Ashikin's - POST-REFLECTION

Though there are some lacking here and there during the camp, the extraordinary teamwork spirit shown made me feel relieved. Since it was my first time to work under protocol, I was very concern whether or not I was doing it right. So far, none of the problems involved facilitators and the organizer team. Only a few technical problems showed up but the facilitators manage to attend to it very well (yay to all of you!) However, teachers’ presence in the groups made the students even more shy and demotivated because they were afraid to make mistake (in grammar, I assume). This is because teachers have full authority towards students while facilitators will act more like brothers or sisters; hence the students were rather more comfortable with us.

I hope I helped them well throughout the camp and the camp can be considered as a great success since I can see some changes in the students’ confidence. I manage to take over the group after the ‘Tandem Writing’ activity and helped them out for the skit. (My group was the one with the fish headgear.) They were still struggling with the voice projection but I told them to just speak out whatever you understand and be confident. I guess that was what they did. I was more than happy to see them walked up front and acted out because they were very shy at first. Congratulations to all facilitators for their hard work!

Ashikin's - DURING-Camp

I started to get to know the teachers from 20 different schools and get their names checked. I was quite nervous because I’m afraid of making mistake in such situation (yes, insecurity alert! Haha.) However, everything went well. Few hours after the camp started, the teachers were required to join the facilitators in the groups and help whenever needed. Therefore, I kindly asked the teachers to join any group of their own preferences and I would appreciate it very much if they started to work together with the facilitators. Some of them refused to and preferred to stay but I have no right to force them whatsoever so I let them be. (Now I’m getting more and more nervous.)

At the middle of the camp, I had to take over Wan Muhammad’s group since he was replacing Nazrin to be the MC. Nazrin, on the other hand, was helping Peng Chuan who was not feeling well. (Oh, dear! Poor Peng Chuan!) I also helped out during the prize giving ceremony by asking any of the teacher to do the honour of giving out prizes to the students. I’m glad I did it well till the end. 

Ashikin's - PRE-Camp

Before the camp, one meeting had been conducted to appoint the Team Leader, person who is responsible for food, materials, MC and so on. I volunteered to be the person in charge for protocol. I am supposed to deal with the procedures in formal situation which is throughout the camp. 

This is my first time ever to be the person in charge in protocol. I helped the leader to meet Dr. Noor Zainab and discuss the other matter that need to be done before the day of the event. I hope I can do well during the camp!

Siti Aisyah's Reflection of Language Camp (Post)

After the camp, like I'm doing now, we reflect. We discuss the problems in class. To me, I did not see a lot of problems during the camp. I guess as I joined too many language camp, I did not see a problem as a problem anymore. My experience has matured me. Cehh XD. I was so used to resolve the problems on the spot and afterwards, I forget about it. For instance, there are a few groups who did not have walls for sticking their mah-jong paper. I walked over to the groups and ask them to stack tables on top of each other and use their flat surface as their diy walls. All in all, I think language camp is a good foundation for students to like English. However, the activity done, in my opinions, is not meaningful for the students. They will not see the act of drawing an object and guess it in their daily life. But it is a good activity for students to learn new words.

Siti Aisyah's Language Camp Reflection (During)

It's D-day. We woke up early, get changed, thinking that nothing could go wrong. BUT, my shirt was pretty small. So, I decided to tie a sweater around my waist, to pump up things a bit. Haha. We waited for the bus, chit-chatting a bit. And the bus came. We got on it and 45 minutes after, we arrived at the school. The hall was pretty far, so the boys have to carry all the materials. We, girls, just have to be pretty. LOL. Then, the camp started by a simple briefing by our Pengerusi (Sorry, I don't know what is Pengerusi in English right now). We started the camp a bit late as there are some problems regarding the PA system. Other facilitators collect the materials needed for the camp, such as their name-tag, crayons, group name etc. About 9 o'clock, the camp started. Students were given strips of paper, for their group name. And they all line-up in their respective group. Wait, I think if I talked about the whole camp, I'll be typing for two hours. SO, let's make it short. What I did during the camp are :

1. Preparing the food for the facilitators. However, I did not know that we were also in charge of the students' food as well. so, what happened is the food was too spicy for the students. I did not foresee the problem as as a Sabahan, I always thought that Johoreans can handle spicy food. Some students cannot eat the food at all, so I was partly to blame.

2. I become an MC for half of the afternoon. One of the facis fell sick, and one of the MCs help sent him back to college. So, I replaced him for a bit. I'm not kidding, I really love being an MC cause I can unleash my craziness. However, it seems that it may not be appropriate for the students.

3. Temporary faci. Sometimes, I went to the group and help the facis when they have problems. For example, during the tandem writing, I help the students to 'colour' their writing. I also help students to re-think their grammar while writing.

Overall, I have fun in the camp. It was tiring as I ran around a lot, but yeah. It was fun.

Siti Aisyah's Language Camp Reflection (PRE)

Before the camp, we were assigned into different positions such as The Camp Commander, MC and such. I volunteered to take care of the food, which I thought will be easier (never feel so wrong before) cause I don't want to be a faci this time. Don't get me wrong. I always love being a facilitators, but I did it so many times before, just trying on a new perspectives. just wanna know what it's like watching other people doing the faci-thingy. So before the D-day, I went around and ask people who are vegetarian so that we can prepare different food for them. It turns out that they are okay with whatever food being served as they can just remove any form of meat while eating. Then, I figured my job was done! Looking forward for the day!

After Language Camp B

There is no perfect thing in this world. The same applies to this language camp. There will always be some things that will not go according to the plan. From this camp, I can say that some of the students are quite passive when they need to do the discussion in English while I am watching them. They chose to stay quiet and did not want to start the discussion. This problem worries me the most because they themselves need to have the urge to step forward first before they can engage in the learning process. Of course it is very difficult to get the students to contribute to the discussion; but we have to bear in mind that it is our task as the future teacher to attract them to participate in this kind of activities. We as the facilitator should be more flexible while dealing with this type of students.

In addition, there are also other problems that we, the facilitators and committee members need to improve. There was an issue about the foods prepared which is it was very spicy (I can’t even finished it). For the next camp, the person in charge of the food should be more aware of these kinds of things. To add on, there some issues that involved the teachers among the participated schools. I really think that the idea of preparing another separate activity for the teachers to kill their boredom is vital to avoid any ‘unwanted’ incidents that can hinder the flow of our camp.

On the other hand, I am really happy to see all the facilitators and committee members helping each other both during the ups and downs. I would say that our teamwork is the best and I really hope that we can still work together in the future. I would also say that this camp is very meaningful in its own way and I hope there will be more opportunities like will be provided for us, TESL students to sharpen our fangs in teaching English.

As the conclusion, there are still a lot more space for the improvements. Treat this experience as one of the stepping stone towards a better future as well as to be a better teacher. 

During Language Camp B

           A briefing among the facilitators as well as the committee members is conducted by the camp director (Mohd Hafiz) to ensure that our last preparation is completed. Although we faced problem with the PA system, our facilitator who is responsible for it (Khairul Syafiq) managed to solve the problem with the help from the school staffs.

Before we begin each of the activity, each of game masters will distribute all the materials needed to each group and also make sure that it is enough. Only after that we will start the activity. We officially start this camp with the ice breaking session. Each of the facilitators was given a piece of paper with a superhero’s name written on it, in big size to add. The students who got the superhero’s name will go to their designated facilitators with the same superhero’s name. This activity runs smoothly although the students seem to feel very awkward looking at each other faces (* I find this very funny though. I can’t stop laughing when looking at their faces :P).

As time flies, their shyness also flies away. In the second activity, they start to talk to each other in order to complete the group cheer and logo. To my shock, all of them are very creative in creating their group’s logo although some of them are not using English as their means of communication. Even so, I still encourage them to talk in English by using this language the whole time. Although they are not very competence in using this target language, I can sense that all of the students in my group understand my instruction. Well, sometimes I will need to paraphrase my instructions in order for them to get the intended meanings of my sentences. That is not a problem for me. They just lack of self-confidence to response to my instruction in English.

Although this is not my first language camp, it was a very great experience to be able to learn from the real experiences. I learnt to deal with the real students, the real teachers as well as the real problems in teaching English as second language.

Picture : Teamwork among my group members

Before Language Camp B

     During the pre-camp phase, we had a meeting with our lecturer in Language Games subject which is Mr Ghazali to discuss a few issues that need to be settled before we proceed with the camp itself. One of those issues is the process of appointing the committee members among the facilitators. Each of these committee members are responsible for different kind of works but at the same time maintaining their main role which is to make sure that the necessities and the flow of the camp is in safety margin.

  The second meeting is to decide on the activities that will be conducted during the camp. In addition, each of the rest of the facilitators who are not in the committee members’ list was appointed to be the game master for the language games chosen before. The role of the game master is very simple yet it needs quite a lot of attention which is to master the game given. Game masters need to know how that game will be conducted, the duration of the game, and the role of the facilitator as well as the materials needed for that game. Each game masters will then explain the game to the other facilitators until they understand how the game works and ten prepare the lesson plan to ensure the smoothness of the activity. The same goes to the other game masters. During this phase, any game or material is subjected to changes or improvements.

Preparation of materials comes as the last step in this phase. Based on the activities’ planned, game masters will need to prepare the materials for the activities according to its suitability for the students as we want the materials to be neither easy nor hard for them.  A great emphasis is given to the amount of materials prepared. This is because we need to make sure that each student or group will have enough materials during the camp. Early preparation is done to cater this issue.

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE CAMP B ( AFTER) BY FATIN NUR ALIA

It was really a memorable experience for me as it was my first time joining this kind of camp. One of the things I adore them is that, they show their appreciation. Before leaving the hall to go back to their family, they came to me and shook my hand and said ‘thank you teacher’. It was so sweet of them to do that. We also had a photo session together. But yet I have to admit that the language game was quite a tiring event for me as it was a one day activity and the place was really hot that worsened the situation. I agreed that this language camp was a good alternative in enhancing the students’ proficiency level. The implementation of this type of camp will make the students learn English in a fun way and eventually attract their interest towards the language. However, there were still flaws in the camp that could be improved. After the language camp, we then discussed together on the experiences that we gained in the camp and several things that could be improved. In sum, the language camp succeed in changing the students’ perspective towards English.

 

Goodbye everyone 

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE CAMP B (DURING) BY FATIN NUR ALIA

On 11^th of October, we departed at 7 am from UTM by bus. We arrived at SK Kota Masai 2 after an hour of journey. As we entered the school hall we can see the students sitting in the hall according to their school. Ten different schools will be participated in this language camp. Our lecturer then gave us a bag of utensils that we can use in the activities conducted later on. My ice breaking group then distributed the envelopes that we prepared to each school in order to decide the students’ group. Unfortunately, we started the activity a little bit late as there were some schools that did not arrive yet at that time. Once all of the school had arrived, all of the facilitator went to the front and held a paper with a name of the group. The students then were asked by the MC to go to the facilitator that was holding their group name. After that, the ice breaking activity started. The students in my group were really shy. Indeed, it was hard for me to even hear their voices. The same situation happened in the next game which were charade and win lose and draw. However, I can see that there was a little progression in my group but to compare it with the group next to me, mine was really shy. Then, we proceed with the next activity which is drawing logo and create group cheer. In this activity I divided my group into two so that few people can do the logo and the rest created the cheer. This is because; time was very limited since the activity started a bit late. The students had no problem in drawing and they show cooperation in deciding what to draw in the logo. However, there were problems in creating the cheer. There were really shy to speak out and gave idea. In the end, it was the facilitator who gave them the cheers. I think the activity that really changed my student’s attitude was the play. They practise very hard for the play and enjoyed it. Surprisingly, my group got number three in the play competition. It was really a shocking fact to me. I hope that from this experience the students will improve their confidence level and found the amusement in learning English

Drawing the logo

Our group logo :Frozen

REFLECTION ON LANGUAGE CAMP B (BEFORE) BY FATIN NUR ALIA

When Encik Ghazali assigned us to conduct this language camp, I was a bit reluctant since I’ve never joined any language camp before. The fact that one facilitator needs to handle ten students of secondary school also make me nervous. However, I just stayed positive and hoping for the best since this was one of the subject requirements. We were divided into few groups according to different activities. I and my two other friends were assigned to be the master of ice breaking game. This means that we need to design the ice breaking activity and its rule. Each group has to come out with the written procedure and rules of the activity. My group had to complete the written document of the ice breaking activity. It was not very difficult since ice breaking is just an introductory activity to make the students know their group member. We also used the lesson plan of the previous language camp as our guideline in designing the ice breaking activity. The committee members of the language camp were also being elected to make this language camp run smoothly. We also decided to exclude the committee members from becoming a facilitator in the language camp as it going to be burdensome for them. We had few meetings one week before the language camp to give details on the flow of the camp and to provide clarification. During the meeting, each group which in charge of different activity takes turn in explaining the rules and procedure of their activity. As one of the member in ice breaking group, we were the one who deciding the name of the group during the language camp. We decided to name the groups with the name of superheroes and well-known cartoons and randomly gave it to each of the facilitator. Apart from that, we also provided ten envelopes with twenty names of cartoon and superheroes. This envelop will decide which groups that the students belong to. 

Alison's Post Reflection on Language Camp B

           Overall, the experience of joining a language camp had gave me a brand new thinking of thought in teaching. I realised that students’ interest in participation of learning is more important than only depending on the teachers’ knowledge. Yes, we are meant to be knowledgeable but yet, a successful English user does not guaranteed able to be a successful English teacher. This gave me an impact that those philosophies and approaches we learnt before are more useful and dependable than we thought.

            Same as the others mentioned, we had a post mortem session as well same with Camp A’s with Mr. Ghazali. By having the post mortem, it actually reminded me those dots and moments in the camp. How the students resisted at the beginning and how they achieved at the end. It actually showed a process and also the progress.

            During the post mortem, we did found out there were several problems during the program. In my opinion, the venue of the camp would be the most grievous one. To have an active teaching and learning, a comfy environment is a must. Students need comfortable environment for learning so do the teachers/ facilitators in order to give effective teaching and guiding. The saddening part was, I was informed that there is actually another hall with sufficient fans in the school but yet the school organiser provided the hall with insufficient number of fans.  

            However, the comments from the students gave me a huge encouragement of that they really enjoyed the camp and some of them even gave a suggestion of make it as a 3 days camp. Well, I used to resist having overnight camp but now why not? It is fun and most importantly, it is meaningful.

Alison's Reflection During the Language Camp B

This was my first time in joining a language camp and truthfully, I was anticipated in it. I used to teach in a classroom but in language camp, the students can learn in a free and unrestrained way. I used to have otherwise-minded thoughts on language camp but then, after having an immense thought, language camp acts as a crucial role in enhancing students’ interest in language learning and it gives more space to the students to have their own authentic learning compare to dull and boring lesson in school.

During the camp, I was assigned to be the facilitator of Group “Harry Potter” as the students were all divided into different groups of Super Heroes. The members in my group were all come from different school but in same level of Form 2. From what I have observed, the girls in my group were more active in learning whereas the boys were came to the camp to have some fun with their friends as they were not concern on the activities and they tended to chat with their friends from other groups than discussing their tasks with their group members. In short, the girls were the active learners and the boys were passive in learning.

At first, they seemed to be not interested to the activities in the camp. They did not show significant interest in the Charades and also the Win, Lose or Draw. Most probably they were not familiar with each another yet and both of the games were kind of demotivated once they knew there will be no prizes given for the winning team. Well, they started to bond as a team for the Group Logo and Cheers session while they have to work together in order to create their own logo and cheers. Their passion in ideas finding and giving out their opinion did made me have the faith that they were meant to be here for learning and to be more stand out compared to the other groups.

 As it was a language camp so the main aim of the camp is English learning. In the tandem writing part, the students were required to take turns in writing different version of story based on different theme set and for my group, they were required to write stories about animals. The idea of this activity is to produce different versions of story with different perspective of students as each of them were have to write one sentence for each of the different version of story hence ended up each of them had to write 1 sentence in each of the 6 different stories (total 6 sentences). It was a disaster at first that different students have different proficiency level as some of them were not able to write a structured sentence and thus, we did not manage to get a full and proper story to be presented for the Skit competition. However, they finally came out with a creative and funny story by editing one of the stories written by having a group discussion. Their passion to get good scores in the skit competition motivated them to be creative and innovative and finally they got the Second Place for the competition. A tiring but yet a fruitful one!!!

Alison's Pre Reflection on Language Camp B

Despite to share my experience in the preparation for the language camp at SK Kota Masai 2, I rather like to share more on my thoughts and opinion on language camp before I attended the camp. Well, I believe that most of my friends who joined the camp together has shared their experience during the preparation and to be critical, we were most likely did the same thing since we had our meetings together, gave out our opinions and so and thus, I would like to more emphasis on the inner thoughts of myself throughout the preparation of the camp.

Firstly, I would like to confess that I can be said to be categorized to the group of person who prefers indoor compare to anything related with outdoors or they call it as ‘otaku’ in Japanese. To be precise, I hate outdoor activities. I admitted I was unsure of the “usage” and the main purpose to specially organise an activity for the students for whole day as teachers are actually giving their effort to teach the students in the classroom. The word “camp” has actually gives out a signal that this is an activity to have fun instead of having an effective teaching and learning. I would like to confess that I felt relieve after I heard Mr. Ghazali’s decision on just make it as 1-day camp instead of maybe 3-days 2-nights camp.

However, after the post mortem session for the Camp A, which I was just a listener in the class, I deeply realised and get more into deeply on the differences among the students’ learning attitude in the classroom and during a language camp. I did my practicum last semester and I truly had difficulties in enhancing students’ interest in language learning. Yes, I believe the main motive for the students to join the language camp is to have fun but unconsciously, they did learn something new with new peers and in a new environment. The joy and the satisfaction gained by the committees in Camp A has gave me an encouragement to accomplish the task without the mindset of getting rid another assignment but is that I want to succeed it and influence the students to have the thoughts of learning English can be fun.   

Language Camp B by Jacqueline Limantan Rantai (Post)

Post

            I would like to thank all the community members and language camp team b for making this camp a successful one. I am happy for sharing this journey with my fellow course mates and meeting the students. Before the camp ended, I had asked my  students their  opinion about this camp. All of them, love the activities in the game but they wish to have more fun games and activities. Some of them even asked for one night language camps so that they can play for the whole day. Moreover, they never think English could be fun and entertaining.

            However, there are few adjustments need to be taken into measure. Firstly, they should consider reduce the spiciness of the foods. There are some people who have problem handling spicy food and one of it, is me. I couldn’t take my breakfast and lunch, the only food I ate are the banana and bun. Some of my students forced themselves to eat it because they were hungry. This worrying me as they may get sick throughout the end of the day. Secondly, the venue of camp should be changed to a better hall with better air ventilation. My students kept on complaining about the heat and some of them prefer to just stay outside rather than stuffing themselves in the hall. They were happy when I chose to rehearse the skit outside the hall. Lastly, maybe there should be some warming up activities to get the students excited. For example, dancing or singing session whereby everybody will do it together.

            At the end, I learnt a lot during the journey and hope to join another English Language Camp. As teacher to-be, I must hold responsibilities to educate my students and this camp provides me with great teaching and learning experience.  

Language Camp B by Jacqueline Limantan Rantai (During)

During

            On the day, we need to wake up early in the morning and prepared the needs for the camp. This is because the event started at 8.30 a.m and our bus departed at 7a.m. Luckily, all transportation to D05 had been arranged, thanks to the members who offering us the ride. The journey to SMK Kota Masai 2 took us almost one hour. Upon the arrival, we immediately went to the hall and settled everything before the camp started. However, we encountered technical problems from the P.A system which cause the event to start late. Thankfully, our emcees and program director managed to handle the situation efficiently.

We started the camp by dividing the students into their assigned group facilitator. My group name is Nemo, yes, the cute orange Disney fish and my group was the smallest group out there which had only 7 members. Nevertheless, they gave good cooperation and participations during the camp even though some of them were shy.

There are few problems that I encountered with the students during the activities. Firstly, they had trouble understanding English instructions. I need to keep on repeating the instructions slowly and use the simplest English. Somehow, we need to always remember that the students are L2 learners and rarely expose to English instructions. Secondly, they had difficulty communicating using English. Most of the time, they tend to mix English with Bahasa Malaysia (rojak language) during the conversation. However, I respect their effort for trying to use English whenever they speak with me. As facilitator, we need to emphasis the use of English in daily conversation by keep on speaking in English even though the students speak in Bahasa Malaysia with you. Lastly, the students were having difficulty expressing their ideas in writing during tandem writing activity. Some of the students in my group, are forced by their teacher to enter this camp because of their low English grades. Therefore, they need guidance from me especially in grammar and sentence- structured. Consider that the participants have low English proficiency, the activity should be given more time to complete.

Nevertheless, the camp was a complete success. All the students in my group were happy to participate in this activity and they would love to come again.

Language Camp B by Jacqueline Limantan Rantai (Pre)

Pre

This is my very first time joining Language Camp as a facilitator. However, I did participate in one Language Camp during my high school era. As far as I can recall, it was a fun camp and less pressure than the other camps (leadership camp, training camp, etc). So, I still can get a little bit insight on what to expect during the camp later.

In order for the language camp to be successful, proper preparations must be taken. At the beginning, a meeting had been conducted to elect and assign members to their respective tasks. My tasks are to be facilitator and one of the game master for “Win, Loss and Draw” session. As part of the “Win, Loss and Draw” team, we prepared the materials, instruction guidelines and briefed it to the facilitators. After the final briefing, all of the respective game masters posted instructions documents for us to print as guidance. This is important to avoid any confusion and problems whilst the games were conducted.

Language Camp B (Post) by Afiqah Hani Bt Baharom

From the language camp, I realised that it is hard to make the students participate in the program. Most of them chose to be passive participants instead of using all the chances to enhance their proficiency in English. Other than that, I think I should sharpen my skills especially when I need to be friendly and communicate according to their age. I mean, they have different ways of thinking and I started to feel old.

Few days after the program ended, we had a post mortem session with Mr Ghazali by pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the program. Some of the things that have been discussed are good time management, good corporations between the teachers and facilitators also the facilitators show good team works between them despite of having emergency during the program. While the negative feedback of the program are the problems of the venue, the food and some problems with the ice breaking sessions.

All in all, I feel really glad to participate in the language camp. It is one of the interactive way not only for the students to be able to learn English in fun ways, but as a facilitators, I could also apply or practice all the things that I have learnt in the class for the program. That is all from me. Thanks for your time! 

Language Camp B (During) by Afiqah Hani Bt Baharom

On 11^th Oct 2014, the day started when we gathered on 7.00pm at D05. Then, we ride a bus to SK Masai 2. The program was held at the Dewan Besar SK Kota Masai 2. As soon as we arrived, we set up the place according to the plan. Even though we faced some difficulties such as failure in PA system and also lack of accommodation at the school. Alhamdulillah we could overcome the problem and came up with Plan B. For the whole day, I became as a facilitator for Minion group. I got 8 students in my group. They were from different schools around Pasir Gudang area.

We did our activities together and I must say I had a great time with them. Even though initially, most of them were shy to speak up and use English, but as the time passed by, they started to use more English in the discussions or communications especially in completing the tasks of each and every game. The most interested parts are Tandem Story and The Skit. During Tandem Story, as a future teacher I realized that some of the students from were actually could write the complete sentences. However, it is such a relieved when I could still understand what they’re trying to say. For the Skit, they gave full corporations and enthusiasms and we won the skit as a whole.

The program ended earlier than what have been planned. At around 4.00 pm the students back to their home and we cleaned the place and packed things up and went back to UTM.