Thanks for all the memories.

SMK Seri Garing? Where is that?

That was my exact reaction when I got to know that i will be doing my 3-months practicum there. So i found out from Haris, who is an ex-student of that school, about that school. He said that it is a big school with lots of students. Then when I have to report in for my first day there, i wasnt expecting THAT many students. The most at my ex school was around 1000++. When I registered, I got to know that the school is very welcoming,



that I felt right at home on the first day itself.

I experienced so many new things at the school.

I got to experience my first day being celebrated during the Teacher's Day, as a teacher.



winning few things though I was so lousy playing the games.




Not only that, I got to know so many people, those who really made it even harder to leave.

I got to know my students, who eventhough like to gossip during the class while I was teaching at the front...



still organised a farewell party for me...




And I met other teachers who become my colleagues. They guided the clueless me into a confident teacher...



and also made my days there such a breeze that time passes by without me even noticing it.



Thanks for all the presents and the memories.



I will keep it, frame it and treasure it in my heart.




Before going to the practicum, many of those who are going to the practicum whined about how we are not being paid a single sen. Well, I will tell them this, we are being paid with experience. And that my dear friend, is absolutely priceless.

I went to the school to teach. Instead, i think i learned more than whatever knowledge that i gave them.

A whole new meaning.

So I was teaching The Lotus Eater to my students and the class I was teaching is the lower proficiency level. The topic for the day was characteristics. As we moved on, we got to the character Assunta. One of the characteristics is caring. So I asked my class,

"Class, what does caring means?"

Then the answers came.

" Itu kawan rapat cikgu"

"Bukanlah, orang yang kita kenal la," one of the students trying to correct his friend.

As they do not understand the word, I gave the meaning in BM.

" Maksudnya ambil berat, kelas..."

Then the now-I-know-ooooooooo came from them.

Trying to be certain of the answer, one student said,

"Saya tau cikgu, itu macam kita ambil berat pastu kita kira berat dia la kan cikgu?"

(" T_T)

Wanted: Male teachers.

There's only one more week left with my practicum at school. Students have been asking what I will do next,whether I will continue teaching and so on. I just told them, Im not sure. Then a male student said to me," Sir, cant you stay here? At least a bit longer?" I told him I cant and he looked disappointed. He was the one who I had a man to man talk in the class when he was done with his work. I just told him the usual stuffs, what I did when was in school and basically I just told him stories from my experience. He likes listening to my stories, maybe. From what I saw, the male students need someone that they can relate to, someone that they can learn something which maybe their father might be too busy to tell them. Maybe they need someone who they can idolize. Maybe what we need are more male teachers.

One of my male students told me that he has a girlfriend who has a great body and all. I told him, we do not judge a woman solely by his looks but also by his personality. He answered that that is an old school thing.

The male students need to be told that they must not treat women as objects but rather appreciate them and respect them. Maybe then, there will be less cases of school girls getting pregnant.



Respect. Peace out.

Happy Teacher's Day to you too.

My lecturer asked my friends and I during a class, who wants to be a teacher after finishing this degree. Only a handful said yes,and I was one of them.

Nobody really knows the reason that i wanted to be a teacher. Obviously,its not about the pay, not the popularity or power. Or else,I would have wanted to be a notorious gang leader or something.

It is about someone who i really admired when i was in school. She is my English teacher,Miss Umi Kelsom. She wears a long hijab to school that you would mistake her for an ustazah.But dont mistake that with her personality,because i can affirm you that she is loud,real loud. She wasnt the type who would let you go off the hook easily. I already had a fair share of her whacking. And it wasnt very pleasant.hehe.

Ive been her student ever since i was in form 1 till form 5.Just imagine that,how many can claim that they have the same English teacher for 5 years? I have and im thankful for that.She was not married yet when she started to teach me so we used to call her Miss Umi but even when she got married,i would still call her Miss Umi and not Puan Umi or anything.I have no idea whether it flattered her but in a way,i think it did.hehe.Its not that i want to brag or perasan or anything, but i think that im one of her best student since that she would keep on choosing the class that i was in.LOL.

I was not the best student in school with a perfect discipline record. I was even suspended from school twice that other teachers kept on having this negative perception about me. But not her, not Miss Umi. She believed in me and never bothered about my bad record with the discipline department.She trusted in me and believed that i could be someone better if given the chance.This trust that she had given me made me to think, that i can help someone else to succeed if i just trust in him, give him the opportunity and not judging him when everyone else are condemning him,just like what she did for me.

And that is the reason why i wanted to be a teacher. So, Happy Teacher's Day to you too, Miss Umi.

Ce and Se?

English is confusing sometimes. Even my advanced students sometimes have problem in identifying the correct words.

For example, what is the difference between advise and advice? How to differentiate between advise and advice? How about devise and device?

Before that, one of them is a noun and the other is a verb. So how to identify which is which?

The solution is as easy as singing Negaraku.


For words such as advice and device, they are nouns. While for words like advise and devise, they are verbs. Have you spotted the similarities?

Yes, for those ending with ce, such as advice and device, they are nouns while words ending with se, such as advise and devise, they are verbs.

Isn't that simple? Now, just keep that in mind and you wont be confused anymore. Thank you class.

*walks out of the class*

The day that it was.

It was Saturday. But it wasnt just like any other Saturday. It was the day that yours truly was born 23 years ago.

The night before Boo and I went to One Utama and watched Mall Cop. The sound system at GSC that night was really horrendous. Fortunately, the movie was still ok. The review that gave that movie 3 out of 5 stars really justified itself. Then we went to Uptown and ate at Yazid's Steak House. I ordered Sizzling BBQ though I still think that their chicken chop is better. Well, RM8 for a chicken chop, it was really worth it.

The plate when I had done eating.hehe.


So the next day, which was yesterday, I was involved with a choral speaking competition for the Gombak district. My school is the organizer for the competition though we had to change the venue to SAMER for reasons that cant be avoided.



My school won 2nd place while the 1st place went to SMK Hulu Klang. I really think that these two winners really deserve their prizes. The teachers who trained my school's team were excited when the team won 2nd prize. Well, after training them for almost two months, they better be.hehe.This was somehow my birthday present la...hehe

After that event, still tired with all the runnings and organizing, I drove to Seremban and had a nice dinner with my family at Johnny's.



and had my favourite cake, cheesecake oreo from Secret Recipe :D



Whatever presents that you could have, being with your family is the most priceless that you could ever asked for. :)

p/s:thanks for those who wished me...for those who dont,I want a double next year.hehe

Winning and losing.

I've been a fan of arts and performing arts for years. I've been involved in plays and theaters from my school days to my university days. I even wrote scripts for my theater group and acted in few of them. So yesterday I was involved in a drama competition for schools and I was the guru pengiring for my school. For the drama competition, we went to SMK Taman Melawati. We were also involved in a choir competition at SMK Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh on the same day.

The choir team before getting into the hall.



After that, we quickly went to SMK Taman Melawati for the drama competition.

The main character in our drama team.



We won the drama competition but lost the choir competition. So congrats to the drama team in making it to the state level.

The team celebrating when they were announced the winners.



But the best thing is,I got to meet with my friends and made like a small gathering after not meeting for 2 months.(2 months only, as if 20 years right?hehe)

My drama group at the university.



From left : Ijan, me, Topek, Boo.

We won the drama competition but lost the choir competition.

But I think I got the best prize not from the competition, but being able to regroup with my friends.

How vulgar can you be?

We are often misunderstood and we often misunderstand. That is something that is common for us, human beings. That is why people go to wars, they are not understood. Even the simplest word can mean alot of things. That is why, make sure before you say anything, recheck that it is correct.



It was supposed to be Kotex, with an X,not K. So for those who understand what it means, lets have a loud laugh with me...


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

They have this programme for the girl students. I dont know what it was, a motivation thingy where you learn how to dispose them properly, I guess? They invited Azah 3R and Dina OIAM to my school for the programme.




At least I got to take a picture with Azah 3R. Yes, I was wearing a batik, it was Thursday, we are supposed to wear batik every Thursday. Dont I look like a YB? Now, call me YB Syafiq.Hehe.

Of ppsmi and having fun.

I have always tried to make learning fun. I know how it feels like to be reading all the facts from the book yet was not taught the real application for it. So I was a bit glad that our form 2 students had fun last Saturday when a English for Teaching of Science and Maths (ETeMS) camp was held for them. ETeMS, which is also known as PPSMI in Malay, is something that is supported and equally opposed by many Malaysians for their own opinions and stand. But last Saturday, what I saw was that the students had fun, and that is all that matters. The teachers of SMK Seri Garing had organized many activities for the students to participate and from their responses, it was quite successful. I only helped with the treasure hunt and the programme book, so the credit goes to the other teachers who helped alot.

All the pictures are taken using Pentax FA 50 1.4

We had experiments...





and guessing pictures...







this is the picture of the boy who's going to break alot of girl's heart when he's grown up...he's a son of a teacher at the school...he's so cute la...



Hey, I like to watch Ben 10 too :p

One fainted. Two sprained ankle.

Three. That’s the number of students that either hurt themselves or had a lack of minerals that they had to be brought to the staff room and be rescued by the teachers. I had just finished my two period lessons when I came to the staff room and a boy was trying very hard to breathe. The teachers tried their best to help the boy breathe that no matter what your major is, everyone was a doctor at that time. Or maybe their experience in raising their children certainly helped them. By the way, the boy’s hands and legs were numb that we had to literally carry him to the car to be brought to the clinic.

What I could see at that time was that the teachers’ paternal instinct really helped in dealing with that situation. Teachers are certainly student’s second parent. I dread to think what would happen if the teachers just left the boy gasping for his breathe, all alone.


My back ached when I helped to carry him. I feel like an old man.Sigh. Anlene, anyone?


credit to Bill Watterson

Not the questions that you actually want

As a teacher, it is normal to be bombarded with questions from the students.

But some questions are not the one that we would like to listen to.

I’m teaching English to two classes, one is an advanced class and the other one is a lower intermediate class. The one I’m about to talk about is the latter. Not many of them can really understand English actually. As a teacher, I’m supposed to be helping them to acquire the language so I hardly give them translations of what I have said. So during the first week, I only talked to them in English. I know this is quite hard for them but as people say, no pain, no gain. After finishing the lesson for the day, as I was putting my things back into my bag, the class monitor asked me, ‘Cikgu, cikgu tak tau cakap BM ka?’ (that is like asking a doctor whether he knows how to do a surgery). I don’t know how to reply to that so as a simple answer, I smiled.

During my lesson, I like to walk around and give them a personal explanation as I know most of them are too shy to admit that they do not know. So as I was explaining to one of my lower intermediate students, of them suddenly said, ‘ Burma, Burma’. I was like, what is he trying to say. So I asked him back, ‘what Burma?’ and he answered ‘ Vietnam, Vietnam’. Only after that I knew that he was asking me whether I come from Burma or Vietnam as I hardly speak in BM with them. I don’t know whether to take that as compliment or an insult. So again, I smiled to him.

Do I look like this Vietnamese?hehe