ELOP With Me!!

Between the future and the past tense, lies the present in the distance.. - This is who we are, Hawthorne Heights.

Yo, so check it out. I'm posting my reflection on the English Language Outreach Programme (ELOP) here. Sorry for the lack of creativity in the use of language. I just did it the night before I had to pass it up, so it was a rush job. But I still managed to speak truthfully about it. Here it is.

I went to SK Titi Tok Bandar, Kangar, Perlis on the 17^th of April 2009 for the TESL Cohort 2 Outreach Programme. Over there, I learned a lot of things. First of all, the programme brought me back to my younger days when I was a primary school lad. Something that really made me get goose bumps was when I was MC-ing the opening ceremony, and I greeted them like so. “Assalamualaikum and a very good morning to all of you.” And the reply was an overwhelming “WAALAIKUMUSSALAM WARAHMATULLAHI WABARAKATU CIKGU!” complete with song and all. That really reminded me of the time when I was their age and I greeted my teachers like that. Then, during our activities, I found that handling children was really a challenge. Controlling the standard 6 class was hard and keeping them focussed at the task at hand was also a challenge. I couldn’t imagine how it must be like handling the lower standards which have an even shorter attention span. Besides that, I also learned the reality that some students can’t understand English. Some can’t even read, like one student in our class. I had to accept that people like that existed and it was my job to make them succeed in life. That won’t be an easy job, but then again, who ever said teaching was an easy profession, right? Besides that, I felt an overpowering sense of joy when I got to help a few of my students understand the story which was given to them. I hope I don’t lose this sense of joy when I start teaching, because to me, that is the major motivator for teachers to continue teaching. That sense of fulfillment, there’s truly nothing else like it. There is one more thing that I would like to mention. It is the feeling of being appreciated when the students came and greeted us at the mosque when we went for our Friday prayers there. They all came down from the mosque and shook our hands while the Khatib was reciting the khutbah. This act beyond doubt touched us in a very deep way, and we, I, look forward to being a teacher even more so now than I ever was before.

Pictures will be uploaded at a later date, when the Internet connection isn't crappy..

Salam perpaduan!