Eight Week of practicum at MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 - The schedule for this week is back to normal teaching and learning timetable after the hectic exam week. I spent most of my time during last weekend to mark students' paper and I spent the earliest lesson that I have with the students to discuss about their exam paper. By marking those exam paper, I knew about students' English performance on writing and reading comprehension as well as their IQ level to answer higher order thinking (HOT) question. I found out that most of my students have problem with information transfer and reading comprehension question and they have problem to think out of the box for  HOT question. Thus, I have decided that for those who failed their exam or acquired the lowest mark will have an intervention session with me. This intervention session means that I will provide a piece of reading comprehension or Grammar exercise each week for them, and they will need to see me around 5 to 10 minutes each Friday or Thursday after school to discuss about the answer. I will also provide a another reading comprehension or grammar exercise for the whole class, but they need to do it during their night "prep" once a week. Those exercise will focus on reading to enhance their comprehension as well as to provide more chances for them to meet a lot of low frequency words.

Since most of the students also have low English proficiency in speaking, I will provide exercise to them on speaking activities, probably debate.

eleventh week of practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 - It is the first day of school. The school is lacking of paper supply for photocopying any exercise paper. Thus, I have to figure out how to prepare "drilling" exercise for my students. I have finish all teaching topic according to the curriculum. Therefore, I am focusing on drilling them to prepare them for their final examination starting from today.

Day 2 - My colleagues and I ended up planning on exchanging our homeroom class. The teaching Day will be on Thursday (4th day of this week). It was like to give more exposure for us to teach different students in different classes and be out of our comfort. zone (the students that we know and that we have good rapport). Since, both of my class is Form 1 students, I exchange my Form 1 with Hamiza's Form 2 class. Aizat has two Form 2 class, so I ended up letting him teaching my Form 1 class. So, each of us will be teaching different Form class than the one that we have.

I do love my students, just like I am loving my own kids. They are my lovely kids. Their English learning and exposure is important to me. Even though, I will let Aizat "baby sit" them for one lesson, I did help Aizat by preparing the rough idea on what the lesson plan, teaching materials and exercise should be good for my students. This way, I am making it a little bit easier for Aizat to teach Form 1 students because it will be Aizat's first time teaching Form 1 students. He is not familiar with the curriculum. Furthermore, as an English teacher, I guess I do know my student's learning needs and wants as well as their IQ level, so it is better for both, Aizat and my students, if I help Aizat to prepare it.


Day 3 - Its school public holiday.

Day 4 - It was the exchanging class day. I am a little bit nervous on teaching Hamiza's Form 2 class. The form 2 have higher level of English's proficiency and I cant treat them just like my Form 1 students. It was easier for them to understand my instruction compared to my Form 1. By teaching them, they taught me on the needs of looking for different exercises for student with different level of English proficiency, different way to approach them and different way of giving feedback to them.

Day 5 - I realised that the previous English of my 1 Farabi have not taught them of poem "Sad I am" yet while I have plan to make revision about literature that I have taught with both classes. so, I did plan and taught my 1 Farabi the introduction to poem this morning. I will revise the poem again in the next lesson, next week. The experience on teaching other poem with them and other class, make it easy for me to apply the same skills with this poem.

tenth week practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 - It was teaching observation day. Even though the school was on leave for two days due to Haze problem. However, since the me, my other practicums colleague and lecturer, Mr. Jonathan, had planned to have teaching observation, thus, we proceed with it. I had asked the permission from Principal to allow me and my colleague to asked our students to gather for two periods lesson just for the observation. 

During the post-teaching discussion with my lecturer, I am glad that there was a few positive comment from him in relation to my personality and the way I carried myself as a teacher in teaching the. There was also a few constructive feedback in relation to the type of activities that I have planned for my students, in which use exercise based on context. 

Day 2 - There was no teaching or class today, so, I spent my time preparing teaching materials for the next day. 

Day 3 -  I asked students to exchange their comic with partner and asked them to rewrite the grammar mistake that I have checked with correct words or provide comment on the comic. I found out that this activity allowed them to focus on grammar with light reading and they did enjoyed reading each other's comic. 

Day 4 - I have started to allocate the first 10 minutes of my two periods lesson for each class to  do silent reading since last week. This is because I want to ensure that my students will read somethings for each week. I will be glad if they have their own reading materials outside of class time, but silent reading will ensure that everyone will have at least 20 minutes English reading time for each week. I I chose the article that they have to read. They can select different article for each time. in order to ensure that they did their reading, I have attached a paper for them to drop any comment and write their name each time they read the article. After they did their silent reading for a few times, which is since last week, my students had started to make full use of dictionary to find the meaning of any new or unfamiliar vocabulary to them and seems to able to write more to comment on the reading. 

I did running dictation with 1K. I found it too burdensome for the students from 1F to wrote 5 paragraphs when I did it with them last week, thus, I reduced the requirement to 3 paragraphs for 1K.

Day 5 - I was aware that the chosen text for today's lesson have a few low frequency word and new vocabulary for them. Therefore, I have set up "vocabulary quizzes" for pre-task in today's lesson. the quizzes required students to find out the definition of the chosen word and create two sentences using that words and write it on white board. I chose the vocabulary from the text that I will use in the task part for the lesson.  I found this pre-task activity to be helpful for them to do reading comprehension exercise afterwards and they are able to understand the article provided for them.  

Ninth week of practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 - the Monday was the first day of school after a week of holiday. Therefore, I took the opportunities of conducting speaking activity during a period lesson. I asked the students to do the 4-3-4 activity to talk about their school holiday activity. It was a good activity to allow students to practice their speaking skills as they were talking about their experience with their friends. however, there were a few boys that reluctant to participate in the activity because they were shy to be partner with girls.  thus, I need to figure it out on how to ensure that there is no gender issue or getting their cooperation while conducting any mixed pair and group activity.

On the other hand, when I taught students on Preposition, I found out that the "following-direction game" and demonstration on the use of preposition with volunteer engage them. The games and demonstration also enhance their memory and understanding on it.

Day 2 - The homework and the discussion of the topic that I taught yesterday has successfully allow the students to have better understanding on the topic, Preposition.

Day 3 - My homework for the student on their last school holiday was to create a comic on the theme of "exploration". Not all students did the comic, Thus I need to figure out in how I need to encourage them to finish and submit my homework. On the other hand, the used of comic allow them to be creative, create their narrative and allow them to creatively choose the language style and tenses that they want. When I was checking their comic, I am able to understand their ability in writing and their use of language. Different essay task with different topic provide different challenges for students to write.

Day 4 - It was a blocking class on the fourth day. That  was teaching two class at a time, which means 46 students at a time. It was hard to manage 46 students' behaviour at time, thus I should look for different way to get their attention on me while I am providing any instruction to them. I also need to keep rephrase my instruction to ensure that they understand it and went to each group to check on them. The activity of "expect group" was a new activity to them. So, It took longer time for me to explained about it to them. but, I demonstration on the activity always work in explaining it to the students.

Day 5 - the game on "running dictation" is also a new idea to the students. Therefore, I learnt that demonstration and rephrase on my instruction always important to explain new things to students.

Seventh week of practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

This week is all about examination, which is Standardised test II for Form 1, Form 2 and Form 4 while Form 3 and Form 5 are having PT3 and SPM  Trial exam respectively. I spent the week to prepare lesson plan and materials for next week lesson and to mark test paper for my class. 

sixth week of practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 – It was Independence Day for Malaysia, so it was school holiday for everyone.

Day 2 – I was so happy in the morning since I thought that I have no class on that day. However, it ended up that my students told me that I have class with them. There was a lighting and storm of nervousness coming to me. Luckily, I have prepared some materials since last week, so, I ended up using them. A remainder for me next time, I need to plan ahead, always the timetable and always have back up plan for my future lesson.

On the other notes, I got some reimbursement money from the school in relation to the stealing phone cases.

Day 3 – I was planning to play ‘poison box’ game to check student understands on Tenses with 1 Farabi. However, we ended up spending time to check school homework and providing new worksheet. I guessed one period lesson wont be enough to do much activity.

Since my 1K students’ learning were ahead of 1F, I ended up spent one period lesson to play ‘poison box’ game with them. At least, the student were having fun playing the games and revising the tenses along with it.

I had two meetings for the day. The evening meeting was to discuss on the students’ co curriculum achievement and how to key in data for them. The other meeting was at night time. The night meeting was monthly hostel warden meeting to update every warden on the event that was happening around the hostel and to find out alternative to overcome students’ discipline problem in hostel.

Day 4 – For today’s lesson, I had problem with deciding on the punishment needed for my students. This is because even when I have reminds them the day and the night before the class, some of them ended up didn’t bring any materials for the lesson. It was supposed to be their learning aids for the day. So, I think I need to find the alternative to ensure that they do provide the materials needed for my future lesson with them. However, at least, I have the backup plan of sharing some music to them to give some idea to them.

I found out that there is a weak student in my 1K. He cant even understand or comprehension my simple instruction which was “prepare your favourite song lyrics” or “just write any lyrics of the song that you can remember”. He said he cant think of my sentences at all for the whole lesson. I tried to help him by providing some song such as the simple song as ABC song and guide him to write a few sentences about the song. However, he said that he don’t know what the ABC song is about, which showed to me that he have problem with English and he needs extra help with it.

At the night time, I have extra class with 1F to dicuss about some homework exercise that I gave to them. This extra class was intended to ensure that they can catch up with other class and prepare them for next week standardized test.

Day 5 – I have class with 1F only for today. I did the same activities with 1K, which was “my favourite song”. It tooks them only one period of the lesson to complete the task, compared to 1K students that needs 2 period. Therefore, they were allowing me to do some game to discuss and revise about some tenses that I couldn’t finish in previous lesson.

Fifth week in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 – Today is the first day of the fifth week for me as a practicum teacher in MRSM Balik Pulau. Today I have been assigned to teacher one more class which is Form 1 Farabi. I am supposed to start teaching them next week, but considering that they haven’t had any English class since their English teacher move to another school a month ago. Therefore, I decided to see them today to check on what they have learnt and to plan on their learning needs. I hope that I can start to teach them as soon as I can so that they can catch up with my other class.

I taught them the poem ‘New Break’ in my 1k class today. I was surprise to know that they were able to think of some reasoning and interpret some of the line in the poem with just a little bit of help from me despite they haven’t learnt about poem much before.  I guessed I cant judge them anymore, but work with them to know them better.

Day 2 – My second day this week start with I was preparing the teaching aid for the day and was trying to prepare lesson plan for the next days. Then, I went to observe Hamiza’s Form 1 class. They were playing dodgeball game. During the games, the students needs to provide certain number of adjectives words before they were hit my ball. I thought that was one of idea that I can use with my students to ensure there will be production of output while they are playing games.

 I planned the charade games to teach adjectives with 1K students. They found the game as fun and they are waiting to play the same games next time. It was good to know that they were able to used adjectives words to guess the word during the games. I am thinking about using the same games with my other class, 1F.

After that, I went to observe Hamiza’s Form 2 class. She was doing debate about advertisement on the topic of artist and football player.  Those topics are some of the interesting yet familiar topic for student. It does help them to talk in English on what they familiar with.

Day 3 – It was an exciting day for me. My mentor praised me on the materials that I have prepared on New’s Break and she asked me to make copies for the whole Form 1. I am glad that it was useful for the students. However, since I will have block lesson (combine two class which are 1K and 1F for tomorrow lesson), I find it hard to find a conducive venue for 47 students. It is a challenge for me to prepare materials for them too and to ensure that I am able to manage two at a time. Hope it will go well for Thursday’s block lesson.

On the other note, I need to plan on ‘speed’ lesson for 1F so that they can catch up with other form 1 class. I might have to just teach 3 topics of grammar in one lesson. They have learnt those topics during their primary school English class, so my lesson will most probably be the revision lesson for them.

Day 4 - I found no other good venue than seminar hall for the block lesson. The lesson that I prepared for them was their first time encounter short stories in English, so they dont know much about the element in the short stories such as theme, characters etc. but, luckily, they have learnt about novel for Bahasa Melayu, so they could related it to the Fair's Fair. I tried to mixed them and ensure that they can work in group eventhough they are from two different class to ensure that they can have a lot of speaking opportunities. However, at the end of the lesson, one of the student told me that he wants to do activities alone and dont want to be involve in group activities anymore, as he find it a bit stressful and some students were not cooperate in finishing the task. It was expected to hear that, and I had to explain the reasons behind those selected activities to ensure that all students understand my lesson plan and intention.

Day 5 - 1F encountered the poem of "News Break" for the first time today. The lesson went well but, the activities was different from what I had plan for 1K, which was I didnt do the presentation part, but I just proceed with puzzle. This was because I am thinking about need to speed up the lesson and reduce their work since I have given a lot of homework to them for the week and for the weekend in order to catch up with other class. 

Fourth week of practicum in mrsm balk pulau

Day 1 - my last weekend was well spent as me, my colleague and my other batchmates from other MRSM went to Perak to attend our batchmate, Yana's wedding. Today is our first day of Activity week for the MRSM. I am a little bit tired from travelling for the weekend, but will try to do my best
to participate in the activity prepared for the week. One of the slot that I did participate was Aerobic exercise dance with other stuffs and students. I had so much fun participating in the exercise dance and be with the other teachers and students. Unexpectedly, its getting even better as I won the prize for the Best Staff Participants for female.  I got a little token of appreciation from the organiser and the dance instructor.

After that, I am back to the office trying to finish my presentation slide for my slot,  prepare for our Creative Writing slot, Haere Mai Aotearoa. During the lunch time, I joined my mentor to have lunch with invited guests, the panel for Mock Interview for form 5 student. I was surprised that those student have the chance to experience interview session with professional such as Human Resources Officer from one of the Singaporean company. I guess it was good that those form 5 student to involved in that activity as a preparation for their future interview for study or for job.

At the evening time, me and my colleague had our slot on sharing our experience about New Zealand with form 4 student. We were unlucky that our mentor didnt inform us about booking the lecture hall first before using it and we also had sound problem. Those problems had cause us to start a little bit late that the schedule time. However, the activity went well and the student enjoy our presentation.

At the night time, Hamiza and I was invited to be accompany one of the female science teacher which the form 3 camp assistant leader, kak Rohayu, in the White Resort PLKN camp area, which is around 8 minute drive from our school. Those form 3 student had to spent 3 days 2 night in the camp for revision purpose to prepare for their upcoming PT3.

Day 2 - I woke up this morning in the foreign room, which was my room in the camp. Then, instead of going back to school, me and Hamiza just stayed in the camp for the English session with the form 3. This is because our mentor, Kak Nani, Kak Has and Kak Irma were incharge of the slot. We prepared a group activity for the student. They need to complete 10 exercise sheets together for the activity, and the fastest group won the prize.

Day 3 - My third day of this week has been spent on assisting staff and teacher for the Adventures Walk and Community Services. This activity was related to for Form 1, 2 and 4 had to walk to Malindo Beach, which is around 30 minutes walk from school. Apart from walking, they had to stop at a few mosque along the way to clean those mosque. I was responsible on taking care of students' food and welfare.

Day 4 - I have been invited to be one of the judge for History drama among Form 3 students. During this activity, each class have to choose one of the chapter in their History textbook and perform a drama about that topic. There were 7 class performing drama in their own way creatively. As a judge, I am giving marks depending on the story line, the suitability of the drama topic, the cooperation among groupmates and the value of patriotism among them. Its not easy to be a fair judge. I guess this will be one of a good experience about how i will judge my students in the future.

Day 5 - It was the last day of the activity week. The day for the Appreciation ceremony for students' participation in the c-curricular activity in the school for Form 3 and 5. There was also a cooking competition among Form 2 student organised by Science Social Department. I was invited to be one of the judges for the competition. I was surprised there were students who were able to cook and design their food nicely to be judge. I was happy to know that they did enjoyed the activity too and that they learnt good way to cook, learnt the recipe, the way to present their food as well as learnt how to take care of the hygiene in kitchen.

Third week of Practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 - It is the third week of my practicum in this school. My first day of this week started with normal routine of punch in attendance card in front of the school office. Then, I walked to the English Department room to get ready with the teaching materials and lesson plan. But, I didn't missed the chance to observe Hamiza's class in the first period in the morning. I found out that a teacher need to have loud voice to ensure that every student can hear the teacher's instruction and they can pay attention in the class. On the other notes, since it was the first teaching period in the morning, most of the student were not ready with the learning materials or probably came in late to the class as they have other stuffs to do before that such as homeroom meeting. SO, they might have missed the teacher's explanation on what they will learn in the class for that lesson. Therefore, I think it is so helpful for them if the teacher write learning intention (LI) or learning outcome (LO) on the whiteboard. LI and LO are not only to reminds student about what  they will learn today but also to inform those late comers about what other are learning or will learn in the lesson.

While preparing some teaching materials for the tomorrow lesson, I had problem with printing. This is because my laptop is not connected with the department's printer for wifi printer since the technician haven't download the driver yet and they are not used to windows 8. Furthermore, I cannot used my pendrive to print it with the department computer due to virus. then, I guess the IT people should always check the school or department for antivirus to avoid any unforeseen problem. Thus, I think the technician should attend the workshop to expose them to the newest technology and always check on the department or school computer's function.

I also observed Aizat's classroom today after break time. Its good that Aizat was using hand gestures and asks them to pair up with other student from different group during pair activity. This is because those hand gesture is one of the way to attract student to look at the teacher. As student was moving to find partner from different groups, the instruction makes them moved and refresh them for the lesson.

On the other notes, we haven't heard anything about the trespassing case from police. But, we are happy to stay in the resting room for now and working on getting all information in our stolen phone and our new sim card.

Last but not least, I attended English PT3 seminar with Form 3 student. The event should start at 9 a.m, but end up start at 9.30 a.m due to the speaker came late since he cant find the school, thus cause the event to finish late. But there was certain issue came up about this such as the payment was based on the hour that he had agree on, but since the time have changed and there was no agreement beforehand about the time and payment, most teacher were concerned if the speaker will ask for additional payment. so, as a precaution for me in handling an event next time, I need to ensure that payment, time (early or late) and the venue location need to be agreed on before the event.

Day 2 - I spent my morning to prepare power point presentation for our slot during Activity Week. After tea break, I taught 1 Kazin for a period on Article and Adverbs. It was a good lesson except for I havent being able to remember all the students' name yet and I exceed the time for the lesson. I have my mentor, Kak Nani, with me in that lesson. I was so nervous having her observing me and tend to have my voice a little bit lower as well as hard to convey instruction to the student.

 after that lesson, I went to observe Hamiza's class in with 2 Khazin student. I like her ideas of having quiz to test students' understanding on their Literature novel, One is One and All Alone. During the quiz, student was not allow to seat until they get correct answer. I thought that is a good idea to engage the student and to ensure that they will participate in the quiz. Other than that, unexpectedly, she had assigned student into group through their birthday for their group presentation activity. It was another good idea to group the student rather than just ask them to find their own group.

Day 3 - I don't have any lesson for today. Therefore, I spent most of my time today to complete my practicum file, ensure that I have done all lesson plan that I need to include in the file and try to do finish the power point presentation for activity week. I also had a little discussion with my mentor on my previous lesson and discuss what I should do better for the next lesson. At the end of the school time, I went to observe Aizat' class. There was technical problem since Aizat's mentor has used the week 1 timetable, instead of week 2 timetable which has cause him to enter wrong class. Therefore, i think every time I want to enter any class, I need to ensure that I have checked the timetable properly.

Day 4 - I started my day yesterday by planning the lesson, topic and theme for next week lesson. For instance, I will be teaching about Adjectives in the lesson and I was planning to have a charade game with the student using adjectives as their questions. Then, I spent most of my day to prepare the power point presentation for the activity week with Hamiza and Aizat.

After the coffee break, I went to observe Miss Nani's class for 2 periods. She was teaching about poem, "Sad I ams". I was impressed with the way that she start the lesson by asking the student to analyse a sad photo and asked the student about their sad experience and how they faced the experience. there was a good flow in her teaching since she used students' respond to explain about how the poet write the poem based on his sad feeling to overcome his sad experience and analyse the poem line by line.

Day 5 - Me and my colleague the school had Eid celebration day after coffee break. Each student was happy to wear their pretty Eid celebration dress and was so excited with the food, so do the teacher.

Second week of practicum in MRSM balik pulau

Day 1 - Unexpectedly, my first day in the second week start with trespassing and robbery case  in one of the girls hostel room, which is where I stayed at the moment. I woke up around 4.30 a.m to find my phone and my friend's were stolen. There are other students lost their phone and money. To make it even worst, the robber use one of the phone that has being stolen to make sexual harassment phone call or text to some of the contacts in the phone and the CCTV in front of the dorm are not functioning well since last month, so there is no record of who is the robber. Being one of the teacher that is staying in the hostel, I need to help other teacher to do the emergency spot check on students' locker, bed and etc.

I am not sure how it works, but one things for sure, the school administration held a lot of meeting to discuss what happened, the Principal just retired, the  Deputy Principal for General Affair (HEA), the act as principal was way for a meeting in the headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, the Deputy Principal for Student Affair (HEP) is not around for a meeting in different school, the school head warden lodge the report around 3 pm on the same day, after a few hours the case happened.

The whole system is about too much. Too many people that they need to inform or ask permission, and too many procedure that they need to follow and everything is too slow. I guess my experience in New Zealand when I lodge the police report for robbery case in my flat gave me different expectation on how New Zealand people and police are working and how they handle a case. Fast and neat.

In the short note, there was no classroom observation yet for today since I spent most of my time in meeting people and providing explanation about the robbery case.

Day 2 - My schedule for today started with a meeting with warden to discuss about robbery case, the procedure or action that has been or will be taken for the case. We also discuss about students' misbehavior and new discipline rules related to hostel such as can not bring smartphone etc.

Luckily, I got to observe two classroom today. That are 1 Khazin (1K), Miss Nani's English class and 4 Haitham (4H), Miss Jay's class. In 1K, Miss Nani started the lesson by asking the students to share their experience during last holiday break and Eid celebration. Then, they were discussing about examination paper and answer for it. During the discussion, she keeps reminding the students about the examination rule, about the do's and dont's in answering exam paper and discussing students' problem related to the exam. I find it interesting that she keeps changing the discussion method like either she mentioned the answer and explain it, or asking the students the answer and how they got it, either asking the students in group or individually etc.

On the other hand, Miss Jay also used almost similar method in discussing the exam question with her students but, the interesting part was she will try to act out certain examples in her explanation which engaged the student in the discussion and the students enjoyed it.

during the evening time, it has been our casual and usual activity for me and my friends to play sport with the students. For today, I introduced them Frisbee sport and I taught them how to play it. They enjoyed it and excited to play it again tomorrow.

Day 3 – I managed to observe Miss Irma’s English class today. In her form 2 Razzi classroom, her students were given a task to do presentation on Grammar such as article, prepositions, nouns etc. Each group need to present about the definition, the example and create a game for whole class which related to their presentation point. I found it engaging and student centered. Everyone enjoy the presentation as well as the game. As a teacher, she did correct words or provide deeper explanation on the grammar point when needed only.  She also provides the chance for the students to ask question to the expert group on the grammar. By asking the expert group, the students especially the expert group unexpectedly learnt about certain things through the question or their discussion.

Other than that, me and my colleagues had a discussion about Activity Week. We were given a slot during activity week to share our experience while studying in New Zealand to inspire or motivate the student to study well and aim high. We plan to have sharing session with some quizzes for the slot. 

As for the robbery case, there is no report or any update so far. Luckily, the school administration have move me and Hamiza our from the girls' dorm into a resting room. We have our own room now.

Day 4 -  Our day start with classroom observation of K.Irma's class, 2 Haitham. The student were given a task to do presentation on Grammar just like yesterday class, 2 Razzi. One of the things that I have learnt from today's observation was each time Kak Irma wants to deliver instruction, she will ensure that she has students' attention first either by calling one of the noise student or by asking the whole class to look at her. I found out that it was an effective way of making sure that student was paying attention and instruction can be delivered successfully. Other than that, she also asked the student to repeat or summaries what has been discussed to ensure that everyone understand about it. I also learnt that student tends to take some time to set up their presentation slide or games that they have prepared. They will take even longer time to finish their presentation when other student asked about example to their presentation content or when they were answering others' question. Therefore, the method of counting numbers and reminds them about the time is good to urge them  to work faster . It is also good to always reminds student to prepare a few examples when they presents their content to ensure that they are ready to explain and ready to answer others' questions.

We also had other classroom observation of one of my practicum colleague Hamiza's class, 2 Khazzin. Today's lesson was her first lesson with the student so, she prepare for ice breaking activity for the student. I like her ideas of discussing classroom rule and regulation to ensure students' discipline are in control. By observing her classroom, I got the ideas of prepare paper to ask about things that they wants in their English lesson as they might be shy to say it out loud in the class and make sure that student is agree to the rules and regulations that has been created.

Unexpectedly, Miss Nani, my mentor,  asked to take over her two last lesson period for today with 1 Khazzin student due to emergency matter. It is a challenge to enter a class without any preparation and in short notice, but luckily today will be my very first lesson with them and Miss Nani has prepare some exercise sheet for them to do. I also have my colleague with me to observe my teaching and to give me moral support. However, I tried to ensure that I know what I will teach them by discussing it with Miss Nani and some of my colleague before entering the class. I prepare some yellow paper for them to write what they expect from me and what they want to learn in English class, some paper for them to write their name for me to know them and some ice breaking activity such as introducing their partners to break the ice between us. I also discuss the classroom rules and regulations in my English class and make sure that they agree with it before I proceed with teaching them the syllabus for today which was about Pronouns. I started my teaching with asking them to brainstorm what they knew about Pronouns, asking them to find it out on their own and asked them to discuss with the whole class. At the end of the lesson, they have successfully answer and discuss the exercise sheet which showed that they understand about today's lesson on Pronouns.

At the night time, Me and my other practicum colleague went to the warden room to discuss more on activity week and find some materials for the activity. I guess we were excited and anxious about conducting about own activity for the Activity week. At the same time, I learnt about how those warden manage the students' outing report and how they arrange the students' outing cards. Student are allowed to go home during weekend, so there were a lot of cards that warden had to sign and make a report about the number of student staying or go home for the use of safety and food preparation.


Day 5 - My Friday started with went to the Majlis Tahlil and Doa Selamat event for Haji Ali's daughter wedding, the Deputy Principal in the school mosque. Every teacher and staffs were invited to the event. After that, there was a slight briefing from Miss Haseena, the Head of English Department, on our personal file and portfolio as practicum teacher. Then, my colleague and I went to observe Kak Haseena's classroom. 

First week of my Practicum in MRSM Balik Pulau

Day 1 – This week is all about orientation week for me, as a Practicum teacher, and examination week for the students, so we do not have the chance to observe or teaching any class yet. Me and my friends spends most of our time wondering around the college compound to know the setting and the rules around the college to know the teachers or the staffs in the college, discuss about the PENCAK program which is an intervention program for weak students, discuss about student’s learning culture and collecting data about their English performance.  We also had a meeting with John Hope to discuss about practicum and the assignment that we need to complete within the practicum period. I am seating in one of the room in the Language Department with my colleague, that consist of teacher of Bahasa Melayu and English. There is also other Department such a Social Science Department, Science Department, and Mathematics Department

Day 2 – One of the good strategies to be a good teacher is to be well-prepared to teach by knowing the content and school curriculum. Therefore, I am working on to know and to make myself familiar with the teaching materials or teaching aids use to teacher student, especially Form 1 to Form 5. This include reading the literature component for Form 1 prepared by the Ministry of Education for secondary schools such as the Fair’s Fair by Narinder Dhami, 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and the Poetry for Pleasure by Sadler and Hayllar for Form 1 to Form 3.

Day 3 – My friends and I were given the chance to help our mentor in invigilating Form 3 PT3 English Listening examination in hall and marking some of the paper. However, we faced some technical problem with the technology such as laptop with low battery so have to find a place to recharge it and problem with speaker. We had to change a few speaker to ensure all students were able to hear the Listening audio recording clearly.   Those technical problems is time consuming and cause the examination to be started a little bit late than its schedule time, so this experience taught me to always have a few back up plan related to technology and always check the equipment to ensure its efficiency and availability. At the evening, I attend the Activity week meeting with the other teacher to plan the activities for the week. This exposure allow me to be more creative on how to plan non-academic activity for the students that will suit their timetable and allow them to release stress from all-about-study-and-reading.

On the other note, me and my friends had joined the hostel warden to take of the student at night time for a few hours. We did walk around the school, check on students learning in the classroom and help them if there is any problem. 

Day 4 - My mentor assigned me to teach the Form 1 Khazin class. It will also be my homeroom.  She also share with me the Scheme of Work Form 1 (Semester 2) provided by the Form 1 coordinator . We discuss about the requirement needed to teach the students and ask me to review the lesson plan for her class. I also continue my reading on some of the students' literature textbook. Other than that, I have started to write my practicum reflection blog which is one of my assignment during practicum period.

Day 5 - Today's assignment from my mentor is to have a look at the Huraian Sukatan Pelajaran (HSP) for form 1. As explained by her, it is importance for a teacher to know the content of the HSP and the scheme of work provided by the form coordinator. This is because the lesson plan had to have schedule learning outcome and specifications as stated in the curriculum. We also discuss about a few activities options that we can conduct in the class especially ice-breaking activity to get to know the students and activities that can be conducted in the lesson. Creativity is importance to ensure that the classroom environment is engaging, interesting and interactive for the students. so, they will be excited to learn and enjoy the lesson. Here I include link to some website that I have found:

http://www.gooverseas.com/blog/10-best-games-esl-teachers

http://iteslj.org/games/

Life in New Zealand :-)

Hi to all,


It has been so long since I create the blog, but I didnt post anything. Well, lets just take it as I am enjoying my life as a student in Wellington, New Zealand. But, now I am back to Malaysia for good and will try to post more story about me.

p/s: Its a photo of me in Wellington Botanical Garden, Spring 2014 during when tulip has bloom.