time to be serious..

A lot of work to be done within this two weeks.. I really cannot make up all those works during the previous week because of the Raya Holiday. I haven't started on any of the assignment given but i believe that everything will be allright if i am strictly follow the schedule made.. There is no lesson going on during yesterday class but we were given time to work on our assignments. It is good for the moment since I have finished working on the first material but non of lesson plan. INSYALLAH.. within this week i will make sure everything will be on time. At this time, i should be mentally-readily prepared for the pressure and stress. Learn to work under pressure..

However, i have bumped into this paragraph where there is something that make me think twice..

If you’re waiting until the last minute to complete an assignment because you like that rush you get from being under pressure, and you think that’s when you do your best work, think again. While it may be true that you’ll finish the work quicker because the pressure makes you move faster, is it that you’re finishing the work because you’ve done your best, or are you ending the work because you’ve run out of time? Did you have time to put the finishing touches on it, or did you raise the bar, taking your work to a new level? Probably not. Instead, you threw something together, was satisfied with mediocre, took chances that nothing would go wrong, created a lot of unnecessary stress for yourself, and then plopped down to start procrastinating all over again.
by Peggy Duncan
http://stress.about.com/od/managetimeorganize/a/battlingprocras.htm

Creating Materials for ESL classroom

Last week, my group has presented the topic from the article "Creating materials for ESL classroom". After reading the article, I have come into understanding that it is really important for a teacher to adapt the materials in order to suit the pupils' level of proficiency and learning objectives. At the same time, the articles also highlighted that it is vital for a teacher to really know on how to choose the existing materials that are readily available to be used in the classroom in which can help the teacher to save time, effort, and expenses. At this point, i believe that a teacher does not merely adapt the materials since there are always good reasons for doing adaptation. Adjustment is made to suit pupils’ interest and needs, for example; materials produced for native speakers (first language learners) can be adjusted into non-native speakers (second language learners) where some sentence structures and vocabulary are to be adapted. Besides that, adjustments are needed in terms of glossaries, key words and explanations of language aspects. In addition, I also believe that teachers are doing adaptation in order for the specific use. For instance, teacher may work on a specific context in order to attract pupils’ attention to the grammatical point or language structure when using an authentic language in the classroom. Looking back to the class presentation, we also have included the example of "THE TOMATO" by Prof. Larry M.Lynch. The example make us realize that familiarization is another important elements for a pupil to acquire knowledge and generate their thinking. Plus, the using of familiar materials such as realia (real materials) in the classroom also helps teacher to manipulate the input easily and effectively.