BIBI WANI

Today, my eldest sister and her family came back from Kuantan with my mum's maid. Her name is Purwani (Bibi Wani). Bibi Wani is an Indonesian maid who has been staying with my mum in Kuantan for the past 4 years (if I'm not wrong). My mum is staying with another sister in Kuantan. During the day, when my sister goes to work, Bibi Wani will be Mum's company.

Tonight Bibi Wani is sleeping at my house because tomorrow, Monsieur A and I will take her to LCC Terminal, Sepang before subh. She will take the Air Asia 6.55am flight to Solo. She is on a one month leave. I can see the shine on her face. Can you imagine not meeting your family for 2 years? Just now I helped her unpack and then repack her belongings (did some tricks!?) so that her check-in luggage will not exceed the allowable weight. Air Asia allows a maximum of 15 kg for the check-in luggage only!

Hmm...well cheap fare and only 15 kg of check-in luggage. So, if passengers were to be fined for their over weight luggage, it would be equivalent to paying for a MAS fare, won't it? People like Bibi Wani would of course have lots of things to bring home. Well, who wouldn't? Besides the souvenirs that she bought for her kids and her other family members, my siblings also gave her some souvenirs to bring home. I just hope that she will not be fined for bringing excess luggage tomorrow morning.

I will have to wake up early tomorrow to send BiBi Wani to the airport. I hope she will have a safe journey home. Jangan lupa pulang ka Malaysia ya Beek....Bibi Wani's favourite colour is PURPLE!

MY ATTEMPT TO UPLOAD PICTURES

Today I was almost glued to my laptop. Luckily it is a public holiday today in Malaysia - installation of our 13th King, the Sultan of Terengganu.

I was trying very hard to generate my web album - putting titles to pictures, comments that go along with each one, arranging them in chronological order, etc. Well, for a first-timer I think I was quite successful. Thanks to my beloved Monsieur A, but let me tell you that it was not an easy task. At the end of the day I managed to generate TWO web albums and ONE of it is already on the web. Temporarily, it is residing at Mannlehrer's web page. He got free space through his employer's home page. (Excuse me, I hope I am using the correct ICT terms here!)

This gives me the idea that I should ask for an account from my employer so that I can upload information, pictures, etc on to the web. May be no one in my organization has asked for this before! Hmm...that will be another task for me. Being in the civil service, I wonder if this is allowed. Come to think of it, why not? After all, the objective of the government's smart school initiative is to produce a new generation of IT-literate Malaysians who are creative and innovative, adept with new technologies and able to access and manage information to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the economy.

OK, wish me luck in getting my information and pictures to reside at a free server!

BLOG WAVE

My goodness! My last entry was like...7 months ago! What makes me want to return to my blog? Well, recently two of my collegues from the State Education Office in Sarawak and Sabah created their blog at wordpress. Well, theirs is mainly work related issues. But why bother! If they can spend a wee bit of time to write, so can I. And here I am.

My Sarawak friend, Johnny, has his blog at http://jonibong.wordpress.com/
The other friend is Mdm Chen. Hers is at http://mdmchen.wordpress.com/
I told you that their blog is very much work-base! Well, at our age, blogging is a bit more of the serious stuff, you know.

BTW, today I received an email from a friend, Erfino, who is an Education Attaché in the UK. I realized that at the bottom of his mail he has written his blog address. Now that is another reason why I feel that I should not waste the blog that I started in June 2006! If you are interested, you can visit Erfino's blog at http://erfino.blogspot.com. His blog is mainly written in the Malay Language (majority of Malaysians speak Malay), a bit of English and also some Arabic. Erfino can speak 3 languages! Hang on, maybe he can speak four languages! I think he speaks Javanese! No offense Ustaz!

HOW MANY RAMADHANS HAVE WE EXPERIENCED?

We were going for our Isya' and Tarawikh prayers (Isya' is mandatory every day while Tarawikh is obligatory prayers in Ramadhan), when suddenly Monsieur A reminded me and the children about Bilal. A year has passed (it happened last Ramadhan) since we had Bilal staying with us. He came on (I think!) 2nd Ramadhan last year to our house.

Bilal is a French muslim and he express his interest to come and spend Ramadhan in Malaysia. He was with us for the whole of Ramadhan and followed us to almost everywhere we go. During Raya, he followed us to Monsieur A's kampung, ie up North in Kedah. But of course poor Bilal had to with stand the nasty mosquitoes there.

I just realised that I had written the above paragraphs and saved is as draft. Too busy in Ramadhan to blog. Anyway, I am still posting this little story about Bilal. BTW, Bilal called Monsieur A to inform that he was in Yemen during Ramadhan this year. Bonjour Bilal!

Assessment (Do you prefer Exams?)

From the 1st - 15th September 2006, I was practically running at the office because on the night of 15th September my organization had a 'malam anugerah' kind of function, and the VVIP was the Minister of Education. Well, nothing like Anugerah Skrin or Anugerah Era, it was an award for Tokoh Pentaksiran Pendidikan (award to people who have contributed a lot to assessment - assessment in education). Does anyone out there realize about the changes in exams/assessment that we went through? Remember the Penilaian Darjah Lima --> UPSR, Lower Certificate of Education --> SRP --> PMR, etc.? BTW, I was the last batch of students who sat for the MCE; yes, I did Maths and the pure Sciences in English.

Last week, from the 18 - 22nd Sept 2006, I was a participant of a workshop on School-Based Assessment (SBA) in Melaka. The Min of Edu (MOE) is presently revisiting assessment (past, present, future) so that we can make our children view assessment as a means to improve their learning. (Graphically: Teaching&Learning --> Assessment --> Improve on Teaching&Learning to make education enjoyable and ultimately children learn). MOE wants to educate/inform its stake holders that assessment (what public know as EXAMS) is to let children know what knowledge they have acquired and how to be better at it (improve their knowledge, skills, abilities).

I hope parents out there will write some positive feedback / comments regarding assessment (loosely, exams) in Malaysia. Write something that may help the society / help our nation, not just criticize the system.

Lastly, a reminder to me and those reading this entry: Observe the holy month of Ramadhan as it should be observed.