Spread my wings and FLY...It's been 4 weeks and I'm still FLYING~

Week 1 (3/9/2012 - 7/9/2012)

During my first week at SMK TTDI, I had a lot of fun getting to know all the teachers. Not ALL actually. Some of the teachers are very approachable and noticed us (Hanisah and me) as the so-called "Practical Teachers". So our first week started off with the usual Monday assembly and all the teachers were settled down at the stage, somewhat like a "pondok/wakaf" if I may say so. Felt nervous and excited at the same time, we were told by Puan Aishah (Penolong Kanan) that we will be introduced by the Headmistress to the whole school. WHAT??? Ok..Keep Smiling (Should we wave like a Queen, grin like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in the wonderland, or sit still?). Moving on, the assembly started with the Malaysian national anthem, followed by the Wilayah Persekutuan anthem, recitation of "Rukun Negara" or the National Principles, "Ikrar Pelajar" Students' Pledge, and the recitation of school's mission and vision. "And now ladies and gentlemen you may be sitted". NOT QUITE YET!!  There's still a prayer/ Doa' to be recited. Amin Ya Rabb.. The assembly then goes on with speeches from teachers on-duty for the week, announcement, and from the Headmistress herself; and yes she introduced us to the whole school. Glad that went well! Throughout the first week at school, we searched and explored the school ground, getting to know my students, and the FOOD yes! Hehehe Oh yeah! The first week itself we had a replacement class on Saturday. But instead of going straight to class on the Saturday morning, our school had organized an aerobic session for all teachers and students that morning. We had a fun week for starters. Here a some of the fun moments we had.

Week 2  (10/9/2012 - 14/9/2012)

Second week already and it feels good. Very looking forward for a whole new week ^_^ . Lesson plan (check!), Record book (check!), Attendance book (check!). Okay, I forgot to tell you guys that I'm taking over a  class. The former class teacher is on maternal leave as well as the other teachers. So, that added me one more class to take care of, 2 Einstein. Nothing special on the second week of practical, just finishing up the Form 2 syllabus before their final examination started. Overall, my classes are under controlled, and they're on the way to be tamed. Hehe on Thursday (13/9/2012) we had a double celebration at school; "Closing Ceremony of Independence Day & Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebration". At the event, we hosted numbers of selected guests consists of District's Officers, Taman Tun's Head of Police, Head of Fire Brigade, and even artist. Throughout the event, we were entertained by students' performances, and the 'unexpected' act from the "Pasukan Bina Badan PDRM" (RMP Body-Building Team) lead by Mr. Sazali Samad, the famous Malaysian body-building athlete. The audiences enjoyed the performance especially the lady teachers! The event soon ended with a Hari Raya feast at the canteen and the food was MARVELOUS!! Just like any other Hari Raya openhouse. Since the event finished off early, the History teachers had the students settled down by playing them a movie on patriotism (Embun, Paloh, and Leftenan Adnan) in which to instill the patriotic spirit in them. Really enjoyed the day, and yeahhh!! NO CLASS on Friday!

Week 3 (17/9/2012 - 21/9/2012)

First of all.. yeah!! NO CLASS ON MONDAY!! All Malaysian are celebrating "Malaysia/National Day" on that day. So, I spent the whole 3 days at home relaxing. Third week already and I felt excited to teach. The next day itself, Tuesday the students learned about Modal verbs and I had them explained about the verbs and gave out few examples and worksheets to work on. Overall, this week is about finishing the syllabus and  revision time since they'll be having end-of-the-year examination (final examination) next week. An as for the Form 3 students, its been a tough month of doing revision and practice on answering trial papers for PMR. Well, they should prepared themselves with such practices. Who knows what questions would come out later on..right? The lesson goes on as usual on Wednesday, and on Thursday I had my FIRST OBSERVATION. At school I received an official visit from my Supervisor, Dr. Pradip Kumar, and I had my class at the Media Room (Bilik Tayangan). While waiting for my students, I had the LCD and the Projector turned on, teaching aids and laptop  ready on the table, and I'M READY. Tick Tock! Tick Tock! My students haven't arrived yet. I'm started to feel uneasy, wondering where my students at. Few minutes later one of my student came and told me that other teacher had kept them settled in the classroom. So I followed my student to their classroom and informed the teacher that I'm having an observation. Later on, my students were all settled down in Bilik Tayangan, and class has began! Throughout the lesson, my students were quiet as a mouse. They responded well like they always did, but just a bit of shy unlike usual. Maybe because Dr. PK was there with me. ^_^ Thanks and pray to Allah that everything went well for the day. To end the week, again we had a replacement class on Saturday. Yeah! Haha (Sarcastic)

Week 4   (24/9/2012 - 28/9/2012)

What can I say... EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM EXAM !!
All the best students!! =)) For all Form 3 students, we still have lots of things to catch up ya! Let's get to business. It looks like I won't be teaching the Form 2 students since they'll be having examination for the whole week. But I still have to attend the class as an invigilator. I have my eyes on you people! Other than that, yeah!! 1 MONTH ALREADY!! Will be looking forward for the next update.

Good luck fellow Maties!! ^_^ Missing you guys always!
*Ps: Sorry for the late update..Been having difficulties lately*

Week 6 already!

Hello friends! We meet again. It is already the 6^th week of our practicum. Even though some may think that the time is short, I personally have learnt a lot from these six weeks. In retrospect, I am done with all my observations and I must say, each one had room for improvements.  Dr. Dorothy came to observe me twice and she told me she was happy with what I did with my students. As for another two observations done by my mentors from the school itself, they provided constructive feedback about my teachings and I sincerely appreciate every comment from them. Experienced teachers definitely know more than me. Then Alia and I had to be observed again but due to time constraint, we were told to record our lesson and submit it so that Dr. Adelina can review it. I hope my video looks alright. All shot by camera tripod and yours truly. I seriously need a cameraman next time.

This is already the month of October and the students are having their examinations. Form 3 students are sitting for their PMR, Form 4 students are sitting for their final year examination and the Form 5 students will be sitting for their SPM soon. Hence, I am generally quite free this month other than helping out other teachers with some clerical work and keying in students’ co-curriculum marks. Currently, I am also helping Madam Martita to produce a video about the teachers in the school. Even though some may see these as trivial matters but to me, every little thing I do in that school matters to me. I believe they help to pave my teaching life for me apart from learning them as life lessons.

Personally, I believe the next practicum session should be conducted during the beginning of school year as it will provide more experiences and activities for teachers-in-training. As for me, I do learn a lot even when I was invigilating exam classes. For example, students have to behave themselves when they are sitting for their exam. Thank God students in Assunta do not have any disciplinary problems so this makes my life easier in the school. At least this makes me feel more belonged in the school and students are generally easier to control.

Ah well. Here’s to another month of teaching practice! *cheers* Brave it my dear friends for we will cherish this memory for years and years to come.    

Warmest Regards,

Winnie Nelson

Observations. My methods of Teaching. Traditional.

Sorry for the super late post. As mention above, I've been experiencing a lot for the past 3 weeks. Hurmmm.  I taught form 2A4, and in the first class I have some difficulties of engaging my students to get involved in my teaching activity. They are passive and not that active in class. i got to ask them and they answered very little with sometimes, a few elaboration. I taught them on literature in my first class, on Rumplestiltskin. Form what I know, I heard one of my students in the class told me that he doesnt like the drama, Rumplestiltskin. For him, it is not interesting and I was shocked to hear that he said that this drama is so childish. Oh well, kids nowadays, they grow up to soon. maybe he was exposed to all sorts of entertainment and all, if you guys know what I mean. But they were really good in writing. They use words like prerequisite, punitive and a lot more that I did not expect in my teaching practice, what more from the form 2 students. They are good. But they also have some grammatical problems, just a little bit here and there. And yeah, they understood what I taught in the class.

For my Moral classes, I've been experiencing problems with 1C2 class. This class is extremely noisy and they are not cooperative at all. But I too, have my own ways to cope with this students. From the tips given by the previous Moral teacher that taught them, one way to 'stop' them form behaving inappropriately while lesson is being conducted, is to use the discipline teachers name and their PELBEL's mark. PELBEL marks consist of 10 marks from their final examinations. Teachers of each subject is ought to give 10 marks but it depends on how the students behave in the class, their attitude and their notebooks. Plus I've been told that I will help to mark their papers for the finals and thus I told them if they are not behaving in a good way in the class, I will deduct their marks, and that's it.

 One thing that I realize from the culture of this school is that, the students does not have any disciplinary issues, just those little little things they do in the classroom, like being playful, naughty and cheeky. To see at one side of it, I felt that I'm lucky to have been posted to this school. For 1A5 and 1A6, these are the good classes. For the first time I entered their class, the questions being thrown at me were "What will be the question like, sir?" or some will ask directly "What will come out in the exam teacher?", I just respond that if you focus and pay attention in my class, you will understand everything and would scored with flying colors in the final exam.

My Observations. Being Observed.

Mdm Norini Abbas. She came unannounced. I was on MC the previous day and I did not prepared any lesson plans for the next day, but did prepared for the lesson. That day I was supposed to teach form 2A4 on revision. I wanted to touch on One is one and All Alone by Nicholas Fisk. I know, this is not a good sign. And I know, it's my bad. But she told me to proceed, and told me to hand in the lesson plan when she come for her next visit to the school. I was so nervous, and it was double period. i touch on literature aspects such as themes and moral values. What I did in the class was, I told my students to work in pairs and to discuss the themes and the moral values. They discussed for like 15 minutes, and they presented all their ideas and share the with the rest of the class. I admit it was quite lame. But what's important for me is the input they got form this activity. i managed to dig in all their knowledge on the short story and it seems quite impressive. For me.

And as for Mdm Norini, the comments were...I am a traditional teacher with traditional method. Quite authoritative in a way that I controlled the class well and dress pleasantly. Apart form that the only negative comment was that I am using traditional method. Teacher centered. Hmmmm. I guess I gotta improve on my ways of teaching, more realistic and creative, because of marks and all. Quite disappointed but, it motivates me to create a much more interesting lesson. I promise to improve more on my teaching, on my teaching aids etc.

And as for Moral, Dr. Visha came to observed. This time a rather prepared classroom activities. She came to observe me teaching in  my 1A6 class, one of the good class. I gave the students activities in group. I asked them to form a government complete with prime minister and minister. And I asked them to create a name for their 'country' which is their group. The task is on how to create a peace world and what are their countries' policies towards world peace. It was fun and I can tell that this class had a very creative mind and their ways of thinking is beyond my expectations. The comments: Dr. Visha said it was an interesting activity for a Moral lesson, to get involved the students and to dig in their moral behaviours, cognitives and attitudes towards the task given. The only thing is that she told me to dig in more because I get more information on their ideas and perceptions especially on the current happenings around the world that is related to world peace. I should improve more on my teaching aids and some to do some adjustments on my lesson plans. Overall it was okay in a sense that my students show their cooperation especially when my observer came in.

To conclude, I can see that my students need activity that interests them to participate in. Spending a hard time cracking my head to find some of the interesting and creative activities to applied in my lesson. And yeah, there will be LADAP, for those who do not know what LADAP is, it's an acronym in full : Latihan Dalam Pengajaran, and this workshop is being organized by Taylor's for the school to enhance teaching, and it's compulsory for every teachers to attend, including trainees! Hopefully I would get some good input and output from this LADAP, despite being a trainee.

Good luck to all trainees. Or Teachers! To be precised. :P

Gabriel Ambang
SMJK Katholik (Catholic High, Petaling Jaya)

SMJK KATHOLIK, Petaling Jaya. Feelings and perceptions.

First day of teaching. Nothing much to do.

From what I observed, the students here are cheeky and naughty. And I have not been assigned teach. But form what I heard, I will be teaching form 2 and form 1. For now I am free. Not knowing what to do. Blur.

Four of us, Muniroh, Shobana, Elina and me myself spent our time in the staff room. I  got to know my mentor. Madam Hardeep Kaur. Later in the afternoon, I've been assigned to teach 4 classes. For my first method, I got to teach form 2A4. This class was Mdm. Hardeep's class. She told me I should be prepared because this class is not only cheeky and playful, but they have a quite good command in the language.

 And so, I've been told to finish the syllabus, as the examination is just around the corner. Probably 3 weeks starting from this week. What do i feel? I feel nervous. I went to see the school's admin, to ask for the literature form 2 textbook, just to get ready for my classes. And I got to know that I will have to teach 1 drama and 1 short story, Rumplestiltskin and One is one and All Alone by Nicholas Fisk. Been thinking back  home on how to teach this 'high proficient' language students. I thought I wanted to apply all those students centered stuffs and all, but to be honest, I don't know how to teach and what to expect. Hopefully it's gonna be a good class. praying that they will be good and listen to what I said.

Got my teaching schedule later that afternoon too. I've found out that I gotta teach form 1 too. I got to teach all three classes. This one, I might face language problems as well because form what I heard the students usually use Mandarin and English to communicate. And this might cause problems for to teach Pendidikan Moral. Moral is being taught at schools using Bahasa Malaysia. I really hope that I can teach them using the language, but some of the teachers told me that I can use both English and Bahasa Malaysia for my teaching for Moral. A sense of relief.

Overall, I just can't picture myself teaching. happy and nervous at the same time. Happy for now beacuse, I will be teaching! Yayyy! Nervous for not knowing what's ahead of me.

Gabriel Ambang
SMJK Katholik (Catholic High, Petaling Jaya)

Always Be an Energetic Teacher

Hello all my friends, how are you? I hope everything is going smoothly in your teaching practical. Until today, I have been observed twice by my supervisor and once by my mentor. My supervisor told me “you are still in the learning process, I want to see you improve yourself once by once, nobody is perfect, but everybody can improve little by little”. Here I would like to thank all their advices and suggestions; it will definitely make me to be a better teacher in the future. Although it is quite hard and stressful in our practical for me, however I appreciate and remember every moment I have been through during these 3 months practical. This is the only one a worthwhile experience in my life.

Form 4 Maju Class: I entered my form 4 Maju class on Monday 3^rd of September; it was 40 minutes lesson, so I was trying to do ice-breaking activity to know each student. I realized that the students in 4 Maju class were not energetic and active at all, even though I prepared some interesting activities for them. I talked to myself, how can I make them feel involved? They are not so active in the class, perhaps it is because my lesson is so bored that I cannot grasp their attention? I asked myself hundred times, “Ma Fei, how can you make your students more active during the class?” I asked senior teachers, they told me 4 Maju class is hard-working class, they are not so creative and active. After the first week of teaching, I felt 4 Maju class is quiet ok. Although they are not so active, but they would listen to me and cooperate with me during the class. They even did not have discipline problems during the first week from my observation to them. BUT, BUT, this the only first week, after first week, I found them some of the boys are becoming laziness and making noise during the class. The second week of teaching, I asked 4 Maju class to write an essay about should family values and traditions give importance? To be honest, they gave me a big surprise, “collecting their writing essays is the most difficult thing.” 4 boys did not submit their essays to me, 4 of them promised to me they would submit to me before the school time ends, as a teacher, I asked them “boys, can I have your words, can I trust you?” they promised to me so sincerity, so I trusted them, I waited until the school time finished that day, I have not seen any essays. I was shocked and angry. I directly went to class to call them one by one to come to see during their relief class. Furthermore, when I marked their essays, I can’t believe my eyes, 4 students, their essay were exactly same, they copied from answer sheet, they even did not change one single word. SIGH…SIGH….

In addition, students in 4 Maju class liked to gather together with their best friends during class especially some of the boys. 4 or 5 of them sat together, they were talking to each other, they were playing to each other. Furthermore, I found out students in 4 Maju class isolated one boy from the whole class, I showed you example: the third week of teaching, 4 Maju Class need to have their oral-speaking role-play based on their literature. It will conduct in their final marks. So students are really cared about. The oral role play need 4 or 5 students in a group, they can choose short stories and dramas. There is one boy group, they were choosing short story, but their group had 5 members, the characters in the short story only had 4 characters. One person did not have chance to speak during their oral role play. The marks depends on every person need to speak equally, or that person spoke less would deduct his marks. The boy came to see me with helpless eyes.

I try my best to have overcome these challenges by keeping energetic always as well as I have stepped into the class. Because I consider this is the way I can use to simulate students’ abilities. Being a teacher needs to change the situation if students are not active and excited, firstly, I need to keep excited and energetic always, the students will not feel bored. For their essays, the boys who have not submit their essays to me, I gave them 2 chances to submit their essays, but they ignore me. So I told to myself I need to do something, I can’t trust them anymore, they promised to me so sincere, but I have not seen their essays. I asked the permission from the teacher in charge 4 Maju’ class, I asked the 4 boys to come to my office to do their essays. I watched them until they finished their essays. Sigh .for 4 boys who copied from the answer sheet, I did not require them to rewrite again, I gave them a little punishment, I required them to copy 3 times about their essays, after 3 times copies, they have to remember everything about the essay they copied, then, they need to recite their essays in front of the whole class.

The students who want to sit together in order to speak and chat with their friends easily, I separated with them during my class. Besides that, the boy who isolated from some boys in the class, I talked to him several times privately, I get to know the situation, and I tried to arrange him in the group of 5 characters. Luckily, there is one group, they were doing their drama for oral role play, there are 5 characters. They accepted him as a group member, Frankly, I am not sure whether it is working or not, or it is helpful and useful to him, but I am still trying my best.

Form 2 Cekal Class: For my 2 cekal class, they are the best class. The students are creative, brilliant; respect teachers and like to talk all the time. One problem in 2 Cekal class is that they love to talk; they even cannot stop their talking. But they are too smart; they can read teacher’s facial expression. If I was teaching, they were talking, they only thing I need to do is stopping teaching, suddenly, they will keep quiet and apologize about they were talking just now.

In the second week of teaching, we were discussing about environment. We discussed about how to save our environment as a citizen, they even came out slogans about saving environment. I gave them mahjong papers to ask them to design a poster about saving environment. Then, after they finished their poster, they need to present their poster in groups. These are pictures when they are presenting their poster. 

Turing over a new chapter seems to be difficult at the beginning, but it will be meaningful and helpful. We need to turn mirrors into windows. 

Hear I come!!

Assalammualaikum & Hello friends..First of all I would like to apologize for not sharing any stories for the previous weeks. I apologize for that. It seemed that I'm having difficulties in joining the group. Oh well, it's now that matters right? =) Lets start from the bottom shall we? This is a picture of my friends and I after the briefing on 29th August 2012. We took a last picture together since we are going to be very busy later on. Too many things I thought of that day, "What if the teachers and students doesn't like me? What if the students throw papers at me?" Oh dear..Only God knows how I felt that day. I was assigned at SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) along with my bestfriend and schoolmate Nurul Hanisah, and not to forget the lovely China dolls Wendy and Even. The next morning, I received a call from Hanisah saying that the Headmistress, Datin Hasmah would like to see us. So the next minute we drove off to SMK TTDI, and oh yeah...we got LOST! Hahaha lucky for us we were late only by a few minutes, and unfortunately Datin Hasmah already left for an urgent meeting and we were on-time to see the Penolong Kanan. Puan Aishah was very nice to us and invited us to her office for a small briefing on the school and our timetable. She sorted us into classes and surprisingly both us had to teach Form 3 History (Sejarah) classes since the teacher is on a maternal leave. Sejarah?? I never like Sejarah! Well, remembering what Madam Adele told us before, we just have to say YES and accept the challenges. And guess what, the CHALLENGE IS ON! Moving on, both me and Hanisah went for a walk  getting to know the school ground and we found out that the teachers are generous with smiles. They were very helpful and welcomed us with open arms. I am very looking forward for my first lesson and get to know my students. =)

So that's all for a fresh start, Class!! Your teacher is on her way!
All the best my  friends!!

Teacher’s Eyes, “Eagle Eyes” ( first three weeks reflection)

Time always runs faster than you expect, half of our teaching practice has finished.. Have a look at the first three weeks. For me, it is like zooming into all the things I worried before. After these few days, I start to understand that a good teacher is the one who can see potential among students.

Form 2:

From the first day I stepped into form 2 AMANAH class, I’ve already known that their English proficiency is not that good. Most of boys cannot speak English very well and they don’t even want to pay efforts on speaking. One of the students shrug his shoulders and told me “teacher, i speak broken English, I don’t want to speak English in the class”. I was a little bit speechless but I can feel that the student is just lazy to reply me. I just replied: “it’s alright, teacher is also speaking the broken English, but I am just trying to be good. Nobody is perfect, who cares, just enjoy ourselves.” I was trying to narrow the distance between me and him and encourage him to speak. however, they just reply without passion. i think What I should improve later is to create a more comfortable and interesting environment for them to speak. (Situation 1: Students have no efforts on speaking English in class)

The first week, I ask them to write an essay to describe their hobby. I think it is quite a simple essay and provided all the guidelines for writing this essay. However, the following problems continuously come out. First of all, I never know that collecting homework is such a big work, I cannot get all their work, I reminded them two times and finally I have few of their work. I went to class again. I called the students who have not submitted the essay stand up and asked them come to me after class. After class, I first asked their opinions how to deal with their late submitting and one of the boys just simply replied me “alright, teacher, just write my name to the discipline teacher.” I was quite shocked because he shows me that he does not even care about anything and going to discipline teacher’s office is just his routine. (Situation 2: Student ignores school’s authority). When he mentions discipline teacher, I just directly tell him that “I won’t bother Puan Ong (discipline teacher), it doesn’t work at all, this is not an assignment any more, this is telling you how to keep one’s words” Later on, I give extra work for punishment. I am not sure whether it works or not. Frankly, they behave better in the next assignment, but there always has someone different from the main group.      

In the class, some of the boys really cannot concentrate, maybe their spoken English is not that good, and therefore, most of the boys always speak Malay to each other. Even sometimes I just stand in front of them and ask them to repeat my words, they still cannot do it. Every time I just ask the one who cannot answer my questions stand up and sit until they can answer the question. (Situation 3: no concentration). It can work for a while Anyway, everything will not always go the same way. One time, in literature class, I played the video “lemon tree” with cartoon for learning the poem “I wonder”. They were quite interested and excited. Although the sound of speaker is low and they cannot hear clearly, they sing with the songs and attempt to answer the questions. In post lesson, I ask them to draw picture to interpret the poem line by line and they did it very well. Actually, I didn’t expect that they can draw a full picture because they are normally passive in the classroom. As we can see, students have different sides and no matter they are introverts or extroverts, they all have potential. Teacher should have the ability to read their behavior and develop their potential.

Form 4:

My form 4 class is not the best class, but in my opinion, this is the class with the most potential. On the first day I went into the classroom, I can see that they are much more cooperative than form 2 class. Although some of the boys are too relaxed and sometimes it brings me headache, generally they are cute and creative.

In the second week, we have topic about “craft”. We discussed a lot about Malaysian and Chinese traditional craft and I ask them to make a craft in the post-lesson. I didn’t ask them to draw anything; instead, I just give them the mahjong paper and tell them to make anything they want as long as the craft can stand. In small group discussion, everyone are highly participated, let’s have a look at their work. J

As you can see, they make the Malaysian rockets, basket, and platform. ….

Actually, they are active not only in the classroom, but also on the stage. On 22th September night, our school has a students’ concert “SMASH”. We joined them that night and I was quite amazed by them because everybody looks different on that night. There are two main performers come from my class and in the following week, they all get the prize. So great! From this concert I also know that they have lots of passion in music. In the following revision week, I will raise some topic which is related to music and most of them all like it. I wish I can discover more from them later.

Best Regards,

ZHAO XUNYU