Learning Tips #3

Be Proactive

(from Covey's T7HOHEP)

OK let's get back to our learning tips again. This time I would like draw your attention to a famous book by Stephen Covey. Maybe many of you have read this book. It has been around for a long time. One of the habits that he talked about in the book is being proactive, For students I am confident that this habit will effectively help in their learning as well. Being proactive means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. It is the ability to choose your response.Highly proactive people recognize the responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behaviour. Their behaviour is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

****click on the image to enlarge****

Is there life without sex?

So ramadhan is almost reaching the halfway mark. Not that I am counting the days into syawal but my little buddy is getting restless already. It is not easy to keep him settled down there without love and care; knowing that he is one active little monster. But don't get me wrong, I love ramadhan as much as those aleem people do. It's just that when the qur'an is closed and you sit alone waiting for that emails to download the little buddy starts to feel warm and healthy. Oh No! Not in the middle of the day you freak! But what can I say, he is my best buddy. So the message is ---"Houston! Houston! We'v got problem!". So people say that life begins at 40, are you sure ? I think the right phrase is sex begins at 40! Yep! That's the right one. So those under 40 what you had was not sex....it was like you played with it a little,it got dizzy and vomited. Kahkahkah! OMG I am still puasa and this is getting dirty. My apologies. Seriously, the question is whether or not we can pursue life without sex ? of course not, we all know that.

But sex is so dirty how come such a neccesity in life is so dirty. Wait a minute....did I say dirty? Is sex dirty? Who said sex is dirty raise your little buddy? I don't think so. It is such a beautiful creation of Allah that put the excalamation to the life itself. Yes i want to live for it., don't you? But since the beginning of time the beauty of sex has been painted ugly and dirty. How hypocrites we are? I can't imagine those living without sex for even one day. Restless, loveless and hopeless...a recipe for a man who is about to go really mad. Have you ever seen a mad mating elephant? Running around with his little monster looking for a mate. That's what we all are without sex, isn't it?

The thing is that when people abuse sex for whatever reason, the beautiful thing has become so ugly and so dirty. The kids nowadays can do it whenever and wherever. No more respect to the essence of life. Marriage is nothing more than two horny grown ups agree to go at it, that's all. But it is the way we respect the beauty of sex and thus the life itself. The only way at that. Now gay couple starts getting married as well. Just to get that respect.....but wait a minute you guys abuse sex in other ways la! No! No! Little johny cannot play with little joey! Little johny has to play with little mary! That's the rule, otherwise everything will be ruined and spoilt. I just don't understand why some men like the other men for sex. I mean how can you find such an ugly ass so tempting? In the fb I've got a lot of this kind of people ( the so called my circle of friends) who likes to do nasty thing to little johny. Poor johny.

Anyway, the green flag will be up in a couple of hours. Enjoy your drive folks!

Learning Tips #2

Preparation for Listening

In order to take good lecture notes, you must give your full attention to listening. Anything that distracts you from listening will prevent you from taking the best notes you can take. The first requirement for listening is to eliminate anything that might make it difficult for you to concentrate on what your lecturers say.

Therefore, select seats in your classes to make it possible for you to see and hear the lecturer comfortably. The most distracting seats are usually near windows that give a view of activities going on outside of classrooms. The least distracting seats are ordinarily the ones in the centre and front of a room, because they usually provide the best view of lecturers. If you find yourself sitting near a student who annoys you for any reason, do not sit near that person.

Also, if you are physically uncomfortable, it will be difficult for you to concentrate on listening. Common sources of physical discomfort are being too warm or too cold, being hungry or needing to go to the toilet. You can eliminate these sources of distraction by planning ahead:

1. Dress comfortably (according to the weather condition) but still observe the proper dress code
2. Find a comfortable/suitable ‘spot’ in the classroom ( location of fan, air-cond blower, etc)
3. Carry snacks to eat between classes, if there is no time to eat a proper meal
4. Go to the toilet before class, or sit near the door in a classroom if you believe you may need to leave the class to go to the toilet

Ask permission before you leave classrooms for any reason, or at least give a gesture to the lecturer. If you know you must leave a class while it is in session, sit near the door so that you will not distract others unnecessarily when you leave.

Finally, it is not possible to concentrate on listening to a lecture if you are worrying or thinking about something that happened before class began or something that will happen after the class is finished. If you find your mind drifting off to thoughts such as these, refocus your attention on what is being said in the classroom. Some suggestions to help you focus your attention on lectures are :

1. Listen for major points and details - clues given by lecturers are they may:
• pause before or after stating a major point
• repeat things that are important to include in notes
• change the loudness of their voices for emphasis
• look for details to include for a major point
• use the board to help students directly state the number understand what should be included in notes
2. Listen for definition and examples
3. Listen for test questions

Learning Tips #1

Characteristics of Good Lecture Notes

If you want to take lecture notes that are similar to the notes taken by most successful students, the notes you take will have these characteristics:

1. They are written on lined paper specifically A4 size because most students prefer notebooks of this size. Furthermore there are lots of files, folders, portfolio covers and cases of this particular size in the market.

2. The notes for each class meeting have a heading that includes

• The name or code of the course
• The lecturer’s name
• The date
• The topic of the lecture

Students write this information at the beginning of each class to put themselves in the proper frame of mind for taking notes on what they will hear.

3. The major points stand out clearly. They can either be highlighted or underlined and written farthest to the left side of the page.

4. The details are listed under major points in an orderly fashion, and the details are often numbered or sometimes bulleted

5. Notes include examples. Lecturers give examples to help students understand the ideas and concepts they explain

6. Notes do not repeat lecturers’ words exactly; they rephrase what lecturers say. It is not possible to write exactly what lecturers say. Good note-takers put ideas in their own words whenever possible

7. Notes include information that is put on the board. Lecturers use the board to write information that is especially important. Those who take good notes include almost everything that is written on a board.

Make sure your notes are complete. If you are aware as you are taking notes that they are incomplete, raise your hand and ask the question that will help you complete it.

Good Luck!

Getting students to pay attention

The worst thing that could happen during a lecture is when somebody starts talking at the back. Sometime a lecturer can accommodate such behavior but there is also a time when it is just too much. When the situation has caught your attention and started to trigger your explosive anger, the first thing to remember is that, “I am not going to lose my temper here”. For whatever reason please do not show your anger and frustration in front of the students. Take a deep breath, stop the lesson for a while and excuse yourself. Reenter the room only after you have calm down. There are several reasons why the students lose interest in the lecture :
• They are tired and hungry.
• The materials are too difficult.
• They have some thing more important right after the class (tests,presentations etc).
• The girl sitting beside him is far more interesting than the lecturer in the front.
• They could not catch up with the lecture.
• The student has no interest in the subject whatsoever.

There are several possible ways to handle the situations:

1. TALK to the students and not to yourself or the white screen. Maintain the eye-contacts and move around to get closer to them.
2. If you caught someone did not pay attention (speaking or doing some other things than following your lecture) call up the name and ask him/her a question or suggestion regarding the topic. Start a discussion to pull everybody together.
3. If the whole class is getting noisier than you know the lecture has to stop and you have to start something else. Usually this is the best time to do group discussion or written exercise that you have prepared earlier.
4. Telling jokes could ease up the tensions in the classroom. Crack a few jokes if you have them but if you are not the jokes-telling type, just be cheerful and pleasant and just as much goodwill can flow from that.
5. Take a short break. The break is particularly necessary if the lecture needs to be done during the whole two hours.
6. If there is one individual student keeps bugging you and interfering with your lecture, KINDLY/NICELY (although your are burning with anger) ask him/her to stop and tell him/her to stay behind after the lecture has finished. It is important for the student to know what is bugging you and take an action if necessary.


The classroom should be a place for both parties to share knowledge in harmony. In addition,a fun and enjoyable classroom environment will enhance the learning experience and promote effective and quality teaching.




Priceless Moments with my EMBA students

EMBA(Executive Masters in Business Administration) students are among adult learners that we have in UiTM. The way to handle adult learners is a bit different from our regular, young and full-time students. I would like to share some thoughts and tips from my first experience dealing with them. The first group of students has always been special to me as we are all trying to be the best. For the first day, I was already down with a headache. It was not as easy as I thought. I was prepared to teach but a bit nervous to handle the “adult situation”. There were company executives, bankers, engineers and fellow lecturers. I was pretty shaken up and began to have second thoughts about going through the rest of the program. Eventually, I stayed on. I returned to the class for the sake of their commitment and respect. Not very many of us sacrifice the weekends to go to a class and learn something. It was definitely an effort worthy of praise. I persevered and before long, the relationship between us started to grow warmer. Some were skeptical and kept their distance, while others could not wait to buy me lunch. By then I was part of them and gained more confidence. Some of their questions seemed to me to be plain stupid but it turned out to be an excellent topic for class discussion. They liked to talk and jumped into discussions without much effort. Apparently, the class had become very lively and fun. For them, humor is something they never leave home without. Sometimes, the discussions were so hilarious that I could not hide my laughter. Looking back, I think they taught me far greater things than the stuff I churned out during the lecture – they taught me about life, friendship and respect. There are several basic skills needed to handle adult classes (Draves (1984)):

• Be a good listener.

Listening is important because learning becomes more effective when a participant is expressing an idea. Try to understand what is meant and respond positively. Contradict or refute only when necessary.

• Identify insecure or slow learners.

Most adult learners find some materials taught are difficult thus slow in trying to understand them. A lecturer should learn about this during the first/second meeting to fine tune the teaching pace. It is important also to build their confidence and keep the desire to learn alive. Some rewarding gestures such as a smile, nod or pat on the back should exercised from time to time.

• Do not punish students

Never punish an adult student. It is counter productive to learning. Punishment has inhibited learning more than any other factors.

• Do not be offensive.

When things are not right, do not offend the students. Instead of saying “ I’m really annoyed when people don’t hand in assignments on time “, say “ I really hope this work gets done by next week”. This sounds less offensive and does get the message across.

• Use humor.

Use humor whenever needed and without overdoing it. Bad jokes will turn the students away.

Bebaskan Selangor dari Arak !!!

For the good month of Ramadhan I will pray for Selangor to be free from beers and wines. For that big beer factory to be struck by lightning and turned into a monument so the dogs can go and kencing there. So when is it gonna happen…maybe not in this time dimension. No more excuse, please..just do it!. Get rid of those beer bottles from our convenient stores so our teenagers would not get them. I just could not put it any simpler. Everyday when I do my daily jogging, I will pass through a playground near my taman and see the beer bottles all over the place. As if they have been having a party of a life time. And the place is less than 50 meters from our surau. Can you see the disconnection there? I don’t want to spend my time praying when my young neighbors are getting drunk just a few yards away. You see in Shah Alam and my Taman in particular not many non-Muslim around and we all know them all very well. They would not do this for sure. I don’t really know what to do or say anymore, people have a lot of excuses for not getting it done. I hope in the month of ramadhan , Allah will bestow upon us His rahmah so we can see the good from the bad.

Free us from these evils.