It's Easy to Forget

I'm sure everyone agrees that a teacher should be patient and kind. That's common sense as we deal with children or teenagers on a daily basis, and these are a group of people who are still immature and rebellious. They do things to you that make you feel like strangling them... sometimes. At other times, you just wish you were somebody else in a different profession altogether. So, patience is undisputedly the most important virtue for a teacher.

But teachers are humans, too. We get bogged down with work, despite the illusion that we just work half day. We have feelings and self-respect, because we are not machines and robots. So, we get stressed up if we come into the class, all ready to teach, but find out eventually that students prefer to fool around rather than appreciate our carefully planned-out lesson. It's okay if it happens once in a while, but if this goes on every time you enter that class, you will eventually reach your breaking point too, I'm sure. That's when we turn into Godzillas, letting them know we are angry and hoping to scold them into submission.

This may work once or twice, but if used continually, students will grow 'immune' to it, and things will pretty much be the same as before. Students can also be deeply hurt by what we say to them, which is something we won't be aware of at the heat of the moment, but it can stay on with them for a long time, affecting their character and attitude in future. They may even feel more negatively towards us and be more rebellious in the future.

Common sense tells us that we should be patient with our students, but we always forget. This has also been my most recent experience. There was always so much negative energy around the class that I always came out of it feeling frustrated. I'm sure my students felt the same way, too. I would sometimes regret the harsh words I said to them as well. Negative energy just sucked the life and enthusiasm out of everyone. When I realised my students were getting more and more disinterested with the lessons, I decided that it was time to put a stop to this. I decided to bring in more positive energy. I tried to be more cheerful and relaxed in class, giving positive comments whenever possible, and smiled more. Not surprisingly, it worked. Seeing me more relaxed and enthusiastic, students were also more engaged and cooperative in class. At the end of the day, I felt satisfied that my lessons worked. Everyone was happier.

This is something I've learnt over the years, but tend to forget, especially when stress creeps in. Hopefully, this time around, I will not repeat the same mistake again. Experience is always a good teacher. In fact, all teachers should remember that a kind word does more wonders than a thousand harsh words.

A New Experience

Last Saturday, the preliminary rounds for the annual district level inter-school debate was held. As usual, each participating school was required to send 3 teachers to be judges on that day. My school pulled out the last minute, but the organising committee still invited us for the event. Having brought my students for the competition for the past few years, being a judge was nothing new to me. It was scary the first time, but I quickly realised that it wasn't that difficult after all. It only involved impromptu debate, where debaters were given the topic 30 minutes before the debate, and were allowed 2 to 3 minutes each to present their arguments. Short and sweet. Simple.

The final round was a bit tricky. Needing to find a team to represent the district in the state level competition, the format of debate on that day would be parliamentary style, which meant that students were given the topic 1 hour before the debate, and during the actual debate, each person was given 8 minutes to present the arguments. This final round was held last Wednesday. On Tuesday, I received a call from the teacher-in-charge, who asked if I could fill in for a judge who couldn't make it. I'd never judged in a final round before, and I'd seen how tough the competition was between two good teams, so my first reaction was to decline. However, the teacher sounded desperate, and reassured me that other experienced judges would be there as well. Ever the one to take up a challenge, I agreed, but regretted it as soon as I ended the call. I was honoured to be chosen, but very nervous at the same time. Would I be good enough? So I spent the night reading up on the pages of rules, hoping that I would not forget the criteria listed under the four aspects of style, substance, strategy and language.

Lucky for me, I was assigned to judge the match for the 3rd and 4th placing. At least it won't be as tough as the 1st and 2nd placing match. It was nerve wrecking in the beginning, but I soon relaxed and started to enjoy the debate. After sitting through the debate for an hour, diligently taking notes and cracking my head filling up the score sheets, I was glad to find that my verdict matched those of the other 4 judges. It was a unanimous decision. So I took it that I did well in my first attempt as a finals judge. No problem doing it again the next year. Well, I just hope they don't ask me to judge the 1st and 2nd placings... after all, I'm still a rookie!

Transfer Blues

One of the downside of being a civil employee is that you have to work where the government posts you to. Well, fair enough, as the government's task is to improve the quality of life across the nation, not just focussed on the urban areas, but including rural areas as well. Unfortunately, for the individual employee, he/she has no idea how long he/she has to serve in a particular place before being transferred back to a place of his/her choice. Of course, it is stated that a person should serve a minimum of 5 years at the place being posted to, before being eligible for transfer. Even if this criterion is met, the next step would be to see if there is any empty positions to be filled in the place that we are applying for.

I am now in this particular situation. I've been posted to teach in Beruas, a rural area in the state of Perak, Malaysia, and today marks the 8th year of my service in my school. I have applied for transfer twice, but it seems that there are no vacancies in Ipoh, which is where I hope to be transferred to. I've been told that there will be no vacancies for at least 3 years! Apparently, no English teacher is planning to retire anytime soon.

Applications for transfer are open twice a year, once in the middle of the year, and once at the end of the year. Word is that the more times we apply, the higher the chances we get to be transferred. However, for the two times that I have applied, I only did it at the end of the year, because I teach exam classes, and I don't think it's a good idea to leave them suddenly without a teacher halfway through the year, with their exams looming large before them. Getting a substitute teacher might take up to a month, and the students will be on the losing end. I can't bring myself to be this cruel to them! Unfortunately, this means that I only have one chance every year, which does not look very optimistic.

Having taught in the same school for 7 years, I really feel that it's time for me to experience working in another school environment, to meet new kinds of students and to have new challenges. Last week, I got news that there a school in Ipoh was short of English teachers, as one of them had left the school. Despite teaching exam classes this year, I felt that if this golden opportunity passed, there was no knowing when I could finally leave. So, I decided to give it a try. I called the school, but the clerks weren't much of a help. I tried calling the principal the next day, hoping that he might be able to help me transfer to his school. He didn't answer my calls. The following day, I decided it would be much better if I called the State Education Dept, but also, the officer in charge did not pick up the phone! By then, it was the end of the week, so I decided to meet this officer in person, but after driving for one hour and 30 minutes there, I found out that the whole department had gone to Penang for a meeting. What are the odds! Luck was just not on my side.

This morning, a colleague told me that she had heard that I could contact the District Education Office about the transfer, so I called the officer as soon as I finished my lesson. What I got was bad news. The spot had been taken. If I had known earlier that I could have just contacted this officer from my district, I wouldn't have to go through all the trouble calling everyone else. Sigh... maybe it's just not my time yet to leave. In the meantime, I'll just focus on preparing my class for their SPM exam, and doing the duties being asked of me. I'll still keep my fingers -- and toes -- crossed, that someday very soon, I'll get what I wish for.

I'm thankful that throughout this experience, many teachers have shown their support and given me information and advice, without me even asking. And most of them were Malay teachers! This in a country that has seen a lot of racial tension lately, is really something worth looking up to. Amidst my disappointment, I feel reassured that I am not alone in this, and somehow, with our collective positive thoughts, a miracle might just happen.

Holidays Are Here!

The most exciting time for a teacher is, of course... the HOLIDAYS! Who wouldn't want to sit back at home, enjoy their favourite TV programme, or finally read that novel which was bought some months ago, or cook their favourite dish while listening to their favourite songs, instead of running around the school getting all sorts of paperwork done, or be in a class of around 30 boisterous teenagers trying to drill some knowledge into their hyperactive brains? No one, I'd say...

Well, enjoying myself is exactly what I'm doing right now. Even though this year I'm invigilating the SPM exam, I still have lots of time on my hands to do what I like most: shopping, watching TV and movies, surfing the net, jogging, and of course, my favourite pastime -- reading. Yes, I've finally got around reading that novel I bought in September!

Basically, I've put everything about school at the back of my mind, only summoning them back when absolutely necessary, like when I went back to school to finish up some uncompleted tasks, or when I sorted out the teaching materials and handouts I used for my lessons this year. Sigh, this is the part I don't like -- sorting things out, but nonetheless needs to be done, if I ever want to have moving space around my room, or writing space on my desk! Well, at least mine is tidier than the teacher whose desk was stacked so full that there wasn't an empty space to be seen. Even the floor space was taken up by boxes of assignments and spare shoes... we teachers often discuss jokingly the possibility of sighting rats and cockroaches there, but thankfully, we haven't seen any to date!

But I digress. Back to the holidays. Well, after 2 weeks of stress-free days, what are my plans for the following 4 weeks? Hmm... I'll definitely continue enjoying myself, but it's time also to plan for next year. I hope to teach Form One, which is an important year to form a good foundation in Secondary School English... plus I get to have more fun in class, since they don't have to worry about any public exams looming round the corner. Hopefully, in the weeks to come, I'll come up with some language games or fun activities that I can use in the class, and do some planning with their syllabus. Yes, that will be my plan, and I hope to God that I'll stick to it!

Language Learning Fun

Over the years, I've tried many methods to increase the effectiveness of language learning among my students. After many frustrated attempts, I think I've finally hit jackpot! It's a language game called Word Target, which I adapted to suit the needs of my students. I'll try to explain it briefly here.

To start the game off, I draw a 3x3 grid on the board, with a letter in each grid. Students are required to use only the nine letters given to form any English word that they may know, and write it down on the board. The minimum length of a word is 3 letters, and the longest is, of course, 9 letters, provided that those 9 letters given can be rearranged into a word. To make the game more challenging, each letter in the grid can only be used once in the same word. Points are awarded for each word, with the shortest word (3 letters) earning 1 point, 4-letter words earning 2 points, etc. I also award bonus points if students can find the bonus word, which is the word that I had in mind when I created this grid.

Students are divided into groups and each group takes turn to write down a word. The game can be boring if prolonged, so I normally allow around 15 to 20 minutes of this game, depending on the level of student enthusiasm. After that, a class discussion follows where the meaning of difficult words on the board are explained. To make learning more meaningful, I allow my students to tell me which words they want me to explain, letting them take responsibility of their own learning. They are used to being passive learners, so I hope that through this exercise, they will experience the self-confidence and satisfaction which come from active participation.

After making sure that students understand the words, I proceed to the next round of the game, which is sentence construction. Students can use any word on the board to form a sentence (a minimum of 4 words) and a maximum of 5 points will be given if the sentence is correct. For each grammar mistake, 1 point is deducted. To add to the excitement of the game, any student from any group who thinks of a sentence can come to the board, so 2 or 3 students from the same group can come up one after the other. This motivates all students to think fast, or risk losing to other groups. Also, I make sure that only one student comes to the board at one time, so that the game doesn't get chaotic and students don't end up grabbing the marker pen from each other in their excitement.

One small reminder: with all the excitement to get ahead of each other, students tend to get rowdy, so I maintain order by deducting 5 points from groups that do not follow instructions or are too noisy. Got to spare a thought for the class next door... and those in the next block!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of my classes enjoyed this game, from the weakest class to the smartest one. They were equally interested in the game and couldn't get enough of it. The difference is only in the words they come up with, even with the same set of letters used. The smarter ones obviously had a bigger repertoire of vocabulary words. The only class who did not really enjoy the game was one of the smarter classes. Although, when I asked them to play it individually, they were so engrossed in it that they did not stop writing even when I asked them to. Well, seems like they are just too lazy to walk up to the board!

Needless to say, this game will remain as a permanent part of my lessons next year. It would be interesting to see if there's any improvement in my students' language mastery after one year of doing this. At last, one step forward... I just hope it's a big one!

Mr. Lee -- Male or Female?!

Just yesterday, a Form One student asked me, "Teacher, is Mr. Lee a man or a woman?" She was doing a grammar exercise I asked her to, and was not sure if she should use the pronoun 'he' or 'she' to represent Mr. Lee. Although rather taken aback by this seemingly simple question which I thought every student who has gone through six years of primary school education should know, my teacher instincts took over and I answered her as objectively as possible, being careful not to betray any expressions of incredulity or shock on my face, lest I made her feel bad for making a genuine effort to learn. In any case, I should be thankful that I could clear her doubt now. I can't imagine how her future teacher would feel if she asked this same question even later in her school life.

However, in retrospect, I realised that given the type of students I have in my school, this question didn't seem quite so out of place. Many a time, my Form Four or Five students have asked me if I am married. This may seem like a perfectly normal question, until I tell you that they have been calling me 'Miss' (or 'Cik' in Malay) all the time, which in the Malaysian school context, means that I am still single.

So, I asked my students, "Do you call me Miss or Madam?" I like to make my students find out answers on their own rather than spoonfeed them, because they will retain the new knowledge better through self discovery. They answered, "Miss."

"So, what does this tell you -- am I married or not?" I asked again. Seeing their blank expressions, I prodded again, "Miss means Cik in Malay..." Still, blank expressions.

I was literally strangling myself mentally. If they did not understand English, at least they should understand Malay, as it is the national language. Fearing that I might actually strangle them with my own bare hands if I put up with this any longer, I finally gave up my attempts to facilitate their self discovery and answered their initial question, "No, I'm not married."

"Oh..." was all they could say. Their neutral expressions made me wonder if my short lesson had registered in their brains. In the not so distant future, some of them may probably ask another "Miss" in school if she is married.

I, as well as my counterparts in other schools within the district, have always remarked that English is more like a foreign language to our students rather than a second language.Instead of feeling miserable about the poor standard of English among our students and grumbling our heads off all the time about our near impossible task of educating them, we see these "eye-opening" moments in the light of humour. Not in a bad way, mind you. We do not look down on our students because of their poor English, but with all the stress we get from trying to teach them English, and half of the time, failing miserably, God knows we need some humour therapy to keep our minds sane till we retire!

Retirement is a long way from me right now. Think another 26 years. As I continue my journey as an English teacher in Malaysia, I wonder what other "eye-opening" questions my students will throw at me in the future. Well, at least I can tell people that one advantage of being a language teacher is that my students never fail to make me laugh (even if it is just in my mind)!

The Wonder of Books

Recently, a friend and I went to a big-scale bookfair to see what books we could buy with great discounts. I myself am crazy for books, and despite my mother's protests -- she says my books take up precious space at home -- I still believe that books are the greatest treasures one can have. My friend, on the other hand, had just discovered the joy of reading and was eager to buy more books to satisfy her literary hunger.

Staying in the teachers' quarters one level below mine, her only entertainment at home is a TV that can only receive about three channels, and which come in poor quality. So, to avoid boring herself to death, she watches drama series on CDs, or reads books. That's how she discovered that reading is actually not such a boring activity after all.

I started reading at a young age; around 5, actually. That was when I fell in love with books. I could shut myself off to the outside world for hours and immerse myself in the world of make-believe characters and their wonderful adventures. I could feel them coming alive in my mind, and they were how I imagined them to be. That's the wonder of books -- they take you to places that you don't get to go, and they let you see life through the eyes of another person.

I'm guessing also that my friend is preferring books over movies or TV shows now, or if she isn't, she'll soon be. Watching a movie is less fun, because most of the time, you do not see what goes on in the minds of the characters. We interpret the movie mostly through the characters' actions, and for a person like me, this is only half of the story. We may even make wrong guesses. Whereas by reading a book, the author allows us to enter the minds and thoughts of that character. This is much like our personal encounters in life; we observe and experience what goes on around us, and we process them in our minds. And of course, a movie dictates how we see a character, i.e. their appearances, reactions etc. but a book allows more room for imagination, making it more dynamic and fun. So, if there's a novel version and a movie version of a story, you bet that I'll make a beeline for the novel version first!

Well, I get it that some people prefer the visual experience, so they would choose a movie over a book. And there are also people like me who prefer to "watch" the story unfold through words, which is why I prefer books. But this doesn't mean I don't watch movies at all, and likewise, those who prefer movies should also spend some time reading novels and get in touch with their imaginations.

Besides, as a teacher, I should point out that reading has a tremendous effect on our language learning process, introducing us to new words, expressions and sentence structures, all while we are enjoying the story. All these are registered subconsciously in our minds, so most of the time, we do not even realise that we are learning these things. This is way better than learning a language consciously in a classroom, which needs more effort on our part to remember the words or grammar items, simply because we are learning them out of context. Of course, don't expect a miracle to happen after just reading a few books. It has to be developed into a habit and practised regularly for it to make an impact in anyone's life. As they say, Rome is not built in a day, right?

So, try reading today... it may change your life!