Back To School – From CNY Break

“Bangun….. Selamat petang cikgu”, the class monitor leaded the greeting once I stepped in to the class and the rest of the class chorused together.

“It is good to see them again with cheerful faces”, I secretly thought to myself.

“Selamat petang semua. Bagus, saya dapat mendengar semangat baru yang anda tunjukkan sebentar tadi. Sila duduk”.

Some of the boys were spotted smiling cheekily.

“Bagaimana cuti satu minggu anda. Ada pergi melancong bersama keluarga ke?”, I asked the class curiously while doing ice-breaking with them.

Some replied,

“Tak baik cikgu..”
”Gembira cikgu….”
”Ok-ok je la…..”

When I asked, “Kenapa tak baik dan ok-ok je?”…
and they answered…


”Kerana cuti pendek sangat”.
”Ya la cikgu… tak best ahhh..”
“Cikgu.. gong xi gong xi fatt chai ya...”
”Cikgu! Ang pau.. mana ang pau?”

Lol.. these kids… XD

Photo was taken after school assembly.

Frankly, I feel the same too because I barely have a good Chinese New Year break with family members. Those 4 full days of traveling coming back and forth minus my 8 days total of holiday which then left me 4 days of break. I was even exhausted than before as there are still preparation which need to be done during CNY.

Anyway, I am happy to see my students again. They are still lovely though some of them didn’t finish my homework *puff*. One of classes ended up had to bear with my 5 minute lecture where I reminded them about our class’s big goal, the culture of the class, their dreams and their progress. I didn’t mean to lecture my students, but… well… I couldn’t take in when their reason is… “Saya terlupa cikgu. Saya tak check.. Saya tak tahu”. I find it important to make them understand why I am concerned about their work.


P/s: Probably I didn’t give make myself clear in class and I took half of the blame to myself.

Lot of stuff need to be done. I gotta sleep by now as there will be sport practice and co-curriculum activity in the morning (at 8am!) and then, continue with my afternoon session till 7pm.. @_@

 

All iz well~
All izz weell~~
All izzz weeell~~

Is Stress Part Of Teaching?

Recently, I am pretty disturbed with my own mind.
The same list of self-talks conversed among my neuron cells happened ever since the second week of school.

 

Questions like:

“How could I make my lesson interesting?”
“How to make my students listen, participate and engage in my class?”
“How would I be able to push them in reaching the class goal?”
”How could I teach my students to practice good moral values in class?”
“What kind of long-term, monthly, weekly and daily plan that can help my students to succeed and achieve good result?”
“Would I be able to finish all the syllabus before each formative and final test at school when there are so many activities and school holiday take place?"
“Could I be able to walk the talk?”

 

Each time when I think of these, I found myself having headache, difficulty in breathing and heavy heart (just like a large stone pressing my heart). When I come to analyze such symptoms, I know instantly the name of this situation. It is called S.T.R.E.S.S.

 

Well, it is pretty much a personal stress which I am creating to myself and it is bad, real bad. It disturbs my daily functionality and emotion which causes physical and mental exhaustion. I tried as hard as possible not to affect my relationship with my closed ones. It is worse when seeing myself treating people around me badly when there is nothing wrong with them.

 

This Chinese New Year 1 week break should be a relaxing break for my body, mind and soul. However, it turned out to be the opposite. Ironically, my stress level rose up even higher now when I realized I have not done anything yet for my school tomorrow and the week. The journey spent on traveling and running family errands and attending family occasion took up most of my time.

 

A photo taken last year during sunset near my house. The effect is pretty good, don’t you think so?

 

I didn’t know what to do now and I have already shut down myself to not do anything. I need something therapeutic and relaxing at least for this moment. I realize I can’t work and inspire others when I am tired and exhausted. This is what has been emphasized in Teaching As Leadership Comprehensive Rubric – to work relentlessly. It is important to know how to take care of the self (as a teacher) to maximize teaching results in classes. I will put W-1, W-2 and W-3 closely in mind.

 

As for now, I will just shut down myself and sleep. Cheers for a better tomorrow. Good night.

 

P/s: Someone please tell me that feeling stress in the teaching profession is normal.

You Never Know How Close You Are

 

| Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.

Jane Addams

 

P/s: In a nutshell, don’t give up until you have achieved your dreams!

The Journey Has Just Begun

It’s officially my 3rd week of teaching life, ever since my 2 months of training at IAB, Genting Highlands with other 49 miraculous  Teach For Malaysia fellows and amazing training teams. My journey to end the educational inequity has just begun.

 

It sounds ‘whooaa’ isn’t it?

 

I am not sure how close am I in achieving this HUGE mission because my biggest concerns now are about myself, my students and my school. Those common worries of mine are often sound like this:

 

• How far have I adapted to the new working environment?
• How much have I learned from other experienced teachers?
• How effective is my class management?
• How much can I make my students learn and understand now just academic lessons, but humanity as well?

 

My life now is hard, tough and challenging. Well, I’d prepared myself for these ever since I’ve made up my mind to join Teach For Malaysia, last September. I thought, hey. I am still young and I want to do something big, something meaningful and beneficial to the society. Now I get the chance and I am here, working as a 2 years teacher at a secondary school with 100+ staff and 8 classes (35 X 8=280 students).

    A photo & photo frame gift from Reid. It is not placed on my working table.
Thank you Reid~

 

There were ups and downs in my every teaching day, just like any other teacher in any school. I get to understand why my teachers behave and act at certain ways. Also, I am good at predicting reasons behind no-bringing-books-to-class, late for class after recess and the talkative-phenomenal among the students. Guess, my ability now to understand both teachers’ and students’ shoes will help me in facing, dealing and solving some important but neglected issues such as the liveliness in class, effective lesson planning, strategic cultural management and etc.

 

Just last Friday, I was pretty down because I felt that things that I’d done for the classes in the past 2 weeks were unproductive and meaningless. As my mind was fighting over the down feeling, unexpectedly, a student called me and handed me her artwork. It’s a picture of me. She gave it to me with a smile before leaving the class.

 

 

It’s just simply melted my heart though at this point, I still don’t know what I’ve done for her or them. Somehow, my student’s effort has motivated me to work harder and smarter for them, for my family and for myself despite the hardships. I know I will because I want and I can.

 

 

I don’t know where I am now but I know where I am leading to – to embrace one’s uniqueness and transform one’s life (including mine) to the better.

The 25 Smiling Faces at SMK Ampang Pecah

I miss all the 25 smiling faces at SMK Ampang Pecah.

My mind kept on thinking about them although it has been almost a month I left the school. Teach For Malaysia organized a summer school program called Kem Skorlah on last Nov-Dec 2011. We, the 50 fellows were divided into 2 groups and I was being placed at SMK Ampang Pecah for 4 weeks, teaching Mathematic for Form 4.

 

 

I would say that I am blessed to be placed at this school with my other 25 lovely kids. Oopss, i mean students :)


They were energetic, funny, sincere and most importantly forgiving. I must admit that I did a lot of mistakes back in Kem Skorlah including called wrong names, unstructured Bahasa Melayu and making funny voice, yet they laughed, forgive my mistake and move on… *touched*

I am not an experienced teacher but they are willing to give me a chance/chances to try, learn and execute my crazy plans. Lol.. Could you imagine that a Maths teacher bring a Panda muppet and taught Straight Line (y=mx+c) in class? Or opened the Angry Bird games in the beginning of the class, handing out Angry bird question and taught Angle Elevation and Deviation? Or telling The Smurf story to teach 3 Dimension and Planes chapter?

 

If you were there, I believe you would laughed at my students’ reactions. Hahaha.. now I couldn’t stop smiling while recalling their surprised faces. Probably they have never experience a Maths teacher bringing all those crazy concept… they were like… @_@


Oh my.
I miss them and I wonder how are they at the moment. School has started and they are now officially a Form 5 students. I hope they will work hard and try their best in achieving their dreams. Remember your dreams?

My dear A5 students,
If you are reading this, remember that teacher is always here praying for your success. Pay attention in class. If there are areas that you don’t understand, seek for your teacher’s or friends’ help. You can drop me an email or comment in this blog if you need any help. For now, enjoy your school. Miss you and remember our Tepuk A5 ^_^

Again, I Want, I Can, I Will.

Say Hello To Cikgu Telur

The time has arrived.
Ms Telur is going to teach in another few hours.

OMG!
I am so nervous yet excited… >.<!

I have done shopping for my new writing tools. Stuff like 6 different color of refillable marker pens, timer, manila card, stick-it-notes, stamps and etc.

Besides, I have planned my lesson planning for 3 different classes which I will attend later. However, there are still doubts of executing the plan because as I have been informed, there will be an orientation session for the new Form 1 students. Indirectly, it means no class will be conducted until it ends.

Well, for the safe side, I just prepare whatever I can, just in case the students come in and I have something to do with them.

Oh dear!
I should be sleeping by now but my heart is pumping really fast. My nervousness can be sensed by looking at how unorganized this post is blogged. Well, I can’t care much at this moment. I just want a corner to do self-therapy so that it allows me to sleep better after this.

Btw, I am a Form 1 teacher for 3 Mathematic classes and 5 Civic classes.
Let see what I will do for my 8 wonderful classes in the first week.

Before ending this post, I would like to share a few photos which were taken secretly by my instructor, Reid back in SMK Ampang Pecah. Thank you Reid for all these memorable photos. I can feel and listen to our passions in fighting for inequity in education - I Want, I Can, I Will.

 

 

 

One day, all children in Malaysia will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. Yes, they will.. *hopeful*

P/s: Readers, please bless me with your encouragement and positive vibes. I need all of them. Thank you~