Week 1-3

For the first year classes, We started our class with impromptu speech. I gave them a brief overview on what is impromptu, how to go about giving an impromptu speech. Funny thing here, while saying that your must pause if you feel nervous whatnot, I kept on mumbling....the irony of telling people "try to calm down first" while you're as nervous as a chicken going to be slaughtered!


After covering the topic, we did some activities..to see whether they are comfortable or not with English, with their classmates. I googled some activities [oh mi amor! ] and I also utilized a game that my buddy gave me. Didn't know whether it will work or not, would they understand the instruction or not but alhamdulillah, it turned out great for all the classes that I am teaching this semester. I hope they had fun as much as I did watching them have fun :)

The activities were:

1) Vocabulary Chain Story
 
 For this game, they had to pick a piece of paper given by me. On that paper, there is one word. As a class, one person will start making a sentence using the word he/she has. I participated in this game so I started the sentence. Then  I pin pointed to any random student and he continued with his word and this went on until the last person. So along the way, the story became humorous and that was the point anyway! Nothing made sense but we were laughing while listening to the sentences...hahaha

2) Pull Out An Object

Made them pull out any object they had from their backpacks, pockets or stationary case [pensil box lerr]. Then I randomly called any names and they had to come up front and talk about their item. Thing is, in Malaysia, most students are not active learners. Meaning to say that, when teachers ask who wants to volunteer, no one will raise their hands. I was one of them and I observed that most of us are like that too.

3) Consequences Role-Play

This was the activity that made the whole class speak in loud voices. Why so? Because they had to walk around in class, meeting their friends whom are now famous people and they must introduce themselves to each other with the new identity given. Prior to the game, they had to list down some points [ie: fav movie actor/actresses, fav fruit, number between 1-9, name of veggies, job they hate, job they love, country they would love to be in] and afterwards, I explained to them what each point mean [ie: name of husband/wife, family's name, number of children they had, names of children, their current job, their partners job, where they are from]. Funny things occurred. At first they were not sure what to do so I came to the rescue [cewahhh nk jgk]. I went to some students and introduced myself as Mrs.Passionfruit, my husband is Rob Pat, so on so forth so they finally understood how to go around introducing themselves. So much fun!

For week 3 [24/9-27/9]

Started doing impromptu speech practice. Gave them the freedom to choose any topic they like last week, prepare a 5 minutes speech and come to class this week all prepared with their speech. First class did well. Some of them had their awkward blank moments in front but they tried their best. I asked the class what they think about the speech in terms of content, body language and all and made them give marks to their friend who's presenting. Was a bit disappointed with the second class whom I loved at first because of their enthusiasm but when the practice day came and I called out a name, they were not prepared! Like come on, I gave the task last week and it wasn't a difficult task at all. You could have just talked about your pet cat, your best friend, your hostel, etc but no....you chose to answer me "I didn't prepare miss]. Kept my cool but was boiling inside. Gave them a small lecture tho...hew hew. Third class was fine although some of them were extremely nervous in front but they still made the effort. Actual assessment will start from week 3 onwards until everyone finishes. Topics will be given by me...Simple ones like; my hobby, 3 surprising facts about me, my best friend, fav sibling]...Easy peasy, right? :D

For the year two research class that I am teaching, we started with what is research report writing, steps of doing a research, what is a proposal, what is a research topic, how to narrow down your topics, how to write your proposal and they have already done their oral presentation for proposal. I really don't have any problems with this class. They are said to be the most brilliant people on campus because the CGPA needed to enter that course is a bit higher than other courses [so I was told] and surprisingly, they live up to their reputation! Sometimes we face snobbish goody good good students especially if they think that they are clever enough but for this class, they are really passionate on what they are doing. I am the one feeling a bit ashamed because I don't know whether what I've taught them so far makes sense or not...gahhh! Luckily there are consultation sessions so I can explain better when they are in their groups...I hope all of them will do their best so that I can give them an A :D


That's all for now......

Salam and goodbye :D

Introduction

Salam and hello everyone!

I'm W and you can call me Miss W. I'm currently teaching English in a university somewhere in Malaysia :)

Truth be told, this is my first time teaching....meaning, first time ever! Never in my life had I thought that I would land on this profession. Why so?

Long story short, I am a well-reserved person who was very passive in class when I was a student. The character somehow was imprinted on me after I graduated and landed on my first job....which was way different from teaching....way way different. It was something I'm confident in doing.

What were my emotions having to know that I will start teaching a bunch of university students?

Terrified! Felt like dying! Butterflies, bees and cockroaches in my stomach! Upmost nervousness I tell ya!

But I just went my with guts, recited my prayers and walked into my first class LIKE A BOSS. I was all shaky, nervous, making monologues while students were staring at me like I'm an alien who just came down to earth...or so I thought, LOL! Did some introductory regarding the course, had ice-breaking session and voila! Nervousness started to reduce little by little. Entered my other classes and did the same with slightly little modifications from one class to another  [first class made me realize where I should improve on so I'd try to avoid certain things during the next class]

I have been blogging since 2008 but this is my first time to actually create a special blog dedicated to my present journey as a teacher.

I would love to record my amazing [tettttt] experience so that one day I can look back and see how far I've gone from this point onwards :)

Till then,

KEEP CALM AND TEACH ON <3