I have read all of my friends’ posts. Frankly,
everybody has their own difficulties and some attempted several ways that may overcome
those problems. Nothing is easy and so I am amazed with the effort that all of you
have shown.
Sophie’s (zhao xunyu) post caught my attention; she
shared her experience in teaching the Form 2. All of us are aware that Sophie
is an international student, thus obviously she can’t fathom Bahasa Malaysia. Students
in her class did not make it easy on her as well when they spoke in own languages
and refused to converse in English. The fact that some of them are not afraid
of the school’s authorities is a bit worrying too. If the discipline or permanent
school teachers cannot really handle those students then it is ALMOST
impossible for us we as the trainee teachers to manage them. Sophie did mention
about collecting homework was a tough chore as the students were very reluctant
to submit their work. I had the same problem with some of my students in both
classes. They are all good girls; they listened well, did their work,
understood the lesson, behaved themselves and etc but getting them to submit their
homework was quite a hard task. I had never managed to collect all as there
would always be some students who could not care less about submitting it. Anyway,
concerning Sophie’s situation, don’t worry my friend, we had the same issue. I
personally think you have done your best and I am glad to know your Form 4
students were easier to handle.
Nisa’s post made me ponder upon a few matters in
teaching profession. Her biggest problem was the students could not even speak
in English. Some did not even want to try. It was as if they would shut her off
completely when she taught in English. I can envision how difficult it would be
for her. Nisa is one of my close friends, thus I know how she had been managing
the students and what strategies did she try on them. In my school, I had been
to quite a few of weak classes, I know sometimes they could not make out what I
said, but they made an effort to understand and tried their best to reply. I
can imagine how awful it would be when you have so many wonderful lesson plans
swimming in your head but you cannot execute them because of the language
barrier and some other reasons. I personally think that it hinders your
teaching ability and it may seem as if you cannot perform your best while the
truth is you are restricted to certain factors. Sometimes I wonder whether I have
done enough, what about my students in the future, what if they are exactly the
same like Nisa’s, if they are then what would I do, am I a good teacher and a
lot more. However, I never have doubts in Nisa. We have been together for
nearly 4 years now and I know what is she capable of doing. She has done a lot
and I’m proud of her.
Lastly, I have learned that all of us have faced many
obstacles during this teaching practical and none of us has given up. Quite a
number of us had similar problems, the only difference is the students. By reading
each other’s post, we get to reflect and acquire some input. Maybe even adapt
our friends’ strategies. I am close to a few of my students as so sometimes my
lessons were made ease by them. However, teaching is never easy, I have
realised that we cannot love teaching if we depend on the types of students in
a batch because clearly they can never be constant as students change from time
to time. Some lovely teachers always tell me, “you need to have the passion,
you must love what you’re doing, or else everything will be difficult for you”.
best regards,
farha alia
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