BLOGGING FROM PONTIAN

It has been a very long time since teachers were sent for meetings/courses/workshops/briefings outside the districts. This should be my first journey to another place outside Johor Bahru for work related matter, after more than 2 years. Even though we are sent to Pontian, which is about 60 kilometres away from home, the face-to-face workshop session should be something to look forward to. I am already tired of all the online live conferences, especially the lengthy sessions that start early in the morning and last until 5.00 in the afternoon.

Today is only the first day and will have to come back to Pontian Education District Office tomorrow.

"SKOR A" ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMME FOR SCHOOLS OF PPD PONTIAN

Thursday, 5th September ~ I was invited to conduct a seminar for form three students of schools from Pontian district. However, I was given the task of explaining the do's and dont's of Paper 1 and Section A of Paper 2. Most of the time, I would just focus on Paper 2 when asked to give a talk. So I had to come up with a different practice module that could be used by the students throughout the session.

The venue chosen was the lecture hall located at N24 building in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia - comfortable and could accommodate hundred of students at one time.

There were about 500 students attending the programme. I was glad that I had come up with a practice module which required them to answer sets of questions taken from past years' PMR examinations. They were all very attentive and cooperative and I hope they would benefit from this 2½-hour slot.

with Puan Sabariah, the teacher in-charge

And I must declare the food that was prepared for the teachers was so far the best I had ever had for any seminar or talk given. I will not hesitate to come again next year if they are going to have food like this.

Good luck to all the students for the coming PMR examination and may you pass the English paper with flying colours.

THE EVALUATION OF WRITING WORKSHOP FOR PONTIAN DISTRICT

I was invited to conduct a workshop for the English language teachers from Pontian district today. The subject matter was the evaluation of students' writing for lower secondary.

It took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive from my house to the District Education Office and I started off as early as 6:45 a.m. There were about 35 teachers who were present. My slot was only for two hours but I hope I had shared enough with them.

early in the morning

teachers-at-work