Assignment 2 The Beginning

I was so surprised to receive Assignment 2 as I was not sure on how to do it. We were told to use Michael Jackson's earth song for the first part of our assignment and our own choice of video for the second assignment.
I met up with my partner yestersay and I was supposed to do Michael Jackson's video as it was more complicated. Hence, I started working on it. The first thing I did was downloading the video into my computer. After that, I started listening to it again and again, thinking of what to teach... Well, a teacher has to know what to teach somehow.
On top of that, I searched for more pictures to be used in the E-book as well as the video. One of the reasons was that the pupils are not familiar with some of the animals. In order to make the learning objectives achieved, I decided to choose only animals which are familiar to the pupils.
Extracting the music? I am still thinking of how to go about it.
Will update with all of you when I got to know.
As for now, I have finally known how to capture pictures from a video. Though it may be blurry as the movie moves in the screen, I think it can still be seen somehow.

Four Skills - Listening ( The chosen One)

After finished dealing with the E-book, i thought we would have to start on the second assignment.This assignment was not difficult as before as we have already mastered the basic skills of each and single software.Listening skill was the chosen skill that I plan to do in set induction.Video making is my chosen task because in set induction, it is important to grasp the pupils' attention by showing them colourful pictures or something personal would be the best such as the pupils' pictures or stuff like that.Doing this video really took me quite sometime as I have to put in each audio files so that it matches with the pictures. (what i am trying to say is that the explanation and pictures can come out together coz I record the audio part by part).Music was not really my focus as in a listening task, there should not be any interference because pupils might not be able to listen to the reading clearly.Anyhow, i think this task is just to develop resources ro be used in ESL classroom.This task was really given just a week to produce and I really hope that our production as a group would become a wonderful lesson with lots of teaching aids.

Reflection on E-book

E-book!
Initially, i thought is was a very tough assignment. But, when the moment Pn. Foziah showed us a few examples, I have finally gained back my confidence a little.
As I have been dealing with Microsoft Power Point, I think I have mastered some basic skills like on how to insert pictures as the background, inserting music, picture transferring and so on. I found out another thing which Microsoft Power Point 2007 caters - Transition!!!
Hence, I think we have another alternative in movie making!
Well, as usual, gathering materials was a little bit in a mess. On top of that, seraching for the right music to be used is also important!
I found it very difficult when the music and the power point slides have got to end at the same time. Possibility is there but it is very time consuming. TIME IS GOLD IN UM!
I have finally realised this!
Let bygone be bygone!
I do not have the time to look back at the assignments handed in. But, the ones who are coming!
E book, I think I can manage it!

My Experience on Video Editing!

Huh!
Holidays had come to an end.
If you were to asked me what have I done during the holiday, I could tell you - I DID A VIDEO.
Creating a video is not as easy as we always have in mind. Think of the one hour movies that we watch everytime in cinema, think of the short video vclip available in YouTube... They are not easy to produce.
The task was to create a 4min video. It took my days to complete the whole video!!!
Searching for suitable photos was very tiring as not all pictures were what you favour and applicable for your team. After gathering photos, music had to be carefully chosen if not the video would not going to look nice. (it will somehow affect the whole production)
Compiling all pictures together took me quite sometime as the order of the whole video had to be taken into consideration. After that, putting transitions also took me quite sometime.
Yet, that was not the worst thing ever!
As my partner and I were from different state, it was difficult to communicate and share opinions. It was very inconvenient to call as my partner couldnt visualise what was I trying to do. Worse thing - we couldnt send coz the file was too big!
Erm, it took my one whole day to upload the video!!! That was utterly torturing.......
BUT, I MANAGED TO GET IT THROUGH!

Audio editing

Audio editing is indeed green when it comes to me. I hardly have any idea on how to go with it.
I started with downloading a software - audacity, which I found it very difficult to use initially.
I spent almost two hours to get familirised with this software on how to cut parts of music, where to drag, where to add effects....
All the trials and errors have made me learnt something new today on the 8/8/08. Isnt that amazing?
Well, you may click on the link below and listen to what I have come out with. That was my first production. Hence, any comments?

http://www.4shared.com/file/58280177/87aa41ef/My_heart_will_go_onI_will_always_love_you.html

Using Photoshop!

Based on the lecture last week, I finally regained my interest in 'creating' my own desired picture!

I was not in touched with the photoshop for a very long time. 10 years? Maybe...

Initially, I wasted the whole night trying to cut and paste some pictures into a new picture. Trying again and again till I got fed up and asked Bak how to do it.

Phew~ Cutting a picture really needs a good eye sight and skill.

Nevertheless, I have managed to do so (erm... I would give myself a satisfactory!)

The picture above is what I have come out with as a novice photoshop user!

Do give some comments on how to imporve it.

Children do not come to class empty handed

Children in primary school do not come to class empty handed. They have something in them and they learn from what they have.
Firstly, it is the children's creative use of limited language resources. In terms of the grammatical forms, children experiment with prefixes to express feelings. For example, the chilren would say 'Don't unring the phone' which means 'Don't hang up'. Children simly add the prefix 'un' to form a word. In term of concept, children generalised the concepts. For instance, children would say 'switch off the darkness' rather than saying ' switch on the light'. In order to encourage the pupils to create reative language use, teacher can have riddles in classroom.
Sedondly, it is the children's instinct for fun and play. Children have anm enormous capacity for finding and making fun. they bring a spark of individuality and of drama to much that they do. Fun and play is important as it promotes creativity abd imagination, lower affective filter, promotes subconcious learning and tackles the issues of short attention span. Teachers hsould keep a sense of playfulness and fun. In addition, teachers should avoid drilling and rote memorisation.
Thirdly, the instict for interaction and talk. Instincts and attributes of the children are important for the language teacher. The nature of children is they like to talk. their language are developing together with their age. On top of that, the teacher can benefit from this situation by giving them topics to be discussed and facilitated their discussion so that they will be in the right channel. Besides, the topic should be familiar ro the children since they already have prior knowledge about the topic such as real life events.
Fourthly, children's capacity for indirect learning. There are 2 types of learning which are concious direct learning and subconcious indirect learning. Concious direct learning focuses more on language and semantics. Subconcious indirect learning focuses on flunecy and spoken.
Lastly, the role of imagination. According to Piagetm they are in the concrete operational stage, in which they develop visualisation through concrete images and objects. Children are able to acquire langiuage easily through seeing anf exploring as well as imagining.