Today is a 'present'. The future? God knows...

We handed in our SmartBoard (IWB) assignment.. And then, we started on a chat thread.

What are our future classroom? Hm.. I have a dream...

New buildings, air conditioners and comfortable seats would be nice! But, I'm sure those would be impossible since I'm not building mu own school.. I guess, that is REALLY a DREAM..

Anyway... My future classroom.. Hm... Looking at my mum's life (she's a Year 1 English Language teacher), I could learn so many things. I love the way she uses songs in her classroom but for MY future classroom, I would upgrade this technique. Instead of having the class singing on their own, I don't mind bringing my own pieces of technology (radio, for instance) for the class. As what mentioned by Krashen in his Affective Filter Hyphotheses, the happier the pupils, the better they learn. So, what do kids like? Cartoons, games, songs and so on!

Suddenly, this reminds me of what my preschool teacher used to do. It is impossible to have a computer for each pupil but I think, as time goes by, the goverment would be able to provide at least one or two computers for each class. (I sure di hope. Let's pray!) So, what will I do? I shall divide the class into several groups (this was what my preschool teacher did) and do 'task rotation'. For instance, there will be 5 groups and 5 differents stations in the class. Each task would have different task, example: the computer corner, reading corner etc. Each group will then rotate from one station to one station so that everybody can try every task. Since it would be done in groups, pupils will have better chance and oppurtunity to participate and contribute in completeing the task. Having different stations also means that I can incorporate different teaching styles to the class. I can use both, the modern and traditional style. This ensures my lesson to be intregrative. The use of different stations is also to cater for all kinds of pupils; visual learners, aural learners and so on.

And.. If we really talk about dreams... (The impossible.. Here goes nothing!) I wish that all my pupils will have their own personal computers. Laptops would be better. And then, we abolish all the books. Save the environment! Textbook shall be downloaded (PDF format also can maa...) and all assignments shall be handed in online. This will surely make lessons easier for both, pupils and teachers. (Maybe hard on the parents' finance. Hehee) True, this may hinder pupils from developing certain skill, for example, writing skill. But, we can always go back to 'real' projects in certain situations. For instance, having pupils to create an advertisement and so on. Hm.. As if in a dream.. (a song by L'Arc~en~Ciel)

Anyway, before dreaming on and on, we as teacher-to-be should ready ourselves to fit into those dreams first, don't we? Are we prepared enough to make those dreams come true? Or those dreams are just dreams for us to keep on dreaming? Surely a thing to ponder, aye? Guess, I'll stop here. Mata ato de!

Smartboard! Screen 1, Take 1! Action!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim... Hope that this would be a QUALITY entry..

Hm.. It's the 10th week.. We were supposed to present our 80% completed smartboard task for prof to check whether we were on the right track. My group did not present our material but, I was able to jot down few things for us to recheck: Are materials are clean from grammatical error? Does the font size and type suitable for our purpose? Are our materials interesting enough? What I'm trying to say is that in developing a material for classroom use, a teacher must consider lots of things. This is to ensure that the material is manipulated at it maximum and teaching and learning session would take place successfully.

The presentation made me realize that there were other aspects that our group has overlooked. Maybe we should have tried to discuss with the members of the other groups and made a proper checklist on the thing we should keep our eyes on.

Among all of the presentations, the one that grabbed my attention the most was a material from Tengku Nor Amirah. The way she used IWB to create fun games for children really amazed me. I did think of creating games but, after few unsuccessful trial (more of meddling here and there then a real try), I gave up. But, looking at how Amirah had created interesting activities using simple, basic tools gave me motivation to redo my activities. I came out with the 'Guess what am I?' activity. I remember as kids, we loved riddles and all sorts of 'teka-teki'. So, that was where I got the idea for my activity.

I guess, I'll stop here. The presentation helped me a lot in improving my materials, eventhough I did not present mine. Well, let's look forward on the final product! Tata!