Jarod Yong

As much as I'd like to complain about not being able to celebrate the new year or my BIRTHDAY with the people I love for the fourth consecutive year, I realise that I have a lot to be thankful for. Perhaps I have reached the 'acceptance' stage of grief . I have certainly seen myself go through all of the stages since 3 years ago when I first saw the vision of the fall of my school & started my struggle against it. Perhaps it's time I started looking at the things I have & giving thanks for them? I do have a lot to be thankful for & I will list them down here in no order of importance. I am thankful for... A good God who loves to give me surprises. A wonderful family. A great dad who sets an excellent example for me. A mom who cares for me & makes sure that I have everything I need. Brothers & sisters whom I can be proud of & are willing to spend time with me. The best friends in the world. The industrious Nesa in Penang: always a great s...

I have been experiencing sleepless nights & I am haunted by many things. Some of which are recorded in an insomnia induced rant I posted a few days ago. Instead of being busy & ignoring my inner most concerns, I am fortunate enough to have a few days off to think about it, talk about it & read up on it. And it helps. I spent an incredible amount of time speaking to God & quietly reflecting. The world has a way of engaging you at multiple fronts & pulling your attention in all sorts of directions. An undisciplined spirit can get lost in all that noise. It's good to have ample of quiet time to myself. Esp at this pivotal point in my life. Why did I panic about my career all of a sudden? Sub-consciously, I knew that my time was up. You see, 5 years ago, I made a promise to myself to commit myself to any government school anywhere in the country . I would root myself & give it my all. Therefore, in my posting application form, I put in ' Dimana Saya Dip...

I don't have anything worthy of sharing tonight. I just need to unload something off my chest so that I can finally get some sleep. I've been trying for hours & I'm not getting sleepier. I really hate sleepless nights. It's when I start to think about stuff & worry & fret & it is unnecessary & it doesn't get me anywhere. This is another side of me that doesn't get much time in the light. Most of the time, I find solutions & I get busy at being a solution to things. But I'm also afraid inside & I'm so insecure about myself & my future. I don't show it much because I'm a guy. I don't like to show my weaknesses. I'm also practical. Revealing or sharing my insecurities doesn't really help me to overcome it. Also, I'm sort of a hippie. I chose to promote what I love instead of bashing what I hate. I'm sleepless tonight & I can't stop thinking about next year. Sure, I've got a secure j...

The MoE is seriously looking at CEFR as an internationally recognised framework for describing the ability of language learners in Malaysia. This will likely be used for foreign languages (English, Japanese, German, French, etc) & might also be applied to local languages (BM, Iban, etc). Besides listening to speeches & presentations from industry experts, we were organised into 4 interest groups, i.e. higher education, teacher training, curriculum & pedagogy, and assessment, to explore the application of CEFR into our education system. From 29-30 October 2013, I attended the symposium at the Sama Sama Hotel , Sepang. We were given a basic understanding of the concepts & principles of the CEFR . Here is a summary of what I have gleaned from the symposium. Do forgive me for lapses in my understanding. Any comments & insights will be gladly appreciated. What is CEFR ? • Benchmark for a learner’s language ability • Can be used for any language • Asses...

Giving students portraits of themselves in graduation robes so they can visualise being graduates = purpose. Thought up & sponsored by Sarah Lasung  of Teach For Malaysia . What do you think of when someone mentions ‘motivation programme’? Most schools conduct a motivation camp or organise a 1 week talk with invited speakers & that’s it. Actually, for some schools, that is good enough because parents take care of the rest of the motivating. That is, if the students have got attentive parents. What about those students who do not? My students come from a poor socio-economic background. Many from broken families & their guardians are either illiterate or uneducated. They are aware that education is important but most are ill-equipped to support their children. Also, my students stay in the hostels so they spend most of their time at school. Having so little contact with their guardians, we cannot expect the guardians to be able to make much of a difference. Base...

If you understand the symbolism, you'll understand me. Somebody asked me whether I was hurt before because it seems like I am avoiding or trying not to remember. Sigh... That made me recall memories long buried & left me feeling exposed, reflective & dejected. I'm 28 & I don't have much to show, do I? I don't have a house. I don't have a car. I don't have a family. I don't have a wife. Heck, I don't even have a toy girl. Symbols of a successful man. I have some achievements at work & great friends I can depend on, but when it comes to things that people typically look for, I have nothing to show. Nothing I can be proud of. And yet, should we really be so concerned about what other people think or see? It's true that I have been hurt before. Who hasn't? I guess it's true too that I am avoiding love. Since my last relationship 3 years ago, I have decided to stop dating. Instead, I poured all my energy, love & ...

A warm welcome by my students! =D Remember back in September when 2 English Language Officers from the US Department of State visited my school ? Well, at the same time, I had the privilege of supervising to a pair of future teachers during their 1 week ROS (school orientation programme) at my school. Nope, they were not trainees from KPM. They're actually fellows with Teach For Malaysia! I think that there is not much difference between KPM & TFM’s ROS programmes. Both had information seeking, school observing & reflection writing at the end. The only difference was the mindset of these TFM fellows. Very different from a majority of KPM trainees. They had enthusiasm &, most importantly,  PURPOSE . Instead of treating teaching as a mere job, these two had a mission: to bring about education equality at the level where it makes the most difference... teaching. This kind of thinking actually sets them up for either great success or great disappointment. The bad...

My 2013 PMR BI Exam Talk @ SMK Katibas As much as we, teachers, want our students to fall in love with the subjects we teach by getting them to relate to it via performance arts, experiments & projects. In reality, our students have to match up to only one criteria at the end of Form 5: paper excellence (aka Writing). I feel that the mere pursuit of this turns them into soulless regurgitators &, at the end of their exams, they will have no desire to hang on to what they have learned because it is meaningless to them. When teachers plan their lessons, they have to strike a balance between the robotic reality described above & the romance which makes us human & gives these robotic functions purpose. At the end of the day, no matter what teachers believe, if they really care for their students, they will be compelled to put their students in the best position to perform in the exams. A key part of this preparation is an Exam Talk. It should never be the one ...

I believe that if I have something good, it is not meant for me to hoard for myself alone; but meant to be shared &, in the end, cause a bigger ripple in the world. That is what courses are meant to do: share best practices which teachers can apply & invigorate their weary souls. This year, I benefited greatly from 2 Remedial Instructions Workshops I attended in June & September . I was really excited about what I learned during the 2 courses because they were simple yet significant & did not require insane amounts of preparation. The approach/pedagogy/activities we learned were also at the level of our weakest remedial students. A perfect match with my teaching situation. When I got this new knowledge, I was really excited. I knew that I had to share it because the need was too great. I estimate that 90% of students in Song are remedial students of the English language. ALL of the teachers in Song & also all of Malaysia need what I have learned. Therefo...

what the website looks like. clean & straightforward. just the way I like it. For your information (esp those of you who are not working for MoE), everybody in the ministry has to take an ICT Competency test. The officers & teachers in Perlis, Perak, Melaka, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Penang, Kedah, Labuan, Negeri Sembilan, KL & Johore have already taken the test. So from 23-31 Oct, its our turn in Sabah, Sarawak & Selangor. Here's the link to the website . Here are my thoughts... #1 FAST & SMOOTH!!! OMG!!! How many of you dread using MoE websites? Esp if it has to do with clerical data entry? It's not the data entry that we dread but the servers which tend to get crowded too often & log us out all of a sudden. Because of this, many teachers wake up in the middle of the night to key in data. Oh, this reminds me, I have to update SPPBS. Dank. No sleep tonight. When navigating & using this website, I cant help but notice how smooth thi...

The students of Form 4D (the weakest class) produced this beautiful banner. I believe in employing the strengths of usually overlooked students in such projects & boasting about their good work. Our visitors loved the banner. Many Sarawakians have never heard of my school & while many express a desire to visit my school, very few actually put in the effort to travel to my school except these people & these people . For walking the talk, I salute them. So it is even harder to find foreigners who would be interested in visiting my obscure (but awesome) school in the middle of (a very romantic) nowhere. However, as I mentioned in  a previous post , God has a good plan for my school & I am only tapping into God's plan & His will for the people in this region. He set in motion the events that would lead to this: Program Jalinan Kasih Antarabangsa. The first ever visit to my school by foreign education officers. It started with a chance opportunity to be...