A Matter of Rebranding!

Assalamualaikum…

Hi there! Thanks for visiting my blog (The TESL Students’ Blog)!

Actually, I had created this blog intentionally to fulfill a partial requirement for Literature in Malaysian Schools (TSL 430) when I was in part two. You could see obviously the journal entries that written in the posts below mentioned something in relation to literature.

We (as part two students at that time) were required to learn how to write journal by using blog. Mrs. Norliana Bt. Ghazali, the lecturer of Literature in Malaysian Schools had invited Mrs. Taherah Bt. Zainuddin, (she teaches mathematics) to instruct us how to register and create blog in the computer laboratory (5B2; I guessed).

Some of my friends had inspired me to modify and rebrand this blog to help TESL students especially those who are in part three and four, (in next semester, they would be in part four and five) and those who (are from different part of TESL Programme that) will participate in the same classes. I hope that this blog could help them (me too) to find out something that could facilitate their study in TESL programme. Let say, if we have trouble to figure out certain terminologies of certain topic, perhaps some of us could share their knowledge with others by explaining to them or just giving them URL address that links them to that particular thing. What is more, this blog could also become an arena for us to brush up and improve our writing skill.

So, what the blog is all about? According to an online dictionary (yes, I do check for the definition too), blog is a shared on-line journal where people could post diary entries about their personal experiences, hobbies, information and so much more. Yet, one feature of the blog that differs it from a manual written journal (with pen and paper) is that it could be read, written, or edited as shared on-line journal (the manual written journal doesn’t have editing feature as the blog does).

My blog also has a number of widgets that might help you to search something you need. I enclose:

• 1) Yahoo! Messenger widget – to indicate my online presence.
  2) Clock widget
  3) Hijriah calendar widget
  4) Gregorian calendar widget
  5) Translation widgets (2 types):
  6) Weather forecast (available for Kuala Dungun, Terengganu only!)
  7) Online reference widget – http://wwwthefreedictionary.com/
  8) Proverb’s widget
  9) English flashcards widget
  10) English level test
  11) About.com widget
  12) Englishtips widget
  13) BBC news widget
  14) CNN news widget
  15) Journal widget
  16) Shoutbox
  17) Youtube search engine widget
  18) Google web search widget
  19) Answer.com widget

Please tell me if you need some more appropriate widgets to enclose in this blog. I am very grateful to get your comment(s) in order to improve my blog’s design and function.

Eventually, I hope that all of you could follow the netiquette or general guidelines of Internet for blogging purpose. Please write in proper English writing (mind your language), as we are TESL students, and we are concerning with English too!

Thank you.

Wassalam...

Best regards, Syikri

Seventh Meeting

Date : 30th September 2007
Day : Sunday
Topic : Novels and Revision

Descriptions:
Today would be the last meeting for the course – TSL 430. We took the opportunity to study two more novels; The Return (K.S. Maniam) and Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson).

Mrs. Norliana Binti Ghazali gave all the necessary notes to us to prepare for the final examination - on 27th October 2007.

We also took the chance to discuss and revise the last five-semester Literature examination papers as well as we were taught of how-to-answer-the-question skills.

Last but not least, we were greatly indebted to Mrs. Norliana Binti Ghazali, lecturer of TSL 430 (Literature in Malaysian Schools) for the painstaking care she had shown in supervising and proposing us her valuable comments, advices and guidance in our study of Literature in Malaysian Schools. God! Please bless her!

Sixth Meeting

Date : 28th September 2007
Day : Friday
Topic : Novels and Submission of Report Writing

Descriptions:
Today we learnt three novels; Prisoner of Zenda (Anthony Hope), Potato People (Angela Wright) and Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe). The important points of the novels discussed came in the form of Power Point slides to ease the students for note writing.

At the same day we submitted the Report on Poems Study in Sekolah Menengah Imtiaz (Atas) Dungun, Terengganu Darul Iman to Mrs. Norliana Binti Ghazali. The report writing consisted of six sections:

Introduction
Literature Review
Research Design
Findings
Recommendation
Reference

The reports were initially to be presented in Power Point by the groups assigned but were cancelled due to time constrain.

Fifth Meeting

Date : 14th September 2007
Day : Friday
Topic : Quiz 2 – Short Stories

Descriptions:
In the fifth meeting, we learnt another two short stories;
The Pencil (Ali Majod)
How Dalat Got its Name (Heidi Munan).

My comment for the short stories was that they were really beneficial for me especially The Pencil ­– the most attractive one in my opinion. The TESL students as the prospective teachers or lecturers should read and absorb the moral values of the story; of how to deal with the students (specially the problem makers), how to manage them in term of solving their problems, what were the required characteristics the educators should have and so on.

After the discussion done, we sat for Quiz 2 – the two short stories mentioned above for approximately thirty minutes.

Fourth Meeting

Date : 25th August 2007
Day : Friday
Topic : Short Stories Presentation and Drafting Questionnaires

Descriptions:
Today we concentrated to the presentations of the short stories. We performed the presentation for short story - The Drover’s Wife. The tough moment to remember during the presentation was the QA session. Questions came over and over again! By the way, all the titles in the short stories were entirely covered in the same day.

It was my second absence for the afternoon session as I had to attend my cousin’s wedding ceremony at Kuala Berang, Terengganu Darul Iman.

I was told by my group members that they had consulted the lecturer and drafted questionnaires for survey on poems study. The questionnaires were to be distributed in the school. Our group planned to choose Sekolah Menengah Imtiaz (Atas) Dungun, Terengganu Darul Iman to be the location for distributing the questionnaires in order to gain data for our report writing – poems study. The following day, I retyped the drafted questionnaires and passed / submitted it to Mrs. Norliana Binti Ghazali for any correction or amendment required.

Third Meeting

Date : 10th August 2007
Day : Friday
Topic : Novel, Quiz 1 and Preparation for Short Stories Presentation

Descriptions:
Mrs. Norliana Binti Ghazali has lectured us the novel The Pearl. We also learnt how to write about short stories, how to quote the texts to be the textual evidences and so on.

We also sat for Quiz 1 – Poems (questions came from two poems; Monsoon History and si tenggang’s homecoming) successfully. The time given was half an hour to answer the quiz.

At the same day, we also prepared for short stories presentation. A number of groups were assigned with different titles of short stories. My friend (Mrs. Roslaily Bt. Mohamad) and I as a group would perform our presentation for short story - The Drover’s Wife - in the next meeting. And today was my first time using and creating blog. I indeed was very greatful to learn a new thing. Thanks a million to Mrs. Taheerah for lecturing part two TESL students to use blog for educational purpose. We learnt the blog in 5A2 - Computer Laboratory.