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Friday, April 24, 2009

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 17th 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!

10 comments:

WiDa said...

Gud mowning...
Hey, it is true. I did remembered the younger version of me of being a tomboy! For your information, I once took that route to go to Kuala Perlis, by riding my bicycle, ALONE!!! Hehehe...I did remember that, on that day, everytime when they answered our greetings, I also follow them 'singing' along...hahaha...Yeah, it is true. It is our responsibility to make sure that all of our students to succeed equally. In addition, I also had the chance to asked one of the students about English. I ask a girl from standard 4, (can't remember the name lol) why that they don't like English. She answered that it is not that they don't like Eng, but it is due to some of the teachers which are very strict and they just can talk in Eng just in the school compound. If not, people will look down on them for being 'arrogant' to speak in such a way. Hmmm... So, it is our responsibility too to make sure to change the mind setting of the people that Eng is Fun and it is nothing about 'showing off'...Aju!!! N thanks to you all (TESL 2, Ms Letch and the CM) for coming up with this idea...Arigatou-ne!

kacipcrew said...

WOAH.. looking 4ward 4 my sbe next sem!

anak pak man said...

wida- good sentences, well pronounced..

pidi- yeah, u have every reason to look forward to it. but you need to be prepared coz i heard that "budak2 skolah bandar" ni suka naik kpala skit.. rasa macam diri lagi pandai dari cikgu..
hehe.. whatever it is, i wish you and your whole cohort the best of luck..

chris federick said...

cool experience man... this is priceless.

anak pak man said...

it is.. you guys should organize something like this.. it would be, as you said it, cool..

LaBubiZkiTeR.Inc said...

feels like going back to old skools..wonder y our cohort dun hav such activitiy like this b4..xde bdget kowt..haha

anak pak man said...

hehe.. actually, we paid for this ourselves, except for the accomodation..tu pon lpas miss letch convince tuan director. But we actually did pay it all ourselves. the accomodation will be claimed later..huhu

HILMI FUAD said...

good experience to prepare us a future chalkies!!
really miss the "waalaikumusalam" song....
anyway congratz pal for the well organised events!!

anak pak man said...

tq boll..
much appreciated..

zol dabat said...

salam
waah kawan lama
hhg dok bwat pa la?