What is thinking skill?

• When cognitive skills are strong, academic learning is fast, easy, efficient, and even fun.
• When cognitive skills are weak, academic learning will be, at best, a struggle.
• Cognitive skills are, therefore, the essential tools for learning.

It will help immensely if you keep these points foremost in your mind as we examine mental skills more closely.

Mental or cognitive skills may seem a bit mysterious because they are not easy to see or recognize by themselves. But, without the underlying cognitive skills, you and I could not process the information received from every possible source -- sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell.

ASSURE Model: The best way to organize the lesson plan.

Analyze learners
State objectives
Select instructional methods, media, and materials
Utilize media and materials
Require learner participation
Evaluate and revise

The ASSURE model is one of the way for teacher to design and develop the most appropriate learning environment for their students. You can use this process in writing your lesson plans and in improving teaching and learning.

• Analyze learner- teacher must know the standard of the students like age, sex, socioeconomic level and etc. Teacher also must know the level of the students cognitive skill. Beside that the way of how the student love to learn must be analyze.

• State objective- Objectives are the learning outcomes, that is, what will the student get out of the lesson?

• Select instructional methods, media and materials- The selection of the methods, media (video, audio, computer, etc.) and materials must be appropriate withe the students and the lesson to meet the objective stated.

• Utilize media and materials- test the media and make sure all of them working. Make sure the media and materials can be use in the classroom.

• Require learner participation - try to make the student take part in the teaching and learning session. Try to avoid lecturing. Listen to your students and allow them to become aware of the content. Allow them to learn as opposed to trying to "teach" them.

• Evaluate and revise - Evaluate the teaching and learning session whether achieve the objective or not. Try to state the weaknesses and the ways to overcome it in the next session.

Play: Fun in the classroom.

Play activities are essential to healthy development for children and adolescents. Research shows that 75% of brain development occurs after birth. The activities engaged in by children both stimulate and influence the pattern of the connections made between the nerve cells.This process influences the development of fine and gross motor skills, language, socialization, personal awareness, emotional well-being, creativity, problem solving and learning ability. The most important role that play can have is to help children to be active, make choices and practice actions to mastery. They should have experience with a wide variety of content (art, music, language, science, math, social relations) because each is important for the development of a complex and integrated brain. Play that links sensori-motor, cognitive, and social-emotional experiences provides an ideal setting from brain development. So, a teacher must implement the fun in the classromm by create some games that pupils can learn from it.

Abraham Maslow's Needs Theory

Here we can see the diagram shows the Abraham Maslow's theory of needs. His theory is used in most field that involve human being.
This theory is implemented on the educational system in my country, Malaysia.
The first human needs is Physiological needs such as food, cloth, shelter, sleep, rest, etc.
After the physiological needs was fulfilled, human need to feel safe. A human need to live in a safe surrounding and free from the threat of physical and emotional harm.
After that, human needs to have a good social live. Friendship, belonging to a group and giving and receiving love will be needs for human.
After a person feels that they "belong", the urge to attain a degree of importance emerges. Esteem needs can be categorized as external motivators and internal motivators.Internally motivating esteem needs are those such as self-esteem, accomplishment, and self respect. External esteem needs are those such as reputation and recognition.
Self-actualization is the summit of Maslow's motivation theory. It is about the quest of reaching one's full potential as a person. Unlike lower level needs, this need is never fully satisfied; as one grows psychologically there are always new opportunities to continue to grow.

How this theory works in education???

Sports and education.

Sports and education is like water in a glass. They are very close and need each other. I am a very active sportsmen and coach for some sports in my school. We have made some winning time for some sports that we have took part.
As a human being we need to exercise to have a healthy lifestyle. I always recommend my pupils to take parts in at least one sport to make them always exercise and have healthy body. This may take them to the successful of their life.
These are some photo of my football team. We have been the champion of the Besut District.

Teacher: The human artist.

How can a teacher be a human artist? Why I said that? All of us learn from at least a teacher. We must have teacher to have skills and knowledge to live in this earth. Without a teacher we are nothing.
As we were born, we do not know anything. We learn how to speak, walk, run and everything we can do now. How we learn these? By using our sense, brain and the inquire of the what we want to know, is it possible that we can learn all? Of course not! We need teacher to teach us to do something.
By a teacher, we also can learn something faster and easier. Our first teacher usually our parents. They teach us to walk, talk and do basic things to live. We learn a lot of knowledge in school such as history, mathematics, science etc.
I am very proud to be a teacher because I can paint the future. I am the one of the future painter. I teach children to be 'someone' in the future. If I teach something that can benefit the human being and the world. If I teach them something wrong, disaster will come.