My Student's Best Effort

This is my student's best effort for her English lesson. Try to understand the essay, it's enjoyable, really. Plus, it is really rare to find a student at the school who will write this long.

Last school holiday, I and family opportunity finish time altogether grandfather and grandmother at village. We village place at Kota Bharu Kelantan. Reason we related return village have for to visit grandfather and grandmother who rich far from we. Beside that also, we agong to visit sibling advance who complete old no encounter.

Arrive at there, grandfather and grandmother welcome return we related. With smile who sweet we shake hand with grandfather and grandmother. At there we earn looking scenery what intensely see and interesting. Foresee paddy-field who spread out broad at there shere amaze with scenery who see. We also earn looking will raillery who green encompass village we.

At cleave afternoon, grandfather bring we orchard fruit. Correct at break never this season fruit at village we. Diverse fruit who looking cook see fruit watermelon, fruit mango, fruit durian and fruit mangosteen. Free cite fruit we altogether return at house and rest.

At tomorrow morning, I, brother and sister go at river akin friend who dissimilar see zuki, aiman, siti and mira for angle fish. We also agong finish time akin they because we guess diaphanous encounter already old omit at Kuala Lumpur. For add anew happiness we, we catch finish with applied net and casting-net. Looking many fish who hung at net we see catfish.

At time afternoon again, grandfather bring we encompass village while looking area livestock animals see cow, goat, bird and rabbit. We earn looking see animal at there. Brother catch photo bird camel and bird peacock for at become memory when we return at Kuala Lumpur bide.

Already one week we leave at there, nowadays arrive time for we return at Kuala Lumpur for back to school. Feel happy convert become sorrow looking at to mak smooth or fine lineament grandfather and grandmother before we family omit. We so very happy when rich at village although happen assume it one memory who sweet and no earn we forget. - Anonymous

Hospitalised!

I applaud the recently kicked off 'Ops Gempur Kantin' by the Kelantan JPN not only because of the noble cause, but from my own experience. I was admitted to Tanah Merah Hospital for one whole day because of food poisoning. It started when I ate at the school canteen on Thursday (21 May 2009) during lunch, after which I started feeling nauseous. I drove from Gua Musang and started vomitting at Kuala Krai. Luckily I arrived safely at my father-in-law house in Tanah Merah. For two days afterwards, I vomitted all my food, which couldn't find their way to my stomach. The third day, Sunday 24th, my father-in-law sent me to the emergency ward and I was held for lost of lots of body fluids. 10 bags later, and after a night at the ward, I was released. The doctor gave me a whole week to recover my body strength, which I gladly taken because I was feeling so weak. Frankly speaking, I am still to have my full body strength, but I am grateful to Allah because of this beneficial experience.

Now I know how the students feel when hit with food poisoning.

EduwebTV Course Successful?

The internal course was conducted from 28 - 29th April at the school Access Centre. It was a follow up course after the course I attended early last month. Fifteen fellow colleagues, teaching various subjects, attended the course. I tried my best to share my knowledge of how to benefit from the educational portal. However, I would be lying if I said that it was a completely satisfying course. There were many glitches, mainly concerning technicality of playing the videos, which are the most important part of this course. I did not have ample time to check every computer used for this course, thus rendering these technical slip-ups to happen. Sorry to all the participants, but luckily they did not return home empty handed. They knew how make a playlist, download a video, and how to use it beneficially in their PNPs.

Some pictures from the course:

EduwebTV Course

Tomorrow, I will be conducting the EduwebTV course for the teachers. It will be a two-day course because it is held during the school day. For starters, I only open it to 20 teachers on the first-come-first-serve basis. I will see if this course is a successful one, I will consider conducting another in the near future. I know that many of them do not have the opportunity to attend courses outside the school, thus slimming their chance of fulfilling the 7 days annual requirement for the in-service training. Therefore, they really need this course and any other courses in order to complete their requirement.

Blue Team Won Again!

Today, the students ran approximately 6 kilometres for the cross country event. There were 6 categories altogether; Category A for Form 4 and 5 students, Category B (Form 2 and 3) and Category C (Form 1) for both the boys and the girls. The students represented their respective teams; Blue, Red, Green and Yellow teams, and the points gathered by them were accumulated for the overall team standings. Same as last year, the Blue team won by miles, followed by Red, Green and Yellow teams. It was always the same arguments; the athletes were not divided accordingly across the teams and most of them gathered in the Blue team. Hopefully, next year's event will be very competitive, and not a one-sided event like the previous years.

Some memorable moments in pictures:

CASTROL Go to School

There were Mat Rempit in town, good Mat Rempits.. Actually, the Ministry of Education signed an MoU with Castrol Malaysia to initiate the Castrol Go to School Programme. The purpose of the programme is to inculcate safe and smart motorcycling culture. The programme was officially launched by Deputy Education Minister, Dato' Noh bin Haji Omar on 13th February 2007. Today, the legendary motorcycling legend, Mr. Wazi bin Abdul Hamid himself came to our school to educate the students, especially the lucky 200 participants who got the chance to ride the motorcycles brought by the organiser, on the safe and smart ways to behave on the streets. It consists of the techniques to control the motorcycle through a lane marked by cones, and also braking the motorcycle safely from a high speed. For safety reasons, the selected students wore safety pads and crash helmets.

Here are some pictures of the historical event:

Helmy Lost to Two 'Zul's and Missed Out, Nearly..

Mohd Helmy Rasnan from 5 Science missed out on the chance to represent the state in the MSSM chess tournament held in SMK Jeli recently. He lost to Zulhilmi in round 4 and lost to Zulhasime in round 6, which dented his hope to be the first state chess representative from SMKTIP(2). The result of our school representatives in the tournament:

Boys under-18
7 from 63 players - Mohd Helmy Rasnan

Boys under-15
24/63 - Mohd Khairul Azman
33/63 - Mohd Zulhusni Abdul Aziz

For more information, please go to this blog.

SMKTIP(2) Players Shine In Jerek

Alhamdulillah, we just finished our selection for students to represent the district of Gua Musang in the upcoming MSSM chess tournament in Jeli later this month. 36 students from various schools made up the 6 categories consisting of boys and girls under-12, under-15 and under 18. From my observation, I found that the standard of play among these students have increased--less stalemates and more spectacular moves happened in the 3 days tournament. What made this tournament more memorable was the participation of a physically disabled student who moved the pieces with his feet. Even though he did not make the final cut, we must applaud his efforts and dedication. Last year's state representative, Md Lokman of boys under -12, also managed to cruise through. The full list of players:

Boys under 18:
- Mohd Helmy (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
- Saiful Azhar (SMK Chiku 2)
- Mohd Khalimun (SMK Paloh)
- Zulkifli (SMK Chiku 2)
- Mohd Khairul Anuar (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
- Mohd Ikhram (SMK Tengku Bendahara)

Boys under 15:
- Mohd Zulhusni (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
- Ahmad Wafi (SMK Paloh)
- Nor Arrashid (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
- Mohd Khairul Azman (SMK Tengku Indra Petra 2)
- Mohd Faizzuddin (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
- Mohd Firdaus (SMK Chiku 2)

Boys under 12:
- Mohd Lokman (SK Paloh 1&2)
- Mohd Ikram (SK Chiku 3)
- Mohd Afiq (SK Chiku 3)
- Ahmad Muzammil (SK Sri Wangi)
- Mohd Shahrul Nazli (SK Limau Kasturi 2)
- Fakhri Ariffin (SK Sri Wangi)

Girls under 18:
- Noorhayati (SMK Paloh)
- Siti Rokiah (SMK Paloh)
- Nurhayati (SMK Chiku 2)
- Nurul Asmaniza (SMK Sungai Asap)
- Halimatu Saadiah (SMK Sungai Asap)
- Roslaila (SMK Tengku Bendahara)

Girls under 15:
- Safinah (SMK Sungai Asap)
- Nur Lidaini (SMK Chiku 2)
- Siti Nuraini (SMK Paloh)
- Nor Laila (SMK Tengku Bendahara)
- Nurul Ain Farahanim (SMK Sungai Asap)
- Maizatul Nadia (SMK Sungai Asap)

Girls under 12:
- Wan Nur Farzana (SK Paloh 1&2)
- Nursyazwani (SK Paloh 1&2)
- Siti Norhaziqah (SK Paloh 1&2)
- Nur Anis Nabila (SK Paloh 1&2)
- Noratikah (SK Limau Kasturi 2)
- Siti Nur Illyana (SK Chiku 3)

Below are pictures from the event:

How To Coach Youngsters

I am the coach for my school, and also the head coach for the Gua Musang team for MSSM, but I am still finding the best approach to coach these youngsters. No doubt that there are many potentials in the school team, and many more will be discovered when the district tournament is over next week, but all these will account to nothing if I could not find the best practical way to improve their skills and techniques. Last year I tried to instill everything from the opening to the ending part of the game, but still the younger ones, especially under-12s, made unnecessary moves, or moved against all that been taught. This year, with limited time for the central training compared to last year, I will try to focus only on what I think is necessary for their development. Moreover, I will try to personally coach only several who I think have the most potentials to make any inroads in the state championship.

School Chess Player Selection

Today, I finished selecting the students to represent our school in the upcoming district tournament. Not many students were present, but some of those have the talent to compete. But first, I need to polish them before there are ready for tournament play. Unfortunately though, only one female student came. This situation is the same as the national scene--there is simply not enough female chess players. If there is any, they would stop after they got married. Many examples can be quoted, but suffice to say that it is a sad scenario for Malaysian chess.

Chess Club is No More

This new year brings sadness to SMKTIP(2) Chess Club. Apart from being a club, it is now regarded as only a sport, thus no chairman or committee members are required. On the bright side, it is good for us that no annual meeting is needed. But, the downside is that it is hard to organise programmes, internally or externally, when there is no board members to do the work. However, for me as the advisor, or now called as a coach, I welcome this change as I have so many things to do. Handling a club requires more of my time than coaching a sport, which merely requires finding the talents and grooming them to participate in tournaments.

Gender Imbalance

This week, two more teachers got their transfer requests fulfilled. It so happen that both of them already served more than five years in Gua Musang. This leads to gender imbalance of the remaining teachers in my school as all those who are transferred here are females (10 of them), except for one from Cameron Highlands, while those who got away from this school are more balanced (6 females, 7 males). It is hard to put the male teachers to all the important tasks, therefore female teachers have to be more independent when given the task to head some departments. Again, I am given the job as the ICT teacher, as well as the manager of the students' data system (SMM).

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.

Smart School Qualification Standards System

Smart School Qualification Standards (SSQS)

The Ministry has develop a system to monitor the usage of ICT in schools, and to give a rating for the school in order to determine its standard in using the ICT. The information will be gathered from 64 respondents consisting of teachers and students about the extent of their usage of ICT equipments in school such as the computers, the Internet connection and also the Lesson Contents Management System (LCMS). As the teacher responsible for ICT, I was assigned to complete the task. At first, it was so hard to send the information in the system because of the traffic congestion to access the website. Finally, with the alternative address available, I managed to finish the job.

Good Luck for All SPMians

Today is the start of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination. Around 150 students from 5 classes, 1 of which is a science class, will know whether they have enough knowledge to pass this examination. However, the students are not the only one who feel the pressure, but also the teachers who want to upgrade the achievement from last year. Our main target is to be the best secondary school in the district of Gua Musang, although the passing percentage of Bahasa Melayu is quite a concern. Nevertheless, only 28 students from 147 form 5 students are Chinese, 2 of them Indians, 1 Siamese and 1 Aborigine. The SPM trial results are quite convincing, but the real test starts tomorrow, and the students have to prove themselves all over again. Good luck everybody, and make your school proud!

Deeparaya for RIMUP

Today we had Deeparaya celebration at the canteen. It was a programme organized by our Rukun Negara Club in conjunction with the Jabatan Perpaduan Negara dan Integrasi Nasional (JPNIN) or National Unity and Integrational Department, Kelantan. It was officiated by the director of JPNIN Kelantan, Mr. Abdul Hadi bin Mohd Salleh. After his speech, the Indian and aboriginal students performed several Indian dances with the help of music. Finally, all were invited for some refreshment. Below are several pictures from the event.

Multi-racial teachers

An Indian student performing a dance routine

Student performers

Some refreshment for all

Me and my mentee, Nur Nasuha

Mentor - Mentee

I was assigned as a mentor for 5 KRK students (Forms 1, 2 and 3 Teguh) along with my colleague, Mr. Husaini. We both agreed that he took the form 1 students because he teaches them, and I took the rest. Basically, we just give advices and help them in their studies. I find it an interesting task, and I help them as best as I can. My mentee of form 3 students are Nur Nasuha and Izwan Shafiq, while the form 2 student is Nur Adlina. I lend my books for the PMR students, and I wish the best for them in their examinations. Speaking of PMR, I enclose the picture of our school target student, Siti Nur Karimah.

You can clearly see the scratch mark

Student's Revenge?

Several of the teachers' cars were scratched yesterday by a dissatisfied student. It seemed that this damage was an act of revenge either towards the discipline teacher, or towards the Penolong Kanan HEM, who both did a great job of keeping the disciplinary problems in the school at bay. Unfortunately, other teachers' cars were the victims as the perpetrator rolled his way along the parking lot. Among the cars involved were Produa MyVi, Proton Waja, Proton Satria and Toyota Vios. The culprit, who is still to be caught, might be feeling unhappy with the punishment he got for the crime he committed earlier. It was a selfish act from a disgruntled person which should not be tolerated.

Examination Weeks

These two final weeks, form 1, form 2 and form 4 students will test the extent of their knowledge accumulated throughout the year. This is where they will know whether they really mastered the subjects or still have to make improvements. It is also a tool to measure their class placements for next year, whether they will remain in the same class, or they will be upgraded (or downgraded) to another class. Teachers will have to take their marks to make next year's 'take-off value'.