Saturday, August 14, 2010

[To Students With Love]

When I first started my practicum, I was up heaved with determination, strong will, extra enthusiasm, you can see a shining halo on top of the head and my eyes glaring with angel light it will burn your eyes if they practically meet mine.
However, the expectation crashed me deep down four feet below. All those fancy feelings faded unexpectedly, as if the strong wind at the school blew them away. I have loved my students without any single doubt but their attitudes towards the language is what weighing me down. 
They take English very nonchalantly, oblivious toward the importance of the language for their future. To make matters worst, I can't use full English as the medium of instruction, it's as if I'm speaking literally to the four walls and I bet the students will take me as an alien, speaking unintelligible alien language.
Nonetheless, it's entering the 9th weeks and I must say, all the struggles of devising interesting lesson plans for them really paid off, to say the least. Some of my students are starting to show interests in the language. Some of them will constantly come to me and ask how to improve their English. To me, that's an achievement of a lifetime.
Changing the students' way of looking at English is not a piece of cake, nor it is as simple as eating it. Hence, when your students come looking for you and secretly ask for your assistance, that's by far memorable.It means something, it HAS to mean something. Thus, for the left of the times I have with them, I'll treasure and make full use of the time. I want them to be inspired of starting to look at the language at a very different perspective. If they view English all this while using a binocular, I want to provide them with a kaleidoscope, so that they know, the language has many forms and shapes that are very interesting and gallantly enjoyable.

Yours Truly,
Sir Arshad

p.s.Stand Up class! Good Morning Sir Arshad..handsome! I love it when you do that :)

5 comments:

  1. I'm experiencing exactly the same case here... in my first class I was all fired up untill one of the students actually said "Teacher ni syok sendiri la kitorang tak faham B.I langsung cakap Melayu boleh tak." I was like flabergasted, I don't know if they were joking with me, especially when one of the students asked me whether 'Think' means 'gigi'... I was like mortified, i had to bite my tounge so that i don't blurted out something like 'ur not that stupid arent u...o something similar' XDDD. i know they never like the subject but it was later that I know everybody even failed their English paper with the avarage of 20+ and the previous teacher who'd already moved out of the school had been teaching them fully in Malay...

    but yeah, i still like them very very much anyway, it feels sad knowing we're about to finish our practicum, i wish i could give them more, assist them longer...

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  2. Ticky Mick,
    OMG exactly like what one of my students blurted out to me, fresh from her mouth. I was like being struck by a spasm of realization. Who am I teaching?Who am I trying to impress? these kids are rebellious, reluctant souls who will not be inspired or impressed if you think they will with your English. Ok a bit of a confusion there.lol Anyhow, what I do is I prepare interesting and enjoyable lesson plans for them. They need to be engaged in doing something or else they'll fall asleep within a glimpse. Hence, I try to simplify the language, the instructions and all so that they can comprehend what I'm trying to deliver to them.
    BTW where are you having your practicum?

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  3. Yeah! I did that too, and sometimes I even translated my instructions... but my students are more than just some students who hate English... they have a lot of disciplinary problems too, they scattered around, screaming and running and poking their friends. One minute they were writing down notes and the next thing you know they’re already fighting with one another, and they like to spit around, I was checking my students work one by one when suddenly I realize there’s this liquid thingy smeared on my palm because I touched their desk… like you really don’t have to examine it further to tell that its saliva~ I seriously feel like I’m teaching monkeys! They aren’t just illiterate in English but also behaving like a retard. Everytime I've finish a lesson with them I feel so exhausted… There was this one time when I was teaching in front, I’d only took my eyes off them like several second the next thing I know a boy from the next class sneak into my class and when I asked him to leave he poke a girl’s eyes who was sitting in front… I was like God! Help me! I don’t know if I should get mad or I should just enjoy the amusements these students bring… Like seriously, I sometimes teach kindergarten even my kids behave better than them and these students are like what? Sixteen! XDDD
    Ps: now, like seriously I can’t stop laughing…
    Pss: even our supervisor was scared of them, he actually said our school isn’t a school, it’s a zoo!~ XDDD

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  4. oh jap, I'm teaching at SMKTIS btw~ XD

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  5. Ticky Mick,
    Ok that is hilarious,saliva all over your hand? OMG i can't imagine how would I react. However, this reminds me of my another form 4 students which I teach Sivik, yes they asked us to teach sivik. They are very much similar to your class, but instead of running and jumping in gusto, they talk like there's no tmorrow. One word from my mouth and thousands come out from theirs. They really like to retaliate verbally. Seriously I don't know how to handle them. I think at one point, I even bleed my ears listening to their superfluous rantings and ramblings about everything or anything. Even the slightest idea would make them talk non-stop. I have been asked not to continue teaching the class and frankly writing, I miss their mulut murai!
    Regarding the zoo thingy, funny thing is most of the permanent teachers regard the classes they dislike as a zoo. Kertas relief tu they call as tickets to the zoo. Fortunate for us trainee teachers because the admin won't allow or give us classes that are very hard to handle.

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