Working as a lecturer is sooooooo easy!

It has been more than two years since I started my career as a lecturer at my university. To be frank with you, I just love my job. I have passion in teaching and I enjoy doing my job tremendously. Both my parents are educators so I guess the skills and passion are inherited. How far do you know about the responsibilities of a lecturer? Let me share with you the true roles and responsibilities of a lecturer specifically at private institutions. This information is based on my knowledge and experiences.

Educators
Lecturers' main responsibility is to educate the students.They are the academicians who play roles as tutors and teachers. Lecturers are responsible to prepare teaching materials, set and mark assignments, marking the examination papers and of course giving lectures. They ought to facilitate the learners to cope well in their subjects. Don't get weird when you see lecturers are engrossed with textbooks and exercises. At times, lecturers are assigned to teach new subjects that they have never taught before and subjects which they have left for ages. Therefore, they need to do more revisions and research on that particular courses before coming to class.

Counselors
In being a counselor, a lecturer should have a very good communication with the students.Lecturers should motivate the students in their studies.There might be some students facing problems such as financial crisis, family issues, peer pressure and relationship problems. Therefore, lecturers work as academic advisers to the students which they need to give pastoral care and guidance. Students with attitude problem, high absenteeism, low grades should be given  more counseling sessions. Lecturers ought to monitor the progress of the students academically and non-academically. Lecturers also need to get feedback from their students on their performance. That is why sometimes, lecturers know the students better than their own parents.

Administrators
There are a lot of administration tasks and documentation need to be done by lecturers. Lecturers are responsible to develop syllabus as well as all the contents for certain courses and programs. Documentations also include the preparation of teaching plan, reports on teaching and analysis on results . All the filings are need to be done by the lecturers themselves.

Marketing Executives
At private institutions, it is normal to find lecturers working at certain marketing events and education fairs. Reason?Lecturers can give better advice and information since they know the content of the course better than anyone else.

Researcher and Supervisor
In universities, it is a must for lecturers to involve in research activities. Some lecturers are responsible as research advisers or supervisors for the students. Researching helps the lecturers to be more expert in their field and get more exposures to the industry involved. Besides, it strengthen the lecturers' skills in supervising their students research in the future. Other than that, more publications need to be done in order to upgrade the universities rank and status.

Managers
There are some lecturers who do not work as ordinary lecturers with the responsibilities as I have mentioned above.Some lecturers are elected as coordinators, head of programs or event managers. Lecturers with great leadership skills are usually selected to hold these positions. It is very common for the lecturers to handle graduation planning, entertaining visiting lecturers as well as participating in extra curricular activities.

Conclusion:
Never think that working as a lecturer is easy. There are certain people who have ambiguous ideas about the lecturers' roles. I am just pointing out the clear and true responsibilities of a lecturer. Lecturers are academicians who have high responsibilities towards the students, universities and country. Working as a lecturer is appropriate to be called as noble job when sincerity, honesty and sacrifice are there. To anyone who intend to embark into education industry, make sure that you are clear of the real responsibilities. Be positive with what you are doing. All the best =)

Are you into books?

Ever since I was small, my mother always bought story books for me.Some people have problems to cultivate the interest of reading in themselves.I had the same problem too. I was not really into books. I had to force myself to read in order to pass exams with flying colors. Reading is not just for the people who involves in education such as students and educators but it is also crucial for everyone. It is prominent for everybody to read as it helps our brain to keep functioning. I ever heard of a story about a man who did not do anything after he retired. He kept sleeping the whole day, every single day and did not do anything including reading a newspaper. He slept and slept and eventually someone noticed that he already dead.He died all of a sudden. From the scientific thought, people said that the reason he died was because his brain was not been used well and properly, and yes its true death is in God's hand=)

Moral of the story:
In order to minimize the problem of not completely utilizing the functions of brain we need to read something every single day at least one page of a newspaper article.Not just newspapers but also anything that we love to read like comics, magazines,articles or letters!
  
Now, I think I had fall in love with books and magazines.I started to subscribe Readers Digest to improve my English writings and readings. Readers Digest is vastly great magazine to be read. Not just in improving our English grammar and adding new vocabulary words, but also to expose ourselves to the the latest information and current issues. Besides that, it contains jokes, riddles and the extraordinary stories of extraordinary people. I admit that I am still not good in English but from now on I am trying to improve it through reading and listening.

You know what? From just watching the American movies and the cartoons we will be able to improve our English!It is proven!A friend of mine used to watch cartoons everyday since she was small. She does not practice English conversation at home but luckily she is tremendously excellent in her English test and so on. Plus, she talks very well.She told me that she improves her English by watching English cartoons and the Anime (Japanese ones, because it shows the English subtitle).That's all. I was amazed to hear that. Besides that, she mentioned that for our daily conversation(Malay) we ought to put at least one English word, so that we will used to that word and the other party who heard it will be able to learn from us. So, guys.....Let's start the mission! Improve our English!