more than enough or even those who feel that life has treated them well are less likely to nitpick.

Being a nitpicker usually also shows on one's physical appearance as it also bogs the nitpicker down. Your face, which is the window to your soul begins to reflect the contents of your heart. So, it is not uncommon to find nitpickers often looking dour and surly. They usually don't have much good things to say about the world they are in or the people around them. My Muslim friends often remind me that senyuman itu satu sedekah... unfortunately many nitpickers seldom smile. They find very little reason to smile... how to when they are constantly finding faults, other people's...

Spending time with the nitpicker can be very depressing as a result. They nitpick practically everything, all the more when the judgement becomes clouded by their emotions. They think they are qualified to nitpick because they are superior; when in actual fact it might just be the opposite. Unhappiness and inferiority often bring out the worse in us. Ted Bundy the serial killer was a introverted and shy kid... unhappy with the way he was rejected by his girlfriends.... he went on a killing binge.

Nitpickers are not just hard to work with but probably also hard to live with... nothing is good enough for them. I sometimes have to remind myself not to be one... being the fussy pot that I am sometimes about how things should go or be done. Over the years, it's been a humbling experience to learn that I am full of flaws too.... but a nitpicker I am not going to be... a constant reminder I have to give.

But in every negative thing there's also something positive if we care to look for them. Nitpicking often also refers to cari kutu... or removing lice. Lice is not good for our heads, that's for sure. Nitpicking means removing those unhealthy elements too.

But more often the negative seems to win this tug-a-war of the same rope... it consumes us and swallows us whole till it becomes larger than life... ours!

Nitpicking and brainsick... they sound kinda nice together too. Cos we become nitpickers when our brain becomes sick.

Reconsidering homework...

I think it should be banned.... at least all those senseless copying and drilling types. I just counted 9 homework today; plus extra class which ended at 3.30 p.m. My gal came back and immediately got down to work... fell asleep half-way and I had to shake her up.

Extra classes, homework, tuitions.... from Std 4 they toil.... for the three days of UPSR, which doesn't mean much except to 'stream' them into selected secondary schools. So they 'study' and 'study'. For these kids whose parents make sure they complete their work, it's also homework for us too. Even as I type this, I sit beside my girl and keep her company as she copies away one of the passages from the textbooks.... senseless!

No time to read, no time to idle, no time for anything. And we pride ourselves in our ability to make teachers stay back to give extra classes... to show that we are prihatin (caring) about the child's education. They stay back for more rote, drilling, copying... even before they begin their extra classes, everyone is tired. So everyone just wants to get it done and over with. Blur of rushes.... meaningless educational pursuits. Those A(s) will not teach them how to think.... (some smart alec will probably pipe in and say that without the A(s) too you cannot gain entrance to a good uni)

Play??? Daydreaming? Read?? We also have nice sounding programmes at school like NILAM... supposedly to encourage reading! Hello!!! Anyone there with brains? Where do they find time to read? Over the years, I've watched some of my students copy the synopsis from the back to the book they were supposed to be reading.... LOL! They wizened up!!! Most kids would have spent so much time with books that they'd prefer to have a different companion at the very first free time they have. The TV makes a more interesting companion. The computer... no need to say will win hands down, not for reading but for the games. Now if homework were to include book reviews... maybe that might be good. Then again, given the blur of rushes for everything else... how to find time to read.

Results oriented we are. So we drill and keep on drilling.... till their heads have so many lubang, which leaks out what would have been stuff that makes up the EQ or creativity. Those have to be leaked so that more space can be made for all the facts they must remember.

I had a most interesting conversation with a friend's daughter (she's in F5 this year) who just came back from a 2-month student exchange programme to Italy. One of the things she told me she was impressed with was this; the kids in Italy speak their mind. They are not afraid to voice their opinions. And kids her age are taking Psychology, Liberal Arts, Social Studies... subjects of practical use. Unlike ours which is a very subdued, timid and 'voiceless' environment, ever afraid to speak out... cos all of us are rushing to do as much work as possible, no time to develop the mind really.... what more character. Maybe longsuffering counts as one....

Her foster family brought her to Florence. She saw the Statue of David and said it was awesome. She came back and for the first time actually made practical and real connections with her History lessons on European history; the transition into the golden age from the Dark Ages... And a light went on when I told her that life is like the European History too... in order to have our own renaissance.. we to must reform from within. Only then can we achieve greatness.

She told me that her History teacher at school just told them to read this and that, memorize this and that.... the rest is history. History is a subject with great opportunity to change a society for the better. But pity that ours is a double jeopardy cos apart from History being written with a bias bent, we also have teachers who are unable to spark the interest in the kids to see the connection it has to offer the kids to life itself. Teachers are also harried for the many, many papers to push.

Life in a Chinese school for a kid is full of homework, though I think the national schools are also trying to do the same.... Types of schools.... there isn't much option for us actually. Private schools, there's none really worth looking into where we are. National schools, they'd be many times when she'd be left out cos everything is so religion based, plus the brainwashing also.... it's a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. Either one also....'si'

But homework... I think it should be banned. Save for assignments of the practical kinds like looking for materials for write-ups, I think all work should be done during school hours...

Kontrak Latihan, Pemantauan... blah, blah, blah...

There's this Kontrak Latihan thing teachers have to do these days too... the good I see out of it is it makes the teachers give out written work. More teachers can be seen marking their exercise books because of this constant reminder... which is a good thing. But as usual... the execution is going a little overboard. Teachers are making their own rubber stamps (RM15) to stamp the exercise books.... I thought one look can tell quite a lot... ever since the Headcount thing, we're so obsessed with the numbers...

But there is always a but... so here it is. They want the teachers to make sure those exercises are easy to identify, specific books for specific type of exercises. Say if you are a language teacher then perhaps the three areas you might want to give exercises would be Objective, Structure and Essays. To make things easy for those checking, one must have an exercise book for each type. But essays are most difficult to grade. They take the longest time to grade too, especially with the kind of students we have - just think the deplorable command of English today.

However, the ability to write an essay well most probably would sum up a students language ability. An ability to write indicate mastery. The better you write, the better your mastery. One of the reasons for grads not able to land a job is their inability to write critically.

The easiest exercise to give and grade would be the Objectives. You can hold class discussion all the time to counter check the answers. The same can be done for Structure questions..... but if you want to train kids to write you must be prepared to correct every sentence, going by today's weak command.

YT believes in training students to write. And because of that, YT decided not to have specific books for specific type of questions as it often is quite difficult to finish grading the essays before the next lesson. YT goes on a 'as-and-when-need' basis.... meaning all 3 books can be used for all 3 types of exercises. All 3 exercise books will be utilized in the same lesson on quite a few occasions. Over the years, YT has found out that it made no difference to the grades, the mixed exercises in an exercise book... in fact, by focussing on Writing, YT has seen better grades and overall passing percentage for the average students....

So it was much to YT's chagrin to be implied that YT's intention of using the exercise books mixed is meant to hide the actual numbers of exercise. In actual fact, YT has been faithfully noting down every single type of exercise in her spreadsheet everyday without fail; you see YT is a sucker for details too and tablet computing has made such endeavors very possible. So armed with the implied comment, YT sought out the Senior Teacher who observed her. YT sought an explanation but was duly told that it cannot be helped... you know-lah.... atas mahu. So YT told her that it seems that it's better to just stick to the contract cos that way 1 essay a month is quite easy to handle... since there is no rush. Guess what the Senior Teacher said.... she agreed!!!! Gosh! YT is a sucker for details when marking those essays, mind you; but is now totally baffled that the Senior Teacher agrees to cutting down on the number of essays so that it's easy for the observers to keep track of the number of exercises!!!! YT is now seriously considering this aesthetic aspect cos it's really attractive as it means less work and less hassle also..... And LOL! They're all suckers for appearance!

Pemantauan or orbservation... in one whole year, a teacher gets observed twice... if you perform really well, you might get a promotion. Strange thing that I observed... we have Guru Cemerlangs (GC) who are supposed to be excellent. But when you walk into their classes, sometimes you get the impression that they have no control over the class. There is a perpetual hum, a cacophony of noise; tis a conundrum which baffles the mind. There're always comments.... and no doubt some are actually good. But there are those who always seem to look out for mistakes and their remarks can be quite demotivating.... because of the maksud tersurat dan tersirat. What would be good would is that we, the ordinary teachers be allowed to watch them at work too.... learn from the experts. But sadly, this never happens. There is no accountability.... but perhaps after this YT should arm herself with these friendly gadgets and go tape them to learn from the masters.... YT is all for learning to be a better teacher. 8)

Back to Planet School! Teaching these days is also a lot about showmanship; of the wrong kind... for the moments that matter. I have a friend who has been teaching Science and Bio for many years... in all the years that I know her, her classes have always done well.... but guess what too! She has never been nominated for GC or APC or anything for that matter. Lesser effective teachers have melangkahi over her and become Principals. Not surprising too that my friend is quiet, non-showy and timid in her appearance.

As for YT, she has learned a valuable lesson... giving less exercise will solve the problem of the need of using the exercise books in the way that she is using now. Or perhaps she could also look into using nice and expensive files for filing up exercises..... can decorate them with punch arts, whatever crafty material... kind of a crafty way to score more points also.... LOL! At this point, YT is very attracted to reducing the number of exercises... at the present rate she has been going... one week would suffice to complete the whole month's quota. Not bad, eh?? Can crap for the rest of the month... talk, talk, talk more on her part, write, write, write less on the students' part, listen-listen-listen more on the students' part.... actually very often English classes are conducted more in BM... YT's command of BM would soon be seeing another big improvement. LOL!!!!

Anyway... YT thinks GKB is being personal... and perhaps a big dose of racism too.

Kontrak Latihan and Pemantauan... 2 supposedly instruments to help but has become a burden... We should practise this dictum; KISS - Keep it Simple Silly.... instead of burdening the teachers to the point of silliness too.