Just another day at the office. Today I taught English (the same students as yesterday). Many of our activities came from their workbook; I try to stick to what they know as well as varying my instruction. The class was learning about the “sh” sound and “ea” sound. I was really proud and a bit surprised at how many English words they could come up with that contain these sounds. One problem I keep running into though is sometimes I cannot understand what the students are saying due to their accent. After asking once to repeat themselves, I found that giving them the whiteboard maker and having them write what they are saying works fairly well. Plus, it gets them out of their seats and encourages class involvement. As a reward for their hard work (and a sneaky way to do a unit review) I taught them how to play Bingo. In their boxes they wrote food and drink words they had been practicing for the past week and a half. They really loved this game, but I had to have Puan Anis translate the directions before we could actually play. Once they realized I was giving bookmarks or pencils to the winners, they really tuned in and listened quietly. There is nothing more amusing than hearing “Bingo!” yelled in a child’s voice with a Malaysian accent!
In addition to English, I also was involved in teaching Science to year 3 students today. I really, really enjoy spending time in this science class. Puan Chong the teacher is a newer teacher and uses lots of the techniques we are taught at MSU. Plus, she is only 25 so we get along great. This science class most resembles American classes I have been in; daily Puan Chong uses group work, lots of drawing and coloring, and many hands on activities. Observing and spending time in the science room here only enhances my love for teaching science. Even though our lesson was pair taught, it was fun to see the students get their hands dirty, so to speak. The students were testing the absorbency of typical materials such as towel, coin, stone, toilet paper, etc. I was also able to play Hangman with the class for the last 15 minutes of class. The kids are so good at this game; I had to keep making the difficulty level harder and harder! I love that students’ levels of simple achievement can still impress me. I hope I never lose this insight. Next week I get to conduct an experiment all on my own. I am so excited!
Our class time at UPSI today was very unique. As tired as many of us were (getting up early daily really wears you out!) it was a very useful session. Our MSU group was able to do some microteaching with some of the UPSI students. Both of our groups showed how we would teach both telling time and how we’d teach with a children’s book. Like what I have observed in the school, the Malaysian students were very straightforward, direct, and taught as if they were using a textbook. Our group, of course, took an unconventional approach and taught a time telling game. After an hour and a half of discussing our teaching practices for both lessons, I got the feeling the Malaysian students and staff saw our teaching style as lacking structure and purpose. But while we do not teach every single lesson with a direct lecture format, I feel the way I have learned to teach does actually include a lot of structure. And without a purpose or object for the lesson, it would be useless. So contrary to their beliefs, I see American teachers to be very structured, just more flexible and creative in the way the material is taught.
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