MGSKL Olympian Outreach Inspires Stdents

2012 marked the third consecutive year that MGSKL succeeded in organizing the Olympism Outreach Program (OOP).  The 3 day program held from October 31st to November 2nd was well accepted by the 14 year old students who participated in various activities which required them to work as a team.  

Since it's inception in 2010, Olympism has been a unique highlight of MGSKL.  It has managed to win over the hearts and minds of the principal and teachers of MGSKL and this year, other Olympism activities were organized including an Olympism week, an Olympic Exhibition leading up to the London Olympics and an in-training Olympism Workshop for teachers.

The Olympism Outreach Program this year was conducted by Ms. Tay Li Neo and Ms. Low Mai Keok and facilitated by the school's three Olympism Ambassadors; Low Jean Hwee, Arissa Jemaima Ikram and Xenia Clarissa Sebastian and several of the school teachers.

The first day of the program saw the students getting to know each other through various ice-breaker activities and later on forming eight groups of 10 student s from different races. from each class.  

Their first activity as a group was to name their team in honor of International and Malaysian athletes and to get to know more about their team members.  From there, Team Nicol, Team Daley, Team Pandalela, Team Chong Wei, Team Djokovich, Team Azizul, Team Bryan and Team Bolt were born.


The teams than gathered to watch a video on the Ancient Olympics and learn about "Ekecheiria" or the Olympic Truce before moving on to find out more information about the Modern Olympics and Baron Pierre de Coubertin in the computer lab via the internet.  As the computer lab could not fit all 80 students, the eight teams were divided into 3 sets of groups to complete the other two tasks which were to create and design their team flag and motto and having a group discussion that revolved about sports that could have been played in the ancient Olympics.

The day ended with each group presenting their flags and a briefing of the next day's activities that were to take place outdoors in Lake Gardens.


A fun filled day was in store for the participants on Day 2.  The "Puteri Gunung Ledang" Teamwork in Action activity always managed to get some quizzical remarks by the participants as to how they should execute their tasks.  Teams were instructed to bring various things like an egg, a pail and a musical instrument but were not told why they had to bring them.  The main objective of the activity was to move from point A to point B in a group while fulfilling each role according to the set rules.  This activity tested the teams’ ability to strategize and work together in order to achieve their goal.

In essence, all activities organized were very closely related to a student's everyday life and values that a student should possess.  On the other hand, the program also aimed to unearth leaders amongst the pack.

After a short break following an exhilarating "Puteri Gunung Ledang" Teamwork in Action activity, each team was given a short inspiring story of an athlete who displayed outstanding achievements practicing the values of Olympism.  The teams read and discussed the story and later acted it out in front of everyone.  


To complete the day, the students were introduced to the sport of "Ultimate Frisbee" where they learnt the basic skills, rules and format of the game.  The eagerness and excitement of the students showed brightly on their faces when they passed the disc from one another shouting out their names and laughing when they couldn’t throw or catch the disc properly.

The third and final day activities tested the students’ collective innovation, creativeness and imagination.  Each team was given a stack of newspaper, masking tape and a bottle of 1.5 liter soft drink.  With the items given, they were told to build a structure strong enough to withstand the weight of the bottle and at the same time able to place a pair of shoes under it.   It was interesting to observe the teams communicated and planned their structure design.  Team Djokovich emerged with a ingenious and solid structure that didn’t only withstood the bottle of 1.5 liter soft drink but could also take the weight of a person.


The Olympism Ambassadors were up next as they presented the Olympic Symbols.  Jean Hwee, Xenia and Arissa each delivered one or two Olympic Symbols namely the rings, the torch relay, the motto and the creed.

After recess, the teams were given 40 minutes to rehearse for their cultural performance which had to incorporate the elements of sports and Olympism.  The cultural performance were then witnessed and judged by the principal, Pn. Phoon Yoke Meng and Ms. Low Mai Keok.  Team Daley outshined the rest with their choral speaking rendition of Olympism and Malaysian athletes which they whipped out in that 40 minutes.  



At the end of the program, one outstanding student who displayed leadership qualities, expressed and discussed ideas well with her group and demonstrated the ability to speak confidently in front of the crowd will be nominated.  Raenuga from Team Daley, Priyanka from Team Djokovich and Hafnie from Team Nicole were shortlisted and finally the coordinators, teachers and facilitators chose Raenuga as she showed more eagerness and curiosity towards Olympism and initiative when it came to group discussions.

Prizes were awarded to the best team in the “Puteri Gunung Ledang” Teamwork in Action activity, the most sturdy newspaper structure, and the best cultural performance.  Pn. Phoon closed the program with a speech that reminded the students to practice the values of Olympism and that the sky is the limit for each and every one of them.


MGSKL is moving forward strongly with Olympic Education and are in the process of making their very own Olympic Education handbook.  The three 15 year old Olympism Ambassadors that were nominated have shown outstanding commitment to promoting Olympism in school and they will be conducting their own “Introduction to Olympism” program to the Form 1 students next year. 

 They are mentoring eight aboriginal students in the school; introducing them to sports and other curricular activities like music and helping them in their studies as well as improving their English language.  Each one of the Olympism Ambassadors excel differently in MGSKL; Jean Hwee, captain of the school band and School Exemplary Student 2011, Arissa, a long distance runner who participates in various local and international competitions held in Malaysia while Xenia represents the state of Kuala Lumpur in Artistic Gymnastics. 

Two of them will eventually be selected to represent MGSKL to the 9th International Pierre de Coubertin Committee (CIPC) Youth Session in Oslo, Norway next year.  This will be the second time MGSKL will be participating in the CIPC Youth Session as an observer school.  

*To find our more about activities organized by Methodist Girls’ School Kuala Lumpur, visit www.mgskl.edu.my and their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Senior-Methodist-Girls-School-KL. 

10 best goals of the year

The race to determine the winner of the FIFA Puskás Award for the “best goal of the year” has started today, 14 November 2012, on FIFA.com. Fans from across the world will decide which of the ten goals selected by FIFA’s football experts will be the winner of this award.

Videos of the ten goals, as well as the list of scorers and the voting tool, can be found here:http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/puskasaward/index.html 

Users of FIFA.com and francefootball.fr will be able to choose from ten goals until 29 November when the three goals with the most votes will be disclosed during a press conference in São Paulo. Immediately after the announcement on 29 November, FIFA.com and francefootball.fr users will be able to vote again for their favourite from the three remaining goals. The winner will be revealed on the day of the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala on 7 January 2013. Voting will close during the show.

The FIFA Puskás Award, created in honour and in memory of Ferenc Puskás, the captain and star of the Hungarian national team during the 1950s, will be presented for the fourth year in a row at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala 2012, which will be held at the Kongresshaus in Zurich.

During a televised show, the winner of the FIFA Ballon d’Or for the best player of 2012 as well as the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2012 will also be revealed. Meanwhile, the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football award and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award will be presented for the third time. The FIFA FIFPro World XI, the FIFA Presidential Award and the FIFA Fair Play Award will also be presented during the gala.

For more information on the FIFA Ballon d’Or, please see: http://www.fifa.com/ballondor/index.html 

Are you interested?

 

 

 

 

No 6 in Iran

The Malaysian Schools U-18 team ended their participation in the Asian Schools Football Championship by being the sixth team in the tournament that saw 10 teams participating. The tournament was held in Tehran from 16-26 October 2012.

In the fight for fifth and sixth place, the National Schools team drew 1-1  with Indonesia but lost 3-2 on penalty.

The team were led by coaches from the Ministry of Education.

Other results for Malaysia:
Malaysia 0 Thailand 2
Hong Kong 2 Malaysia 2
Malaysia 4 Brunei 0
China 1 Malaysia 1.
Malaysia 1 Indonesia 1 (Indonesia won 3-2 on penalty)

Hattrick of doubles for Norshahrul

 Kelantan striker Norshahrul Idlan Talaha made it a historic hat-trick of ‘double’ titles when he again emerged victorious in the 100PLUS-Astro Arena-FAM National Football Awards 2012 in Shah Alam, Wednesday (30/10/12)..

The Terengganu-born striker had won his first double in 2010 with wins in the Best Striker and Most Valuable Player award after moving from UPB-MyTeam. And the 26-year-old followed it up with his second double last year following a late surge in the second half of the season.

And this year, with his two goals in the final of the Malaysia Cup, there was no doubt as to who is the king inside the six-yard box.

“The win could not have come at a better time than when I’m expecting the delivery of my first born,” said Norshahrul. “So I’m very happy with these double awards. I have to thank everyone who voted for me and of course to 100PLUS for their continued support of Malaysian footballers.”

In the meantime, Kelantan goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat cemented his position as the national No. 1 when he picked up his third Best Goalkeeper award in three years.

“At the moment, my focus is with the national team for the AFF Suzuki Cup, so winning this award for the third time in a row is validation of all the hardwork that I’ve put in through the season,” added Khairul Fahmi.

Other than Norshahrul and Khairul, the Kelantan FA also took home the award for the Best Football Association.

The other big winner on the day was ATM where apart from winning the accolade for the Best Fan Club, they also had in Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Radzak winning the Best Defender and Best Coach for B. Sathiananthan. Striker Marlon Alex James picked up the award for the Best Foreign Player.

Incidentally, both Aidil and Sathiananthan last won the awards in 2010 when they were with Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan respectively.

“I have to thank my players and the Armed Forces set-up for this award. It is the same as the first time when I won this award (in 2010), teamwork is the key to success and it must be supplemented with good management,” added Sathiananthan.

“I’m honoured to have worked with great set-ups, first Kelantan and now with the Armed Forces.”

The other winners on the day were Safiq Rahim from Selangor for the Best Midfielder award and Mohd Rozaimi Abdul Rahman from Sabah for the Most Promising Player category.

The award for the Best Club went to Sime Darby FC while Mohd Nafeez Abdul Wahab won for Best Referee.

At the same ceremony too, special awards were given out to the Ministry of Education in recognition of their contribution to youth development through the Minister of Education League Cup and also to Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Minhat, Malaysia’s Raja Bola who passed away recently.

  

My testimony and healing

I would like to continue to write about the healing that I received and hope it will be a blessing to you guys our there. By writing this I don't mean to put anybody down because I believe every one is doing his or best. But this is my story.

After surgery, I discovered that they has put some tubes to assist me in urinating. I asked why and they said that during surgery thy felt that my urine was slow, maybe got problem. I told them I din not eat or drink much for almost four days, how to expect urine to flow normally. Anyway, that what the text books says and I have to leave with it for 14 days.

On the 14th day, I was given an appointment to see the radiologist who would do test to see if there are blockages and so on. After 10 minutes the doctor said every thing is clear. I said to him, I told you that 14 days ago.

The next day was another appointment in the Urologi Clinic to remove the tubes. But the doctor said his room was to small to do that and he suggested that I come on Saturday, three days away, and there they would make sure that one the tubes are out, no emergencies would happen.

I was not happy with the statement but since its sort of prevention, I said should be ok. So the the tubes were hanging on me for almost 17 days.

On Saturday, I arrived for the procedure to remove the tubes. At the reception I was told that I had to come one week later. Why? Because they were polishing the ward and no bed to put me on, even for a few hours. The lady at the reception was adamant that I should go back because the bosses don' want people hanging around at the reception.

I said sorry, you people gave me this date. I sat there with my wife and a friend and prayed. After an hour, I asked the lady to call the ward again. She did, reluctantly. And there was silence as suddenly an attendant came and took me up. There was a bed available.

My friend. God works at reception counter of hospital also. In the ward the doctors did some test, told me to urine and they wanted to scan to see if the urine is cleared. The doctor did not know how to use the scan machine so they called some nurses who said said "clear". I said, I told you that 17 days ago.

Than came the time to remove the tubes. I was told only the doctor-supervisor has authority to do that and he was not to be seen. The staffs searched for him and - hopefully he was at an emergency somewhere - he asked who is there is the ward. They answered, a trainee doctor. He said ask the trainee doctor to remove. I wonder what happened to the authority part.

Anyway, as I said, everything is good because God is in charge of me. I would like to write some more about this process. The reason I want to write is I discovered that the mention of God moves the doctor away. There are not interested to heard about God having healed.

I have no problems with the procedures and text books and so on. But, always remember there is a God above.

I will write some more but two days ago, as I was sharing with a friend my experiences, he said this to me: "The symbol for medicine used to Red Cross. Now it's a snake and a bowl. What happened?"

Oops... I don't know. To be continued with......

Sathia and Bojan

I must congratulate my friend B. Sathianathan and his Armed Forces players for their fine run in the 2012 Malaysia Cup competition. They lost 2-3 to Kelantan in the final match on Saturday (20/10/12) but they were certainly the better team. Once again, congratulations to Sathia.

I have known Sathia for a long and know how passionate he is with his job. I wish him all the best as he prepares for next year's competition where his team will be in the Super League. This year they won the Premier League, a target given to Sathia by his employers.

I also would like to congratulate Boyan Hodak for motivating and inspiring his team to win the final. Boyan has been around in Malaysia for some time but I have never been close to him.

But, it looks like we would be good friends from now. At the post match media conference, he said this to me: "Please update your blog. I hate it when you don't do it."

Well, I will try to do my best, but please remember I am no expert like the other writers. 

Sathia, Boyan and the rest of the coaches should also be commended for making the season sucessful. 

Sathia has confirmed continuing with ATM while Boyan will go on a vacation while waiting for news from Kelantan.

All the best guys!