Day 33: FasiLINUS BI Course Day 1

 

I was the first one to arrived. I'm not gonna lie. I was checking in the TH Hotel at 10am but the ladies in the counter said it will only be opened on 2pm. So I have to wait but I was so glad the team from Sandakan arrived minutes later. Because two of them are my roommates, so we went out to grab lunch at Karamunsing.

We only have two sessions today. Which is Training Overview and Unpacking Your Suitcase by my former lecturer Madam Caroline. The bottom picture is my group doing. That's all for today then.

Ja! Mata Asta

25th March 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 32: It's My Birthday

Early in the morning I went to PPD for a little punch in and went to town to change my tires. I waited in lines just to withdraw RM 1,000. Well just like the usual the BSN Bank was... INSANE. The lines were really long.

Then off I went get my exhausted tires replaced. I chose Doji Tires that is located on the foot of Doji Hill because there's literally no customer there. I went to it's branch that is located at town but it was full. I got 3 of my tires replaced which cost me around RM 1,080.

After that I went back to my house to pack my things. This week is holidays for schools and I'm having FasiLINUS BI course. I waited until the sun set down a little bit and be on my way. The road was really hazy.

I'm not staying at one of those fancy hotel. I'm staying at my brother's house. It's my birthday today, yet it's not being celebrated like it should be. It's okay. Well it was always my ritual of having my birthday, alone eating Pizza as my birthday cake. I stopped by One Borneo Mall and have myself a personal Pizza before I went to Putatan.

Happy Birthday Melbert. You're 29 years old now. Let's do great things this year.

24th March 2014 (Monday)

Day 31: Another Day in The Office

 Well it's Friday, if Madam Duisa was here we could've been to SK Kopuron but nope. Not today, Jeya was in the office to wait for further instructions from PPD but he's not here. He went to Maliau for PIBG meeting according to Madam Moilin. I also heard he went to Tongod hmm.. but one thing for sure, he's not in the office. Nothing really happened in the office. Also I didn't even grab my phone to take any picture on today. Spent my time socializing with co-workers. I had a very long and nice conversation with Tazrina. She's my junior from secondary school and have I ever mentioned that it's nice working with someone you know. She's one of the hardworking people who worked with really low salary, she only got RM500 per month. Okay that's all for today. Ja! Mata Asta.

Don't forget to checkout weekly Vlog too.

Sixth Week LINUS 

21st March 2014 (Friday)

Day 30: A Visit to SK Tampasak

Originally today, we planned to go to SK Menanam but we had a change of plan because our PPD wanted us to go with to SK Tampasak. After a quick briefing we head out at 9.00am. I finally get to know Philip, the driver. There's 2 ways of going there, one is the quickest but nasty road and the other one is longer but better road. So went there and it took us only 1 hour but I think I exhausted my tires because of the high hills and gravel road.

When we arrived there, the headmaster welcomed us and asked us to join him in the teacher's room. Me and Jeya didn't waste a single minute and went straight to Efesius' class. He's the English teacher for both year 1 and year 2. Oh, he's also the English teacher for year 6. Well that's hard. Anyways, same thing with SK Gabungan, both of us are there with me taking care of the video and Jeya doing the evaluation. 

We were cut off short and were called to a meeting. The headmaster there was a new one, he's Mr. Jasnee. He used to be my teacher before. We had a long talk over the same issues with other school. Something tells me that I'm going to be good at this. But the air is really heavy, there were fog coming from the nearby factory. It's hot but different kind of hot. Guess the people here are used to it but not me. I'm had trouble breathing but I kept my cool and didn't took off my black blazer.

After that, we went back using different road. It's actually leads us to SRK Pekan Tongod. It took us 2 hours to get back to the office but the road was better. We should've used this road in the first place but it was a good experience because I'm able to learn two new roads.

In the evening, Jeya was really late coming back to the office and PPD was searching for her. He has been to our room like 3 times and of all the places he could found Jeya... He found her at the town LOL. Jeya was at Sabindoh Mini Market and PPD saw her and shouted at her. But she ignores it, pretending she didn't heard anything. Then PPD chased her all the way to her car and knocked on her window. Wow that's funny, your boss caught you red handed skipping work time.

That's all for today, Ja! Mata Asta.

20th March 2014 (Thursday)

Day 29: MS ISO Meeting and Gotong Royong Day

Madam Duisa and Jeya originally planned to escape the 'gotong-royong' (working together to do something) where we have to move out all of the stuffs inside the PKG (Pusat Kegiatan Guru : Teacher's Activities Center) to a new building. I told them that I'm going to stay and help. We may joke about leaving and not doing any physical work but it's just not the right the thing to do. Even so, Madam Duisa did gone somewhere and did not get involved because of a course. Since 2 days ago, we received calls from JPN maybe, I'm not really sure but there's a PLC course which I think I'm going to have next week in my FasiLINUS course. I don't really know what it stands for but Simon was supposed to go and he had another course going on. So Madam Duisa went for it.

In the morning at 9.00am, only 10 officers attended the MS ISO meeting including me. I wonder why only a few people attended this. Mr. Henry was the one doing the presentations and he did told us that he went for the course for this for about 4 days. But he's only going to take from 9.00am until 11.30am, he's only going to give the important parts and he gave us soft copies for further reading. The meeting was supposed to be some kind of a in house training. MS ISO in simpler term means the appropriate way of doing your work. It touches everything, from a really complex paper work for visiting schools to a simpler task as in turning off the lights when you go back home.

Right... so immediately, right after taking our lunch we helped with the gotong-royong. I was really into it and carried most of the heavy stuffs. I gain a new found respect for our boss PPD Drs. Mahanin Osman because he was also there carrying heavy stuffs with us. As hours went by, officers who are helping were tired and went inside the office. Only the new officers, Weljain, Arnold, Mr. Justin and me still standing. I guess "New" is always "Better". We were really tired and the sun was blazing hot. I can't actually believe that we manage to pulled it off. We were carrying big round tables, big shelves and photocopy machines those are really hard to lift.

That's all for today. Ja! Mata Asta.

19th March 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 28: A Visit to SK Gabungan

Today is the first time I visited SK Gabungan and I was very surprised because the school is really beautiful. Well Madam Duisa went straight to the school because her house is really near and it's just me and Jeya from the office. This is also the first time me and Jeya being inside the class together to do observation. 

The teacher who we observed today was Miss Hazel. She had a not so good history with her career as teacher. She was one of the teachers who were always missing according to the headmistress Madam Emily. I took the video while Jeya was doing her evaluation. Mr. Soddiq was also there to do his SISC+ tasks. That's all for today. Ja! Mata Asta.

18th March 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 27: A Day in The Office

I was supposed to go to KL for a language officer meeting as Simon told me last week. But only selected few were going and even though my name was being submitted, I didn't got picked. Maybe because I am not a legitimate language officer and I'm just LBI officer. I did get out from the office to take our brunch with Mary, Mike and Jeya. The restaurant is next to a workshop so I take that opportunity to get my car serviced. I stayed in the office for the rest of the day managing all of my contacts. I need to arrange them for networking purposes. That's all for today. Ja! Mata Asta.

17th March 2014 (Monday)

Day 26: LINUS Management Meeting with Headmasters and LINUS Organizers

I'm doing the same presentation as the other day but because I have different audience I decided to change my PowerPoint slides. I asked Jeya to hold the camera for me and when I look back at my presentation, I think I can still do better.

What I like about my presentation was how PPD Drs Mahanin reacted to it. He talked a lot and it really sparked something in his eyes when he finally saw my vision. The only thing that I don't really like though was the time management of this meeting. I was early but people were late. I'm not gonna mention who because if those people read this, they probably feel offended. Some of the headmasters are not here too. Dang it. I feel sorry for Jeya because her slot was so short and she was the last one to do it. People were already too drowsy I guess. But all in all as in overall, it was a great meeting. So I'm gonna see you guys next week. I just realized it's not Ja! Mata Asta if you're going to see someone in the next 2 days. But I'm just gonna use it as my catch phrase. Ja! Mata Asta.

Oh yeah. Feel free to watch my Vlog here

Fifth Week LINUS

14th March 2014 (Friday)

Day 25: Preparation for Presentations

Well today we didn't go anywhere, we just stay in the office and work on our presentation. Although we're really just sitting there in the office and just working on our stuff, there was so many distractions. We have such a small room and sometimes we're forced to have conversations with other people too. It's not really a bad thing. I can speed up my work if I was in a secluded place but who am I to suggest such thing. In the evening I went to SMK Telupid to check up on the room that we booked. After just stay in the office for couple of hours and that's the end of the day. Ja! Mata Asta Ne.

13th March 2014 (Thursday)

Day 24: SK Langkabong My First School

Today I'm really excited because I finally had the chance to visit my school, SK Langkabong. This is the school where I first got my official posting position as a teacher. I left the school for 24 days now and of course they still remember me. But the school looks different now, it seems like the new road construction ate some of the school territory.

I meet up with Mr. Iap the senior assistant here and talked about the screening test that's supposed to be happening early this week. It's basically the same thing that I did with the previous schools. But I found myself more refined after doing this over and over again. I meet up with Nor Safiah too. She's the only English major left there. I couldn't do any class observation and just watched her doing the screening test. There's a reason why I wanted to visit this school earlier. It's because I wanted them to see my vision. I really hope they can raise the score for this year.

I think that's all for now. Ja! Mata Asta.

12th March 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 23: A Visit to SRK Pekan Tongod

We planned to visit SK. Kironggu but the English teachers for year 1 and 2 were not there so we had to change. We decided to go to SRK Pekan Tongod. It was kinda funny because Jeya and Mdm. Duisa were reluctant to lend their car for traveling so, we used my car. By the way my D-Max a 4WD car was being borrowed by my older brother. He wanted to go to Sandakan today doing some personal stuff, he can use Kancil but since they're carrying my two cute little baby nephews so.. I feel bad if they were using it. So I lend him my car. So I have to use Kancil car, that really small and no air-condition car. I don't mind but I feel like they're going to be so uncomfortable. But their choice then. Being inside a sticky and hot car LOL.

So this school SRK Pekan Tongod is really interesting because it has two session. The morning session is attended by primary school and the evening session it is attended by secondary school. Within the same exact school. This is my first time visiting a unique school like this. In the morning it's primary and in the evening it's secondary.

I'm doing an observation again today. This time I'm taking on Mr. Winston. The class was a total mess so by the end of the class I decided to do something about it. We have a really long conversation after that. Then it's time to head back. Mdm. Duisa asked me to stop by at SK Kiandongo. When we arrived at town, it's already afternoon break. I head back home and took a nap before heading out to the office.

I think that's all. Ja! Mata Asta.

11th March 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 22: A Visit to SK Linayukan

I finally met Arnold whose supposed to be with Mary the other day. Now I remember him, we used to go to the same school and he's my senior. There's another teacher whose going to be here as well, he is Mr. Justin Ingin and he was my science teacher back in secondary school. He got a personal tour given by Mr. Jamain, our vice PPD wow.. we didn't even get that kind of welcoming treatment. Not that I'm jealous or anything but I'm just saying that's all.

Okay moving on, we decided today that we'd visit SK Linayukan. I really wanted to observe Ridzuan, English teacher for year 2 since Jeya didn't want to. She heard that this teacher is a hot tempered guy. But I don't mind, we're just doing our job. Well he's not around because he was attending the volleyball meeting. So I just have to settle with Theary the Head of Panel for English Language. So we had this really long conversation and I think I help a lot by coming to the school. Well I didn't have the chance to observe a class today.

The headmaster just got there too, he's only been around for a week. The headmaster and Theary then treated us with a quick brunch. In the canteen, I saw Bonny's brother with his mom I guess. Bonny was my classmate. It's really interesting because now I'm more than a teacher, I'm working in PPD and yes people would call me 'Sir'. The look of his face is showing how disbelieve he was of how far I go with my life. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Well that's all for now. Ja! Mata Asta.

10th March 2014 (Monday)

Day 21: Friday Office Day

What a weird title but just like it said, I didn't go anywhere and stayed in the office doing all sort of clerk related tasks. There's a lot of things that need to be done. Let me just make a list here since today it's just me sitting inside the office.

• Reports on Language Officers Meeting
• Claims for that meeting
• Desk File for Fasilinus BI
• My confirmation as a teacher (Yes, I haven't done it)
• Next week Meeting on Friday, I need to do another presentation
• Manage all the contacts
• Start posting files on my Facebook Group 
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/fasilinusbitongodtelupid/

My cousin Mary was in the office today. She's going to be working here as well Yay! It seems like this PPD will be crawling with my siblings LOL. My uncle Ladius a.k.a Mike is also here. I got to be honest, nothing really interesting happened that needed me to grab my camera and took pictures so... I'm just gonna leave you with me and a gun and my nephew.

Well that picture was taken last year and that's a real gun. It's about time you know a little about me personally hahaha. Well that's all for this week, feel free to watch my weekly Vlog.

4th Week Vlog

Also just got ourselves a Twitter and Instagram account

https://twitter.com/MelbertMartin
http://instagram.com/melbertmartin7

Ja! Mata Asta.

7th March 2014 (Friday)

Day 20: A visit to SK Ulu Sapi

Back in the office and back to work. I asked Jeya about what happened in the last 3 days. So here's what she been through.

• Monday: Went to SK Kiandongo and SK Sogo-Sogo
• Tuesday: Went to SK Pekan Telupid
• Wednesday: Went to SK Entilibon

She told me that all of those classes are a mess LOL. Looks like she's been having fun while I'm gone. Today we went to SK Ulu Sapi and we're using Jeya's car. It took us half an hour to reached that school. I went there before and it's kinda funny because the primary school is better looking than the secondary school which located right next to it.
 

First thing first, went to see the headmaster. He's actually just got transferred, the former headmaster was Mr. Albert Matusin and now it Mr. Julius Mandasa. It's only been 3 days since he came in. According to my cousin who's currently working there, the teachers always ditch classes and go out whenever they like. They also have so many holidays and they easily get a pass on leaving school for something. Now that the new headmaster is there, things started to change.

Later after that, I had my first T&L (Teaching and Learning) observation. I'm observing Miss Kasrina Bahirah, she's actually a new teacher from Peninsular. The class was okay but she really need to work on class control and making it more interesting. Well we came uninvited and of course she's not ready. The class that I went in was 1 Dahlia.

This school have 27% score on LBI last year. This year our KPI is 45%. I took the longest time to brief her. Jeya and Mdm. Duisa had to wait for me. In the evening, it's just another 3 hours to passed for my work to be over.

Ja! Mata Asta.

6th March 2014 (Thursday)

Day 19: The Long and Winding Road to Telupid

I decided to stay another day although I can drive back yesterday. Well I'm just going to put here what I did before I actually leave for Telupid. I wanted to fix my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the longest time now. It actually helps me with keeping notes and manage my contacts. So Finally got it working again.

After that, I went back home to Telupid. I better get used to traveling because I think I'll doing that a lot these days. It took me 4 hours to finally reached my home sweet home.

Well not much to report here. I almost didn't make this Wednesday as my working day but I guess it's proper for me to do a 5 days log.

Ja! Mata Asta.

5th March 2014 (Wednesday)

Day 18: Language Officers Meeting at JPN Sabah Day 2

Today I was not late although I finished my presentation slides in the morning. I couldn't do anything last night because I'm still tired. The first session was motivational talk by PPD Sipitang Abd. Razak bin Abd. Karim.

After that, we have CPT (Cambridge Placement Test) workshop where we work together to finish up our report. We're supposed to give presentations but it was canceled because of time constraint. We only needed to submit our PowerPoint slides. I finished mine and we finally in the last part of the meeting. Mohd. Fadzli Rozan the Principal Assistant Director, Sabah State Education Department, Malaysia Ministry of Education shown his disappointment over some of the Language Officers from other districts for going home early. We discussed about some pressing issues.

Well before I end this post I would like to share what I said in that session. I think the teachers nowadays lack motivations. I'm saying this as a standpoint of a teacher since it's not that long that I relinquished that position. I manage to double the outcome of passes because of hard work. I realized that not everyone had the same motivation to pull what I did. I'm talking about working day and night even on holidays. I'm really proud because I was there to obtained the first 5A in my school ever. Well the programs can be useful in terms of skills but what about their will power to work hard. I think it's about time the education system need to come up with incentive programs. Give those hardworking teachers some recognitions and rewards.

Guess that's long enough. Ja! Mata Asta.

4th March 2014 (Tuesday)

Day 17: Language Officers Meeting at JPN Sabah Day 1

Last Friday Simon asked me about replacing him for a meeting at JPN (Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri = State Education Department). I woke up at 4.00am in the morning just to drive all the way from Telupid to Kota Kinabalu. I was late because of the traffic and that's not even the worst part. The worst was finding a parking space. For those who never been to JPN before it's located at Sadong Jaya inside the KWSP building, block A and B. The meeting started 7.30am and I finally entered the meeting room at 10.30am... Damn I was so late. Good thing the people there are so nice.

I was fast to catch up with the meeting and understood all the data analysis for major examinations. I didn't really missed anything. One thing for sure, I'm so tired from all the driving. Luckily I have my video camera, I'll let it roll while I took a nap.. in the toilet. Well I would rather fell asleep in the toilet than in a meeting. Later that evening, we have a discussion and we're going to have a presentation but it got postponed.

I didn't stay in a hotel, my brother have a house that he rented along with 6 other guys. It's a small house and it has limited space but I'm okay. Been worst. I need to save money. It's located in Putatan, it would took me 30 minutes drive to that place. I promise myself that I'm going to be early tomorrow.

That's all for now.

Ja! Mata Asta.

03th March 2014 (Monday)

Day 16: LINUS BI 2.0 Tongod, Telupid Data Analysis

Finally it's the last day of working this week. Today is my debut as a Fasilinus BI, I had my first presentation and it's about data analysis. I added my plans as well and told the teachers it's about time we climb the ranking ladder and become no.1. Hohoho I'm not a low profile person so it's only natural that I wanted this small town of mine to be known.

I'm not gonna explain my plans here. That's like exposing trade secrets hehe. But I had fun and I really feel that our district's percentage will raise exponentially. Feel free to watch my latest vlog, I kinda don't feel like doing it because of personal problem but I did it anyway.

3rd Week Vlog

Ja! Mata Asta.

28th February 2014 (Friday) Oh My! The last day of February.

Day 15: Early Sprint LINUS BI Program Day 2 and SK Pekan Telupid LINUS Meeting

Maybe it's just Telupid but most programs and activities just start out late. We always put 30 minutes earlier just to get the exact time for the activities to actually begin. The course started with presentations by the participants.

In the afternoon, I have to go to SK Pekan Telupid for another meeting. Earlier when I arrived at the office, Madam Duisa wanted me to accompany her to that school. She told me it's not good to visit school if you're alone. She told me to come early and that meeting is going to start on 11.30 am. I told her not to worry, I'll be there at 11. But it was no surprise I was the first one to arrived. Silly me, I had to wait for more than 30 minutes for it to start. Still I used that time to prepare for my presentation tomorrow.

Well from my point of view, I think our PPD haven't really been exposed to what LBI is all about. No disrespect but he's circling around the issue of what's the proper solutions for general problems such as the kids are not performing well in LBI tests. I think I'm going to have a small presentation just for him when I got the time. SK Pekan Telupid is going to have foster child, homework with parents involved and mentor mentee programs.

Straight after that, going back to SMK Telupid again and I'm just in time for micro teaching presentations. Well, it's been another productive day. That's all for now.

Ja! Mata Asta.

27th February 2014 (Thursday)