it was my observation yesterday with CHELSEA ( an american lady, she is a sweet, lively and has the coolest fashion for all the orang putih that came to malaysia). it was for my 30 mins class, n the class is the last class (from 14 classes n they cant read and hardly know the letters). this observation is for the KSSR program for all the Year 1 teacher, but being an 'excellent' school, sk rantau panjang sent all Tahap 1 teacher for this course which require us to do 72 hours workshop with the orang putih every fortnight and we will be observed every month for 3 YEARS. yes 3 Fucking YEARS. yes, people, if u think that observation will be over when prac is over, u r wrong, in fact u r dead wrong because it will last for 3 more years.congratulations to me.
it was a good lesson, everything went as planned . the kids are in good behaviour since ive launched the behaviour stickers for every group ( they will like seriously maki their friends if one of tehm screwed up and their stickers gt crossed out) except for the missing tables n chairs and one of my students' shoe is on the school roof. he asked me to get it, but i said 'siapa suruh kamu main baling2 kasut. sekarang, saya nak mengajar, kamu duduk, biar je kasut sebelah je, nanti saya bagitau en.reedza lepas kelas saya' n the kids ketawa, n my class went on like it normally did - like how i taught during prac. i have set 5 steps ( set induction, presentation, practice, production n closure) and i also prepared teaching aids ( or BBM, in my school 'teaching aids tu apa, ye, pah? bbm tu akak tahu la') and my own task sheet as my students are super weak.
one of the reason why i think malaysian government is making a pening decision to take an american for this program at first is they couldnt understand my translation. what do u want me to do? the kids are having problems with bm, n u want me to talk in english the whole time? what i did was, ill explain n give instructions in english, but i will explain to them the hard words in malay or using gestures. after my lesson, she actually mentioned that she understands that it is hard for her to penalize me for using translation because the kids are super weak ( 'teacher, number five tu apa? ') but she said that when im describing in malay, SHE COULDNT UNDERSTAND IT. so, now, is iot my fault that she didnt understand me? after all it is an ESL class, u should know that a relevant use of their mother tongue will help them in learning second language. and i did that because i want them to understand. whats the use of teaching , if they cant understand? come on, my students came from a low or super low social economic background, sum of them never been in a car before. so, yeah. as one of my colleague said, ' pah, sekarang, ko ajar pulak si chelsea tu bm'. do u get what i mean? because government r giving them rm 17000 ( tujuh belas ribu ringgit), a bungalow, a car and a phone which the bill will be paid for the government. yes, i just think that u can actually pay that to a senior teacher which has more experience in ESL classroom n they can understand BM so that they knoe we r just trying to help the kids understand.
shes a nice lady with that hippies look and dressing. although she did her degree in performing arts, she said she has read a lot on ESL classroom n has been teaching ESL in thailand for 3 years. she gave good and relevant feedback ( thanks to my practicum experience) and she actually mentioned that 'it is a good thing that the weak classes has a teacher like u, able to use english like it supposed to be, and do all this teaching aids for them because most of the teachers who teach rural schools like this school, they just gave up because they dun know the technique and they just dun care'
'sekarang, chelsea, ko faham tak, aku pun takla suka sangat ,mengajar kelas2 belakang ni sbb aku tak boleh guna english macam aku nak guna sbb derang mmg tak paham, n aku memang sedih, tapi, dah aku kat sini, jadi cikgu, baik aku buat yang terbaik sbb aku dibayar untuk mengajar dan aku patut mengajar mereka seperti apa yang mereka patut dapat. lagipun, bukanla susah sangat pun nak buat tu semua .. ni bukan buat roket sains.. kalau ko kumpul semua budak ipba cohort 4 n ko observe diorang, memang terbeliak mata ko. sbb mengajar kena macam tu. baguslah kalau ko dapat kelas bagus, kurang benda2 yang melukis2 sangat ni, tapi, dah kalau ko mengajar kelas tak pandai. ko kenalah bawak gambar ke apa ke sbb derang nak tgk supaya derang paham. contohnya, kalau ko mengjara pasal ikan, ko nak cakap seahorse ko nak buat gaya apa, kalau ko takde gambar? gaya ikan campur kuda?'
that is what i wanted to tell her, but i didnt. i just diam because she doesnt understand bm n we r surrounded by other teachers.
cumanya, kerajaan malaysia tak payahla nak rasa yang orang putih tu lagi superior, so, semua benda ko nak amik diorang, sbb benda macam ni, banyak je cikgu2 senior yang power nak ajar budak kita. lagipun ni ESL, bukannya budak kita penutur english yang tegar.membazir. kalau amik cikgu malaysia, bayar rm10000 (sepuluh ribu ringgit je) pun dah cukup, tak payah rm17000, tak payah keta, tak payah bungalow n bil telepon. jimat. inflasilah katakan.