Sunday, July 22, 2012
Things were quite all
over the place on the first day. We weren't given a specific timetable of which class we should go and observe like we did in Auckland, and there were still no punch cards for us. But we
were able to meet the Principal and the head of departments for every subject.
I only observed one
class on Sunday - 2D. A very energetic class. I don't know how I'm gonna keep up
with them. The boys were especially loud and talkative. A lot of
talking-over-the-teacher happenning but nothing that are over the top and rude.
But I can see that it's going to be quite a challenge for me to control this class
since they are used to Kak Dee's energy and they expect the same or more energy
from other teachers as well.
Since the lesson
takes place at the couple of the last periods in the school timetable, Kak Dee
said it's best to have them play games just to prevent them from
sleeping/getting bored. Plus it's Ramadhan so they've got to be exhausted. So
they played scrabble.
Before they started
playing though, Kak Dee did the housekeeping stuff.
e.g.
- "I'll give you
1 min and 30secs to clean your space and clear your table"
- "Those who
don't have dictionaries go get them now!" (the students who didn't have any with them in the class rushed out to borrow dictionaries from their friends from other classes)
- "Anybody absent today?"
But one of the most striking things about how Kak Dee pulled them into the day's lesson/activity was how she asked them to stand up and describe their feelings. So all of the students were told to stand up and Kak Dee would go to them individually and asked them to describe how they felt about the last choral speaking competition (that Kak Dee didn't manage to go to due to her mentor training session in Besut with us).
The same routine was done for the second class I went to. It was 2B. A relatively passive class compared to 2D. But Kak Dee warmed them up to the lesson by asking them how they are feeling so far into Ramadhan and they were asked to stand up and describe their feelings individually. The day's lesson was on how to properly say time in English (e.g. 1.30 p.m = half past one).
Although Kak Dee's classses were quite 'refreshing' compared to the traditional English lessons I've seen/experienced before, I can still see the control she puts over the students in these lessons. For example, by asking students to stand up one by one, she limits students' mobility in giving opinions, which is different from what I've seen in the classes in Auckland.
But I can see why this sort of control SHOULD be enforced. Unlike the students in Auckland, the kids here are used to the culture of 'say-nothing-if-you-are-alone'. Basically, the same culture I was educated in back when I was in school. They're just afraid to be IDENTIFIED as wrong and worse, ALONE! They shout out answers in choral, they walk in groups, they look for help from their friends around them everytime they had to answer something,...just a very clear sign of lack of confidence. They just refuse to stand out if they have to do it alone.
Yes, it annoys me. Yes, I can see it's going to make things very difficult for me in the next 11 weeks. But there's nothing I can do about it. At least I know why they act that way, so that's a good start, I guess
