whatever major loser!

what a loser.

Of all the friends that I have (I think I have), only ONE managed to comment on my lesson plan.

Hari Kemenangan

Selamat Hari Raya!

To everyone,
Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

MAD

Why do people get mad and let go of the madness at people who know nothing about the madness that cause the people to get mad and ended up the people who know nothing about the madness get mad.

Task 3 - Lesson Plan

Level: Form 5
Time: 60 minutes

Aims:
To make decisions based on logical reasoning and to support the decisions with the use of adjectives.

Technical Requirements:
One computer per group of 2, Internet connection, Web Browser and Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation.

Website:
http://www.ebay.com.my/

Preparation:
1. Locate site related to online shopping.
2. Prepare a lesson and worksheet in relevance to the site.

Procedure:

1. Teacher asks students what they know about making decision.
2. Teacher discusses briefly about making the right decision through the means of online shopping.
3. Teacher asks students to form groups of two and allocates each group to a computer.
4. Teacher distributes a worksheet to each group.
5. Teacher instructs students to read through the worksheet and log onto the site written on the worksheet. Students are required to browse through the site and find the items specified in the worksheet. Students are to discuss with their partners the best items to choose within the allocated amount of money that can fulfill the requirements of the task. The students are required to present their findings and justification of their decisions and support them with adjectives through Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation.
6. Teacher guides students on how to browse the site.
7. Teacher monitors each group’s performance.
8. When all groups are finished, teacher asks each group to present their findings.
   

Follow-up: Teacher asks students to go back and do their own essay about their experience in making decision through online shopping (Reflective writing).

Task 2 : Article Review : Voice Blog : An Exploratory Study of Language Learning

Title: Voice Blog : An Exploratory Study of Language
Learning
Journal - volume: Language Learning & Technology
June 2009, Volume 13, Number 2
pp. 88 - 103
http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num2/sun.pdf
Author's name: Yu - Chih Sun,
National Chiao Tung University


The review:

The aims of the research is to provide a theoretical and a pedagogical foundation for the idea that extensive practice on blogs can constitute an integral part of instruction, and that blogs enable the learners to present their thoughts to the other learners. The study used two procedures in collecting data which was through a survey of the learners' attitudes towards the use of blogs, retrospective interviews with the learners. The teacher had the facility from the class blog where the teacher was able to track the learners' post history and the blog displayed all the profiles and the data in an online spreadsheet according to various sorting methods. Each learner had a separate blog which includes the personal biography and a brief self-introduction. They were able to post their interests and everything related to the English learning course. The learners were able to check the other learners' blogs by searching their names, ID numbers or keywords in the blog title. The blog included interfaces for both learners and teachers. For the learner interface showed the learners' online oral diaries that presented their thoughts. The participants of this research were 46 college learners in Taiwan in two oral communication classes taught by the teacher-researcher. Both of the class contained 24 and 22 learners. 15 of the learners were female and 31 were male. The participants had been studying English as a foreign language for about 9 years, and most of them had never been studied abroad in an English-speaking country. They were from different courses such as electronic and mechanical engineering, information management science, and electrophysics. These learners have a little exposure to English in their content-based classes. The finding of the research stated that after one semester which was 18 weeks, 46 participants uploaded 1,239 voice-blog entries and 646 comments on their classmates' blog entries. On average, each participants posted 27 voice-blogs and 14 comments for one semester. The results of this study reveals that the learners went through a series of blogging stages including conceptualizing, branistorming, articulation, monitoring, and evaluating, and used a wide variety of strategies to deal with blogging-related activities. The learners perceived blogging not only as a means of learning, but also a means of self-presentation, exchange information and social networking. Furthermore, the findings suggest that blog represents an active forum that cultivates more learning, motivation in learning and development of learning strategies.


The researcher had presented such an amazing concept which is learning the target language through blogging. Blogging increases the learners' self-confidence as it reduces the speaking anxiety of the learners as they did not have to stand in front of the class with all eyes on them and present their thoughts instead they presented it through voice-blog and the informations were neatly transferred to the other learners. The research was well conducted. It can be proven by the results of the learners well-responded voice-blogs and comments. Fault can never be avoided. The blog that the researcher created was not written fully in English as it could be seen in the figures that the instructions were mostly in Chinese and therefore it impedes the learner from dealing with the real situation in English as in this case English blog. The researcher should invent a blog that is fully written in English so that not only helps the learners in communicating in English with the voice-blogs but it helps the learners in reading in the target language. The other limitation is that the blog was not publicly published. The learners expressed their interests and comments only among them. They should have given the chance to express themselves in the target language to a variety of visitors and have the experience interactive with the native speakers of English. The implication of this research in teaching and learning of ESL in the general is that it gives the idea of learning English through a different medium that holds a lot of advantages. As in the Malaysian context, I believe that this research is very good and should be practiced in teaching and learning English as it is an authentic way of learning English and it reduces the speaking anxiety in Malaysians as they are very famous with the culture of politeness that it prevents them from voicing out their opinions and interests. This is an alternative wayof presenting their thoughts. Therefore, learning target language through books is not enough. The use of technology may always help strengthen the delivery of the knowledge.


Nur Fatin Najwa Mohd Khalid
2005755052
U8B

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. Mandela himself was educated at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand and qualified in law in 1942. He joined the African National Congress in 1944 and was engaged in resistance against the ruling National Party's apartheid policies after 1948. He went on trial for treason in 1956-1961 and was acquitted in 1961.

After the banning of the ANC in 1960, Nelson Mandela argued for the setting up of a military wing within the ANC. In June 1961, the ANC executive considered his proposal on the use of violent tactics and agreed that those members who wished to involve themselves in Mandela's campaign would not be stopped from doing so by the ANC. This led to the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. In 1963, when many fellow leaders of the ANC and the Umkhonto we Sizwe were arrested, Mandela was brought to stand trial with them for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. His statement from the dock received considerable international publicity. On June 12, 1964, eight of the accused, including Mandela, were sentenced to life imprisonment. From 1964 to 1982, he was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town; thereafter, he was at Pollsmoor Prison, nearby on the mainland.

During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.

Nelson Mandela was released on February 11, 1990. After his release, he plunged himself wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after the organization had been banned in 1960, Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.

First class task : Creating English Language Activity