Let’s Get Wild

Salam folks…

For this week’s entry, I have chosen “BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF” http://www.buildyourwildself.com/ a website by New York Zoos and Aquarium. So here it is….

Year :3 (Average to Highly Proficient)

Theme : World of Knowledge

Learning Outcome : By the end of the lesson, pupils ought to:

(1) Know the features of the animals learnt

(2) Create a hybrid of themselves and animal(s) of choice

(3) Write a short paragraph to describe their hybrid self

Focused Skill : Writing

Set Induction

Pupils talk about toy animals they brought (asked by the teacher earlier to bring to class)

Presentation

Teacher introduces 5 wild animals (Spider, Snake, Elephant, Lion, Crocodile)

Discussion about features of the animals (head, eyes, body, skin etc)

Practice

Teacher models the use of teaching tool “BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF”

Teacher asks the class to work in pairs on the computer

Pupils ought to create a hybrid of themselves and any animal(s) of choice,  and then to name it

Once complete, pupils should call the teacher and ask him to save it in his pendrive

Few pairs will then be selected to present their work

Production

Teacher teaches briefly on how to write short sentences to describe their “hybrid man-animal”

Using the description available on the web (right of their picture), people are to write short paragraph to describe their creation

Closure

The class vote to choose the best creature

The winners are to be given some award by the teacher

Loving the wild me (wanted to put the pict without the tools but my firefox is troubled)

Why “BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF”

Very easy to use

Printable (as physical evidence of pupils’ work)

Why the lesson

To encourage creativity

To make them love animals more

Bye for now 🙂

*something unrelated: found this simple compound words game “Word Vine” http://www.miniclip.com/games/word-vine/en/ Go on try it

Smarter?

Salam folks…

Been a while huh? I should recall (just a bit, as intro) of what me and my team had done for our group work designing / improving the WWTBAB game. We didn’t go with WWTBAB and created our own game instead, based on the TV show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?”

Why not WWTBAB?

1. Tell me which TV channel still airs that show?

2.Everybody else will be doing that, why not differ?

So, here it is….

.

Among the feedback given, the

10 Agenda (Part 2)

(This is the second part of the task, for the first part click here)

Salam folks!

Let’s continue with item #5 to #1..

#5 Freedom for schools to generate external income for ICT programme (Stakeholder:School Administrator)

Currently, only a handful of government assisted schools are given freedom to manage and generate income independently. What is understood is that some schools receive a lot of external revenue from donations and partnerships with PTAs and companies. Why not give the freedom to every school there is to seek additional funding for  their ICT programme, which would translate into less government spending and greater public involvement!

#4 Make available or improve internet connectivity in schools (Stakeholder:Telecommunication Companies[Telcos])

I understand that a telco need to spend tens to hundreds million alone on acquiring licenses from government for WiMax, 3G, HSBB and stuff. I suggest that these license need not to be paid instead the telcos would be required to invest in internet facilities for schools. If not, the MOE could broker a cheaper deal with telcos to make sure that every school have at least good internet service quality, even better if it’s WiFi blanketed.

#3 School partnership with private sector (Stakeholder:Private Sector)

Recently, there has been interesting development in terms of private sector involvement in education with partnership and sponsorship programs with companies like Khazanah Nasional, Astro, Sime Darby and so on. They would either sponsor schools, adopt schools or supply schools with ICT tools. I would continue such programme as it is very beneficial in helping the ministry to better equip the schools with facilities not just ICT ones. I would try to get at least 20% of schools having private sponsors.

#2 The curricular (Stakeholder:MOE)

I just wrote “the curricular” there because I don’t specifically believe that it’s needed to be constantly reviewed, changed or improve. What’s more, we already have a new one coming in the name of KSSR. If you could remember, ICT use and application is mentioned as one of the emphases in KBSR. The problem therein lies with implementation. A study is needed to check on why emphases on ICT is not put in reality. After that, solution.

#1 Incentives for teachers (Stakeholder:Teachers)

I am not talking about special RM500 incentives as proposed by certain political bloc here. I am talking about incentives and rewards for teachers to develop their own ICT tools (like softwares, coursewares, animations etc) independently for use in classroom. I understand that there were quite a number of IT graduates who got into the teaching profession via KPLI but their knowledge and talent was put to waste as they were discouraged to develop any in school. Why not set up a scheme whereby teachers who successfully developed ICT-based teaching materials will be acknowledged and rewarded?

Basically, that’s what I’m would do if I wake up from my sleep today and become a huge figure in the education world. 🙂 Tell me if I sound like politicians hehehe

(Non related picture, I just found it cute and amusing hehehe.. Got it from theStar)

10 Agenda (Part 1)

(This is the first part of the task, the second part will follow soon)

Salam folks!

Wish list huh? If the task asks me what would my personal wish list, that would include spending a day at Glee set and driving an F1 car. However, the task what to figure out what would I do if I am handed the capacity to transform, change or improve ICT use in Malaysian classroom, so let’s dig into them now.

Before that, sorry but I don’t like the title “Wish List” as it sounds more like something dreamy or magical, something that you think before you sleep so that it will come true in your sleep. I prefer the word plan, as it refers to something that is do-able if given capacity to do so. These 10 agendas listed down here are created based on the idea that ICT is engaging, interactive, efficient yet expensive (if not affordable). If you find some agendas confusing, do read my explanation that follows.

#10 Giving subsidy for teachers to own ICT tools (Stakeholder: Teachers)

Why subsidy? Because I don’t believe in courses or special programmes on ICT. Seriously, what can be learned by 40years old plus folks in five days? I believe that by having personal access to their own ICT tools (computers, smart phones etc) they will learn a lot more through trials and errors. To help them acquire these items, why not provide them special subsidies? If given, the funding for the subsidy would be less than what we spent on ICT courses for teachers paying the instructors, the hotels, the caterers, the tools suppliers and so on.

#9 Ensuring adequate ICT facility-Student ratio (Stakeholder: MOE)

The notion that rural school are left behind in terms of available ICT facility is not true, as evidenced by our experience at schools in KL during our teaching practice. Take my school for example, there were 1500++ pupils with only 1 computer room and 1 access room, computers of total 20 units only. That is 1 computer for 75 pupils, or 1 computer for 2 classes. To compare, my mother’s school in Kelantan has got 1 computer:40 pupils ratio. To improve the situation I would suggest increasing the ratio to 1 computer for 30 pupils. Assuming that national average is 50 pupils  per computer and the overall pupils numbers between 12 to 15 million, the MOE need to add 12500 more computer units at the cost of RM2000 per unit, requiring funds totaling RM250million. As time goes, the ratio could be lowered gradually.

#8 Make ICT pupil-friendly (Stakeholder:Pupils)

As I said in my previous entry, what’s the point of asking the pupils to enter the computer lab without allowing them to use it? Let’s make it bigger: What’s the point of having computers in school when the pupils rarely use them? Let’s be realistic, when we buy computers, we look at the specs, why you ask, because we want to play games, watch movies, listen to songs and other entertainment benefit. We don’t buy computers simply because the assignments required their use. It’s the same with kids, they see computers as an outlet of entertainment. Few kids have good access to computers, and when they go to school they expect to play with it. Will the teachers let that happen? ABSOLUTELY NO! Here’s an idea, why not each day after school, allow the kids to use the computers for whatever purpose they want (by reservation) under the supervision of a teacher? Let them play and they will grow fond of it!

#7 Establish an ICT platform for parents (Stakeholder:Parents)

I remembered when I was studying in a Smart School, we had this program for teachers, parents and students. Parents could have access to their kids’ scorecard, attendance and other school information or announcements that matter to them. I also remembered, they never told my mom about it. Why not, revive the program, give it a try in urban areas where the parents are ICT-connected. This way the parents would get involved a lot more with their kids’ education thus ensuring that they would contribute something for our ICT program. Furthermore, it would serve as an evidence that our ICT program is not simply wastage of public fund. Whats more, they are the taxpayers that fund the program.

#6 Improving connection between school administrators and pupils and parents through social media (Stakeholders:Parents)

I got this idea from my group pal, Asmah, who wrote that school admins should be encouraged to use social media (FB, twitter etc) “to get in touch with one another or to get updates on what’s happening around them”. I believe that most teachers and school admins do have social networking but they’re only using it for personal use. If they could use it to transmit information like announcements, notices it would be good. I remembered there were a few times my TP school gave pupils of certain years holiday during UPSR but some didn’t get or remember the notice and they came to school during the holiday. It was quite embarrassing that such misinformation still happen these days. Perhaps using social network to inform and remind pupils and parents about such things would be good!

School Experience

Salam folks!

Here we go again.. Firstly, some introduction of my teaching practical experience. For the three months, I was posted at SK Seri Anggerik, Taman Len Seng, Cheras. I taught Year 5 English (first class) and Year 4 Mathematics (third class). The school had a strict streaming system and as such the differences between the two classes were rather obvious. I was very thankful that I had the opportunity to be with such variety of students, working with them was a delightful experience indeed! Here are some observations I made during my time there:

ICT use and application

Like any other school, it has the essential ICT tools: LCDs, laptops, computers, computers room, multimedia room etc. The teachers utilized ICT facilities available that you need to book the room about a week earlier or else you can’t have it for your class. However, you could observe some pattern with regards to ICT use. 1: The ICT teachers were the ones that uses the facilities most. The simple explanation could be because it’s easier for them to teach in the rooms as they spend most of their time working in it. Pattern #2 The teachers would use the computer room mostly when they have some other administrative task to perform or when they are substituting another teacher. As the materials are available for use, they let the students to work using them thus reducing their burden and enabling them to focus on their own work.

Now let’s review my experience of using ICT in my teaching and learning (T&L).

T&L: Using PowerPoint Presentations

Some example of my slideshows

At first, I wasn’t fond of using PowerPoint presentations in the classroom. Since the classes no longer have ready-LCD projectors, it would take quite a sweat to climb up and down stairs taking them from the access room and the frustration of the item not working. Therefore, I decided to use printed placards and pictures. After some time, I noticed that the kids were having problems with the teaching aids as some wordings weren’t big enough and the printer ink wasn’t of good quality. Only then I started using PowerPoint presentations. The result of the change was obvious; students’ movement was minimum and when required only and of course, no more issues of small wordings and poor quality pictures!

T&L: Using songs & videos

Some example of my videos

I did quite a number of video-viewing activity with the kids for the presentation stage of my lesson. For the Culture & Traditions topic (Unit 9), I found that some cultural elements in the text book would be better understood if there’s visual aid thus the use of  the videos. I also wanted to introduce some traditional dances, the problem was I’m a terrible dancer myself! The simple solution: dance videos! After watching the videos, I would exhibit some basic movements of the dance (often time, I would ask my friend Shahrul Erma to come to my class and show the kids the movements :D) and then I would dance together with them in accompaniment of traditional songs.  It was a hilarious experience I must say 😀

T&L: Hands-on

The easiest way to make the kids hate you is to ask to them to go to computer room and not letting them use the computer, and of course I would not let them happen. To avoid facebook-ing, I would only let the kids use them when required only. What I did was, I would come earlier (about 15minutes or so) to the computer room to turn on the computers and transfer certain documents into the computer desktop. For the task, the students would be required to open the files (mostly powerpoint) which will ask them to perform tasks (like the above example) or ask questions. I believe that though it would some work setting up the room, it’s very economical and more efficient compared to printed materials. Most importantly, the kids enjoyed the activity and responded to the lesson.

One big question: WILL I USE ICT TOOLS WHEN I’M POSTED IN SCHOOL? The answer is a definite yes. It’s true that it takes some effort setting up the facility and the materials but the benefits from using them is hard to ignore. Kids enjoy such lessons and their responses to the activities also improve. What more could a teacher ask?

Owh, the video kit!

Salam folks!
Yup, everyone’s relieved it’s completed, sent and currently being marked. Such a relief of course! My apologies for not updating on the video kit works (huhuu, Ms Ng you have reasons to minus my marks!) Let’s try to recap!
What I need to do (personal):

• edit the video
• video manual
• project
• task sheet
• report

What I need to do (for the group kit)

• brochure
• poster
• help with the packaging (kewl!)

For the project item, I came up with a puzzle-game sort of activity whereby the kids will have to work by asking their group member clues on where to locate animals on the map. Meanwhile, the task sheet was rather simple, useful for while-viewing activity, requires them to name the animals on the task sheet. And there was the manual, 6 pages in all, contained video synopsis, video screen shots, tips on how to use the video, suggested activity and suggested lesson outline. Well, here the second fold of the manual? What do you think?

Meanwhile, for the video kit, my group has delegated two works for me; the brochure and the poster. Okay, sounds cool to me!
,
The front page of the brochure. Picture it printed on yellow paper. Should look good hehe 😀

The poster. Again, picture it in yellow papers! It does look good in printed version. Love it!
The finished product in the video package box.

The group members. Me, Asmah, Najwa, Yati, Helmi. Haha, I wanted to hold the poster, can’t help but to love it!
P/S: Did a little practice on how to sell it, haha, please don’t make us sell it!

Education TV?

Salam folks!
I remembered when I was in the primary schools, we had the educational television channel (called TV Pendidikan) set up by the Ministry of Education aired on TV2, then it was on Astro channel 13 (back when they still have the TV mosaic, I missed that thing!) and now I guess it’s on TV9. My honest comment: IT SUCKS! Sorry, the programmes were boring and the teachers prefer to watch movies with the class in the TV room of the school rather than spending time watching TVP. So, when Dr Chin (or Ms Ng) gave the links to web education TVs, I was skeptical, and anticipative too.
First, I tried EduWebTV. First impression: okay, it looks good. So, I clicked on "Kurikulum > Bahasa Inggeris > KBSR" but when I clicked on KBSR it sent me nowhere. Thus, I tried searching "English KBSR" it displayed a video titled "Nac’s World". I tried to play it but then it loads too slow, I decided not to wait. However, based on the snapshots, I guess the video was done with animation and there’s a woman translating in sign language for the hearing impaired kids (is it?). That’s great!

Next, I visited the eLearning Kiosk. Well, it is nice, but it’s more of an interactive webpage rather than webTV. But still, the ‘proverb’ menu I browsed through was quite good. Perhaps it would be better to add some pictures / funny comics accompanying each proverbs. Just a suggestion…

HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THESE
There are two ways I think on how the webTVs could be used in classroom / to assist learning. One way is to use it as the main part of the lesson, replacing teacher’s usual chalk and teach part, flash it to the class, let the kids watch it and if needed, the teacher could help slips in and clear some confusions in between. The other way is to ask the kids to watch on their own, as revision to the formal lesson or ‘substitute’ the teacher when he/she couldn’t make it to the class.

QUESTIONS
It’s more of technical issues that bothers me with the websites. I wonder if I took quite some time to load the video, how about the rural schools with satelite internet connection which is a lot slower. My suggestion is for them to have the videos in lower size because when I checked it was like 150MB++ on average for each video, which quite big compared to YouTube or similar online video channels.

Sorry if I’m a bit negative. Thanks folks for reading!

Revisiting the Video

Salam folks!
Sadly I can’t upload the video here, the least I could do is to basically tell you what I have done to edit my video. In case you didn’t remember what was my video like, watch this…
http://www.facebook.com/v/1203664845663
Notice something you don’t think was done right? After some reading on feedback given by you, my friends, on the YouTube channel, I realised there were few notable mistakes / critics that needed me to work on as improvements for the video. Among them were;

1. The animals’ name written in capital letters
2. "Kitten" was spelled "Kit" and "Ten"
3. Absence of background music

IMPROVEMENT 1
I asked around why it’s not right to write nouns in capital letters and they generally said that it is because when the kids see it written that way, they will it that way. Means that, if you write the nouns in capital letters the kids will write it in that way even in their writings as they would get the idea it should be written that way. Thus, it is more ‘advisable’, ‘effective’ to have them written in a more ‘normal’ way, all in small caps or sentence case (for proper nouns). That’s practically why I decided to heed the feedback given to change the animals’ name written in uppercase to small caps.

IMPROVEMENT 2
The original video, if you realise, have a ‘session’ after each animal ‘discovery’, whereby there’s a voice-over spelling the name of the animals and their little ones. One clear error made, which went overlooked by me, what that when "kitten" was spelled, the "kit" and "ten" were seperated. Instead of "k + i + t + t + e + n =KITTEN" it was spelled "k + i + t =KIT"  "t + e + n =TEN". It was rather odd and Malay-ish I must say huhuhu. I guess it was wrong to pronounce a word separately in syllables, and you ,of course, wouldn’t want the kids to pick up wrong language. Thus, changes were made to that voice-over, so it that it’s being done right.

I DID NOT CHANGE
Yes, there were suggestions for the video to have some background music to make it more ‘cheerful’ and ‘child-friendly’. At first, I did try to give the idea a go, but then again I decided to leave it without the music. The reason was that I don’t want the music to interfere with the voice-over, conversations between the characters and the spelling session. And I failed to find the music that is suitable with the whole mood of the video, cheerful yet not too ‘happy’ kind.

Thanks for reading again 😀

My Podcast

Salam,

Here’s my podcast

http://media.imeem.com/m/_mlWST8kyT

PC_PEH070043.mp3 –

Dont feel like listening to my voice?

Well, here’s the script:

 

Hi, I am Naqib Ibrahim

I am 22 years old and I am a trainee teacher

When I actually become a teacher,

I want to be the teacher that empowers my kids to learn what they need to learn,

the teacher that inspires them to be what they want to be

and I also want to be the cool teacher that my kids are going to remember all the time.

 

I used Audacity, of course, to record the podcast and I used this song "Bill Whiters – Lovely Day", which is one of my all time favourite, as the background music. It feels a bit crappy, hehe am I allowed to say that, but what’s important for me is to get the message out. Enjoy~

Trial Video…

Dont have mush to say, watch this…

GoAnimate.com: Verb by natkid
http://goanimate.com//api/animation/player?utm_source=embed

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!