Yes, that's what we want our students to become. They have to, inorder to compete in the global economy. Its a serious enough issue for the Academy of Science Malaysia (ASM) to collaborate with MOSTI and MOE and gather about 200 excellent teachers and teacher education lecturers from all over Malaysia for 3 days and pick their brains to come up with a position paper that will be presented to MOE.
I am not an excellent teacher. Excellent teachers are nominated by Principals of government schools and a panel will award this prestigious accolade after a comprehensive selection process. I was there representing SSS together with 3 other maths & science teachers. Mind you, I am no excellent teacher.
Early Tuesday morning, 2 Feb 2010, I drove to Shah Alam, so as not to be caught in the jam after the Subang toll. I was caught inevitably in a slight snarl but it was moving. By 7.45 I was already at the Bukit Kayangan roundabout. I was quite relieved. I had studied the map e-mailed by ASM few days before and was confident of finding the Intekma resort and Convention Centre with no problem. Boy, was I wrong. I made a wrong turning and ended up somewhere else. I traced my way back to as far as Section 6, Shah Alam and took another turn towards UiTM campus. I had been there 3 years ago, but I have forgotten how to get there. This time I was still not sure if I was on the right track. Then I saw the Intekma sign but missed the right turn into it. A short distance away, I made a U turn and found a nice parking space, a short walk from the Banquet Hall where the first session was to be held at 9am. It was still early.
Up to then,I still did not know where the workshop was going to be held, because it never said so in any of the documents that I had. So, I went to the reception area, and a concierge opened the door for me. After establishing that I was there for the workshop, he directed me to the door leading to the Banquet Hall. Another participant, who arrived shortly after me, benefitted from the concierge's direction and we walked together to the hall. I never got to know him. I forgot his face and he never came to say hello. Too bad.
I registered at the reception area in front of the hall and entered the hall bearing a door gift and a participant's tag. I was also placed in group 2, for the breakout session on day 2. I was hoping to be in group 5, attracted by the title of the group's discussion. The hall was still half full, but right smack in the middle front row, were my colleagues from primary school. There was still a space next to one of them, so I sat down at the table made for three. There was still no sign of our CEO, who is one of the panelists nor of Sugendren, the other secondary rep.
I did not look at the time, but the session started with the MC welcoming everyone and the formality began. Then it was the beginning of 10/11 presentations by a list of panelists from MOE, our CEO, En Azlan Shahrom, Petrosains Education Head, Principal of Australian International School Malaysia, ASM fellow, Prof Ho and Datin Frieda from Cempaka School. The titles of the presentations were interesting enough but the presentations were long especially the first two and draggy that it puts me to sleep soon enough, except for the first ( I was still fresh and was taking notes) and En Azlan's (he was engaging with good slides and I was capturing him on video). Because of lack of time, some panelist had to rush through their presentations and despite their best efforts, the organisers completed all but one presentation. We stayed well after 6pm, when the session should have ended at 5.15pm.
We all left the hall for home or for the rooms in Intekma for those from out-station. Day two will find, Haji Hasni from Adni school, presenting first before the breakout session. He couldn't present on day 1 because of technical problems and it was already too late, everyone was exhausted and saturated.
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