Different bags for Different Purposes

I have some different bags that I bring to the class with different purposes. My pupils were already recognized all the bags and they were already used to it and know what will happened to the class every time I bring any of these bags. Right now, I have 3 different bags that have different functions. Let me introduce to you all the bags that help me a lot in teaching and learning session of the Temiar pupils:
Bag Number 1 - "The bag of Stationery" - This bags was full with stationery like pencils, sharpener, colour pencils and erasers. I always bring this bag to year 1 class because most of my year 1 pupils came to school without bring anything, so I need to prepare materials for them to make sure that they can write and do any activity in the classroom. But, after 5 months now, I can see some changes to the pupils, although they still did not have any bag to carry to school but they already have pencil and eraser in their pocket now. So, at least they know that stationery are important to them to learn in the class. Oh yeah, every time I gave the pupils to borrow the stationery from me, I will collected it back when the was class finish. I do gave a pencil to the pupils during the first class but they already lost it after a few days. So, I decided not to give pencils anymore. I want to develop a feeling of appreciation of materials given to them. They do not have this feeling so much right now because every time we gave something to them, they will put it anywhere they want and then they will lost it.

I can say that this bag is so popular to my year 1 pupils. Each time I bring this bag, the pupils already can guess that the activity will involved writing and colouring activity. This bags helps me a lot to make sure all the pupils can do the activity in the classroom.

Bag Number 2 - "The Group Work Bag" - This bag contains sets of number cards that been used to grouping the pupils. I usually used this bag in the year 5 class. Yeah, they were so familiar with this bag. Every time they see I bring this bag to the class, I can hear some voice
whispering about the group work activity that they will do on that day. At least they were guessing which group members will they be on that day.

It just so easy to do group work by having this bag. I just need to prepare group activity and then let the pupils take a card from the bag. Yeah, the pupils quite confuse at the first moment I introduce the bag but right now, I do not have any problem anymore to handle the group work. They already know how they will be divided into the group. Moreover, by using this bags, the pupils also will not stay in the same group but they will have the opportunity to be with any of their classmates as long as they got the same numbers.

Bag Number 3 - "The Gifts Bag" - This one is the most popular bag among all the bag that I bring to the class. The bag is always full with candies, sweets or any relevant things that I found suitable to be a present to the pupils in my class. Yeah, I believed that this Temiar pupils do need encouragement to learn by providing them with present during teaching them in the classroom. Sure you need to spend some money to buy the gifts but actually it is not much to spend. as long as you have something to give to the pupils as motivation, they will already appreciated it.

I did not always bring this bag to the class but I do bring it at least once a week. Sometime, I just give to the pupils that can recall any information that they learn before and sometimes I do give to the pupils that behave really well on that week or at least giving it to the pupils that finish all the work given to them. Teaching "orang asli" is not as same as teaching the main stream pupils. This pupils really need lots of motivation because they do not really know what are the purpose of coming to school.
Sometimes, I do feel shy to bring so many things to the class. But after a few months here, it is not a big problem to me anymore. I think the other teachers here are also use to see my bag too...hahaha.... Luckily they are so supportive. I just need to make sure that I can keep doing the good things as long as I am here...

p/s: Learning to motivate self everyday :)

Teacher's Day Celebration in SK Kampung Kenang

The day was celebrated a week ago, but I waited until all the activities for the Teacher's day celebration to finish before post the entry about it. Yeah, the last activity had been done last week that was a Bowling Tournament between all the teachers and staff. Let me rewind again what had happened during the teacher's day celebration in this school.



Number 1 - 'Gotong-Royong' to clean and upgrading the school environment. This activity had been done a day before the Teacher's Day. All the teachers and parents came to the school to do some painting and cleaning the school. It was quite exhausted but it is worth to do because the school looks different especially to the buildings. It was painted with colourful paints.



Number 2 - The teacher's Day Celebration. Oh, so many great activity had been done by us during the day. Let me just list out the activities. I enjoyed every moment of the day ;). We have the formal celebration in the morning including the speech, then we continued with the great mini game including "coconut bowling", "kaki gajah"(elephant legs), "kaki hantu" (ghost leg) and "selak kain" (open the curtain). The mini game was so fun because all the teachers take part in the game. It was so cool to see all of the teachers playing the games while the pupils observed it. If in the class, most of the time pupils will do the activity but not this time. I felt so lucky to have a good time with all the cool teachers in this school.



Then, the celebration had been continued by a few performance by the pupils and the teachers. Some of the pupils recited poems in Malay language and in english language. They were good and I can saw that the teacher that trained them was very proud and so do the others. Then, the teachers also do a unique performance. All of us had performed "Dikir Barat". The "Dikir barat" was not only be sing in Malay Language but also in Tamil and Temiar language. It was so great to see all the teachers here doing the clapping and the movement in Dikir Barat. One more time I can feel that I was surrounded by a group of cool and great teachers. :) After that, there was a karaoke session and lots of teachers take parts in it including the headmistress. We were really enjoy the day and it was really fun. My first year celebrate The Teacher's Day as a teacher was a memorable one. Thank you. Oh, and most of all, I do got some presents and cards from my pupils even though I never expected it at all. Thank you... (I was not really expected that they know what is Teachers Day and also did not expect that they can buy present because they live far from any gifts shop- I just wrong!)



Number 3 - The bowling tournament between all the teachers and staff was held last week at Ipoh. I believed that this activity had strengthen our unity and really makes me feel good to teach in here. This is because I can feel that the teachers here not only work professionally as teachers but we all also having fun together. Thank you very much :) I believed that each school have their own ways to celebrate the Teachers day...and here what I had described was about my school way of celebrating the day :).




p/s: no matter where we are, we have the right to have fun and be happy! Who says people in the jungle do not have fun? They have their own way that you never expect ;)

Introducing...the group work for year 1 Temiar's pupils

I think that my year 1 pupils now were ready to be introduced with the group work in learning mathematics. I do put these pupils to sit in group of 5 before but did not really give them a task that they need to finish it up in group. so, after 5 months teaching them, I believed that they are ready to get involved in group activity and ready to work together among themselves. This is because, I can see that their attitude now change compared to their attitude in the first month they were in school. If before some of them were so shy until they do not want to talk or walk in the class, now I can see some smiley faces running in the class...If before some of them were so scared to open their mouth to say out numbers, now I can observed that they do movements while singing mathematics songs... Their attitude shows that they are ready for more approach...

The activity was so simple but need a little preparation and planning before the lesson begins. The objective of the activity is to count from 11 to 20 (I use lots of Malay language in introducing numbers to them to avoid confusion). I had prepared a board with numbers on it (in words), a piece of paper with lots of shapes on it, glue and scissors. To complete the activity, pupils need to cut out the shapes and paste it on the board according to the number written on the board.



I had pointed different task for each of the pupils in each group. 2 pupils will cut out the paper, one will paste it on the board and the other will count the shapes and make sure that it is correct. Then, I encouraged them to switch on their position so that every pupils have chance to do different activity and no pupils will conquer the activity by himself.

I was quite surprised that my pupils can work together in their first group work task. yeah, I know that at some moment I need to be strict to them to control their behaviour but most of all they can show that they can communicate with each other well to complete the task although they prefer to communicate in Temiar language that I cannot understand at all now except few simple words. But for me when they can complete the task together and help each other that shows a great situation in learning mathematics.



During the activity, I do not let the pupils to compete with one group to another group yet because I want to avoid sad feelings among the children. yeah, they are so new to the group work and I think that if i let them compete, the last group that finish the task will feel down and will found that the group work is not interesting. So, I reminded myself to avoid the pupils from competing with each other. I change it to the way that every group must finish the work with neat, tidy and beautiful poster. I found that this way is more positive in introducing group work.

After all the group finish their work, I write down their name on the board and paste their work on the wall. I believed that every pupils in the class will feel proud with it and that will make them happy. Most important, I believed that the group work activity can help them to learn counting from 11 to 20 ;)
p/s: I just love to teach year 1, please don't tell them...hahaha

The implementation of ICT ;) You guys are lucky!

It was so lucky for my school pupils to have the experiences on using computers in learning. Actually, my pupils involved in computer class (basically focus on teaching English language to rural school pupils) every afternoon after the school session end. The computer class programme is specially organized by the Ministry of science and Technology and Perak Initiatives organization. They had equipped the school’s computer lab with 12 new computers.

I also a part of this project where I had been choose to be the teacher’s assistant in the class. It was so great for me to have the opportunity to involve in this project especially when I can observe the pupils’ learning experiences.

After a while being involved in the computer class in the afternoon, I realized that this computer programmes also can be used in my mathematics class especially the software that called as "sebran". It is so interesting and easy to do and suitable to the ability of my pupils.

I do implement the usage of the 'Sebran' in my mathematics class. I found that it encourages my pupils to learn and solve the simple mathematics questions. However, I still need to consider some important ways to make sure that their learning experiences become meaningful. First, I paired the lower ability pupils with the higher achiever pupils. then i instructed the pupils to make sure that both of them find the same answer before they click the answer on the computer to check weather it is correct or not. By doing this, i had encourage the high achiever pupils to help and guide the lower achiever pupils.

The other things that i put into consideration is to make sure that the pupils not only use the computer but they solve the mathematics problem manually on the book or on paper. i had make sure that before they clicked the answer, they need to try to find the answer on their own first. Not only just make a guess by clicking any answer on the computer.

I believed that these pupils were so lucky to have this great opportunity that I think not all pupils in the other school get. I really hope what they gained here can help them in the future. maybe not really helps them in pass the examination but at least can make them aware of the development of technology in this world.

p/s: just got another good news about this blog and working towards it ;)

When the recess time comes...

One happy thing that I love teaching here is the recess time during the school hours. It is not about the delicious foods (actually the foods were always delicious) but it is because when the recess time comes, all the teachers will gather at the canteen and eat together.

I think not all school in Malaysia have the same situation with what happened here. The best things about gathering together is that you can hear lots of things while we busy eating. Weather the problems about the schools and the pupils up to the current issue on politics. Everything is interesting to be discuss here. I like to hear the other teachers telling jokes, we really have fun when the recess time and of course can forget for a while any problem that may arose in the classroom. So, I can say that the recess time can be a time to release some stress.

I believed that when we always gather together, it also strengthen our relationship where we are not only work professionally as teachers but also are being friends to each other ;) I hope everything here will be great and fun as always and most important we can keep sharing opinions with each others and give advices when needed.


p/s: i just love the foods here :P don't be jealous...haha

Displays

The majority of my year 1 pupils are the lower achievers. In teaching and learning session, I knew that I cannot target the pupils to achieve high learning objectives. So, this situation makes me feel uncomfortable for a while. This is because, when the examination comes, the questions will be asked according to the main stream syllabus. If the pupils in the main stream school already learn numbers until 100, my pupils still struggle to recognize number 1 to 20.

After a few months of teaching, I now found one of the best way to at least minimize this problems. I do not said this way will helps 100% but I am very sure it will helps some of this pupils especially the higher ability in my classroom. The way that I mean here is by preparing lots of DISPLAYS.

Maybe some of us will not really believed that displays can help a lot to the pupils, but for me, I am very sure that it can help me in teaching session and most of all can help my pupils to learn something new, to memorize fact and to learn to read.When you suddenly had to enter the class, you do not need to think what to teach anymore because everything is in the class already. And i always let my pupils read and spell the displays that I put in the class 10 to 15 minutes before I start the lesson. for me, the displays need to be use wisely or else it will not help the children at all.

The displays that I mean here is not the displays on the same topic that we teach at that moment but the displays that I mean here is the displays about the future topic. For example, at the moment I am teaching addition I already put the displays about 2d shapes in the class. This displays will already introduces the pupils with the new knowledge and at least they will already heard about it and will not feel awkward when they heard about it later.

I do not think this simple displays need lots of time to be done. I think that you just need to lend about 15 minutes to cut, write or colour the paper and then you already can paste it out in the classroom. Or, if you smarter, you can just do the activity with the children and then paste out their work. That will be great too.

Right now, I am still thinking about the best ways to tackle my year 5 pupils too. Yeah, I do lots of things to year 1 pupils and now, i started to do something different to year 5 too. And most important thing that I still need to remember is that not to put a high expectations on their achievements. Yeah...maybe slower or maybe they will not really get the benefits of it. What is important for me to remember is not be upset and start try and try... I will get nothing if I just complaints and complaints...better to find ways than to do complaints ;)

p/s: Thanks for the support ;)

A Visit to the Last Village

This week, I got a chance to visit the last village in this area. One of the former teacher (which is also a native paople, he really great) asked me weather I want to join him to go to the village to confirm about the attendance of the villagers youth to the school this Saturday for 'gotong-royong'. Without any doubt, I agree to join him because I do not think that the opportunity to go up to the mountain and see the village myself come regularly. So, we went to the village by his car.

The journey takes about 30 to 40 minutes before we arrived to the last village called 'Kampung Pisang". The road were in bad condition with lots of holes and bump. luckily, Cikgu Mad Nor (the former teacher) knows about the way clearly, so he can planned what to do and how to make his car move forward safely.



When I first arrived at the village, it was so quiet. No radio or television sounds, no traffic sounds. It just the sounds from nature likes birds that we can hear and sometimes heard some people voice. Suddenly, when we get out from the car, I can see some familiar faces hiding behind the tree. Oh, they were my pupils. Maybe they did not expected me to go and visit their house. They quite shy but after a while I called them, they came and I talked to them while Cikgu Mad Nor doing his work.

It so great to come and see how my pupils' live in their village situated far away from the town. I even asking myself how the place will look like in the night when there are no electricity in here. Oh, that is why some of this children feel so new with the school that equipped with fans and lamps (especially to the pre-school pupils and year 1 pupils) and also television and computer. However, lots of changes had already come in to them. Yeah...maybe time will change the place (I did not mean to change the nature). I do feel grateful and honored to give a little contribution in educating these pupils. Maybe it just a little but I know it is useful for the future of this kids.





Honestly, this visit make me realized about the importance of educating these children. They really needs lots of encouragements and supports to help them develop and live in this world of technology. They should been given the same opportunity, feel and use the same technology that we have and we use now. Why should let them left behind while we can use technology. We are in the same country!

To those who always complaints with their life, you should come here and see by yourself of how this people life. Maybe after that you will feel grateful to what you already have and see the positive part of your life ;)

p/s: Happy Teacher's Day

River! oh Nature ;)

I love staying in this village because of the nature. Oh...it so beautiful and so fresh. The best one is the river. It is still good as it should and no water pollution. The water is so cold and come fresh from the mountain. Whatever bad feelings or stress comes to you, I believed that it will fade away after enjoy playing and swimming in this river. Especially when the weather is so hot, river can cool you down.

Playing with this kids in the river and laugh with them is so great too. Yeah...they were use to swim and play in this river than I am. I live in Alor Setar where everything was not very in good manner anymore. In my place, the river had already been polluted and so not nice to see. It so dirty with rubbish and dirts. And lots of buildings are going to grow in my place. (but I still love my hometown...haha)



I'm so glad to have this opportunity especially having some fun with this kids. As I expected, Romzi (the passive boy in year 1 class) suddenly turn to an active kids with lots of smile. So great to play with him and to see him be so energetic. wish he turns active in class too ;)

p/s: motivate pupils but do not forget to motivate self ;)

Me, tie and rural school

Some people do asked me why do I still wear a tie when I already teach in a rural school. They said that no one will care about what you wearing here and you will look weird as no other person wear it everyday to school.

The answer is so simple. I like wearing a tie while wearing the shirt. It makes me confident to teach and to meet others. yeah, I choose myself to do what I like. So, no matter what people will think, I keep doing the things that I like as long as it is right. Oh, and I do love wearing tie because I like to match it with my shirts. I think I have lots of different colours of tie and every time I buy a new shirt, i will always buy a new tie too.

Who said we cannot wear a tie in this rural school. why should I put a limit to myself, right? Where I am now, should not effect what I should wear or what I like to do. I think its better we change the place than the place change us. That is better. life is too short to make limitation. I think there are so many limitation already in our life. So, sometimes, we need to broke one. As long as you think you like to do things and it is good and right, just do it! You know you will feel great ;) Cheers!

p/s: searching ways to keep positive with any things that appear in life ;) When there is a will, There is a way