Life through my eyes 2: 30th August 2014!

Life through my eyes 2: from Kampung Kenang to Kasoa was officially launched last Saturday (30 August 2014). it was an amazing event and I was so happy to share the moment with family and friends.

I was very nervous before the event started but then it went very well. I am really happy that MPH organised the event and put so much trust and belief in my second book. As someone that suddenly jumped into writing books, I think this is really huge achievements for me. Thanks everyone for keep supporting me and believing in my work! You guys are totally amazing! No doubts...except me doubting myself! ahaha (usual me)

I was so happy that Tan Sri Abdul Halim agreed to come, join and officiate the book. He gave such an inspiring speech and he is actually inspiring himself. He was so happy to know that I am from Kedah as he is also! I guess that is one of the reasons why he was there.

Elizabeth Lopez, who is now the Head of Transformation Management in FrogAsia - where I am working now was also there, celebrating the day. She gave a speech as well and I am so glad that she agreed to be there. The story of how she discovered this blog and me are just amazing and there is no thank you words will be enough to say to her. The other amazing thing that she did was to be able to read out Dr. Kit's message for me! Such a surprise! How did she think about doing that? Awesome ever!

I am so happy that my family was there. My mom was there. My dad was there. My siblings were there as well.  They are just rockstars!

Then of course all of my friends and supporters of Life through my eyes! Some of my friends drove from Johor Bharu, Terengganu and many more places. My friends from secondary school, from IPG, from APICTA and more! They are superb! Even my colleagues in my new work place are there to support! 

Thanks everyone. The responses that I received from Life through my eyes 2 are overwhelming. It had been in the MPH best sellers list for at least 2 times now! Really Magic! 

ps: should there be Life through my eyes 3??? who knows...btw, next time more people should come and say Hi to me...no worries, I only bite when there is a reason...haha OK! ;)

Selamat Hari Raya!

I hope it is not too late for me to wish all muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Happy Eid! I am now back in KL - Done with my festive holidays. Spending some time with family and friends in Kedah was such a great joy! I am looking forward to the next one. :)

Let's try our best all the time and may success always with us in whatever we do! Yeah!

Buka Puasa!

Wow...it's almost the end of fasting month already. This year it feels great to be back home and performing the fasting here in Malaysia. The fasting time feels much more normal than last summer in the UK. The day time was so long! and hot! (me complaining..wahaha)

I have 'buka puasa' twice already with my new colleagues. yeah...new working environment and new friends. Once we did the iftar in Mid valley in a sushi restaurant. That first one was my team mates, only four of us (I am the only muslim though). It was great to hang out with my team after work and share the joy of buka puasa with them.

The second one was just a few days ago in Publika, in a western food restaurant. This event was organised by our company, so everyone in the office were invited. I had a wonderful time again sharing the buka puasa time with them. Most importantly, was the time to find connections with each other and learn more about my colleagues instead of just knowing them as friends working together!

PS: I even shared with them how to wear sampin! wahaha 

Google Apps for Education

Wow! I had such a good time and learnt so many things in these two days training (2nd&3rd June). It was an amazing experience to join in and be part of the training.

When I started to work in FrogAsia, Chromebook was very new to me. I learnt to explore Chromebook, Google drive, Google Apps and so on, on my own and from my colleagues. So these 2 days training was focusing on using that in teaching and learning in the classroom. It was like getting formal training of using Chromebook and Google apps all over again but in a fun way!

It is very important for educators and teachers now to equip themselves with 21st century teaching and learning skills. Like I said in my previous entry, teaching and learning and technology are not two separate things anymore. We need to incorporate these elements in school as a learning experience for children.

I love to reflect about the high demand of collaboration and communication skills needed in the future. In fact, nowadays, these skills are very important for the children to learn and experience for their future endeavours. The ability to work together in a single file in Google Docs is one of the best examples that we as educators and teachers can start to use. Working in Frog now, I am getting used to working using these collaboration tools with my colleagues, to prepare presentations or proposal papers! Even sometimes collaborate with partners from oversea! Amazing experience!

I felt so lucky to be surrounded by the positive energy that comes from all the participants in the training. You know these people are magnificient when they get involved in all the activities without hesitationand are full of commitment. I am so happyto see that we have these amazing teachers in schools and I believe that they will make changes to many students that they touch! :D

Watch talking thumbs here: http://youtu.be/mijCdpQF8-k

PS: Wendy Gorton and Emily Roth are superb trainers! 

not just yet...but who knows... :D

I'm so glad that my paper that I submitted to Australian Academy of Business and Social Conferences 2014 has been accepted! Wow! It's really a shocking experience for me. Again, I just did this for fun and try only. So glad that they read the paper and found that its good enough to be a part of the publication :)

However, in the letter that i received, I also shocked to see my name as Dr. Ismail! Ahaha...too soon to call me Dr. I think... Not yet...but thank you though...who knows one day it might be real ;)

PS: If you do not try, then do not expect miracles...

Shout out your Good Luck message :D

Don't be shy to leave your motivation words and encouragements for these kids! They are the year 6 pupils in SK Jalan Selangor 1. I am working very closely with this group of pupils and they are all amazing children. UPSR will be coming soon in September. But why waited till last to give encouragements right? Shout your positive thoughts for them!!! :D

PS: kids are always amazing!

Working closely with year 6 teachers

Last Thursday, I went to SK Jalan Selangor. It was for my regular visit to Year 6 UPSR teachers working on creating sites (Frog) to use in the class for revision purposes. Going to school always excites me especially when I have a chance to discuss issues with teachers and say 'HI' to the kids. I'm glad to be able to discuss and share the experience that I have with the teachers in SK Jalan Selangor. It makes me think and evaluate my own previous learning experience when helping to enhance the teaching and learning for the kids. At the same time, the same process happens to the Year 6 teachers when they evaluate and when we reflect on what we have done before. Now, it's time to improve using the virtual learning environment (VLE)! :)

Our plan is to use Frog to create sites and utilise it to the fullest for revision purposes. I found that this is exciting especially to explore how the virtual learning environment can help to enhance the teaching and learning of Year 6 pupils in order to prepare them for UPSR examination.This is still new to me as well to the teachers. When I was a teacher in SK Kampung Kenang, I did not have the chance to use Frog, so this time is an opportunity for me and the Year 6 teachers to see how we can use it to help the learning of the kids.

I am glad to see the positive attitude of the Year 6 teachers that I work with. Their efforts are really appreciated and I hope that we can plan a few excellent sites and teach the kids well!

PS: Keep #prayforMH370

My lesson plan now is bigger than before!!!

I am always a teacher. That is how I look at myself. Even though some people criticise my action to start a new career but I am always passionate about education. The term teacher is mostly used when someone formally teachers in schools. But I think we, human beings are always teachers. We teach each other; we learn from each other.

I think that my lesson plan now is bigger than before. Before, I planned a lesson for a class, but now my lesson plan takes more time, space and audience. In the class that I taught before, I planned and allocated the time and carried out for an hour for example. Now, I plan what to do but I am not sure how long till it finish. Probably, at the moment I am still in the preparatory session. Everything I am doing now is just an introduction for the lesson I prepared. It's bigger, so it's hard to measure.

Deep inside me, teaching is always big part of me. I enjoy teaching and enjoy discovering new knowledge. Especially the experience from teaching primary school children, there are so much to learn from them. I love making them excited and happy.

I am glad that at the moment I am working very closely with a school in Petaling Jaya. We are trying to use virtual learning environment to enhance the learning and achieve better understanding for their education.

PS: jump! hop! leap! Has your school started to Frog?

Feeling like a butterfly

So after more than 10 days now, my thigh is healing and the wound has dried fully. The old skin has started to fall off and change to the new skin. I can walk better now and it does not hurt me anymore. Ahhh...what a good feeling to be back walking with my 'healthy' legs. Sometimes we start to feel grateful when an accident happened and we appreciate what we have.

I am so happy that my leg is already fine now. Thinking about this experience, it makes me feel like a  butterfly. The wound makes me feel like I was in the cacoon and now that it has fully dried, I'm ready to fly! Higher this time! (I hope so). I felt a bit sad before. The accident happened during my first few days in my new job... But now, I definitely feel better. Ready to learn new stuff and ready to explore new working environment.

It's good to be involved with schools and see what I can do to help and support. but at the moment, I am still learning to see things the other way around. Before, I was in the system and now i am looking from the other angle. Exciting much? Let's wait and see

PS: Exploring Chromebook

the things that we learnt

Is being knowledgable making us ignorant? is it making us think that we know everything and do not need anyone else to teach us? Is that why in the first place we sought knowledge and learnt something? do we really know everything?

I'm not sure why this topic comes to my mind. It has been a few days that my fingers have been itching to write something. In the end, I managed to sort myself out to write tonight. 

I have just been thinking about this. About how people can change into being ignorant once they receive 'higher education'. Yeah higher education that we create and approve.  We think that this is the best for everybody. Once we finish studying and get the result, we suddenly are better than anyone else out there. Is it true? Is the purpose of higher education to produce this kind of attitude?

This is very confusing for me. I think what should happen is that the more you learn the more you realise that knowledge is wide and huge and that as human beings we can never master everything. Learning should be a process that takes place all of the time, anywhere, for anyone. It does not mean that once you have higher education you become some one else, and that you cannot learn from some one who does not have it. It does not mean that you cannot learn from someone younger than you or older than you, or someone more inexperienced than you or more immature. Everything is about learning and consideration. not ignorance.... I think so

I hope that the more we learn, the more it will open our heart and mind to think and connect! You are not always right, you know ;) 

PS: time to decide and go!

the next steps...will you still be with me?

I just came back from my graduation in Newcastle University. Just there for a week. Celebrating the special day with friends and classmates from all over the world. I was glad that most of my classmates were there with me...Only a few can't make it but I guess we will see each other next time, somewhere else probably ;)

Going back to Newcastle this time, I found that the feeling was strange and different. Everything seems to be normal and not new anymore. It feels like I know every corner of the city. The excitement was just when the graduation day happened but then, not anything else. Even to take some photos were difficult for me to do.

Probably it is a sign that I need to move on now. Done with my masters and done with Newcastle. Such a great city to be an international student. So many things I learnt and absorbed, I'm ready to leave my memory as a student there and take it to a new beginning!

I am not sure what is waiting for me in the future...but a few things are waiting to be done very soon! I am so excited to move forward and take a huge steps...decision, decision...all the time, we make the decision!

Will you still be with me? ;) 

Pre-schools

Having visited three different pre-schools in three different states: Pahang, Sabah and Terengganu, I realise that I miss teaching and spending time with a group of children!

The three visits gave me the chance of making some connections and seeing some differences between the pre-schools. In Pahang, we visited two pre-schools in a very rural area in the orang asli community. In Sabah, we went to Keningau and saw pre-schools with children of multi racial backgrounds. In Terengganu, we went to the pre-school near the main city of Kuala Terengganu.

I have always said to people that if I had the chance to study again and go back to my teacher training time, I would choose teach to pre-school. I found it interesting to have a class and a group of pupils to teach. In Malaysia, instead of having just one class, being a class teacher you need to go in and out of the classroom and teachers are exchanged by the subject that they teach. (I'm not saying that this is bad, this is an advantage as well.)

Teaching pre-school means that you teach 5 to 6 year old pupils. They are so cute and nice to teach! There are so many interesting activities that you can do with them. The classroom that you have, you can decorate it as nicely as you can. :)

Even when I was in SK Kampung Kenang, I spent quite a lot of time in the pre- school and watched my friends teach the children with so many interesting activities that you as a teacher can enjoy as well!

PS Pre-school is important as it will help to prepare the children for the next stage!

teaching job

When I was in Ghana doing my research about reflective practice among the Omega Schools teachers, one teacher said this to me:

“…I love teaching but the kind of incentives to receive are very low”

Yeah, it was very low and I was really shocked to know about it. Some of the teachers were very motivated and really good! So, Malaysian teachers, what do you think about it if you hear something like this from teachers in other countries? What you will respond?

PS: typing, typing everyday!

The dissertation!

OK! I'm now at doing the last work before my study in Newcastle University finish. The writing of my dissertation!!! Yeah...need to work hard and then go back to Malaysia...aha..

For your info, this Ramadhan will be in the summer time. The longest fasting I will ever experience for now I guess. Subuh is around 3 a.m in the morning while Maghribd at about 9:30 p.m...

ps: Selamat berpuasa :)

process of negotitation

The more you give the more you get back? Should we expect something or not?

The trip to Ghana is confirmed! I have booked the ticket already. Only a month to go before the expedition. It is very exciting; at the same time I am very nervous to think about it.

A few days ago, I met my supervisor for a one to one meeeting with him. It was a discussion about the research topic - to what extent teachers in Omega schools in Ghana reflect on their teaching. I guess it was a process of negotiation between me and him. A process of describing my interest with passion, thinking deeeply, preparing and providing good explanations for the reason to choose the topic and methods. Then I needed to argue in the discussion.

It can be a bit complicated sometimes when your idea is being argued over by your supervisor or when some more ideas are suggested. I wanted to look at reflection from teachers' perspectives but then my supervisor said that I maybe should also see it from the school management perspective. Especially given that the schools that I will visit are not normal schools. They are low fee private schools that serve the poor people in slum areas. I maybe should consider it....

But on the other hand I also got more opinions and wider views that I may have missed. Like I said before, the process is full of negotiation. I still want to stick with reflection. That is what I am sure about. It is my passion and what I am interested in. Let's see the reflective practitioners in Ghana!

p/s: a very busy month for preparation...

2nd semester

Is it really necessary to tell everybody everything you do all the time? Social networks

Semester 2 will begin soon. However, we have already been given a huge 'pink book' to read. There will be a colloquium at the end of February. Some of the marks for the Economics for Development module will be counted from it. So, whether I like it or not...I have to read it! aha...

The preparation to go to Ghana is still in progress. At least I have my Ghanaian visa now. One thing is clear for sure. Now, I need to wait for all my group members to gather and book the flight tickets.

I met with my research supervisor a few days ago, Chris. He is a great person. I just love to listen to what ever he says...aha...When he asked me about my research interest, suddenly I found it very difficult to say it out. I cannot believe that I hardly said a word! Even just to state 'reflection' was very difficult. ahaha...but it happens to me all the time I think. Second language sometimes 'pauses' my tongue and brain!

The interest area of my research is about Ghanaian teachers as reflective practitioners. As a primary school teacher in Malaysia, which is a developing country, it will be good to see the refective practitioners in another developing country. That is what triggers my interest at the moment. I hope to stick with this topic as I really find it is always 'big' for me...so, let's see what happens...

p/s: pretending to be teenagers again...ahhh...what a feeling!

missing teaching

Even though we know it is wrong, we sometimes tend to repeat the same mistakes. Why?

Today is a very nice sunny day in Cardiff. I just keep sitting here in front of a big window, looking at a beautiful scenery. I can see birds flying here and there, chirping to each other. What a wonderful scene...it's a good time to work on the assignment.

The good thing about being on my own is that I will reflect a lot on what I have done in my life. Sometimes all the events that I have been through start to flashback and stop me from focusing on my work. The flashback comes to me very fast....my brain tends to change topic really quickly! So, sometimes when I am busy doing work, I am also busy looking back or predecting the future! ahaha...

I think I miss teaching...I love to teach but I wish school was easier and less stressful. Teaching and teachers nowadays do not really convey similar meaning. You can always teach anytime but people will not consider you  as a teacher unless you teach in a school. I think the meaning of teaching is bigger than that. Loving to teach requires you to have passion, excitement and enjoyment! It is more than just planning on paper or waiting for people to observe you and find what is correct and what is not.

p/s: cooking Malay food inside a Welsh kitchen! :D

2013

Happy New Year!!! 2013 just came to our life!!!

I have decided not to have any new year's resolution this year. I think I better just focus on anything that come across in my life at the moment. Set a target anytime I want and not just waiting for the new year to do it. From my last experience, I never really remember what I say I want to achieve. Usually, a few weeks after I say I want to do something that particular year, I forgot!...ahaha

So, this year let's see what happens and carpe diem! seize the moment and change what ever I think I should change! No more resolutions!!! Yeah!!!

After a few months of changing my routine from teaching to studying, from a teacher to a student, I found it still difficult to make myself focus on my life as a student. I was fine in the beginning but then after a while I found I lost track. I love going to the class and learning, discovering and meeting people but I found it is very hard for me to do self study! everything around me seems to distract me from reading or writing! Egh...such a terrible student!

Meanwhile, I have found that my I practise using my English language a lot. This makes me feel very comfortable to use it now. But one thing that I realised is that it's very difficult to change my usual ways of using English. So, if I make a mistake, I will keep doing it constantly! I hate that fact!

What to do? I believe that the first step of anything is about realising it and admitting it! So, I admit that at the moment I have these challenges...and I need to figure out a solution as soon as possible!

p/s: sending some postcards to Malayia :) ^^fake smile up there^^

it keeps going up and down

My mood at the moment keeps going up and down. This week was the most terrible week ever. Everything seems to go wrong. Even when I tried to do some stuff and make myself busy, at the end it kept making me feel so down! Egh...


I have found that time has passed very quickly, as quickly as the sun goes down at the end of autumn. Even though it still 24 hours, how can I accept that 4:30 in the afternoon is already like 7:30 in Malaysia! It's dark!

Now that it is already the middle of November, I need to make sure I can get rid of this problem. I really need to focus on all the assignments that are due very soon. I cannot believe that I have time to write this rather than do reading! (No jokes this time, really mad to myself...egh...)

Ready or not, here I am! So swallow it even its taste is no good!

p/s: wish for the best! :)

reflective journal...at least I'm trying! :D

It is starting to get colder now. Egh...such a bad attitude to be here and to keep complaining about the weather right? But lots of people do it all the time. So, I think it is just normal...hehe...It's not really a complaint I think. It just a point to start a conversation with other people...hehe


So, a few weeks ago I received a very nice email from some wonderful parents asking for my advice on helping their kid with a writing problem. I am really glad that they sent me the email. Even though I am not a language teacher, but it will be good to share some ideas about it right?

My suggestion is really simple. Let the kid write down what he learnt everyday in a book. Yeah, just WRITE whatever he finds interesting or significant each day in a book. For example, he scores a goal in the football match today or he learns addition or he drinks Milo! lol! Whatever, just to start writing.

As a parent you can always observe the journal and see the development of that journal. I think it will be great. And most of all, when it becomes a habit maybe just a sentence will turn into a paragraph! I know it is easy to suggest but it will be difficult to do. But who says it can never be done right? Turn it into a habit. A small persistent effort can turn into a huge success in the future...

I have started to keep a journal of what I learn in all of my lectures. I know I can always write down notes and then download all the power point presentations from the internet. But I just make myself write down the significant points that I lean from each class. Sometimes from a two hours class, maybe only one line reamins in my mind all the time! And that is what I write down! It is important! I think so...

p/s: see that green book on the table...that is my cute journal! haha