Assignment...assignments...

Salam...

The lecture for today was started by the display of samples of e-book presentation by Puan Foziah, and this help us a lot in completing our next task, which is the preparation of e-book for use in the classroom. After watching all the presentations, I notice the importance of inculcating certain items or criteria along the process, especially regarding the target group which is the students itself. The integration of song, one of the prominent feature in each presentations shows how the 'power' of song in making the presentation a good one. Song usually contains repetition which is very much useful language learning. Besides that, the use of colourful picture, big fonts and animation are very useful in attracting students' attention in the classroom. Hence, I need to be aware of the needs of children in completing this e-book presentation. As a result, the objectives of the learning will be achieved.

In addition, Pn. Foziah also introduced to use two new softwares which are Blumentals and GICKR. Both are very useful in creating animation pictures, and this is a very good opportunity for me to explore and integrate this animation in my e-book presentation. This will make my presentation even more attractive and 'alive', and sustaining students' interest along the teaching and learning process.

After giving enough guidance in preparing the e-book presentation, the discussion was changed into the portfolio part. We were advised to start collecting all the documents, files, and folders as this will avoid the last minute work, and I can feel the 'heat' of burdening with lots of assignments is getting close and close to me. Hence, it is the right time for me to start organise my data so that it will be easy for me to compile all the files needed in the portfolio.

Furthermore, we also received the second assignment, which is assessing and manipulating videos for the ESL classroom. This assignment is quite complicated, since there were numbers of tasks to complete in this assignment. Starting from downloading the video clips ( Michael Jackson ; The Earth Song, we have to convert it into audio files, and taken pictures from the video. Then, we have to create a lesson using all this resources and come out with our own teaching aids. Next, we have to choose our own video from the internet and do the same process as in the first one. This is very challenging for me since a lot of thinking has to be put in this assignment. Besides that, I need to consider the teaching point in this assignment, since there is a demand to refer to the CS and integrated it in the lesson. So, a lot of thinking cap has to be put on and there is an urge to always be aware with the need of young learners, since they are the target group for the lesson. The lesson created must be interesting, attractive, and astounding so as to adapt with young learners special characteristics, so that the objective of the lesson will be achieved. Therefore, this is a good stage for us as 'teacher to be' to make use of our skills in creating a good product for this assignment.

VIDEO EDITING

Salam...

After we have been exposed to audio editing and picture editing techniques, this week’s class was more focusing on the video editing. In short, there were three main methods in producing our own video, which were using pictures, edited videos, and professionally video commercial. Most of us prefer to choose pictures for our coming assignment, in which we have to create our own video in pairs. This is because of the originality of ideas, which can be seen when we selecting the most suitable pictures to match with our theme and concept. Pn Foziah already stressed that this task was not the educational one, and this is like a golden opportunity for me to widen my scope of concept, in which more space of creativity can be put in. The most important thing in making video is the message. The video can be said successful if the message is conveyed to the viewer and appeal to their heart. There is no point of creating such a wonderful, eye-catching video when the message is not clear or blur to the viewers. Since both of us were nature-lovers, we have agreed to choose the concept of nature as the essence in our video clip.

Besides that, Pn Foziah also displayed the video made by two pairs of my senior, and I really astonished on the way they creatively use pictures in making the video. One video is about friendship, and another one is about life. Moreover, I can see how my senior applied the picture editing and audio editing techniques in producing both videos. Although this task was quite easy, a good plan is needed along the video-making process, so that a clear message may be conveyed to the viewers. Software like Cyberlink Power Director and Windows Movie Maker will be very much practical to be used in this assignment.

In addition, we also received another task which is video-editing assignment, in which we have to edit one of the most high-rated television programme on 8tv, which is ‘So you think you can dance’ in group of five. Two main techniques were stressed here, and they were joining and splitting techniques. Besides that, we have to just choose parts in the episodes that show the dance, joining them, and label them according to the specific dancers. This task was quite hard for us since the holiday is so near and the due was during the holiday. However, I and my group will try our best to finish this video editing assignment.

Audio editing

Salam...

There were two main focus for the class today, which were the presentation on identifying priorities in young learners language acquisition and a short lecture on audio editing task. As we know, it is crucial to create a learning atmosphere that integrates real language use in various forms for young learners, since it will be very much helpful in their future language application. Teacher should always aware with the content and attitude goals in teaching, since attitude goal was sometimes being overlooked by teacher due to the exam-oriented setting in Malaysia. Teachers were more focusing on finishing the syllabus and the content of the subject taught, rather than focusing on enhancing students' risk taking attitude and confidence (attitude goal). This is vibrant especially in higher level of education, where the attitude goal was sometimes being ignored by most of the educators.

Besides that, there is a need to understand the nature of language. Children use language to communicate their needs, so it is important for teachers to create a meaningful learning, in which real communication take place. The attitude goals like confidence and risk taking is very important as it was the key part of the process of language development. Besides that, the teacher needs to be aware with nonverbal behaviour shown by students in the class, since it sometimes indicates the understanding by students, and not just focusing on the verbal part. We can see many advantages of real language use in classroom, for instance in encouraging them to predict meaning of words and confirming that language is something that is for real use in their daily life. When students realise the importance of language in their daily life, the learning process will become even easier and positive for them. This will enhance their motivation in learning and lower down the affective filter that may block learning from taking place. In conclusion, learning need to be real and teacher has to balance the attitude and content goals in learning.

After the presentation by each group, we were given a brief description on audio editing by Pn. Foziah. Audio editing was important since it provides opportunities for teacher to edit the audio material that he/she want to use/omit in the class, especially for listening skills part. We can cut, add, or make the sound clear by using software like Audacity, Riva encoder, and many more.Besides that, we also get the opportunity to hear to the song edited by Puan Foziah, and this give a clearer view of what we have to do for the coming task.