Nie In Schools
If I could illustrate the Star-NiE (Newspaper-in-Education) Workshop that I happily attended recently in one word, that word would be “out-of-this-world”!
Gathering 65 teachers from 11 Southern zone Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM), the workshop, conducted by Mallika Vasugi and Maria Ovinis, opened our eyes to a newspaper’s use as a valuable reading material for class.
As a warm up activity, we were asked to come up with the longest word we could find. Each of us had a letter cut out from the newspaper, and we had to find other letters from other colleagues ourselves. The funny thing was, we pasted the letters on our foreheads in order to get noticed.
It was quite a spectacle to see a room full of normally serious teachers scurrying around with letters on their faces. One teacher naively had a letter on top of her head.
One teacher had a large ‘L’ on the bridge of her nose and I was giggling inside! Oh my God !, I nearly used that letter as well !Everybody had to intelligently select a good letter so it can be used later.
The workshop had an interesting activity where we were asked to utilise the pictures and words in The Star newspaper to prepare a one-page portfolio of ourselves. Our primary aim will be to have fun.
The activity showed us that not all teachers selected the word ‘teacher’ as their ambition since primary school.
The participants’ early career expectations were surprisingly varied, from stewardess to pilot and engineer.
In the end, we really got to know our new friends, who came all the way from various MRSM Southern Zone colleges.
The workshop ended with a bang. We creatively designed wedding gowns one would never dream of wearing.
But this was NiE after all, and newspapers replaced expensive Euro Moda materials, glue substituted threads and needles.
The teachers almost got carried away when they became designers ala Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci and Den Wahab.
Designing a wedding gown in just 15 minutes, equipped with only glue and scissors really made us crack our heads.
The more recently-married teachers could be seen desperately trying to remember and replicate their wedding attires.
The models and designers wore their stuff down an improvised catwalk!
I would say that the workshop was relevant and it did give us some useful ideas.
It is now up to us to adapt the activities based on our students’ proficiency levels.
The Star has made teachers’ lives so much easier by recommending specific sections of the paper, such as Nation, World, Business and so on, to be utilised for specific activities. Yabba daba doo !It had finally ended.
We could just ask the students to pick a pullout for the day’s activities, removing the need to comb through the entire newspaper.
Mary Schneider recently wrote (in her column But Then Again, which appears on Mondays) about electronic news.
“20 years from now, other paper products might also disappear.
“The Star might only be available online, all books might have to be downloaded into an electronic reader …”
It is a scary thought to lose newspapers as teaching materials. I better start collecting newspapers from today!
( Not just for reading: A teacher parades her bridal attire made entirely from newspapers in this activity while her colleagues look on.
Log on to: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/29/education/5073814&sec=education)
IF I could describe the Star-NiE (Newspaper-in-Education) Workshop that I attended recently in one word, that word would be “out-of-this-world”!
Gathering 65 teachers from 11 Southern zone Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM), the workshop, conducted by Mallika Vasugi and Sharon Ovinis, opened our eyes to a newspaper’s use as a valuable reading material for class.
As a warm up activity, we were asked to come up with the longest word we could find. Each of us had a letter cut out from the newspaper, and we had to find other letters from our friends. The funny thing was, we pasted the letters on our foreheads in order to get noticed.
Not just for reading: A teacher parades her bridal attire made entirely from newspapers in this activity while her colleagues look on.
It was quite a sight to see a room full of normally serious teachers scurrying around with letters on their faces.
One teacher had a large ‘L’ on the bridge of her nose and I was giggling inside!
The workshop had an activity where we were asked to utilise the pictures and words in The Star newspaper to prepare a one-page portfolio of ourselves.
The activity showed us that not all teachers selected the word ‘teacher’ as their ambition since primary school.
The participants’ early career expectations were surprisingly varied, from stewardess to pilot and engineer.
In the end, we really got to know our new friends, who came all the way from various MRSM Southern Zone colleges.
The workshop ended with a bang. We designed wedding gowns one would never dream of wearing.
But this was NiE after all, and newspapers replaced expensive Euro Moda materials, glue substituted threads and needles.
The teachers almost got carried away when they became designers ala Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci and Den Wahab.
Designing a wedding gown in just 15 minutes, equipped with only glue and scissors really made us crack our heads.
The more recently-married teachers could be seen desperately trying to remember and replicate their wedding attires.
The models and designers even strutted their stuff down an improvised catwalk!
I would say that the workshop was relevant, and it did give us some useful ideas.
It is now up to us to adapt the activities based on our students’ proficiency levels.
The Star has made teachers’ lives so much easier by recommending specific sections of the paper, such as Nation, World, Business and so on, be utilised for specific activities.
We could just ask the students to pick a pullout for the day’s activities, removing the need to comb through the entire newspaper.
Mary Schneider recently wrote (in her column But Then Again, which appears on Mondays) about electronic news.
“20 years from now, other paper products might also disappear.
“The Star might only be available online, all books might have to be downloaded into an electronic reader …”
It is a scary thought to lose newspapers as teaching materials. I better start collecting newspapers from today!
By HASBI MOHAMED ARIFIN
MRSM Tun Ghafar Baba
Jasin, Malacca
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