Broken?

Education in doldrums... An already broken education system given a really hard whack by Covid-19. 

I used to read about pandemics, that a big one should be coming soon. For years, I would teach about the 1918 Spanish Flu. There were a few close scares along the way, SARS, Nipah Virus closer to home but I think most of us felt that the big one won't come. After all, we have all the science... we know all the science.

Yet, it did hit. And its name is Covid-19. Going to be a year since the virus was announced to the world.

In January this year, I read about the Wuhan virus. It had no name yet but I started teaching about it to my students. I hashed up my own materials, scour the net for stuff which I could use. I told my students that what was happening in Wuhan was going to blow up. I felt it will not pass us by and for a couple of weeks starting from end of January, many of my lessons evolved around the pandemic which was raging in Wuhan. 

The virus reached our shores shortly. However, at school everything was running as usual. The Principal never seemed to pay much heed to the dangers. As a matter of fact, just a day before the MCO students were still gathered in closed rooms for programmes. I tried saying that it wasn't in the kids' best interest. It was just brushed off. This same callous response to the ongoing pandemic would be seen repeatedly throughout the year. We just seem to think and feel that it will not affect us. 

11 months on, one Movement Control Order and 2 CMCOs down the road, with an end seemingly in sight because vaccines are on the way. However, it has been a year of disruptions in schools. Out of the usual 40 plus weeks of school that we usually have, the physical school has been off for more than half that time. Going online has laid open our incredible shortcomings. Billions of dollars spent and still reports say about 40% of students do not have proper gadgets/access for online education.

How can we be ready for online learning? I think it is an uphill struggle. The reason? Many of our heads belong to that era where chalk and talk seems to be the only rule of the day. Soon after the MCO ended and school resumed, I asked permission for students to be allowed to bring their mobiles so that I could continue to work on the online platform that I had been working on during the MCO. The answer was no. In fact, the whole school went back to doing things the old way. As the weeks wore on, more 'normal' programs were cooked up. 

Extra classes made their returns. Never mind that a pandemic was still raging. I have never seen such silliness. Extra hours when we are supposed to mitigate the exposure. I have seen also how labelling of such classes kept evolving to escape the SOPs. It is as if the school too was playing a cat and mouse game. When Extra Classes were not allowed, they changed the name to Bengkel. When that too was disallowed, they changed it further to Kelas Lanjutan PdP. Yet they were all the same.... in the face of a pandemic, even the ones who supposed to be leading were scheming and plotting. Makes me wonder what we are teaching kids cos I don't think the kids don't see it. 

The extra classes above have peculiar purposes. Students were made to stay back for an hour after school. All the kids did was this...  they were to complete the work their subject teachers mete out, in other words, homework. They were instructed to complete those work under the watchful eyes of teachers who were assigned to watch them like hawks. It was the most unproductive sessions I have seen and yet, they continued it. What made it rather irrational was amidst it all, there was a raging pandemic. I often wondered what good would all the seemingly extra cramming do when all the kids did was just to do their homework when the same could be achieved at home. Such is the state of the minds of those who head our schools these days.

So, a year on... I have learned a lot also during this pandemic. I made my first teaching video for the first time in my life. As much as I hated to hear my own voice and see myself in a screen, I did it. I picked up more editing know-hows in the process too. Played a bit with emojis and bitmojis. Turns out the learning curve isn't so steep this round. However, with age catching on and up, sitting too long in one position can be kind of a torture these days too. 

I have also learned that online teaching is actually like a truth serum. Lessons on WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, Google Classroom.. the list is very long. And when the reports start rolling in, it seems like they are working fine. Yet around me, from the kids I know, online lessons feel like a sham at times. There are some really good 'reviews' but those are far and few... 

It is going to be one year of disruptions and it looks like it might spill over to 2021. But this seems to hold true... for a good online teaching/learning session, you need a really good teacher. But these days, they define good teachers as ones who 'borrow' videos from the net and send them as the lesson for the day for their students... Whatever happened to teaching....

2020... they year teachers repost videos (not theirs)... great isn't it?

that teach for them.

And The Student Called the Teacher Ah Gua

So, people are taking sides ... teacher vs student, public vs mother. The kid won’t get too much sympathy for sure. After all, she started it...

Somebody posted out the poor girl’s results. In the midst of all these, obviously many forget that she’s still 13. One tends to do lots of crazy stuff at that age. Emotionally they are also trying to make sense of themselves... 

Then the teacher who lost it. I cannot understand why so many condone caning. The marks on the kid were telling. It was caning done out of control. And he is the adult. If teachers cannot hold their temper or emotions in check, then students’ lives will be in danger.

The SOP on caning is clear. No caning for the girls. Say what we want but the guidelines are clear. And it’s there for a reason. 

Yet, caning... so many seems to swear by it. Nostalgia.

But imagine this...

A school where the cane reigns supreme. You are late. You get caned. You talk to your friends during the school reading time... caned again. You skip your ‘extra class’ ... yup, caned again. 

Then the hair issues in some Chinese conforming schools... 2 weeks after you have cut your hair. You are told it is now too long... lagi kena rotan. Then have your hair cut in full view of everyone who passes by... cane and more caning. The sound of whipping is the one common sound.... over hair which does not break the limits set by the MOE guidelines. 

Should we try this instead? Engaging students, making them understand, moving on with times, staying relevant... would an engaged student be calling a teacher Ah Gua?

Yet, you get bored kids. Those grades.. which have been displayed to shame this kid. You get lots of those these days. Some say it is the good life that’s causing them to lose focus. I think it’s more than that. Most don’t see relevance of what is taught in the class with their lives.

I see kids being lined up and whipped in public, right in plain sight of everyone. Girls being caned too.. now is everyone okay with their kids being dished that in school regularly. 

We desensitise the kids. We normalise caning as a solution to disciplinary problems. It is not. Caning, quick solution for quick adherence.

A walk down my own memory lane. Primary school. I was in Std 2. I always had perfect score for my spelling... cos one mistake ... and the cane awaited. Well, I am human... so like the fallible human... one day, after almost half a year, I made a mistake. The trepidation when lining up to be caned. 😂

Guess what? After that day, I didn’t really care much about being caned any more. It didn’t matter to me any more because my childish mind discovered that I could numb myself to the pain and humiliation. 

Oh! I continued to get perfect scores still for my spelling. But the occasions when I did not, I didn’t think the caning made a difference to ensuring that I hit the perfect score all the time.

Yah.. there might be bad parenting here. But that’s a mother being instinctive. Her language showed her not to be very polished. But put anyone of us in a situation like this... I think most of us would be tongue tied. The school office can also be a very intimidating place... 

There was excessive show of force in the Ah Gua teacher case. 

There was misbehaviour most definitely. 

And you also have a mother who got really, really defensive. 

And yes. The mother viralled it. Good idea? Don’t think so. But years from now, this video might serve as the starting point of a greater awareness for stakeholders involved.

4000 MINUTES... TERBUANG

What is 4000 minutes to a teacher? Been thinking about it for the past few months.

Schools are supposed to inculcate a love for reading in their students. So they craft all sorts of programmes to instil that love for reading. From NILAM to Reading Corner to Morning Reading Session, they hope to get students to want to read. After all, we know those kids won't be doing much lifelong learning or self-directed learning if they don't like reading.

NIILAM has been going on for years. Schools try to cajole, coerce, force and even threaten kids to get NILAM going, though I think NILAM has gone into cold-storage for the time being. However, I think NILAM has not succeeded in most schools simply because there wasn't much concerted effort put into it. Teachers have too many other things on their hands.

Reading Corner, on the other hand, collects dust after the initial brouhaha dies. It sits in the corners of classrooms, school compound, collecting dust... and eventually cobwebs, the reading materials aged by the unforgiving weather.

Enter Morning Reading Programme. In my school they force everyone to gather at the assembly area. Kids can't go to the classroom. So they are forced to sit there till reading starts at 7.20 a.m. If you walk into a school for the first time and see this programme, you'd be forgiven for being impressed. I mean, how not to. That is until you actually see it in action for a couple of weeks, when you, as a teacher are forced to sit there with the kids. After a few weeks, you will begin to notice that kids actually don't read. They just sit and stare at whatever printed stuff they are holding, under the watchful eyes of the prefects and discipline teachers...

As a teacher, I find it a chore after a few weeks. I mean, before I even get to sit down and work on my lesson, it's time to go down. And I am one who often arrives at school before 7.00 a.m. It is frustrating. These days, I make it a point to sit at the coffee shop before I go to school since the canteen food is rather unpalatable. Why torture myself some more?

When asked why the teachers have to sit there, I was told we need to read with the students, be a reading role model. Lol! After a couple of months, I find myself resenting having to sit there. I find myself telling myself, why even bother to prepare the lessons when the school doesn't see the need for teachers to settle down or prepare their lessons. Lol! Lesson prep is not important. Sitting there and wasting time is... for a show.

And, I asked a few classes what they thought of the Morning Reading Programme. One student even said she felt like an idiot sitting there. Even the younger ones said they do not like sitting there. Who can blame them. In the beginning I thought it was a good idea. But after a few months, I can see that I was wrong to think so. A school is also a place where kids play. These kids' lives are regimented from the time they step into school. So how fun is it to sit there? If I were one of the kids, I'd hate it. Lol!

And it got me thinking about the time it forces the teachers to waste. 10 minutes of sitting there waiting for the kids to finish reading. I am already in no mood to read because my mind will be on the lessons for the day. I get cheesed off because I would probably want to work on my computer or print some worksheets for my students. My printer is up there printing and I'd be thinking, did I leave enough paper in it? Would the paper jam ... that's a real worry cos I used recycled papers whenever possible. Life is a constant hurry, a harried rush down and then up again... so much energy wasted. 20 minutes a day.

A schooling year is an average of 200 days. The school wastes 4000 minutes for me without me having to do it myself. But I am not the only teacher. If there are 60 teachers, that is a whopping 240,000 minutes! And 20 minutes is an understatement. Very often it runs to 30 minutes, when there is a spot-check for hair length (that is another topic to ramble on), for example. So much time wasted. So much goodwill burnt. So much forcing down the throat the need to read... so I guess the students must have a very high level literacy ability. But sadly, it is not so.

So yeah.. READING IS HOW WE INSTALL 'SOFTWARES' INTO OUR HEADS.. but when done for show, those heads in the assembly area will still be empty even after 200 days of 10 minutes-a-morning enforced reading.

Want to see how to kill the love for reading??? I think one can safely make an assumption that such a Morning Reading Session will kill it... many, many times over. Want to really get kids to love reading.. inspire the teachers to do so. We'd achieved more this way.

Hari Guru Hijacked

So, what actually is Hari Guru or Teachers' Day for? Is it a day for students to show appreciation for their teachers or what?

I feel Teachers' Day has been hijacked. Hijacked because it is no longer a day for students to appreciate their teachers.  It is more a day of show, and more show.. a lot of physical activities with expected superficial responses.... perhaps that's also a reflection of what we have all become.

The fanfare may all be there. Teachers seemingly being feted yet there seems to be an emptiness of sorts. This year, it is no different.

A special assembly. Class parties banned. Students reminded to attend school under guarded breath. You wonder why... The usual assembly, followed by the usual oath taking and the teacher song by teachers. I find it strange that students scream (or yelled) at any given opportunity during the 'show'. I don't think so our singing was that awesome. But the screaming goes to show the seeping of a concert going culture. Perhaps these kids are just so bored that they become like that at the slightest opportunity, an opportunity to let it all go, to assert themselves. To scream to claim the space or attention.

This year, though in another school, the celebration to me was just as staid as before. It would be nice if kids were allowed to have their class parties. Somehow it is always nicer to be able to go class to class at your own pace. You get to do real mingling with your students in a more relaxed environment. I always believe that working together for a common cause teaches us to be better people. When we remove the class parties, we remove so much of those unseen lessons. For me the joke becomes this... teachers feting themselves on Teachers' Day. I mean, what sense is there for teachers to organise a day to appreciate them. Are we focusing on self appreciation? It is rather comical.

The best things each year for me are those well thought out little gifts that kids made themselves for me. Homemade cookies, little cards with heartwarming messages and things that they thought out. I think they are the most priceless appreciation a teacher can have, I feel. Instead they congregated everyone in the hall... an institution institutionalising her own because it is way easier to exert control... and put on a show that something is being done... hijacked for convenience.

So, we have this stage show. Teachers sitting down there. Students screaming and yelling as if they were in a concert. So much fanfare, yet one can be forgiven to feel the sterility of it.

I spent a good part of the day fixing a fan with a colleague in the classroom that I am using. Figured might as well used the time to get the fan fixed ourselves so that the students will be more comfortable. The weather has been very unforgiving. Pleas for more fans have fallen on deaf ears because I was told all classroom in Malaysia are hot and stuffy. I can never understand why a school can raise hundreds of thousands of ringgit or embark on an endeavour to build a hall or some other buildings but not embark of projects to make classrooms more comfortable. How can they expect kids to study and even stay focussed if the classrooms are like mini ovens? Is it because things fixed in the classroom cannot be seen cos they are not imposing? We focus on the big things but ignore the small things...

In between fixing and trying to get my exam papers ready, we were 'invited' to go watch the concert. For me who just cannot stand loud noises, watching a concert is a torture to the ears and the mind. My own kids asked me to join them for the Ed Sheeran concert in KL recently... it definitely would have been an experience with more wow than the one this morning but I told them to go have a good time, minus me. Cos I don't like crowds and noise. I even gladly sponsored the tickets for them.

Teachers' Day... it would be nice just to let the teachers have their day. Instead, these days, many schools force teachers to watch, be part of a show that is put up yet minus all the personal touches... Everything planned.. everything organised... but the heart and soul left out. And in the end you are supposed to partake of it and pretend that it is the best thing that could have been done.

This year... despite in a new place... there were 2 cards... 2 different groups of students. One had this phrase... 'never a dull moment in your class'. They mean more than any of those other organised stuff... We no longer teach kids to take the trouble to appreciate those around them. We take things into our hands because we feel we know better. We don't... that is the sad thing. Our education system is run by these people who feel that they know best.....

Oh ya... every year they have this cake cutting ceremony... the irony of it.. Teachers' Day... yet those who stood in front, taking all the photos, doing all the cutting... the admin and the invited guests... all the while.. the teachers standing behind... Teachers' Day Hijacked. Lol!

The essence and the spirit of Teachers' Day are gone, hijacked.. I wonder by who?

One more thing.. they tried to have a special celebration for teachers who had their birthdays from Jan to June. Thing is when you do something like this, make sure you comb through your teachers list. Lol! They left me out... not that I mind cos I would not have budged from my seat for that sort of thing but it goes to show that it might be better just to opt that out...

Anyway, teaching is not so important these days... holding extra classes, winning competitions... those seem far more important than the mundane, routine work of building character... It is easy to see why. One gives instant recognition while the other ... well you might not even feel the fruits. Yet, without the latter, our country would surely face a further decline too...

Ramblings about Hari Guru... hijacked.

Musings about Teaching

Am beginning to lose faith in the system. Thinking perhaps it is time to throw in the towel. People who know me laugh at me when I tell them that, saying that's not me. Lol! I guess they forget that here is a limit called 'survival' and when that is breached it's just survival from then on. We are generally expected to be conforming.. either to a set of values, image for example.

My last few months have been a rollercoaster of sorts because of a teacher bully case who was my colleague. Having believed that such behaviour should not be tolerated by anyone, I foolishly stood up. And even when the signals were there that our value system has changed, I still steadfastly voiced out for action. But still that didn't deter me because I felt kids needed an advocate... for the right reasons. And so, I wasn't too perturbed even by the fact that I was transferred by a system that went against its own for something so serious like a teacher bullying students. I guess too verbal bullying is okay... the message from all those people with pangkat seems to indicate so.

Then recently, an academic cluster of excellence school, suffered a drop in its SPM results. The drop was marked enough for certain quarters to voice displeasure. And suddenly, there was this flurry of teachers being transferred. We suddenly began hearing teachers with good credentials and from the non-bumi race being transferred from their respective schools into the cluster school. Now these were Guru Cemerlang, teachers with C2 in their CPT exams (for English), teachers who were 'acknowledged' as being good by proof of APC.... Their schools are those normal day schools which struggle with less than sterling students. The cluster school meanwhile gets selected students with excellent results in the UPSR.

This is where it gets really interesting. For years, many of us were reminded that all teachers are the same in terms of ability. But this whole incident smacks a peculiarity that defies that perception. Suddenly we have this transfers of non-bumi teachers into a cluster school who over the years have been seen a decline in its non-bumi students as well as teachers. And of course, in the process of the transfers, you have bumi teachers who had to be transferred out to make way for former. And this takes place in March, at a time all schools have set into a routine.... not forgetting to the teachers on transfer who now find their very own lives disrupted to.

Then yesterday, I saw the extra classes list. The weather has been very punishing of late. Temperatures soaring to 38-39 degrees Centigrades in the afternoons, less than desirable conditions of the class because of the lack of fans as well as the design of the school which makes it into a perfect heat trapper, in the pursuit of CGPA, there is this demand for extra class. Now why does the admin of a school demand extra classes without consulting the teachers? And even in some cases where teachers insist that they do not want to hold the classes, they are forced upon them?

Of late, Principals keep reminding the teachers that they need to carry out these Program Peningkatan (read that as forced free tuition to be given by teachers after school hours) because PPD/JPN will demand an explanation from them if the results drop. So holding a Program Peningkatan will be proof that something has been done.

And that's where too I think we miss another point. The Program Peningkatan in most schools, I suspect is not running. Teachers are too tired. Students too. The classrooms are uncomfortable. We are making kids stay back after 7-8 hours of enforced learning in sweltering heat. Holding these extra classes are just not effective without proper rest.

Teaching time during school hours... how much of that is actually happening??? How much of it is wasted? Yet we tax the teachers without realising that it's the heart of the teacher for the students that actually makes the world of difference.

The heart of a teacher, the effort put into moulding a kid and imparting values... those are the important things. Yet what I am seeing, is a system lost in its own labyrinth, one that is of its own making. A system that has been eaten away by its own policies of segregating and compromising.

An illustration. In the teaching of languages for example, a student is supposed to learn a few short stories, poems and novels. So, what is a teacher supposed to do? Teaching novel is always one of the more difficult thing to do. So what I am now being made aware is there are teachers who are clueless how to get students to read those novels. Yet the school admin breathe down hard on them to produce results. So what some teachers do is they give the question to the students before the exam, sometimes complete with the answer. Students sit for the school exams, get good scores, marks look good on the score sheet... teacher gets breathing space.

One would think that the public exam should be able to weed these students out. Yet, as a teacher of almost 3 decades, I am constantly surprised by the number of As and passes that I  seem to be hearing from students who actually do not show those qualities of a Cemerlang student. A student who has trouble writing cohesive sentences now can score A and even A+. And so, we tap ourselves on our shoulders and tell the world how great our students are and how effective our efforts are.

But that all stops when these same students enter the job market. We begin to hear laments from the market about how incompetent or unmovable these now young adults are. This shouldn't be as the students were A scorers in the public exams. Where did we go wrong? Have we compromised so much that we no longer are able to discern what quality actually is? Or are we just proverbial ostriches with our heads in the sand?

And so, in trying to maintain grades, more rote learning, more extra classes... more of everything that produces mechanical thinking and disinterest in knowledge...

We did have a good education system once... in an era without the need of PAK21 models. Those days we had thinking teachers but more importantly, teachers who were dedicated and taught. We didn't need extra class.... and we didn't turn out too badly. There weren't laments from the employers about the quality of graduates... if there were laments, it was from the graduates who lament about the market not being able to provide employment opportunities because of economic downturns......

Teacher Stories..

I think my teachers were a special breed. They were the know-all people. And we were lucky we had them to inspire us. ACS Sitiawan in those days was the school to be in. Small kampung but we'd produce not just jaguh kampung but world beaters, back in those years, when Michael Jackson's moonwalk used to be one of the crazes. 

I remember Mrs. Tan Kam Thiam, the formidable Add Maths teacher. There is no Add Math question that she could not solve. Try as we did, we never did succeed in finding a question she could not do. It was only much later she told us, there is probably no question that she had not done before. You see, she'd go through any reference books that she could get her hands on and do them all. We never stood the chance of finding one she cannot do. She had done them all.

Then there was the legendary Mrs. P. She has a name but she will always be Mrs. P to us. And when we see her, we still call her that. Last year, she gifted us an avocado tree. It's still in my garden. She was not only the Discipline Mistress but a darn good Biology teacher. She is way into her 70s and she is still writing Bio books. There used to be nothing that she didn’t seem to know. Many were in awe of her. We still are. Garang as she was, many of us, taught or not taught by her would often still enjoy moments of conversations with her. 

There was also Mrs. Wong Tai Meng, my Perdagangan cum English teacher. Small and petite, many of us would look for opportunities to talk to her. I remember cycling on the road, rushing to get back for school, hoping to catch a glimpse of her on her way to school. Never mind that her glasses were really thick. We loved her for some strange reason. But she was an interesting Perdagangan and English teacher.

Mrs. Quay Beng Tiong... and her famous pembetulan. She was strict and firm, no nonsense. Her BM was always correct. I learned to use the language from her. Everyone of us respected her, for the teacher she was. One word - tabik.

I don’t think I can recall any teacher being bad... except maybe for a primary school teacher. This was how I remembered my teachers and this is how we still talk about them even as we enter into our half a century mark. 

Fast forward to the present day. I am still in school but the stories are vastly different now. These are not my stories but the stories of my students...

I used to keep an eye on my friend’s son in school. So, whenever I saw him at the canteen during lesson time, I would ask him why. He and his friend would sheepishly sometimes smile, and with their fingers pointing to the canteen where the teachers sit....”Our teacher is still inside there, eating.” I would later find out that the teacher,  would often be late to class one period cos he would be eating in the canteen. Class time....

Then, there was this "bag/present' teacher. Every year her students must buy her presents. Very often she will ask for bags. There are other presents I supposed. but I am not too sure. Anyway, she dictates and decides the bags that the students buy for her. She calls those gifts, the symbol of their appreciation. Do not know why ladies and their bag penchants. But then again, we have Rosmah and her famous Bijan bag.

Another teacher goes into class. Hardly teaches but many says she used to be a good teacher. Maybe she got lazy or something but in later years, due to competition, her tuition classes dwindled somewhat. So, what she did was to fail and give low scores to the students. In a school where marks seem to mean a world to the students, many buckled and ended up in her tuitions. Not bad eh.. get paid to intimidate students to earn more. Oh ya... when it didn't suit her, students got cursed to die... again and again, the menacing woman she is. Wonder why she did that...

There’s this teacher who runs a tuition centre. To increase flow into the centre, there are certain seasons primed for strikes. These days PT3 exams are school based. Say what they want about it being secured, questions often find their way into the open. Very often, these teachers who run tuition centres, they are the ones who will weave their ways into convenient access of exam papers.  A few intensive classes, a couple of thousand bucks richer... Lucrative...

Another teacher would often feign forgetfulness in entering classes. Or if he entered at all, he would leave shortly. Sometimes students would try to go find him and locate him in the Staff Room, laughing rambunctiously. And when they say, “Sir, your lesson still on.” His response was classic... look at the time and say, “You all go back to class first.” And he would still go MIA.

Yet another, when asked a question, the student tak paham, so asked again. The teacher uses the same method to explain. 5 kali you ask, 5 kali you get the same explanation. Budak dah tak paham.. teacher seemed like lagi tak paham cos he is on a one way track only. These are the 'limited-edition-imagination' teachers. How to encourage creativity if teacher sendiri does not exhibit creativity.

Then there are those, who when asked a difficult question, usually it will be Math, the teacher will say, "Kita letak tanda bunga (or bintang) and we will come back to it." Next lesson, student asked the teacher about the bunga question. Teacher will say, “Oh, saya tak tanya kawan lagi.” It is repeated - oldest trick in the book. Soon students forget and that’s it. Bunga remains with the question, layu with the question dan dibuang terus dari kelas. So easy hor, to be a teacher. Dunno how to do, never mind wan. Just senyum-senyum more and be super duper nice to students, beres semua.

Now for a student to get one teacher like that in a year is bad enough. But if you get 2-3, you are skewed big time. Where once tuitions used to be remedial now it replaces the actual classes. So why even go waste time in school?

In Malaysia, many of us like to talk halal and haram. But if we go by these stories, it would be ambil gaji which is actually tak halal. Then as if that is not enough, we sugar coat our kaki busuk by being extra nice to the the students. We cover our shortcomings by being nice. And students who don't know any better, termakan habis-habis. We make them forget why they go to school. But these days, apparently everything can be made kosher (or halal)... just the intention baik can d... (our political leaders say so)

So, what plagues our schools? Well, the answer is all in the school. In religious schools, you will get teachers who will go into excessive physical punishments. In national and (now) national-type schools, you see an erosion of dedication and commitment of what it entails to be a teacher. A country built on 100% sound moral values would most probably be impossible. But that should not be an excuse not to try to build that little utopia in this broken world. The thing is... our very fallen nature will always make us do the opposite. 

So, how many of the above can you relate to? 

By the way, if you are student reading this. You should know your rights as a student. Never short change yourself by allowing your teachers to get away with not teaching y'all. Hold them accountable as teachers. 

If you are teacher reading this. Ask yourself why you became a teacher. If you are in for the extra money from tuition or just for the easy life, then ask yourself if you would like the same to be given to your own children or grandchildren. 

PAK21 - Where do we go from here?

There is so much talk going on about PAK21 or Pembelajaran Abad Ke-21. As usual, when there is something new, changes are expected. It was the same with the implementation of PPSMI in 2003 which was then reversed in 2012. I think 2020 marks the last batch of PPSMI for those schools still teaching Math and Science in English. Soon after we had our MBMBI and then the DUAL Program. All in all, our Malaysian education is generally in a very confused state, having gone through many flip flops over the years. This flip-flopping is also a reflection of our nation's inability to grab the bull by its horn and move forward. 

But, now, with the Industrial Revolution 4.0's effects knocking on our shores, we basically do not have much choice but to bring in changes into our education system. Else we will be gobbled up by the waves of changes. While PPSMI is dead, there is the DUAL Program. In essence it is the same thing like PPSMI, only difference being not all schools are carrying it out. And so, there we have it, instead of our education system uniting and providing an equal platform, we now continue to build another new divide between the haves and the haves-not. 

In all this confusion, enters the PAK21. To me this is more of a pedagogical change rather than a systemic one. PAK21 is to prepare us for the challenges of this century. The challenges to come are going to be way different, so they say. Reason is because we will be up against machine learning. AI is going to change the way things work it. Changes are now happening at a dizzying pace and catching up comes with a whole new set of catch phrases these days.

And so, you have teachers the most confused lot as usual. Some are attaching PAK21 to gadgets. I think that is a mistake. Some are saying that we are already doing PAK21 and there is no need for fancy gadgets because most schools don't have them. They are wrong too, I believe. Yup, there is no need for fancy gadgets but I think gadgets like projectors (or smart tv screens) and tablets/computers should be making their way into the classrooms.

So what is this PAK21? PAK21 is about the skills that we need to get our students to have before they enter the job market, so that they can be the engine of growth to our country's economy.

And so what are those skills that they need? The usual list will include critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, leadership, initiative, productivity and social skills. What many sometimes forget are the following: media literacy, technology literacy, information literacy and flexibility. I might have missed out a few others. These are the other skills that we need to catch up with the world. Digitalisation has entered our lives and it has entered big time. And it is changing the landscape of jobs.

However, the point is this. For those who insist that PAK21 can go on without the gadgets, they are wrong. The workplaces of this century has changed. Computer literacy is a must these days and an educational institution fails if it cannot incorporate that into its classrooms. Computer literacy is necessary for media, information and technology literacy. And the latter are required so that the flexibility to adapt to the constant changes around us will be functional. But the gadgets and tools are just a part of the PAK21, a smaller part.

The bigger or more important part remains the skills - critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, etc. To train that is the main challenge because for that to take place we need people who can show the way to the students. Those would be the teachers. 

The bigger question would be this. Are the teachers able to cope?

In today's fast changing landscape, a teacher who teaches from the textbook is archaic. A teacher who does not have the linguistic skills (read that as English, in Malaysia) is also a katak di bawah tempurung because that teacher will find it hard to relate to many things as Malaysia cannot seem to churn out enough materials of substance in BM. Also, a teacher who doesn't read is also ineffective because things are constantly evolving. 

Teacher quality will remain the greatest challenge in the success of PAK21 and we have an uphill task because for a long time, many of those who entered the teaching profession in Malaysia, especially from the late 1990s to the early 2000s were basically those who could not find employment elsewhere. The teaching profession became a haven of refuge for many of these people... correct me if I am wrong. Over the years many have been comfortably entrenched... 

Many of our teachers have been conditioned by our exam oriented system too.Many teachers today are unable to bring the world into the the classroom because they, themselves don't read. Their comfort zones are so wide that many happily exist like the proverbial ostriches with their heads in the sand. Many teach without inspiring. All they aim for is just the A(s). Students are no longer challenge to think for themselves. Tuition classes prep students to answer exam type questions so much so that simple 'thinking questions' often baffle them. All you need to do is just take a look at the quality of answers of our students for the why and how questions and it will be painfully glaring how our students don't seem to be able to think much these days. 

Those who can be pushed continue to score the A(s) but many leave without the necessary skills. Those who cannot be pushed get bored to death in class and these become the lost numbers in our system. This group is getting bigger because they see no relevance in the lessons carried out in the classrooms. Relevance... most teachers are finding it hard to relate relevance to what is taught in class and it is boring kids to death.

So, PAK21. If we are serious about maintaining our place even just in Southeast Asia and not have 'newcomers' like Vietnam leapfrogging us, we really have to look seriously into proper allocation for equipment procurement and teacher training and continuous professional development.

My two sen for today... 

PT3.... External Internal Exams

That means the questions are set by the Lembaga Peperiksaan but the school teachers mark their own students' scripts. And also the school prints the exam papers. Externally set but internally printed and marked. That's what an external internal exam means.

This is the 3rd year running. Is this better than PMR?

First, from the students perspective. Questions are deemed tougher. Why not? After years of objective questions mostly, kids these days don't take subjective questions very well. I think different sets of grey matter are at work here. For one, you cannot 'agar-agak' your answers any more. Also, after years of prepping students for PMR, I think teachers are also at a loss in getting the students ready. We have been spoon feeding the kids too long that we are finding it hard to figure out how not to spoon feed. And there are the effects of PBS to be reckoned with too, those heady days where everyone was worksheet obsessed cos every skill 'mastered' required recording.

But, then again, kids are able to get these amazing tips for PT3 these days too. For all that is worth, the tips seem to be very accurate. Friends have confirmed that there are special classes carried out on the eve of the PT3 exams. Those kids who attend pay. RM30 ringgit above for those sessions. Were the tips reliable? Well, one only needs to ask around and the answer is quite apparent. Despite all those pledges of secrecy, one has to admit that the whole thing can become rather porous. After all, papers need to be printed... that's one. Then they need to be stapled.. another one. Basically the whole hierarchy of the school is accountable here.

In a school system like ours where we have so many different labelling, the labelling itself might also pose a problem. A school which is in the selected list would be hard pressed to produce sterling results befitting of its listing... Berprestasi Tinggi, Kluster Kecemerlangan. Seems like listing can be bad too. Stiff competition among schools to top the district, state also play a role. In the end, despite being an internal exam which is supposed to be a yardstick for the students to gauge their ability ends up being used as a comparison to other schools. We just cannot stop comparing, it seems. So, it is not hard to imagine that accurate tips can find their way out of the secrecy that they are supposed to be cloaked under to the hands of those intended for assessment.

As for the teachers, their hands are full after the exams. Where once, teachers would spend time organising games or activities, these days they are hard pressed for time to finish marking. A whole year of marking and grading would have taken their toll by now and most would be too drained to concern themselves with any enrichment activities. Students lose out too. There are schools who tell their students not to go to school after their PT3 exams. Seems like the school is just a place for academic pursuits. Whatever happened to it as a fun place too? A place where one grows up? I remember the days when we still had SRP. The post exam days were spent in the classroom playing board games, reading books, chatting with friends and planning activities. We were given the freedom to go to school... or not to. But, some schools don't allow those activities these days. So many restrictions... sigh!

Also, kids are barred from attending school in some schools. So, they get an extended holiday thrust down their throats. Kids don't get a chance to spend time with their friends. They get locked out from their school, which is such a sad thing.

As for the PT3 exam. Who would expect that an internal exam would become a business opportunity too? It is and apparently has great potential. Accurate tip givers can make a killing. The desperation to score would see to that. Parting with RM30 or RM50 is cheap for the number of A(s) that it can buy.

Another curtain is coming to a close. Another year ending. Time flies when one is busy. And when one is busy, one forgets sometimes to stop and smell the roses. That is not good too. There is more to life than just work.

Of 3D Printing, Lego Bricks and Stuffs...

Teaching is so filled with help these days. I do formative and summative assessments online with my students. I keep in touch with my students via the communication network... email, What's App, iMessage.... I can't keep up with all the new apps. I collaborate with students in the cloud which comes in all kinds of names these days. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.... the list seems endless... There are Dropbox, Box, Drive... again another long list. From the big bulky desktops, we have moved to chromebooks and who knows, perhaps tablets will be making their presence felt soon too. They are already in many places.

I use AppleTV to transmit lessons on the screen, write on little tablets instead of chalkboards. Mind maps make appearances with great ease because apps make it possible. Videos and animations too with great frequency. Students submit homework online. I still use the exercise books, though but they seem such a waste. Papers come from trees and we waste so many pages in an exercise book each year.

When I started teaching, cyclostyling was how we did the printing. You type on stencils with the clunky typewriter and had this red liquid which worked like an eraser for mistakes. It was a wow moment when dot matrix printers made their appearances at work places. Then came the laser printers. These days I mostly print my own worksheets. But most of the time, it's a mix of digital screens and papers. I try to minimise the use of papers whenever possible.

Then the Overhead Projectors came about.... followed by the visualisers and projection panels. Then as computers became more common, projectors made their presence felt. Chalkboards will probably be a thing of the past soon. LED screens, AppleTV,  Chromecast, smart tv and the most recent addition is the 3D printer. It is quite amazing what a 3D printer can do. From chocolates to titanium, these printers are able to print I have read. And they print even complete houses too, cars as well and homemade toys. As a kid, I think I never imagined such changes. Goes to show how small my world is.

My students play with Lego bricks, lego with brains, NXT, EV3... And these are for co-curricular activities. When I was a student, I knew only of one type of band and my school band was already quite special back in the early days in the sense we had a bagpipe section. These days kids in my school are spoilt for choice... 24 Seasons Drums, Chinese Orchestra, Brass Band and even a Symphony Orchestra. 

Lessons used to to teacher dependent within the four walls of a building. These days we have the world wide web to help us. All kinds of gurus reside there, in places like Khan Academy, Crash Course, UdaCity, Coursera and so on. If you want a visual instruction for a hobby, YouTube is available. We are even beginning to have our own homegrown versions. Recently students in Kedah were given access to Kedah ETutor where the video content is based on our very own curriculum.

However I guess too, if we are to ask the generation before us how it was like... I think their tale will probably be in the same tone too, albeit about different things. After all, theirs was a generation of huge leap in transportation and communication too....

But despite all these amazing development, I wonder too whether we have all become wiser and more resilient? Point to ponder. 

Two Years On... Still On CPT

Two years ago, I wrote about having to sit for the Cambridge Placement Test (CPT). And the results were finally released to the teachers. I happened to walk into the Staff Room a couple of days ago and my KP congratulated me and passed me a set of forms to be filled in. Apparently there was a one-off incentive given to the teachers who passed the CPT with a C1 or C2. I had no inkling of what she was talking about as I had forgotten about the exam. I wasn't even sure whether I sat for it.

Anyway, a colleague sent me the website to check my status, which I did. And my name appeared. It is strange that we needed 2 years to process a set of results. And during those 2 years, many teachers had already been asked to attend the APTIS course which is kinda like a remedial... they have a nicer sounding term. They call it upskilling.

The MOE took away our Critical Allowance last year. The PPSMI was supposed to continue till 2018... (I might have the year wrong) and the Critical Allowance was supposed to be till then. But I supposed, with most schools teaching Maths and Science in BM, it was only logical that the allowance be taken away. One of the reasons for the failure of PPSMI I still believe is the lack of teachers skilled enough in English... If a teacher cannot convey a lesson across effectively due to the lack of language, that is already problem enough.

If the CPT results are anything to go by, they point too, to (in)competency problems among the English teachers. Results were dismal, I read. And where I am, I think it's a real problem too. Grades for CPT are C2 (Mastery; 90-100), C1 (Effective Proficiency; 75-89), B2 (Vantage; 60-74),  B1 (Threshold; 40-59), A2 (Waystage, 20-39), A1 (Breakthrough; 10-19) and Pre A1 (0-9).

From among those I know, there were some C1(s) and fewer C2(s). And from the C2 group, many of them had retired. We keep saying that our education system is world class... if it is so, then there should be a big group of C2(s) and even bigger group of C1(s). Yet it is heavily skewed towards the B(s) and A(s). But like the proverbial frog under the coconut shell who has only a narrow view of one spot of blue sky, we believe that all is well.

This Merdeka Day... while many adverts keep heaping praises on our diversity, yet when you go out onto the streets... the Merdeka spirit seems kinda lacking. Fewer flags seem to be flown, the air of Merdeka-ness just doesn't seem to be in the air... It feels kinda dampened. I think many are weighed down by many things... being squeezed by rising costs, GST looms ahead... But I think too, it is hard to build a Malaysian race when so many policies around us still divide us by ethnicity. What has that to do with the CPT results? Well... the CPT result is an indication too at a nation blinding itself to our skewed values which has brought us where we are.

Well, maybe that's just me feeling it.

Caltex Fuel Your School

Got this in my mail today..... Put in the proposal in a haste the night before the closing date and today I got this email! Almost did not want to put in but sometimes because there are people working with you... well, you kinda just continue to plod on. 

I remember staying up very late that night to upload the documents and proposal.

Anyway, the least I'll get is a Certificate of Participation... 8)

It all started because an ex-colleague wanted to ask for my help to come up with a proposal for it and she went through my colleague. When I went back to school the next day, the latter asked me whether I had any ideas. And so I hatched a couple as we were standing by the field. We found another colleague who had written in a proposal the previous year and succeeded in getting a few eco-boards for the school.

And so as we discussed, I hatched more ideas. And finally we agreed to help each other out. And so, we went and got the quotations and necessary documentations done. But because I was busy, I almost wanted to just give it a miss. That is where a little nudge made all the difference. Documents were forwarded to me and both my colleagues saw me for more details of the ideas we hatched earlier.

No iPad or AppleTV for my proposal as I have been using this. Instead I opted for personal cloud computing. I have been using a WDLiveBook at home for quite some time. Found it to be convenient for storage and also accessing files even when I am not at home. And with the WDCloud app on the iPad, it really made things easy. Having everything I need for work in one place definitely beats rummaging through your bag for thumb drives. And thumb drives get left behind or dropped.

So, my proposal includes setting up a cloud in the class or class in the cloud. Either way, it is supposed to make available resources to my students. That is the main equipment, the others being a colour laser printer (I wish I can have a 3D-printer but it's still expensive now and there is still the issue of safety where the fumes are concerned) and a projector. 

Cloud In The Class.... that is the name of my proposal. Classrooms are changing. The way we learn should change to reflect the technology available to us now. Chalk and talk, static text books, teacher as the sole source of information.... well, those are yesteryear's way. Historically, the way education is done has been changing for as long as written records have been around. So there is no reason for us not to embrace the new technologies.

But I think everything is kinda cyclical. Once upon a time, when one wanted to master a skill, he became an apprentice under a master.... personalised learning. 8) Then mass education came along when the Industrial Revolution came about. There was simply not enough people to do the one-to-one thing. But now... technology has made what was impossible possible... and better.

I think learning has never been more fun than now... even at school, I am trying out so many things.... my good friend keeps encouraging me to blog about it as a way of keeping record and also to remember. I keep procrastinating. I should really get down to it and blog more again...

Anyway, today's email was nice. 

Pirate Box...

Traditional is subjective. This is a continuation of the last post. Time at school to really try out new stuff is not something that I have in abundance. With less than ideal teaching periods and classroom size, it is hard to keep up. Most of my free time is spent either marking students' work or seeing students. That means whatever I try... it is mostly with 'stolen time'. I need to be fluid too. A lot of the stuff I do are not the norm. And I rely a lot on whatever I pick up from my readings and also intuition. That means I improvise as I go along.

This is my pirate box. It's not something I made on my own. Other Half is constantly trying out stuff and sometimes I am the recipient of what his projects after he is done trying. In the pic is the TP-Link's TL-MR3040. PC Mag reports it as one of the lightest modem routers around. You can read all about it here. A pirate box??? It sounds like there is a romantic notion attached to it.... perhaps even something illegal.

Lol! Mystery, adventure in the air.... But I tell my students that my pirate box is my very own internet. This means I don't have to depend on the world wide web. Firmware required to hack the router is available on the net. Just follow the instructions given and you get your own pirate box. My good friend did just that and now she has a working pirate box too!

The physical setup is rather simple. A modem router (the TP-Link) and a thumb drive. Mine is a 32GB white mini which fits rather snugly into the design of the router. The whole thing is really quaint and being battery powered means freedom from power sockets... well, a short one. But these days, with solar powered battery packs, the possibilities are endless.

I have started using it in my class... In the coming months I will probably be using it to complement my lessons. It will be very useful when you don't want to be bogged down by internet connection issues or if you don't want your students to wander off to other sites in the net during class time. It saves time too as you can put in the guided and selected resources for students as reference. Schools like mine run on very short teaching periods... 35 minutes and if I minus the travelling time to get to the lab.. I have very much less time than the officially prescribed one.

Anyway, I recently went paperless with the pirate box. My first try. I uploaded my listening handout and got my students to view them via their chrome books. There is no need to keep listening exercise printouts. What the students did was basically log into my pirate box network and downloaded the PDF file. They basically read from the screen while the audio texts were being played. My second try was ebooks in pdf format. I had this whole collection of books about the solar system uploaded into my pirate box. I plan to use this as a form of digital library in class for students who finish their work early and have a little extra time on their hands.

I can see quite a number of uses for the pirate box in class... apart from ebooks and digital handouts, there are podcasts, video clips. Even the chat box might find some use.

As for other applications... This would be great as a content provider for camps, meetings and conferences. A small private network, dedicated to a specific purpose, for a specific group of people. A private network can be very useful at times.

It's about time we start BYOT/D. Engagement and relevance. Our textbooks are too static for that. The world is moving and changing so fast. I was just telling my kids today that when I was their age, we learned that creatures who lived in the deepest parts of the oceans were not were evolved... primitive and all that.

I have learned in the past year that there is an amazing diversity of marine life in the deepest oceans. The thing is these creatures have not made themselves available in the past cos the submersibles sent down have been chasing them away with their clunking sounds. And I didn't learn that through the papers or books... I could go on and on about the new things which I have been learning of late... Technology does make a difference.

I taught my boy almost 10 years ago about the rovers on Mars. Then somewhere along the way, I lost touch. I recently took another look at the topic and to my amazement so much has been achieved in less than a decade. We are now knocking at the possibilities of landing humans on Mars... Never dreamt of that happening in my lifetime.

Like I mentioned in my last post. I am luckier than most. I have a supportive head who gives me lots of room to try. And I have a friend who shares my enthusiasm in using technology in the classroom. It is nice to be able to exchange notes... collaborate.

No More The Traditional Classroom Part 1

I have not used a chalk for more than a year now. The last one year has been tremendously fun for me as a teacher. It started off with a 10 year old projector which I plugged into an AppleTV. I was lucky to find an infrequently used media room in school. That was a year ago. And so I began to use it for my classes in July until now...

This is where I have my classes now. Just before the holidays in June, I went to speak to my Principal about a computer lab which had been unused for many years. It was in a far flung corner of the school and even many teachers were only vaguely aware of its existence. How I stumbled onto it? My Robotic Club boys wanted to find a room to work on their project for FLL and they brought me to this unused lab.

However, we didn't use it after we checked it out. The room was very dusty. There was a lingering stench from what was left of a dead rat which had decomposed. It had turned into a flattened heap of grey fur in the room. That was in April. I didn't think much about the matter as we were busy with the FLL competition that month.... we won an award for 'The Most Innovative Idea'.... 8)

Then it was exam time. I talked to my Principal about my intention to use the lab. And since the Chrome carts given by the MOE were also not being utilised, I asked for a cart to be used in the lab as well. He gave me the green light and told me I had his support.

And so, as soon as the exam ended, just before the hols started... I cleaned the lab. The first task was to clean the room. There were old desktops on the tables and I was told that they were not in working conditions. And so with my students and school workers, we dusted, swept, mopped and washed whatever that needed cleaning. The electrician and air-con technicians had to be called in to check the aircons and electrical sockets. We even had to call in a roofer as the roof was leaking. I asked for a new projector too as the old one was simply too old and on its last legs. My boss was very supportive. We got the room up and running in 4 days.

My students helped me carry and stack the old CPU(s) and monitors into the store room. We packed all the wires, cables, keyboards, etc neatly into boxes, just in case parts can be salvaged to build other stuff. I couldn't do anything about the furniture arrangement as they were too big. I brought in some stuff from home too... a pair of old Altec Lansing amplified speakers which still sound very good and a fan.

I started using the lab after the new projector arrived... in the mean time, I bought one of my own too, the EB-1776w. It has been an interesting one month plus since I moved all my classes to the lab... a month of experimenting, trying out new things and improving my teaching methods while incorporating new technology.

I was a little distracted for a fortnight during that time as I had to work on a video project for a 3R competition. That took a lot of my concentration and almost all my free time. Lots of ideas and work stuff went onto the backburner. This is a reminder how teachers should be allowed to stay focussed on their main job... that is to teach. After 2 weeks of distraction it was rather difficult to get back the rhythm as I was tired. Age is catching up with my body experiencing all kinds of muscular discomforts and pains from computer work related stress. Anyway... I recovered somewhat...though the aches linger still.

A project like this would not have taken off if not for firm support from the Head. Most school heads in Malaysian schools probably don't have a very good working knowledge of how technology can be used in class. Many have become administrators first then educators. I think it's not often teachers get a chance to do what I did. I am more fortunate. My head gave me all the support needed to get the lab up.

In the coming posts I will try to share how technology has helped change my class and how I teach. More importantly, I hope it will change the way how my students learn too...

 

It's July

World Cup madness...Neymar is out, Brazil is still in the chase; soup kitchen blunders by our ever ready to shoot-themselves-in-their-own-foot politicians; a missing plane; political maneuverings, uncertainties about water rationing, instigations from the mouths of leaders..... the never ending effort to ressurect the ghosts of May 13...

Just came out from another round of activities. I made it to the papers too... in a paper I don't read and a language I am painfully lacking in. A feature article... Lol! Made my mom proud though. At this age, I still feel kinda good that my mom felt a little sense of pride. Mom is hardly one who will heap lavish praises. But still, it's just a 'paper appearance'... Lol! Prints fade, paper disintegrates. Today's news is forgotten after a while.

My classes are finally on the 21st century bandwagon. Started using the Chromebooks in class this term. It's slow going. Thought the students were tech savvy enough. Turns out, digital literacy is something which needs time to teach too. I run my class from what used to be an unused computer lab. It's a nice and comfy class for teacher and learners. Schools ought to have classrooms like this. In this spate of humid and warm weather, it is a wonder that our students can still stay alert after half a day of slowly being 'grilled' in the class.

I have no one to guide me in this area. So far it has been a trial and error run. Time is something which never seems to be enough these days. I would start a lesson and then discover that the students don't have the skills for what I have in mind. I have been doing a lot of adapting, modifying and changes on the spot. Sometimes I switch topic totally. Teaching language affords me that. It has been challenging. But in all that chaos, I think I sense an increased interest among students. I find it fun too. I started off ambitious, wanted to do a PBL. I scaled down to just teaching students how to use Google almost immediately... Lol. But we are making progress.

Time is the one thing that I lack. Too many teaching periods. Too many students in a class. A Victorian production mill we still are. Individualized learning... I think we are still far from that. Students look and feel independent enough but they are not. The challenge is not to equip them with the necessary skills or change the way we look at how technology can best be used in education but to inculcate the love for knowledge. It's not that kids don't get excited over knowledge. It's just they have been dulled by the rigours of rote. The chase for A(s) has killed the ability to love knowledge. Sad. More of everything though, I think the level of ignorance has remained almost the same too... throughout the ages. Seems like the graph is hard to change.

There are always other duties that stand in the way of teaching... and other things that crop up that need our attention. I wish teachers be left alone to just teach. And there is always the personal domain too... One that demands our attention as well. Work and family - they remain two areas in a working woman's life that continually put her into a conundrum of sorts. I find myself not just wishing for more hours, more energy but sometimes a release.

Social conditioning... Pavlov's experiment on conditioning. Been many years but of late this topic has caught my fascination again. A recent video highlights this very aptly...

Undoing a stereotyping or reconditioning? 5000 years of written history and for the most part women have been told they are not suitable or capable of many things. Women are set into a lesser role, to serve. Over 26 million hits in less than a fortnight. One thing for sure out of this though.... education is definitely on the roll here. 8) It would have been impossible to reach this many in such a short time, even as recent as 20 years ago! I watched my students as they laughed through the comic of the first part and then the silence. But many could not catch the message too. 8(
One thing I learned though. Many things which we feel are set or unquestionable, we actually have no certainty of the truth. One thing that feels certain is that the human mind is an active cauldron... one which is capable of 'cooking' up many things.... it's just we label them differently.
It's July... and it'll go away soon. August is waiting....

Projectors Epson EBW-18 and Epson EB-1776w

I finally bought my own projector... A slim and sleek Epson EB-1776w. It's the one on the right in the picture below. The one on the right is it's bigger sistah.. The Epson EBW-18. A friend bought it not too long after mine. Just so happened that the projector she was using at school went on its last legs. And she didn't want to be without a projector to use in class and so she dug into her own pocket and bought her own.

As to why she did not ask her school to buy her a new one... It's supposed to be difficult for schools to purchase such things. In a supposedly technologically dependent world today, schools are still not allowed to buy gadgets or electronic tools with the funds. She could repair the old projector that was on its last legs but we were told by the technician that it was not worth it. Anyway, teachers like her who dig into their own pockets to buy a projector for use in school are rare... People usually will buy if it gives them a tangible return.... like so many other things in life.

I am going to start with my EB-1776w. I am more fortunate. I have a boss who has been very supportive of my foray into the use of technology to aid teaching in class. I recently requested a new projector and was given a EBX-18. The main difference between EBX-18 and EBW-18 is of course the native resolution. EBX-18 has an XGA, 1024 x 768. Both the EBW-18 and EB-1776w come with a WXGA, 1280 x 768. Basically it means that you get a wider screen. Both projectors come with a 3000 ANSI lumens bulb, which means you get a bright projection.

One of the thing I like about the EB-1776w is its size. This is an ultra portable projector with many cool features. It auto corrects the projection you put up, meaning, if once you press the Screen Fit function, it would automatically adjust the projection. No need to fiddle with the buttons. I find that quite cool.

Apart from that, another feature which I like is the Split Screen function. Basically this means that I can use 2 devices at the same time on the projector. I have tried my iPad, connected via the VGA cable and MacBook via the USB cable simultaneously. My iPad would be on the other projector. What this means basically is I can have up to 3 different inputs running at the same time. Nice.

I am still in my early stages of exploring with the use of multiple inputs in class. This is has just been made possible recently after my boss allowed me to convert an unused computer lab into a class. In the coming months, I hope to incorporate the use of Chromebooks in the my classes. I am still reading up, thinking thorugh, hatching ideas of how to go about it as this is something which has not been attempted in my school. My students seem excited too.

Tools like projectors, tablets, computers are great tools to use in class. They make lessons come alive. They tickle the senses and cater to those who need more than just printed words to get moving. However, they are still just tools, I believe. What makes a lesson come alive, or inspire a student to move in certain directions... I think is the teacher. Teaching is an art which also requires constant rejuvanation, resupplying, resourcefulness and so on. And I think that is something which many of us have failed to realize in our quest to churn out students who can score the A(s). Learning is a process. And like many processes, it needs time.

And I think it's a shame that schools have not upgraded all their old projectors to the newer generation ones. I think it's a shame that there is so much control over what can be or cannot be bought using school funds. I think it is a shame that the budget is not decentralisd. I think it is a shame that we still think education is like a production line. I think it is a shame that we have so much bureaucracy. I think it's a shame that many of our Principals feel that they are the smartest people around, the way they force it on the teachers.

I attended a Taklimat (briefing) on PISA recently. And even before the briefing began, this authoritative lady from the Ministry told the teachers sitting at the back to fill up the front places. And that started an 'standoff' in the minds. What these education officers who is in their lofty office chairs failed to take note is.... If their presentation is interesting enough, if they are able to ignite the fire and passion in the audience about the subject matter, by the next session I am sure everyone of us would be clamouring to sit in front. That is what is lacking in our schools too....

Instead, we had to sit through a most boring round of what sounded to me like babbling... The stats could have just been printed out and given to us.... Sigh! This is just an example of what is happening at school too.... Relevance. Being given relevance and providing relevance.... The state of education system... We hear lots of barking but actually very little progress is made because at many points, too many things are crumbling... And sometimes I feel some quarters seem to want it that way. Ignorant and dependent fools are way easier to manipulate. Thinking fools tend to burn themselves and others along with themselves...

Getting It Right...

So what makes a good learner? Been teaching for over 20 years and good learners are elusive as can be.

It's exam season now. Mid year exam to be exact. We have our own version of 'common core standards' here. I am located in a state that is positioned third bottom in terms of achievement in the SPM, bettering only states like Sabah and Sarawak. Basically it means we are the last state in the Peninsular. And the Education Department has been breathing down our necks basically for the last few years because of this. Even Kelantan which is a poorer state has fared better.

Program after programs, detailed analysis, making calculated predictions, common exams set by a central committee... the list is long. Yet we fare no better.

My two sen of experience... I have just had the best round of grades from my students for their Form 5 History Paper 2. One student after another and scores over 80 greeted me again and again. I even have a few 98s. I should be ecstatic cos the results indicate that I must have done something right. Yet, it is now an open secret that every single paper in this mid year exam which came from the Department has leaked! So much for that momentary ecstasy that I had managed to inspire students into liking a subject which many label as boring and dead as those dead civilizations or people they depict.

Getting it right... Grades are all that seem to matter to majority of the kids. Good grades used to imply that a student is good. And a good student in turn indicates a good learner in the making. Well, that is a myth. It is also a open secret that straight A(s) students don't have good thinking or communicative skills, let alone creative thinking or problem solving skills. Prospective employers have complained enough about the quality of our graduates to give us an idea of what our schools are churning out.

Students have become very good at answering questions. Questions are hardly challenging. Grades are often adjusted. We are a nation of many straight A(s) scorers. Imagine a student with an A in English who cannot write a good composition. Or another students with an A+ who cannot solve a Primary Six (Singapore syllabus) problem solving based question. The PISA and TIMMS scores imply that our kids are around 2 years behind their counterparts. Well, I think it is probably more than that.

So, what is wrong? I think the whole way we approach learning has gone awry. Yeah! A(s) were super important during my time too. But I think we loved to learn too. I was surrounded with friends who loved all kinds of knowledge.... the sci-fi types to the lofty giddy poet wannabes. School was a place where we learned to learn. Most of the time we had to learn to find our own way, figure out the solution... in short we had time to reflect and dream. Kids today? Well, their time is jam packed with extra classes.... we have the schools to thank for that... and extra tuitions.... we have the kiasu parents to thank.

I was in my class when the History paper was collected. I had time to walk around the class before I collected the papers. I guess my students must have felt sorry for me for believing the unbelievable... that they were actually beginning to see some light in the 'dead' subject... when one of them piqued that they knew the questions beforehand. Of course I went into a tirade of sorts... But more than anything, I felt sorry for them. I felt sorry because the system has failed them. We are 'teaching' them to get the A(s) but definitely not in the way that benefits that in the longer run.

The questions leaked... We have to ask how and why. The how is obvious... probably teachers and the likelihood of tuition teachers being the culprit is high. When money is the motivator, little else needs to be said. Why? I guess it's a glimpse of the greater malaise that plagues this country too. This is a country built on sanctioned racial divide.

Getting it right. I guess we have to go back to the basics. We have to get it right at the core. We have to beat least seen doing right from the top. Walk into many schools in this state and it's not hard to see what I mean. Wrong people are sitting up there for the wrong reasons. We have to right that first. Good heads make all the difference. We have too many heads of schools who are not fit to lead. Yet they are there. I think I have served under 10 principals and countless Senior Assistants. I think I count 3, maybe 4 who made a difference. But what is probably worrying is most of them were in my early career.

It's hard to get it right. Life is hard to get right as it is too...

Busy

My time is kinda filled up these days. There seem more things to do with the same amount of time. Co-curricular activities... they're not just for students. Lol! They have been taking up quite a bit of my time these past few weeks. Getting my students ready for debate, followed by the FLL robotic competition, with coaching volleyball in between were my extra-curricular activities. I've basically been functioning as if on steroids.

And oh yes.. SPM results were released in between too. Am quite pleased with my students' results. For the last one year, the iPad has enabled me to use mind maps and engage students in a more meaningful and interesting way. Overall, there was marked improvement for my History classes. There were one or two moments which will always be etched in my memory. There was this boy who had been flunking his History until I started teaching him. He got an A... And I was overjoyed with him. He came to see me after he got his results and before he left, he muttered a word of thanks in a tone that only both of us understood... it was a poignant moment. I used to challenge this boy to rise above himself. He did. His BM was atrocious but somehow, simplifying things helped. And he got lucky too...

I learned one thing though. We talk a lot about modern learning concepts these days. During my days as a student, they key words were read, write, arithmetic... These days it's all about the Cs... connect, collaborate, curate, critical thinking, communicate, create... I don't know whether there are any more to add on. Anyway, no matter how we phrase or present the words, one thing stands out to me. There is a need for guidance. Maybe guidance is hardly the right description since we are very into all these high powered words. Mentoring... Mentors make a difference. There is only so much a person can know. Somehow the length of one's life on earth still makes a difference in how we act or think. Experience still very much play an important role in shaping character and forming habits. And this is where teachers step in.

But I think what makes a good teacher good is a good teacher inspires. Everyone of us needs to be inspired one way or another. I think there is way too much emphasis on results that we fail to focus of character building. In other words, we teach but I think teaching is mainly skewed towards getting the A(s). We rush through the syllabus and focus on answering techniques. All these come with a price and that price is often indicative of the sacrifice of the soul.

Anyway, I am currently embarking on another project, one that will hopefully enable me to try out all these learning concepts... Flipped, flexed, blended and what have you not... And am fortunate that my current boss is very supportive.