A bumpy road to success

A bumpy road to success! 

Rural African rough road (but what a beauty surrounds it if one cares to notice!) 

Hahaha... yes, I wish it would be that easy! 

After the first euphoria because Aisyah's mom finally replied, things got calmer. I have sent some more messages, asking and demanding, in the same time, that Aisyah does some work (trying not to be too laid-back and totally ignored, but then again,  I can only push it just so far without the family closing themselves off). My inner psychologist was plotting influence while kind of flattering and passing the message that the family is in control... And then, there is Aisyah, I really do believe that education can help anyone (and even if it wouldn't,  it is the right way to go) and that this effort would bring a benefit for Aisyah.

I started getting a bit lost in-between the messages I have sent and replies I have received, frantically switching from Ajwad's whatsApp to Miss Nur Zalia's messages. I was trying to match my translations. I was re-reading to remember what I have said and going back to translated replies of Aisyah's mom that were somewhere in the conversation with Ajwad. Must admit that communicating like this is messy and not at all easy.  It made me think of the refugee crisis that is going on around the world and how hard it must be on those people in such an insecure and fragile situation to deal with being in a country that speaks another language (on top of being in a country with a culture sometimes so very different from their own). I really think "we" (ME very much included!) should be grateful for having it so easy....

Anyway, my last messages kindly asked for Aisyah's phone number, but for the moment there is no reply to it.

Hard at work on I learn Ace during out visit to SK Bangsar

Aisyah's work progress 

I have checked Aisyah's results and if she has done some work since the last update. She has gained some points and improved her position in the ranking, now being 9th in the SK Bangsar by the quantity of work done. I have seen some of her evaluations and though some offer quite a good results, other ones leave lot to be desired . Most of it being in Bahasa, it is hard for me to determine her shortfalls. I have also seen that there is a work that she started and abandoned (marked as work in progress). It is something I will have to have a word with her mom about (and maybe Aisyah directly if I am given her number).

Aisyah's work

Mind mapping concept

When I was in school, mind mapping did not exist as such, of course we would sometimes draw a schemes that slightly looked like it,  but nobody really thought much of it. It evolved ever since and is now a major technique in all kind of domains of education. Mind mapping concept is said to increase creativity and productivity.  It's a tool that lets a person generate ideas and identify relationships among the different data and information. It effectively improves memory and retention of the information presented. 

During our visit to SK Bangsar, we showed to its students how to produce mind maps with I learn Ace. Aisyah and I have done two. For the first one, I asked that it is something educational and school related,  so we have done the presentation of the planets of the Solar System.

Aisyah's first Science mind-map

For the second one I thought that we should do something that was less scholarly and would be a bit more fun for Aisyah. We settled for Aisyah's favourite movies, international and local variety. And guess what? No matter school they go to, no matter if they are privileged or living on the margin of society, no matter if they are local or foreign, they all enjoy a bit of magic from a beloved boy wizard! 

Aisyah's favourite movies