A Step Forward

When was the last time your heart beat raced?

Why and where did it happen?

Did you feel your cheeks getting hotter?

And glanced in the mirror to find them pinkish?



Suddenly, you'll find yourself like a little girl,

scratching your hair though they are not itchy

your eyes twinkle and shine,

despite the heavy eye bags, they still dance gracefully


and your lips

they start to hum melodies

melodies that are sung from your light hearted soul

and the sweetest smile curled upon your lips


the drizzle outside your window

adds melody to your spirit

whatever burden you faced earlier on today

was no longer significant


you're not sure where would the destination be

but you're brave to take the first step

and once you started this journey

just enjoy the scenery and the path taken.


It might lead you out of the spooky jungle

and into a land of blossoming lavendars

yes, you may add colourful butterflies dancing around

and yes too, the birds chirping melodiously


Sweet dreams all (^_^)

A Teacher's Prayer

The Lesson Learn

A Teacher's Prayer
(From: The Heart of a Teacher by Grace Lim)

Dear God,
Thank you that I am a teacher
For in this profession I experience so much joy
May my life be like rain drops
Nurturing the many young lives passing by my hands

May my speech be like the moring dew
Encouraging the many young hearts to greater height
May my action be like an aok tree
Always upright, dependable and trustworthy
Thank You that I respond to Your calling

To teach is to impart knowledge to our students
To inspire is to motivate them to learn
To care is to correct their wrong doings
To love is to direct them the right way
so that they may not go astray.

To teach is to develop an direct
To allow our students to dream
It is to encourage and to listen
It is to give without expecting of any rewards

To teach is to let our students grow
To teach to reach their full potential
With kindness and firmness
To teach to reach a new horizon

To teach is to learn from others
To laugh with them when they succeed
To cry with them when they fail
It is to live, to be fulfilled, and to do God's will.

---------------------------------------------------Reflection--------------------------------------------------


Dear Lord,
I thank You from the bottom of my heart
for placing me here in Kapit
for keeping my passion for teaching burning still
for all the wonderful people who inspire/hurt/criticize/praise me

Thank you for the soothing Christian Songs playing by my bed now...
1:20am..

Will be taking the 7:30am boat down to Sibu tomorrow,
Going to pay a visit to Sibu Jaya's UPM Centre
For the past 14 months, I've been thinking of pursuing masters
yet, there are no actions taken.

Sadly, there are no English courses available here in Sarawak
I can't afford to fly to KL weekly
so, currently, the most suitable course would be Education Management

Can I cope with it?
Weekly traveling down to sibu, boat and taxi, Fri & Sat's hotel....

Will I persevere even though my colleagues will ffk me?
2 years, assignments....exams....every sat, 8am-11pm....

Why do I want it? It's not even English Studies, management will be very theoretical and boring...
1. I'm bored and felt guilty I've wasted a year not upgrading myself.
2. It's a big big world, though I love Kapit, I'll like to explore further, both geographically and education wise.
3. Because I failed at managing my class & some relationships, I think, education management might help, in a way?
4. My juniors are doing it, my seniors snapped their graduation photos. My fantasy wedding proposal location + attire....It didn't happen last year, perhaps, 2 years later?

1:34pm, typing out while half dreaming....good night, my refuge. Hello soon, my dreams =)

Seminar Reframing English Language Education

Attended my first seminar as a teacher today, 8am - 5pm @ Hotel Mahligai, Kapit. Siminar Reframing English Language Education: New Environments, New Needs, New Solutions Anjuran Bersama STU Kapit Division dan Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah Kapit (Hari Guru Sedunia 2012)

Teachers, have you signed up as a STU member? RM5 deduction from your pay slip per month. I hesitated to fill in the form for a couple of weeks, then gave in simply because : Teachers should learn to be less calculative.

The more members STU has, the bigger its voice will be heard. Enough said.

Back to the reflection of today's seminar, this seminar pale if comparison if you've attended bigger conferences like MELTA. Nevertheless, it did remind me of the modern methods of teaching and really give conventional teaching a halt. So since I've 2 weeks left before our 2 months holidays (YAYYYY!!) and since I've convered 98% of PBS (personally, I doubt the benefit of PBS, and fear it's an unwise move to replace PMR with it), I'll try incorporating songs and stories =)

Last May, I used Bruno Mar's "Just the Way You Are" and students remembered it till today.  Anyway, sister Kuchi Bantin, a teacher who taught English for 32 years, shared her experience attending MELTA: "Using Songs in an English Language Teaching Classroom".

Suggested songs:
1) A big big world
2) You've Got a Friend
3) Streets of London
4) Palestine will be Free
5) We Wish You a Merry Chirstmas

Brother Henry Nasat, another dedicated senior teacher, who frequently attends international English teaching conference gave a preview of 'How to Read Fast'.  He splurged RM 1K on the book at Ipoh's workshop last week (0.0) 

Interesting Phonetics Skills:
1) "sh sh" - 'how do your mom ask baby to urinate?' sh sh sh...sh sherry..sh..shoe..sh...(typing this out sounds lame, but he presented it successfully)

2) "v" sound - practice with teeth position.  we laughed at each other!

3) "r" sound - use the song "Trouble is a Friend" *wink*

4) "o" as in 'two' sound - use the song "Little Red Wagon"

5) Simple dialogue "Dick, have you any sweet? Yes, one for you, one for Amy, and one for your mother."  - use the song "Baa Baa Black Sheep"

6) Song "Wish you were here" - Ask students: "Why do you wish me to be here?" - start brainstorm for your ideas.

7) "Smiles" by Backstreet Boys.

He brought guitar and tambourine into his class. Ah, no wonder students are always so excited to see him approaching.  Wonder what my students are feeling when they see me coming...yawn? hm..

Next, brother Jisin Nyut, Deputy President of STU HQ, Kuching delivered his topic on 'Teaching Profession'.  He started off energetic, and since his sharing is funny and useful, I took out my phone and write down in my favorite apps 'MEMOIRES'  I guessed he thought I was not paying attention to him therefore he kept staring into my eyes and when I can answer his question, he knew I was not playing on the phone. Haha.

Few things I jotted down:

1. Love the students. 
    First thing when you enter your class, what is on your mind? Should be: Impart knowledge and skills for the kids!

2. If students are excited for your class, it means you are on the road to be a successful teacher. (my students are not excited, sometimes....oh dear..  )

3. Teaching - when you move to the left, students' eyes should be on you too...look pretty/handsome, look into their eyes. *dress beautifully* =)

4. Remember always, our TASK = IMPART KNOWLEDGE

5. Oral : we must speak correct English. Our actions.. walk straight, sit straight.

6. We must have impact on our students, they'll want to follow us and say good things about us. (Whenever my students tell me negative things about other teachers, I wonder how they view me..hm..)

7. Bear in mind, it's not a burden to enter class, but see it as "I want my children to learn."  (A constant reminder esp for my out-of-control Remove Class)

-----------------------------Time to dress up for STU dinner, happy weekend to all---------------------

Honesty

Today, she did something unprofessional. A girl rubbed off her exam answerS, marked using her own red ink and requested for extra marks. Anger started to pent up. The lady teacher asked the student if she admit changing the answers, the girl denied. The teacher could have just close an eye but no, instead, she crumpled the piece of OMR paper and threw it on the floor.

She regretted her actions instantly. What if the girl was telling the truth?

Other 'helpful' students quickly took the girl's red pen, tested on a piece of paper and proved her guilty. Her face turned as white as sheet. Yet, she stood firm and denied.

The teacher must have appeared very upset as the girls repeatedly urged her to smile for them.

As she was about to lit a smile for the students, a boy gossiped that when he accused her for being stupid to change answers and leave obvious traces, the girl replied proudly "Well, at least I dare to do it. You don't."

The teacher's heart sank.  She has not instill the moral value of honesty in her students. She has not handled problematic students professionally. 

Being a new teacher, she could either leave and forget the whole issue OR seek higher authority to deal. She chose the later.

After being tenderly warned by the assistant principal, the girl apologized. The teacher looked into her watery eyes, nodded and silently hoped that she had learned her mistake: be honest and respect your teachers.

As for the teacher, she still has a long way to go. This little upsetting incident just made her tougher.

Women work, cook and play.

Excerpts I find interesting:

July/August 2012 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

inShare6

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

"If we are looking for high-profile female role models, we might begin with Michelle Obama. She started out with the same résumé as her husband, but has repeatedly made career decisions designed to let her do work she cared about and also be the kind of parent she wanted to be. She moved from a high-powered law firm first to Chicago city government and then to the University of Chicago shortly before her daughters were born, a move that let her work only 10 minutes away from home. She has spoken publicly and often about her initial concerns that her husband’s entry into politics would be bad for their family life, and about her determination to limit her participation in the presidential election campaign to have more time at home. Even as first lady, she has been adamant that she be able to balance her official duties with family time. We should see her as a full-time career woman, but one who is taking a very visible investment interval. We should celebrate her not only as a wife, mother, and champion of healthy eating, but also as a woman who has had the courage and judgment to invest in her daughters when they need her most. And we should expect a glittering career from her after she leaves the White House and her daughters leave for college."



Rediscovering the Pursuit of Happiness

One of the most complicated and surprising parts of my journey out of Washington was coming to grips with what I really wanted. I had opportunities to stay on, and I could have tried to work out an arrangement allowing me to spend more time at home. I might have been able to get my family to join me in Washington for a year; I might have been able to get classified technology installed at my house the way Jim Steinberg did; I might have been able to commute only four days a week instead of five. (While this last change would have still left me very little time at home, given the intensity of my job, it might have made the job doable for another year or two.) But I realized that I didn’t just need to go home. Deep down, I wanted to go home. I wanted to be able to spend time with my children in the last few years that they are likely to live at home, crucial years for their development into responsible, productive, happy, and caring adults. But also irreplaceable years for me to enjoy the simple pleasures of parenting—baseball games, piano recitals, waffle breakfasts, family trips, and goofy rituals. My older son is doing very well these days, but even when he gives us a hard time, as all teenagers do, being home to shape his choices and help him make good decisions is deeply satisfying.


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Today, however, women in power can and should change that environment, although change is not easy. When I became dean of the Woodrow Wilson School, in 2002, I decided that one of the advantages of being a woman in power was that I could help change the norms by deliberately talking about my children and my desire to have a balanced life. Thus, I would end faculty meetings at 6 p.m. by saying that I had to go home for dinner; I would also make clear to all student organizations that I would not come to dinner with them, because I needed to be home from six to eight, but that I would often be willing to come back after eight for a meeting. I also once told the Dean’s Advisory Committee that the associate dean would chair the next session so I could go to a parent-teacher conference.

After a few months of this, several female assistant professors showed up in my office quite agitated. “You have to stop talking about your kids,” one said. “You are not showing the gravitas that people expect from a dean, which is particularly damaging precisely because you are the first woman dean of the school.” I told them that I was doing it deliberately and continued my practice, but it is interesting that gravitas and parenthood don’t seem to go together.

Ten years later, whenever I am introduced at a lecture or other speaking engagement, I insist that the person introducing me mention that I have two sons. It seems odd to me to list degrees, awards, positions, and interests and not include the dimension of my life that is most important to me—and takes an enormous amount of my time. As Secretary Clinton once said in a television interview in Beijing when the interviewer asked her about Chelsea’s upcoming wedding: “That’s my real life.” But I notice that my male introducers are typically uncomfortable when I make the request. They frequently say things like “And she particularly wanted me to mention that she has two sons”—thereby drawing attention to the unusual nature of my request, when my entire purpose is to make family references routine and normal in professional life.

This does not mean that you should insist that your colleagues spend time cooing over pictures of your baby or listening to the prodigious accomplishments of your kindergartner. It does mean that if you are late coming in one week, because it is your turn to drive the kids to school, that you be honest about what you are doing. Indeed, Sheryl Sandberg recently acknowledged not only that she leaves work at 5:30 to have dinner with her family, but also that for many years she did not dare make this admission, even though she would of course make up the work time later in the evening. Her willingness to speak out now is a strong step in the right direction.

Seeking out a more balanced life is not a women’s issue; balance would be better for us all. Bronnie Ware, an Australian blogger who worked for years in palliative care and is the author of the 2011 book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, writes that the regret she heard most often was “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” The second-most-common regret was “I wish I didn’t work so hard.” She writes: “This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship.”

Space for play and imagination is exactly what emerges when rigid work schedules and hierarchies loosen up. Skeptics should consider the “California effect.” California is the cradle of American innovation—in technology, entertainment, sports, food, and lifestyles. It is also a place where people take leisure as seriously as they take work; where companies like Google deliberately encourage play, with Ping-Pong tables, light sabers, and policies that require employees to spend one day a week working on whatever they wish. Charles Baudelaire wrote: “Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will.” Google apparently has taken note.

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I have been blessed to work with and be mentored by some extraordinary women. Watching Hillary Clinton in action makes me incredibly proud—of her intelligence, expertise, professionalism, charisma, and command of any audience. I get a similar rush when I see a front-page picture of Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, deep in conversation about some of the most important issues on the world stage; or of Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, standing up forcefully for the Syrian people in the Security Council.

These women are extraordinary role models. If I had a daughter, I would encourage her to look to them, and I want a world in which they are extraordinary but not unusual. Yet I also want a world in which, in Lisa Jackson’s words, “to be a strong woman, you don’t have to give up on the things that define you as a woman.” That means respecting, enabling, and indeed celebrating the full range of women’s choices. “Empowering yourself,” Jackson said in her speech at Princeton, “doesn’t have to mean rejecting motherhood, or eliminating the nurturing or feminine aspects of who you are.”

We’ll create a better society in the process, for all women. We may need to put a woman in the White House before we are able to change the conditions of the women working at Walmart. But when we do, we will stop talking about whether women can have it all. We will properly focus on how we can help all Americans have healthy, happy, productive lives, valuing the people they love as much as the success they seek.

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Anne-Marie Slaughter is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, and the mother of two teenage boys. She served as the director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011.



(Taken from: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/6/ )

Reflection:

One of the best essay I have read this year month. Conclusion, can women have it all? Yes, but not all at the same time. I couldn't help but admire those ladies mentioned above. I'm in my mid twenties too but I'm playing such a small role in making a difference to this world. Small, yet significant ;) Though they climbed the social ladder fast and made it to the peak managerial posts, eventually they'll have to choose between work and family: spending quality time bringing up the children or continue burying in work.

It's encouraging to know that educated men nowadays viewed women with utmost respect, some are even willing to bend down and learn from women. This essay highlights the importance of 'BALANCE', which reminded me of my service at Lodge School: flexible working hours - teachers can go home or come in late, just as long as they are punctual and committed for the lessons. This allows them to go home earlier to play their role as a housewife should their lessons end earlier that day. 

Work with passion + Cook with love + Hike while appreciating Mother Nature :) 

First attempt cooking Tofu Mushroom soup, 2.8stars only as it doesn't taste like restaurant's, perhaps because I didn't add minced meat..hm..

Secretly satisfied with this Mani Chai, 4stars! :) Recipe taken from Annie.blogspot, secret ingredient: oyster sauce to add that magical sweetness to this leafy green! :)

A beautiful hour well spent @ Bukit Goram, Kapit.

On the cross

Be Thankful In Life

(author unknown)

Heavy rains remind us of challenges in life.

Never ask for a lighter rain.

Just pray for a better umbrella

That is attitude.

When flood comes, fish eat ants.

And when flood recedes, ants eat fish.

Only time matters.

Just hold on, God gives opportunity to everyone!

Life is not about finding the right person,

but creating the right relationship.

It's not how we care in the beginning,

but how much we care till the very end.

Some people always throw stones in your path.

It depends on you, what you make with them.

A wall or a Bridge?

Remember you are the architect of your life.

Search for a beautiful heart,

but don't search for a beautiful face

because beautiful things are not always good,

but good things are always beautiful!

It's not important to hold all the good cards in life,

But it's important how well you play with the cards you hold.

Often, when we lost all hope,

Think this is the end, God smiles from above and says,

"relax dear, it's just a bend, not the end."

Have Faith and have a successful life,

One of the basic differences between God and human is,

God gives, gives and forgives.

But the human gets, gets and forgets.

Be thankful in life.

(Taken from "The Heart of a Teacher" by Grace Lim)

I'm a Sanguine.