Tuesday, August 17, 2021
7 TIPS TO ACE MASTER'S DEGREE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC. WAS IT DOABLE? WAS IT WORTH IT?
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
 |
| by AliahMazli |
I
was amongst the first batch to experience online learning when COVID-19
pandemic hits us globally. I further my master’s degree in 2019 after I resigned
from CEFL in 2018. During my 1st semester, the physical classes went
very well with proper precaution as the Covid-19 cases were still below 50. Once it
is confirmed all classes must be conducted online, I felt mundane, anxious,
speechless and empty. I didn’t know where this will lead to. Doing master’s
degree 100% online where all must be searched and worked on your own, the
pressure was no joke. I felt like a baby trying to learn how to walk.
Everything was unfamiliar and I was experiencing many episodes of my “first-time.”
Staying
at home, further my study in master’s degree and had to babysit 2 children on
top of that really pinned me down as I had to plan everything with the help of
my husband. We have to make this work or I was afraid I couldn’t finish my
master on time. However, I am proud of myself as I was able to G.O.T (Graduate on
Time) with Excellent Candidate Award representing my faculty. I was on cloud
nine having to make my parents, siblings, in-laws, husband, children and dear
friends happy and proud of my effort along the years. They witnessed my ups, downs, perseverance, patience, undying
motivation and my fullest commitments to my study knowing I have learned a lot
of skills and gained endless knowledge throughout my master years.
Here
are some of the takeaways doing my master’s degree during COVID-19 pandemic:
1) BUILD ACTIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE
LECTURERS.
How? Let them notice & know you by being involved in class, be
attentive and responsive. Offer yourself with lots of ad-hoc tasks and be in active
with the lecturers. The most important thing is to present your results to the
best of your ability and trust me, they know and they will keep an eye on you. Master’s
students are not that many for every intake and use this opportunity to build life-long relationship
with your lecturers. Who knows, they may be the one who would kindly write a
recommendation letters for you.
2) SETTING THE MINDSET.
Treat your
assignments/research papers as if you are in a working environment. Treat your
groupmates as your colleagues and create a mature, positive, professional vibe and treat everyone as the asset within the group. If there are conflicts, handle it professionally by acknowledging
the problem, listen to all members, propose and discuss solutions that is fair
for all. Celebrate small wins and encourage each other during the presentations and
always push each other to present the best work. Give full commitment, appreciate even the smallest gestures and help offered.
3) PLAN & TIME MANAGEMENT.
Identify
how many hats that you are wearing and create a timetable that can suit all. It
will be overwhelming at times but trust me, schedule helps and they will
eventually keep you sane. Have active conversations with your spouse, family
& friends. You need to talk/listen to keep your emotional and mental health
at its best condition. Do not be shy to breakdown and cry once in a while.
Things happen. Take your time and come back even stronger.
Doing your master's degree requires a lot of sacrifices. Your time, your money, your energy, your attention, your sleep, your gatherings and the list goes on. It will be hard at first but once you know your priority in your study, you will eventually give in and focus on what is important to you the most at that particular time. Like I mentioned above, plan your time well.
4) READ & WRITE A LOT.
Master’s
degree is no era of spoon-feeding. This is an era where you are expected to
know and do everything on your own. Don’t know what to do? Spend lots of time
at the library, reach the seniors and build good relationships with them and
have active discussions with your lecturers. If you just sit around, observe
& wait, say goodbye to your scroll. Don’t know how to write research
papers? Search a lot of publications, research papers and see how they write,
organize and present their papers. Learn and implement. Read a lot of other
books once in a while as it helps to give some breeze and refresh your brain.
5) START EARLY. PREPARE YOUR SCHEDULE ALIGNED WITH ALL SUBJECTS.
Master students, please start early as in your 1st week. Do not just sit around, wait and observe. You may be left behind and the train can never make a U-turn. Master study requires you to do a lot of preparation even just for a presentation. You have to read a lot of articles, research papers and knowing that you have to always insert the citations (where do you take the source from) for every thing that you write, requires you to make an effective reference folder to organize your sources. Trust me, during the final weeks where you have to do a lot of submissions, you will thank your schedule and your efforts for starting early.
6) SAY THANK YOU EVERY SEMESTER.
This is what
I have been doing since my diploma years. Whenever I received my result each
semester, apart from making sujood syukur, informing my husband and my family, I will directly go to
my lecturer for each subject and send them a thank you text.
“Dalam berilmu,
perlu beradab dengan guru.” That is what I always hold on to.
7) SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE QURAN AND TALK TO ALLAH (MAKE DUA'AS) CONSISTENTLY.
The thing that I learned the most was I do not own all of these knowledge. All belong to Allah and He is the One who granted me the ideas and the solutions to all my problems during my study years. Apart from that, the more I read Quran and spend my time with HIM, I noticed that everything falls perfectly although there were hiccups along the way where I was not sure if I was able to finish it. At the end of the day, I want the barakah and to ensure that whatever knowledge that I gained can be of benefits to myself and for me to use it to right way for others as well.
So, to the question:
Furthering my master’s degree during COVID-19
pandemic (100% online learning) - Was it worth it?
Yes, it was!
Monday, August 9, 2021
10 TIPS ON HOW TO INTRODUCE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TO MY CHILDREN? WHERE TO START?
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
It is undeniable that English language is one of the most used language in the world. It has become the second language to many countries and is spoken by many these days. In Malaysia, English has become the second language for most of the people. This can be seen where English language has become of the compulsory language to be learned as early as in the pre-school, primary and secondary school. However, not every household use English as their first language. Unless if the parents have decided to make English as the first language, then it is another different story.
As for me, Malay language is my native language. I speak Malay as I grow up and it is my go to language to talk to with my family and friends. However, in my family, my father is the who encouraged us to speak in English and he speaks in English to us from time to time. This is due to the need of his job in dealing with his International colleagues and superiors and the main languages are Malay and English. Hence, to have us siblings be exposed to English in our early age. For me, I didn't find it awkward to switch the language as I read both English and Malay books extensively, I watch English and Malay programs and I speak well in both languages.
When I first had Fateh, I already have this in mind where I would like to speak English with Fateh at home and teach him Malay language when necessary during his school years later. The children absorbs new knowledge like a sponge and I have experienced it firsthand when I teach Fateh both languages up until today.
Where to start?
1. For mothers, during the pregnancy, make it as a routine to read aloud while caressing your stomach. The babies hear and when they move, it is indescribable feeling that we mothers could not explain. Read to them.
2. Parents, you can start by buying flashcards first. Any kinds will do be it about alphabets, animals, fruits, or vehicles. One word flashcards would be better and to start flashing the cards to them every day and put it as your daily routines.
3. Use simple one words, example "eat, drink, sit, hug". This is to implant those words in their memories so that they can use it later. Avoid saying long words to them. Instead, use short sentences when speaking. For example, "Let's take a bath", "Let's have breakfast", "Let's take a nap". Avoid using baby language which is unclear and this will lead to confusion on the words to the children later.
4. Have a lot of conversations with your children. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. Talk to them as if you are talking to adults. What I mean here is talking in a clear and proper sentences. Because from there, the kids will learn how to use the language. They learn fast believe me. If you want to talk about something that has happened in the past, use past tense. Do not worry if you are scared that your children will not understand. They will understand later and when they ask, you can explain to them. The key here is to start familiarizing to the children about the language and the structure that you are using.
5. Make a habit of pinpointing to any things found inside and outside of the house and let them know the words. This is to increase and encourage the children on the use of vocabulary.
6. Avoid letting your children to have their screen time on their own. This is a BIG NO. Screen time for kids is just a one-way communication and this is not healthy for their brain development, speech and communication. There are a lot of studies on this topics so parents, do some readings. What we do is, when it is time for them to have their screen time, watch together with them and have two-ways communication with your children. Some of the questions that you can ask:
- Can you name me the colours that you see?
- How many cartoon characters are there?
- Is the tree yellow in colour?
Once the screen time has ended, allow your children to express their feelings and thoughts about what they have just watched. Let them tell you their story and get engaged with them. It is a very good exercise to do this every time as it will not just build their confidence, but also allowing them to present themselves, to express their thoughts and to be able to have active and healthy conversations. This will also help in their vocabulary development.
7. Once in a while, let them teach you instead of you teaching them. When you have a role-play of the children teaching us, it will allow them to prepare themselves on what to teach and this can boost their memories of everything that they have learned. Instead of using lots of books with the children in teaching English language at an early age, hands-on activities are the best for the children. Then slowly, you can start introducing them to exercise books as a tool to see their knowledge and understanding of the language.
8. The most important key here is to enjoy the learning process. Parents, please do not stress yourselves out over teaching a language with worry that your children are late bloomers and etc. No, never have this kind of mentality in you. Trust your children. You know them better and let them be free and have fun in learning. When the children are enjoying themselves, they will be happier and are looking forward to learn more from you.
9. The teachers are the parent's support system. Remember, it takes a village to raise a kid. So, let the teachers do their work in teaching the methods, and we the parents, to continue supporting our children in the process of learning consistently. If you only rely on the teachers, it will not be really helpful in your children's development.
10. This however do not only apply to English language, I believe these steps that I have shared based on my experience are also applied to other languages that you would want your children to master and even to you, yourselves.
THE DON'TS
1. DO NOT PUT ANY EXPECTATIONS TO YOUR CHILDREN. Expectation kills. When it does, it may stresses you out and this is not good for your children as well. It is good to have goals instead and break it into small goals and share it with your children so they can look forward to more interesting new knowledge every single day.
2. As your children grow older, DO NOT LET THEM WATCH CARTOONS WITH LESSER VOCABULARY. It is wise as parents to choose and see which cartoons that are suitable for your children especially on the language used. The language must be clear and do not contain any vulgar words. This can also helps with more extensive vocabulary for your children to explore.
Thank you for your time reading. InshaaAllah see you in the next post!
Love always,
AliahMazli
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
FIRST DAY OF PRE-SCHOOL. MY DETACHMENT FROM MY SON.
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
- Is he going to cry?
- Is he going to pee himself at school?
- Is he going to be okay without me?
- Is he going to get scolded by the teachers?
- Is he going to make friends with others?
- Is he going to eat properly?
- Can he understand instructions?
These above on top of other hundreds of questions popped inside my head and I could not stop thinking. I talked about this with my husband and he always answers with, "do not worry too much, he is going to be okay. He may cry first few days but I believe he will be okay." I have been taking care of my son since birth and he has never been taken care of other people other than me. I guess it is more of me could not detach myself from my son. As a mother, we always want to give the best to our kids and we always have this mindset that, "No one takes care of our children better than us."
At one point, I could not stop blaming myself where I should have taken good care of him or spend more time with him as I can slowly feel that my son is growing up. This is just the first phase of him slowly leaving me to live his life. Thinking of my own life growing scares me as I would not even want to part ways with my parents. I know that he is only 4 years old, attending a pre-school. However, to me, he is slowly talking his first step of building up his independent skill. He will soon learn how to cope with his daily routines, what to do without parents around as there will be many other students at the school.
Preparations on the first day of school.
All forms have been prepared, fees are all paid, clothes are all ironed. Now come the part where we have to always tell Fateh that he is soon going to school to learn, to have fun, to make friends and many more. We tried our best to instill the happiness and joy of learning as he is only attached to me without many opportunities to have social time with other kids at his age. He looked excited, he sounded thrilled and looking forward to it. He even joined my husband ironing his clothes the night before. I did advice my son that if anything that you need help with, always look for your teacher. Please do not cry as I will be picking you up very soon. My bad as I have reminded him not to cry and that has been implanted in his mind. You are too late Aliah! Face the consequence later!
First day of school.
We both walked him to school as it is just 7 minutes walking to our house. My husband piggy-backed him and we were being as cheerful as we can. However, the moment we reached the gate, lines of students crying were heard and it has affected Fateh tremendously and he then, CRIED! The teacher had to take him and calm him inside the school. I can hear him crying loudly while calling me,
"Bonda, Bonda don't leave me, please take me too! Bondaaaaaa!"
I too, cried silently sobbing hard on our way back home. I was the one who felt hard to detach myself as much as he is having it hard too. All kinds of emotion gushed me as a whole and I felt hard to accept it at first. Calming myself continuously, my husband reassured me that this shall pass.
What have I learned?
I have learned that time is precious. I have the advantage of taking care of my son since birth and knowing that I should have spent more time with him, structed my mind at that time. Secondly, I learned that my son can never always be with me 24/7 till he grows up. There will be times where he will slowly learn about life, learn to be independent, learn to think on his own, to make decisions on his own, to spend time with his friends, to spend his alone time without me and to see life in another perspectives with lots of questions that he might ask later on. Thirdly, I also learned that I need to slowly detach myself from this worldly life as not everything is mine from the first place. It all belong to Allah S.W.T. I need to learn to be calm, think rational and let my heart feel at ease for whatever happens in the future, respectively for anything related to my son.
My hopes on my son for his pre-school years.
My husband and I do not have much expectations on our son at that time. Pre-school in Malaysia usually starts at the age of 4 to 6 years old. We just want Fateh to build his emotion healthily and to develop his motor skills more than to learn a lot of things that requires memorizing on subjects forcefully. Come on, he is just 4. We really want Fateh to be happy and enjoy learning. We just want to be open with any discussions about what ever that he is learning. He will learn many things and he will slowly build other skills and we do not want to rush things. My husband and I we promised ourselves to be committed with our children's education and to let him freely explore what he wants to know and learn about this world.
He is now 6 and I'd share about his journey of his pre-school years in the next post. We are humbled, grateful and happy with his progress in his learning.
Thank you for your time reading. InshaaAllah see you in the next post!
Love always,
AliahMazli.
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Salam !
Writing is a way that I can express myself and be connected with other people. Thank you for taking some of your time here--my blog, my space. I hope you benefit something from it.
