Salam Frens,

Sorry for not writing for quite sometime. Well, as they say, work keeps you from doing the things tht u love/ like...emmm...now I've started my sem break already, I have less one burden on my shoulders...but my work is still going on. Bz as bees every single day. Wht can u say whn u're incharge & been made responsible to handle the co's $. It's a big responsibility. But thn again, every work tht we are assign to IS our responsibility,am I rite?! AMANAH tu kan!
Anyway, Im not gonna mumbling abt tht in here. I think everyone knows abt it already... I wanted to share with my fellow frens here my experience as a trainee teacher...I posted here the journal tht I wrote for my class assigment.

Challengers of the weeks of practicum

Talking about this topic, it was a challenging week for me…actually challenging month. It was near to two months I was juggling between work and practicum class. I was not like my other friends, who teach at schools during the day. I teach at school during night time and to make the matter worst, my class starts at 9p.m. Can you imagine my life?! I finished work at 5p.m every day, arrived home, I have to get ready for my night classes and by 8.45 p.m I have to get out from the house to go to the school. By the way, I taught Form Two students of Sekolah Menengah Agama Al-Ihsan nearby my house. All of my students were those staying at the hostel. Most of them were from outside of Kuantan.

My class was every Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday nights. Since my class was at night, I have to think something that not bore my students to death. So I decided not to do too much learning base on text book. What I did was I had games in my class in accordance with the syllabus. The day before I started my class, I went to see my mentor Cikgu Ratna. She was a big helper. She came with me to the first class as an introducer. And after that, I was on my own. I did discuss with my mentor on what I want to do with my class and she agreed with it. Looking at the time that I am going to teach, I think games are the best thing.

My life was hectic during that particular month, from July to September. Once I got back from work, I had to juggle to get ready to night class. I would get my things for teaching that night ready after I came back from my work. Emmm….now I know how teacher does really works….Sigh! Need to get the record book ready before class. Need to have all the teaching material in order. Need to prepare yourself for the class. Need to have the answers if in case the students ask you any questions related to the topic given. It was really challenging for me. At that point of time I wish I could make the time moves fast so that I don’t have to go through all of these. But I know I can’t and I have to go through it no matter what. That is one part of it, the preparation of me being a teacher.

The second part of the challenges is the students itself. Again, I now know what the teachers are facing at school. To handle the students is not an easy task. Even though I taught the night class, it’s the same thing that I think I face as what the teachers of the day school facing. To me, it is hard to make the students to use the language as in this case English Language. I have given them motivation, stories, in fact relate my experience to them and the last choice scolded them still they were reluctant to use the language. My students were all bright students; they know and understand the grammar and parts of speech that they learnt but the main concern to me is they were afraid to use the language. Since the first class that I entered, my aim was to make sure that my students able to use and communicate in English during my class. Don’t be surprised, they in fact do not know how to say it in English to ask permission to go to the toilet. I feel pity for these students. Despite with all of these, I know I cannot give up and just half way through because being a teacher you must not give up furthermore, these poor students are the same race as I am. I do not want my future children be left behind from other races. To these students, no matter what I did to them, no matter how I scolded them, they still want me to be there to teach them. Deep down inside my heart I believe they understand what I said to them and they want to change but please give them time. So, I did. I gave them time, I encouraged them to use the language every time I entered the class and to my surprised, they manage to use the language even though it is a broken language. To me, it is o.k. as long as they use the language. Towards the end of my practical time, most of my students able to communicate using English language because I did get feedback from the HM that his daughter has now improve her English language compared to before. I was so relief to hear that and to say this out loud I am proud of myself. Due to that, I have given a thought that I want to give extra class to these students just in communicating in English and I have spoken to the HM and he said that can be arrange for next year class. My aim is to train ‘our’ students able to use and communicate in English as it is very important today in the working world. The best part of this practical term is that, they call me ‘Teacher’.