Third Assignment

My title explain it all. I am rushing to complete my third assignment now which consist of four parts.

Part A- Learning Journal
Part B- Preparation and Planning
Part C- Lesson plans
Part D- Evaluation and Lessons Learned

I am no where near done at this moment but I am working hard on completing my assignment. Feeling so stress right now!

So I found a few ways to de-stress; here are some of it that I would like to share with you readers.

1.

HYPNOTIZE YOURSELF

Forget swaying pocket watches and deep trances. "Hypnosis is a state of highly focused attention," says David Spiegel, the director of Stanford School of Medicine's Center on Stress and Health. If done properly, hypnosis can clear your mind, lower your heart rate, and decrease muscle tension. Close your eyes and picture a movie screen with something stressful, like rush-hour traffic, on the left side. Now, visualize a solution playing out on the right, like discovering a new route with no traffic. Eventually, you'll feel a moment of intense absorption, he explains, like when you're so caught up in a good movie that you forget where you are. Try doing this for five minutes, three or four times a day.

2. 

(REALLY) FORGIVE SOMEONE

Although it may be tempting to rehash the details of how your sister's boyfriend snubbed you, letting go of negative feelings really does lower stress. "When our minds keep rehearsing troubling interactions, the body's calming system becomes impaired," says Charlotte vanOyen Witvliet, a psychologist at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. A cursory hug won't do, though. You have to sincerely replace your anger toward the wrongdoer with an attempt to understand the reasons behind his actions. "Forgiveness helps you see more of the truth, not less. When we are upset, our vision is limited in scope," says Witvliet.

3. 

OPEN THE WINDOW

Just looking out your window can have a relaxing effect. In a study led by Peter Kahn, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, participants in an office were shown one of three views: a natural setting, a digital display of the same scene, and no view. When stress levels were artificially increased, those looking at the real natural scene returned to their normal heart rate more quickly. Those who looked at the digital display did no better than those looking at a blank wall, suggesting the brain is not easily fooled. "We do best mentally and physically when we're connected to nature," says Kahn.

4. 

SEND YOURSELF FLOWERS

"Without question, stress is mitigated by nature," says Mehmet C. Oz, coauthor ofYou: Stress Less (Simon & Schuster). Scientists at Harvard University delivered flowers to one group of women and gave candles to a second group. Within a week, the first group felt less anxious and depressed, perhaps because humans are comforted by vegetation—a means of survival in caveman days. Oz suggests keeping a plant on your desk and cut flowers at the dinner table.

Read more of ways to de-stress yourself from this website. 

Feeling Stress

Hello readers!!

So, the stress feeling has just hit me hard! I feel so stress that I could not sleep well at night thinking of my placement and assignment due date is drawing nearer.

I have been thinking to start on doing my assignment, BUT I am so busy preparing for placement I barely have time to breathe.

So much to do, so little time left.

I feel so stress that I went to Google search on ways to de-stress. One of my de-stress way is to read blog and sleep the whole day!

The blog that I always read is THIS. She blog about everything and mainly fashion.

Read my ICT friend's blog here too to understand their journey with ICT.

That's all for today! Do come back to read more! (=

Instagram

I am going to blog about Instagram today. Recently, I have fall in love with this Instagram application where I view it every now and then whenever I am free.

I love taking photos. I love looking at photos. Food or scenery, anything will do as long as it is eye catching. This application is so useful where I can view other's picture to improve my photography skill. Besides, I also get an idea on which type of nail art design I like, hairstyle I love or maybe decoration that I cant wait to own a home to design it.

Instagram is an application where people all around the world will share the picture they took. Other Instgram user will get to view it.

Go to their website to read more about this Instagram application.

Have a good day!! (=

Food lovers

I am a big eater, I can eat a dinosaur for each and every of my meal and I feel hungry often! Yes, that's me! Recently, I am very into trying new food and cakes.

Whenever I saw my friend's food-related pictures, I will go crazy looking at the picture and feeling hungry. So these days, I have been going to all places to try out nice food.

Furthermore, I tried cooking for my family members as well. Did some homework to Google search on the recipe before cooking the food.

Looking at this person's blog motivate me to cook more. Her food presentation is so good and she cooks lots of Chinese foods.

Do you like trying new food too? Or do you like cooking?

Share with me your cooking skills! :D

Third day of placement!

Hi all!! ;)

So I have completed 3 days of my placement out of 15 days. So far, everything turn out fine. Mentor said that I need to plan a more attractive lesson plan to catch children's attention. :(

This means that I need to put in EXTRA effort to make my lesson interesting. All the kids at school is so loveable. Children these days are so smart they can think and talk like an adult.

I wish that my placement days will never end! working with the children made my day totally bright in every single way. No matter how playful they are, they are still lovely.

Here are some ideas on how to work with children.

Will prepare for my next day of placement. Blog more soon!

iPhone and iPad

Hello readers!!

I would like to share my experience as an iPhone and iPad owner. Within this two months, I got myself an iPhone 5 and iPad mini. Using both the ICT tools, I feel that there are pros and cons. 

The pros of using both is that it made my job easier such as, whenever I want to read news or set a reminder, both the tools work very well for me. The both tools made my life so much easier especially phone. The phone is so convenient where I can set many different countries time. I like it because recently, my parents have been travelling a lot. To contact them, I need to make sure the time is correct. Therefore, setting a different country time in my phone is easier for me to keep track. 

The cons of iPad is that sometimes it is quite bulky compare to iPhone. Besides, my iPad mini only able to connect when there is wi-fi connection. 

Every ICT tools has its pro and con. Look at my friend's blog to read more about their iPad experince.

To know more about apple gadgets, look at their website for more information.

Blog more soon! (=

E-news

There are many advantages of reading news online. First, you get the latest news once you refresh your page from the website. News can be easily from the website depending on which company you want to read it from. To me, I always get the latest news from The Malaysian Insider .

Secondly, you can save money on buying newspaper when you already have internet access. Although newspaper might not be expensive, but saving a little by day may cost up to a big amount of money. 

To me, I prefer reading news online where I can read it any where or any time I want/ whenever I am free. Whereas I get quick update reading news online too.

Praticum Soon!

Hello readers,

I am here again bloging more about ICT. Few days more I am starting my practicum soon. So much to prepare before heading to work but feeling very excited to educate the children on ICT.

This time I will be at Jasmine Kindergarten for 15 days! Looking forward to work with the children. Besides, I hope that the lesson I plan for the kids will work out like how I expect it to be. I also hope that the outcome of the lessons will be great!

Most of my course mate will be starting their practicum too. Look at one of my friend's blog to read more about their ICT journey.

Will blog more soon! (=

Hooray!!

Yay!!! Another assignment down! Just handed in my second assignment and I hope the marks will turn out good. Put a little more effort in completing my second assignment compared to first assignment.

My first assignment marks made me realised that I need to put in more effort to get a better result. Besides, I spend more time editing my second assignment and no last minute work! So proud of myself in completing my second assignment without feeling depress!

Recently, I have been reading about Teach For Malaysia, it is about a group of dedicated teachers who are placed in rural area to teach the young children who are below their level of understanding.

Look for more information at their website.

That's all for today! Till then. (=

I can’t live without my phone!

Today I’m excited because I’m sharing my must-have tech tools AND I get to own a new smart phone! *happy*

I can generalize my number one tool as a “smart phone” as it has brought much to my life. Being able to access my emails, the internet and acts as an entertainment provider, it is just incredibly handy. Of course, the ability to connect you everywhere you go can make it a bit hard to switch off sometimes!

So now it’s over to you. Do you use any of these? Do you have other application you just couldn’t live without? Let me know!

No one knows more than GOOGLE

Hi people! Let’s talk about what’s so good about Google .

Google is the most trusted and well known website in the World Wide Web. This website offers most of their services and products for free. This product is a tool used by mostly everyone in the world now. There are many reasons why we must use this service.

The secret sauce to Google’s benefits and perks is it’s all about removing barriers so Googlers can focus on the things they love, both inside and outside of work. Google is constantly searching for unique ways to improve the health and happiness of Googlers. And it doesn’t stop there because Google’s hope is that users can become a better person by working with Google.

Our interests and needs evolve over our lifetime. Likewise, Google evaluate their benefits regularly and adapt them to the needs of our changing population. As with anything at Google, our benefits are an open conversation and our feedback is a part of the equation.

If you enjoyed what google has brought to your life, please share the benefits of it and enjoy using it!

One friend of mine actually bloged about google related information too, take a look HERE.

Thanks! See ya’ll. =)

How has ICT Affect Education

Hello readers!! Today's post will be about how has ICT affect education!

ICT has spread to the whole worldwide and it’s becoming very famous these days in education. Information and communication technology has the ability to change the teaching and learning procedure and to attain more effective management and administration of school systems, schools, classrooms and non-formal learning environments. During the previous years, ICT has been enclosed into education and hugely impacted on how people are being educated nowadays. ICT is a fundament for revolutionary reform in education. Some believe that ICT has had a positive impact on education while others see it as having a negative impact on education.

ICT can provide worldwide learning facilities which means that everyone in different places in the world can learn through e-learning and visual learning through the internet. This benefits students as they can even study at home and be educated rather than wasting time to travel to school and only seated in the classroom. Not only that, students from abroad country or city who wished to study can be taught the same information and achieve the same degree as others do.

A lot of information can be seen and researched in the internet where ICT access has provided which helps in the understanding of concepts and theory’s. Students with access to the internet have an unlimited amount of information available to them at ease. This information can be available to them in many different and useful formats. Students are given the opportunity to communicate with other learners around the world and to use real-time chatting to share opinions and thoughts with other students. They can also send or find information anytime as long as the internet is working. Those students who have not been able to achieve good education can now be reached through these technologies. Besides, ICT can be used as a substitute for almost everything in the class: pencil, book, encyclopedia, map, library and many more, which makes education more effective as it links many people around the world. Also, ICT will help students to understand more easily through presentations and diagrams rather than block of information.

Overall, I think ICT has brought millions of people benefits and advantages and it has affected education in a major way. Not only to help students, it lessens up the burden of teachers too where most of them can study online now.


That’s all from me. Thanks for reading and hope to blog again soon. (:

Here comes my semester break!

Hi dear readers, I'm currently on my semester break! Though we do not need to attend classes for A WHOLE WEEK, but there are two assignments that need to be completed and the submission is right on the week where class resumes. Hence, there will not be much enjoyment in this semester break. Most of my friends and working on the assignment during this semester's break, one of them is Choy Yee.

So far, I have completed part of my assignments, not fully done yet, but at least had touched the surface of almost all the assignments and I am determined to finish it by next week so that I have another one more week to be assignment-free whereby I can enjoy my movie/drama marathon, hi-tea and shopping session without the need to bother about assignments anymore.

Studying is not easy, SERIOUSLY!

When my life as a degree student will be over?

Another year more till I am done with this degree programme. Hope time flies and I will be enjoying my working life.

Till Then,AuRevoir! =)

TPACK

Today I will blog about TPACK.

As stated by Matthew Koehler,” Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK)” (Koehler, M , 2011).

When I looked back at my previous teaching experience, I realise the strengths and weaknesses in my knowledge area. Talking about my strength in knowledge area, I’m more familiar with content knowledge. I will usually prepare the important notes and lessons that I’m going to deliver to my students before I teach them. I have to make sure that I’m teaching them in a right way and to deliver them with proper and appropriate knowledge.

On the other hand, my weaknesses in knowledge area are technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. I prefer to teach in a more traditional way where I’ll state down all the important notes and to tell directly to students on what am I going to deliver to them rather than posting up notes in internet. However, ICT tools had make it so much easier now that I could use appropriate lessons or contents which incorporate with ICT in order to deliver appropriate knowledge to students. Besides, I’m not well-trained in kindergarten because I only worked when I’m doing my practical. Therefore, I was weak on my professionalism in teaching. To overcome this, I will try to learn more on teaching so that I won’t be weak on it.

Thanks to TPACK that acts as an amazing concept where me and other teachers are able to know our strengths and weaknesses in teaching through the framework. Hence, it is easier for teachers to discover different ways of pedagogical and contents in order to enhance children effective learning. Last but not least, I hope to carry TPACK along with me in my teaching in regards of any areas of curriculum.
Well, I think that should be all of what I’m sharing here. It would be nice to see about others experience on this and something similar.

I would like to share a LINK for more information about TPACK.

Thanks for reading and see ya’ll. =)


References


Google image.com. (2013). TPACK [Image]. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from    
      http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&gs_rn=9&gs_ri=psy/


Koehler, M. J. (n.d.). What is TPACK? Retrieved April 9, 2013, from
      http://mkoehler.educ.msu.edu/tpack/what-is-tpack/

How will you measure the success of ICT integration into your teaching?

Hi All,

So in Study Desk, David Jones created another forum for us students to discuss about "How will you measure the success of ICT integration into your teaching?"

To me, I will measure the success from learner's respond. Are they engage with ICT tools? Are the learners using the tools independently?

When the students are engages with the ICTs tools given, it means that educator has successfully integrate ICT. Besides, when the students are engage with the ICT tools provided, it means that they knows how to use and have developed the skills of using ICT tools. Well, as an adult myself, If I have fun playing a game, I will continuously play it without leaving the gadget unattended.

Whereas from my friend's point of view, she will measre the success of ICT integration differently. She will have an activity for the students mainly to observe the students' interest in the ICT task prepared. Do take a look at her point of view HERE.

Will be back to blog more about ICT related stuff. (=

More Effort Needed

First assignment had just due a few days ago. After clicking submit into EASE, I got a little frustrated about myself, for NOT putting enough effort. To be completely honest here, I always slack and think that I would have sufficient time to complete the whole assignment one by THREE DAYS?!

The main reason I told myself I am able to complete the assignment in three days is because I just want to procrastinate more. I did not want to get it started. Poor time management I have. Got a little angry at myself too. I am so thankful for this space. At least, I get to rant here.

Well, having that said, it is time for me to start reading for assignment two already. More effort is needed from my side to make sure I do not feel frustrated again after submitting my assignment two. Besides, I should also plan and jot down what to do for each and everyday so that I do not rush for my assignment two.

I need time management class too, perhaps? Hmmmm...

Oh well, I found this useful site that gives good time management tips. Maybe I should print the tips out and stick it on my study room. "Sharing is caring"... HERE is the link to share the tips to you readers who share the same habit as me (Procrastinating).

Besides, the quote Manage Your Work, Don't Let It Manage You wakes me up from day dreaming. How can I let my work manage me?! I need to manage the work and make sure I do well in my upcoming assignment two.

Good Luck and All The Best to those who are struggling for assignment two!!! (=

Reference

Nellen, A. (2000). Time Management. Retrieved on March 29, 2013 from http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/nellen_a/time_management.htm

My Online Artefact

Hi everybody!!

In this ICT and Pedagogy Course, I am required to complete an online artefact task.
In my online artefact I will be takling about the teaching context of my school, reasons for integrating ICTs into students' learning and also lessons that implement the online artefact.

To find out more about my ICT and Pedagogy: Why and What, please click this Link to bring you over to my  Why and What side.

Hope you enjoy looking at my Online artefact! (=

My Third Week with ICT and Pedagogy

Good day everyone!


Wow, this is the third week of blogging already. Getting more familiar with the tabs, functions and how to operate the blog already. But I would say, there is so much more to learn. I have not learn how to insert a header picture yet. I should learn that SOON to make my blog look more attractive.

After attending the third class of ICT and Pedagogy, I get a better idea in my assignment requirements now. I used to be so worried and did so much research about the ICT tool. Not that I am not worried now, but I felt so much better when my lecturer explained to us further about our assignment 1.

Did a lot of readings from the study desk provided by our course examiner, David Jones. Still struggling to get my my ticks though. If you are wondering what tick I am talking about, look at the picture below. (=

The black colour box at the right side shown the tick box. We are required to get all the small boxes tick. How to get all the ticks? We are suppose to complete all the task given be it readings, forums or creating a social network.

The picture above is my third week task, I have only completed three out of four ticks. One task more to complete all the task given for week three.

Can not wait to learn more about ICT. There is so much to learn and I found out so much exciting stuff about ICT.

Will blog more soon! (=

What is Pedagogy?

In our University of Southern Queensland study desk, our course examiner David Jones created a forum for us students to discuss about pedagogy in our teaching area.

I would like to share my point of view to you readers. To me, pedagogy is teaching strategies. After going through the past three placements, I realised that there is no teaching strategies that suits all situation. Dealing with different children, different types of strategies will be used to have better learning outcomes. Some strategies are better suited to teaching certain skills and fields of knowledge than others whereas some strategies are better suited to teaching certain student backgrounds, learning styles and abilities.


____________________________________________________________________

Today I cam across this quote "Technology in itself is neither good nor bad. It all depends on how we harness it." and think that it is actually very true.

I heard so much of adults saying that it is an bad idea to introduce ICT tools to the students as young as 2 years old. They says that it actually kills their childhood where they do not get to feel the hands on experience. When I was younger, I got to go out of my house area and play with my neighbour's children. These days in my place, we do not get to see children running around outside the house playing together any more. That is because it is getting more dangerous to play outside instead of using ICT tools as parents are getting more protective. 

To me, technology is actually not bad as some  people's perception. It actually depends on how you educate the children to use it. From using ICT tools, children can actually be more creative to present their ideas through power point or many other software such as prezi. 

Tell me what do you think about the quote above by leaving comment. :)

Why Teach ICT?

This question came into my mind and I ask myself, Why do I need to educate the younger ones about/with ICT? Besides, from Megan's post, it motivates me to post about my ideas and thoughts on why should we teach ICT.

After enrolling into this course and so much readings have been done, I finally understand why should I, as an educator introduce ICT to the children. Technology has become apart of our culture, therefore, it is very important that we are educated in how to use it. During my primary years, using ICTs are very rare. We are more into work sheet based learning instead of using ICT tools. But later on in my secondary days, teacher start using laptop and projector to teach. To me, it made teaching easier.

I am going to share my point of view on why should educator teach about ICT.

As mentioned earlier, technology has now become part of our culture. In the city I live in, I often see children playing games with Ipad, Smart phone and also Tablets. I think it is a good thing that children are exposed to ICT tools. They will learn to explore and learn to focus on something. When children sees something attractive, it will catch their attention (TeachingExpertise, 1997). Through ICT, we can make lesson as creative by adding music or maybe video. It will actually be more interesting than work sheet.

Besides, teaching ICT also enable students to understand what are the adults actually doing. Sometimes, we as an adult will say things like email, researching and also browsing. When students are introduce to using ICTs, they will have the idea of what email actually means, how to research and how to browse for information that they wanted to know.

More information on ICT as per below table:

These are the ideas I have in mind. Will share and blog more about ICT soon. (=

Reference:

TeachingExpertise. (1997). How To Use ICT To Support Young Children's Learning. Retrieved on March 14, 2013 from http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/how-to-use-ict-to-support-young-childrens-learning-3071

Online Games

After reading my friend's (Katrina) about online games such as Candy Crush, I must admit that I am one of those addictive Candy Crush Player. In Katrina's post, she mentioned that through games, it helps us to connect with each other. i strongly agree with what she mentioned and would like to add information from my side.

It helps us in a way that when we got stuck in a game, we can simply print-screen it to show to our friends and ask for help.

Below is screen shot of Candy Crush from my phone.

The main page of the game.

 The page before entering to play the game. The star will later indicate your marks collected. In order to get three stars, player must get the amount of scores set.

This shows the example of the game, level 167. In this game, player needs to break all the jellies. 

This game needs friend help by asking them to send us (the player) lives in order to continue playing when we are out life. Also, I realise that when I play this game, I started to get closer to the rest of the players by communicating and sharing the strategies to complete the level in order to proceed to next level.

Besides, this game actually requires thinking skills. people always say that whenever we use ICTs tools, we tend to rely so much on those tools without needing to think critically. But in this game, you will need to think and use some tactic to fulfil the requirement needed in each level. ICTs tools do not make people lazy but to grab people's attention with creative ideas (SchoolNet, 1997). I agree with this statement as you need to grab children's attention first before making them to think or come out with good response.

All in all, there are still advantages in playing certain games.

Reference:

SchoolNet. (1997). Teaching and Learning With ICT. Retrieved on March 12, 2013 from https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fschoolnet.gov.mt%2Fictsec%2FICTPedagogyHeads.doc&ei=toBMUebpPIayrAfPioCYAw&usg=AFQjCNFY9B6IYQUzDTQ-yqFfppgNPh454g&bvm=bv.44158598,d.bmk

Learning A Little More About ICT

Hey ya!!

Here I am again, bloging more about ICTs. I am starting to learn more about ICT; the advantages and disadvantages.

Social networks are so popular these days and we get to learn so much from it. But learning something good or bad from it is another thing. What I meant from social networks are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Firstly, all these are mostly free. So that might be the reason why everyone uses it. Other than that, it bring benefits such as keeping in touch with your friend.

Well, I will talk about one of the advantages of social networking today.

How does it help to keep in touch with your friend, you ask?

Let say if any of your friend are out from the country for studies. You are able to send messages to your friend any time you want to as long as there is internet connection. It is so easy that you do not have to wait for your friend to go on-line or to be available. All you need to do is just leave your message or note to your friend. When he or she goes on-line she will be able to view it. And the best thing is FREE message. You do not have to spend a cent to message your friend. Facebook, it is so user friendly that it allows you to post up photos, post up personal status, create a group, create an event and chat with your friend/ family member individually.  This will help to create a better relationship and to keep in touch with one another.

Getting to know what is your friend up to or sharing pictures of yourself will help us to feel closer to each other.

Hope my wordy blog post wont bore you readers. =/

Come back for more ICTs blog post! (=
Will try to be as creative as possible to keep you readers entertain!

My First ICT and Pedagogy Class

It's me again! This time, I have already attended my very first ICT and pedagogy class and it is on 2nd of March 2013. 

I must admit that I felt a little anxious during the class. ICT and Pedagogy course sounded so SCARY to me. 0.o .. I got so stress to know that I have 3 assignments to complete and also placement towards the end of this course. In my mind, I was thinking, WOW! my wheels will be rolling non stop throughout the whole semester of this course. But I told my self to look at the bright side, I GET to learn and I get to educate the societies (Parents, teachers and students) how good ICTs are and how are they making our lives easier.

Besides, I get to know this website from my friend and they have so many types of games! I feel so old school to still prepare my lesson plan using hands on experience games such as counting. I prepared buttons, balls or sometimes cards to make the children count. But from the website, I learnt that I can actually let the students learn counting using ICTs tools. 

Looks like I must buck up and start to be more of an ICT person! :P

Ok, back to my first ICT and Pedagogy class.

Truth to be told, I got stress up on the first class itself because I did not look through study desk enough before the class. So, I have no idea what I am going to do with this ICT and Pedagogy course. Later on, I started to log in to StudyDesk to look around and try to understand better about this course.

Alright, what do I do next? LOOK through study desk every now and then. I believe it will help me understand this course better.

"Teaching and Learning With ICT"

Well, stay tuned for more upcoming post from me. (=

My First Blog Post

Hello Everybody!!! (=

This is my first time creating a blog and I am very excited to learn more about bloging!

The main reason I started to blog is because I am currently taking EDC 3100; ICT and Pedagogy this semester which requires me to blog. I am more than happy that this subject actually made me to start up blogging. Looking forward to learn more about ICT skills through blogging so that I could teach better later during my placement.

Besides, I hope that my English (grammar, vocabs) will improve from blogging. I am sure that doing this daily will somehow make me a research junkie. For example, I will search for the correct way of putting my sentence right. Other than that, I will also read my friend's blog or maybe some stranger blog to improve my blogging skills.

I found that I can do a lot with my own blog; designing, inserting chatbox and putting background music. So much to learn! Looking forward to explore more and hope that I will be an expert in ICT.

To be completely honest, I am not an IT person. I have very low-level ICT skills. I used to ask people around me so much when I used something ICT-related. there was once, my sister got so angry and annoyed with me for asking so much on how to use a projector.

I am very eager to learn more about ICT and wish that I will at least be in "good" range instead of having very low-level of ICT skills.

Will blog more soon! Do come back to read more about my journey with ICT. (=