Challenge Accepted! (2nd Reflection)

[Before I proceed, I would like to apologize for my late entry. Sorry, everyone!]


"I don't know why they give you this class (4 Batai). They are very good in English, so that's why I think they are not really interested to learn anything during English class. They think they are so good that they don't need you to teach them anything anymore. They will not listen to you when you're teaching. They don't care what you're doing/saying in front of the class. They make a lot of noises, talking with their friends; they like to move around, do other stuffs... And most of all, they disrespect their teacher. So, I think it will be very hard for you to tackle this class,"said Pn. Emily to me when I told her that I would be taking over her English class & asked her about 4 Batai (i.e. What is their proficiency level? How the students are? What should I expect when I start teaching them later?)

And I'm not gonna lie - I was shivering as I listened to her describing how rude, how naughty, and how arrogant the kids were in that class. To my horror, she's not the only one who said the class is a problematic class, other teachers who taught them other subjects said the same things as well!

One of them was shocked when she found out that I would be teaching the class, she even said this to me: "You're teaching 4 Batai English?? Ooohhh, good luck with that! The class is a nightmare...."

When I followed Pn. Emily to the class & observed her teaching, I was indeed very dumbfounded to see the students' true colour. I was sitting at the back, no one cared who I was nor what I did there. I had to find my own chair to sit. Even when Pn. Emily was introducing me, they just glanced at me. Only when their teacher asked them to greet me, then they did it. Throughout the lesson, I watched in horror as I saw how the kids behaved in the class. It's like you're in a zoo or a pasar malam. I pitied Pn. Emily, she's trying so hard to gain the students' attention. She had to repeat her questions for many times then the students would give their response. When she asked any pair to volunteer to do the given task in front of the class, no one was eager or wanted to do so. I could see that the teacher had to force them to be involved in the class activity by calling out their names. At the end of the class, Pn. Emily was very angry and disappointed with their attitudes that she had to scold the whole class in front of me.

When we stepped out of the class, she straight away expressed her fear by telling me that she worried that if I took over the class, it would be very challenging for me to handle the class. She scared that they would bully me since I am small in stature. She said it would be very risky as she feared that it would affect and jeopardize my grade when the supervisor comes to observe me later. 

"I'm afraid you'll get into trouble if you teach 4 Batai. Your supervisor may not understand what you'll have to go through with them because he/she may not know the students like we do. I think it's better if you teach 4 Jati or 4 Nemesu. They may not be as good as 4 Batai but at least they are more attentive and willing to listen to you when you're teaching. 4 Jati/Nemesu will definitely help & cooperate with you when you're being observed for your teaching. I can talk to Pn. Angie to help you to change to another class if you want."

Considering what I had seen during the class observation & what I had heard from not only Pn. Emily & other teachers, I was a bit tempted with the offer. I even discussed with my partner, Pei Pei & my mentor, Pn. Farahnaz about the problem. Almost everyone said I should change to another class, but there's nothing wrong too if I would like to give it a try to "tame" the class.

"If you change, you may get a better grade. But if you stick with 4 Batai, take it as a great challenge and just try your best." 

The teachers were very thoughtful - they scared that it would affect my grade. However, like what some of the teachers said, I may eventually encounter the same class like this when I become a real teacher in the future. So, it was all in my own hand. I had to decide fast & make a wise decision. A better grade. Or a valuable lesson.

And I chose to LEARN. Hence, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

So, what were my strategies to handle 4 Batai?
One, I set a few ground rules that they needed to follow strictly: Respect will only be earned if they respect their teachers & peers; Only good manners and courtesies are acceptable in the class; Listen & pay attention when the teacher is teaching; English class means English only (i.e. no other works from other subjects are allowed during the lesson).

Two, I had decided to conduct more speaking activities since the students are talkative and high in proficiency. Pn. Emily agreed that they would enjoy speaking tasks more than the other 3 skills. I also managed to find out that they dislike writing activity. So, I'd also decided to use writing task as a punishment for the students if they misbehave in the class. Other than that I also realized that although the students are very good in English, most of them are lack in speaking & presentation skills. Some of them even revealed that they are too shy to speak in front of the class. Thus, I would do more speaking class with them so that they can improve in both skills.

Three was to provide more challenging activities to gain their interest in learning as well as to make them to be more eager to participate in the classroom activities. In other words, use advanced materials or teach out of the textbook but still following the syllabus. Surprise the kids with fun & challenging tasks that they had never done in the class before.


So, did all my strategies work? Wait for my third reflection to find out. Adios!


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

- Martin Luther King, Jr. -

The Fourth Reflection (Wang Siting)

Hello everyone, how is everything going so far?

All the students in Taman Sea School were busy with their exams for two weeks. So, my job was focused on monitoring the exams. After the exams, students still had to come back to school and my supervisor and mentor decided to observe me for second time. The problem at this time was that students were easily distracted in the class because they just finished their exams and wanted to be relaxed. So, I could not teach as usual. I must find something that they are interested. Hence, I totally agree with Wendy’s latest post. She pointed out that she provided several games related to English to attract students. In this way, students can learn something and will not feel bored. Students can learn without any stress. Students can learn things unconsciously while playing the games and then can memorize things longer and deeper. So, the teaching method about using English games in language class can help students learn new things actively. Sometimes, as a teacher, we cannot force students to learn something. It is better that they learn by themselves. The game I used in my class was to provide various crosswords. Another method was to let students listen to the songs and complete the lyrics (We should choose some meaningful songs that we can discuss with our students.). I also like the games that Wendy mentioned. It is really helpful.

Another thing I can learn from my friends’ posts is that they used ‘drawing’ in their teaching process (like Pei Pei and Alia ). They asked their students to draw something to illustrate the problems. It is a really fun activity that students can interact with each other and show how creative they are. What is more, they can improve their language ability this way. They orally explain what they draw. Or, they should make a sentence without grammatical mistakes according to the drawings. This method helps students improve in many ways. From their posts, I also can see how well students can draw. Actually, from my own experience, I sometimes think that when teachers ask students to draw something, students always produce negative attitudes and treat it halfheartedly. So, I do not dare to use this method in my teaching plan. However, my friends’ posts change my view and give me confidence to practice this method in my class. It makes me find that students like drawing and have rich imagination. Also, using drawing in language classroom can help us understand our kids. We can see students’ learning attitudes, and sometimes we even can know their knowledge background through their drawing. Moreover, this method makes me think more. As a teacher, we cannot measure the new generation according to our own background. They are more open-minded than us. Sometimes, we should dare to innovate in our teaching, instead of following the traditional ways all the time. Thanks for sharing your students’ beautiful pictures, my friends.

Best regards,

Wang Siting

Reflection 4: Inspiring Colleagues

I can see that each and everyone of us has our own colourful teaching odyssey. It is coming to an end now and I feel so excited reading the sharing from all of you. There were two stories that inspired me the most and I have to say I am so proud of my two colleagues here.

The first experience sharing that gave goosebumps was Syazwan's. Knowing him for some good years, I agreed with the shortcomings that he faced - voice projection and the classroom control since Sayzwan has always been a soft spoken person. Based on my own experiences, I know it was not easy to control a classroom especially like his which was full of boys with low voice projection. Furthermore, the soft nature of a person can also jeopardise the learning environment. Hence, when he shared his ways of overcoming those obstacles, I am inspired that he was willing to step out of his own comfort zone to deliver more efficient and high classroom performance. I also spent some times chatting and sharing with him on both of our teaching experiences, I can see that this whole 10 weeks have definitely developed him to become a much better person. I myself adapted some of his experiences to be adapted in my 10 weeks of teaching. Syazwan's sharing has taught me to be more discipline and committed when carrying out our duties. I would like to publicly announce that I am thankful for his experience sharing and may he continue to strive towards becoming a holistic educator.

The second person whose story inspired me the most was Gabriel's. His story in controlling 1C2 really caught my attention. This was because I had never used discipline teachers' name or call them out nor deduct the merit marks. Hence, I find it interesting as he did that. This shows that the students must be extremely difficult to handle thus giving the teacher more sky-high obstacles in managing them. I cannot imagine if I were to be in Gabriel's place, I could have probably done the same thing. This was in contrast with the kind of students I am teaching, yes, they were mischievous at times but still under control. The most I had ever done was just slightly raised my voice to calm the situation or ordered them to sit down at their own places. Indeed that was almost nothing compared to what Gabriel had gone through. The strength that he has acquired towards this teaching practice amazed me and I prayed that he had a fantastic journey.

I am highly proud of these two comrades as they have projected resilience and persistence in educating our youths. Being an educator for ten weeks, I understand the pains they have gone through and I am extremely glad that those experiences have moulded them to become way much better individuals.

Wishing you the very best of luck :)

Awatif Ghapar

Reflection 3: Overcoming Obstacles - Bring Them On!

In Reflection 2, I have shared with all of you on the shortcomings that I had faced during my teaching in SMK Taman SEA. Now I am going to share with you the strategies or methods I used to tackle those predicaments.

I devised my lesson plans afterwards according to their preferences and proficiency. For two weeks, the students from both classes were happy with the newly-devised lessons. However, I had the idea of challenging their learning comfort zones. I wanted the students to experience both sides of the fun and serious learning sessions. Hence, I set another expectation settings with them telling them from now on their learning will be intensive and fun at the same time. This had also eased me to do lesson plans, instead of devising different lesson plans each time, I can use the similar lesson plan for both classes.

It was a complete exuberance to see the students’ responses towards the new learning styles. I was thankful that they were not dreadful and complaining. Part of it could be because exam was nearing and they needed more time to do revision. Apart from that, they also wanted activities that were a little relaxed since they were also shouldered with much work from other subjects.

The peak point of this new method was during one week before the examination commenced. For the English class, I started off with some teachings on tenses and provided group quizzes afterwards. Then, I moved on to teach the techniques of argumentative paragraph for the students. After giving the lesson, I asked them to be in group of five students. Each of the member will write one paragraph to complete one whole essay. Hence, by the end of the lesson, every group should come out with one essay. The students were asked to also do peer checking to make sure all the elements needed in an argumentative paragraph were done. After that, I conducted debating session in the classrooms. There will be groups that will support and oppose the motion. I was extremely happy that the whole teaching sessions went well. This proved that the students have numerous potentials in them but they chose to limit themselves according to their preferences. Adding to that, students from both classes actually enjoyed lessons that comprised of both serious and fun activities.

I took every challenge in this practicum as part of my learning curves. The challenges helped me to look forward in life as they exposed me to different perspectives and environment. Not only that, our teaching practical is the REALITY that awaits for us once we graduated.

Awatif Ghapar

Teacher must be smart

THIRD REFLECTION

hello everyone!!! Depending too much on textbook can make the students bored.

student: teacher, you know something?

teacher: what is it?

student: you are the only teacher who doesn't depend a lot on textbook. we don't like the textbook.

The feedback that i get when i don't use textbook all the time during the lesson. For the first few weeks, the former teacher told me to use the textbook and follow everything in that. But what i did was, i just nodded my head and came up with other activities where the students can enjoy and learn something from the lesson.  After the brochure designing activity, the students always urge me to bring them out of class and do many activities like that so that they will get gift. They even ask me to teach English for 3 periods and imagine during my observation for English and Moral, my supervisors loved the kids because they were so lovely and cooperated well with my lesson.

The only way that i tackle my students is i always give and take with them. They hate writing. when i want to do essay writing with them, i will always come out with few related videos and let them watch. I will always let them choose their group members and let them discuss the points for the essay in class. I will always tell them that ' you don't have to write the essay in class but promise to me that you will pass up to me tomorrow morning'. The students were happy because they don't have to write the essay in class. The students did pass up the works as they promise. So, i practice give and take strategy to handle the students. I hope by doing this, both teacher and students gain benefits at the same time. Teachers must be smarter than the students and make sure that they are under controlled in the respectful way.

I M A TEACHER!!!!

Second Reflection

First of all, i would like to ask sorry for all my late post at the blog. As a teacher in SMK Seri Hartamas, i must be very patient. When the school principal briefed all the trainee teachers, the first thing that she told us is 'I don't want anyone of you to punish the students, use harsh words on them and many more'. All these made me think whether can i go through the teaching practice for 10 weeks at this school or not because i am totally the opposite person with strict face and no smile. However, all the questions that appeared during the briefing have totally disappeared when i first entered the class. i was assigned to teach Form 4 for English and also for Moral.

The students was awesome because they all were very cooperative students and they really touched my heart when they all said 'no worries teacher and we will help you all the time'. I started to build up my confidence level as the time moves on. There was noting much to teach as the school teachers were about to complete the syllabus. I started teaching English for the Form 4 with unit 13 from the textbook. It was about Preserving Nature. I taught them on reading and few activities on vocabulary. I had double period with them and after finishing the activities on reading, i divided them into few groups for the next activity which will be on the next day.I assigned them to use their own group members, choose a wetland and discuss how they want to design a brochure. The students first hesitated when i told them that i going to divide them into few groups. But what i did was I let them choose their own group members. The moment i told that they were so happy and one of the student came nearer and told me that ' teacher, i really like you very much compare to other teachers'.. i told them that if you make a lot of noises, i will separate your members. they kept quiet for a moment and started making noise. they were very excited on the discussion how to design the brochure because i told them that i will provide gift for the most creative brochure and promised them that i will bring them out of classroom for the brochure designing activity. they were so happy to hear this and really worked hard to produce the best brochure. The next day, during English lesson I brought them out of class to the school hall. they sat in groups and start designing the brochure. The students were really awesome because they brought so many things such as guitar to make the presentation interesting. as i promised, i gave them the gift for everyone because all really worked hard to design the brochures. the teachers were really proud and my mentor told me 'WOW, you are so close to the students in just few days'. My mentor also said that she receive positive feedback from the students about me. I must be thanking with my students. I felt very easy to communicate with the students as they love talking and made my teaching easier. I don't face any major problems in teaching them as they were all grown up kids. I might be in trouble if i was assigned to form 2 because its very hard to control them. I feel pity for my lovely buddy Aby who is teaching from 2.

How you guys are doing?? i will post all the pictures later..tc

Learning is a lifelong process. So I learned from you.

Hello friends! I read through all the posts and have snickered and laughed along the way. I also feel sorry for some friends as I can imagine the horror of dealing with “monster” kids. I personally know and understand how it feels to be in your shoes although it may be an understatement. The entirety of an individual’s personal experiences differs from one to another. Nonetheless, I’m sure these two months have taught all of us what it means to be working as a teacher in reality instead of listening to sugar-coat tales from the likes of a teacher.

The first post that I choose is written by Zhao Xunyu or fondly known as Sophie to me. (Sophie if you’re reading this, recall me calling out your name in a sing-song manner. Haha) Anyway, on a serious note, hers catches my attention because it is very descriptive and detailed. She talks about each class she teaches as well as rising problems and her solutions. She is not a quitter and that is a quality that all aspiring teachers should have. More often than not, I have gotten to know a few teachers who only teach for the sake of familiarity and habit. Most of the time they cannot break away from their comfort zone and being in their position to teach without passion is like trying to light a short match for a very long period of time. I initially thought being a teacher was easy but boy was I wrong. Sophie’s on-going tales about her teaching experiences have opened my eyes about the teaching field. Teachers who teach without passion are most likely to produce students without tangible results. Simply put, students can also be the mirror of a teacher.

Not only that, creativity is important when we teach because a teacher works like a performer. It is never easy to keep audience entertained hence we constantly need new ideas and materials in order to catch students’ attention. Sophie has shown a tremendous amount of bright ideas in her teaching plans to which I am amazed of. I do admit I am not a creative person and I always wish I’m a tad more creative. I’m envious of creative people and their never ending creative juice to be incorporated in their work. Sophie even thought of using poker cards to teach her students. In Malaysian education system, I personally believe most teachers lack creativity due to syllabus constraint. Teachers should be allowed to explore and implement their creativity in class. If we want to gauge students’ creativity, we as teachers should put forth the example first. Practice what you preach. I’m very proud of Sophie for coming up with many interesting teaching activities and personally she has inspired me to brainstorm for more interesting ideas to teach in my classes. Good job Sophie! An exemplary trainee teacher!

Second post written by Wan Athirah is also very inspiring. She perseveres when she teaches in class especially when she knows some of her students are not proficient in English. Honestly it is not easy in keeping up one’s determination especially when you are faced with hurdles in life on a daily basis. In this context, she has to face these students every day and basically it means she has to deal with the same type of problem. Her level of determination is very motivating as she constantly enquires her students about their welfare and how they are coping with her lessons in class. I believe this is a very important trait to have as a teacher because being a teacher doesn’t mean we enter the class and only execute lessons. In my understanding, being an effective teacher means being one who is able to engage with students while at the same time deliver effective teaching. Honestly, seeing Athirah’s determination has made me realised that sometimes some teachers have completely given up on their students just because they are slow learners.

Sometimes all it takes is a little determination in helping students succeed. Being a teacher isn’t easy, I’m sure most of you have heard this many times. But saying it without providing solutions isn’t going to help others to improve. Besides that, she is an effective teacher because she constantly motivates her students to be better and to look forward to new lessons in class. This is especially important because students need constant motivation and this should start from the teacher herself. Teacher should always be humbled yet strict at the same time. If we want students to respect us, then we should respect them as well.

Anyway, there are many other traits and lessons that I can learn from the rest of you as well but I’m only limited to writing about two posts.  =( I have heard your teaching tales outside from this blog and I must say kudos to all of you. Being a teacher does bring out a different side in each and every one of us.  Keep up the good work and I’ll see you soon. God bless!

Warmest regards,

Winnie Nelson