Living and Travel Diary of QF

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Post Practicum Reflection Part 2

When I first taught the classroom it was difficult for me to get all pupils’ attention. They were very talkative and it was hard for me teaching while they were talking and doing other things. I realized that you have to know pupils and know their names to get their trust and control the class.

Grabbing the attention of the pupils is also another issue that is vital when working as a primary teacher. This is because the English language is foreign to them and therefore as the teacher, I had to make the learning process of this language as interesting as possible. Therefore, to prevent boredom and pupils’ distraction, I prepared interesting set inductions in my lesson plans. My analysis of the class showed that this class had not done anything before that involved a warm-up activity. Therefore, when I introduced the set induction activity, they showed an interest to the lesson. Furthermore, I used picture aids such as PowerPoint and flashcards to help them learn some words and phrases. One of the advantages of using pictures in teaching is its ability to attract the attention of the pupils and enhance their ability to retain everything they have learnt in class, especially when introducing new words.

Group work is another issue faced during my practicum days was related to classroom management. Since I believe pupils should be able to roam freely, the classroom environment became much more chaotic. This type of cooperative learning environment also fosters an increased noise level, which seemed to disrupt other pupils. I will be better prepared to overcome such dilemmas in the future. It is very important to keep the classroom under control during the group work. I provided the signs “We Need Help” to reduce the noise level during the group work. Pupils need to hold up the sign with their mouths closed if they encounter any difficulties. I will go to them and give guidance to them when necessary.

To be continued...

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Midnight rants.

I'm so bored of being bored because being bored is really boring.

That statement really explains me these few days. frankly, I don't know how to make my life even more interesting. those stuff that I usually do, here in Msia, like strolling at the malls, watching movies, or window shopping, they just don't give me any fun or pleasure anymore. I'm so bored and I'm totally sick of it. I've been thinking and recalling my old life back in Wellington ya know. so cheesy. I know. okay, I know that I have to look forward, move on. get a life. The problem is me. my INABILTY to stop remembering the past. I really miss the little things I usually did back in Welly. omaigoddd, why am I so pathetic.

To make it worse. I even browsed some old pictures from my life back in Wellington. found one and I'm gonna share it here.

whoa. why so serious Qistina? I have never seen me being so serious like that. This is a very rare picture of me being so serious.I guess that all my life I never want to get too serious about anything. omaigodd i do talk shits these days. of course I have never seen me doing anything. I can't see myself. lol. except if you're in front of the mirror laa so you see yourself. big lol there. I hope tomorrow and the next next day will be better days for me. If my upcoming days didn't turn out to be good. I will be back again and pour out my daily rants to you :D

p/s: In bed now, still figuring out how my life should be for the next couple of months.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Post Practicum Reflection Part 1

I'm back. I'm so sorry that i don't blog much these days. it's just that I don't blog for people to read anymore. I only blog for self-satisfaction. If I have something really worth to share, I will share here. Right now, I'm going to share about my post practicum reflection. FYI, I finished my practicum like 2 months ago. since that, I've been really busy with Induction course, Bina Insan Guru and stuff. So I totally forgot about existence of this blog. ha ha

So, my experiences in SK Aman Jaya have been a real eye opener in terms of the theoretical classroom versus the real world classroom. During the first month of practicum, I struggled with classroom management and behavior management. I was so tired of yelling and nagging inside my classroom. There has got to be a better way to manage the children. I hope I manage to find it over the coming months. It is hard enough when they don’t understand me speaking in English but it is harder when they are misbehaving. My cooperating teacher, Sir Yusuff advised me to be strict and just make them fear you.

I identified my own weaknesses and strengths throughout the practicum days. I struggled with the time management. The planned time for every stage seemed to run off. The presentation stage for several lessons was done too quickly, usually lasted for only 10 minutes. I should be able to provide more inputs during the presentation to cover those 15 minutes. Perhaps, I should carry out Q and A session with the pupils and try to elicit answers from the pupils. The production stage usually took more than the given time. An example of a scenario, half of the pupils didn’t bring the scissors and glues. Therefore, they took longer time to finish the task I assigned to them.

Besides, what didn’t go well is my voice projection. There were 36 pupils in my classroom. The pupils at the back complained that they didn’t hear me really well. I really need to work on my voice projection so that pupils at the back won’t be left out and missed my instructions. According Brown (2001), a good teaching requires a good voice projection where you do not have to have a loud, booming voice, but you need to be heard by all the students in the room.

okay folks, to be continued :)