Reflective Journal - 6th week

After more than a month I’ve been teaching my students I realize that we don’t really have a good rapport with each other. I don’t know where exactly they live, how many siblings they have, who are their parents even their hobbies (I did asked during our ice breaking session yet I forgot). This is because I seldom talk to them personally. We only communicate during the lesson and of course it was only about the topic discussed at that moment. One of the factors of this problem is the language barrier. I seldom talk to them using Bahasa Melayu. It’s just that it is my aim to speak only English with them. Yet this is the consequences.

However, from my observation, we cannot be too personal or too close to them because they tend to misinterpret it. My point is they are the hyperactive kind of students therefore I cannot be too ‘nice’ with them if I want them to act upon all my instructions and orders in the classroom. That is why I chose to be firm and always keep a straight face with them.

Although I knew about this fact I still feel that I need to be a little bit easy-going and relaxed with them. So I decided to have a game called ‘hang man’ with my form 2A3 students. I can see that they enjoyed the game and they love it when I play with them as well. I laugh and joke with them throughout the session. But at the same time I still keep an eye to those who tend to lose their good attitude when they feel that I was not aware of their misbehaviour. Then, we play another game ‘win, lose or draw’. Some of the students were very excited to draw and asked me to guess the answer. They seem very pleased to see me enjoying the activity with them.

I entered the class the next day with my supervisor and I expect my students to be in their best behaviour after our fun and excitement the day before. However, SHOCKINGLY, they were acting like kindergarten students! They were very noisy; they kept on fighting with each other, refused to do the work and chasing each other in the class! Of all the hard work and straight face I maintained for the whole one month, all vanished with just a simple game and a sprinkle of kindness right from the bottom of my heart! I became furious!

After the shocking scenario I decided to get back to my firm-and-straight-face-teacher-mode for the rest of my practicum. Period!