Sisiliya Joseph has bagged Asia's Online Teaching Excellence Award

My name is Sisiliya Joseph and I was born on 11th July 1985 as the youngest daughter out of nine children. My parents are rubber tappers in the Estate. My father passed away when I was five years old. So my brother is taking over the responsibility to educate me and my sister. I successfully completed my STPM in 2004 and I continued my studies in Temenggong Ibrahim Teachers Training College in 2007. I qualified as a teacher from Temenggong Ibrahim Teachers Training College in 2010.

My first posting was at Saint Theresa’s Convent Taiping. There I learn a lot about the multiple character of the students as well as I’m new in teaching platform. Every day I will find out how to teach students in different methods. So, a fun learning method I used in a mathematics lesson. It shows good progress in students' results. In 2009 I participated in a state level competition of creating teaching material using technology by using POWERPOINT.

Then, I transferred to my district but quite far from my hometown at SJKT Ladang Perak River Valley. The estate is far from the town and there are few families who only stay at the Estate. It’s really challenging for me to educate the students. But the students are all very humble and talented. I became a Speaker (Penceramah) and Coach of DSKP KSSR SEMAKAN (Jurulatih Utama KSSR under Education Ministry Malaysia from 2013-2015 for Teachers. I trained the LPRV students to participate in district level competition, Program Nilam(Reading Programme) and Sports. Furthermore, I will bring the students to the Motivational Workshop at Bagan Serai, Kerian Perak in 2016 to do well in the UPSR exam.

Honestly, the path towards this award was not easy, various challenges and difficulties came across my path. I continue my journey as a teacher in SJKT Mahathma Gandhi Kalasalai in 2019 and until now. Even though I’m a mathematics teacher, I also help the school admin to teach English. It’s not easy to be English teacher.  I was able to overcome all the obstacles which came along my way because we lack of English teachers. So I still remember APJ ABDUL KALAM quotes that ‘Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great.’ So as a teacher I learned more about CEFR from Teacher Ash BlogSpot, Teacherfiera. Game-based learning in classrooms and 21’st century skills in teaching English. I take this opportunity to thank them.

The covid pandemic has changed teaching methods. As dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. So I used e-learning platforms to gain my knowledge and I became a Google Educator Level 1 in 2020. So I keep on learning to do YouTube Videos for my students. Furthermore I use Google Classroom, mylink, google meet, Kahoot game, Word Wall game, quizizz, Canva, Google Form, Google Slide, Jamboard, Telegram quizbot to deliver my knowledge to students.

I am always sure that my hard work will one day give me all the fruitful results and will enhance my life. I would like to thank the Education Ministry of Malaysia, Perak State Education Department and District Education Department of Kuala Kangsar who always encourage and give opportunity to all teachers to gain knowledge in teaching.

I dedicate this award to my family members. Without my mom, brothers, my husband and my kids any achievement is impossible. I am very much grateful to them. I am extremely honoured to be receiving such an important award, “Asia’s Online Teaching Excellence Award” by Asia Award powered by Rula. I was speechless for the moment being emotional and my happiness had no bound.  Asia Awards powered by Rula is an excellence award that shines with such praiseworthy awards. Thanks again and God bless.