Week 6 - Here comes Module 1

Earlier in the course Pn. Foziah told us that we will be given 5 modules to complete. Basically, these modules are to teach us skills in creating all sorts of files, such as videos, audios, pictures and also internet skills.

Today, we were given Module 1. Looking through it, this module was all about Computing and Internet Skills.
Soliloquy: HAH! She expects us to complete such a THICK module in 2 weeks? Ohmaigod!*Fainted*

Pn. Foziah's instruction were very easy, though. We were to:
1. Look at the steps for each unit
2. Copy the steps into a new Power Point Presentation file
3. Go through the steps
4. Print Screen the process onto your ppt file
5. Repeat this for the entire module

Module 1 is basically about:
1) Web Search
2) Downloading (software, video from Internet, PDF documents)
3) Uploading
4) Encoding
5) Storing
6) Scanning
7) Burning
8) Sending e-mail
9) Compressing files
10) File conversion
(PDF to Microsoft Office Word, PDF to Microsoft Office Power Point, Microsoft Office Word to PDF, Microsoft Office Power Point to PDF, Word to Acrobat Reader, Adobe reader manual, Zamzar Manual and Abclit)

It's simple really. It's more of like a copy-paste procedure. And I think that the knowledge gained from this module will be the size of a mountain, so to speak hehe..



Cheerios~

*An Afternote*
By completing this module, I actually gained lots of knowledge on the most basic computing skills using any resources from the internet. I can download practically any kind of files from softwares such as BitTorrent and also 4shared.com.
Soliloquy: This will definitely make life much easier for me in the future when I start teaching

Week 5 - Where are you my partner?

Today we finally got ourselves involved in the making of technological and non-technological teaching aids. We were to work in pairs and our partner was to be someone from the opposite sex..

Naturally, my partner was Maher :)


sorry partner had to take your facebook dp :P

We had to create teaching aids for a unit each from the Level 1(Year 1,2 and 3)syllabus of the English Subject in Primary Schools. Our units are as follows:
1) Year 1 - 'Today Is'
2) Year 2 - 'The Animal World'
3) Year 3 - 'Before and Now'

We were to compile our created teaching aids into a table format which was given through e-mail by our leader.

I thought that the table helped us tremendously in organizing out work and also in allowing us to see the concept of our work.

Soliloquy: What! We have to hand this in on Friday?! No, there won't be enough time with all the other work we have...oh well..

As tired as Maher and I were, we managed to finish the work up and handed it in to Pn. Foziah..We gave our best for this task and we hope that she recognizes our work.

Cheerios~

Week 4 - *Phone Beeps*= No class?

As I was still deep in slumber, my trusty phone managed a beep.

Slowly I rose from the maze of my pillows and blankets and grabbed my phone from the side table
Soliloquy: Aiyooo...don't tell me it's Digi or some random number sending me spam.

But it was a message from Dominic---> "Resources class is canceled."

Why I didn't know but it sure was a relief. At least I could get 3 more hours of sleep..zzzzz~~~

Later, I was told that Pn. Foziah was not feeling very well and that the class will be replaced.

Get well soon Pn. Foziah :)




Cheerios~

Week 3 - say what?

This week was all about how children learn a language. We were divided into 6 groups and each group had to present on the subtopics in the first chapter of Susan Halliwell's Teaching English in the Primary Classroom Together with Dominic, Emma, Fiza, Nazrul and Sabrina, we were to present 1.1 - Children's ability to grasp meaning.

Basically this subtopic explains to us that children do not use words to first learn a language. Rather, they make use of intonations, gestures, facial expressions, actions and circumstances to help tell them what the said utterances might mean. This is how they start to understand the language.
Soliloquy: AHA! Now I know why children always say "yes" to me when I ask them
if they understand something when they do not..they were just responding to my gestures and intonations.

So what do we do with this, shall I say 'skill'? Well, we nurture it and never ever ever discourage it or undermine its importance in the child's language development. Think about it. Even we adults, when learning a new language, tend to go for people's gestures, intonations and facial expressions to guide us in understanding them if we did not understand what they were speaking. If we need these skills, then so do the children.

What really opened my mind and cemented this school of thought in my mind was when one of the other groups ahowed a video of how the early developmental stages of a child's language development. that really showed the third subtopic - Children's capacity for indirect learning

In a way, this lesson has taught me one of the fundamentals of language development in children. It might not have been about creating resources for english language learners, however it does teach us on the prerequisites needed to create resources that cater to children's learning abilities.

Cheerios~

Week 2 - How I wish more classes were like this

So this week's class was quite fun actually. I (being the technology klutz that I sometimes am), learnt some useful things today.

First of all, Mdm Foziah talked to us about something called 'Touch Typing'.
Soliloquy: What the heck is that?
Seems that it's a skill that you learn that helps you to type much, MUCH faster!! Besides saving lots of time, people who have mastered this do not have to keep looking on the keyboard to find the letters they want to type. It's as though you're thinking the words onto the screen! Fuh!
The general rule is that your left index finger had to be on the letter 'F' and your right index finger on the letter 'G'. In this position only are your hands in the correct position for typing and your fingers able to reach every button on the keyboard.

You can check out these websites to know more and practice your touch typing :-)
http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/
http://10-fast-fingers.com

This is my result. Not bad for a first timer eh?
46 words

Typing Test
That's One new thing I learnt today. And believe me, the more you do the test, the more practice you get, thus the faster you type.

Next, we were given the liberty to create and decorate our own blog (which, if you remember, Mdm Foziah asked us to do last week).
Since I already have a blog, I already knew the basics like how to start and decorate my blog. I had fun searching for new templates and beautiful themes. In the end, I thought the one I have now looks the best. But don't be shocked to see it totally different because I have the tendency to do that. I call it redecorating. !
An expert as I am, there are still certain elements that I need to master to make my blog perfect.

All good things come to an end. Mdm Foziah had a good way of snapping us out of our reverie. By telling us about our first assignment (double GASP!) I would like to tell you EXACTLY what it is but I seem to have misplaced the file somewhere.I know that it has something to do with collecting teaching aids and materials. Oh no, this is not me procrastinating or forgetting about the assignment. You'll see it up here soon enough.

Cheerios~

Week 1 - How was class?

Hey guys..

We had our first resources class today. Frankly speaking, I did not know what to expect. Would our lecturer be fierce? Soft-spoken? shy? (hehe..) But I think Mdm Foziah was the one who was surprised. It seems we could be heard from the 5th floor :-S ("err, is that even possible? Maybe, considering that there were about 75 of us crowded in the small waiting area!")!
Soliloquy: Hmm.. she looks very fierce. Aiyo, please don't let her treat us
like kids. I have had enough of that at the other side.

My lecturer, Mdm Foziah, is a nice person (:-D). I could see that she was very open-minded and could put herself in our shoes so she understood what we liked and disliked. However, being the lot that we are, we didn't respond to her on certain occasions and this got her a little but overwhelmed. (Not to worry Mdm, it time you will see that we are actually the most boisterous lot you have seen).

For this first lesson, it was sort of an introductory lesson as Mdm Foziah did not want to bombard our brains with all sorts of stuff. She too was tired as she had just finished a project which she had been workin on for some time. She briefed us about what the course was going to be about and talked to us about how she wanted the class to be. Gentle but strict, that Mdm Foziah.

We were let off early but we had to get some things done:
1) To install Photoshop CS3 into out lappies
2) To get ourselves an 8gb pendrive to store all our documents
3) To create a blog where we could talk about our experiences in the course.

I'm glad that whatever doubts I had were vanquished (so to speak hehe..). This course would be one filled with fun and exploration. Even my lecturer was not the grumpy and fierce kind. I thought that this was just one of thosw courses that taught you how to MAKE or FIND resources for the classroom. I'm happy it's not!

Cheerios~