Make them think.... :)

Today, I had teach my year 1 pupils about the months in a year. actually, I already introduce my pupils with all the months that should know. But before, we just say it out and repeat to say it many time. I also had paste the poster about the months on the wall.

Today, I had focused on the way to write down the name of the months correctly in Malay language. As the pupils always getting the access of this knowledge before, so I prepared a simple activity for them to think a bit to complete the task. Actually, I already know that the advance learners will definitely do this activity as fast as they can but my aimed here is to get attention from the the other children.


I write down the name of the months at the white board according to its order. To let my pupils think, i purposely put an empty space on the name of the month. I wanted my pupils to fill it on their own to make it correct.

At the first moment, they quite confuse on what to do. But some of the advance pupils already got it and came in front to let me check their work. I just observed their work and found that they do some mistakes. So, I put down flash cards to help them. I asked them to find out the name of the month and make correction. Then, I also asked the other children to came in front and check their spelling. It was a great thing for me to see their work on their own to finish up the work. it was like completing a puzzle.


I had saw that some pupils showed a very great responses towards the activity. One girl, Farizan, came to see me to check her work like 100 times. She always acted like that. I just so happy to see her. although she not really get what to do but she is really hardworking to try.

The activity had finish and yet still some pupils did not manage to finish it up. But it is fine for me. At least I know they already tried to do it on their own.

p/s: I just got a letter, I need to attend a seminar next week :)

basic knowledge

One important thing that I learn after about a year teaching these Temiar kids are about drilling them and reminds them with a lot of daily basic knowledge. What I mean here are about the knowledge that we always use in our daily life like the days in a week, comparisons words (like tall, short, big, small), and how to write the name correctly.

I already told about the importance of telling all of this all the time to them before, when I told in my entries that I implement it like 10 minutes before start my lesson. I really think that I need to tell them and make them realized about the basic knowledge because at some moment, the basic knowledge is important than the other knowledge that difficult for them to understand. These children were not always been using the knowledge that we should know in their daily life. So, by repeat to them as many times as I can, it will make them aware of it.

I can see some differences to my pupils. When I was teaching Year 3, they did not really know about how many months in a year and the name of the months. But after a lot of repetition, they start to memorize it now and know what february means. Same to year 1 pupils, right now, many of them can tell the day correctly and also can answer my simple questions about days correctly. For example, they know how many days they were schooling in a week, they know which day is the weekends and they know what day they start to school in a week.


If I want to wait for the syllabus to tell them all about this, I believed that it will takes time for the pupils to remember all of this because the topic about time comes at the end of the syllabus. Lucky for me because I realized about this and take action from it. Right now, I just need to emphasize on the spelling of the words.

I hope that the pupils will gain as much basic knowledge that they need to know as they can. Their mind now is just like a sponge that can absorb as much knowledge as the sponge can absorbed water.

p/s: Stay positive towards the end :)

small thing, but great feeling...

As this week is all about giving a test to the pupils, i continued to test my year 1 pupils with mathematics questions. I focused to test their ability to remember what they had learn about addition of money.
As usual, two of my pupils who is Yusri and Armin can do it very well. The other pupils will always have difficulties to do it. as I was walking to each of the pupils to observe the pupils suddenly my eyes had catch one little girl, Syazwani (or i just called her Wani). She was busy doing the short line (that what I called when I teach them) to count the addition of money.

Wani is not always good at understanding Mathematics before. but to see her can do it by herself today was really amazed me. Yeah, I really shocked to see her suddenly doing it better than some other pupils that show a better understanding before. Sometimes we really cannot expect anything from the pupils. They sometimes can be very good and sometimes can be the opposite. Its normal I think...we are just human being :)

What most amazing thing for me to see her is that she try to add the coins like 20 cent and 50 cents by drawing 20 sticks and 50 sticks and then add them altogether. I do tell the class before to do that but I was not really sure that she can really get that. So, to see what she was doing today make me smile for the rest of the class. Although she takes time to add the number, but that still help her to find the correct answer.


Wani had made my day today. Although some of her counting was not really correct, but what she had done was so great to see. Good Wani! Keep it up!


p/s: Good luck to all year 6 pupils all over Malaysia... Good luck in UPSR :)

DON'T BE SAD!

You should not feel sad Hafiz!

I entered the year 1 class today. Not doing so much teaching because I just give a test to them. After the two weeks of holidays, I think I need to check their memory. the result was quite sad. Lots of them start to forget what they learn again. Just as same as happened during the mid year holidays before.

When I was observing some of my pupils doing the test, they seems like do not know anything about addition and subtraction. Although the questions that I given to them were the questions that they already do it several times before. Luckily, there were still 3 pupils that still can remember and do it properly without so much help from me. I just have about 2 months more with these pupils. I do not really know yet how to help the rest. But I believe that when there is a will, there will always the way for me to help them.

I really need to recharge myself too. I just do not want to let the sad feeling take over myself and makes me feel lazy to try. I know that although I cannot help all of them much, but the most important thing for me to make sure is that to always try. It is worth to try than just complaining about it.

For the pupils in year 1 and all the other year too, I hope you guys will learn a lot in this 2 months school time to come. Let make the time that we have for this year valuable and have its significant in our learning experiences!


p/s: It's a week to celebrate Raya with the teachers and staff in the school... :)

Excited to know about them...

It was already 9:00 p.m when I arrived at Sungai Siput. I had to drive from there to the school through the quite and dark road. It made me feel a little bit nervous because I was alone in the car. Some people in the school always gave me advice to avoid to go in or out from the school in the night. But, I still need to do it or else I will not have place to stay tonight. I am really thankful because I had arrived safely. haha...

I am quite excited for tomorrow. I am excited to see my pupils after two weeks holidays. Excited to know what happened to them during Hari Raya. I am excited to know whether they still remember anything that they learn in school especially to Year 1 pupils. Excited to see their face while listening to my talks...haha... and also excited to pinch some nose. haha

During the holidays, I had met with some of my secondary school mates. Some of them just finish their study too but not in education fields like me. I am so proud with them. I met with a Doctor (medic), a Pharmacyst, and a lawyer to be. I shared lots of experiences with them that I think I should tell my pupils (more suitable for level 2 pupils). I believed that it can motivate them to learn well. I still remember the memories in the secondary school with my friends. We had gone through in many challenges in life. Lots of courage, strengths, patient and sacrifice to do to be success like them. i want my pupils to be inspire by the story of my friends that I met few days before.

My friends and I also went to visit our school teachers. It was so great to meet some of our teachers that teach us in the school before. We want to show our appreciation to them. They really had sacrificed a lot to make sure that their students get the best learning experiences as they can. Although sometimes I feel so small when being together with them (they study in medic and law), but I believed that what I done now is the best field for me. I believed that everything that had happened before had its own meaning. I just know that I love teaching! Thank you to my mother and father.

p/s: Thank you Allah!

8 months

I am in home right now. Enjoying my holidays and celebrate Hari Raya. I have lots of time to relax for a while from the school and I think that it is a good time for me to do a reflection about what I had done, learn, experience and go through for 8 months as a new teacher in Kenang Primary School.

Let me do a bit of reflections one by one start with the children that I teach. If you still remember about a girl called Syamira in the earlier entry, she now begins to change. She had improved a lot in learning and giving responses. She is still shy to communicate with me but she had already begun to feel comfortable to do some work and give simple responses to me. I still remember to see her walked to me to take her book by herself when I called her name in front of the class. It was something unusual for her to do before. She begin sto have confidence to do that in my class. That is a great progression for her although it is very slow compared to the others.

If you still remember about Diana, a girl who just came to the school when she already 9 years old, she now showed a very well progress. After about 2 months she had been transferred to year 3 class (she was in year 1 class because she never came to school before), I found that she was still try to suit herself with new environment and friends. I can see that she was so shy to response compared when she was in year 1 class. However, in Mathematics, she now begins to learn to add and subtract numbers in thousands and did not having so many difficulties in learning. I did not want to push her too much because I know that she is still accepting the new environment. I want to consider that situation and I want to avoid from giving too much pressure on her. But I believed that she can learn a lot and catch up the other pupils later on. Go Diana Go!

I also always observed Romzi (the year 1 pupil that is so quiet in the classroom but can be so active outside). He is always quiet in the class a always. The good thing about him is that he is easy to take part in the activity that involves all the pupils. Although he is quiet, but he still can take part actively. I know he keep learning on although sometimes he gets confuse. These few weeks, I did not eally have time to observe him anymore because he will enter the remedial class when the Mahematics and Malay Language class. I just hope that he will learn better there and he will learn faster.

For all the other pupils that I teach, I feel accepted and fun to be with them. Although sometimes they make me feel angry especially with their naughty behaviour, but for me it is the common behaviour of the pupils. Itis the phase that they need to explore many things by doing it and need the guidance from adults to make sure they can choose and differentiate between the positive and negative. There were some events that always play in my mind like the moment that I get a durian as a present from my year 3 pupil in the class and also the moment where the year 1 pupil name Sulhilpi came to talk to me in Temiar language telling about his small umbrella happily. He just forget that I do not know anything he said because it is in temiar language! Most of all, I found that to be a teacher, we need lots of patience and considerable. Let just celebrate it!

Other than the pupils, I also learn about my ability to do the side work of a teacher. Rather than just teaching and guiding the pupils in the classroom, teacher will involve with other work like organizing ceremony. From all the work that I done, I found that I dislike doing filing systems. Haha. i ust not really good at it. Although I will still doing it, I know that it just not suit me. However, I take this as a new learning experience and whether I like it or not, I need to do it properly. I hope that time by time I will start like to do it. Right now, if I can choose, I think I better in decorating the files than managing the contents.

Furthermore, I also had no difficulties to go out from the school as the early month I was in here. I have my own car right now. It helps me a lot and I feel save to stay in the school. It also make me easy to travel to the nearest town for my personal needs or for my job needs. As I said before, by time we will find the way out from any problems that appear in our life. We just need to be patience and then work toward the problems and find the solutions.

There will be a few more months to go before I complete my first year as a new teacher in Orang Asli school. A few more months mean that a lot of things will happened and lots more things to be experienced. I hope that I will be able to complete this year with a great memories to be remember.


p/s: learning process is never enough, we do it everyday without we realize it sometimes...

Time: Try to make it simple

This morning, I was surprised with 4 girls from year 5. They came to see me early in the morning after the daily assembly finished with a mathematics exercise book on one of the girl's hand. I really amazed with what happened but really feel proud with what they were doing. They came to ask me about some exercises that they cannot do. Wow, it was really great to see that they already build some responsibility about their learning. This is the first time I can see that they get serious with what they learn, I can see lots of improvements in their behaviour. I never expected them at all this morning because I do not think I had asked them to see me. It was their own efforts. Good girls! It was a great start for this morning :)

Today I had done a simple activity with year 5. It was about teaching the time in 24 hours system. I teach them to make a 24 hours system table. I had use a strip paper to conduct the activity. First of all, the pupils need to fold the paper into 3 equal parts. Then they need to divide each of the part 3 into 8 small equal parts. They will get 24 parts altogether.

In the right hand side, they need to write down the 12 hours system in a day and in the left hand side, they need to write down the 24 hours system. By making this table, the pupils can see the comparison about the hours system clearly. I can explained to them easily after everyone have their own 24 hours system table. When it had been written side by side, they can easily see the time in 12 hours system and 24 hours system.

I like to do the activity that can involve all the pupils. As I told before, my class is very special where it consist with lots of slow learners pupils that cannot really learn mathematics. But when it come to the activity like this one, I can see that they were trying to get involve in it. It really fun to see them focus in the class.

p/s: Tomorrow is the last class before we all have 2 weeks holidays for Hari Raya AidilFitri. Time is running very fast. Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri maaf zahir Batin to all of you. Hopefully it will be the best Hari Raya ever!

A Visit to Johor and Extra Singapore!

I just came back from Johor Bharu. I had visited some of my best friends there. Yeah, they just like me - a new teacher (for 2010). Being the only new teacher that had been posted to SK Kampung Kenang make me feel quite lonely sometimes. So, I really want to hear what had happened to them after about a year they were in the new school. I really like to exchange opinions with them as usual when we were studying together before. Lucky for them to been posted together with another new teachers. More lucky to Azri and Adli where they had been posted to the same school!

I feel so happy to spend a few days together with them. I think I had talked so much to make use the time I have...haha...it is not easy for me to meet in person like this visit anymore because we all live far to one another. I spent the first night in Khairy's house and the second one in Adli's house. I met not only with them but also Azri, Ain, Asyikin, Zaki, Muhaimin and Naim.


It was so great to hear the story about their school. Some were so funny, some were so strict and some still having difficulties to control the children. For me, it just a same situation with what happened to me in my school. Everyone have their own first year story that can make them remember it for a long time. I really enjoy to hear each of the story and also happy to tell mine.

I also had opportunity to see some of the school, some of the houses of my friends that suddenly had to stay far from their home town. That is a sacrifice that we had to do when we enter the world of education. But I believed all of them had a great strength and patient to live their life a s a teacher in the place. I really feel motivated!

Oh, other than visit the school and the house, they also bring me to visit some nice places in Johor Bharu. We also take the chance that we have to visit Singapore! It was so great to do all that in a few days of my visit. I really enjoy it. Thank you a lot guys. You had brighten my day and most of all had share with me a really motivated and wonderful stories. I hope that we will meet again. Who knows you will come and visit me in this orang asli temiar school later...hehe ...


p/s: i got a flu after back from Johor! a long journey from Johor Bharu to Alor Setar, 13 hours and a cold air conditioner