Between Two Lungs (3rd Reflection)

[Once again, sorry for the late post!]

A quick recap about my 2nd reflection: 

I was asked to teach 4 Batai, a very rumbustious class with problematic attitude. Although they are high in English proficiency, but they're lack in both speaking and presentation skills. So, how did I handle the kids?

I can say that I was quite stern with these kids. I thought that if I was nice to them, they would not take me seriously. I set a few ground rules where the students needed to follow strictly. In my opinion, the rules are important as they will give your students a hint on your teaching style and how they should behave when the teaching & learning (T&L) is conducted. A few students revealed to me that when I came into the class with these ground rules, instantly they knew that "I'm the type of teacher who you don't want to mess with".

My dad gave me a tip, told me to use reverse psychology to deal with this kind of kids. There was once when I entered the classroom where the students did not greet me & were still playing around in the classroom, completely ignoring my presence. Instead of scolding them, I lectured them about "good manners & courtesies" for good. After that day, whenever the students met me inside or outside the classroom, they would always greet me. They started to show more respect and behave better in the class.

My sternness towards the students gradually changed as I saw that they had started to improve a lot in their behaviour and attitude to learn. Since 4 Batai consists of a bunch of talkative students, I had decided to do more speaking activities with them. Most of them admitted that they were very shy to speak in front of the class. I recalled the first time that I observed the class was when Pn. Emily did an oral presentation with them and to my horror, they were very weak in presentation skill. Most of them didn't greet the audience, did not even introduce themselves or their topic and worst, some of them didn't end their speech with a "thank you"! Afterwards, whenever they were asked to do presentation, I would encourage all of the group members to speak & assist them by giving them feedbacks or comments. I would also give them a few suggestion on how to improve or make their presentation be more interesting/lively at the end of the lesson. From zero to hero - I must say that I am very proud of 4 Batai as they showed a very impressive improvement in both speaking & presentation skills (and they did it in quite a short time, how amazing is that!). In Week 4, they were bolder and became more eloquent to speak in public. 

Practice makes perfect!

When I revealed to the students that I would do revision on literature with them, they frankly confessed that learning literature is boring. To overcome this problem, I designed fun yet challenging tasks for my students. My goal was that the students would learn from the literature and love it as much as I do. I used game (i.e. puzzle), role-play and mind-mapping as well as asked the students to create/interpret the poem that they had learned into something else (i.e. poster, story-telling, song, etc.). One of my favourite activities that I did with the class was when I did revision on "The Fruitcake Special". I asked them to put themselves in a chemist's shoe and create a suitable perfume for the characters in the short story based on their characteristics. The end products were marvellous! The students were very creative and they really enjoyed inventing the perfumes. A few groups took the initiative to pretend as the promoters for the newly invented perfume as they tried to persuade and sell the perfume to their audience. On the last day of my teaching practices, I was glad to hear that my students enjoyed my literature class the most & would miss me teaching literature as I managed to make the class became more interesting & fun.

The perfumes that the students had invented.

 The Pizza Perfume a.k.a. Victoria Pizza 2.0:

Buy one, get one FREE pizza coupon courtesy of Armstrong's Peachy Pizza.

I found that using mind-map is very useful during the T&L in the classroom. I often used mind-map to deliver my lessons as well as asked my students to draw mind-maps for their presentations. Not only that it is effective (students understand better on the topic that you teach), the students also enjoyed making their own mind-map as creative as possible.

The making of mind-maps...

The final products...

Apart from that, the students seemed to love group work more than individual task. It was proved from time to time that whenever I asked them to do group discussion, they were very enthusiastic to complete the task given. However, when I asked them to do individual work, they took longer time to complete it.

We love group works! :)

Another problem that I had encountered while teaching was pronunciation problem. I had lisp, so sometimes I have difficulties to pronounce certain words properly. There were a few times that I'd been laughed by my students whenever I mispronounced English words. Most of the times, I was aware of the mistakes and quickly pronounced the words again to correct myself. Each time before I entered the class, I would go through my teaching materials and referred to the dictionary in order to know the correct pronunciation of the words that I'm not familiar with. At the end of my third observation by my mentor, I was glad when she told that I've improved in my pronunciation.

Other than that, during the first couple weeks of my teaching practices, Pn. Emily told me to finish up their individual oral presentation. I was in a dilemma at that time and approached my mentor (Pn. Farahnaz) for advice as I did not know whether I should carry on with the task since my time to teach the class was very limited as the final exam was just around the corner. In the end (during Week 4), my mentor told me that I didn't have to proceed with the individual presentation and just focus on my teaching practices as it was not part of my responsibility to complete the task. I was relieved as I was afraid that I might not have enough time to do revision on literature as well as teach them other topics if I needed to continue with the students' oral presentation.

A bunch of very rumbustious students who constantly caused me to be gasping for a breath at the end of every lesson. Teaching those kids definitely consumed a huge amount of energy! @_@

The experience that I went through with 4 Batai is a bittersweet one. I admit that at first, I was a bit reluctant to teach the class. But eventually, I started to enjoy teaching them and proud with the improvements that they had done throughout my teaching practices in SMKDJ. Somehow, they reminded me of myself when I was still schooling. I'm glad that I took the challenge to take over the 'nightmare' class because I definitely had learned a lot by teaching these kids. Personally, I rather teach a bunch of hyperactive kids (like the students in 4 Batai) rather than the passive ones. If I were given the chance to come back to that school again, I would like to continue to teach them as I feel like there are so much more that I would love to teach, do and explore with the kids. To see how eager and enthusiastic they were to participate in the learning & activities that I had provided for them as well as the improvements that they had done were utterly fulfilling. In the end, all the sweats, headaches and heartaches were paid off when I heard them said "You're one of the best teachers that we ever had."

"Experience is the teacher of all things." - Julius Caesar -

How comrades motivate one another

Having read my fellow classmates' reflections, all very inspiring, all very meaningful, I'd just like to share how Fahrul's journey caught my utmost attention. He stated that his problems were his form 4 students had difficulties in writing essays and also his Form 2 class had a little too much of sugar for the day. Knowing Fahrul, he can be very stern yet loving too, therefore he tried to overcome these problems in his own ways. He took the initiative to teach them to create an effective mind-map, so that the students would generate more ideas in writing their essays. As a result, his students were able to write better essays with more elaborations, thanks to the mind-map that they created. Fahrul also took the time to get to know the students, as they even confided him with their worries and problems. I am sure most of the students felt as if they had a 'big brother' who cares for them. Thus, they are now willing to cooperate and produce better work for Fahrul. As for his form 2 class, he took their energy and spirit to an advantage where he made them act, sing and write creative song lyrics! (I could totally imagine how those kids performed 'I recycle and I know it' to the beat of LMFAO, cheeky monsters!) Not only that, Fahrul mentioned the students from other classes who came to talk to him looking for advice. To me, that's a true quality of a teacher.

Besides that, I've also got an eye for Fahmi's journey as he sailed through the ever-challenging waves of students from Bukit Bintang Boys School. Being a big, tall and fierce-looking guy like Fahmi, I'm sure he'd have no problems with the boys there. But the problems he faced was the lack of proficiency, too active, noisy and was not cooperative in his class. I felt inspired by his post mainly because it reminded me of my own situation where I too, had to take charge of students from the lowest class. I'm positive that Fahmi had so many brilliant ideas and teaching aids for his lessons (just like I did), but due to low proficiency of the students, he had to opt for the traditional teaching styles. I personally believe that the bunch of students that you teach have the power to determine whether your lessons will work out the way you plan them to. For example, when I was given the chance to teach Form 4 students who could converse very well in English, my mentor told me my overall performance was much better than when she observed me with my 2 Dalton class. Therefore, in Fahmi's case of teaching his students, games, pictures or flash cards are some of the ways he tried to catch their attention. It's the spirit and his 'don't give up attitude that I truly admire and look up to. There were times when I felt like I wanted to give up too, but I kept on thinking about how my other classmates are coping and that gave me the motivation to stay strong.

I am certain that all of us have done our very best for our teaching practicum, and I am very proud of everyone each time I read a post in this blog. We all have different methods in handling our students, and with that comes all the different stories I am reading! Lastly, practicum is over so happy holidays everyone. Take care and much love :)

Nurul Hanisah

Nothing Great was Ever Achieved without Efforts

Howdy Lovely Comrades,

First and Foremost, I am so sorry for the late posting.. Procrastination brings harm than good to yourself (Ps: Its a note to myself).

So, by the time you read my post, I am sure that all of you are leisurely enjoying yourself at home as we are finally done with our teaching practice.. Guess what?? Its a Wrap, people! :)

Back in line, this post should be meant for my course mates who are really amusing and their stories really amazed me as I read their posts. I was really overwhelmed and talked back to myself, how can they came out with such strategies? and how did they find the spirits to overcome their weaknesses?.. Its a big shout out to Amanda (Liu Shuoyi) and Muniroh.

As for Amanda, in her post, she posted that she has attended the seminar on the students learning style. And she implemented what she learnt to her students. In my point of view, it was great because as a teacher, we cannot expect all students will be able to catch what we taught them. As a teacher, we must know our students preference in learning and adapt it into our teaching. We can devise a lesson that suits the students learning style preference for an effective teaching. As I read her post, I acknowledged her efforts into knowing her students learning style preference in order for her to be able to get their attention during lessons.

That was brilliant Amanda :)

Next is about Muniroh, being class mates, course mates, colleagues, friends and knowing her for more than 3 years, she finally has shown her true colour and she is incredibly inspiring. She gained my respects a lot for being able to overcome her weaknesses. Her post about "Teacher and Microphone" inspired me a lot and it was an eye-opening post for me as "Nothing Great was Ever Achieved without Efforts". She definitely knows how to and she used a microphone to teach and that is nothing to be ashamed for, that shows what she got and she needs to know that her action was truly brave and amazing. Being gifted with a small voice is not a circumstance for her to be a good teacher as long as she has the courage and mission to bring herself upward. Seeing her post reminded me of one of the teacher in SMK Bukit Bandaraya, Miss Yeap. She is a Mathematics teacher, very soft spoken and kindhearted. She has been using microphone for almost 5 years and she said to me, the microphone has been part of herself and the microphone is the source of her strength. How amazing she is and true indeed, she was one of the teacher that I respect during my teaching practice in SMK Bukit Bandaraya. So Muni dear, go on with what you got and keep that confidence in yourself.. I cannot be any prouder of you, you are really great and courageous. 

Based on what I have written, I am truly blessed to be inspired by these two people and I know, the rest of my course mates are very inspiring and hardworking as well. They all have their own strength and ways to overcome their weakness. You are all a dearest to me. 

Winston Churchill said, "Succes is not final, failure is not fatal but it is the courage to continue that counts".

Xoxo -Wan Athirah-

Learning from My Friends (Fourth Reflection)

Learning from My Friends (Fourth Reflection)

Hello friends! This is the end of our teaching practicum. I am sure that each of us has gained many useful experiences about how to teach. i read through all the posts and there are two posts that inspired me the most.

The first post that I have chosen is written by Farha Alia. In her first observation, she asked students to watch the movie trailer of the Avengers. As I know, students love to watch videos; they would feel excited and interested when they were watching videos. Furthermore, she distributed mahjong papers to students to draw the image of superhero and came out with their characteristics by drawing a mind map. Definitely, students would not feel bored at all; they would focus and pay attention to teachers. Because students they love to do fun activities, such as watching movies and drawing pictures. Also she asked students to draw pictures in order to show how creative they are. Moving on, after students finished their drawing, she required students to present what they have done in their mahjong paper. On the other hand, it improves students’ speaking skill. Good job Alia. 

The second post that inspired me the most was Awtif Ghaphar’s. First of all, she conducted ice breaking activity called “back-sweetalking”. For this activity, students would be curious what they might look like in their friends’ eyes. It stimulated students’ abilities. Also it grasped students’ attention to let them feel they are involved. About “My colors and my story” it is interesting; students need to tell a story based on the color they got it from the teacher. Here I have to say it is a very good idea for students to speak out and work in a team. Lastly, she did expectation settings session with the students. it ensures that  students to achieve an efficient and enjoyable lesson. “Goals and Expectations” will build up a competition for students, they will have a sense to do it better once by once. Because they want to get praises and awards from teachers.

I am proud of these two friends as the ways they are teaching, the strategies they are using for; the attitudes they are behaving.

Warmest regards

Ma Feihui

Encourage and Be Proud of Students ( Third Reflection)

Encourage and Be Proud of Students( Third Reflection)

Hello friends! I would like to apologize for my late posting. Sorry, everyone! This is my third reflection. Oh my god, time files, this is 7^th week in our teaching practicum, I am sure I will be sad when the last day is coming.

Form 2 Cekal class: I must have to say, I love my 2 Cekal class. Their English proficiency level is good. In my second reflection, I mentioned about they loved to speak and talk during class. But they are not willing to write an essay. As a teacher, I have to force them to write an essay although they don’t like it. Considering that problem, I planned lots of speaking activities for them, writing tasks are as punishments for them. My supervisor Madam Shanina came to observe my 2 Cekal class once. I prepared literature “heir conditioning”. First of all, I asked students to look at the pictures to indentify which pictures are belonged to past and present. Moving on, I distributed worksheets to students to compare the things we used in past and present based on the poem “heir conditioning”. While stage, I focused on themes. Post stage, I asked students to do the puzzle word games. After observing me, my supervisor said “you are a hardworking girl, I can see you prepare a lot for your lesson today, you are better than your first observation, but there are still rooms to improve, for example: your class is quite good and able to manage easily, their English proficiency level is good, you need to share more experience with students, ask them to talk more and speak more.” 

In addition, my mentor observed me one time in 2 Cekal, I prepared literature “Rumpelstilskin” in class. First of all, I picked some dialogues from drama, then I asked students to show emotions such as anger, joy and happy based on the worksheet they got. Furthermore, I distributed worksheet to them to draw the portrait of the character they were assigned by teacher. Also Athirah and I planned a drama role play for Rumpelstilskin in 2 Cekal and 2 Jujur. We guide students how to act it out, how to use facial expression and body language when they are acting. Students enjoy a lot. I am so proud by every student.

Form 4 Maju class: as I mentioned in my second reflection, students in 4 Maju class were not active. Now it is 7^th week already, they are still not active, but it becomes a bit of better than previous. Due to they are not energetic, so the only way I have to catch their attention is doing fun activities. Such as: after they are finishing their exam, I prepared English tongue-twister for them. During class, I asked students to work in groups; they have to read the tongue twister clearly and quickly. The best groups would get the reward from me. Actually, it works. As a teacher, I tried to use a “reward and punishment” to stimulate their interest. Furthermore, I planned some interesting pictures to let them see how many hidden face they can see based on the picture given. Anyway, they like to do fun activities.

There is one thing in 4 Maju class, I was totally shocked by them. In 2^nd week of teaching practicum, I informed the whole class they would have an oral-test later. The marks would count in their SPM results. So I asked them to pay attention in their oral-test. I even asked them to practice their oral-test during my class sometimes. Every time, I asked them how is it going by their practicing? They all said ok…then I trust them...Now I know I should never trust them. Because...When the day the form teacher Puan Nik came to 4 Maju class to listen their oral-test and give marks for them. OMG…they even have not prepared anything. I called each group to present their oral-test in front of the class. They directly had a discussion in a very last minute. Some groups they were absent, I told them earlier, the day they must come...They still absent...Some students can’t speak one complete sentence. Puan Nik was so angry, she scolded them and questioned them “have they practice before??Students even replied back “YES”…       Puan Nik told them if they want to this way, it would be fine by her...she said that’s the only mark they would get. For students who were absent, they will not get any marks for their oral-test.

After class, they came to see me. Because they want to get another chance to do their oral-test. I discussed with Puan Nik, she said “NO”. I told students they learnt a big lesson if they have not prepare.

Then, for the following weeks, I have been teaching as usual and preparing g my students with their final exams...Form 4 has their exam. I will monitor them when they are having their exam. Furthermore, me and Sophie are helping school to key in marks and assist graduation day in form 5.

Warmest Regards

Ma FeiHui

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