Wang SiTing's Thoughts on Responsibilities

Hi everyone,

It is our holiday now! I can imagine that most of you have been planning the vocation, and I guess some of you have started to find a part-time job during the holiday. It is a good way to practice in the real-life situation as our teaching practice. We learnt a lot from it. 

Think back our teaching practice, the process for everyone is different; however, what we achieved is alike. That is, we all improved.The first time teaching practice must become one of the most memorable experiences for each of us. We had a fun time with our students. I can still remember each face of students who accompanied with me for two months in Taman SEA School and the moments in the classroom. Besides that, I redefined myself during teaching process and had a profound understanding about the definition of a teacher. During teaching, I found my weakness. I was not confident when I stood in front of the classroom; I always questioned myself if I qualified to teach; and I still behaved like a student. I knew that the teaching practice was a good opportunity to change myself. I must seize it. So, now, I find that I become more confident and mature. I could give myself a new definition now. 

So, I have to say the teaching practice is really encouraging. When someone asks what the teacher is, some may answer “provide education” or “to teach new knowledge”. However, teacher’s function is more than that. Each time when I stepped into the classroom, I must remind myself “ok, you are a teacher now, not a student this time. You should be responsible.”. Gradually, I find that responsibility can be suitably used to describe a teacher. 

A responsible teacher should fully prepare the lesson; a responsible teacher should be fair; a responsible teacher should be sensitive with each student’s need; a responsible teacher should keep leaning; and a responsible teacher should enlighten the student….. It makes me have a deeper understanding towards becoming a teacher. So, all these things make this experience impressive and unforgettable. Lastly, I really appreciate that I can have this opportunity to teach in the school and I met good mentor and supervisor who are really kind and helpful. They always support and encourage me. I am happy that I can have such a valuable memory in my whole life. See you next year, my friends :) Happy Holiday!

Best regards,Wang Siting

What have we here, BUNMI?

VIEW BUNMI'S HOMEMADE VIDEO RECORDING. Thanks for sharing!

~Dr Adele

Wang Siting: Her Learning Experience

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

Bunmi: of Happiness

The beauty of life doesn't depend on how happy you are, but on how happy others can be because of you. Seeing the students smiling and happy every time you stepped into there class is the beginning of a successful lesson. 

The journey so far has been an amazing one, the experience and memories will stay with us forever. For all that we have learned ,experienced, shared and understand as a trainee teacher is what makes us a teacher in return.

I would like to say a big thank you to all my fellow course mates for all their input and experience shared on this blog, every single time i log on to Lush tree, i always have something to take back into my class. You all have been so helpful one way or the other and it is a good thing to always learn from each other. I wouldn't want to start listing names or pointing at a specific post, but all that each member on this blog has been posting were the secret to our successful teaching practice . 

We trainees at the SMKDU have recommended the lush tree to the HM of our school and it was a great news to hear her saying good things about us and our contribution to the school within the short time we spent with them and we are also happy to be a good ambassador of UM / Lush tree during our practicum.

My personal experience, knowing well of Malaysian school system, understanding the school culture, participating in the school Hari Anugerah Kokurikulum 2012, exchanging my culture with the school/students, taking the students out for a seminar on multiculturalism and peace talk, attending the English festival with the students at the Bukit Jalil sports school , attending teachers meetings and end of the year party with the teachers.

Listening, taking notes and advice from the staff teachers help a lot. I have realised that making the students and people around you happy is the happiness of a Teacher. Coming here was meant to be and it has been an amazing experience for me, at this point , 

I would like to say thank you once again to everyone and most especially to Dr. Adelina Asmawi for being there always as a mentor, a teacher , a lecturer and an adviser. Thank you so much ..... to be continued ,watch out for the last episode of my teaching practice ,stay clicked to lush tree

Wang Yi Shares a Chinese Proverb

Dr. Adelina asked us to talk about things we can learn from others. In this connection, I remember a Chinese proverb: "Among any three people walking, I will find something to learn for sure." Which means, you will always learn something from others. 
During these ten weeks, I truly learnt a lot. From the school teachers, my peers and even my students. Their advices make me become a better teacher.
The lucky thing for me is both of my classes are form two girls. They are still at the age of curiosity. So no matter what kind of game you play with them, most of the time they will interested in it. Like Wendy's "tongue twister" and Ma Jing's "whisper game". I tried many of them in my class. And it really works. The game that we chose must be interesting, and also meaningful. So that students can learn things like pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Sometimes we even can do a lit bit changes of the original game, make it more suitable for our students. Learning strategies from others is good, but sometimes we cannot directly use their ideas, because it may not be suitable for your own students. What you do is not use some fancy ideas, games that you think can make your lesson looks perfect, you need to put your feet into students' shoes. (YESSSS WANG YI! ~AA)
I also have kind of same experiences with Farul. He talked about his "heart to heart talk", and gained the respect from his students. At the very beginning, my girls treated me just like a normal teacher, same as other teachers. But after they started to know some personal details about me, like my university, my country. I felt like the distance between us was more close. They also told me their "secrets", like who got a boyfriend. They slowly see me like their big sister. One thing that impressed me a lot is, one of my girls said "Miss Wang, we like you a lot, you are different from other teachers, because every time when we say 'good afternoon' to you, you always give us a sweet smile and say 'good afternoon' too." Students mind details, they really care how their teachers treat them. I strongly agree with Wendy's words "Sometimes, what students need more is not just a professional teacher who knows his/her stuff well, but also one that helps them emotionally; thus, open the knots in their hearts, especially those teenagers who are sensitive, moody and obstinate."

Wang Yi: "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth"

We have finally finished our training. Not like I imagined before, totally release and enjoy the holiday. Im actually still in the teaching mood. That's why I'm planning to find a job  teaching in China, during this long holiday. That is a kind of big change of me. 

In the past 16 years, I was a girl who always learnt from others, now I'm the one who is teaching students. 

Before this training, "teacher" in my head is like respect, have long holidays, an easier job, something like this. But now, I really have a fresh idea of "teacher". To choose this major is my parents' idea, not my first choice. I never thought I will be a teacher in the future. After ten weeks training, I kind of changed my mind, maybe I could be a teacher, I started to love the feeling of teaching others. I felt satisfied when I taught them something, they gave me respond and their "oh, that's why!" face.

I felt achievability when the knowledge that I taught before appeared on their exam paper, and most of them did very well. Having training in Assunta is not only a task for me, or having good grade, to be responsible to my girls means more to me now. 

We spent three years for learning the teaching theory. "Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth." Training is just like the big exam to test our ability. To be honest, experience is more important for us now. You have no idea what kind of problems will happen in your classroom. What if you are planning to show them a video but the projector does not working. What if the speaker is not clear enough when you are playing songs for them. What if there are less then 10 students in your class, but you prepare a game for at least twenty students. These are all the problems I have met before. To become flexible and always have plan B are very important. 

A good teacher will continue the lesson in any conditions. I really appreciate it that we can have this opportunity. I believe that most of my friends will be just like me, re-think the meaning of "teacher". I have the feeling that I will continue walking on this 'teaching road', and the training is just the beginning. First love is always unforgettable, same as our first practical. Just like I said to my girls, I will never forget that my first teaching experience is in SMK ASSUNTA and all of them are my first students. Never say goodbye. Thanks to all~ Happy Holiday~

Wendy's Discovery

'Sometimes, what students need more is not just a professional teacher who knows his/her stuff well, but also one that helps them emotionally; thus, open the knots in their hearts, especially those teenagers who are sensitive, moody and obstinate'

(Wu, 2012)

I am very proud of you, Wendy Wu!

WENDY: Learning from my peers

What impressed me most is Pei Pei’s reflection about her struggling with a group of high proficient students. The first week was overwhelming for her and she was constantly worried about how the lessons would go on in the following weeks. From her last post, I can say she has done a fantastic job. She pointed out that using presentations in the class incredibly involves her students, even the passive ones. This strategy is very suitable and challenging for high-proficiency students such as form 4 and above because it provokes their critical thinking on a range of social and global issues.

At that age, students have some experience in life and are able to discuss many topics from different aspects and deeply. Once I prepared a debate in my two form 1 classes and the effect was enormous. Not only did my kids loved it and participated passionately, but also they astonished me with their logical, persuasive and powerful arguments. Sometimes, students can come up with certain arguments we can never think of, which makes our teaching more like learning and intriguing. I strongly agree with Dr. Adele’s title of our fourth reflection—“To teach is to learn twice”. 

Therefore, Pei Pei’s presentation strategy can be a wonderful way of teaching and learning. What’s more, Farul’s third reflection about his struggle with the teaching process. He mentioned that he gained respect from his students by having heart-to-heart talks with them, which echoes my way of handling a bunch of teenagers. My students tell me they feel so close to me as I understand their feelings by talking with them over their problems regarding their behaviors in the class. I notice the tiny changes of my students in every class and surprisingly my kids open their heart to me and tell me a great deal about themselves. They feel the chemistry between them and me. 

The longer I’m with them, the more understanding I become about their behavior and reaction in the class rather than being judgmental. Sometimes, what students need more is not just a professional teacher who knows his/her stuff well, but also one that helps them emotionally; thus, open the knots in their hearts, especially those teenagers who are sensitive, moody and obstinate. If we impose our ideas on them and force them to do what we think is right without listening to their opinions first, the impact is always very negative and harmful for both sides in the long run. Whether as a teacher or a parent, analyzing their behaviors by listening to them sincerely proves to be a great way to getting close to them. And the job is harder for a teacher since he/she has to deal with a number of teenagers not one. From my friends’ post, I see we are really concerned about the students’ well-being and have benefited far more we expected. And I wish all of us enjoy our last week in the school. 

TOTEACHISTOLEARNTWICE

I cant believe some of the things you went through at school. I have spoken to some of you and spent some very lengthy discussions after discussions and I am amazed at the things you've come up with. From reading your posts, from observing you at school, from listening to your supervisors and mentors, I feel like you have gone through a lot in a very short period of time. Nonetheless, I am proud of every single effort that you put into your experience at school. I am thankful for every mistake, every challenge, every success that you had to go through. They are all part of learning.

For your Fourth Reflection, read your peers' posts and identify at least 2 very insightful posts that you could learn from. Cite reasons.

Don't forget to come back online for Reflection 5, your last post. One last thing: all your supervisors are very proud of you. 

Wendy's Ideas for all to share!

Changes in my students & My strategies

After six weeks of teaching, the most obvious difference I notice in my students is that they become more outgoing and they dare to try. These changes come from the way I approach my students. I at all times encourage all the students to try and if they are afraid of making mistakes, I will assure them not to worry. If any student laughs at other students due to their errors, I will scold them and give them a lesson. As time goes by, all the students learn to respect their peers and gradually many have changed. They become braver and more cooperative in the class. There were almost two weeks’ examination time and after that the teaching became harder since some students got lose after the tough exam: they didn’t come to the class or they couldn’t focus on the lesson. Therefore, I have designed several games in every lesson with certain purpose in order to achieve meaningful learning while having fun. 
For instance, “tongue twister” game is to enhance students’ pronunciation; “idiom” is good for expanding students’ English knowledge and enriching their language; “categorization of content” helps to improve their reading skills. “English songs” are incredibly great to attract students’ attention and I focus on the meaning of the lyrics, not just for enlarging their vocabulary but also for stimulating their critical thinking. My experience is that the pupils generally love these games and whenever they feel high-spirited and interested, I start to teach grammar, reading or writing immediately, those relatively boring lessons. And their performance is satisfying because when they’re interested, they can focus more and better, thus, learning faster. So games and songs can be used at any stage. We should be flexible about using games meaningfully and accordingly based on students’ proficiency level. My students now feel excited to have English classes because they never feel bored or feel like wasting time and the majority of them participate actively in the class. 

Pei Pei: of managing a bunch of really proficient kids

For the first three weeks in school, I started by doing observations in class. Not only did I learn about delivering lessons effectively, I learnt about classroom management as well - a very crucial part of making the whole lesson a success because no one wants to teach in a class where all the students are doing other work and students who are interested to learn will not be comfortable in a noisy classroom as well.

Through the observations, I find that lessons in school is still very traditional, very teacher-centered. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that it is altogether a bad thing. It's just that now since we are moving towards PBS, I feel that lessons need to be more colourful/vibrant and engaging to students at the same time. This makes me feel that I want to focus more on student-centered activity like presentations when I start teaching later in the same week.

My mentor made me teach during the first week itself because no matter how many times I observe, I can only get so much experience, she said that once I start teaching the experience that I get will be totally different and I will learn more when I actually teach. I really agree with her because standing in front of the class to deliver a lesson is totally different from being a listener at the back. Now that it's been sometime, I'm glad that she made me start early because I have more time to experiment and improve myself at the same time :)

For the first literature lesson, I taught them about imagery. Students are divided into groups and each group get an imagery from the poem In the Midst of Hardship. They were given drawing blocks, colour pencils/pens, coloured papers and also newspapers for them to illustrate the imagery that they got. They are supposed to make the other groups guess which imagery they are illustrating.

From this lesson, I can see that MOST of the students are enjoying the activity as it gives them the freedom to express their creativity. Boy they were really creative, they make tools and props out of the newspaper when I was only expecting them to paint a picture. From this lesson I learnt that I can test out more fun and creative activities with this class, as they are very proficient in English and they enjoy presentations, which is really becoming one of my strategy to get the students to involve themselves.

I can see that even the passive students participate once their friends start to do so, which is comforting to me because at least, they are participating in my lesson, good start, I thought to myself :)

I think that one of my challenge in teaching a class with a very high proficiency is that I need to constantly look for interesting and challenging materials which will still provide meaningful learning for the students while engaging their minds and concentration in class at the same time. I tried looking for materials which are not found in the textbooks or workbooks. I research online to find more resources which I can use. There are many lesson plans online but most of it are not suitable so I usually look for interesting articles and create my own worksheets most of the time that can cater to my students' level. Creating my own worksheet was the hardest part T__T because I need to create worksheet which is meaningful and challenging for HIGH proficiency students! Which is not easy, given that I'm not that proficient myself :(

Sometimes when I'm lost for ideas, I will discuss with my partner to look at more possibilities. Being a teacher, one have to always look around for new resources AND also for helping hands so that when you feel that you are falling, you have hands that will pull you up again. In this case of T.Practice, discuss with your mentor, partner and even the other senior teachers if you face any difficulty, surely they are more than willing to help if you ask!

And yes, there are really some naughty/mischievous students who will always twist my words into other meanings and make the class laugh! Although they make it harder for me to manage the class, but I enjoy having them as they make the class more lively - which I really appreciate as I feel that a class which is too silent is boring and it somewhat shows that students are not really interested!

So just how I tackle these talkative kids at the back of the class? Like what I did during the day Dr.Adele observed me, I usually will just pay attention to what they want to say, and I let them to have the chance to speak because you should never restrict your students from giving response no matter what their response might be!

My strategy is that I will listen to what they have to say, and if they say something related to the question I asked or something which is decent, I will give my response to their answer. BUT, if what they say has got nothing to do with my question, I will ask them to say it out loud to the class then I will ask the class what do they think of their naughty/mischievous friends' response to my question.

Most of the time, the rest of the class are helpful and cooperative with me and these naughty ones will get their lesson because their own friends will start to question them back and ask them to explain their response/answer and they will be lost for words and sometimes they even feel shy! :D

I think it works because every time I do that, no one dare to mess with me again. However, I think there should be new strategies because some of them seem to be not affected at all by this and this trick won't work forever.

Therefore, in my opinion, I still think that classroom management is one of the most challenging part of a lesson and I will strive to improve!

Wang Yi: Give me one more week!

Sixth week! Everything is going fine. I just want to say "Give me one more week!" I wish I can spend more time with my girls. I have already taught them more than one month, in the first two or three weeks, to be honest, I felt nervous before I went into the classroom, almost every class. I felt it was a task for me. Compared to that, now I'm kind of looking forward to teaching them, I started to enjoy my teaching here.

In the third week, our school had a retirement party for one of the teachers. Girls performed a lot during the concert. They sang songs, danced, even prepared a small drama, and also the impressive speech. I still remembered one sentence that the girl said "A good teacher is not teaching from the book, she/he is teaching from the heart" (to all of my fellows). I felt sooo lucky that I got the chance to attend the activity like this. We are just slowly into Assunta's life.

Our school's AV room is very nice. It helps me a lot in my teaching. Their teachers do not bring them there frequently. So girls were all excited when I taught them there. They like funny videos and colourful power points. Maybe all of them are girls, it is easy to cheer them up by only using some beautiful photos. I found that they will  concentrate morein the AV room than the normal classroom. One time I showed them a video at the end of the class, the most popular Korean song "Gangnam Style"'s MV to them, it was a reward, all of them did well in the class. The girls were like on the top of the world. Some of them even stood up and started to dance. Besides the videos and songs, I tried so many ways to attract their attention. Like using word cards. One of my lessons before was about 'how to write a short story'. There were five basic elements of a story. I prepared 8 colorful word cards and pasted them all on the whiteboard, and asked girls to pick up five from them. And the class control is more and more easy for me.

Here is a new problem I faced. Students do not like to do their homeworks, and cannot submit their exercise books or essay books on time. No matter how many times you mentioned in the class, some of them will just forget and ignore you. Other teachers in my office said you just scold them! But I cannot scold them like the other teachers did. I myself am still a student, I understand their thoughts and feelings. My friends, tell me the way how you deal with these kind of things please. Share with me your strategies.

Form 2's final exam will start  this Friday, all of my observations are completed. I can relax myself a little bit. I hope I can get a chance to observe my friends' school. Good luck to all of you.

Good night Dr. Adelina and my fellow friends.

Wang Lin: of lifelong learning

Six weeks of our practicum have passed and I hope all of our fellows are doing fine. For the past few weeks, two observations were respectively done by my supervisor and mentor. The feedbacks they gave were constructive and I discovered the weakness from my own lessons. We have to admit that many things happen in a classroom. No matter how systematically we prepare our lessons, they may not be implemented as expected. Therefore, we are always required to make wise decisions on whether all the students are actively involved in the lesson we prepared. Yet it is not easy to engage both good and weak students effectively at the same time. The suggestion my mentor gives me is getting students work in groups and assign the specific tasks to each of the group. It normally works because students can be more focused in a group rather than a whole class. In addition, visual stimuli are absolutely necessary in attracting students’ attention. Kids as well as teenagers are always interested in the colorful and intriguing things.

When I started my teaching practice at the very beginning, I often found it a headache to deal with disruptive students. And undoubtedly, there is always at least a group of talkative students in each class. However, the more I get to know them, the clearer I realize that they are excellent or even talented. And I understand when students are progressing at different pace, I have to give them work from basic to challenging so that everyone can participate in the learning process. Lastly, we have to make sure that students have gone through every important aspect as some repetition is essential to enhance their learning.

Fortunately, students are busy having their exams these weeks. I temporarily feel a sense of relief. The routine for everyday is either invigilating examinations or relieving a class. Because there is no teaching during the examination weeks, I make good use of time to learn from other teachers in the school. Through their experiences, I can tell experienced teachers should be informative and knowledgeable. And most importantly, they are encouraging, responsible and caring. So never stop learning, and never stop improving!

Best regards,

Wang Lin



Wang Siting: of depression and growth

Hello, everyone.

How is the teaching? This is the sixth week of our practicum. I am sure that each of us has gained the useful experience. We not only get to know the students but also know ourselves better. During this period, we focused on how to teach and considered what materials could be properly used in the classroom. The ultimate goal is to attract students’ attention so that it can help increase their interest in learning English. What I found these days was that students like colorful things in their learning process and they like crosswords very much. So, providing more visual aids or crosswords in our teaching could be a useful way to help students gain knowledge.

My supervisor and mentor have respectively observed me once. They all gave me so many helpful suggestions. My supervisor, Dr. Nanik, suggested that I should try to attract students’ attention immediately at the beginning of the lesson. Besides that, she also advised me that it is always better to ask students to guess the meaning of the words instead of explaining the vocabulary directly. My mentor suggested me giving one or more challenging questions to the students, even though you know students’ level is not so high. I will improve my lesson based on their advice in the future.

Things will not always smooth sailing. We have to face various difficulties . During the teaching. I felt frustrated sometimes and questioned myself. The things you fully prepared for students may not feel interested; the lessons may not be conducted ideally. But, on the bright side, we can find our weaknesses this way. It helps us to be stronger and stronger. The weaknesses make us depressed; however, it makes us grow at the same time. Make our spiritual world more powerful.

Besides that, students’ final exam has started already. My job is to monitor the examination (Form 2 students). When I look at them, it made me recall my schooltime. Truthfully, hope my students can do well in their exams.

 After the exams, I have to continue my teaching task for two more weeks. Hope that I could be better than before. Also, all the best, my friends.

Sincerely,

Wang Siting

Rou Jin: of Information and and students' needs

By now, do you really know your students? As for me, six weeks are not enough to remember the name of my students in three classes. But by now, I knew which student is an actor/actress, artist, introvert, extrovert, a singer and a bully. I knew their true colours after a few weeks teaching them. Absolutely yes, by now I know their weaknesses and strengths.

I was observed by Pn Rose twice. For my first observation, I taught the students Persuasive Speech. I inserted the Persuasive Speech under the topic “Futuristic Gadgets”. I knew that they are weak in their writing. No doubt they are fluent but they do not have the input and the skills to brainstorm the ideas. Therefore, I gave them a task where they have to come out with their own robots by using the materials (a mirror, cutlery set, trousers, coat, empty bottles and wind shades) that I gave them. For the LEP students, I gave them newspaper articles on technology which can help them in their speech. The group work was to sell the product they invented to their friends by using 10 phrases in the Persuasive List that I gave them. It turned out to be an interesting group work. Pn Rose advised me to give more feedback after their presentation.

Next observation by the mentor, I taught my beloved students about an interesting topic “Light Pollution”. Since they are quite lazy to read passages and write any essay, I indirectly forced them to write an essay ! During my set induction, I showed them pictures of light pollution and I’ve gained their attention from there. Next, I gave each group (mixed LEP and HEP students) an article and asked them to summarize the passages. Each group was given a different article for example, what is Light Pollution, The Causes, The Consequences, The Solutions and etc. They presented their points in mind maps on Mahjong papers and I pasted the papers on the board. At the end of the lesson, they need to hand in their full essay about Light Pollution. So in order to write the essay, they need to pay attention to their friends’ presentation as the points on the papers would only be in mind maps style. To my surprise, all of them submitted their work before the bell rings.

In a nut shell, I realised that as a teacher, we need to be more informative to arouse students’ interest in the lesson.  Set induction is one of the most important criteria in teaching, besides knowing your students weaknesses. I have done with my observations for both method and I hope that I’ve done my best. Good luck everyone !

Love,

Rou jin

Third Reflection Due

A pic of the sky for all of you...

Hello there! What lies yonder? This is your sixth week at school, imagine that! Time really flies. Well, what has been happening since your second reflection? Remember the challenges you wrote about? What strategies have you used and did these strategies work? If they have, good for you! If the problems are not solved, what other strategies are you thinking of? Are there newer problems or those which you havent noticed but are sprouting faster than Jack's beans? Describe these for us. Don't forget to read your friends' posts and leave comments. Many of you are facing similar problems. By sharing, rading and commenting, you'll be able to support each other! Looking forward to reading your posts! Au Revoir!

Wang Lin’s reflection: A worthwhile experience in life

How time slips away! It has been the forth week since I take part in teaching practice in Taman SEA School. I really appreciate that I together with my partner Wang Siting was assigned to this school which is one of the top 10 secondary school in PJ. I am also glad that my mentor as well as other teachers in this school welcomes us wholeheartedly.

For the first few days, I felt quite stressful and complicated. As a new comer, there are plenty of things I need to get familiar with and comply with. In the meanwhile, as a foreigner, sometimes I also have to translate Malay language to English. Fortunately, I am able to get help from other teachers and Siting all the time, which makes me feel at ease.
As far as I can see, practices in teaching differ across countries. At least there is a distinct contrast in school systems between Malaysia and my motherland. There are two form 2 classes that I was required to teach, one of which is the best class (2 A) in the grade and the other one is the second last (2K). From the moment I got to know my students, I found out that these kids are just around 14 years old. Adolescents under this age must be very talkative and open-minded, and so are my students. Therefore, classroom management becomes the major concern in my class. It seems that they fairly enjoy the chatting time in my class as some students are really overactive. I can understand that they may not have someone to talk with when they are at home, so once they are in the school, they catch every chance to chat. Soon after I realized the fact, I try not to speak until all of the students are settled down and seated. Actually the strategy works, but not all the time. So being firm is not the only solution to control the class, we should also catch students’ attention and have them engaged in the activities.

Catering for different style of learning is another challenge. Indeed, students’ English proficiency level varies. The more I know my students, the clearer I understand their needs. Sometimes lesson planning is not that difficult, but when we plan to have each student effectively involved, it will be somewhat tough.

I have also conducted a listening activity with my 2K students once. It is about listening to a song and filling up the lyrics. Students enjoyed in this activity and they really paid their attention to the music. When the class was over, a boy called Emerson said to me: “I think teachers like you are more modern and learning English can be really easy and interesting.” Yes, it is true that audio and visual aids can have a great impact on English teaching.

Even though the students are naughty on their seats, when they come in front to role play, they are shy and bashful. They are really naïve and lovely.

In addition, correcting students’ work is a meaningful way to improve myself in learning English. I discovered numerous expressions and English idioms which I never know before from these brilliant students.

So far, I am kind of adapted to the school environment and the routine work. I can tell that my life is engaged and fulfilling every day. Teaching practice is worth trying because it is meaningful to gain experience instead of learning just the theory. Even if there are a lot of areas for me to work on, I am willing to take advice. After all, life is a continuous process for improving oneself. Lastly, there is a time in life that is full of uneasiness; we have no choice but to face it.

Ashilla's Lesson at Tmn Petaling Girls' School

Ashilla chose the theme: Future and Technology. She taught writing to her Form 2 students.

Here was she during Set Induction and Pre Writing stage. She had pictures of Movies pasted on the board and guidelines for writing: Title, Introduction, Setting, Paragraphing, Comments/Opinions, Descriptions and Conclusion. 

This was the text used as sample.

However, much to my surprise, Ashilla made her students write about anything they please without following a theme. She also could've helped her students write key points/drafts before actually writing the final version. Almost all of the students began writing without drafting. Drafting is an important process in writing. She could've also showed them how to plan and structure a piece of about 120 words as she wanted them to write for about 120 words. SOme students overshot and wrote more than 200 words. 

Here's a good student, Veronica, who immediately started writing without actually having a clue to how she was gong to end her essay.

This one wrote so much more than 120 words, but her language use was really good! I wish her teacher had assisted her more with her writing as she showed so much potential. Overall, Ashilla was confident, had a clear voice and smiled most of the time. Another point Id like raise here is for her to try calling students by their names. Hope everybody can learn from Ashilla's lesson.

Pei Pei's Plot

Pei Pei taught writing on Friday. She explained about plot and had a graph drawn on the board, descriptions on note cards and sections of a story which she made students rearrange and label on the board. Pei Pei was enthusiastic, strict and very clear. 

 Explaining the plot

 Students labelling on the board.

You can see how Pei Pei has worked hard to prepare all these for her students.

Some boys behind her class were naughty and spoke really well. Their vocal was pretty vast and they were throwing words in the air which were really jargons, sometimes distracting the class. Pei Pei wasn't disturbed by this and continued teaching esp for those who were paying attention. She didn't let the guys off so easily and starting walking to the back and asking the students to answer her questions, to which they tried answering and focusing. Good. The only thing I was worried about was Pei Pei was almost screaming her lungs out to speak to her students because of the noise outside. Perhaps, the doors could be closed and she could reduce her risks of getting tonsillitis...? Let's wait for her reflection.

Bunmi's Gentle Side at School

Third week! well i will say, so far so good. It has been a wonderful experience for the past 3 weeks. Students were so friendly and happy to see me in their classroom. some will even ask me "teacher when will you come to our class?" I have entered almost all the classes in form 3, 4 and 5. I don't know about other schools but SMKDU students are so respectful and active in learning . The teachers of the school are always there to assist and give us ideas, but also there are a few students who will always act funny.

Sometimes "i put myself in their shoes, during my secondary school days I have done more than what they are doing. So i don't get angry over whatever they have done , i only change face and then smile. 

I share my story with the students,my life experience and my university experience. I also tell them how to get themselves prepare for their future whatever they want to be in life. i told them education is important and English is powerful. I gain students attention in all the classes i have entered in SMKDU, I use the students background knowledge to deliver my lesson. They like to talk ,I always put them in groups of five , they will be given different task in each group and some times same task so they see it as competition with other groups, I award points for groups that did well and you know what ? the class is always lively with loads of entertainment that allows students to converse in English language. With this i was able to get everyone involved in my class and was able to carry the less proficient ones along. 

On Friday i had a relief class in form 4 Bel, I entered the class and i saw half of the students at the back playing a game of Mafia. Then, I called them together and i ask everyone in the class to get involved in the game and we use the whole 35mins period to play the game. The reason why i allow them to play the game for the whole period is because, its a game of dialogue students communicate in English and use some vocab during the game. In the game everyone has to talk and it even gave the less proficient ones opportunity to talk during dialogue (Mafias, Doctors and Civilians). If I enter any class and i notice that the students are looking tired and stressed ,I wont start my topic, I will ask the students to exercise or walk around by the corridor so that they can stretch and look active and refresh again for the class . With all these I have mentioned , i have been able to do all my lesson and also make friends with the students.

 Bunmi's Students

                                               

 Stop Racism

I shared my sporting experience and knowledge with the students and they accepted me as their teacher and their friend. Every time i smile at them, they'd follow my instructions. i never scold or shout, i always call students randomly to write help write on the white board or list their group mind map on the white board. i always make sure they are in group and each group have group leaders. I have used choral reading for my literature classes Poems and drama Gulp and Gasp . I have my style nice, calm and gentle. Never Shout at students and don't rush, the students will flow with you if you take it calm . Thank you all and watch out for the next episode of my teaching practical ... :))))