i) Kemahiran Belajar Cemerlang
ii) Kemahiran Literasi Maklumat
Thursday, 25 September 2014
Exercise - Noun
A) Fill in the blanks with the correct forms of the given nouns for the following exercise. Use each noun only one time.
1. I don't have much . Just two small bags.
2. They are going to tell you all you want to know. They are going to
give you a lot of .
3. There is room for everybody to sit down. There are a lot of .
4. We have no , not even a bed or a table.
5. 'What does Alan look like?' He's got a long beard and very short
.
6. Carla's English is very bad. She must make .
7. George is unemployed. He's looking for a .
8. If you want to leave work early, you have to ask for .
9. I don't think Ann will get the job. She hasn't got enough .
10. Shakespeare’s are wonderful.
Answers:
1. luggage
2. information
3. chairs
4. furniture
5. hair
6. progress
7. job
8. permission
9. experience
10. works
| chair | job | experience | information | hair |
| luggage | progress | furniture | permission | work |
1. I don't have much . Just two small bags.
2. They are going to tell you all you want to know. They are going to
give you a lot of .
3. There is room for everybody to sit down. There are a lot of .
4. We have no , not even a bed or a table.
5. 'What does Alan look like?' He's got a long beard and very short
.
6. Carla's English is very bad. She must make .
7. George is unemployed. He's looking for a .
8. If you want to leave work early, you have to ask for .
9. I don't think Ann will get the job. She hasn't got enough .
10. Shakespeare’s are wonderful.
Answers:
1. luggage
2. information
3. chairs
4. furniture
5. hair
6. progress
7. job
8. permission
9. experience
10. works
Monday, 22 September 2014
Integriti Guru Membentuk Jati Diri
Integriti merupakan rumusan kepada pemulihan martabat guru di mata masyarakat. Jika selama ini warga guru sudah semakin hilang sengatnya dimata masyarakat, ia berkait rapat dengan integriti.
Sebagai golongan yang diamanahkan oleh ibubapa dan diberi kepercayaan untuk mendidik dan membentuk survival anak-anak mereka di masa hadapan, guru-guru harus membalas kepercayaan tersebut dengan keyakinan yang tidak berbelah bagi. Guru-guru dikenali oleh ibubapa sebagai insan yang mahir dalam selok belok pendidikan.
Kebanyakan ibubapa masa kini tidak lagi melihat tugas guru untuk membentuk sahsiah anak mereka kerana terlalu banyak isu yang berbangkit dari masa ke semasa. Ibubapa masa kini lebih mempersoalkan pencapaian akademik anak mereka berbanding perkara lain kerana inilah perkara yang ditekankan oleh sekolah. Peperiksaan yang menjadi penentu aras kebolehan pencapaian anak-anak mereka. Ibubapa mana yang tidak mahu guru membentuk juga sahsiah anak mereka tetapi memandangkan trend masyarakat yang mementingkan pencapaian dalam peperiksaan maka ibubapa juga seolah terlupa tentang peluang pembinaan sahsiah yang sewajarnya dididik oleh guru melalui tingkahlaku mereka sendiri yang menjadi teladan.
Isu-isu teknikal sering menjadi bahan rungutan ibubapa terhadap guru hari ini seperti tidak memeriksa buku latihan, tidak memberi kerja rumah yang mencukupi, kertas soalan yang tidak bermutu, menyemak buku latihan secara sambil lewa, gagal menghabiskan sukatan pelajaran apabila peperiksaan semakin hampir dan pelbagai lagi isu teknikal yang berkaitan.
Isu pembentukan sahsiah pula hanya berkisar kepada permasalahan disiplin yang timbul seperti gejala sosial yang semakin merebak seperti merokok, gangsterisme, melepak, dadah dan sebagainya. Apabila diajukan persoalan ini maka ianya menjadi perbincangan sosial dan guru-guru meminta mereka tidak dijadikan penyebab lantas mengaitkan juga kegagalan ibubapa memikul peranan mendidik sahsiah anak-anak mereka.
Alasan guru-guru mudah, masa yang terhad di antara guru dan pelajar di samping tugasan mengajar pelajar yang ramai menyebabkan pembentukan sahsiah pelajar tidak dapat ditumpukan sepenuhnya. Guru sering berharap agar ibubapa tidak melepaskan tanggungjawab tersebut kebahu mereka semata-mata tetapi perlu bersama-sama memikul tugas mengikut masa dan tempat pelajar tersebut berada.
Ibubapa pula sering menunding jari mereka kepada keupayaan guru kerana tugasan mereka yang sibuk dari pagi hingga ke malam tidak mengizinkan mereka mendidik sahsiah anak-anak tambahan pula mereka tidak mempunyai kemahiran formal sebagaimana guru yang dilatih untuk membentuk sahsiah pelajar.
Maka, tunding menunding berterusan dari tahun ke tahun tanpa penyelesaian tetapi kesan yang ketara gejala sosial semakin bertambah parah di kalangan remaja sekolah dicelah-celah perselisihan guru guru dan ibubapa. Semakin lama kita membicarakannya semakin parah keadaannya.
Pepatah “Guru kencing berdiri anak murid kencing berlari” perlulah difahami maksudnya dan dijadikan peringatan sepanjang masa. Maksud sebenar pepatah tersebut iaitu sebagai seorang guru perlulah menonjolkan sifat terpuji dalam diri tidak kira di mana sahaja kita berada samada dihadapan pelajar ataupun dibelakang mereka.
Inilah maksud sebenar pepatah tersebut yang perlu menjadi pegangan guru-guru. Jika sebelum ini guru-guru merasakan bahawa pepatah tersebut berkait dengan teladan mereka akan dicontohi oleh pelajar maka hari ini kita perlu merenung lebih jauh lagi berhubung tindakan kita yang konsisten di mana-mana sahaja.
Honesty and Integrity in Daily Life
| Times are difficult. You know the right thing to do is tell the truth despite the potential loss of friends, employment or reputation. Would you do it? We all tend to lie sometimes. Some are innocent: the white lies. But some are grievous when it involves the type of information that can deceive, mislead, trick and sometimes betray the trust that is placed in you. Lies in the CVs or interview conversations, faking in psychometric tests, the leave forms, the excuses you give when you can’t meet a deadline or achieve the targets: so the list goes. Why? To defend yourself, to manage impressions, to manipulate or to please others? Recently, I had a client who had just given his resignation to a blue-chip company because he was compelled to withhold some information, which, if revealed, would send three more people including his boss home. “I just can’t keep this information to myself and turn a blind eye,” he said. In terms of the potential risk and peace of mind, he probably made a wise decision. There are three ways of dealing with an unpleasant system; you challenge and/or fight it to change it, you ignore what is going on and become the system, or you get out. More often than not, most may agree that we gravitate to the second or third option due to pressure for survival and helplessness. Almost all adults will tell you that lying is wrong. But when it comes to avoiding trouble, saving face in front of the boss, or sparing someone's feelings, many of us find ourselves doing it anyway. Behind honesty is courage which comes in two forms; psychological courage in which one faces his/her inner struggles and moral courage, in which one maintains high ethical standards and authenticity. The latter is similar to integrity. Integrity is related to employee trustworthiness. People strong in integrity ground their behaviour in personal values, abide by their convictions and treat others with respect. They show consistency in their lives across situations and encounters, and are very likely to live their lives eschewing pretense and hypocrisy. They are often committed to other individuals, institutions, principles and ideals. Integrity is also about one’s willingness to accept responsibility for one’s decisions. Holding steadfast to one’s values and living a life of authenticity are significant challenges in the current corporate world. Imagine: if my client was over-burdened with financial issues and had no social support, it would have been more difficult for him to make that choice of letting go of his job. ‘Integrity everyday’ comes in simple forms; say at work, challenging someone’s egoistic state of mind that is destroying the team morale, defending your peer who is right, giving the due credit to your direct reports, taking permission before you implement someone else’s ideas and getting all the credit for it, and confronting anyone who tells a racist or sexist joke to let people know that you are not so complacent when minority groups are ridiculed. It is not only about being honest; it is also about being able to accept the truth no matter how difficult or how long it takes to come to terms with it. You want answers; you think you are entitled; you want the truth. But maybe you should ask whether you can handle the truth? Integrity exists at the personal, professional and institutional level. Parents can actively encourage honesty in their children, and mentors, teachers, role models and peers can serve this same function. Strong role models from the community or political arena can influence people’s behaviour and moral judgments. Humans are creatures of habit; hence one can break the habit and replace it with something positive. In the organization, it is beneficial to have leaders who embody integrity as it is easier if it cascades from the top. But the absence of it should not be an excuse for us not to practice such defining values of character. Organizations can create systems that require people to demonstrate integrity, and promote and inculcate desired behaviours that are continuously monitored and rewarded. Screening new employees in an effective recruitment process can address the problem at the outset. A passive approach to the corporate competencies and merely paying lip service to organizational values may not take one anywhere. Some may think that integrity cannot be learnt and that it is something you either have or don’t have. But change is the only guarantee and something being completely hard-wired is contrary to this point of view. We all evolve everyday, we change. So, with conscious effort and commitment, why can’t simple forms of integrity and honesty be achieved in day to day life? |
Success Will Come and Go, But Integrity is Forever
If I could teach only one value to live by, it would be this: Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. Integrity means doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or not anyone is watching. It takes having the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences will be. Building a reputation of integrity takes years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever do anything that would damage your integrity.
We live in a world where integrity isn’t talked about nearly enough. We live in a world where “the end justifies the means” has become an acceptable school of thought for far too many. Sales people overpromise and under deliver, all in the name of making their quota for the month. Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their projected earnings because they don’t want the board of directors to replace them. Entrepreneurs overstate their pro formas because they want the highest valuation possible from an investor. Investors understate a company’s value in order to negotiate a lower valuation in a deal. Customer service representatives cover up a mistake they made because they are afraid the client will leave them. Employees call in “sick” because they don’t have any more paid time off when they actually just need to get their Christmas shopping done. The list could go on and on, and in each case the person committing the act of dishonesty told themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity.
It may seem like people can gain power quickly and easily if they are willing to cut corners and act without the constraints of morality. Dishonesty may provide instant gratification in the moment but it will never last. I can think of several examples of people without integrity who are successful and who win without ever getting caught, which creates a false perception of the path to success that one should follow. After all, each person in the examples above could have gained the result they wanted in the moment, but unfortunately, that momentary result comes at an incredibly high price with far reaching consequences. That person has lost their ability to be trusted as a person of integrity, which is the most valuable quality anyone can have in their life. Profit in dollars or power is temporary, but profit in a network of people who trust you as a person of integrity is forever.
Every one person who trusts you will spread the word of that trust to at least a few of their associates, and word of your character will spread like wildfire. The value of the trust others have in you is far beyond anything that can be measured. For entrepreneurs it means investors that are willing to trust them with their money. For employees it means a manager or a boss that is willing to trust them with additional responsibility and growth opportunities. For companies it means customers that trust giving them more and more business. For you it means having an army of people that are willing to go the extra mile to help you because they know that recommending you to others will never bring damage to that are willing to trust them with their money. Yes, the value of the trust others have in you goes beyond anything that can be measured because it brings along with it limitless opportunities and endless possibilities.
Contrast that with the person who cannot be trusted as a person of integrity. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said it best:, “In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first one, the other two will kill you.” A person’s dishonesty will eventually catch up to them. It may not be today, and it may not be for many years, but you can rest assured that at some point there will always be a reckoning.
A word of advice to those who are striving for a reputation of integrity: Avoid those who are not trustworthy. Do not do business with them. Do not associate with them. Do not make excuses for them. Do not allow yourself to get enticed into believing that “while they may be dishonest with others, they would never be dishonest with me.” If someone is dishonest in any aspect of his life you can be guaranteed that he will be dishonest in many aspects of his life. You cannot dismiss even those little acts of dishonesty, such as the person who takes two newspapers from the stand when they paid for only one. After all, if a person cannot be trusted in the simplest matters of honesty then how can they possibly be trusted to uphold lengthy and complex business contracts?
It is important to realize that others pay attention to those you have chosen to associate with, and they will inevitably judge your character by the character of your friends. Why is that? It is best explained by a quote my father often says when he is reminding me to be careful of the company I am keeping: “When you lie down with dogs you get fleas.” Inevitably we become more and more like the people we surround ourselves with day to day. If we surround ourselves with people who are dishonest and willing to cut corners to get ahead, then we’ll surely find ourselves following a pattern of first enduring their behavior, then accepting their behavior, and finally adopting their behavior. If you want to build a reputation as a person of integrity then surround yourself with people of integrity.
There is a plaque on the wall of my office which reads: “Do what is right, let the consequence follow.” It serves as a daily reminder that success will indeed come and go, but integrity is forever.
Friday, 19 September 2014
Conjunction : Co-ordinating
Co-ordinating conjunctions
There are seven co-ordinating conjunctions in English.
Conjunction : 3 types of conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that join words,
phrases or clauses in sentences. There are three types of conjunctions.
Verb : Modal Verbs
Apart from the three types of auxiliary
verbs, there is another group of auxiliary verbs which is called modal verbs.
These modal verbs are as follows:
Verb : 3 types of verbs
Verbs are words that show actions.
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|
Action verbs are words that show physical actions.
Example: cry, jog, slap, kiss, sleep,
sing, etc.
Stative Verbs
Stative verbs are words that show state, desire, sense,
possession or opinion. In contrast to action verbs, we cannot picture the
physical actions. Therefore, many of these verbs cannot be used in continuous
tenses.
Example: seem, prefer, want, belong,
believe, etc.
Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs are also called ‘helping verbs’ because they
are used to help other verbs to form tenses or perform other functions. There
are three common auxiliary verbs – to BE, to DO, to HAVE.
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Thursday, 18 September 2014
Nouns
Common Nouns
Common nouns are general names for people, things, animals
and places.
Example: doctor, house, elephant,
village, town, etc.
Proper
Nouns
Proper nouns are
specific names for people, things, animals and places. The first letter of a proper
noun is usually capitalised.
Example:
Misha, James, Honda, Dumbo, Kota
Kinabalu, Japan, etc.
Concrete
(countable) Nouns
Concrete nouns
are names of something or someone that can be experienced through our five
senses – sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. Most concrete nouns are
countable. They can be in singular or plural .
Example:
Singular – salesman, watch, car,
kitchen, mountain, city, etc.
Plural –salesman, watches,
cars, kittens, mountains, cities, etc.
Mass
(uncountable) Nouns
Mass nouns are
names of objects that cannot be counted. These nouns only exist in singular
forms. This means that we cannot add ‘-s’ to make the nouns plural.
Example:
Water, oil, salt, steel, etc.
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are words that refer to a group of people
or things, but these words are singular in form.
Example: furniture, jewellery, swarm,
flock, pride, etc.
Abstract Nouns
Abstract nouns are
the opposite of concrete nouns. They cannot be experienced through our five
senses because they do not have any physical existence. They are names given to
feelings or ideas.
Example: honesty, jealousy, fairness, etc.
Compound
Nouns
Compound nouns are
nouns made up of a combination of two or more words. The combined words form a
new word and carry a different meaning from the original words. They can be
written as one word, separate words or hyphenated words.
Example: football, toothbrush, fruit juice,
bus stop, role-play, mother-in-law, etc.
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