REFLECTION

WEEK 1

I believe that teaching is an essential and noble profession. Next to parents,

teachers are the most important foundational element in our society.
Everything important begins in childhood, especially knowledge, selfknowledge, resilience, and character. Proper preparation is fundamental to
living a full, rewarding life. Without self-knowledge, children may follow
wrong paths and end up far from their true callings; lost, sad, and unfulfilled.
School is a necessary complement to and supplement of this learning.

Well, here I am, back in the schools for my final practicum. The next 12
weeks are going to be very emotionally and physically draining but I know it
will be all worth it in the end. I really hope this final semester would be as
well. I am glad I have the final practicum in my own school and making
myself ready for some observations. Today, I seek help from my senior
teacher by observing him teaching and it was great to see just how much
can be done in a language class even when the students are only in weak
level. I was able to use the checklist that was provided to me by my
practicum handout, which really helped me focus on the certain elements of
the classroom. For example, I would never notice the way the teacher used
scaffolding in lesson in addition to visual supports and gestures. Another
thing I noticed was how successful the pair works and group activities was in
the class, the students seemed really engaged and happily conversing with
their friends. Some students were able to practice a general dialogue with
their partner. I am looking forward to working with these students and see
what they are capable with.

My first practicum previously at training teacher college tend me problem

with classroom management but now the biggest concern however, is my
ability to planning my pedagogy that stressed the importance of appealing to
a variety multiple intelligences, didik hibur concept and applying to the
creative and critical thinking skills. It should set all the students more active
and engaged. I am worried that I will be unable to live up the standards. My
students learning experiences were so limited in terms of variety that though
I know, there are supposed to be different activities, I have problems
planning them. The biggest worried was when I get stressed, I will fall back
on my basic tool kit of worksheets and teacher-centered classes.
This week has allowed me extra time to prepare my lesson plan. I am looking
forward to see with what I am capable to do. The plan is almost done and I
am excited how itll pan out with the students. During these weeks , in the
first lesson, I taught the game of Simon Says, drilling the vocabulary, naming
the body parts and sing a song to a group of year three students. This lesson
was held at 7.45 a.m. and in the lesson, I lead the students into a great
warm-up activity following with the rules of the game. The group of year
three I had was more than eager to learn; exceptionally cooperative and they
played the game well without any misdemeanors. They enjoyed the lesson
as well and students provided me with more than enough improbable
feedback.

As a teacher normally we may have to face a lot of distractions in classroom

daily. Sometimes teacher may have to deal with uninterested students or
they may suffer from burden in absence of parents support. But for me,
being good teachers always remain committed to their profession and try
solving the problems no matter what happens. Primary students often show
an ignoring and neglecting behavior as they do not know the importance of
education especially when having English lesson. Such uninterested and

unmotivated students cause frustration with me and are a real challenge to

face. To overcome this problem, I need to understand what my students are
interested in. therefore, I can then help my students achieving their goals by
encouraging them and for the next preparation I have to think suitable
activities that can attract them. It is important that we set our goals as
teachers to get students physically active, enjoy and the more ways we find
to make physical activity motivating and fun, the greater chance we have at
reaching that goal. Overall, this course practicum did what is was suppose to
do, by providing me with a great positive learning experience and chance to
see how rewarding a students achievement and happiness can do for as an
educator.

REFLECTION
WEEK 2
As for this week, I tend to adapt one of the collaborative teaching method
that Ive studied before and looking forward for the implications to my
students. The collaborative teaching method that I implements in my
teaching is the buzz group. The buzz group is a small, intense discussion
group usually involving 2 to 3 persons responding to a specific question or in
search of very precise information. The pupils in the classroom are
subdivided into the small groups. Its called a buzz group because it mimics
the sound of people in intense discussion. It is an extremely useful technique
in training, as these small groups can be divided into participants with wide
ranging experiences or those with highly advanced pupils mixed up with
intermediate and remedial students depending on the topic and the desired

outcome.

Obviously,

broadly

experienced

group

brings

wider

understanding of the problem, which is good for tackling multi problems. The
mixed groups, on the other hand, can dig deeper into the issues. Buzz
groups are ideal mechanisms for wrestling with very specific issues. Pupils
can also add their own personal experience. This technique can be used at
anytime throughout the lesson, particularly when you want pupils to become
actively engaged with the issues. It is a patent discussions group technique
with a high degree of student involvement. This is employed when the
students become very motivated and seized with the issues involved. With a
view to channeling the plentiful energy aroused in arguments, the teacher
employ this technique particularly when the interest generated is at its peak
and is so immense that it will ensure students active participation and goal
oriented motivation.
The lesson is for a group of students Year Three in my school. I know that it is
difficult to handle the buzz group because they need to generate ideas and involve
with the discussion. But I pushed myself to see whether they are able to follow the
teaching method. Recent lesson learnt had shown that students tend to learn in different ways

and that they prefer to use different teaching method as well. Many educators agree on the fact
that learning materials shouldnt just reflect of the teachers style, but should be designed for all
kinds of students and all kind of learning styles. Even though they agree on the importance of
applying these learning styles to different learning systems, various problems still need to be
solved, such as matching teaching contents. Students are able to learn and to efficiently improve
their learning process with such method. Effective communication is an important
part of teaching, learning, and leading a group. It is the way to share ideas
and knowledge, expand or learn new teaching skills, and gain experience in
leading a group. Buzz group teaching, like other forms of discussion, takes
advantage of that significant teaching principle, interaction. The class
confronts the subject matter firsthand rather than passively receiving what a
teacher has to say. I could have answered any of questions in a lecture, but
the answers will be much more meaningful if the pupils can find them own

self. Some of the pupils would never participate in a discussion if the whole
class were listening to their contribution.
Ill never forget a situation when I used buzz groups with the class. As I
explained what we would be doing that morning their eyes filled with terror.
This new approach seemed threatening to them, and they would much rather
have had me take care of all of the performance. The plan was to have them
study and discussed about the environmental issues for about 20 minutes in
their buzz groups and then report to the wider group. Things started slowly,
but at the end of the 20 minutes when I informed them that they should
wrap up their findings and prepare for reports, I had a mini-rebellion on my
hands. Quit? Wind up? Ready to report? Why, we just got started. The thrill
of learning had set in.
The main reasons Im using the buzz group are to allow pupils to share ideas,
debate the issues and come to a common understanding of a content that
will help them to achieve some particular learning outcomes. Therefore, it is
essential that groups be arranged so that my pupils can communicate with
one another easily and concentrate with the issues learnt. Thats why the
most effective part was when the pupils buzzing around and sharing ideas
with others. It is an effective way to get them to focus on important issues,
to clarify their thoughts about the issues I have been presenting and to
actively try to construct their own understanding of these issues. This
teaching method is useful to create an opportunity for discussion even in a
large group. A buzz session gets more people to participate and is less
intimidating than a forum. What I planned for the lesson suited perfectly and
worked particularly well in my class yet, achieving my goal

As a matter of fact, for the first time I use the technique Im expecting the pupils to be somewhat
afraid of the group interaction. This is cause of low proficiency in the language and afraid of

using wrong sentences structured. But soon my pupils discover that learning is enjoyable when
everyone is directly involved. In the other hand, sometimes the groups will not arrive at the
conclusions which the leader might have desired. In group two, as Asmawi as a group leader, he
confronts with leadership issues which if he left himself some time to pull together the issues,
he may be able to solve the problem. But an honest discussion should not predetermine what
conclusions the group is to reach. The process should be as inductive as possible. Thats why,
sometimes a weakness shows up in the selection of the group leader. If the leader fails to take the
responsibility to keep his group on the subject and to catalytically draw out each member, then
the effectiveness of the technique will be in danger.

There are some improvements that I would like to improve but still using the same teaching
method. Some pitfalls can be avoided if the teacher will carefully observe some basic principles
which facilitate the effectiveness of buzz group teaching.

For me, I realized that I need to plan the management time wisely, means the time budget to
allow for moving chairs, explaining the technique, and hearing the reports. These items will
usually take longer than I expected. I also have to explain clearly to the class what are the roles
of group leader and recorder should be. This is should be done before the entire group so that
everyone will know how he is to react to the leader and recorder in his group. The setting of
definite time limit for discussion should also be emphasized. The most important is to think that
groups will be able to do more in a certain amount of time than they can actually handle
effectively. If three group members have 15 minutes to deal with their question, each member of
the group can speak to the question only five minutes. Foremost, I should float frequently and
fair from group to group to motivate better involvement, help them over any hurdles and
generally spread enthusiasm around the room.

REFLECTION
WEEK 3
This week would be the third week for my practicum. Working in the mix
ability classroom were challenging yet

gave me the opportunity to plan,

teach and assess individuals as well as a number of different grouping

structures. Today, I am planning to do some writing simple poem using the
adjectives under the topic colours. Colours were favorite topic for some
pupils as they familiar with it previously. First thing in the morning, upon
entering the classroom they would instinctively look at the whiteboard to see
the days activities. During class the children were given the opportunity to
relax, there was 'community circle' everyday, where children spoke freely
about teacher guided questions relating to real-life situations that would be
used as a precursor to the days subjects and activities
It was also excellent to be able to log onto the Internet to have access to
digital tools, which were a great benefit to the children. But, it might cause
difficulties to do so even though I knew that the students always enjoyed
working with the internet. My preparation and planning for my lesson was
well covered and well thought out. Creating simple poem was well explained.
The students seem enjoyed their learning activities today. I succeed to
maintain the flow of the lesson and understand that the spelling activities
requires short or fast teaching time and prompt responses from students. It
is however important that 1 need to monitor the progress of the group and
revisit if students appear unsure or confused especially with the weaker. I
roved the room while the students were working and ensured that they
understood both the instructions and the content of the lesson. For the
weaker students, I gave extra time and support to those students who
needed.

Teachers, during their career, cannot avoid students who misbehave. Dealing
with students
misbehavior becomes easier after knowing the reason behind it. So the best
way to deal with students misbehavior is to understand causes of such
behavior. Not everyone in the classroom was problematic. The majority were
rather cooperative. But due to the misbehavior of a few, the whole learning
process was disrupted. To overcome this problem, the first thing which I can
do is to show patience. I stay calm when warning the student and control my
anger. I also give that particular student a chance to assume a responsibility
to correct his behavior. Teaching students to create simple poem were quite
challenging even though Ive given them example and clear instructions.
From my observation, this activity was hardly to proceed and need time to
execute due to lack of vocabulary and having difficulties with some words. I
think the best way to guide them is to be focused in the different level of
poems based on the students ability. Based on that, it is recommended that,
when

teaching

grammar

especially

using

poems, fun

accompanying

activities like acting should be administered for better development.

It is proven that the effectiveness of using poems in teaching grammar effect

to help the students to upgrade their achievement in the English subject. It
proves that poems can motivate the students and it is one of the interesting
method towards learning English especially in grammar lesson. As for further
improvement, if I would like to use poem as my method I should create
creative environment and interesting lesson in my classroom. Thus, using
easy and clear handouts and specific tasks to help making my classroom
activities more enjoyable for the students would be indeed considered.

REFLECTION
WEEK 4
The journey of my fourth week practicum continues. This week, I tend to use
the ICT. The use of ICT is transforming in Malaysias education, whether for
good and for bad. The good comes from the ingenious ways

that

teachers encourage their students to engage in science projects, learn

about history by seeing the events for themselves

and explore

their

own ideas on the internet. There are literally thousands of Internet-savvy

teachers who regularly exchange ideas about enlivening classrooms to
heighten student engagement in learning. The use of technology in schools
is a very controversial topic. Some think technology will ruin the school
environment. Others think technology will improve education and make
learning more enjoyable. Although distractions may be a side effect of
technology, I believe technology can provide copious amounts of new
learning. The technological side of it only comes into to play if you already
knew how to balance pedagogical knowledge with content knowledge. Only
then can you understand how best to integrate an iPad or a laptop into a
classroom.

It is difficult to be in a classroom where there are students at very different

levels and needs to a degree where it's impossible

for one teacher to cater

to each student as they deserve. Studies found that a technology rich

classroom is the perfect place for that level of specialized learning. When
teachers and students are trained to use the technology, there are many
tools to help track growth, give extra resources, and accelerate learning
based on each student's unique pace.
Thats why Ive implementing technology in my teaching focusing the
reading skills. Even though there are not much integrated technology used
but I found it really helping my lesson working out. Some of the benefits that
I encounter when handling the lesson are based on several factors. One of
the major benefits of introducing technology into the classroom is the effect
it has on the students. In traditional teaching (lecturing, working from a
textbook, and taking notes, for example), it's easy for students to fall into a
passive role. Even the best students who have a natural passion for learning
can have trouble paying attention to a teacher's lecture. But when
technology is involved, my students are more likely to be engaged in
learning. They need to press buttons,

think out problems, and manipulate

the tools they have to achieve a goal. Educational technology can improve
focus among

students and it caters to students who learn independently

and to those who are more collaborative. Including technology in the

classroom gives me more options and tools to cater to each student
individually. From my observation, the students were very enjoy, participate
eagerly and become active with learning. Overall, I think that I manage to
reach my objectives for the lesson that day.
Technology also changes the way I teach, offering educators effective ways
to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding
through multiple means. It also enhances the relationship between me and

my student. When technology

is

effectively

integrated

into

subject

areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. It helps
make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. Despite of interesting
and motivating learning using different kinds of text, graphics and video, my
students also learn to use authentic language from blogs, wikis and yet
students can learn independent learning. Learning stories with fun materials
and variation create more enjoyable thus helping to strengthen students
reading skills. While computers do not guarantee that every child will learn,
they do provide students with the opportunity to do research and create
products that they could not do without the technological tool.
Many school districts want to increase computer usage in the classroom to
meet the technological needs and demands of students, but this can be
difficult to accomplish because computers are expensive and technology
changes at a rapid pace. Adding more computers to every school

would

be useful for teachers who have the technological skill and motivation to use
them in the classroom daily. These teachers would be able to adapt their
lessons to incorporate computers. Adding more computers to every school
would allow them to stay connected to a digital

environment that they

typically interact with comfortably. On the other hand, students display

varying levels of abilities when it comes to computers and this may increase
the knowledge divide in the classroom if certain students are not able to
acquire

content because of the means used for instructional delivery.

Despite of all the benefits that the students get, there are slightly

some

problems occur. Some of the advantages are I found that there could be
technical problem and slack of IT skills from both teachers and students.
With the students of mix ability level, some students are advanced while
some of them are having difficulties in handling the technologies. I do found
that might be hard to control with the classroom management

when

the

students were over excited to use the computer and difficult to draw
students attention. Moreover, the biggest and major problems to face for the

rural school are the internet connection which I discover were very slow and
yet distract the teaching process. Thats why to solve the problems, teacher
need to be more creative to cater the problems faced. Some schools can
collect fund from the PIBG and parents to solve the internet connection to
fastest network. They also can co-operate to buy more computers and
parents with the IT skills can also help teachers how to improve the students
IT skills.

Overall, the impact of technology in schools is somewhere between its the only way to make a
positive change in schools to its a new fad. They see technology as a strong tool for positive
change but it must be presented in the right ways.

Steps must be taken for technology to make

a difference. Leaders of the schools must include everyone at the beginning of the plan, not after
technology arrives. Leadership in the school system must plan for technology. Find a model,
such as the Project PICT Training Model and use it. Hire a full time technology director, involve
the school in the changes, and provide the

services that are needed for technology to succeed

in the schools. Teachers must change the way they teach. Classrooms must take on the studentcentered learning methods. Teachers need to become facilitators. Students need to be allowed to
use technology as a tool, which will enable them to collect, analyze, and create major projects.

REFLECTION
WEEK 5
I prepared this lesson plan for a year three this week. It was to be my fifth
week practicum, and as usual I was quite passion to execute it. Anyway, I
had chosen to teach Year 3 'prepositions ', so I browsed through the internet
looking for interesting materials and tips that could help me. I came upon
this site which I encounter a lot of resources and games that teacher can
use. The materials look really interesting but unfortunately they're not free to
use. However, after looking at some samples on that page, I got some good
ideas on how to teach prepositions, so thanks anyway and I think it quite
helping

me.

I prepared this lesson plan with a lot of help which I got from the internet. It
pretty much challenged my brain to think of interesting ideas to teach, but I
still

feel

that

did

not

push

myself

to

the

limit.

I used this video as a Set Induction for the day's lesson. I thought I'd turn it
into a game, so I did. I did not want a complicated game, as a Set Induction
is

only

meant

to

be

between

to

minutes

long.

Anyway, back to the game. In a previous lesson, I had taught Year 3 the
names of animal. So, just to make sure they would do some thinking and
show some reaction to the video, I asked them to put up their hands
whenever animal that they liked appeared on the screen. The only rule was
they were forbidden to use their voice. Now it may sound simple enough
which just putting up your hands and making sure your mouth is shut, but for
children who LOVE to speak, it's quite a challenge. Alif, for instance, has a
lot of trouble keeping his mouth shut. Each time an animal that he liked
appeared on the screen, he would jump up and say in his high pitched voice,
"Aah!! Aah!" which I suppose means he liked the creature. Putting up a hand
was not enough. It is quite funny for me but the impact from it was

awesome.
It was a simple video but they enjoyed it. Their English was not that good to
be able to sing along to the song while they watched it for the first time, but
they liked it. I discovered that most of the boys loved the singing activities. It
proven that different pupils has different multiple intelligences. I have to
admit that it is an enjoyable moment to see that they enjoyed with the
lesson that Ive planned for that day. I used to rather dislike teaching
grammar. From what I understand, in a grammar class you should focus on
teaching your children how to actually use the language in spoken form. This
was not the easiest thing to achieve with. I was still unsure of how I was
supposed to conduct a good grammar lesson. For one, would they be
interested in doing activities. Then, I got the idea. Simple, but practical idea.
My students love games and they are rather used to starting a class with a
simple game. Every morning when I walk into class that's all they think
about. "What game are we playing today?

And that's it! The use of games

was so practical for students. It helps to keep my students in focus and they
love it. At first it was awkward for some of them and I got so frustrated
because one or two just would not open their mouths. But now they're used
to it and we have a lot of fun in our grammar lesson.
Being a teacher, we need to give clear explanation and get feedback from
the students. Students will not interact with us until the students feel they
are encouraged to participate in all classroom activities and issues. I do
encounter problems with one of my students which he has problem in the
classroom. Due to some problem with family background, he was not allowed
to be in school from year 1. After he was given permission to enter the
school, he gets trouble to get along with the other students since he never
get schooling before. It was quite difficult for me to gives guidance to him as
my time was a bit limited in the class. But as a teacher, Ill give my best to
help him.

Thats why, there are several students that teacher can maximize students
participation in the classroom. The most important aspect is we as teacher
needs to respect our students in term of to gain respects from them. We
have to see things from the students perspective and try out to be an
encourager. Innovative teacher should be easy to create and maintain a
relaxed learning environment and foremost enhancing our communication
skills and build strong rapport with our students so that they can
communicate with us without fear. I strongly believe if I could implement all
these factors, the objective of the practicum surely could be achieved.

REFLECTION
WEEK 6
4 weeks more to go. Now, Im in my six week practicum. This week Im
planning to teach them about the occupation. Another beautiful day to me
.Students were looking fresh

when the class started in the beginning of the

first period. I have prepared a very interactive Power Point to use for the
teaching today. I was notified that students need to learn some basic
characters to introduce to the topic occupation. So, I showed the students
the video clip to give them ideas how these occupations functions. Pupils
enjoyed looking at the video clip and I know it was a good start. Everyone
was excited and thrill to do the role playing. I gave them some characters
that easy for them to do the role play for example the policeman, the
fireman and the doctor. Pictures in the slides helps my students learn clearly
with the topic.

Students were able to use the words and sentences we

taught today to complete a performance-based task which I refer to the

riddles activities. Before I started thinking to plan the lesson, I need to think

about the learning outcomes that suits with my students ability. From that it
helps me to design the suitable activity for my lessons. As what I see based
on previous lesson, I

need

to give students opportunity to present after

group work or pair-work , so I was able to assess whether the objectives

achieved and what would the students learned. Thats why I knew that the
purposes of the games would help me a lot considering that the game
activities are a fun learning. Instead of having fun playing with games, I
should also consider the effect after the activities. Is the game for
mechanical drills or meaningful drills or for an opportunity to use the
language to communicate with others?
The biggest concern was, do I really attract the students with the activities
and able to cater with students different learning style. I really hope I can
find information like what activities goes with certain multiple intelligences. I
realized that I rarely design activities which require analytical skills. I need to
bear in mind that teachers need to accommodate different learners needs to
help them well with their special talents. That really makes teaching job stay
away being dull and challenging.

Today, I found ways to improve my teaching style. After some discussion with
the other English teacher in school they advising me to do the meaningful
drills and also implementing the communicative drills been my teaching style
for a long time. Less display questions; more genuine questions would
help students to learn in a meaningful and communicative learning. I might
under-estimate students ability. They told me that I missed the moment
which was the best time to let students work in a pair, so I could go to help
students who needed more explanation. I could also let students who already
got the idea and the language to practice their speaking more. After a clear
modeling, I should shift teacher-fronted to students-centered. Students with
different levels could be all taken care well. I could walk around to examine

how they each learned while they were in a group. I could help with students
who need more explanation and modeling. I will bear that in mind next time
when I am teaching.

REFLECTION
WEEK 7
This week lesson focus was the listening and speaking lesson based on the
topic food. I know exactly that the students would love this topic. Based on
my previous experiences, if I could create some enjoyable activities I
wouldnt be facing problem handling the lesson later. I was really surprised
at how well this lesson went. The children really got into the learning

activities. They seemed very eager with the spin bottles activities for the set
induction. Of course they were some students that misbehave when doing
the activities but thank god I manage to apply the class behavior
management skills by stood ground with the misbehave students, didn't lose
my anger and didn't allow the situation to take over the lesson.
After teaching the lesson, I realized I did more than what I was included in
my lesson for this particular fifteen-minute period. For instance, during the
presentation, I did not plan for the students to tell me what their favorite
food was in Hari Raya celebration. I was just planning to drill them about the
spelling and memorize the words. However, having them telling me their
favorite food, made the lesson more interesting and they gives me active
participation. They seem quite excited to tell me their favorite food during
Hari Raya. Before, the lesson I felt very nervous because I was not sure if the
students were going to enjoy the lesson. Overall, the lesson had achieved
the target even there were some difficulties. Students understand the
concept of balanced diet and able to gives positive feedback with the
discussion and getting some input from the video clip. For me, the video clip
helps a lot giving the information that I needed.
Beside of that, there are some other issues that I need to cater and taken
seriously for improvement. For example problem in handling the slow
learners are the major problems for all the teachers no matter what subject
we are teaching. Teachers always find it difficult to deal with slow learners.
Often teachers try to advise such students and get results by negative
enforcement like punishment. But for me, it is not the right solution. As
teachers, we should give time to think over such students to reach better
solution. For me, encouragement plays an important role in the success of a
child. We should find out the strengths of the weak students and applaud him
with encouraging words. Sometimes, if students are given confidence, he will
feel his importance and worth. Once their confidence level increases, they

will improve. Often weak students cannot understand the lesson because he
has not understood the previous lessons. Therefore such students should be
taught individually according to his understanding level. The most common
problems faces by weak students are they have problem that they forget
what they learn. Thats why such student loses confidence and he starts
differentiating himself from good students. As in my classroom, I did the
drilling activities just for them to memorize and also given tips on how to
recall and how to write systematically. For me, it is necessary that I should go
to weak students and ask him personally whether he has understood the
lesson by using polite approach so that they wouldnt be shy and feel
embarrassed. Overall, I was pleased with the lesson and how well the
students reflected and participated with the activities.

REFLECTION
WEEK 8
This week gives new experiences for me. I cant wait to apply my lesson
planning and see the impact. After rethink what activities to do, Ive almost
forgot to apply the role play activities for my students. So for this week, Im
going to use the role play activities for my language arts lesson. Why did I
choose the role play? Role play is a meaningful approach for learning. The
students had fun, learned and were on task. They were always eager and
excited. Students who look forward to learning are students who will give and
get the most out of it. Not only did the use of drama help the students
express themselves and learn, but it also allowed them to look at this kind of
learning as fun! The material was not forced upon them. It was brought to
them in interesting ways, enabling them to learn through the different
teaching methods. In using drama, my

students were able to clearly

demonstrate through writing and performing their understanding and

feelings towards the issue.
The creativity and excitement from the students made it all worthwhile. They
were happy to learn and eager to participate in each lesson. After teaching in
this style, why would you go back to the traditional style? Learning is
happening for both the teacher and students and it is meaningful and
enjoyable. The practicum helped me become more comfortable in using
drama in the classroom, and ultimately more comfortable and aware of who I
am as a teacher. This solidified the fact that drama is one of the best ways to
teach students. I saw firsthand how effective drama is, how much the
students enjoyed it, how to bring the curriculum to life. The collective play

building process gave everyone an equal chance to talk, and I noticed that
both the outgoing and the quieter students worked together to discuss the
best way to display a scene.

Every student was equally important within

their productions, and they really responded to doing what they were
learning about which really made the important parts stick out. They put the
play together themselves with us only guiding them. All students were
involved in each activity.
The project proved that learning doesnt have to be painful, and at one point
the students wondered if they were learning since we were having so much
fun with all the activities. Year three students are perfectly capable of doing
productive small group work, and of solving differences in opinion without
teacher interference. They need to have expectations, yes, but beyond
guidelines, I think students thrive on being able to create something new, on
their own. The project enhanced my desire to continue to incorporate the
arts into my classes. I am always trying to think of ways to make my classes
more creative and stimulating for the students.

My teaching style was

perhaps most greatly affected by this project, from the perspective of

tapping resources and talents that I never knew I had. Because of this
experience, I feel that I will be able to encourage my students to take risks
and try things they otherwise believe they are not suited for.
I felt peers collaborative was phenomenal in that we were all equals and
open to others ideas. I hope to replicate this team environment in my future
classroom.

It was interesting working in a team atmosphere, there were

some definite challenges, but things turned out really well for all of us, as
well as for the students. It was wonderful to be able to create something in a
cooperative effort, have it come together and be viewed by a wide audience
and then have it be considered a great dramatic comment on a subject of
serious importance. This reinforced my belief that cooperative efforts in the
classroom, although sometimes chaotic, can pull together and result in

something wonderful and relevant.

This project was the highlight of my

education program experience. It provided me with an opportunity to learn

more about myself and what I can offer the teaching profession, and also
gave me the confidence to do a quality job in the classroom. Not only do I
have confidence in what I am doing, I now believe in what I am doing. It has
contributed to my growth tremendously. I was interested in this project
because I knew it would be a risk in my learning and I wanted to challenge
myself. I am very proud of the students and myself in what we accomplished
with this project. After this drama project, I know that I can do, or try,
anything and feel successful. After this experience, I am a confident teacher
again. Through the risk I found out that I can be a teacher. Teaching is not a
recipe, its about leading kids towards learning, and the path will be different
for each kid.

REFLECTION
WEEK 9
When I started my practicum I only thought about lessons from the teachers
point of view. This week was my 9th week practicum. It means that 1ve one
more week to go. I have learned to look at the lesson from the learners point
of view and I have come to realize that I must focus on what the learners are
doing and what is happening in their brains when I plan a lesson.
Theres a lot of benefit Ive got during the practicum which I supposed help
me to improve myself to be better. Even though teaching has been part of
my life, it doesnt mean that Im a good teacher. At first I worried about such
times in a lesson but now I see that actually teaching-learners centered
was an important phase and I can relax in this new role as a resource person
who is only active when needed. Previous lesson shows that learners can

work very efficiently in groups when they have clear instructions and
materials. Students get a task sheet with all the instructions for the project.
The teacher explains the main tasks very briefly, sets out the materials
(worksheets, games) and from then on the students work in small groups,
pairs or on their own. Only a small number of activities are organized as
whole class activities, usually at the beginning of a lesson or when the
teacher wants to introduce a new topic. Many students work in the hallways
or on the floor it can get quite noisy but I was surprised by the intensity of
the students work and by the good results at the end.
I have also seen that double periods are really useful because the learners
are not interrupted as much and can keep working on one topic in a more
focused way. When I organized my own discussion I would made sure that
the learners would be very active and speak a lot. Therefore I planned
several information-gap exercises so they had to walk around and share and
exchange the information. The lesson looked very chaotic (I was worried
about the noise) but I realized that it was actually very effective because
they were all talking in English and using the language from the cards.
Nevertheless it was necessary to sum up the story in the end to make sure
that all the students had fully understood it.
When planning group-work I need to provide the learners with clear
instructions, otherwise they waste a lot of time before getting started. The
instructions should also be written down for the learners (to allow them to reread the instructions and to keep an overview). When learners are working in
groups I give them individual feedback as well as whole group feedback and
steer them in the right direction. Furthermore, I also need to emphasis on
how to design the handouts. I have to design the handouts very carefully.
They should be structured clearly so that the learners can use them easily
and effectively. I should always make a good master copy that I can keep for
later use. Therefore, I have to put a lot of effort into the materials because

the learners should see that I do my work in a responsible way. As a

consequence, they should handle their own work in a responsible way as
well. Teaching materials such as cards for specific exercises should be
printed on good paper so that the learners can use them effectively (thin
paper might tear). In that way I can also use them again and I have to make
sure to get them back after the activity. It is also clever to laminate cards
that will be used often.
A little technical tip that I learned in my Practicum is to use different colors
for each set of a card game so I can easily put lost cards back into the right
pile. Simple, but helpful! When I was watching the classes I noticed that
learners tend to speak Malay in groups when they get into hot discussions
about a topic. That;s why to make sure they use the language I have the idea
of using some form of language police in group work which is one learner
makes sure that everybody speaks English. The language police received a
badge (printed and laminated) from the teacher and was responsible that
his/her group would speak English in this lesson. I use lots of gestures with
young learners in order to help them understand what Im saying. The
students never felt embarrassed about their mistakes which it seemed very
natural and they felt that they had communicated their ideas successfully. I
think this is really important, otherwise the learners will not want to speak in
front of the class.

REFLECTION
WEEK 10
Finally, hard work comes to the end. This is my 10 th week practicum it means
that the end of the practicum journey. Over the course of the ten weeks, Ive
finally gain a gradual change in dynamics within my profession as a teacher.
I could see the development of different strengths in particular students,
strengths such as collaboration which they had not noticed before. As well,
some of the lower academically achieving students emerged as leaders
during the lesson which seemed to boost their selfesteem and motivation.

Overall the lesson was successful throughout the practicum even though
there were some problems that need space for changing and improvement.
The children were engaged for most part and seemed to enjoy trying to think
of words to describe the things used.

I defined student success, by

observing my students, how well they participated in activities, taking notes,

and asking many questions throughout all of the activities we had
planned. By taking notes, observing, and reflecting on both, I decided
which

students

which

students

were

successful,

which

were

not

successful, and where I needed to go to further the students understanding

of this curriculum outcome. Hands-on activities are necessary to keep the
interest of students. The students need time to explore at their own
pace. By doing this, students will learn at their pace and have a better
grasp of concepts. I believe that all activities were successful to some
extent. I feel that my students were most successful during the activity and
during the practicum. The students were thoroughly involved.

I cannot say that this was a totally successful unit plan but overall, there
have been many lesson
plans that were successful. I know that things do not go as we hope and
plan and are not always
feasible. By using the shared reading activities, brainstorming and
discussion encouraging the students to use the language but need a lot of
effort to do so. Im encouraging them to use the English when doing the
activities rather than using Malay even there would be a lot of grammatical
error. And for myself Im not using the Malay translation. On the other hand, I
did not want to translate because translation is something that I dont like to
do when I teach. Also, I did not want to give the impression that I will be
using translation in my future classes. However, after the lesson, I was very
satisfied with the results because I did not have to translate and I ended up
overusing gestures and hand movements to convey meaning. In my opinion,
I enjoyed the lesson and felt that the students were enjoying what they were
learning. The students were actively participating and responding to my
questions and commands. I felt very comfortable because even though the
students were not young learners, they were motivated to learn by singing
songs and playing games. Therefore, when I teach, I feel compromise and
responsible to meet my students needs and that is why I like to include
games, songs, and other scaffolding strategies.

As a result, I feel that these experiences will inspire me to make my teaching

lessons valuable and meaningful to my students. I was very happy to hear
constructive criticism such as great use of scaffolding techniques and error
correction. Overall, the activities in the lesson and class dynamics reflect my
teaching principles because it is my belief that instruction should be student
centered, responsive to students cognitive and personal needs. Also, I
believe that a teacher needs to provide meaningful experiential and

motivational activities that will encourage the students to learn. In addition, I

enjoy teaching young learners because I take part of their energy and I
become energetic as well. For this reason, every time there is an opportunity
for teaching a class or a short lesson, I try to learn from it and modify my
teaching styles according to the needs and personality of my students.
Therefore, every teaching moment is a unique learning experience to
remember and to put in practice.