New Gadget

Today I received a new Laptop - Acer TravelMate 6292. Not mine exactly, but bought using the research grant money. It is installed with Window Vista. Will get some time to explore the differences between XP. Ok, that's all for now. Need to go to the Gallery for a meeting with Registrar.

CD, anyone?

No, not the music CD. This is Cloth Diapers. I am very new on CD thing, but really interested to try. At least, to save the environment and some disposable diapers budget. Found out several interesting website.

Home Sweet Home

Last Sunday (27 August 2008), we have moved to our new home at Bandar Sierra. My sisters, brother as well as in law and my hubby's friend, came and helped us to move the things. It was exhausting yet enjoyable experience. Now, by stages, we need to clear so many thing in our new house and the previous one. Need to take leave to do it, so I can concentrate tidying up without 'extra help' from the little ones, Danish & Danial. Later, if our home sweet home is ready, I will put a picture here. At the moment, you would never want to see the 'beauty'. ;)

One Afternoon with A Dear Friend

Last Thursday, I had my together-gather-session with my dear friend, Az. I tried to ask for Sar to join, but she is away in Beaufort. Haven't seen her since she left. Yeah.. I'm missing my buddies a lot. It feel lonely sometime. Well, going back to my outing with Az. Before this we always meet at CopyCat at Kingfisher. This time Az suggested 1 Borneo! Although I always want to go there, but I never been there. It's only about 1 KM from my office. Why? Simply because that 'gigantic' hypermall is still under construction. You can see the construction workers walking around at the parking lot with their safety helmet. The crane is still on top of one of its tower. If it happen a piece of plank or nail fall down from the highest floor and land on you head.. Fuh.. I'm sure it will be a front page news. But when you went inside, of course lah, macam sudah siap. They call it Sabah's Mega Mall.



By the way, despite all those imagination, with no hesitate I agreed. We went to a Japanese shop (what's the name aa..) then had our lunch at the food court. The system is quite funny, you need to buy the coupon before you can buy the food. If you can't finish the amount that you have paid, no worries you can get the refund, but only at the same day. We talked about life, children, friends. It is never have enough time when we catching up things.

Well sure enough there will be more teh-tarik-session soon.

How to be a good teacher?

Good teacher? Definition please..The teacher who inspires, efficient, helpful and informative. While searching for some reference for my classes, I found this interesting website : e-Learning in Malaysia by Zaid Ali Alsagoff a lecturer from UNITAR.

"If teachers or lecturers can answer these questions (below), they are on the way towards developing effective outcome-based approach and promoting a learning organization.

* What do I have to learn?
* Why do I have to learn it?
* What will I be doing while I am learning?
* Will it be interesting and useful?
* How will I know that I am learning what I should be learning?
* Will I have any say in what I learn?
* How will I be assessed?"

These are really basic questions that we sometimes overlook. Perhaps, if we are able to answer these questions to our students, they will be more eager to learn the stuff we are teaching/facilitating :)

Hopefully I can be one great teacher someday.. yes, someday..



Few tips from Zaid :

A FEW TIPS!

"Take your course seriously! Take course preparation seriously! Take learning seriously! Take asssessment seriously! Take your students seriously! But don't take yourself seriously!" - Zaid Ali Alsagoff

Better yet, have fun making fun of yourself during class, and make it a point that we all do mistakes. Anyway, the greatness of a lecturer or a leader is not whether he or she does a mistake (surely will!), but how he or she responds to it. If you are not doing any mistakes or failing once a while, you are perhaps not trying hard enough. Finally, celebrate students who ask you questions, even if you don't know the answer. Not only will they inspire you to learn and get a deeper understanding of the subject, they will also nurture you to become a better lecturer.

We all say funny things and ask stupid questions in our short life on this planet, but if we learn from them and move on we might just... :)

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
-Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
-H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
- Bill Gates, 1981

"If at first, the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it."
- Albert Einstein

Danial is now Walking!

He started his first step when he almost 1 year old. Now he can walk confidently without holding my hand and learning to climb the steps. But the teacher at his taska still pun Danial in the walker because they afraid Danial will be pushed by the older toddler. However, now Danial know how to get out from the walker. He now know how to climb! The time really flew very fast.. my Danial is now 15 months old.

Danish and The Doctor

Last Tuesday, we went to clinic because my Danish got fever. I think it was his tonsils . When it was our turn, I asked Danish to sit on the usual patient punya bangku.

Doctor: Siapa yang sakit?

Danish : Danish! (sambil angkat tangan)

Doktor : Sakit apa?

Danish : Sakit tekak (tunjuk tekak)

Doktor : Makan apa ni jadi sakit tekak? Ais krim?

Danish : Tidak..

Doktor : Tidak suka makan ais krim? Keropok?

Danish : Tidak.. nanti demam

Doktor : Ooo .. pandai aa kau.. Berapa umur?

Danish angkat bahu. Kemudian kakak Nurul bisik,

Nurul : Empat tahun..

Danish : Empat tahun.. (sambil berbisik)

Doktor : Kena makan ubat ya. Kalau tidak nanti kena jarum. Mau jarum?

Danish angguk kepala.

Doktor : Mau jarum? (Kehairanan)

Ummi : Danish mau injection?

Danish : Tidak mau!

New Students, New Semester

It has been quite sometime since I updated this blog. Been very busy as usual. I have finished the PTK last May. Went to Langkawi for conference 9th June - Knowledge Management International Conference 2008 in short KMICE 08. Met kak Rohaida from my undergraduate class. She is a lecturer at UUM now. Luckily she rented a car and brought me ronda2 Langkawi. Visit the LI students right after the conference. Late June - Moving to a new room (previously Kak Salina's room). After that, very occupied with several meeting with Pusat Luar UMS, representing Yati whom went to India for Infosys. Entering marks to the system, checking for graduation status, final year project presentation etc. Last week, Cisco QA has came to check the Cisco implementation status in UMS. The dean has agreed to continue the program and also waiting for the paperwork to get some money to send us to training.

And now, actually tomorrow, we have a ceremony with the freshies - Aku Janji. Then, meeting the new students for some introduction to the School of Engineering and Information Technology (shall we call Computer Science instead of IT?) Next week, the new semester will begin. Will be teaching Data Communication and Multimedia System this semester.

Half of the year has gone. One of my resolution is to get some preparation done for my PhD things. But until now, have yet to decide which field to pursue. Am waiting for our Pn. Shaliza to come back and really need a discussion with her on research opportunity in computer network. Lau, Liawas, Kamel went to UK. Khairul went to Japan. I heard Maizura (Melbourne) and Mazlina to UKM this end of year. Me? Still lots of issues to think of.

Oklah.. may this semester will be an interesting one. And I am looking forward to get my PTK result. Harap2 lah lepas..

To my students, welcome back!