School Athletics Week

FRUSTRATING is the appropriate word for this Athletics Week in regard of Preve Sports House. We dominated the athletic events with lots of podium finishes, yet we were second in the standings, just because Bezza Sports House got their points from Sukantara. We also won the camp decorating, an event which I was entrusted in, out of sheer cooperation between the members, but a part of me was still devastated that the final standing has to be decided like this. It should be an event where the decisive factor was the hardwork of the athletes competing in the sprinting, running, jumping and field events, nevertheless it was conspiciously determined by a bunch of students who didn't know how to run or jump. Next year, something should be done to make this right, or I would be frustrated once again. 

The final standing:

  

How to Answer the Literature Text Question

I have just finished marking Paper 2 for the mid semester examination. I would like to focus on one of my students' answer for the Literature Text. Even though this is a Form Four paper, and the question is based on the short stories, SPM students may take this as an example for their revision.

The question:


33. The following are the short stories studied in the literature component in English Language.
        Tanjong Rhu             -     Minfong Ho
        Leaving                    -     M. G. Vassanji   
Choose any ONE of the short stories above and answer the question below.
With close reference to the text, what is the most important moral lesson you have learnt?


The answer:

Based on short story Tanjung Rhu by Minfong Ho, the most important lesson that I have learnt is to be responsible. As for example, Mr. Li is a responsible son. He takes care of his old mother as she has given birth to him and took good care of him since he was young. Mr. Li’s responsibility to his mother inspires me to do the same. I realize that I need to take good care of my old parents as they had sacrifived a lot for me. I will pay back their kindness to me. Besides that, when Mr. Li’s mother was sick and hospitalized, he often visit her in the hospital and accompanies her there. He is very responsible that he doesn’t neglect and abandon his mother. His daughter, Ying is also responsible. She stays at the hospital with her sick grandmother so that she won’t be alone. Mr. Li and Ying show that we must be responsible to our old parents. They had done a lot for us and we need to appreciate it. I’d promised myself that I will be a responsible daughter and take care of my parents perfectly. I will make them proud to have me as their child.

In a nut shell, we need to be responsible and show our filial piety for our parents. They are the one who brought us into this world, so we need to pay back their sacrifice by loving them and take good care of them.


The marking:

I gave this 10 for Contents and 4 for Language which amounts to 14 over 15.

However, she could have done better, apart from the spelling and grammar mistakes, by writing her answer in suitable paragraphs. Here is what her answer should be to get full 15 over 15.


Based on short story Tanjong Rhu by Minfong Ho, the most important lesson that I have learnt is to be responsible.

As for example, Mr. Li is a responsible son. He takes care of his old mother as she has given birth to him and took good care of him since he was young. Mr. Li’s responsibility to his mother inspires me to do the same. I realize that I need to take good care of my old parents as they had sacrificed a lot for me. I will pay back their kindness to me.

Besides that, when Mr. Li’s mother was sick and hospitalized, he often visits her in the hospital and accompanies her there. He is very responsible that he doesn’t neglect and abandon his mother. His daughter, Ying is also responsible. She stays at the hospital with her sick grandmother so that she won’t be alone.

Mr. Li and Ying show that we must be responsible to our old parents. They had done a lot for us and we need to appreciate it. I’d promised myself that I will be a responsible daughter and take care of my parents perfectly. I will make them proud to have me as their child.

In a nut shell, we need to be responsible and show our filial piety for our parents. They are the one who brought us into this world, so we need to pay back their sacrifice by loving them and taking good care of them.

Cheating in Examination

Having already been warned in the mid semester examination, several members of the 4D class still cheated in the final examination. This has made me really upset. After vigorously searched for ways to make them learn their lesson, I finally thought of something which, in my opinion, would be beneficial for all parties involved. I asked them to rewrite 'I will not cheat in examinations anymore' 50 times and get signatures from at least 3 Form 5 English teachers. This is because the teachers will be teaching them in Form 5 and they should know these cheaters beforehand. 

Cheating in examinations is not a good thing to do. In fact, it is actually a big offense and must be severely dealt with. Those involved have come to me and expressed their gratitude for my stern action. Some of them, especially the girls, said that they cried when they get the punishment. They vowed not to repeat the offense, and I believe them. 

Hopefully next year they will come stronger and pass their SPM with flying colours. 

Thanks for the teachers also for your cooperation. 

Not quite the 'flying colours' I had in mind but still a beautiful one

GOOD LUCK SPMians!

The most anticipated time has finally come. Starting from today, SPM students will start battling their wits against the unforgiving questions while teachers anxiously watch from the sides. It is now up to the students to prove their worth, to show their keenness and to give their everything in an exam that could be the stepping stone to achieve their dream. 

As for the teachers, you have done well in preparing them for the exam. All that you can do now is to pray for them, because success is really in the hand of God, no matter how well the preparation is. Don't get upset when a student of yours cannot answer the papers; bear in mind that they have tried their best.

External and internal factors will always be there to determine the state of mind of the candidates. Even though he or she has very calm state of mind going to the exam hall, news such as the sudden death of family members will surely have the bearings on his mind. 

I am really sorry for one of my students who are currently in ward because of an accident, while his classmate lost all his family members in a car accident just two days ago.

May Allah grant them composure and courage in SPM.

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. 

The Living Photograph by Jackie Kay

Today is the first time I taught the new literature components for Form 4. At first I was aghast because I saw three literature books consist of many poems, short stories and dramas. However, after learning that students have to study only a couple of poems and short stories, I was relieved. 

These are the compulsory components:

Poems

1. The Living Photograph by Jackie Kay

2. Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson

Short Stories

1. Tanjung Rhu retold by Kay West

2. Leaving by M.G. Vassanji

Drama

1. The Right Thing To Do by Martyn Ford

The Living Photograph

by Jackie Kay

My small grandmother is tall there, 

straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt, 

pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun,

a kind, old smile round her eyes.

Her big hand holds mine,

white hand in black hand. 

Her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the eye.

It was true after all, that look.

My tall grandmother became small.

Her back round and hunched.

Her soup forgot to boil.

She went to the awful place grandmothers go.

Somewhere unknown, unthinkable. 

But there she is still, 

in the photo with me at three,

the crinkled smile is still living, breathing.

There is a very good analysis done by an English teacher in her blog. I will not dwell too much on that because my analysis is more or less the same. For good students, I advise you to go to her blog and read the analysis because I think it is quite spot on although she admitted writing it before any reference book is out on the bookshop shelf.

However, I want to share what I did with my 4 Ikhlas class, which is quite mixed in terms of students' learning abilities. At first, I asked them to read the poem. The first read was unsuccessful because I saw so many blank faces all over the classroom. Then, because the class takes Arts, I asked them to draw pictures for selected words taken from the poem. Afterwards, I asked them to paste the pictures on the board before reading the poem one more time. This time, I saw some smile on their faces, mainly because they understand the poem a little bit. 

Nevertheless, to analyse the poem with this class is another problem. Let's hope they can get something from my next lesson.  

Badminton Tournament SMKCE

Relieving stress is essential in order for us to work efficiently. There are many ways to relieve stress, and it is up to us to choose them accordingly. They can be in the form of reading, chatting or even eating. 

My school teachers found out that playing badminton also serves this purpose effectively. We divided ourselves into four groups:

Group A : Mr. Ghazali (Principal), Mr. Azmi (Senior Assistant of Administration), Mr. Wan Ridhauddeen, Ustaz Zahari, Mr. Zulkhairi and  Mr. Asfayuzie. 

Group B : Mr. Zulkifli, Mr. Wan Rahiman (Senior Assistant of Co-Curricular Activities), Mr. Adnan Mahmud, Mr. Ismail, Mr. Che Mohd Nasir, Mr. Mazlan Rahim and Yours Truly.

Group C : Mr. Adnan Ahmad (Senior Assistant of Form Six), Mr. Tuan Muhd Shafri, Mr. Lan (Teacher Sunita's husband), Mr. Mat Rani, Mr. Imran and Mr. Yusof (Warden).

Group D : Mr. Fatihi, Mr. Zaidi, Mr. Ridhwan, Mr. Osman, Mr. Mazlan Wahab and Mr. Shukri.

It is hard to believe that after all this while, the principal is still a very good badminton player. He was paired with Mr. Asfayuzie and they won all their games handsomely. Group A benefited from that pairing and they won the tournament with 7 points. 

I was paired with Mr. Mazlan Rahim in Group B. Although we also won both our matches, our group only managed to be second because of a dubious tie breaker (I never knew how it was counted) after getting the same amount of points (7 points). 

Group D was third with 3 points and Group C was last without any win (0 point). 

The results were announced in the final year dinner held at Perdana Hotel, Kota Bharu.

September Test K-BAT Questions

These questions need to be answered using a little bit of thinking, which is quite a luxury among students nowadays. 

Alina had just arrived home from attending a job interview. She felt utterly miserable. 

1. Why does Aline feel this way?
- She did badly in the interview.

2. Why do you think so?
- She felt utterly miserable.

Jack finished reading a book. He jumped at the slightest noise and dared not sleep alone in his room.

1. Why does Jack feel this way?

- He was scared.

2. What is the book about?

- The book was about ghosts.

3. Why do you think so?

- He jumped at the slightest noise and dared not sleep alone in his room. 

Father came in from the garden. His hands were full of dirt. He was sweating profusely. He finished two big glasses of iced lemonade. 

1. What was father doing?

- Father was gardening.

2. What was the weather like outside?

- The weather was hot outside.

3. Why do you think so?

- He was sweating profusely.

When Mr. Jones opened the front door, he saw the sitting room was in a mess. The drawers of the cabinet were pulled out. Some chairs were overturned. A few keys were on the floor. A fifty dollar note that Mrs. Jones left on the dining table together with the electricity bill was missing. 

1. What had happened?

- Someone had broken into Mr. Jones house.

2. Why do you think so?

- The drawers of the cabinet were pulled out. Some chairs were overturned. A few keys were on the floor. A fifty dollar note that Mrs. Jones left on the dining table together with the electricity bill was missing.

Ali looked gloomily out of his bedroom window. He saw a few of his friends were flying kites in the field. He could not join them. His mother would not allow him to do so.

1. What was wrong with Ali?

- He was sick.

2. Why do you think so?

- Ali looked gloomily out of his bedroom window. He saw a few of his friends were flying kites in the field. He could not join them. His mother would not allow him to do so.

There is a real need for medical staff to be placed at all NS training centres. If an emergency occurs, who is there to give the initial treatment for any injuries or accidents? Now with 700 to 800 trainees in each camp, who is qualified to treat or provides the necessary first aid that may save a person's life?

1. Why is there a need for medical staff to be stationed in NS training centres?

- They are needed to tend to emergency cases.

2. What probably led to the writer's appeal for medical staff?

- Probably there had been some trainees falling ill at the training centre.

3. Do you think the writer is against NS training?

- No, she wants the trainees to be well-looked after in case they fall ill.

4. What would be the role of the medical staff at NS training centres?

- Their role is to give initial treatment for any injuries or accidents.

 

All the Best for Your SPM Trial 2014

I would like to wish GOOD LUCK to all my students who are taking SPM trial examination. I hope you will do better than your mid year examination. I saw that most of you focused on completing the papers today at school. 5 Bestari and 5 Jujur, I have your papers with me right now and I hope to complete the marking in two weeks time at the most. 

Aniha is the 50-word Sentence Competition Winner

In my last post, I held a sentence-building competition for my students. Sadly, only one participated and she was arguably among the best in 4A class. Nevertheless, I thank Aniha binti Rahim for her effort and congratulations to her, she is the winner!

Although there are a lot to be said about her sentence, make no mistake, she already tried her best.  

This is her sentence:

The labourer,who is Nazmizan works at the construction of the new hospital diligently after he tried a lot of vacancies because his low academic achievement is not comparable with other jobs since he get low grades in academic as he need to work to feed his poor family and himself. (50 words)

Now, let us check her sentence whether it is written according to the rules. Rule number one : The participant must use the given subject and finite verb above as the main subject and verb. In her sentence, she used 'The labourer' as her subject and 'works' as her main verb. PASSED. 

Rule number four : The finite verb must be used in the suitable tenses. She wrote 'works' in Simple Present Tense because her sentence is a statement or fact. However, the tenses for other verbs are incorrectly used. The verb 'tried' is not suitable and it should be substituted with 'had tried'. The verbs 'get' and 'need' is simply grammatical wrong in terms of Subject-Verb Agreement. She should have used 'gets' and 'needs'. PARTLY PASSED. 

Rule number two : The participant must use Complex Sentence. Compound Sentence will not be accepted. In the sentence we can see that there are at least 4 sentences combined with the conjunctions 'after', 'because' and 'as'. The labourer,who is Nazmizan works at the construction of the new hospital diligently after he tried a lot of vacancies because his low academic achievement is not comparable with other jobs since he get low grades in academic as he need to work to feed his poor family and himself. FAILED.

CORRECTION

The same sentence can be written as below:

Nazmizan, a hardworking labourer who had tried a lot of vacancies because his low academic achievement is not comparable with other jobs since he gets low grades in academic as he needs to work to feed his poor family and himself, works at the construction of the new hospital diligently. (50 words) 

This sentence still comply to rule number three : Using the word 'The labourer' is optional. Any other words with the same meaning is acceptable. In my correction, I use 'Nazmizan' as my subject, and I really mean him to be the labourer in the sentence.  

You also have to use punctuation clearly; in this case, a comma, to separate the sentences which are joined by the conjunctions. These two commas differentiate between the main sentence, 'Nazmizan works at the construction of the new hospital diligently' from the supporting sentence; the adjective clause. 

Edu Ria at SMKCE featuring Kecik TRW

Learning should not only be done inside a classroom; it is actually best to learn outside the classroom. There are lots of things which can be learned - interacting with people, business and marketing, and information gathering from various sources are only to name a few - and all these cannot be found inside a classroom full of broken chairs and desks. 

Edu Ria (or Education Enjoyment in English) is the sort of programme organised by SMK Chabang Empat which allows the students to implement the theories they have learned through the interaction at the stalls, exhibition booths and also through segments on the Dewan To' Beta stage.

To top it off, the school invites one of the members of The Red Warriors, Mr. Wan Zaharulnizam or Kecik, to meet the students. It was a golden opportunity for the students to meet their favourite player, and boy they really took it. Kecik was surrounded by the students from the moment he entered the school premise until he left an hour later. They took the opportunity to take pictures with him and asked for his autograph.With a smile on his face, he professionally interacted with his fans and they really loved him. 

The teachers were also starstruck, and I was one of them. Luckily, we had more opportunities than the students to take pictures with him. I was the first one to greet him when he arrived but I took pictures with him only half an hour later inside the school office. 

In a way, I am at least equal to him. He is the state football player and I am the state chess player. However, chess is not popular in Kelantan compared to football, so the admiration for him and The Red Warriors is more and the admiration for me and The Red Knights is virtually non-existent. 

Maybe it is the difference between a professional player and a semi-professional player. Luckily for the football players, they got out of the semi-pro label in the 1990s and only God knows when the chess players can be professional players in Malaysia.

Kecik in action

Me in action

Some pictures taken from the event (if you want these pictures in high resolution, do come over to my desk):

Puzzled

Praise be to Allah... at last I have completed the mega puzzle after two whole weeks of tweaking, chopping and pasting. This is the task which nobody wants because it involves so many people and possibly changes so many lives. However, it is important that somebody has to do it, and that unlucky somebody is me.

There were so many things to be considered, so giving everybody equal portion of the schedule is a major headache. Everybody wants to return home early; everybody wants as minimal teaching hours as they can; everybody wants to teach their favourite subjects; and the list goes on and on. 

I was told to make as few contact as possible so that nobody influence me in making my decision. I was lucky that in this school nobody tried to bribe me, so I could go about doing my task without any worry. I have done this task twice already this year, but none would be like this particular time. I was very emotional this time because a piece of the puzzle had died during its completion.

The late Mr. Mahmud Omar was a very dedicated teacher as far as I know. I knew him when the school decided to become a one-session school. He was teaching in the evening session then, and I did not see much of him until we shared the same staff room. He was already quite unwell, and he was frequenting the hospital for hemodialysis treatments. 

He never causes trouble, and I am really troubled by students who were really rude in labeling him as 'a walking zombie'. If I can, I want to get a hold of these students and ask them to apologize, which they could not possibly do because the person they are apologizing to is already gone. 

May Allah bless him.  

Congratulations!

Form 5A students

There's nothing more gladdening to a teacher than to see his students do well in their studies, especially in the very subject he taught them. Seeing the happy faces on my students today was more than enough for me to share their joy. Likewise, those who didn't get good results should be celebrated also because they already did their best in the exam. In fact, I was more inclined to see my 5 Jujur students than my 5 Arif students, particularly Rizal Azman and Awanis, who passed their English paper. Truth to be told, I was quite shocked to learn that Awanis did well, because she was too slow to my liking, in my English lessons. However, I didn't have the chance to meet them both as they didn't turn up to get their results. 

Siti Nurfatihah (left) and Laili Najwa (right)

As for the 5A students, 7 of them got A. I was not surprise of Siti Nurfatihah's ability to get A+ because she thoroughly deserved it. Laili Najwa was also another one expected to get A, mainly because she is the daughter of teacher Norhayah, who teaches English. 5 of those who managed to get A- were Ros Azimah, Nurul Asyikeen, Nur Atikah Ramli, Siti Nurul Ain Sofea and Nur Izatul Syafika.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU!