Day 4: A New Insight

My mentee was absent. I was assigned to another student.

His English is not as good as my mentee. This is the first time I felt that I am really helping in tutoring. Instead of feeding him with answers, I tried to explain worksheet by worksheet to me and slowly guide him to answering them.

However, he seemed to be not interested in the PACE session. Once a while he will wander to the library connected to the classroom with his friends. Ms Rabiah and TEEF representative would have to persuade them to go back to class. My one-day-mentee is somehow the easiest to be persuaded. He will be the first to ask his friends to get back to lessons. I have no clue whether the action of him persuading his friends to get back to study is due to the sense of obeying or willingness to learn. Anyway, among the three of them, I would say he is the best as he isn't as rebellious as a friend of him. I think peer pressure caused him to behave that way.

On the way home, I was wondering how much can we Taylor's students do to affect them in seven weeks time. I was demotivated and then a short feedback from TEEF representatives and the PACE students arrived. I was enlightened with the feedback at the same thing doubting how true is the feedback. Is the feedback biased? Does the feedback really reflects how students feel?

Day 3: Some problems to look into

After 3 weeks of doing the worksheet prepared by the well known English course institution, one problem that I've always faced is unclear instruction. The instruction of the exercises are always not clear and most of the time I don't know what should I do with the exercises. Only the tutor knows what to do. Even my mentee finds it confusing. Why is this happening? Is my English level not up to their standard? I don't think so. Because, I'm not the only who thinks the instructions are unclear. I think this should be looked into.

Moving on to the tutor. From what I know, she has been working with the mentees for years. That's very kind of her. However, I would prefer if she could be more consistent in her teaching. Her instruction changes from time to time. From the handwritten answers on the worksheet she has, I think she did prepared for the class. But I don't understand the inconsistency. For example, one moment, she could be saying that we should not add any other answers out of the text given, Then the next moment she asks us to add in our own answers. Other than this weakness, she is doing good. I see the effort she has put in to make the class not that lengthy and draggy. I really appreciate that a lot.

Our education system has always been the topic of discussion. People always wish for a change in our education system. Change, of course, is a good thing. But, are we ready for it? Are we prepared for it?

Day 2: Team Work

Second week of PACE. Unlike last week, I wasn't that excited anymore. The thought of the boring and draggy English lesson killed my excitement. But one thing I'm looking forward to was the activity planned by my friends.

So, the English lesson wasn't as bad as last week. The tutor tried to speed up and of course, I tried to make my mentee proceed slower by asking him some questions. I managed to get his feedback on the activities Joy and I carried out last week. According to my mentee, he quite enjoyed the activities carried out last week and I'm glad to know that.

The team leading this week was a little uncoordinated. The crowd was quite hard to control and only a person was trying to control the situation and the other members didn't help much. Compared to Joy and I, I think we did better than them. The reason I'm comparing is to reflect on how did we perform and what are the rooms of improvement that I can learned from them.

The first game was about guessing the word through actions. It was a warm up game and it meant to be competitive. However, may be the instruction wasn't clear enough, the competing spirit wasn't there. Anyway, it was fun. One of the boy was so sporting and cooperative and creative. When he was asked to put the word "cute" into action, he surprised me by pointing a finger on his one sided pouched cheek. He managed to put us into laughter. I like his spirit. Last week, during the action game, I told him, instead of alternate between five words, just to say one. He surprised me by alternating between two to three words. Bravo to him! I shall note down to get him something by the end of the programme.

The second game was to build the highest building using newspaper. Fun enough. The first time I played it was using spaghetti. I was told that time that one's characteristic and personality can be seen during the game.  The team leader told me that his aim of the game is to let the boys know that a strong base will bring you far. However, I think he did not manage to let them know his objective. It could be due to time constraint and the out of controlled situation, also time control. Reflect to my team's time management, I think we did not do any better than them. So, I shall improve on my time management.

So, that's basically sums up my second day with the boys. Looking forward to the activities next week!

Day 1: Ice Breaking Session

This is my second community service module. PACE. Seven sessions in total and we have to break up into groups and each group will be leading one session. So, Joy and I paired up. After a short session of brain storming, we managed to come out with 4 activities to be carried out today.

I've divided my thoughts into three sections as below:

First Impression & English Lesson by Cambridge

A wave of nostalgia hit me when I entered the school. The sign board on the wall that reads something like "well done for coming to school". Students in their uniforms or PE shirts. A bunch of boys playing basketball in the court. Ah... High school life. I missed it. Those carefree and energetic moments.

I was told to look for well dressed students to be my mentee, as they are brighter and more cooperative. It turned out to be true. My mentee is quite smart. He is able to complete 85% of the worksheet by himself, of which most of it was fill in the blanks. Comprehension questions however are a little challenging to him.

The tuition session however was quite boring, long and draggy. Students are not allow to proceed further with the following pages of the worksheet. They have to wait for the rest which made us felt boring. My thought on this is that if they are able to move faster, let them do more. I don't see what's wrong with progressing faster when one has the capability of doing so.

Activities

Joy and I came out with 4 activities of which only 3 were carried out as what we'd planned. First activity managed to get all of us warmed up. I can see people enjoyed themselves. Even I enjoyed a lot seeing them playing. However, the second game was a little unsuccessful. A mentee was picked to lead the game but he rejected with the reason he couldn't speak English. The game didn't flow as well as the first too. May be the structure of game needs to be changed a little so that it can flow better without some awkward moments. Joy and I both agreed that the last game was the one almost everyone enjoyed the most, especially the mentees.

It was fun and really tiring.

Other issue
Punctuality has always been a problem to Malaysians. And I quite like Ms. Rabiah's rules in being on-time and no waiting. On the bus, I over-heard a conversation. This person didn't make it to the bus on time and he/she called his/her friend who is already in the bus. The friend told this person that the bus had already left Taylor's. I think this person thought of driving to the school instead. I just couldn't understand why people just couldn't be punctual.

That basically sums up my day and part of my thoughts. It is definitely a whole new experience to me. Even though I was reluctant at first, I'm now looking forward for the activity next week.