academic crossword puzzles

Education should be fun. Being an academic facilitator, there's nothing more satifying than seeing my own students enjoying their learning process. Hence, recently I've completed writing a set of fun learning crossword puzzle books for UPSR and PMR levels. The set of books comprise some of the main subjects such as Bahasa Melayu, English, Science, Mathematics, Sejarah, Kemahiran Hidup and Geografi. I supposed the series will be in the market in two months time.

I have kept this idea for more than 2 years. Only recently I make myself work on a proposal and submit to a pubisher which I have worked closely before. Perhaps I should thank the reality show 'The Apprentice'. In one of the episode, I remember Donald Trump mentioned about 'a good idea is a saleable idea' (sort of). That means if you have an idea but never market your idea, it's not a good idea at all. Hence, I take his words and finally have the guts to approached the publisher. Initially, I thought people might not find it a fantastic idea (although I believe it is). But of course in the end, my idea was accepted and I glad I finally did something not only for myself but also for the students in the entire nation.

Let's say you are not really good in scientific terms or you are going to sit for Science exam next week. After revising for few hours you think you want to have a rest and a cuppa. This is the perfect time for students to try to tackle the crossword puzzles in my book. We still haven't settle for the title of the book but initially we called it the Puzzle Book. Still don't have an idea of what I'm talking about? Go to my website and take a look at it: http://www.geocities.com/hcfoo/

Maths and Science in English

I'm not sure if our government finally realised the importance of Mandarin and Tamil or is this their agenda to achieve their 'dream school' the Vision School. There are no doubts that the Chinese and Indian students always have the advantage in terms of language skills. Ask an interviewer, he would prefer a candidate with advantage in speaking Mandarin over another candidate who doesn't speak any extra languages besides Malay and English.

Since the implementation of Science and Mathematics with English as its medium, we are moving towards another drastic change. Mandarin and Tamil will no longer be the alien subjects. The good news is there will be no minimum number of students to open a class. As usual the initial problem would be the lack of qualified teachers.

Whatever the problems are, let's hope this will be a long term implementation. Remember we have history in abandoning a lot of educational programmes when challenges occurs. I'm glad that the government take such step despite disgreement from certain parties. It's a good move to build a society whereby we can learn from each other. And this is the true meaning of education.