Hari Guru

Thursday, 16 May 2013

A day to celebrate teachers and all the work they do. Although it is mid-term exam season, exams were put on hiatus for a day to honor all of the teachers in Malaysia. Most schools celebrated in their own way with speeches, performances, games, and food.

SMK Labis also celebrated.

After the usual morning assembly, breakfast was provided for all students and teachers. The teachers received a free meal prepared by the canteen. However, since it wasn’t vegetarian, my fellow vegetarian teachers and I went to get roti canai at the shop owned by my landlord.

Upon our return, the students were in the process of forming two queues lining the road leading from the office to Block F at the other end of the school. The teachers were standing huddled under the building overhangs as a light rain began to fall. At the sound of the traditional drums, the teachers, led by the Headmaster and the administrative staff, began the procession through the students to the site of the day’s festivities. I smiled and waved like royalty as I walked past my 700 students, receiving smiles and laughs in return.

Once all teachers and students filed into the Hall, a number of speeches were given by the leaders of the school. I excused myself for a while during this time in order to prepare for my performance with the students. The prayer and speeches were given in Bahasa Malaysia so I understood very little anyway. After all of the speeches, and the oath and songs specific to Hari Guru, both students and teachers gave performances.

There was an incredible 10 minute video completed in full by students, a hilariously funny skit, a traditional Zapin dance, Chinese yo-yos, Indian veena music, a poem recitation by a teacher, two guitar performances, a Tamil dance, and a teacher’s “Oh My Bahasa Malaysia” skit.

I was involved in three performances. The highlight was the Tamil dance. For a week leading up to Teacher’s Day, I rehearsed a Tamil dance with a group of five Form 5 Indian students. The dance was only 2.5 minutes with simple movements, but it was great fun dancing with the girls. I was decked out in full Indian clothes, thavani I think the costume is called, complete with skirt, top, wrap, bangles, necklace, anklets, black hair extensions, and make-up. “Oh teacher, so beautiful!” was a very frequently heard phrase that day. When I came up on stage, everyone cheered as I started dancing. Of course my partner and I had to be front and center. You can watch a video of the dance on my Cikgu Leslie Facebook page!

After the conclusion of all of the performances, and after the teachers were awarded prizes for winning the teachers’ competitions and the superlatives (voted on by the students), the classes gave their head teacher a gift. This marked the end of the celebration. As people began to disperse, individual students came to teachers to give them personal presents. That’s how I came home with a bag full of wrapped presents. I truly do have the best students.


Traditional Zapin dance


Chinese yo-yo performance


Preparations for the Tamil dance - hair extensions and make-up


My dance teachers


The performance (Video on my Cikgu Leslie facebook page)


Oh My Bahasa Malaysia! skit


Teachers singing and having a good time


With my students

The Ah-Ha Moments

Today I did an activity with my lower stream, form one classes to help the students prepare for their mid-term exams next week. It was a simple activity to aid in correct sentence structure. The students were divided into groups of 3-5 students (depending on the class) and were instructed to make grammatically correct sentences using the words provided. I had prepared twelve sentences which I cut up on small sheets of paper and put in individual bags. The students were to take a bag, unscramble the words, and rewrite the sentence using proper punctuation, etc. before selecting another bag.

As the students were working, I went around to the groups to help the students deduct why the order of their words was correct or incorrect. And I would also make sure they understood the meaning of the sentence. In my orientation in January, all of the ETAs were told only to speak English, “absolutely no Bahasa Malaysia” in our classes. This is how we were taught in our BM classes – only BM, no English. I remember how frustrating this was for the teachers and for us as students since our grasp of the language was not strong enough and our vocabulary was very limited. When I speak only English with my lower stream students, I, more often than not, receive blank stares and looks of utter confusion in return. I know how they feel.

Thus, my teaching method has changed. I don’t believe that using a minute amount of BM hinders their English language learning, but rather that it enhances it. The students are able to learn additional vocabulary and better understand my instructions.

Yes, of course I use English most of the time. And whatever I say in BM, I also say in English. But every once in a while, a little bit of Bahasa Malaysia helps the students immensely. For example, some of the sentences today used future tense, a tense which many of the students are not very familiar. “Will”? What is this word? Teacher, I don’t understand. Well, there happens to be a word in BM that indicates future tense. Will = Akan. OOOHHHH!!!! The light bulbs go off. And then they can find the verb and correct the sentence.

During class today, I heard so many “Ohh!!”s and “Ahh!!”s and “Teacher, I understand!” accompanied by happy laughter. I know the students understood the structure and the meaning of the sentences. I can only hope that they carry this knowledge with them and apply it to their exams as well as in their daily English speaking.

These are wonderful moments to be a teacher.

Thursdays are my favorite days

Although hectic, Thursdays are my favorite days. Every day is typically good, but overall Thursdays trump.

Like every other day, Thursday begins at the ripe young time of 6am. I start the day off right with a delicious breakfast – sometimes granola and milk or fresh mango and home-made yoghurt, sometimes peanut butter toast or whatever else I may have at the house. I head to school on my motorbike as the dawn is breaking; every morning I see the sky change from black to grey to blue with some pink, orange, and yellow thrown in.



The sunrise on my way to school

Every Monday through Thursday, the school day begins with assembly. Thursday is my day, however, the day when I have the opportunity to stand in front of all 700 students at my school, with a microphone in hand, and do any sort of English activity for twenty minutes. While a few years ago I would have run away if told I had to speak every week in front of so many people, now I relish the opportunity. Since I don’t teach every class, this is a time for me to see all of the students and interact with them, even if on an impersonal basis.


English Within 20 Minutes program during Thursday assembly

The day continues with me teaching three classes – two Form 1 classes and one Form 4 class (roughly the equivalent of grades 7 and 10 in the US) – with a 40 minute break between each. Lately I have been doing a World Geography unit with these two Form One classes. We have been using a large world map to learn about countries and continents and to find their location in the world. We’re loving it!

When my Form 4 class is finished, it is time for the upper form break – their only free time during the whole day. The class schedule does not even allow time between classes – one leads straight into another. I take advantage of this break to visit the classrooms of the Form 5 students, students I do not have the opportunity to teach every week, and talk to them informally. They seem to enjoy this time as much as I do.


Form 5 students during break

Over the past three months of teaching at SMK Labis, I have noticed that my greatest impacts, and my most enjoyable moments, do not occur in a formal classroom setting, but rather in my informal interactions with my students. The times when we feel free to converse and are not constrained by the expectations of the school and education systems. This is why I love the break times and also my Thursdays after break.

Several weeks ago, I went to the library after the upper form break. My intention was to read the newspaper and relax until my weekly English teachers meeting. Instead, there was a Form 6 class in the library and several of the students invited me to sit with them. For the next 80 minutes, a double period, we talked. We learned about each other, our likes and dislikes, our lives, English verb conjugations (upon the request of the students), and honestly, became friends. Every week since, I have returned to the library to meet with these students. And every week there are a few new faces, but always some of the same. It is such a joy to spend time with students who are genuinely interested in getting to know me, my culture, and in speaking English. And, on the plus side, I think their English really is improving.


A few of the Form 6 students

Next up, we have our weekly English teachers meeting. I actually quite enjoy these meetings. It’s the only time that all of the English teachers are able to come together and discuss important issues. Every week, I have a chance to propose new projects, discuss existing ones, talk about my English camps, positives and negatives of my classroom time, and ask for assistance or advice from my fellow teachers. If I haven’t already mentioned it, I should have – I have the best support network in my teachers that I could ask for. They really are incredible and are more than willing to help me with anything.


My fellow English teachers


After this meeting adjourns, any number of events may occur. For the past 7 weeks, I have had choral speaking practice, but now that we have completed our competition, my afternoons are freer. Some weeks there is an additional class for all students called Mentor-Mentee, another time I love since I can walk into almost any classroom and chat with the students about anything for 40 minutes. Other weeks, I’ll return home, eat lunch, read a book, plan lessons, go for a run, or unintentionally nap.

In the evenings, every Tuesday and Thursday, I join a group of mostly Indian men at the Badminton Hall for a couple hours of intense badminton. I must admit, my skills have improved quite nicely since I started playing with them, though I still have a long way to go before I’m nearly as good as some of these players. Still, another highlight of my days.

Yet today was different. There was no badminton since the hall we normally use was closed. Instead, I spent a couple delightful hours in town with four remarkable Form 6 girls. They picked me up from my house and we went to town to… get my ears pierced!!

I’m so glad they came with me, to choose my studs, tell me not to cry, and laugh with me when I make ridiculous faces as the man puts a gun up to my ear. So now I have a hole in both of my ears and I still wear a smile on my face.


There are holes in my ears and yet I'm still smiling

Afterward, we went into a few more shops to look at earrings and other odds and ends before deciding it was tea time. We went to a pleasant little restaurant called Vanilla Café in downtown Labis where we ordered ABCs and French fries. ABC is a traditional dessert of shaved ice with coconut milk and sugar syrup drizzled on top, like a snow cone. Except it also has an assortment of other toppings. Today’s toppings included red beans, jellies, cendol, and sweet corn. I never know what I’m going to get, but it’s always good.


At the cafe

Always good. Just like my Thursdays.