La di da...

I gave my room a total make over just now. I suddenly felt like I needed a change. I can now use my laptop on my desk, yay! I think the room looks nicer now.

A few more times and I'll be a pro!

I'm in the library right now...i have been since 8.30 a.m this morning. I've been trying to do my LALS assignment but I can't seem to find the books that I need. Honestly, I think the assignments for LALS are all ridiculous. What they're asking for are things that people don't really argue about. There are not enough books in the library to even do the assignments! I love listening to the lectures but when it comes to the assignments, I give up!

On a different story,

We decided to part ways. It's going to take a while for me to be OK again. I'm going to go back to the life that I had before he came and after Wan left. I'm going to keep myself busy with Uni and dance practice. I'm going to start taking my walks alone around town again. I'm going rent DVDs and watch it like it's nobody's business. I'm going to cook and probably learn how to knit from Laila. I might just pierce my bellybutton, just because I can.

Jo sent me a text this morning saying,

"Good morning. It's a beautiful day today"

and it really made me smile! Thank you, you've made my day dear!
You've always been there for me and I'm really lucky to have you as one of my closest friend. I hope I've been the same to you. I love you Jo! (and of course, Zaty and Shufaiha too!)

---

SO FAR, YOU'VE LET ME DOWN, 2008.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Dear Year 2008,

I know we've only known each other for a day, and we both could not tell yet how this relationship will go, but I just want to thank you for making the first day so fun! I woke up so early this morning because I was so eager to spend the first day with you! I am looking forward to the next 12 months with you. Please make my year fun and exciting, okay? Please make Uni life easy for me, and please make me a better person... I have so many plans with you and I hope I get to do it all :)

I know we'll have so much fun! I have a good feeling about this 2008! :)

Love,
Rasyiqah Khairul Anuar

Posted by Rasyiqah Khairul Anuar at 3:30 AM

School Observation: Raroa Intermediate School

Good morning, teacher

I had my first experience observing a NZ school yesterday. I have observed schools before but that was in Malaysia. In NZ, the school is different, the system is different, and so, getting to see for myself how teaching and learning is done in here was really exciting. I always knew the way they teach and learn in NZ is different from Malaysia-I just didn’t know how different it was.

First of all, I LOVE the huge classrooms! When I think about my classrooms when I was in school back then, I remembered it to be small, hot and crowded. But the school that I went to yesterday, the classrooms are huge. They are big that you can even put couches at one corner for the children to just chill. The desks are not arranged facing the blackboard, like it is in Malaysia. The children have more mobility in class; they can choose to do their work on the couch or at their desk or with a friend from the other side of the classroom. I think if Malaysian schools were like this, all you will get is a noisy classroom with no work done. The particular classroom that I was assigned to even has a flat screen TV for educational purposes which I think is really cool. The walls are decorated so beautifully with their artworks and essays and I think if I had a class like that back then, I would really look forward to go to school everyday. It’s cheerful, spacious and fun-it just feels like home.

The student-teacher relationship was also very interesting. I remembered being terribly scared of some of my teachers that I didn’t look forward to go to school back then. Sometimes, I even wished for the teachers to be sick so that I won’t have to go through ‘hell’. But the classroom that I was assigned to, the children seem to love the teacher a lot. She is fun and energetic, and always have these cool activities to keep the mood up. Even though she was not strict, they still respect her as a teacher. She still holds the power.

The way the lessons are taught however, were a bit weird. Over here, one teacher is assigned to one classroom and that teacher is in charge of everything; Math, English, Arts and even P.E! And not all the children were taught at the same phase as everyone else in the class. They basically learn at their own phase. One student could be doing page 400 while another one could still be at page 350. In some lessons, different groups would be doing different things. During literacy yesterday, there were about 5 different groups doing 5 different things! I have no idea how the teacher keeps up with what they are learning, but it seems to be working! The particular class that I was in seems to be really good at math! They have this warm up session where they have to answer 20 math questions in under 2 minutes and the fastest person who gets it all correct, wins. The record yesterday was 41 seconds for adding and subtracting, and 34 seconds for multiplication and division.

So, yeah, that was basically what I saw yesterday. I’m really glad that we were given a chance to experience seeing how schools work over here. It’s very different from Malaysia, but I think the Malaysian education system has a lot of good points too. If not, I don’t think I will even be here in NZ right now if the education system failed me. :-p

What I must remember myself when I become a teacher:

1. To set classroom expectations from the first day of class.

2. To be as fun and exciting as I can.

3. To make the classroom as comfortable as possible (this is going to be hard considering I will be sharing the classroom with at least 5 other teachers)

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Later that night, my girls and I had a small potluck! It’s been ages since our last potluck so it was really nice to get together like that again. Last night’s potluck was the biggest we’ve had so far. We ate 5 ½ pot of rice, 4 different lauks (Shufaiha made Kari udang, Jo made rendang ikan?, Zaty made sambal ikan bilis and I made bebola daging masak kicap) and Che Nazira made the delicious custard pudding. We finished everything last night!

All I do is eat.

Hah! I've figured out a way to stop me from eating too much and gaining the weight that I don't need this winter!

Fasting!

Heee ;-P

I'm feeling way better today and my response paper is finally looking OK (I just need to come to the Tuesday lecture and check if what I wrote is what I'm supposed to write about...). I got my sleep last night :) :)

Oh, Jo called last night, turns out I don't have dance practice 4 days per week. I have one tomorrow and another one on Wednesday. I'm not sure about next week, I've got to look at the schedule.

Umm. I have a bunch of new movies (well, not new 'new' but movies that I haven't seen before) but I can't watch it until I get all my assignments done! I can't wait for my mid semester break :) :)

Ta for now

My response paper doesn't seem to be responding?

I change my mind about not updating...the weekend has been very stressful for me and I just need to relax...

I'm supposed to write my response paper for MDIA102. I have been trying to write since Friday but so far I haven't even finish writing my introduction... I'm super worried right now. Haven't slept since Friday. My presentation is on Wednesday and I have two more assignments due the week after that. I've been eating a lot and drinking way too much coffee. Uni life is not so great for me right now. I hope things will get better after the mid trimester break!

Anyway, despite all the stress caused by Uni, I still had a pretty awesome weekend with the girls. We all got together on Friday night to celebrate Che Nazira's 21st birthday! That night we just ate, talk and went crazy :) Took loads of photos and videos :)

Cake!

:)

Gangsta!
Last night, we went to see 'Strike percussion' somewhere in town. I forgot the name of the place. Initially, I wasn't supposed to go since I didn't buy the ticket for that performance. I bought 'Romeo and Juliet' instead and that one is in August. But Laila emailed Jo a few weeks ago telling her that she accidentally booked two extra tickets and was wondering if I wanted to go and I immediately said yes :) Strike percussion was amazing! I can't even find the words to describe how I felt when I saw it. But yeah, I don't regret going at all even though I have a response paper to write.

So, that is basically how my I spent my Friday and Saturday. It's Sunday today and I think I'll be in my room struggling to write my response paper. Thank God class is at 2 p.m tomorrow! I can finally get some sleep before the week starts! It's going to be hell of a busy week. Dance practice is from Monday to Thursday until the performance. But that's OK since I really enjoy dancing...it really makes me forget about other stuff.

I think...

I'm going to stop blogging for a while. I need a break. I really want to write about the things that's been happening these past few weeks but I can't. I don't want to hurt anyone. I tried a few times but can't seem to find the courage to click on that button that would publish the post.

Dance

The Chinese dance is much harder than I thought. When I first looked at the video, I thought "This shouldn't be that hard" but it is! I'm still having problems with the double jump at the end and I can't seem to make my fan to open and close gracefully. I hope I'll get better at it soon! I have Mangunatip practice later today. It's been so long since I last practiced so I really hope I don't forget the steps! I hope the boys will show up today...Yesterday's Indian dance had to be canceled because no boys showed up!

4.09 a.m

I fell asleep last night...wait, no, I decided to just go to sleep last night even though I was very conscious that I have to prepare for my media tutorial. Media102 scares the hell out of me! While the lectures are very interesting (you should see my notes!), the assessment part is too much for me. Thank god I'm only doing 3 courses this semester...
I have to pass media I have to pass media I have to pass media I have to pass media....

My sleeping pattern is becoming weirder and weirder. Some nights I don't sleep at all, some nights I sleep but would wake up at 3-4 a.m. I'm not sure what's wrong with me. But so far, I still manage to wake up early so I guess it's OK.

I'm participating in a new type of dance, the chinese dance. We've just started practicing yesterday and so far it is OK. I still have problems in some of the moves though, especially the part where I have to jump twice to the side. I hope I get that one right soon! The girls have been very patient in teaching me all the steps! I have another dance practice for chinese dance today and mangunatip tomorrow :)

I really really need to start on preparing for media tutorial tomorrow.
Wish me luck!