Second Week Teaching in SMK Secret (Week 3)

For this week, it is easy as most of the students can follow my rules in the class. Only some of the students that give me slight headache as they always talk and talk when I was teaching in front. Some students, although they are not interested, they will try to listen or just minding their own business. However, there are also a student that always disturbing or chatting with others who wants to learn.

In this week, I also having my first observation by my mentor. As it is the first time, I feel like everything that I do that day is not going as planned. When I was about to end the class, my mentor steps out of the class and she asked me to meet her in her office. I thought that I have already make a big mistake while teaching her class, however she said that I have done a great job in grabbing students' attention on the half way of the lesson. After that, students have lose their interests in learning process. She gave me a lot of other ways and suggestions to make my learning process better in the future, and we also discuss on students behaviour.

After the meeting and my observation, I feel relieved and thankful to God and my students as my students try to be more cooperative when I was observed by my mentor.

Experience 5

Hi there,

          What I want to write in this post is about how inconvenience it is to not be able to interact or communicate in Chinese language. Half of my students from both classes are Chinese. I wish I did learnt Chinese Language such as Mandarin instead of French or Japanese during my first year in University.

             This way, I can use Mandarin to interact with my Chinese students and more importantly, if I know their language, I will be able to know what they are thinking as well as what they are talking among themselves. During my class, most of my Chinese students will talk with their friends using Mandarin. What usually happens after I talk or ask questions to them is they will turn to their friends and they will discuss or ask anything using their Mandarin and then reply back to me in English.

        Sometimes, when they are not satisfied with what I said or asked them to do, they will talk using Mandarin which I don't understand. As they know I didn't understand what they are talking about, I'm pretty sure they are expressing their unsatisfactions toward me and gossiping about me. This is one of the reason I wanna learn Mandarin more than any other languages in the world. In addition, able to communicate in Mandarin can be very advantageous as Malaysia is a multiracial country with Chinese as one of the races in Malaysia.

           Besides knowing what they are talking about, we can approach them naturally and chatting with them about other things besides talking about English. This way, they will feel more attached and comfortable being with us. In addition, they will be more open when talking with us if we know how to use Mandarin with them.

Experience 4

Hello everyone,

          This week is the same as the other weeks. Teaching is quite interesting as every time I step into the school ground, students will greet me, "Good morning, teacher", "Assalamualaikum, teacher" or "Selamat sejahtera, teacher". I found these actions as very heartwarming and this culture among the students is one of the motivator that always motivate me to continue teaching and increase my passion to become a teacher. These innocent and pure students need to be taught in order to prepare them before they face the challenges in the real world.

         In addition, becoming a teacher is the perfect platform to harness the talents of the students. This is because I believe most of the students have their own hidden talent and what can a teacher do is to develop and instill their talents to higher level, not only teaching them in class about the compulsory things. Self-development of the students is necessary to promote a better future for them.

           Talking about my teaching experience for this week, I discover another problem during my teaching practicum in this school. This problem by my students is quite annoying for me. During the English time which is during my class, there are some students who do works for the other subjects. While I'm teaching in front, they naturally do Mathematics and Science works in front of me and daringly ignore my teaching. 

            From what I can see, they might have no interest in learning English and didn't pay attention in English class. As the result, they didn't write or finish the notes and works that I gave them. This problem is very disturbing as the students will miss my lesson just because they did other subject's works in my classes. To solve this problem, what I usually do is I will ask them questions that are related to what I'm teaching in front and they are not allowed to sit before they answer my questions correctly. This method will cause the students to stop doing other works during my class and pay attention to my teaching. 

Experience 3

Hai,

            Teaching in a real school instead of teaching my own friends in the micro-teaching course is totally different. The set up is already different where in micro-teaching classes, we can plan what we want our students to be like and how they behave like they will behave or do what they are supposed to do. In school, it all happens naturally where the students will do what they want to do and feel. They never lie in their actions. 

             Because the students act naturally, it leads to many problems done by the students. The most problematic one is their discipline. Discipline problems are very hard to handle as I am a new teacher and I don't know what action should I take. Rather than other student's problem, I should focus more on the problems that arise in my own classes, Class X and Class Y. After teaching them for a few weeks, I realized that there is a problem that always done by my students in both classes. 

            A few of my students in both classes are very talkative. Thus, they like to talk with each other regardless of the situation, even when I'm teaching in front of them. I find this problem is rather disturbing and problematic in many ways. The students usually like to gossip with each other or chatting about things that are not in the books. Not only they are talking, they don't even pay attention to what I'm teaching. 

               This problem affect not only my concentration in teaching, but at the same time, it disturbs the other students who are paying attention to my teaching. They will lost their concentration and cannot focus to their studies. To solve this problem, what I do is I will use the silent treatment method to the whole class. I will stop teaching in front and just look silently at those who are talking. Most of the time, this method is very effective because they will feel curious about what happens as the situation suddenly becomes silent and stop talking when they saw me just standing there and looking at them with angry expression. In addition, most of the time, other students in the class will also advice and stop the talking students from talking. They will feel guilty and ashamed because they were advised by their own friends. I will only continue my teaching after all of them stop talking and pay attention to me.

Experience 2

Hello again,

            This is the second post on my experience teaching in a secondary school for the first time. Currently, I'm teaching 2 classes and both of them are Form 4. The first class ranked as second and the other one ranked as ninth among twelve classes of Form 4. This is quite interesting for me as a new teacher because I'm expecting to see if there is any difference between these two classes as they are rather quite far from each other in term of their class ranking.

             Class X (the 2nd class) is quite a good class to begin with. They respect me the same way they respect other teachers although I'm their new teacher. First time entering their class, I was very nervous and thought about many unnecessary things such as what if they didn't reply to my questions or what if they find my teaching boring? What should I do if that is the case? Unexpectedly, my first time teaching them went quite well. They understand what I conveyed to them and most of them didn't hesitate to ask to ask me if they have something in mind.

          On the other hand, Class Y (the 9th class) is quite different, both in positive and negative aspects. Positively, they respect me as a teacher and I found them quite talkative. They're talkative both when I'm just chatting with them and even when I'm teaching in front. From they way I see it, maybe they aren't interested in learning and they might just want to get attention from the teacher. My mentor teacher advised me to chat with them when they initiate a conversation with me. Who knows maybe we will understand what they are thinking and avoid judging them from the way they look. Lack in language competency might result them to be not interested in learning English.

        Since this in the first week teaching the students, this is not the right time to draw a conclusion. I need to approach the students and learn to think the way they think.

My second week

Hai again,

My second week is my first week of teaching. The first class I went to is the third- rank class. I was so happy that I able to teach the good students and I even planned carefully my lesson plan. I also prepared my own handouts consists of comprehension questions. However, I was shocked at the students' response. 

They ignored my teaching, talking and the worst part, they didn't even look at my handouts. I was so sad thinking that I spent hours making the handouts and planning for the class and the result was a disaster. I spent most of time walking around the class forcing them to look at my handout and do their work. I even speak  loudly  to attract their attention. All of my strategies I used, failed. In the end, I can't finish the whole lesson.

On my way back to the teachers' room, I kept questioning myself whether I am a good teacher or not. I even doubt my teaching passion. I almost gave up.

Then, on the next day, I have to teach another class, the fifth-rank. I didn't prepare too much as  I did previously because I believe that I need to check the students' attitude first before planning my activity. However, I provide handouts for the students as my teaching aid. I did not expect much for this class because based on the previous class, I don't want to be  disappointed. However, this class took me by surprise. The students in this class are totally opposite from the previous class. They are eager to learn in my class and even joining me in the discussion. Although they are talkative (they love to talk), they took part in my class activities. I was happy on that day.

Nevertheless, I decide not to give up on third- ranked class because I believe one day I can manage the class. Though it may take some time. And I hope the fifth-ranked class maintain their eagerness until the end of my practicum.      

That's all,

Thank you.

My First Week

Hai there,

On my first week of teaching practical, I was very excited and nervous. Why? On the first day,there are lot of questions pop up in my mind. What is like to be a teacher? Who is my mentor? Which students do I get? What should I teach? And so on.

Thank God, the school people welcome us with warm hearts. Each of them is friendly and nice to us. It makes me feel less nervous and more comfortable.

For the first week, my partner and I are busied surveying the school compound. This is for our ROS (Rancangan Orientasi Sekolah) project. We took a lot of pictures and interviewed number of teachers regarding the school administration, timetable, co-curriculum, curriculum,etc.

We even observed a few classes (especially the Form 4) to get clearer view of the classroom. From our observation, we found out the school has many problem with the students discipline. We get a lot of advices from the teachers in the school to handle the discipline students.

While doing my teaching practical, it brings back my school memories as a students. However, this time I'm a teacher.

My First Week Teaching at SMK Secret (Week 2)

This is about my second week in SMK Secret. However it is actually my FIRST week TEACHING at SMK Secret. For my first time before entering that class, I feel happy as this is my first time i will teach the future generation that will lead our country to a brighter future. However, when I finished teaching them, I felt like I was released from a prison. This is because actually they always make noise and cannot speak or understand English. At the end of the week I felt like the class becomes better from day to day. Maybe this is because I have started to be like the students or maybe I have become immune to my students' behaviour. I don't really know as i feel like this upcoming week, it will be better than this week.

My Wonderful Moment at SMK Secret (Week 1)

I arrived at this school with very high spirit..:-) During my first meeting with the PK 1 of this school, I got to know that there is 92% of Chinese students at this school.. Wow!! What an interesting statistic for me as first timer.. I started to think that "Well, you have to learn a lot about them." This is going to be different from my past experience and form my theory class as I could see the environment, the situation, the scenery is very much different. My introduction to the staff room has made me happy being here as the teachers are very friendly and very understanding. They welcomed us in such a way that we could not ask for a better one. We got to know each other and that pleased me very much..
What a wonderful first day for me!!:-)

For this week, I did not start teaching yet. I have got the chance to observe a class where an excellent teacher conducted and other than that, I have nothing to do except finishing my ROS. But I would like to share on my experience talking to a Chinese boy. On my way to the class, I met a boy who was walking to the toilet. He asked me "You sapa?" and I said "I am going to be you teacher." Then, he just went without giving any word or smile to me. This is what very interesting to me. As a first timer being in a different community, I was shocked to face this kind of situation. I thought maybe they did not like me or they wanted to show they did not care for who I am. That is where I got it wrong. After talking to a teacher, I got to know that the situation I have faced is actually normal. It's not they hate me, but that's how they interact.. I was shocked but still that was something interesting to know..:-)  

First Week at SMK Secret (Week 1)

Hi, this is about my first week at SMK Secret. I still remember about my first visit in this school. Teachers in these school always friendly when they meet any outsiders like me. The first teacher that greeted me was, lets just name him as Cikgu "Poyo", this is because he always said "poyo" just like it is his trademark. Then another teacher greeted me although I felt shy and nervous. after a while, I started to feel comfortable in this school. Besides that, Cikgu Poyo also invited me to join him cycling in the woods through rough terrain or he called it as off-road cycling. That is the way that he used to make me more comfortable with the teachers in the school and I just make a fast move by accepting the invitation.

Experience 1

Hai,

I'm a practicum teacher who is currently teaching in a secondary school in Johor. Since I am a new teacher, this is the first time for me in teaching real students in real life and there are a lot of new things that I have never seen before during my study in the university. The experiences that I gains here cover many aspects of being a person who is called a teacher and it is a little bit different from what i have learned in theory classes. The first thing that I want to write in this post is that I was caught off guard by the realities of teaching. Of course I thought that I will be busy, but busy with the students, not with other side works that teacher needs to do at the same time such as students’ administration, co-curricular activities and also other school’s programs. The first time I entered and sit on the chair in the teacher’s room, I can see that many teachers were discussing about their students among themselves. Most of them need to key in the personal details of their students in the online database by the Ministry of Education. There is a lot of work that needs to be done such as gathering the personal details of the students before they can key in the data. It is worse when there is problem with the data or the database itself. In addition, the first week in schools feels like crazy. I feel like I keep running around the whole weeks in order to gather information about the school that needs us to meet all the important personnel in the school. I learned that being a teacher needs us to be very fast and effective in doing our works.

Jack C. Richards on Successful Language Learners