Happy Teachers' Day!

A Kenyan teacher and his class. Photo (c) Rogiro.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

- Henry Brooks Adams

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

- John Cotton Dana

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.

- Chinese proverb

In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.

- Jacques Barzun

The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.

- Elbert Hubbard

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.

- Chinese proverb

S-I-R Challenge 2009

Ikhwan (left) and the other two winners admiring their mock cheques.

SAKTI sent a team of four students to the Spell-It-Right Challenge at Johor Bahru City Square yesterday. Fifth-former Ikhwan Aliff Abdul Halim performed brilliantly, spelling "menagerie" to clinch the first runner-up prize in the individual category. From the news report in today's NST:

Ikhwan Aliff Abdul Halim, from SM Sains Kota Tinggi, won the tie-breaker with Ahmad Nazri Seleman, of SMK Agama Johor Baru, to come in second. He received RM1,500 while third prize winner Ahmad Nazri won RM1,000.

Ikhwan Aliff said hard work and prayers paid off for him.

"I learned up to 200 new words a day. I'm at a boarding school, so I practised during prep time."

Siti Maizatulnisa Abd Malik and Hisham Mohd Alifiah from form 4, and Nor Anis Suraya Mohd Nor from form 3 did not disappoint either. Their combined efforts won us the second runner-up prize of RM1,000 in the school category.

(From left) Hisham, Ikhwan, Cik Khadijah, Maizatul and Anis posing before the competition.

For those students who'd like to represent the school at next year's challenge, better get started on your word lists pronto! :)

English Carnival 2009

On Wednesday, SAKTI hosted the closing ceremony for the Kota Tinggi District Level English Language Carnival 2009. The carnival featured various competitions: public speaking, drama, parliamentary debate, and choral speaking. SAKTI did very well by coming out second in the public speaking and drama competitions, and winning third in the parliamentary debate.

Congratulations to all the participants!

PUBLIC SPEAKING: Nur Fatihah Abdul Malik only trained for two days before the competition, and yet she managed to impress the judges with her eloquence. Just imagine if her mentor, Encik Azman, had had more time to mould her!

DRAMA: Norain Md Sum was voted Best Performer for her portrayal of Princess Matilda in the play "Love is a Riddle". The chief judge complimented our actors on their polished language and graceful acting. Clearly, they were the crowd favourite! Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn't on their side this time and so the crown of success went to another school.

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE: Our debaters did the school proud by fighting to the end. Fairuz Najihah Kamarudin, who was crowned as the Best Speaker in the semi-finals, took the audience's breath away with her outstanding performance. Ahmad Syakeer Suhaimi, with his colourful presentation, delivered his speeches with style while Seah Kin Hui glued the team's stand together with his cogent and convincing arguments.

CHORAL SPEAKING: Even though we participated last year, this year we had our hands full with various projects, and so we decided to withdraw from the competition. Hopefully we'll be able to take part next year.