Sample Answer for SPM Paper 1 Section B 2014

Using past questions is one of the way to prepare your students. I tried using the question from last year's SPM paper, and it worked out quite fine. We did it collectively in class before I asked them to continue the essay at home. 

Question 4: Write a story about a fisherman beginning with: "The wind blew strongly. Out at sea,.. "

Firstly, we discussed the possible draft for the story. For this, we used the timeline:

Exposition – fisherman on a boat, sea was rough, wavy
Rising action – the wave became bigger, rained
Climax – the boat capsized, the fisherman fell into sea
Falling action – floated at sea for 8 hours,
Resolution – another boat passed by, helped him

Then, the students started giving their ideas while I typed the sentences, showing them on the screen. We made corrections as we went through. This is the result:

The wind blew strongly. Out at sea, an old, grizzled fisherman wearing worn out Crocodile t-shirt given to him by his wealthy daughter-in-law was throwing his fishing net into the rough, wavy South China Sea. There was no sound except for the engine of his boat and the violent wave. He went to this area because he was told by one of his trustworthy friends that he caught big fishes there last week.

While he was waiting for something to get into the net, the weather suddenly worsened. There was thunder, and the sky became cloudy. The wave became bigger and more aggressive. He was hit by sudden fear of death, as last month, his best of friends died tragically in the similar storm.

To make matters worse, rain poured like bullets on the roof on his already leaking boat. He struggled to find cover, as the floor of the boat was slippery. He finally managed to enter his sanctuary, promptly searching for his 3310. Then, he realized that there was no connection for he was distant from the shore, so he grabbed the wheel instead and tried to navigate the boat away from the hazardous area.

Out of the blue, a 5-storey high wave appeared in front of his eyes which made him jump out of his skin. Consequently, the boat capsized, and he fell into the unforgiving sea. He struggled to get to the surface as the current was pulling him away from it. Once he finally managed to get out, he gasped for air and searched for something to hold on to but nothing was spotted near him. The boat was unreachable, yet there was something shiny which captured his attention. He swam towards it, and held onto it. He recognized it as some sort of wreckage either from a broken boat or aeroplane. He was pretty sure, however, that it was not from his boat.

Finally, I asked them to continue the story as they like. Hopefully I will get something creative out of those minds. 

5B Verbs Task

A week before the trial, I did a lesson where I asked my 5 Bestari students to fill in the blanks with verbs. Here is the story (with the omitted verbs in red):

It was a blazing summer’s day. My surroundings were slowly starting to melt: the trees, the houses, the sky and the pathway to my garage. It seemed that I was about to dissipate as well, becoming a puddle of glue-like substance left on the ground.

I was walking at crawling speed. My head felt huge and heavy, and each muscle in my body felt sore. My arms and legs were responding to the signals that my brain was sending to them at a slower speed than I thought was possible. It felt like a slow-motion horror movie, only it was happening live. I finally reached the front door and touched the handle with a loose grip. The path that took only a second for my eyes to see took about twenty minutes for my body to cover. But, I was finally at my goal.

I slowly squeezed the handle of the door in a downwards motion, only to realize it had barely moved. I gathered the last reserves of my strength that I had left in my body and pressed the handle again. No success. I pivoted around, leaned against the door, and slowly slid down to the ground. I felt faint. I was so thirsty that I could barely think about anything else. I had to get inside; had to pull myself together and open the door. Otherwise, I would faint there, near the front entrance to my own house.

I pushed myself up from the ground and faced the door again. I closed my eyes for a second, took a deep breath, opened them, and pulled the door knob down as hard as I could. It gave way grudgingly. If it wasn’t for the helpless shadow of a man that I was at that moment, I would definitely have screamed in happiness for finally winning over this stubborn door knob. But I could only settle on a weak smile and a deep sigh.

I went inside and had to wait for a minute before I could make out my environment. It was too dark, still boiling hot and, somehow, lonely inside. By the time my eyes adapted to the darkness inside, I could tell that no one was around. What time was it? And where was everyone? The house was completely and scarily quiet. The silence was unnatural. There was no sound coming from the working fridge, or ticking clock; nothing. I went to the kitchen to get some water, opened the tap and put an empty glass under it. But no water poured, not even a drop. The glass remained empty. This seemed like a complete nightmare. I thought that I must have been dreaming – my small world had become ravished by emptiness, and somehow, I was forgotten here all alone, left to pass away into the realms of thirst and heat.

I was having a panic attack. Yet with the panic, I was enabled by strength to run from one room to another, looking for anyone besides myself. Mom, Josh, dad, Charlie – no one was to be seen. The dogs were gone too. What is wrong with my home? Again, for the third or fourth time, I caught myself thinking this was just a bad dream. But my body still vividly felt the pains of soreness. Having no clue of what else, except the pain, that could help me distinguish between dreaming and reality, I had to accept the fact that I was living in this nightmare for real.

Suddenly, I heard a sound from downstairs. It was a faint sound that repeated in a second, only louder. I jolted downstairs, feeling cautious and, at the same time, hoping that it was someone, or something, that could explain to me what was going on.

The living room was empty. The source of the sound seemed to be from the back porch outside, and it was increasing in volume with every new cycle. It reminded me of when dad and I went rowing, and every time dad turned over the oars, they made the same whistling sound, cleaving the air. I ran outside the back door and was almost brought down to the ground by the force of the wind. It was a helicopter, right above me, maneuvering so that it would land on me. I laid on the ground, screaming, but I couldn’t hear my voice through the noise of the implacable blades getting closer, and freezing me to the ground….

… “Jason, honey, wake up! It’s just a dream, babe. You look so pale. Are you okay?”

My mom was standing next to my bed like a guardian statue. She tried to appease me as I was still screaming and flapping my arms. When I calmed down to a relative level of normalcy, I stared at the fan above my head, spinning and whistling like a nightmare creator.

Original source

Narrative Essay Form 5 Bestari 2014

Today, I did a narrative essay lesson with my 5 Bestari class. I hooked my laptop into a screen and asked my students to continue my sentence. It started with 'I was walking down the stairs...' Once they had given me the response, I typed it into the laptop, correcting the mistakes as we went along. Here is the complete essay: 

     I was walking down the stairs when I heard a scary sound coming from the kitchen. It was past midnight. I was curious to know what happened, but I was too scared. Nevertheless, I tiptoed towards the kitchen because I was afraid somebody or something that made the sound knew I was there. I tried to peek into the kitchen but I could not see anything because it was dark without the lights on.
  
    Suddenly, the sound mysteriously disappeared. My heart beat heavily. With heavy steps, I went into the kitchen, reached for the switch and turned on the lights. I checked under the dinner table, peered under the sink and opened the cabinets but there was nothing. Out of the blue, I heard a knock on the kitchen door. I became frightened again.
  
    I was running towards my bedroom when my I-Phone rang. An unknown number appeared on the screen. I let it ring for sometime before I answered it.  I just kept quiet to listen to his or her voice. However, I did not hear any sound coming from the other side. Nervously, I said, “Hello, is anybody there?” There was silence. Angrily, I hung up. A few seconds later, the phone rang again. Furiously, I shouted, “What do you want?” That ‘thing’ replied my question by laughing maniacally. I was shocked and the phone fell from my shaking hands. It landed on the floor with the screen facing up. I looked at the phone anxiously. It looked like a tiger ready to pounce at me. I remembered a scene from The Ring where something horrible crept out from a television. I was afraid that the ‘thing’ would creep out from my phone!
  
    All of a sudden, there was a message coming in. I braved myself to pick up the phone. I opened the message and read it. All my curiosity turned into a joy when I saw what was written. It said: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Then, my parents and my siblings came in from the kitchen door with a big birthday cake in their hands singing the birthday song merrily.

50-Word Sentence Competition

1 May is Labour Day, so, it is a rest day for me. This also means that I have extra from my pay this month which I would like to share with my students from 5 Bestari and 4 Arif. Earlier, I had a lesson which required them to make a 50-word sentence from the given subject and a finite verb. Therefore, I will be giving them the opportunity to use their prior knowledge to make a 50-word sentence as creatively as possible and get RM50.00 for reward. 

Please use the following subject and finite verb:

The labourer works.

The Rules and Regulations

1. The participant must use the given subject and finite verb above as the main subject and verb.

2. The participant must use Complex Sentence. Compound Sentence will not be accepted. 

3. Using the word 'The labourer' is optional. Any other words with the same meaning is acceptable. 

4. The finite verb must be used in the suitable tenses.  

5. The sentence  must consists of 50 words; not more or less. 

6. The sentence must be written in the comments below this post complete with the participant's name and class name.

7. The participant can submit more than one sentence.

8. The sentence must be submitted starting from today until 31st May 2014.

9. The participant must be from 5 Bestari or 4 Arif 2014.

10. My decision is final.

Click here to submit your answer.

Argumentative Essay

During the Ramadhan, I did writing to my 5 Bestari on an argumentative essay with the topic of Yes or No to bringing handphone to school.

Brainstorming session

A very slow process. Maybe because of the insufficient flow of oxygen in their brains due to fasting. What they came out with were these:

Advantage: (1) for emergency. (2) phone usage such as calculator and converter may help in lessons.

Disadvantage: (1) distraction. (2) phone misuse (pornography, cheating in exam). (3) social problems (theft, bullying).


Writing first draft

An arduous task. It took them 2 lessons to complete their first draft. Two groups even had to do 'ketuk-ketampi' for not handing in their essays on time. Nevertheless, they managed to complete the draft successfully.


Peer discussion

A copy of the group's essay was given to the other groups for peer correction. They underlined and gave suggestions for the other groups' first draft. The copy was then given back to the original group. They made correction where they thought suitable and returned the original essays to the teacher for marking.


Teacher's correction

My turn to make all the remaining corrections. Here are their essays. My choice is Group 5. How about you? Read all before deciding :)


Group 1

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

Nowadays, people, especially students, are desperately crazy about getting their hands on the variety of handphones such as Iphone or the Galaxy Notes. However, there are advantages and disadvantages of bringing the handphone to school. 

For one thing, handphones can make the lesson easier. A handphone has a lot of usages. For example, students can use the handphone to calculate in Mathematics lesson by using the calculator function. Furthermore, the students can also listen to music to release the tension during recess. 

On the other side of the coin, bringing handphone to school may invite the phone misuse. Taking and sharing inappropriate graphic materials is one of the misuses of handphone. Irresponsible students like to download and share the explicit materials although the materials are not suitable for them. Besides, it can help students to cheat in examinations easily. So, the increase in their marks means nothing because it does not show their true academic performance. Thus, there is no guarantee for the students to have a bright future.

Secondly, bringing handphone to school is very important because it can be used for emergency. For instance, when fire happens at school, the parents can call their children and ask about their condition. Besides, it can also be used when students are sick at school. They can call their parents to tell them about their health. They can also use their handphone to call their parents when they are late to return home. 

Meanwhile, bringing handphone to school can cause many social problems. Problems like bullying and theft will arise because of the handphones. If the senior students see that their juniors are bringing more expensive handphones to school, they will feel threatened. As a result, they try to seize the handphone forcefully. Theft or stealing may also happen when a student carelessly leave his handphone in the classroom.

On top of that, handphones will become a distraction in the student’s lesson. New messages or incoming calls will surely distract the student’s focus on what the teacher is saying in front of the class. Their brain cannot cope with doing two different things at the same time. 

In a nutshell, whether bringing the handphone to school is good or bad highly depends on how the students use it. Unfortunately, their immature behaviours are not suitable for this privilege because if you give them an inch, they will take a yard. Thus, the government should not allow the students to bring the handphone to school.

Group 2

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

The handphone is on everybody’s lips nowadays. It is such as a wonderful tool for education, work, information and play that sometimes we wonder how we survived before this. Some people call it the eighth wonder of the world while others think of it as disruptive. So, does a handphone become a wonderful tool or a disruptive tool at school?

For one thing, handphone can be used for emergency calls. When a student feels sick or involved in an accident, the teacher may quickly call the student’s parents and tell them about their son’s condition. This is because the parents’ numbers will already be in the student’s phonebook and the teacher does not have to waste time searching for it in the school students’ database.

On the other side of the coin, bringing the handphone to school may cause unwanted distractions. Students can easily lose focus in their lesson when they receive new messages or have incoming calls. The school may instruct the students to turn off their handphones during lesson but, in reality, there are not many students who really adhere to school rules and regulations.

Secondly, there are many useful functions for the handphone. It can normally become a calculator, a music player and also a unit converter. Sometimes, students use the handphone to calculate numbers in their Mathematics lesson, and some other times, they use it to convert numbers from meters to inches in their Science lesson. 

On the other hand, the students act immaturely and misuse the handphone functions. There are many instances where students use the handphone to take and share pornographic pictures or videos. Irresponsible students might also use their handphone to cheat in examinations. What is more with the handphone’s ability to store so much information in its memory card, the students can put the whole text books in it!

Moreover, the adverse effect on students when they use a handphone at school is the increase of social problems. For instance, when a student brings an expensive handphone to school and his friend is jealous of him, theft or stealing may happen. This kind of social problem will only add to the many socials problems already at school. 

In a nutshell, bringing handphone to school will only become a tool of destruction instead of a tool of construction. Therefore, it is better to leave the handphone at home. 

Group 3
  

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

Nowadays, handphone usage is popular among the students. Every student wants his or her own handphone. Moreover, the phone has many usages apart from just being a tool in communication. Students use it in nearly everything they do and they cannot be separated from their handphones even for a second. The interesting news is handphones can now be brought to school. Is it really a good idea?

For one thing, handphone can be used when there are emergency cases. For example, students can use the handphone to contact their parents when someone disturbs them. Additionally, when they have an extra class, they can inform their parents that they will be late in returning home. So, their parents will not be worried and waste their time waiting for their children.

However, handphone usage in the class will distract students from concentrating in the lesson, especially when they receive text messages or calls while the teacher is teaching. Their fragile concentration will also be disturbed when some boring students start playing phone games or surf the Internet. 

Secondly, handphone has many useful functions such as being a calculator or a unit converter. Students can use these functions to help them in their lesson. Besides, handphone can be used to release their tension by listening to the music while teachers are not in class or during the recess.

However, there are also tendencies to misuse the handphone. Students might use their handphone to take or share pornographic pictures or videos. What is more, they can also use the handphone to cheat in examinations. 

In addition, bringing the handphone to school may increase social problems such as bullying and theft. Bullying usually happens when the senior students discover that their juniors bring more expensive handphones to school. They will think that it degrades their reputation. As a result, they will try to take the handphone by force. Furthermore, students who are careless and put their handphones everywhere will invite thefts. This will bring more unwanted problems to school. 

In conclusion, bringing the handphone to school is not a good idea whatsoever. The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. With our students’ immature and irresponsible attitude, the handphone will quickly become a tool of destruction. So, in order to prevent this from happening, it is best to prohibit the handphone usage in school.

Group 4

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

Bringing handphone to school is happy news to student because they like it very much. With the advance in handphone technology, is it possible to bring handphone to school? Like everything else, there are advantages and disadvantages. I feel that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

For one thing, handphone can be used to make emergency calls. For example, students can call their parents when they want to return home early if they are sick at school. On top of that, they can call their parents when they want to return home late after school because of the extra class or co-curricular activities.

On the other hand, using handphone during school will cause distraction. Students who use the handphone during lesson will lose their concentration. For example, when their teacher is teaching, they use the handphones to text someone. As a result, they will lose concentration to what the teacher is saying. They will also lose their focus if they are concentrating on the lesson and a new message suddenly shows on the screen.

Secondly, using handphones can help students in studying. For example, the students can use the calculator function of the handphone during Mathematics lesson. Besides, students can also use the unit converter to convert numbers from meter to inch. Furthermore, students can also listen to music when the teacher is not in class while doing their work or at the canteen while having their meals.

However, there is a tendency of students misusing their handphone. It usually happens when they use the handphone for useless or dangerous information. For instance, they download pornographic videos or pictures and share them with their friends.

Moreover, bringing handphone to school will give rise to social problems such as bullying and theft. Bullying sometimes can cause death. It happens when students want to take other students’ handphone. In addition, the students who leave their handphone everywhere can cause theft.

In a nutshell, bringing handphones to school is not good for students because handphones can make students unable to focus on the lesson. Moreover, it adds to the long list of social problems which the school already has.

Group 5

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

In this globalisation era, people feel like handphone is the basic need in their life. It is the trend these days, especially for teenagers and students, to desperately get their hands on the latest handphone so that they will not lose to their friends. But the question is should the students bring their handphone to school?

For one thing, students can use the telephone during emergency cases which may occur anytime. So, students must take precaution in order to help them whenever they become sick at the school, have to return home late because of extra class or involve in accidents. 

On the other hand, if we bring handphones to school, many social problems may occur such as bullying and theft. Poor students who are unable to buy a high quality handphone which may cost more than a thousand will resort in bullying with the purpose of seizing the expensive handphone from the rich students. Other than that, the problem of theft in school will increase because, instead of money, there will be handphones for the taking. It absolutely will waste teacher’s time and energy in finding the culprits.

Secondly, bringing handphone to school is important for the lesson. The functions of the handphone such as being a calculator or a converter are important to students. Students can also surf the Internet to find important information for their lesson. They can finish their homework and projects that need them to surf for information. The development of the technology may enable students to surf the Internet anywhere. Thus, they can get benefits from this technology if they use the handphone for good purposes.

However, phone misuse will definitely occur when the students bring their handphone to school because of the teachers’ inability to observe all the students at school all the time. With the latest technology in many gadgets that are in the market nowadays such as Ipad, Iphone, and Android, students can easily get negative information from the Internet. This may occur in the form of inappropriate graphic materials. Irresponsible students download them and share them with their friends. In addition, students can also cheat in their examination by misusing this technology.

When all is said and done, it is confirmed that there are many disadvantages of bringing handphone to school as opposed to its advantages. Students need to benefit from this technology in a good way and must not misuse the technology to do negative things but, unfortunately, their young minds still cannot tell the difference between both.

Group 6

Yes or No to bringing handphone to school

In this era of globalization, where the world is getting smaller, handphone is on everybody’s lips more than McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken. It is such a wonderful tool for communication, education, work, information and play that sometimes we wonder how we survived before this. Some people call it the eighth wonder of the world while others condemn it as disruptive.

For one thing, bringing handphone to school has its advantages. For example, it can be used in case of emergency. If the students are in a dangerous situation like being alone at the bus stop or threatened by other students, they can call their parents or the police for help. The handphone will also become handy if they are going to be late because of the extra class or co-curricular activities.

However, handphone may cause distraction for student in the class. During the lesson, pupils will not concentrate on what the teacher is saying because they can be very enthusiastic in meddling with their handphone, either texting their friends or playing games. During examination times, teachers do not want the pupils to be distracted, so allowing handphone in classroom will defeat this purpose ultimately.

Secondly, using handphone can help students in their study. The students can use the dictionary in the handphone to find meanings for difficult English words. There are also many useful applications in the handphone such as calculators, Internet browsers, cameras and music players.

However, phone misuse may happen. Irresponsible students search the Internet for useless information or inappropriate materials and share these materials with their friends. Another thing is, students might use the phone to cheat in the examinations.

Moreover, many social problems such as theft will arise when students bring their handphone to school. For instance, a rich student brings an expensive phone to school. When someone knows about this and steals the phone, the victim will report this matter to the teacher. Thus, the school has to waste time and make an unnecessary spot check in order to find the culprit and the handphone.

In a nutshell, whether bringing handphone to school is good or bad depends on how the students use it. Unfortunately, the students nowadays have the tendency to misuse the handphone because of their immature minds. If you give them an inch, they will take a yard. Therefore, school should not allow the students to bring their handphone to school because it may cause more harm than good.

M.A.L.A.S. is Not the Word...

I was trying my best to update my blog as frequent as I can, and I always had something in my mind to share with you readers (if any), but time was not by my side. Every time I tried to sit in front of my laptop and type something, there would always be work to do. With everything going online, teachers like me could not even properly sit at a table marking pupils work or planning tomorrow's lesson. I laughed at the time when I was still planning two pages of lesson for a class when it is clear that today I don't even have time to write a quarter of a page.

Do not mistakenly take my comments as a sigh, I do love my job as a teacher, but doing clerical work is not actually included in my definition of 'teaching'. Yet, it is this task which prevails in any teachers scheme of work nowadays, and some of them have even mistakenly take it as the main task by putting the classroom lesson behind. Admittedly, the task is important, but is this the way forward for our education system?

AAMIR KHAN Has Done It Again!

Even if you are not a Bollywood fan, you should watch these two films if you are a teacher - Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots. The two films revolve around teaching methods which I think could be used in our everyday classroom. Although the target audience in each film are different, the message is the same - imparting knowledge to the learner. In Taare Zameen Par, Aamir explores the life of a dyslexic student, and the methods which are best suited for this kind of disability. In reality, it is hard for us teachers to know if our students are dyslexic. We actually have to be aware of the repeated signs or common mistakes usually made by a dyslexic. Now those who are teaching the back classes should see whether the errors made by their students are the same with what were portrayed in this film.

Whereas in 3 Idiots, Aamir showcases about the difference of 'training' and 'educating'. The setting is an engineering college, and Aamir is a student who disapproves the methods used in the education system. He even points out that 'cramming bookish definition' into your memory is not the best way to learn. I like the part where he describes a book as 'Instruments that record, analyse, summarise, organize, debate and explain information which are illustrative, non-illustrative, hardbound, paperback, jacketed, non-jacketed with a forward, introduction, table of contents, index that are intended for the enlightenment, understanding, enrichment, enhancement and education of the human brain through the sensory root of vision... sometimes touch' which left the lecturer in a state of shock.

So, please take some of your time to watch these masterpiece. I know you will like them very much!

Here are the trailers for Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots.

81 kilograms

A Normal Class...

A normal lesson is 35 minutes. 2 minutes are needed for exchanging class from J block to A block. Another 2 minutes are needed for students to stand up (they either wait for us to order them, or still outside, mainly at the canteen or the toilet). A further 2 minutes are needed to make sure the class is clean, in accordance to 3K. Now 2 minutes to make sure that all students (pupils, is what the Nazir wants us to address in our lesson plan) are in the class; not playing truant. 2 minutes more to sign the attendance book, because the class monitor forgets to write the day and the date, plus the names of the students who are absent for the day. 2 minutes are wasted for the students to take out their text books because they either could not find it, or mainly forget to bring it, which leads to punishment. Now the teacher wants to see whether the given homework is done, which will cost another 2 minutes for more punishments as they usually do not complete the task. Now can we start the lesson? Not yet, because a student stands up and wants to go to the toilet, but cannot ask properly in English, 2 minutes more wasted. Suddenly there is an announcement so loud, all ears are listening to that - 2 minutes. Okay, time for the lesson. A complete instruction in English costs another 2 minutes, because it must be accompanied with the translation in BM. Sadly though, before the students can start doing their task, another 2 minutes interruption - somebody comes and wants to see the Fire Brigadiers. And a further 2 minutes for the Police Cadets (why don't they come at the same time?). Sigh, hopefully now all can start their work. But no, they can't - they forget the instruction! Another 2 minutes down the drain to refresh the instruction the second time. Just as the students start their task, comes the dreaded Discipline Teacher Mr. Adli and takes 5 minutes for spotchecks. Yes, another 2 minutes to read the instruction for the third time, which leave me a mere 2 minutes for my lesson.

Don't believe? Believe it!

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah. Without the business of registration, which was done yesterday, the PNP should have started. I am given the task to teach English to Form 5 Tekun, 5 Prestij (the last of all the form 5 classes), 4 Sejahtera and 2 Sejahtera. I am also given one Moral class. I never teach Moral before, but there is always the first step for everything. When I was in class 5 Tekun, one officer from the JPN came to observe. I was not shocked, as it was already told in the first meeting yesterday that there will be somebody to ensure that classes starts on the first day of school. He sat at the back for a while, took a picture of me teaching with his digital camera, looked at my lesson plan, then got out through the back door after waving to me to go on with my lesson. Luckily I finished writing my lesson plan, or else there will be talking to after that. Lesson plan is the most important thing to teachers, failing which could be fined for a sum of RM500 - RM5000.

First Teachers' Meeting and Registration of Form 1 Students

Today, Form 1 students from feeder schools registered their names. There are 9 classes opened for the new students namely 1 Khas, 1 Teguh, 1 Iltizam, 1 Proaktif, 1 Sejahtera, 1 Tekun, 1 Ikhlas, 1 Prestij and also 1 Sukma. After that, they went to the 4th floor to take the textbooks. This is to ensure that tomorrow's PNP will be smooth as silk. It is refreshing to look at those innocent faces, who are new to the surroundings, wearing their new school uniforms to the school.

After the registration, there was a meeting for all the teachers where the principal and all the senior assistants gave their speeches. It was told that 5 of our students got 8As in their PMR. This is a school record! My mentee only got 7As and a B for Sejarah. Nevertheless, those students already made our school proud. In this meeting also all the teachers got their teaching schedules and school tasks. I was assigned to teach English for Form 2, Form 4 and Form 5 students, together with a Form 2 Pendidikan Moral class. Tonight, I have to prepare my first lesson plan.

Teachers and Holidays

It's been a while since I last jot down my thoughts. Well, these two weeks I get tired easily as the final exam is around the corner and there are books to be read. That's why when I have the time to sit in front of my computer to share something, I got drowsy. However, I want to share with you something about holiday. There always have been unsatisfactory comments on us teachers about how much time we are free. Regardless of what they say, I personally think that teachers don't really have a nice time for themselves. Teachers even bring their works to home and had many sleepless night fighting the deadline to submit the examination marks. Not to mention the everyday work of preparing the lesson plans. Even in school holidays teachers have to attend courses to enhance their command in their respective fields. Don't even think about giving teachers extra works not related to teaching, as what happened before when they asked teachers to catch PATI (Pendatang Asing Tanpa Izin) or illegal immigrants.