Friday, July 25, 2008
Week 13 – 14:
These two weeks I tried to finish the chapter that I targeted to be done before I give back my responsibility to Puan Siti Azibanul. On these two weeks, I’ll be observed by my guidance teacher, Puan Siti Azibanul. She observed me on the 7th period on Wednesday and this time I told to my students that Puan Azibanul will going to do the observation. As ordered, they gave fully co – operations and luckily half of the class went to the ERT room to finish their task ordered by their teacher. It was a relief as I could conduct the activity in the manageable condition. However, Puan Azibanul only observed for less than 10 minutes before I could do some activities with them. I hope that she could judge me fairly as she is an experienced teacher I tremendously needed a good mark for my teaching as well as my efforts.
On the final week of my practicum, I was asked by Puan Azibanul to do the oral test with my students. For the whole week I only do the oral test with them and at the same time preparing for final lesson plan for the second observation. As expected, some of the students couldn’t even converse in English. Those groups were the talkative click that I often pointed out. The oral test was beyond satisfactory as I put high expectation on them. However, some were doing very well as I never expect that those students could done better. On the Wednesday, my final observation wasn’t the one I wished for. My guidance teacher couldn’t make it on that day and she didn’t come to observe me. I assumed that she might be very busy. I regretted that I didn’t do the observations earlier. If I could, I would like to be given a fair mark. Before, I couldn’t make a date of observation with her because I hardly seen her in the staff room and I was being informed by other teacher that she is one of the busiest teacher. I understand that she gives full commitment on the examinations class (Form Three) and would only asked for her to observe me when she is free.
In the end of my final class, I gave my two-cents to my students and asked for their apology. I have nothing to be given to my students. All I could give to them is a piece of advice for their realization.
Week 12:
This week will be the busiest week in the school schedule. There will be Hari Koperasi Sekolah and School’s open day. We attended the meeting for the important days on Wednesday 25th June. Among the issues that were mentioned in the meeting were the allocations of the classes for the open day. Every class teachers will be going to meet the parents and giving out the midyear result. We will be assigned to the class that we teach to assist the class teacher.
Today (26th June) the school celebrated Hari Koperasi Sekolah. The occasion was commenced by Y.B Senator Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Muhammad B. Muhammad Taib, (Minister of City and Federal Development). The school turned into the business center where the classes were selling a lot of stuffs such as foods, games and so on. We were spoilt by the choices of food and bought plenty of it to be taken back to the staff room.
It was a tense moment as we’re going to meet the parents face to face. We were aware that meeting the parents would be the worst nightmare for all teachers especially with the picky parents. I understand their awareness about their children’s performance at the school and should seek advices from the teacher. On the positive side, I found that parents and teachers should co-operate with each other in improving the student’s study performance. I predicted that I will meet up with the fussy parents, however I found that mostly the parents very understood and some of them asking me on how to improve their children performance especially for the subject English. The unforgettable moment was when I met with Muhd Harris the Caucasian boy and his parents. At first his father came to get the result and have a talk with me regarding on his child’s exam result and manner. I gave my decent opinion and his father was satisfied with the answer. However, the family (the whole family) came again and his mother wanted to talk with the class teacher. She asked this and why to the teacher and very particular with the answer. The class teacher is seen getting annoyed by his mother but she tried her best to answer the questions even though she’s not very good in conversing in English. Sometimes I helped her to say the alternate words in English as she couldn’t explain it. Luckily, the mother wasn’t pointing out on the teacher’s credibility. I thought that I wouldn’t be questioned by her. After she finished and partly satisfied with the class teacher answers, the mother asked me what were the major problems of his boy especially in the subject English as she expected that Harris would get the highest mark. (Harris got B for the English paper). For a few seconds I paused and gathered the ideas on how to answer her back. After I gave my decent opinion, I found that the mother was fully satisfied with the answer and agreed of the idea that students are tend to make a translation from Bahasa Melayu to English and the reluctant to speak in English in the class. A sigh of relieve came from the class teacher, beyond the admirations of how beautiful her blue eyes. 12.30pm we’re leaving the class and walking to the staff room with the new experience.
Week 13 – 14:
These two weeks I tried to finish the chapter that I targeted to be done before I give back my responsibility to Puan Siti Azibanul. On these two weeks, I’ll be observed by my guidance teacher, Puan Siti Azibanul. She observed me on the 7th period on Wednesday and this time I told to my students that Puan Azibanul will going to do the observation. As ordered, they gave fully co – operations and luckily half of the class went to the ERT room to finish their task ordered by their teacher. It was a relief as I could conduct the activity in the manageable condition. However, Puan Azibanul only observed for less than 10 minutes before I could do some activities with them. I hope that she could judge me fairly as she is an experienced teacher I tremendously needed a good mark for my teaching as well as my efforts.
On the final week of my practicum, I was asked by Puan Azibanul to do the oral test with my students. For the whole week I only do the oral test with them and at the same time preparing for final lesson plan for the second observation. As expected, some of the students couldn’t even converse in English. Those groups were the talkative click that I often pointed out. The oral test was beyond satisfactory as I put high expectation on them. However, some were doing very well as I never expect that those students could done better. On the Wednesday, my final observation wasn’t the one I wished for. My guidance teacher couldn’t make it on that day and she didn’t come to observe me. I assumed that she might be very busy. I regretted that I didn’t do the observations earlier. If I could, I would like to be given a fair mark. Before, I couldn’t make a date of observation with her because I hardly seen her in the staff room and I was being informed by other teacher that she is one of the busiest teacher. I understand that she gives full commitment on the examinations class (Form Three) and would only asked for her to observe me when she is free.
In the end of my final class, I gave my two-cents to my students and asked for their apology. I have nothing to be given to my students. All I could give to them is a piece of advice for their realization.
Week 11:
In this week, there will be a talk by the Firefighter Department about the awareness of the school safety especially the fire drills. After the talk, the Firefighters performed a demonstration on putting off the fire. The students were eager to see how the fire extinguisher works and this is the time for them to gain a hands-on experience with the tool. As mentioned by Mr. Norman, the fire drill will be carried out at any time on that day and the whole school must be reacted as ordered like taking the right routes to the safety place (the field) according to the emergency plan which is pasted on every classes. The first fire drill was a success where all the students and teachers only took five minutes to gather at the field.
On the ninth period (Monday), I will be once again observed by Puan Nirmala Devi. This time I’ve mentally and physically prepared. I continued the chapter 11 with the more exciting activities. Perhaps on that day was the best lesson plan I’ve ever made for the past 10 weeks. The feedback from the students and the participation was outstanding as all of them gave full co-operation. It was a ‘happy and fun’ teaching that I’ve ever experienced. Whatever the outcome after that, I considered it satisfactory and the best I have done so far.
On Friday, there was an unexpected fire drill on the sixth period. It seems that this unpredicted fire drill has shocked some of the students and almost fainted. Lucky, it was manageable, except one of the classes was not gathered at the field. They might not hear the emergency bell as they were all at the art room and the class; Form One Epsilon was considered ‘burnt’.
Week 10:
In this week, I’m having discussion with my class about the English paper. We discussed the paper one and paper two. It was a shocking as I discovered that mostly my students were very lack in vocabulary and frequent spelling errors occurred not to one person but to almost half of them. They often left the letter ‘Y’ in the ‘THEY’ word and mispelled some the words like ‘FRIEND’, ‘EXTREME’, and ‘EXCURSION’ even though the words are actually have been mentioned in the class and printed in the examination questions. I highlighted the summary section as this section is considered as the easiest to score. Besides, I explained to them (individually) on how I gave marks to their essays. So far, the students were satisfied with the marks that I gave although some of them were begging to me for some extra marks. Before I gave the final marks to them, I met Puan Siti Azibanul and inquired her about my marking. Lucky that Puan Siti Azibanul gave a fine comment; fair and considerable marks. My review on the students essays is:
1)They need to read a lot and double check the spelling with the assistance of dictionary.
2)Double check the spellings every after finish answering the essay or summary. Spelling is considered as the essential part of the language and it will be tested and given marks.
This week, I’ll be monitored by my supervisor Puan Nirmala Devi and I needed to prepare for it. On that day, I planned to teach them chapter 11: Looking ahead, a chapter about the famous idol Dr.M Jegathesan. I admitted that I didn’t prepare very well as I’ve promised with my students to discuss the English paper one. What is more, my students were making noise, and unexpectedly one of the students screamed out loud as her friends scared her with the little spider. I was like, ‘what a mess’. For the whole double periods I tried to carry on my teaching although the students were not sporting. Maybe it was my mistake as I never told them that the lecturer will going to come and observe me. I just tried to make the class’ atmosphere looked ‘natural’ and the students didn’t have to pretend innocent. Anyway, I still have one observation by next week and that is the only chance for me to get a better verdict. I need to make some corrections and modifications on my lesson plan and teaching skills for the next observation.
Week 6 -7:
Examinations weeks. We were taking role as the invigilators for the class that we teach and also for the classes that we relieved. I assumed that the relief classes would be under control and the quietest of all as the students were sitting for the examinations. Before that, we were given the rules for invigilating the class. This rule is being set for the examinations purpose so that the students won’t make any attempts to score the paper. The examinations started on 12th until 22nd of May.
On 22th of May, the representatives from Cambridge Language Schools of Bukit Jelutong and Subang Jaya came to the school to discuss with teachers teaching using the medium of English for creating a course for teachers at their centers personalized to fulfill our school’s teaching requirement. This is because the educational system has gradually changed to the English medium; begin with the critical subjects such as Mathematics, Science, and technical drawing subjects. The teacher faces the translation problems especially with the terminologies.
On 23rd of May, the school held a Teacher’s Day. Due to the examinations week, the celebrations was postponed after the examination has done. I’m lucky as this is the memorable moment during our practicum at the school. We have a chance to celebrate our first Teacher’s Day and were being appreciated for our job. Teachers day started with the teachers being introduced one by one and surpisingly I was the first person to be introduced. I was a bit nervous as this is my first experience. Well, luckily that I involved with the stage performance and I managed to overcome my nervousness and walked through the stage confidently. The gala began with the National anthem followed by the Selangor’s state anthem and speeches by the senior assistant represented our principle Puan Aisah that wasn’t able to present due to the work commitment. The celebration continued with the very own teacher’s choir and we sang ‘Guru Malaysia’ song to the students followed by the student’s performances. After that games where held, with six groups of teachers competing in three competitions like passing water through half a plastic bottle, coconut shaving, and passing marbles with chopsticks.
Week 5:
After the school period, we were attending a talk about to the development of the staff’s (Sesi Perkembangan Staf kali ke-2). The talk was conducted by En. Raj from CUEPACS to promote a new insurance scheme that is more beneficial to teachers as a whole than other insurance offered elsewhere. The insurance offers the coverage not only to the applicants but also to their spouse and children. It’s a good long-term investment cum insurance. After that, the meeting continued with the religious talk given by an Ustaz from University Islam Antarabangsa for the Muslim teachers. While they attended the talk, I and Jennifer waited for them at the staff room and I continued the draft for tomorrow’s lesson. Next week will be the examination week, so I just make a lesson plan for the week after midyear holidays.
Week 3:
On week three (3), we were given a chance to be the teacher-in-charge for the school’s Karate-Do club, which is conducted on every Saturdays. Every time we attend the class, we need to take the student’s attendance and monitor them until they’re done. On this week, I begin my rehab class with the three students of Form 1 Epsilon. We were given the story books for our teaching material. Apart from that, we were also bought and brought some of the suitable reading materials. We were having the rehab class at the canteen, open hall and library.
Week 2:
We attended our first assembly. It was an exciting moment as this is the first time we stood in front of thousands of students. We were like, “I can’t imagine I’m sitting here in front of the students. Long before, I was like those students that stood and faced the teachers”. As usual, the assembly began with the National anthem, “NegaraKu”, followed by the state anthem of Selangor, “Duli Yang Maha Mulia”. Afterward, the student’s representative (the prefects) recites the National Principles and School’s Principles. Next, the teacher-on-duty makes an announcement about the class cleanliness and students’ behavior. In SMK Bukit Jelutong, all teachers are the discipline teachers. Every week, two teachers will be assigned the duty to monitor the students and mark the cleanliness of each class. After hearing the result of the weekly winner for the cleanest and the dirtiest class, the teacher make an announcement about the activity that will be carried on the whole week. Among the activities that will be carried out this week is, Talk about the Drug Abuse by the National Anti-Drug Association, Anti-Drug Campaign, Exhibition by the Anti-Drug Association and the police and also the Anti-Drug posters Competition. I found that the school is packed with the activities and events, as if the school is the place of the never-ending carnival.
This week, I will begin to teach my class. I’m taking Puan Siti Azibanul’s class, Form 2 Lambda. According to Puan Khairunnisa (Class teacher), it’s the second best class where the students take Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu Pilihan Kedua. So I expect that this students possess a mediocre until advance proficiency of English. I’ll be meeting my first class during the last period (ninth period). It’s a single period, so I just make an introduction session with them.
First time I entered the class, I felt a sudden claustrophobia. I felt very unpleasant with the narrow, crowded place. Of course, there are 47 students being packed in the small class!. It’ll be quite challenging as I expect that a massive noise would happen every time we’re doing the activities. As usual, I introduced myself as their new English teacher for three months and I asked them to introduce themselves, simply enough by telling their names and nicknames. Ever since this was my first class, I conducted a language game; Spelling Bees. The game is aimed to test on their range of vocabulary. They enjoyed the game very much although they were a bit noisy. Well, I took that as a normal class environment, active with the controllable noise. For tomorrow’s class, I was being informed by Puan Siti Azibanul that she had booked the media room for movie-watching; The Phantom of The Opera. This novel will be used as a case study for the literature component. So, on Tuesday’s class, I cannot begin my first class wwith 2 Lambda. One thing that I need to take note, my class on Tuesday will not be exactly 80 minutes. This is because the first period is taken by the roll call which is the mini assembly for students before they enter the class. There will be several announcements from the teachers, clubs and organizations about the activity of the week. The daily roll-call usually takes time especially if there are educational and motivational talks. It will be a bit challenging for me in estimating the time for my lesson. Sometimes my Tuesday lesson will be a bit off timing; too early done with the activities or cannot finished the other tasks.
After the roll call, all of the 2 Lambda students went to the media room. With the help of Mr.Ramesh, I set up the electronic devices such as television and DVD player, while the students rearranged the chairs and get into their best position to watch the movie. I supposed that we could finish watching the movie within two periods. However, the first period has been taken by the roll call and the remaining 40 minutes wasn’t enough to finish the whole movie. We just watched the movie half way and some of the students didn’t enter the class as they were loitering outside and only entered the room for the last 10 minutes. I begin to doubt myself whether I could handle this class for the whole three months. I hope that I won’t get any mental breakdowns within three months.
Wednesday. My first official class with the proper lesson plan. I felt a bit nervous. I need to get into the mood of teaching and visualized how it should be done. As I entered the class, I found that more than half of the students were still loitering outside even though the recess was over. My only better time is at the ninth period, as all the students will attend the class and wait for the last bell of the day. I waited for almost half an hour. As they all entered the classroom, I showed my unpleasant facial expression. After the greeting, I ordered them to remain silent and started with my ‘pre-set induction’ my rule in the English class. I need to set up the rules as this class is a bit talkative and often escape from the classes. My rule is simple, be punctual, especially for the after-recess classes. My first lesson went smoothly even though the group activity was a bit chaotic (good friends sat together and began storytelling and ignore the task). They’re manageable. I can say that they love doing the activity. It was a success at the beginning and I hope I improve my teaching skills day by day.
After the class, I continued to make a draft on the next lesson plan. Before that, we were being informed that we’re going to teach some of the weakest students of form One (1). These students are considered weakest in English as they are very weak in reading. We were given three (3) students each and the time table for their rehab class.
Week 1:
Monday. We arrived at the school at 7.00 am. While we’re waiting for other fellow trainees, we met some of the permanent teachers and get to know with them. It was an exciting moment as that was the first day we received our first greet from the students who passed us by. Before we entered to the staff room, we met Pn.Zanariah, the school’s Senior Assistant in her office for a small briefing. She explained about the attendance of the trainees, the ethics as a teacher and some of the student’s behaviors that we would expected in the classroom. Then she took us to the staff room, where we supposed to be seated at. We were being placed at the empty cubicle next to the Head of Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (KHB) Department, Pn. Nik Zainab and Pn. Liza Dahlia, the Head of English Department. The cubicle was spacious and can be occupied by three (3) people at the same time. It was an air-conditioned room that held up to 40 teachers. For the first day in the school, we were given the relief’s classes. I got three classes to relief; Form 5 Omega, Form 4 Zeta and Form 4 Epsilon. It was a bit tense as I was given the upper secondary classes to relief for the first time. Before we entered the classes, we’re being advised by Pn Zanariah that the first thing that we need to aware was showing the straight and strict face. The first impression determines how the students will go to give feedback. It is advised that the teacher must give the straight but strict look so that the student pays respect and will not easily judge as an approachable teacher.
We were given the timetable and the list of the classes along with the location as our guidance. My first relief class, Form 5 Omega was a talkative yet controllable. I kept to my mind that the upper secondary should be treated less strict and I told them politely for not making too much noise. As I expected, some of the students approached me and asked me the translation of the word ‘suffer’ in Bahasa Malaysia. It gives me the impression that mostly the students in that class possess very good English. After that the second student came to the desk and asked me about the format of the Bahasa Melayu debate. I was a bit confused with the debate format with the normal composition as I left this subject (BM) quite a long time. It reminds me that being a teacher we must be prepared with varieties of knowledge, not only English but other subjects as well. For the first time, I managed to control the class and they were behaving well. My second relief class was Form 4 Zeta. I was being told by other teacher about this class. This class is a bit troublesome where some of the students love to loiter at the toilet, walk around the school compound and never entered the class. As I expected, after recess, I entered the class and found that only four students were sitting there. I told to myself that this is the time for me to show my strictness. I asked one of the students in that class to find his friend and urge them to come back. He managed to bring back half of them. While the classroom was a bit noisy and I tried to calm the rest of them, one of the discipline teachers came to the class and scolded the students from the back of the class. All of the students went silent. Lucky that En.Saiful came to ‘calm’ the students and told me to write the misbehave student’s name if happen they did any offends in the class. I managed to silent them for 10 minutes before I went to the next class. Thank God that I didn’t relief the class for double periods. I guess that I need to be emotionally prepared if happen I go to relief that class in the future. The next stop was Form 4 Epsilon. This time I entered to the smartest class of Form 4. I didn’t have much trouble in the class as the students were all well-mannered and were doing the revision. For the rest of double periods, I sat peacefully and browsed the Curriculum Specifications and made drafts for my first lesson plan.
The first day in school wasn’t that bad. We managed to get through the mixed-behavior students and get to know with some of the teachers.Tuesday. As usual we’re given some relief classes as a lot of teachers went to courses for a few days. I found that, by giving the relief classes, I can get to know the students mixed-behavior and how we cope with it. For the second day I relief the upper secondary classes, but so far they’re controllable. On the second day I relief Form 4 Sigma and Form 5 Lambda. I’ve learned that the Form 4 students are a bit rebellious while the Form 5, as expected, are well-behave and matured. Form 4 Sigma is known as a sleepy head as most of the students were sleeping. It’s a good thing as they were all silent. However some of the students were going overboard as they arranged the chairs and slept soundly as if they were sleeping on the nice, cozy sofa. At this time, I didn’t tolerate with them. I asked them to rearrange the chairs back to the original position and warned them for not doing so again. They obeyed my warning but then continued their sleep again.For the whole week we just relieved the classes. At the same time, we surveyed the school compound, especially the location of the classes, laboratory, library, access room, media room, canteen and workshops.
Finally...Eventually
Wee... I managed to finish my group report and my Journal. I'll dedicate my teaching experience in this blog. Happy reading ^^
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Walking Down the Memory Lane
I can't believe that I've just finished my practicum. It's been two weeks since my last day at the school. As expected, I gained weight and noticeably 'larger' than before...sob..sob... I spent most of my days by SDO-ing, yeah..let your pixel dance and slim and not the real you.. sob..sob. When my junior passed me by and surprisingly mentioned how 'BIG' I am, I started to worry. I don't want to be a fat girl. So I've decided to take out my dancing pad and begin my dancing routines. At least I could discard some of the excessive fats in my tummy and thighs...*sigh*. Most of the time i'll go chill out with my sampat friends in SDO chat-room (the game room become the chat room) and also 'shua' (battle with other guilds)to up our guild rank. Yeah, sounds addicted to it, but it's fun. Therefore, it wasn't a harm for you to get to know with the new friends. I love my new friends. Oh ya, today is my first day working as the salesperson of Memory Lane. Yup, I get the job and me and Kak D just made it. We've learned a lot of things on the first day. From the top-up the card stocks till the gift wrapping and ribbon making which is quite en joyful. Overall, it wasn't a bad start for the beginner like us, as we never done the wrapping thingy. Well, lucky that we only worked for 5 hours and currently undergoing the training for a month. I believe within that period of time, we should be able to work and walk gracefully down the Memory Lane.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Long Time Ago~~
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