OBSERVATION Teachers are role models of the students eyes.

They are responsible for the training and education of youth of the country. The future of our country are depends on the kind of education that our youth receive. Thats why a teachers role is difficult. Every teacher in this country needs to be more effective and train themselves so that they will be prepared to be useful citizen in this country. These kinds of skills are important especially for those teachers who are very commitment in their career. Tokoh Guru is award that will be honors a teacher. It is an important award, because lots of commitment, spirit, effort and academic qualification to gain this award. Based on those criteria of, we decided to introduce Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim Bin Mohamed as our Tokoh Guru. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim was 57 years old. As we know, one of the criteria to be eligible for the Tokoh Guru is the teacher who is 50 years old and above. There are lots of experiences as an effective and innovative teacher. Based on our interview, he said that he comes from a large family and he was born at Hospital Batu Pahat, Johor on 6 th May 1949. He is married with Diah Binti Bakri in 1973, and now they have three sons and four daughters with twelve grandchildren. For the beginning of his education, he started his study at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bagan, Batu Pahat. After that, he studies at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Maahad Muar. Then, he continues his study in form six at Sekolah Menengah Semerah. After that, he furthers his study at Maktab Perguruan Raja Malewar with qualification which is Sijil Perguruan Asas in Pengajian Agama. After he finishes his study, he graduate and he was post at Sekolah Kebangsaan Alor Gajah, Perak in 1972 for his first school. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim is an active teacher who participates in all programmed at the school. He also sling many post in that school.

After twelve years in that school, he furthered his studies at University Putra Malaysia in Bachelor of Education in Information Technology in year 1984. After he graduated he continued teaching at Sekolah Tinggi Port Dickson until 1987. In 1992, he was promoted to be a principal of Sekolah Menengah Agama Pedas for ten years. In 2002, he was offered to join Jabatan Pelajaran Johor as Pengarah Hal Ehwal Pelajar until he retired. A few months ago, he completed his Master Degree at University Malaya through long distance learning and now he finally fulfilled his time with a contract teaching at Sekolah Seri Murni, Shah Alam. He has a good credibility that is why he should be the role model for every teacher in profession of education. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim believes that every body must have a philosophy of life. Philosophy of life is a well coordinated and systematized attempt at evaluating life and the universe as a whole (Autor, 1998). Based on our interview with him, he has a philosophy of life as his guide in his life. His philosophy of life is Practices Makes Perfect. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim believes that nothing is impossible in our life. What important is we must do something again and again until we can do it successfully and never give up. This philosophy of life is very useful for him to achieve his goal setting. He was the best role of an effective teacher. As an effective teacher, Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim is positive people, oriented toward and optimistic about his own and his student success. He told us about his plan for the future and his target. As he told us in our interview session, Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim wants to further his study and his target is to gets the Doctor of Philosophy or as known as PhD. In addition, he makes sure that all of his children, grandchildren and also his student can become a good person with high qualification. He believes that there is no full stop to gain knowledge. This spirit has proof that he has high expectation of success in his life.

Because of his attitude and characteristic, Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim was awarded as Tokoh Guru for the state level of Johor Darul Takzim in 1999. He was selected among 25 candidates who were nominated for Tokoh Guru award. The acceptance of that award was prove that he is a person who properly to receive the Tokoh Guru award for this year. One of the characteristic that is listed from The Ministry of Education for Tokoh Guru award is excellent as a teacher. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim is rightly recommended as a candidate because he has the criteria of an effective teacher like knowledgeable. As we know, Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim already has a Master Degree from University Malaya. It is proof that as a teacher, knowledge is very important. He also gets the knowledge from the number of courses and seminars that he has attended. For example Bina Insan Guru, Kursus Seni Khat Jawi,Kursus Kepimpinan and Seminar Peningkatan Profesionalisma Guruguru, Ketua Bidang Teknik dan Vokasional. He used his knowledge to cooperate with other teachers to increase the result of examination at all the school that he teach. That is why he got many award for his achievement. The second criteria for the candidates to be awarded as a Tokoh Guru for national level is the candidates must have an excellent contribution to teaching profession. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim has a great experience and gives a big contribution to the teaching profession especially in his own state, Johor Darul Takzim. He attend many course related to co curriculum activities. He has attended a course about the rules of ping pong and the rules of badminton. Then he was selected as a judge for variety of competition in his school and out of the school also.

The Ministry of Education also reserved that student should actively involve themselves in outdoor activities. When he was still a teacher, he has always conducts a visit programmed with his group of students to visit the historical place especially in Malacca. Not only that, there is many program was in charge by him like Hari Kantin and Malam Kebudayaan which is not only give students a chance to take part but also can make some money to school. This show us that Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim is excellent not only in the classroom, but also actively take part in outdoor activities with his student. As an effective teacher, Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim is encouraging and supportive of his students. This is important when students are reluctant to begin new task or when they experience difficulty and frustration. He uses this advantage to cheer up his students when they loose in their game. But, he had once lead the sports team when he was taught at Sekolah Tinggi Port Dickson. His team won the best team in Majlis Sukan Sekolah-Sekolah Malaysia in 1991 because of his motivation to them. The last characteristic that is listed from The Ministry of Education for Tokoh Guru award is social contribution. Credibility and trustworthiness that Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim has create a supportive environment where the communities trust him to be their leader. He is the President of Persatuan Rukun Tetangga in his housing area. He also takes part in all programs around his housing area like gotong royong and kenduri. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim also a point of referrence for the opinions and ideas to solve their problems. So, he is a best candidate that we choose as our Tokoh Guru 2006. According to the interview session with Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim about indiscipline issue among student, he said that he thinks indiscipline in school is caused by many factors in society. With regard specifically to indiscipline among children in schools, parents, teachers and adult role models in society, all have to share responsibility for this problem. For him, it starts however with parents

because they are the children's first teachers and if they fail to find appropriate ways to discipline their children then the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the teachers who cannot effectively discipline and teach the cirriculum without the help and co-operation of the parents and children. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim also said that the society in general must take blame for the recent decline in moral and spiritual values which helped to shape the characters of young people into becoming disciplined citizens. The removal of corporal punishment in schools have caused even more indiscipline to develop among students, not because it was necessarily the wrong thing to do, but because it was not first thoroughly discussed among all parents, students and teachers with a view to replacing it with measures of discipline that are just as or more effective. For his experience, when he was being as a principal at Sekolah Menengah Agama Pedas, he was attacked by the group of students. They said something that nonsense to him. They also threw him with bottles and they scratched his car. Tn. Hj. Abdul Karim has punished them and meets their parents to solve the problem. He feel thankful to God because they are become aware with their fault and promise not to do it again. He believe that teachers feel more vulnerable and are increasingly attacked by students and parents, who feel that they now have the right to behave as they like with no effective consequence to their actions.