WHY LIFE FEELS DIFFICULT AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT?
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Does life often get you down? Life can be tough, but, there are also a few things we can do to easily brush away some of the common difficulties.

Common Problems and how to deal with it
Lack of Money
It is easy to feel that if we could just get a few thousand more dollars – all our problems would be solved. However, you may find even if you won a thousand dollars, you would still want more. Life will always create money worries – the important thing is how to deal with them. Try to keep money in its proper place, don’t let it dominate your life. Take practical steps to improve your financial situation, but try also to be content with your current situation; it is a mistake to always feel that a lack of money is our most significant problem.

Lack of Motivation
Often we know what we should do, but, we feel no inclination to start. A lack of motivation means that we never try new things and life can easily become stale. A lack of motivation is related to a feeling of boredom and self doubt. There are many practical ways to overcome a lack of motivation; the most important thing is just to start new projects. Often when we make the initial first step, we realise it is not as difficult as we feared. It can also be important to set goals, if we make certain targets it becomes harder to find excuses and avoid doing it.

Problems keep repeating themselves
Quite often, when we solve or avoid a problem, it repeats itself through another person or another experience. This can be dispiriting because it seems we will never be able to gain peace of mind. The solution is not to keep trying to avoid the problem, when we have a defect in our character the problem will keep appearing. To resolve this kind of problem we need to take a fresh perspective and try to understand the underlying cause of the problem. This may require some honest self criticism. Look at your motives and thoughts and see whether you can approach issues from a different perspective.

Criticism from Others
Sometimes we try our best, but others never seem satisfied. This criticism can come from our boss, families or friends. If we try to make everyone happy we will never succeed; whatever we do, someone will always discover some reason to find fault. Instead we need to look carefully at how we deal with criticism. Some criticism is false, so we should ignore it and remain detached. If criticism is valid, we should seek to learn from it, without feeling guilty or a sense of injured pride.
How to overcome destructive criticism? Just love a little more. That’s all.

Life is heading Nowhere
Do you ever get the feeling that life is heading nowhere? Do you think about where you will be in 10 years time and groan at the prospect of being stuck in the same dead end job, with the same unsolved problems? If the future depresses you, don’t resign to your fate. Do something to create a better future; it is important to have the hope of a different and more fulfilling future. Unless we are able to have a positive view of our future self development, there is little hope of actually creating it.

Minor Personality conflicts
Minor personality conflicts are one of the most enduring causes of human suffering. It seems that no matter where we turn, there are always other people ready to cause problems. No matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to avoid getting irritated by the behaviour of other people. To make things worse these small problems often go round endlessly in our mind, magnifying the initial problem. The solution is not to expect a certain behaviour from other people; if we give up on perfecting other’s behaviour life becomes more peaceful. The other thing we need to try is to gain control of our thoughts. We need to let go of negative thoughts so that we don’t allow minor problems to escalate in importance.

Poor Health.
Do you get out of breath walking up the stairs? Do you feel a sense of guilt about piling on extra pounds? If we neglect the body and fail to exercise we become lethargic and more prone to a depressed state of mind. The link between a healthy body and positive frame of mind can never be underestimated; it is only when we make an effort to keep fit that we realise the difference it can make, and not just to our physical health but our state of mind. To start an exercise regime does need self discipline and self motivation; but, unless you can look after your own health, no amount of pills will be able to solve your problems.
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WE NEED OUR FEELINGS
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Do you struggle with knowing and accepting how you feel? If you do, you are not alone. It may be the most common problem there is, and yet the single most important thing to learn. Our feelings are important because they help us to know ourselves, to be real, and to connect deeply with other people. Almost every psychological problem relies on some distortion or denial of feelings.
For example, people who struggle with intimacy in relationships are often afraid of feeling vulnerable with another person -- it scares or overwhelms them. People who have substance abuse problems may be using drugs or alcohol to numb their feelings and painful experiences. People who self-injure are often trying to numb or push away intense feelings. Most problems involve denying, avoiding, and hiding feelings and the solution always involves accepting feelings.
The Problem with Denying, Avoiding, and Hiding Feelings
The problem with denying, avoiding, and hiding one's feelings is evident everywhere, from the boy who won't let himself cry for fear of being called a "sissy", so he punches someone instead, to the girl who's afraid to express her anger clearly and directly for fear she'll be seen as being "like a boy" so she instead gossips cruelly about her peers, or turns her anger on herself. We can see it in the woman who can't say "no" because she fears conflict, so she ends up resenting her friends. We even see it in our heads of states who don't acknowledge their vulnerability and fears, and instead act aggressively and violently. We live in a world that is intolerant of authentic feelings, and this hurts us all.
People who do show their feelings are often put down and told they are "too sensitive," "over- reacting," "emotional," and not "objective," while people who hide their emotions are viewed as "strong," "confident," "logical," and "objective." While these differences can be expressed along gender lines, women are increasingly expected to hide or deny their emotions, and many men experience a lack of acceptance when they do express their vulnerability.
When people are put down for expressing their feelings, they may find that their feelings heighten or escalate because they feel invalidated and unheard; there's a natural tendency to feel more emotional when you haven't been heard. They may also learn to suppress and deny their feelings by distancing and numbing themselves. When people are rewarded for masking their emotions, they often end up feeling unseen, alienated, angry, and depressed without knowing why; their lives may look good but they feel empty or unfulfilled because they are cut off from their emotions.
What Do You Feel?
You can get to know your feelings simply by sitting quietly with your eyes closed or looking downward, and tuning inward. Shifting your attention inward helps you to sense what is going on inside of you. We can get so caught up in what we're doing, what we're talking about, or what other people are doing, that we forget to notice ourselves.
If, when you tune inward, you don't notice anything, try doing a body scan. Lie down comfortably and take the time to notice how you feel in different areas of your body. Start with your head, and work your way down to your toes, or focus on the areas that most draw your attention. Notice how you feel physically in each area of your body. Do you notice any tension, cramping, numbness, or anything else?
Notice what, if anything, comes to your mind when you focus on each area of your body. For example, does a memory come to mind, a thought, an image, an emotion? Just notice what comes to you without judging or thinking about it, and then move on to the next area of your body. Try not to analyze what comes up, because that will take you out of your body and your emotions.
Some people find that by noticing the natural rhythm of their breath, they feel more tuned into their body and emotions, and some people find that doing this triggers panic and fear. If it's comfortable for you, notice how your body rises and falls with your breath. Observing your breath can not only help you to tune inward, but can also help you to unwind.
Taking time to tune into yourself every day goes a long way toward helping you to know how you feel. You can do this almost anywhere, including sitting on the bus, waiting for the light to turn green, sitting in a traffic jam, sitting on the toilet, and so on.
Accepting Your Feelings
Sometimes when people first learn to identify how they feel, they don't know how to accept or stay with those feelings. They seek out other people to hear and respond to their feelings, rather than do that themselves. Some people get confused by this, because they think that they should be able to express their feelings whenever they want to. There is no doubt that, at some point, we all need to express our feelings and to be heard and accepted. Yet it is also true that not everyone can hear our feelings, or wants to. Even when people want to listen they may want to decide when and how much they can listen to at any one time. This can be hard to deal with, especially if you've recently learned that it's good to talk about your feelings. You may feel silenced or controlled by not being able to talk about your feelings -- and the other person can also feel controlled by being expected, or having to listen to them.
Accepting and staying with your feelings means listening to yourself, hearing how you feel, and being empathic with yourself as you would with a friend. It means acknowledging your feelings, whatever they may be, and asking yourself whether there is anything you need. Do you need to write about it, listen to music, sit quietly doing something soothing, take a break from what you're doing, go for a walk, lie down, have a nap, or something else?
Sometimes it helps to simply close your eyes, notice how you feel and just sit with that feeling, doing nothing with it; just feel it and notice it without judgement.
Stepping Back and Witnessing Your Feelings
Sometimes you need to step back from your feelings. Maybe they're too difficult to feel right now, or too overwhelming. You may need to do something that requires your full attention, or you may just need a break from feeling so much. It's possible to step back from your feelings - to be aware of them and acknowledge them, but to not be in them quite so much. This technique can be hard to do, but with practice it gets easier.
You start the same way: close your eyes or look downward. Tune into your feelings, only this time, focus on noticing them and stepping back from them. This can be accomplished in different ways. You can name the feelings, for example, "sadness" and then remind yourself to step back. You can think "I am stepping back". Notice the feeling without going into it deeply or fully. You may want to imagine an image, real or abstract, to represent your feelings, and then observe that image. You are witnessing your emotions by acknowledging that they are there without going into them. You may or may not need to feel that feeling later. Sometimes simply noticing and acknowledging your feelings helps them to shift.
Talking About Your Feelings
Talking about how you feel can help you in many ways. It can help you deepen your connection with yourself, while deepening your connection with the person you are speaking with (unless you are talking *at* the person, or are not present as you speak).
Talking can help you to process, express, and let go of your feelings (as can writing, drawing, sculpting, reflecting, and listening inside). It can deepen your understanding of yourself by helping you to stay with your feelings, and to go deeper. And it can help you to feel heard and accepted, and help the other person feel trusted and let in.
Talking about your feelings means you are being vulnerable with another person, and that both creates and deepens intimacy. Taking the risk to say things that are hard can be liberating for both of you.
Not Everyone Feels the Same Way
People are often surprised to discover that not everyone reacts to the same events with similar emotions. Something that might scare one person will anger another. How you feel is rooted in many things, such as, how you perceive the event, what it means to you, whether you've experienced something similar or not, what your history is, what your emotional temperament is, and so on.
Some people always feel intensely; others rarely do. Some people experience the world through their thoughts and reflections, while others experience events through their emotions -- they feel their way through situations while the former think their way through situations. (The Myers Briggs topology offers some helpful information about how people respond to the world differently in terms of feeling, thinking, judging, sensing, perceiving, intuiting, etc.) People who lean more toward feelings are often confused and irritated by those who lean more toward thinking, and vice versa. Conflicts can arise out of these differences. It's important to remember that people are different; they feel what they feel, and they think what they think, and there is no one way or right way to feel or think. Just as we need to accept our own feelings, we need to accept others' as well, including -- and especially -- when they don't match up with our own.
We Need Our Feelings
Feelings are an essential part of our humanity - we need to listen to our feelings. When we don't sensitively tune in to our and to other people's feelings, all kinds of psychological and social problems develop. Taking an allow-it-to-be-there, appreciative, open, or welcoming attitude toward feelings has a lightening effect on everyone. Allow your feelings to be there without trying to get rid of them or to keep them, and you will find that many problems will lessen.
By being open to your feelings, you'll discover that they will guide and teach you, warn and protect you, and delight and entertain you. So give yourself a break by taking a little bit of time every day to tune into how you are feeling -- you'll soon discover the benefits.
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HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY
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If we are asked to define the word 'teacher', what would be the most common answer? It is very true that teachers help us understand our subject but there is one very important thing that none of us should forget... that teachers not only make us literate but also educated. Literal knowledge can be gained from any book, but we always need teachers to gain education. Teachers are the one who facilitate learning of lessons of life, morals, differentiate between good and bad. Gradually in school, I learnt a lot about life. My teacher made me learn tough and new spellings... I understood, I need better words to communicate. My teacher made me do difficult mathematics problems... I understood, I need numbers to count my pocket money. They made me learn names of far away countries and their capital cities... I understood, I have lots of places to explore. They made me learn names of ancient kings, rulers and dynasties... I understood, how old the world is. My teacher made me learn confusing physical and chemical formulae... I understood, still new things can be made. They gave me difficult tests to write... I learnt about hard work. They gave me less marks in some tests... I learnt about disappointment. They gave me strong punishments for scoring less... I learnt about patience. They told me I could do well in exams if I worked harder... I learnt about encouragement. They gave me good marks in exams... I learnt about hope. They sometimes read aloud the names of students who had scored very well... I learnt about achievement. Friends... knowledge of these things and all these virtues can only be imparted by a teacher... a 'guru', and not by any book available in the market. I would say that... we love and admire our teachers because...we are taught by their talents, equipped by their efficiency, assisted by their advice, cared by their concern, helped by their humility, encouraged by their efforts, and raised by their reasoning. Today, I would like to thank all the teachers on behalf of all the students... for telling us all that we know, for making us learn ABCD so that we could learn further. Thank you all... (especially... those whom I miss so much today)
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SEAMEO RECSAM - CERTIFICATE PRESENTATION
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CERTIFICATE PRESENTATION
REGULAR COURSE BATCH II
F.Y 2009/2010
BY
H.E. MR VORADET VIRAVAKIN
CONSUL-GENERAL OF THAILAND
30 APRIL 2010
Ask (Malaysia)

Lee Kah Wing (Singapore)

Chonticha Bonyood (Thailand)


Nguyen Dac Thang (Vietnam)

Cecelia C.Casquejo (Philippines)

Win Mar Oo (Myanmar)

Anis Budiyani (Indonesia)


Chea Sothea (Cambodia)


Thongket Ketviengthong (Lao PDR)

Muhammad Azril Ramli(Brunei)

Reinaldo Juvinal Da Costa (Timur Leste)


Orkut Myspace Congratulation Scraps, Graphics and Comments


GoodLightscraps.com
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Improve multiple choice tests using item analysis
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Item analysis report
An item analysis includes two statistics that can help you analyze the effectiveness of your test questions. The question difficulty is the percentage of students who selected the correct response. The discrimination (item effectiveness) indicates how well the question separates the students who know the material well from those who don’t.

Question difficulty
Question difficulty is defined as the proportion of students selecting the correct answer. The most effective questions in terms of distinguishing between high and low scoring students will be answered correctly by about half of the students. In practical terms, questions in most classroom tests will have a range of difficulties from low or easy (.90) to high or very difficult (.40). Questions having difficulty estimates outside of these ranges may not contribute much to the effective evaluation of student performance.

Very easy questions may not sufficiently challenge the most able students. However, having a few relatively easy questions in a test may be important to verify the mastery of some course objectives. Keep tests balanced in terms of question difficulty.
Very difficult questions, if they form most of a test, may produce frustration among students. Some very difficult questions are needed to challenge the best students.


Question discrimination
The discrimination index (item effectiveness) is a kind of correlation that describes the relationship between a student’s response to a single question and his or her total score on the test. This statistic can tell you how well each question was able to differentiate among students in terms of their ability and preparation.

As a correlation, question discrimination can theoretically take values between -1.00 and +1.00. In practical terms values for most classroom tests range between near 0.00 to values near .90.
If a question is very easy so that nearly all students answered correctly, the questions discrimination will be near zero. Extremely easy questions cannot distinguish among students in terms of their performance.
If a question is extremely difficult so that nearly all students answered incorrectly, the discrimination will be near zero.
The most effective questions will have moderate difficulty and high discrimination values. The higher the value of discrimination is, the more effective it is in discriminating between students who perform well on the test and those that don’t.
Questions having low or negative values of discrimination need to be reviewed very carefully for confusing language or an incorrect key. If no confusing language is found then the course design for the topic of the question needs to be critically reviewed.
A high level of student guessing on questions will result in a question discrimination value near zero.


Steps in a review of an item analysis report
Review the difficulty and discrimination of each question.
For each question having low values of discrimination review the distribution of responses along with the question text to determine what might be causing a response pattern that suggests student confusion.
If the text of the question is confusing, change the text or remove the question from the course database. If the question text is not confusing or faulty, then try to identify the instructional component that may be leading to student confusion.
Carefully examine the questions that discriminate well between high and low scoring students to fully understand the role that instructional design played in leading to these results. Ask yourself what aspects of the instructional process appear to be most effective.
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RECSAM'S School Tryout
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School Tryout
Project Title : Assessing Mathematics Multiple Choice Test Using TAP Software
Student: Form 4 Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Al-Mashoor, Penang.
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RIGHT BRAIN MATH
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Multiplication: Learning Times Tables for 8s and 2s

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RIGHT BRAIN MATH
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Math Times Tables for 3, 6, 9 multiplication

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