my motto

my motto = "never do anything with an empty stomach"!!!! :D :D :D

yes that's right it is my motto!! hehehe it came as a result of my love for food!! and i always try to live upto it!!! :D

well we are supposed to create a personal portfolio and update it...hmmmm have to think and do it well.. and also have to take that "active listener test" and analyse myself as to whether i'm a good a listener or not!!!

continuation

well as i said yesterday, continuing with the diverse ideas of creativity among our colleagues, there were actually some really "innovative" creations amongst us!!! :P well the girls had some really good things (obviously :P :P) there were photo frames, wall hangers, and ornaments. 1 girl brought a bracelet made out of tamarind seeds which i thought was a really nice work! certain people had made lovely pen holders. then there was a lovely turtle made with coconut shell and also a dessert cup out of coconut shell.

well moving on to guys..... their creations were absolutely PRICELESS!!!! :D :P i can't decide which was the best because everyone was creative to their ultimatum!!there were paper boats, rockets, half a coconut and so forth! its hard to explain actually because witnessing the situation would be the best!! but i think the best was the plastic bottle that was converted to a small compartment to put on little stuff like coins. it was actually a new idea and as sir said, if it was nicely decorated it would have been great.

so this activity helped us to bring about our skills that some of us might even didn't know that existed and it also helped us to think in a new way, out of the box , because we were supposed to come up with a creation out of waste materials so that certainly needed at least a bit of brainstorming!!

after a long time

well well after a long time was able to write again.. reason? i forgot my password!!! :O :O so clumsy of me!! 

so last week sir told us to make something creative using waste items! well.. i love this kind of stuff, as long as i get good ideas! after quite a bit of brain storming i came up with an idea of making a candle holder! so i started it using a small plastic coka cola bottle and cut it in a bit less than half. then i took the bottom part and wrapped it in news papers! and to decorate i did a bit of art work using paper quilling. but then after making i wasn't satisfied with it so i thought of something else! then the idea of a photo frame came to my mind! so i took some anchor boxes and made the frame. then wrapped the behind part with newspaper. then for the front part i pasted dried leaves. and rolled newspaper. to decorate i used some discarded coloured paper and onion skin! it came out quite well and i was happy with my work! 

so today everyone brought their creations and presented to the class. oh man! we certainly do have a wide range of creative people!!! i'l blog the full details tomorrow!!!!! stay tuned!! :D :D

highlight of the day = siddeek's blog!!!! :D :D seriously, it was hilarious!! i mean here the sir was trying to show an example for what he's explaining and when the blog opened with a big "no posts found" slogan it was funny!!! i guess we'd better start believing what siddeek say because afterall, he did say that his blog was empty!! hehehe

anyway we continued our previous session about skills and we learnt about five study skills and components. in order to develop our skills we should first have self awareness and self evaluation. we should be aware of our skills and abilities in order to start nurturing it.  then we should have the awareness of what is required. for example, when you go for jobs we should have the necessary skills that the company needs and not what we like. then we should find methods, organization and stratergies to develop our skills. this is very important because everyone has a different way of  handling or understanding things. for example, listening to music while studying will be effective for one student while for the other complete silence would be the best approach. so just because some one else do a method doesn't mean that it will be effective to everyone else! (just like fashion!!). then we should possess confidence to do a particular thing. in order to achieve our goals we should have the confidence that we can do it! and lastly, we should have the practice! if we do no constantly indulge ourselves in our skills we tend to be unfamiliar about them. regular practice and updating oneself will help immensely in improving our skills.

we also learnt about mr.sayed rehan exclusive "wheel of opportunity". this showed about opportunities that we get in various stages and how we reach them. to take an opportunity means taking a risk if you are a risk averse person, then the chance of grabbing opportunities is very less as taking an opportunity means taking a risk.

   

lastly we were given a small exercise. we had to recall something you do well or something we achieved and wright about it in the areas of what you did to create conditions leading to success, what skills or attitudes that were practiced, weather we got any help etc.
i talked about a personal achievement, which was making paper-quilt cards! at first when i saw those i never thought that i can do it properly but after i did one card for fun, it really hit me and i started loving it!! i used to make small cards to get used to it and after that i occasionally tried to make more creatively so that i can improve!

14th march

SKILLS! the topic of the day! with yesterday's aeroplane activity, we came to talk about skills today. the reason for the plane that hit the target to do so was that it was made with the specific skill to achieve it, i.e. the creator of that plane has learnt how to make it properly and practised it. therefore skills can be defined as a activity that can be developed through practise and reflection. (according to rehan sir's slide). skills can vary from study skiils, soft skills (personal skills), tranferable skills etc.

we were asked to categorise ourselves as creative and non-creative. the students who think that they were creative were asked to go to one side of the class while the students who thought that they weren't creative were told to go to the other side. i joined the people who were creative as i think that i can be creative in some aspects such as making paper quilt cards, sometimes in cooking and dancing. then we had to ask from the opposite side as to why they think that they aren't crative. according to them the main reason is that sometimes as others don't agree with their ideas or laugh at those they get discouraged and get the impression that they aren't good enough or not clever like the others.

but  i think that evryone of us has one or more skill in something! and all we have to do is identify and develop it. according to rehan sir there are few personal qualities that should be developed to master a skill.

• awareness-u should be aware of the skill that you possess or else it would go unnoticed by you or anyone else.
• commitment- you should be able to commit yourself in the task of fine tuning your skill
• determination-there shuld be a strong determination to achieve the objectives or else it would not be very successful
• self motivation- as sir said today, no one can motivate us but ourselves. however much another person says to do something if we are not motivated by ourselves we cannot achieve that target
• time management- i think its a very important aspect as time that is gone cannot be taken back. if you do not do an activity with enthusiasm and dedication, it feels as if there's no time for anything. but if there's love for the work that you do you can see that you have more than enough time and you crave to do more and more things.
• positive thinking- being optimistic is a very important thing as it'll be a great strength for your work. personally i am optimistic most of the time or at least i try to be because i have clearly seen the difference when i do something with a bad attitude and do something with a good attitude.

at the beginning of the class we were given a questionnaire about skills we have and we were supposed to fill it appropriately. and we were asked to make a SWOT analysis to identify ourselves.

as a conclusion, i think that everyone of us has some skill and we should do our best to identify and develop it. 

13/3/2012

back to the childhood with paper planes!!!!! that ws today's highlight at LFS!! well it was basicaly about transmission of skill. we were given a sheet of paper and was asked to make a plane and throw it at the white board by stnding at a particular place! well most of us tried to score the goal but wasnt successful... however myself and some other students managed to hit the wall although it wasn't considered the right goal... anyway by taking the most efficient rocket, we re-created all our rockets according to that and many of the rockets functioned better than the 1st time! (except mine!!!!) this excercise showed us that sometiems we may have the knowledge about something but if we don't have the proper skill we cannot achieve the best.. by making our rockets according to the correct way that sir showed us, he trasferred the skill to us to make it properly.

this reminded me of janitha's plane!! :D

next we had a discussion about perfection! well that was an interesting discussion as many had different views to contribute! the question at hand was "can 2 imperfections create perfection?" according to one student it was said that perfection depends on the way you think and i totally agree with him! because, as he said, what some people might think perfect will be imperfect to the other person... therefore i dont think there is a exact parameter to perfection. another student pointed out that imperfection is necessary in order to achieve perfection and again i agree with this point. if there's no imperfection we cannot create perfection as there wont be a measurement of it. and when something is imperfect we take steps to make it perfect. for example when the computer was 1st built it was perfect as it could perform a lot of things. as time went by they found that it was too big so they went on to create desktops, then again they felt it was too big and isn't portable therefore created laptops, then notebooks, ipads and so on. if we still thought that the computer that was built first was perfect then none of these new devices would have been invented. therefore what i say is that perfection lasts only for a certain time and after that it becomes imperfect and we seek to make more perfect things than that. 

therefore we all concluded that in order to have perfection, imperfection should exist!

10th march

wel today i was going thru sm examples of reflective blogs present online. i came up wth sm pretty interesting sites.
 http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/nicolawilkinson/entry/a_good_example/  this is a nice site tht i gt certain points abt a reflective blog

http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2008/02/04/towards-reflective-blogtalk/   this is anthr site tht ws helpful in gv n information abt blogs...

i wsnt researching tht much today bt i'm goin to start doin my research of the assignment topic tht i ws assigned, wch is "Economic Impact of Outsourcing"

8th march

today we startd LFS early in d morning wth a red-faced sir!! reason? students gt late!! he ws threatnin 2 mk them dance to baila bt let go of them 4 2day... although i nvr gt scared of him i knew 2day tht he's a man nt 2 b crossed!!

nywy, we gt d assignments 2day! *sigh* 2 assignments 2 b completed by may 22nd!! 1 ws ths reflectiv blog! we have 2 make a report on d contents of the blog and hand in. this weigh 50% of d marks and d other 50% cms frm our research report and presentation. nw tht ws d interestin part. we wr gvn 6 topics and we should chose 1 and do a report of 1000 wrds! as we had 42 ppl in our clas, 7 ppl could do 1 topic, thr4 in ordr 2 chose these 7 4 d particular topic we wr suposed 2 send a mail 2 sir stain our 1st and 2nd preference and he would then alocate topics in 1st-come-1st-serve basis! thr ws a big commotion 2 snd d mails b4 d othr person as most of us wr in desperate need 2 gt the topic tht we like!

my 1st topic ws Digital Divide in SL and d 2nd topic ws Economic Impact of Outsourcing. it ws a difficult situtation 4 me 2 choose these 2 cz most topics seemd interestin. in the end i chose these 2 as i felt tht i cn do a beter job wth these. i'm planin 2 strt research frm 2mrw itself. 

intro

today ws d 1st day of lectures and v had Mr. Sayed Rehan doing d module LFS. we started off as with a introduction as to what LFS is, its learning outcomes, and about the types of assignments that we have 2 do.

all of us wr askd 2 create a reflective blog. sm of d students in d clas had current blogs or knew abt them bt majority wr new 2 that concept. Mr Rehan showed us as 2 how 2 create a blog and explained hw we shud update it on a daily basis. at the end of d semester we are supposed 2 gv a summery of the blogs that we had during tht period and ths ws 1 assignment in our module.

although it nvr crossed my mind earlier 2 start blogging, nw tht i kno abt it, i thnk it realy is a gud idea. although stil i feel a bit cluless as to wt 2 ryt, i hv a strong feeling tht wth practice i can improve wel. i thnk blogging is a gud method of keeping track of d activities u do so tht at 1 point (such as in d case of submitting d repot)  u cn go back on them and reflect as to hw u managed your life in a particular period..