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.

Wan Zahidah's Post Language Camp A Reflection

After the language camp, there are many things that I realized. Some of them are I realized that primary students and secondary students have energy levels although they are both young. Secondary students might be active, but primary students are even more active. However, there are also students who prefer to remain passive although the facilitator has tried to engage them into the groups.

Apart from that, we also did a post-mortem during class. In the post-mortem, we discussed on the good and bad things that we found during the language camp. We also talked about the problems encountered and possible solutions to these problems.

Post-mortem is very important for  any activities or events held as this will help the organizer to identify the problems and this will help them improve the next event. 

During the Language Camp B

     During the camp, I was allocated a team consist of 7 secondary school students. The name of my group is Ninja Turtles. However, I 've tweak the name to TMNT for it is simpler to pronounce. The camp started a little late that the time planned. After the students have separated, the activity started with the instruction from the emcee of the camp.

     The first game is the logo and cheer creation. The mahjong paper and stationary have been already been given to my team. The discussion of the logo creation and cheer creation went a little longer that expected because the team members aren't that cooperative yet and some of them are shy. However, I've managed to separate the team for logo creation and cheer team creation. A lot of ideas suddenly flow when they are able to use their mother tongue. All in all we managed to come up with the cheer but in ongoing process of the logo creation.

   The creativity part have to stop because the first activity have come in place. The first activity is called the charade. This a fun game which uses gesture to present an object.my group battled with another group next to mine. During the time allocated, the students felt overjoyed because the activity helps them in cooperating among themselves. Both the group managed to complete the game although my team loses the battle. I also managed to add another battle cause the time is enough for another round.

     The next activity is the Win, Lose or Draw which have the same principle as charade but instead of gesture, we could only draw. The game went on smoothly and I also managed to add one more game that every team member from both group is involved. The activity which is the tandem writing. I help the students is giving them suggestion on how to create their own love story other than family or couple story.

   After that is break which I help the other facis in leading the muslim students to for their prayer. After the prayer, The short drama comes, My job is locating the team with the same theme which is LOVE and battle among 6 other group. I lead the group competition by nominating the sequence of the group that would be presenting. I have to continually reminding the students to speak louder because of the size of the hall is big and other people can't hear them. The competition continued until the judges announce the winner of the competition.

Wan Zahidah's Language Camp ( During)

On that day, we gathered at D06 before we left UTM for SMK Masai 2. We arrived at the school around 8.30am. By that time, most of the students from different primary schools already arrived and done with their registrations. As soon as we arrived, we were asked to introduce ourselves to the students.

The ice-breaking started as soon as the introduction of facilitators ended. After a few minutes, the students finally gathered in small groups. The facilitators went to their respective groups and continued the rest of the ice-breaking activity. We also played a lot of games, for instance, ‘Win, Lose or Draw’ and charades after we had our morning break.

Right after the lunch break and Zohor prayer, we started the short skit competition. The students were very enthusiastic to play the drama although they were not very competent in the language.

The language camp ended around 5pm and we arrived at UTM around 7pm. It was very tiring but was joyful. This is because I had no or little experience dealing with primary students and through this camp, I had a little bit of exposure on teaching primary students.

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!

Language Camp A: Maisarah’s Pre-Reflection

On Saturday, 27^th of September in the early of 7am, I gathered at D05 along with other facilitators. Some of the lecturers seemed to already prepare to load the materials and other stuffs.

As soon as the bus arrived, all of us hurried to load the materials and did needed preparations to ensure the smoothness of this program.  

Then we rode the bus to SK Kota Masai 1 which was the camp location. The journey took almost 1 hour and to be honest most of us were quite starving as we did not take any breakfast yet. We should have brought some buns or biscuits as our tit-bits on the bus... :(

After that, we quickly unloading the stuffs from the bus and put them at the school hall as we arrived there. 

post-camp Language Camp B

Salam and hello everyone

Today i m gonna share about my feelings about the camp. But please don't misunderstood me. I am not a hipster (if you watch The Big Bang theory you will get my silly joke). okay enough nonsense from me.

First of all, I am very glad because the camp was successfully organized by us, 4Sppl students. However, the problems faced during camp made me quite disappointed because the camp was not smooth as planned.  The problem with the food was too spicy causing me cannot finish the food. The students in my group also cannot finish the food because the food was too spicy for them. They only eat half of the lunch then throw it away.

I just focused on the food problem because i love to eat. hehehe. okay maybe next time during the next camp we need to deal with the caterer so they do not prepare the food that toooooo spicy.. thats all from me..

good day everyone
good day

Wan Zahidah's Preparations Before Language Camp A

Being an introvert, I am not quite comfortable doing outdoor activities or activities that includes a lot of strangers. However, being 22, I want to challenge myself and get outside of my comfort zone. Thus I decided to volunteer to join Language Camp A before it was changed to course assignment.

Before the language camp, facilitators had a meeting with the lecturer to get a brief explanation on language camp as some of us were not familiar with such activities.  We got into small group and each person was divided into smaller groups. Each group is handed a task to manage one of the activities that is going to be conducted in the Language Camp. Each group that manages certain activity is called game master.

A few days before the camp, we had a meeting at our college residence. The meeting was to do a briefing on each activity that was assigned earlier. Each group briefed on their task, starting from ice-breaking until short skit presentation. Game master also needs to prepare materials needed for each activity. All preparations from every aspects were given an emphasis to ensure the process of the camp will flow smoothly.

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. 

Pre Language Camp B

                Before the camp started, we have several meeting regarding what to do during that camp and also the organization of the camp committee. During the meeting, we discuss about all the games and activities that will be done during the language camp.

                The Language Camp B was held on 11th October. We, the boys came early to the D05 building (our gathering spot) to help up in loading up all the materials, foods and drinks into the car and bus. We arrived at the SK Kota Masai 2 as early as 8.30 a.m. and then started to load out all of our things into the hall.

                A brief discussion was given to the facilitators and then each facilitator were given their own group. As for me, I was given a group called Ironman. YEAY!!!!

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.

Pre Language Camp B

     The day started on 11th of October morning. I arrived at D05 together with other facilitator. I arrived there at 7 o'clock where no one has arrived yet. After half an hour, other facilitators start to arrive. We waited for several minutes more to collect the materials prepared for us.

     

     My job is only loading the material onto the bus when the person in-charge of the key to the location where the material is located. Next, we rode the bus to the camp location which is at SK Kota Masai 2. Then I helped the facilitators in unloading the materials from the bus. Then the material was transferred to the hall of the school.

AFTER THE CAMP. LANGUAGE CAMP A

To summarize all the experiences, the best word to describe it was 'fun'. Although in the end I totally worn out, it was very interesting to have this kind of language camp as the 'teacher-to-be' this is one of the way to see the real situations that will be faced by the teachers in the future. As a teacher-to-be, we cannot expect the students to master everything but still. we need to always be there to assist them along the way and try to understand and love them as much as you can. When there is trusts, the relationship between students and teacher will be fine.

DURING THE CAMP; LANGUAGE CAMP A

During the camp, most of the facilitator have many types of students in their group there are some students who are quiet, talkative, and hyperactive. Same goes to my group of students. Most of the time, English is used as the medium of interaction, but sometimes, Malay is still needed to be used as medium of interaction because there are students who cannot understand English very well. the there are also students who barely able to write a word and needed assistance all the way during every game session. I need to be by his side along the program when there is in need of writing. He can only copy what I wrote but he cannot really understand it. But still at the end of the camp, he tries to talk to me in English and I'm very happy about it.

For the implementation of Tandem writing game, most of the facilitators, following their own group time, means that each activities are not finished in the same time. In order to separate the students into three section, I need to go to each facilitators and divide them according to the section. Luckily my group finished early and I can proceed to Tandem writing. The activity was held in peace although there was chaos in the beginning. Each facilitators need to take control of their own group and make sure the game  was held accordingly. The facilitator were all gave full support during the game and they managed to improvised the game according to students level of proficiency,  

BEFORE; LANGUAGE CAMP A

During the initial phase of Language Camp A, the plannings are mostly executed at the eleventh hour but still we managed to get through. The planning of the game was being briefed the day before the language camp being held. My group got the Language game of Tandem writing and we plan on splitting the students into three groups based on the section provided which are alien, romance and ghost story. The game was planned in 30 minutes and we hope that during the execution, there will be no error.

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. 

REFLECTION (AFTER) LANGUAGE CAMP A BY NURUSSAADAH

It was really a memorable experience for me as it was my first time joining this kind of camp. I really enjoyed treating my kids. They were fun and adorable. They always followed me everywhere I go except that I said to them to sit tight and go nowhere. Plus, some of them were very chatty and asked almost everything to me. 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 'take care teacher'. It was so sweet of them to do that ^_^

Even though the camp ended a little bit late than the schedule, we enjoyed ourselves doing the camp.We had our post mortem section at the class discussing about what are the weaknesses and good things about the camp. Since our group is the first group, our post mortem would be a guideline for the next camp to be more successful and fun.

Hoping that will have some more language camp coming soon! Thank you for organizing such event. Great job teammates!