But the program Teach for Malaysia caught my eye and I keep that as my plan B in case everything else fails. And if I do teach, I want it to be about English. Because if you're a friend of mine, you'd know I LOVE English. I want to be good at it, I'm passionate learning about it, I tolerate its silly rules.
And so one fine day I was just grocery shopping with my mom when my high school English teacher called me and ask if I'm doing anything at the moment. I said no, because I was still taking my own sweet time finding the right job for me. She told me that she's going on maternity leave soon and was wondering if I want to be the substitute teacher for when she's gone.
I hesitated for a moment but eventually said yes because hey, why not? I'll be teaching English, the school is near my house, and it's not like I have jobs lining up for me.
I went to the school and registered probably... around mid-March. Then the next day I went for the interview at PPD, only to be told they're not having an interview that day -_- The woman there also said if a school sent me, I'd have to wait for a letter from the government before I can teach (or something like that). Weeks passed by until finally last week, a clerk at the school called me and ask me to go for an interview, at the very last minute! I was so not prepared. Also, I just had an interview with a company the day before (which I'll get to later).
The interview
It went well, I would say, but the officer asked me quite a few... irrelevant things. I guess he had to but still,. He asked about GST (and proceeded to tell me his lengthy opinions about it... k), ISIS, Palestine, 1Malaysia... and I don't even remember what else. He asked me about rukun negara which I embarrassingly forgot one line! Oh well.
After the interview is over, it struck me that the officer didn't ask me a single thing about my English proficiency. Sure, he knows that I studied abroad in an English-speaking country, and I got A+ for English in SPM, but beyond that... nothing. Which is kind of worrisome to me. If I were to send my child to a school, I want to make sure that the teachers are at least good if not great in the subject that he/she teaches. But maybe that's just me. Maybe because I'm a substitute teacher it doesn't matter much. Anyway.
My first day - Friday, 3 April 2015
So the interview was on Thursday and on Friday, the clerk (Kak Ayu) called and ask me to come to school - to teach right away.
I was caught off guard. I was literally not prepared, I had no idea what's on the syllabus, don't even know what the textbook looks like, etc. She literally gave me my schedule and ask me to go to class. I only brought a pen and a notebook! So for the first class I went in, 2A4, I only had less than 30 minutes left so I let them do their own work.
Then, as I was leaving, I told them I'll be their new English teacher starting next week and was pretty surprised to hear cheers and yays from the class :D At least they're not dreading me? And one girl even told me "cikgu, cikgu cantik la" from the back of the class LOL THANKS FOR THE CONFIDENCE BOOST, GURL.
Later, I went to 1KRK. My class in 2005! Wow, I still can't believe it's been a decade since I was that... small? I looked around the class and saw bright eyed, bushy tailed students staring back at me, not knowing who I am. And similar to 2A4, right after I said I'll be taking over Teacher Ruby for when she's on maternity leave, the class cheered and they had such big smiles on their face. PHEW.
I ask them to introduce themselves and give me one fact that not a lot of people know about them. And so a few said they can cook, can play musical instruments, like Justin Bieber lah, Avril Lavigne (I'm With You was such a big jam my time it was ridiculous omg), and then a few girls said they like Taylor Swift at which point I felt like ending the class and have a big Taylor Swift fangirl session and karaoke. If only :P
Since I didn't prepare anything, I decided to let them play the game Word Chain, one that I remember enjoying playing with my classmates back then. (If you don't know the game basically I gave them a word, for example 'train', then they have to start the next word with the last letter so in this case N, like 'nail', then 'lamp', and so on until they complete 15 different words.)
The game got quite competitive between the 2 groups and some was shouting, helping their team member, egging them on and it got pretty messy and loud that I was worried teachers from other class will come complain. But they didn't, and overall the students enjoyed the game and I was so relieved!
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So everything went well on my first day but still, I had NO IDEA what to teach these students. I don't have the syllabus, the lesson plans, etc. I was so lost to the point I got pretty mad, heh. And so I contact Teacher Ruby, and still, she didn't reply my text. K. I ended up googling some grammar lessons for Monday and hope it'll do.
My second day - Monday, 6 April 2015
THANK GOD, right as I enter bilik guru, I saw Teacher Ruby at the back, walking with her cute pregnant belly. And so she told me what to teach, what to do, what has been taught and what hasn't, etc and filling me in on the details. Now that I know what to do, I can plan (I realized how big of a planner I am through this whole experience) and know what to expect.
So after she left, I went to my first class of the day, 2B3. I was pretty nervous since their proficiency is much lower. But I had my handouts and hopefully they won't get bored. Unfortunately, the afternoon assembly ended pretty late (took my time there) and then the students had to go pray (took more time there). By the time the students get back, I only had 30 minutes left and managed to teach half of what I had planned on adjectives. I actually cut up these adjectives I found online so that they can draw one by one... and place it under the positive or negative columns I draw on the board... I could just imagine it all! Sadly, I only had time to draw a mind map on adjectives and explain it a little bit. Only a handful was paying attention while the rest couldn't care less :(
I didn't get mad or anything, but more like... heartbroken how these students are 'labeled' dumb and in the back class and because of that some of them look like they don't even bother learning anything at all. I was speaking super simple English and some asked me to translate it in Malay. As a new teacher with these, false optimism perhaps, I want to change their mindset. I want them to love English, or at least know the basics. But how? And I feel even more hopeless knowing these students will probably be the ones who graduate from universities and still have silly grammar mistakes in their Facebook status, and worse, job application. I WANT TO BE THE CHANGE! Alas.
Moving on from that rant.
I went to 1KRK but because we only had a single period I only gave them a handout on correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes and some of them said it was too difficult. Oops. And then I said the one thing, I know as an ex-KRK-ian, hate: "I thought this is the best class, KRK, you should be able to answer this." Heh. Not their fault la. Maybe I overestimate them a tiiiiny bit.
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With the lesson plan in hand from Teacher Ruby, I was ready to tackle these kids. I'll lay everything out for them, I'll figure out what to teach and when and how.
Except... I received an email later that evening saying I got a job at this company that I've always wanted to work for. (The one I went for an interview on Wednesday)
I know Kak Ayu said if I get a job offer I can resign immediately but if I work less than 14 days, I won't get paid. Which I'm fine with. Even though I did fork out RM15 for a special teacher name tag... lol.
I was VERY excited to get the job but that also means leaving my students :( Technically I don't even have to come on Tuesday since I already gave Kak Ayu my resignation letter but I want to say goodbye to my 1KRK students!
My last day - Tuesday, 7 April 2015
I came to school at 1 p.m. but my class only start at 4:20 p.m. and you know what, it was very much worth it.
So first I had to tell them the sad news.... that today will be my last day teaching you guys. And then, what I can describe as the most heartbreaking sound I've ever heard, the whole class went berserk and starts questioning and pleading with me.
"But teacher this is only your third day?!"
"Nanti kitorang rindu teacher"
"Kenapa teacher kena pergi?"
"Alaaaa teacherrrr"
"Jom main game!?"
Somehow someone suggests we order pizza and I was up for it except I don't have enough money... LOL. Sorry, kids. And so I ended up going to the mini store across the school and bought them this Butterfly ice-cream that can be split into two. Yo we didn't have this back then!
They were SO, SO EXCITED over a RM1.90 ice-cream and kept thanking me over and over :') A small price to pay for such happiness and gratitude!!
And then we took pictures, because why not.
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| Rindu these kids already! :( |
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| Ahem, we*. And don't worry, I won't forget you all! (If you look closely to the right they drew a picture of me (teacher) smiling and them (students) frowning. Awwww. |
I did teach them a little bit of literature (much to their dismay haha) and then I hear, for the last time, just as my ears were warming up to it, "TE-RI-MA KA-SIH, Cik-gu -nis."
I was about to leave when they collectively say, "Se-la-mat ting-gal, Cik-gu A-nis."
I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT!!! T_T
Then the girls came up to me to salam and then one girl said, "rasa nak peluk je" to me and so I opened my arms and she came in my embrace and so one by one the rest hugged me as well :') Never felt so loved by people I've met in just 3 days!
These kids think I'm cool now (especially after knowing I studied in the US) and I pray they'll still think that when they are my age and I'm much older with a boring job probably haha.
I have so much hope for these students and I know they'll be the changemakers in the future. Made me wonder if our teachers saw that in us back then and if we ever live up to their hope, heh.
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So that's all, folks. My very brief, but very fulfilling, experience as a teacher. If anything, it sparked more passion and fire in me to increase our youth's English proficiency. If not as a teacher, maybe a volunteer. Someday, insha Allah.
I delay this for long enough and if you're still curious, I'll be working at FashionValet starting tomorrow! Aaahh! One of my dream place to work at, honestly. Being a part of the company feels like I made it to the cool kids' table at lunch nomsain haha. The story of how I went for that interview deserves a blog post on its own, which I'll probably write much later.
So I never got around to applying for Teach for Malaysia, but I did get a liiittle bit of teaching experience, and tomorrow I'll start working at a company I've always wanted to work for. Life has a funny way or working itself out, ey? :)
Alhamdulillah.
1 comment:
Can you share your experience interviewing and working at fashionvalet? You can email me personally at hannalolla@gmail.com. Thanks.
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