A day to remember.

Today, 27th February 2014 (Thursday) ... sends shiver down my spine. My fingers are shaking, exaggeration, my eyes are swollen, from crying.  When was the last time you cried?


The first news Tiing told me early in the morning, while we punched our cards, Wen Mei passed away. I ... I double confirmed three times. It's a shame I don't remember her Chinese  name.  She's been unwell for years; it's a good thing she no longer has to face the pain for she's now free and loved in our heavenly Father's embrace.  I don't know her well.  What I remember are her smiles, her devotion to Christ, her positivity.  I remembered she told us to do our best for choir, for she wanted to, but her breathing difficulties prevented her from pursuing that interest.  Nevertheless, she served outstandingly as a bass player, guitarist...I remember she held me by my arms and took this selfie, it's our first and last...

Alice, thank you....

I thought that's enough to bear for the day.  But guess God gave me another assignment.

I received another news.  3 of my Form 3 girls were caught by the police at the hotel last night, no, this 2am... My heart torn into pieces.  While attending prayer meeting tonight, God keeps telling me...instantly, it struck me:  have I failed as a teacher?

I talked to few friends about this.  I felt bad. Yes, I'm deeply affected.  Why have I not taught them to cherish their bodies.  I never really sit down and really talk to them.  They are considered the good girls in my class.  By good, I meant paying attention to class, doing their homework and trying their best to answer my questions, in English. 

They're still ALIVE. They're SO YOUNG!  They're....oh Lord.  Why.... Are their parents aware of this?  Some say, yes, their parents allowed them to do so.... for money.  Geez, money is THE ROOT to all evil!

From the other perspective, what if they really NEED the money? 

I'm not their parents nor am I their principal, form teacher, counselor, moral teacher.....but still, God planted me here. Why have I not ... how many more are there?  It's my 3rd year working here, I've heard many cases but this, these are the girls I've taught since my first year... what will be become of them?  how many more will they drown... how many unscrupulous heartless men are out there preying for an underage girl... 

I am glad, really grateful they were caught red handed... Please girls, learn and don't.... *breathing...*

who says teaching is an easy task.

Back to Alice.. Just last Saturday, we received the news of the passing of Mr Jimmy, a MUET teacher at St Jo... and the following day, the demise of our ex-colleague's husband. And today, Alice...and Amanda's beloved Sookie (dog).  I can't imagine how their families go through this... What is it like to loss somebody you loved so much.  When my hamsters died, I locked myself in my bedroom and cried under my blanket... It tore me to see my students dying, metaphorically. 

THERE'S HOPE, IN GOD.  God is faithful.  Yes, everything happened for a reason. Once again, I'm reminded of my purpose here on Earth - here, now.

My Form 3B! So pleased to see them putting in effort. 

  

Prayer & Words of Encouragement

Hallelujah!!!! 

Finally, our 5 weeks course is over!  Geez, how time flies and it's unbelievable I managed to survive. 

Dear God, 
I wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart, especially for today.  Yesterday, I was so anxious and nearly burst to tears before the quiz, the presentations to come..and I've no idea being a two-year-old teacher, I still suffer from stage fright.  How I admire my coursemates  who  appeared so confident and eloquent on stage.  

Thank you dear Evelyn for burning the midnight oil with me last night to prepare the powerpoint slides...and praying together with me this morning before presentation. Yvonne just complimented me that I did a good job this morning, saying she was amazed 'Wow, is this Lucy?' hahahahhaha....okay, I can't remember what I presented this morning, nor did I remember I stood out away from the rostrum and my hands actually .... flew up and down?

It gotta be the God who helped me pouring out the words. lol... p/s thanks darling for your constructive feedback. As always, you did a wonderful job too, so natural in explaining all the Ivan Pavlov's Behaviourism theory, Thorndike's etc...how do you remember all that....? you're awesome!

Behaviourism:  Rewards & Punishment (Operant Conditioning)
                           Stimulus-Response (Classical Conditioning)

Introducing our Issues in Literature's group members:  Dinesh and Shiva :)

 These two men appear to take things easy, but no, when they present, they've so much talk about...the floor is literary theirs!  A reminder from them "Relax~" hahaha.....

Not forgetting to thank the man who love me most in the world: DADDY! Guess no matter how old we are, we'll always find comfort in our parents' loving encouragement.  Thanks to my mentor too, "Fake it until you make it." hahaha.

Went home last weekend to witness Cynthia's wedding. So happy for them!  and our dear Hui Yi is pregnant! Can't wait to see baby next March! 

Being posted so far away from home, and having this part time masters really make me doubt my decision at times. I really missed out A LOT, especially the quality time with my niece.  and nephew.  Parents are getting older, I really hope I'll get my transfer soon.  May your will be done, Lord. But one thing for sure, no matter where I am, there's always this lovely place called - HOME.

p/s Time to do our portfolio - teaching plans & material designs. Come back to you again, bloggie :)

Priorities

A fruitful night~  Feeling accomplished!

Our ever dedicated group leader just uploaded our 'Important Dates'. 

Seeing the dates and things-to-do, I feel like a superwoman.

Presentations, 3 Journal Reviews (Individual), Portfolio, Textbook Checklist, Quiz, Error Analysis, Blog, Online Forum, Final Exam, Behaviorism Presentation, 3 research-based article review, another final exam, Literature in ESL Presentation, Report on Literature Teaching Approaches, Quiz and another final exam.....All these (excluding the finals, which falls after CNY, and excluding our daily lectures), will be accomplished in 10 days time.

The good news is, I'm not alone on this ark :) That's why God created friends for us, they're like angels sent to protect me.  The sad thing is friends come and go.  It's a sad fact I've to accept.  An occasional 'How are you?' meant a lot to me.  Knowing someone out there still remembers me never fail to warm my heart.  Nonetheless, not everyone thinks alike. Your concern might not be returned with an expected warm response.  But that's okay.  It all boils down to priorities and how important you are to him/her. 

Good night world :)

p/s It's December! Merry Christmas in advance! Where will you be this Christmas? =)

Learning together.

Read from a study somewhere that women are better at multitasking than men.  Do you agree?

Am currently updating my blog while waiting for the journals to be printed out.

Today is the 6th day of our second semester.  Two presentations to go tomorrow and yes, we are really exhausted. 

For this semester (5 weeks), we are doing 4 subjects:

1) Grammar for English by Dr. Mazura @ Mastura Muhammad
2) Methods and Materials for ESL Teaching by Dr. Intan Safinas Mohd Ariff AlBakri
3) Issues in Teaching and Learning of Literature by Dr Lajman Janoory
4) Issues in Applied Linguistics by Dr. Wan Mazlini Othman

Just a little sharing and memory-jotting of my experience here at UPSI (University Putra Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, Perak)

I always find it a challenge to teach my students Grammar, especially the weaker students.  Dr Mazura totally changed my views on Grammar by making the lessons so lively!  Yes, we do have to revise all the terminologies, and more in-depth.  And yes, she cleared many of our doubts.  I especially fancy the ice breaking activity and group tasks.  Super 7 consists of young Dinesh, humble Bannecy and generous Azizi,  and I.

I love all these 4 lecturers.  Dr Intan is really a gem!  She makes the lesson appears stress-free yet at the same time, her in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, her soft spoken nature, her effective way of summarizing the heavy materials just make me admire more each day!  The way she encourages us and uses Krashen's theory to remind us of the importance of lowering down learner's affective filter so learning could take place effectively, is something I must apply in my classroom.

Would love to write more. But my shoulders are yelling for the bed.  Good night.

Learning, like friendship, gets more intriguing and meaningful when we plant the seed of love in it. - JY

 

 

7 minutes

What do you do if you know your time is limited here on Earth? say, 7 minutes left?

tick tock tick tock....

left with 5 minutes.

Many a times, I've spent too much time on wondering/ imagining/ fantasizing

Wondering, how would life be should I take up accounting instead of TESL 9 years ago.

Imagining how would our world be should there be no poverty, crimes, disappointments and pollution.

Fantasizing who my future members look like.

Great, one minute left~

Hello blog, I'll be back :)

11.11.2013

Life is so fragile.

Heartfelt sorrow for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in The Philippines.

Congratulations to the recently married;
Congratulations to the newborns;
Congratulations to the fresh graduates;

And on the same day,

Condolences to the thousands of deaths and sufferings.

Superb September!

It has been months since I last blog here.

A little update of my life (as memory after my transfer out of Kapit) :P

Exactly one month to go before PMR and I'm beginning to feel the stress.  Started giving extra classes in the afternoon to my 3B students. Surprisingly, my 3J kids approached me and requested they wanted to have extra classes too. Successful teachers, how do you teach ESSAYS to students who don't even know 'rumput' is 'grass' or 'monyet' is 'monkey'....

The precious moments for my past 3 months =)

  

 

Today, 4th September 2013 is Tay's birthday! I'm going to miss you guys for sure!  All these monthly birthday celebrations...

 

 

This idea came from the Bengkel Teatre I attended in March.  Group 1 won the most creative arrangement of natural elements based on the votes in my FB :) Kudos, boys of 3B!

Different classes have different activities for this Poem: Leisure, but they all get the chance to work outside the classroom. Teaching them "the importance of taking time off to relax, not to be too busy with studies/work" is quite an irony here. Haha!

  

Happy birthday Tiing 26th Aug and MeiYun (28th Aug). I love you both a lot!

 

You're like my God-sent angel here...

One advantage of teaching in the morning session is that I get to enjoy my hiking in the evenings.  Sometimes I enjoy a company or two, at times I simply enjoy my solitude with Mother Nature.

 

Youth and Young Adult Day at Ka En Methodist Church. It's a blessing to serve in this church...

 

Post-finals dinner @ Hong Fu, Sibu! It has been quite some time since I last ate crabs :)  Another blessing to have the opportunity to further our studies with a group of friends, really!

 

Bengkel Teknik Menjawab: Prepared so much, yet so little time to present. I wonder how much did the students benefited from this 4 days program...Good luck PMR kids! Do your best!

One of us is getting married!! Hallelujah!! =)

Darling, do you love aunty? I miss you so much! The longer I'm here in Kapit, the more family time I missed....and that fact is starting to take its toll on me...

Visiting my mentor Mr Hanapi with my colleagues :)

  

Road trip to Semariang. Interesting name huh?

 

A reminder for teachers, our role in the world of education.....

 

Introducing my koko and Ida's DOTA! I'm a willing victim to let her bite my hands....dogs are...I played with her for a conly a couple of days during the holidays, and tears rolled down my eyes when I left for Kapit...geez, I'm a coward...having experience the grievous loss of my hamsters, I vowed never to rear pets anymore....

I. LOVE. YOU.

Blessed marriage!

  

Brother Xin Fu is going to leave Kapit soon....again, another separation.

Happy birthday Sam and Chan! How many more birthdays will we get to celebrate together?

  

We're in the papers!! woots!! Thanks JK!

Pretty and handsome?? =) It's my day! Our day - teacher's day @ 16 May!

 

Chinese New Year Dinner with my chinese colleagues....

  

Leyu's birthday!

  

I pray....for peace and love, for you and I.