Day 14: Early Sprint LINUS BI Program Day 1

We have a program today, just like the title said. But it's actually about exposing LBI Year 2 to the teachers. We didn't have full attendance because this program is running on the same time as our district's sports event. Well nobody is meant to be blamed. There's always going to be something happening and you found yourself clashing with other departments program. Wish we had more English teachers in our district. Maybe then this issue could be solved.

This is the schedule for it. It was actually really interesting being here. I feel sorry for those English teachers who didn't attend this. Because they can actually learn a lot.

Ja! Mata Asta.

26th February 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 13: A Visit to SK Wonod

It's raining in the morning. I like the weather but it's not good for the road. Luckily it's just 14 km from the office and we have asphalt road. We came there with a team. We have Mr. Simon, Mdm. Moilin, Mr. Suzaily and Mr. Jaikin for UPSR, level 2 students. Ms. Jeya, Mdm. Duisa and myself are doing LINUS, level 1 students. First we meet up with the headmaster Mr. Petrus Raymond, he kinda talks a lot. So our team was stuck in his room for about 20 minutes listening to him.

Later after that, we FSLBI (Fasilinus BI) went to see Mdm. Nor Suraya, Ms. Linda and Mdm. Rose for information. We learned that Mr. Rolex is the one teaching year 2 but he's not around because he is involved with Sports. For year 1 they have Mdm. Rose. She is actually a preschool teacher and recently got promoted. We did a little investigating and we found out that the major weakness is the teachers had no idea what LBI is all about.

On the evening, I forgot that I was supposed to attend the Scouts meeting at Queen Alice Hotel. I forgot because I thought it will be on the next day. I was way into deep with my own program. But it's okay. I'll try to get more info from Mr. Aron directly.

Well that's all for now.

Ja! Mata Asta.

25th February 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 12: Centralized Scheme Briefing for PPP (Pegawai Perkhidmatan Pendidikan) and This Week Plans

This morning I was called to meet up with Drs. Mahanin Osman our PPD. He wanted to meet the new officers who will be working here at PPDT. It was just another welcoming meetings that we've been having and actually today I wanted to finish up the pay slip. Since I will be working here at PPD my allowance will be cut off. Which I don't really have any problem to begin with. But if the clerk is working slow, it will definitely give me a bad time dealing with all the cuts later on. I took proactive action with taking the form that I filled last week and get PPD signatures. Turns out I don't even need to do anything. Because the form that I took was actually just a draft. What a bummer.. haha

After that we have a small unofficial meeting consisting Mr. Simon, Ms. Jeya, Mdm. Duisa and myself. We have a full schedule ahead of us this week. This is what's going to happened this week:

• Tuesday: Visit School -SK Wonod-
• Wednesday: English Literacy Course Year 2, Day 1
• Thursday: English Literacy Course Year 2, Day 2
• Friday: Special Meeting Hot Spot (Under Performed Schools)

In the afternoon, we suddenly have another announced meeting. This time it's the Centralized Scheme Briefing for PPP. It's nothing special, the presenter Mr. Henry from the Quality Assurance Department talked about minor changes consisting the abbreviations from PPPS (Pegawai Perkhidmatan Pendidikan Siswazah) to only PPP (Pegawai Perkhidmatan Pendidikan) only. Yeah they only remove the letter S. Same goes to Employment Scheme from DGA to only DG. There's more but it's not really that interesting.

That's all for today! Thank you for reading.

Ja! Mata Asta.

24th February 2014 (Monday)

Day 11: UPSR BM and BI Workshops 2nd Day

Well the workshop was really good for novice teachers. They discussed about issues and ways to anticipate them. They also put more weight and focus on Paper 2. Not much that I could write here since that workshop is not really my program and we're there just to help out.

Before I go here's the link to my 2nd week Vlog.

My 2nd Week VLog

Ja! Mata Asta.

21st February 2014 (Friday)

Day 10: UPSR BM and BI Workshops 1st Day

We were asked to participate in one of the English UPSR program. It was supposed to be 3 days but Mr. Soddiq Norazmie (SISC+ : School Improvement Specialist Coaches) who are in charge with UPSR BI wanted it to be 2 days course. Um... one and a half day to be exact.

Well there's going to be another one on the next day. That's all for today.

Ja! Mata Asta.

20th February 2014 (Thursday)

Day 9: Paradigm Shift For National Examination

Today we went to SMK Telupid for the Lonjakan UPSR to explain that in English it's more like a paradigm shift for the national examination. I have to be the scribe alongside with Jeya and I'm responsible for taking pictures as well.

The meeting was being attended by Tuan Dr. Haji Kassim bin Mohd. Ibrahim, Ketua Sektor JPN (The Chief Sector for State Education Department). On our districts side Tongod and Telupid, we have headmasters, headmistress and senior assistants from all the schools. There are some school missing, I'm not sure but I think there's 3 of them, SK Kenang-Kenangan, SK Saguon and SK Ulu Ansuan. Here's what happened that day.

• Presentation by Mr. Aron (PPD)
• Presentation by SK Kopuron (Ranking No.1)
• Presentation by SK Sogo-Sogo (Ranking No.2)
• Presentation by SK Tangkungon (Ranking No.3)
• Speech by Dr. Haji Kassim
• Feedback from the floor

Something really bad happened today. Because I lost my phone. But I'm not gonna be over dramatic about it. I'm just happy I lost the Nokia 1280 not my new Samsung Galaxy S4. I can only hope I'll get it back. Okay time to go.

 

Ja! Mata Asta

19th February 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 8: First Official Fasilinus Meeting and Financial Meeting

Jeyaselvi is finally here to stay. So I have a friend to do my job now. Madam Duisa since yesterday wanted to give us tutorials for our job so we did that in the morning.

We discussed about:

• Forming hierarchy and committee members
• Events, Big Schedule
• Strategic Planning, Intervention Action Plan, Operation Plan and Reports
• Observation and Guidance - Schedule and Reports
• File Management
• Data Analysis - Reports and upcoming presentations
• Mailing - information sharing
• Others

I was feverish and I was trying really hard to concentrate. Right after the briefing/ meeting I went to the nearest clinic and meet up with Dr. Ragunatan. Yeah I got Tonsillitis. Took my medicine and my sick leave letter then went straight home and rest. When I finally felt better I went back to the office. Even though I got sick leave but I don't feel like staying in the house. When I arrived I was just on time for the financial meeting. Every officers were called to the meeting rooms to participate.

Our PPD Drs. Mahanin did most of the talking and explained how we should do our claim for outside work. There's uncertainty here and there but clarification was made by Miss Masneh from the account department. Sitting there I felt like there's a lot of disrespectful behavior been made by some the senior officers. They did not really paying attention, they interrupted his talk and spoke in rebellious tone. We did got something out of the meeting.

I think that is all for now tomodachi!

Ja! Mata Asta.

18th February 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 7: My First Visit as a Novice Fasilinus BI

Today I went to SK Pekan Telupid in the evening with Madam Duisa Uga. First we went to see the headmistress, Madam Atianah Noemi Dalus. I was not ready to visit any school because I haven't been reading the manual for LBI (Literasi Bahasa Inggeris). I just figure that out with the help of my new friend in PPDT. In my field (Fasilinus BI) there's no numeration. So I so glad that I only have to deal with literacy.

Being there, I realized that I have to do my visitations in the future with a compulsory steps. So here's it is.

• Meet up with the head of the school
• Meet up with the teacher who is currently handling LBI
• Asks for 
• their schedule
• other files and documentation
• what is he/ she currently doing right now

• Class Observation
• Point out weaknesses and strength
• Guide and Consult
• Set up next meeting if possible

I think that's all for now.

Ja! Mata Asta Ne.

17th February 2014 (Monday)

Day 6: YB Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching, The New Deputy Education Minister dinner

It's Sunday and yeah I would still call this working. Some of the PPDT officers have been selected to attend the dinner and I was kinda surprised that I got picked. Just to be honest some of officers really don't feel like going at all maybe because it's Sunday.

Sitting there second front row center, we are served with food first and then music. Last but not least of course speech. First speech was by that woman in the middle representing Datuk Jame Alip, Director of Education. Forgive me for not knowing who you're. I'm just a newbie in town. Then Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching took the stage. Well I was a bit tired so I didn't really listen well to the speech but the two of them praise our district office - Tongod, Telupid for our achievement. Applause to all the officers, teachers, parents, other staffs and our precious students for job well done last year. Not to brag or anything but I just have to point out that our PPD have climb the ranking from 21 to 15. Also special thanks to Tuan PPD Mr. Mahanin Osman our leader for his great efforts.

Here's my Vlog link, feel free to watch it.

Weekly Vlog 1

Ja! Mata Asta Ne

16th February 2014 (Sunday)

Day 5: Nokia 1280 VS Samsung Galaxy S4

I went to Kota Kinabalu with Kevin and bought myself Samsung Galaxy S4. Woohoo!! This one is a bit pointless update but I feel like doing it because I think I should keep up with technology. This new gadget of mine is going to help me with my work.

Ja! Mata Asta.

15th February 2014

Day 4: Flood at Beaufort

We’re supposed to go to Sipitang for the chess tournament but it had to be postponed because of flood at Beaufort. We can’t really do anything about natural disaster.

Working at PPDT I thought I will not be joining since I already relinquish my title as a teacher. But then Mr. Kevin Suresh, acquaintance of mine from SK Kopuron went to see me 2 days ago and we had a talk with Mr. Aron Abel my senior co-worker. I was told that I can gain extra points for my SKT (Sasaran Kerja Tahunan = Yearly work goals).

Ja! Mata Asta.

14th February 2014 (Friday)

Day 3: Workshops and Training

On Thursday, I went to SMK Telupid with Mr. Aron for Math and Science UPSR workshop. I helped him with taking pictures, not much. Just observing how he did it alone for Math. Cikgu Riyan from SK Wonod handled the Science part.

Then after that I went to Gerakan Room for chess' centralized training. My name is still in the list for being one of the arbiters for the tournament. I spent the rest of my working time there.

Ja! Mata Asta.

13th February 2014 (Thursday)

Day 2: Starting Fresh With The Internet

This is going to be a typical day for most of my life from now on. I don't feel like sitting down and do nothing so I decided to make something out of the facilities that I have in PPDT. I don't have good internet connection back in SK Langkabong, my last school before I got promoted. Well to be frank it's not even that good in PPDT. How would you like to have 10-20kb internet speed?

I always got mild issues with government internet service providers such as 1Bestari.net because of their blockage, limited connectivity and it's so slow. My internet connection at home is better than I got at work. I mean we are talking about big scale workplace government here. Just because the office is in a small town it doesn't give you a good excuse to have bad internet connection.

I already addressed this issue to Mr. Jamain Bakut (Vice President) informally. I told him most of the time when we had meetings especially the one that got to do with internet like EMIS (Educational Management Information System), we always had teachers complaining about the same thing since 3 years ago when I got first posted in SK Langkabong. Although most people now have alternative solution like having their own broadband which is 10 times better than using the internet at the office but I don't see the point of that. Why not get rid of the internet facility all together then? nobody is even going to use that thing anymore. 

I offered my kind idea of subscribing to a better internet by phone line with TMnet. Yeah I'm going to pay for first few months of it just to prove my point. But Mr. Jamain nicely decline because it would be a burden for me to pay roughly RM100+ monthly. Which is a fair judgement. With the economy situations right now, it will be a bad idea. I have to think about my expenditure for fuel as well. At the city gas station, diesel cost RM2.00 but here it's RM2.50-RM3.00.

Well enough with my rants and let's see what I did today.

• Make a new email for myself: melbertmartin7@gmail.com
• Make a new blog for Fasilinus which is this one, the one you're reading right now.
• Make a Facebook profile for myself: www.facebook.com/melbert.martin.1

Things that I planned to do.

• Make a Facebook Group and Page for Fasilinus English 2.0
• Make a YouTube channel and do a weekly Vlog.
• Buy myself a new phone because my Nokia model 1280 is way too old I need a smart phone. I'm thinking of buying Samsung S4 Woohoo!
• Maybe I will be joining Instagram, Twitter and Watsapp for fun (I'll see the necessity for it)

That's all for today. Feel free to find me on Facebook and send me mails for questions or maybe a simple Hi! I don't have much work to do so I'll be replying ASAP for it.

"Ja Mata Asta" (Japanese: Okay! See you tomorrow)

12th February 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 1: Reporting In

Hello everyone! My name is Melbert Martin and I'm one of the officer for Fasilinus English Language Program in Tongod and Telupid alongside with Jeyaselvi Suffayah. I'll be updating this blog for reference and a look back to what we did.

• We finally set foot at the PPDT (Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Telupid) and did our introduction to the staffs there.
• We didn't have any good walk through about doing our job. We got most of our information from talking with the former Fasilinus' officers. There were no actual officers for this program last year, the tasks were being divided to several officers in the UPA (Unit Pengurusan Akademik: Academics Management Unit).
• We need to be pro-active about knowing people in PPDT because we will need them to support us for our program. We already talked with some of the officers and we found not everyone is as welcoming as we expected them to be.
• Jeya need to go back and take care of her transfer. So I'll be alone planning for Fasilinus program until next week.

A little background before I sign off, I don't have the slightest idea of what Fasilinus is. I've been teaching level 2 students since I got my first 'posting'. Meanwhile Jeya is a JU (Jurulatih Utama: Trainer) so I'll be learning a lot from her.

11 February 2014 (Tuesday)