6: Making memories

Just writing here for my own keepsake.

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Syah duduk termenung,  senyap.. Biasanya dia bercakap juga menyampuk-nyampuk semasa aku mengajar,  macam kawan-kawan dia yang lain. Lain macam rasanya bila sesi mengajar tidak dikacau.  Haha.

Teacher: awak dah kenapa syah?

Syah: puasa la cikgu..

Teacher: semua org pun puasa,  yang lain penuh bertenaga je cikgu tengok.

Saiful: dia broken cikgu.. Tu la syah,  aku dah kata.  Ko takyah fikir,  perempuan lawa ni semua tak jujur.

Teacher: eh,  cikgu lawa,  cikgu jujur jer!

Lukman: eh,  cikgu berbual.  Kalau betul cikgu jujur,  jawab sekarang berapa berat cikgu?!

Darn kids!! I was too stunned to answer ended up just snarled at him.

Lukman: tengok, haa..  Perempuan lawa tak jujur!

Secretly I am amused they didnt deny that I am lawa.  Haha.

5: Human Digestive System

I figured I wrote so much about about my English classes. Actually I am majoring in Physics. Because there are enough Physics teachers when I was first posted at the school, I was asked to teach Science lower form instead. And that sticks with me until now. I had to teach English since last year and I found that very challenging, that is one of the catalyst force for me to write this blog.

So, for Science, this activity was done last March. I found that students always think that learning about the digestive system is so 'far' from their reality. So to make them feel relatable, I asked each group to make something that they can wear, like an apron or clothes, out of mahjong paper. I hope by doing this and labelling them together with the students, they are able to feel close and in the end will master the topic.

4: Sequence Connectors Activity

Yesterday was a lesson on Sequence Connectors. The students had to 'host' their own cooking show. I asked them to bring all items needed for presenting their recipe but everything must not be cooked (or cooked at home) so they just needed to assemble their menu in class.

Among the menu that they prepared were Fruit Salads, Scrambled Egg with Sausages, Beef Burger, Chicken Sandwich and Egg Sandwich. They wrote down their recipe with the emphasize on using the sequence connectors on a mahjong paper. One student will host and another group member will 'assemble' their recipe according to the steps being read.

As expected, the students were cooperating well at first but as the first group finished presenting, they were eager to eat whatever they had prepared although I had reminded them that they can only eat after all groups finish presenting. But oh well. Students are students...

Class control is still an issue for me. But I am satisfied with how the students are able to apply the sequence connectors in their essay. At the end of the class I reminded them to rewrite their recipe in their essay exercise book.

3: Canteen Day Role Play

Alhamdulillah done role-playing with 2 classes 1B2 and 1C1. But all these pictures are from 1C1

Overall it was, havoc! Class control was the most worrisome part for me. But my husband commented that "Kalau buat aktiviti memanglah bising, baru nampak participation pelajar" . Yes he is also a teacher. I do agree with him but right now the mind set for the administrative people up there is kelas bising = failed class control. I tried to minimize their 'screaming' but it was literally PASAR! haha..

But I could see the effort of students trying their best speaking english albeit not perfectly. There were joking around as well so that took all the awkward away when talking compared to when I asked them to talk in front of the class formally. The students were focused on buying and selling, getting the things that they wanted that they completely ignored their or their friends mistakes.

I think this is the most important part. Our students are not so bad in English but they were hindered by their emotion, thinking too much of what others would think. And their friends are not cooperating as well. They never fail to make fun of each other.

Anyway, the students had fun role-playing and the fact that they made such huge effort in making up the money and food items, I was quite touched.

I hope they will continue to have more confidence in speaking English and will always think that English is fun!

Group 1 stall. Look at their food items! all beautifully hand-drawn and coloured!

Group 2, boys.. black and white but great idea of menu presentation! people will only need to choose then they will take out the order

Group 3 boys. The most behaved boys in class :D

Group 4 The food are all colored as well! andddd they even laminated their menu!

Group 5 took extra effort in labelling and they even have posters reminding their friend to speak english

Some close-ups

Transaction

No one entertaining this customer.

Choosing what to buy and looking at the price

The winning group. They gained the most profit from their sales.

At the end of the class, I asked them to write a journal entry about their experience that day. I hope I can see their reflection and learn more about their thinking process.

2: Canteen Day

Yesterday for form 1 English, we were on the topics from OPS English module, Money Matters. I told the students to prepare for 'The Canteen Day', The students were divided into group of four or five and they need to make their own food to sell and their own money for them to use to buy from other groups. I was planning to allocate one period for the preparation and one period for the role play of canteen day, but the preparation stretched for the whole hour. So we are performing the role play in the next lesson on Tuesday, instead.

The Instruction.

Students making the food items they are going to sell

Students making their money

The students were excited making up their money and food items. I just hope the actual role play will turn out just as exciting since they need to speak fully english to sell and buy stuff.

1: The Purpose

I figured I need a specific place to document anything related to my teaching adventure. I have been blogging for so long at one place so you can imagine how mixed up the contents are. I wrote about my (former) student's life, my family and work-related stuff all at one blog. Hence I hope with this blog I can be more focused (and serious) in writing about teaching. I also hope this can be my platform to be more organised and in the end this blog can be used for my own journey in pursuing higher qualification in education.

I used to be an 'excellent' student. I scored 10 A's in my SPM that qualified me to take up Ministry of Education's Scholarship to go overseas. I studied Physics at the University of Melbourne, Australia and completed my Honours Year in Applied Physics at RMIT University, also in the same city. When I came back to Malaysia, I completed a one-year-and-a-half KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah) at IPGK Temenggong Ibrahim in Johor Bahru. Not long after I finished the course, I was posted to my first school where I began teaching.

I am still in the same school, this year is my 5th year of teaching. I can say that after 5 yeara of teaching, I still cannot feel like an excellent teacher. Excellent student doesn't make an excellent teacher. They are two completely different human qualities. Juggling with family life, with the hectic teaching routine, I struggle to just survive! up until now.

I used to be a dreamer. I dream of so many things. In my teen years, I used to be that optimistic girls that dreamed and actually catching it! I had made them a reality, most of my teen dreams so many years ago. But after 5 years of teaching, all my dreams as a young adult still remain dreams. That's a major set back for me. But I am not giving them all up. I am starting again, now!

I hope I can be Istiqamah in this journey. Slowly but surely!