The Day....Has Come...

Finally, the day for my group to ‘act’ as teachers has come. That was the day I was waiting for since 2 weeks ago. I thought our turn would be last week but maybe it was because of the time constraint that made us to postpone our simulated teaching. And thanks for that ‘postpone’. It gave us an opportunity to ‘refresh’ our lesson plan. Due to that, we were able to revise all over again and made some changes on it.

Compressing a whole-1-hour lesson into 20 minutes was really difficult. At first, I thought that we wouldn’t be able to do it. But thanks to my group members, Ayuni, Faustina and not forget Syamimi. With their helps and our teamwork, we have done quite a good job even though I was not presenting on that day. But one thing for sure is, that was my first experience in planning and teaching a science lesson. Never do it before. During my time in ‘maktab’, the only thing that I learned was the contents. Of course the lecturers have taught us about teaching approaches but we never had a chance to apply it. So in here, the contents ‘embedded’ in my brain finally ‘function’. I hope there will be much more work like this. It’s a good practice for me to become a teacher.

'Chid-T0-Be' Moment...

‘Let me, teacher. Let me answer”. This is what I’ve been doing during the previous science class when all of us were in ‘simulated teaching’ week. But sadly my group couldn’t have the opportunity to ‘perform’ on that day since there was not enough time. Pretending to be primary school pupils was really hard for me. As a grown up people, I couldn’t simply ‘change’ my mind set to be a child. Huhu. But it was fun involving into the environment where I watched my friends (other groups) to be ‘teachers’, teaching us science knowledge. As a requirement of this course, we have to show the technology application in our lesson (it’s very difficult to do). For me, the use of technology can be anything but En Fauzi wanted us to use CD-Rom while teaching. Great. It sounds interesting. But what actually does the CD-Rom mean? A ‘substitute’ teacher? If that so, there will no longer be a teacher in the future. Basically we have to use the devise as reinforcement to our teaching. I was thinking about the animation “Dora the Explorer’ at that time. Enjoy watching and at the same time learning. Could it be like that? Haha. I had no idea at all. But after ‘watching’ some of my friends’ presentation, my brain starts to grumble. A lot of ideas come in without stopping. But the one that still swinging around my head till this night is the word ‘interactive’. Yes. I want to make sure that my presentation next week to be interactive. Can’t wait of that day to come... :)

Learn by yourselves..

Preparing a lesson is very difficult for me. Even though I have been doing it since the past 3 years, I still consider it as difficult. Huhu. Talking about preparing a lesson, last week my group was assigned to plan a science lesson and present it during the class hour. By integrating it with ICT and technology (I mean the use of CD-Rom), my mind went blank for a moment. It was not the technology that turned me blurred, but how am I supposed to plan and teach a lesson without knowing any pedagogy input in my head? My first thought was planning a lesson just like an English lesson. It would be appropriate but at one moment, I flashed back a science lesson carried out by a teacher during my SEP time. I remembered that she told me to use constructivism to teach science. So I made up my mind to plan a lesson by using this approach.
What is constructivism? I know that it is a method that urges young learners to construct their own knowledge. But I don’t know how to carry out a lesson by using it. Hurm. Then I read some books and searched in the internet and then found something interesting about constructivism. So I decided to teach year 5 with a topic ‘LIGHT’ as a trial.
When I was presenting the lesson plan, together with my group members, I figured out that my lesson was not perfect in presenting the constructivism approach. En Fauzi commented on it and said that we should revise the lesson properly. I took it as a way to improve myself. So, I need to spend my weekend preparing the lesson for my simulated teaching next week (poor my leisure time…huhu….). Never mind. As a student, I know that I need to sacrifice my time to study (24 hours is not enough for me). It’s ok as long as my goal is achieved…one day later (becoming a good English and science teacher)

ICT?? What?? How??

An interesting lesson should be embedded with lots of interactive things for instance, the use of ICT. That is what I believe in. In reality, the use of ICT is not an alien anymore. ICT is being implemented in everywhere and every time in the world including education. As a platform of spreading knowledge, ICT has evolved into many terms, not necessarily to be internet. The word technology itself means things that help people in facing their lives. As what I learned in Mr. Fauzi’s class last week, the implementation of technology in teaching and learning process is vital, but not an obligatory. For me myself, the opportunity is in front of me and what I just have to do is to ‘ride’ it. For instance is the use of CD-Rom in teaching process. The technology is provided but teachers who use it are very few. I admit that planning a lesson and using CD-Rom in teaching is very difficult, yet challenging things to do. Even though most of the contents in the CD-Rom are in the text books, it should be the second ‘weapon’ for teachers. As what I have experienced, young children get bored easily when they are learning especially if the learning requires them to think. That is when this ‘device’ should come in. Most teachers misunderstand the use of CD-Rom. They use it to replace themselves which is totally a big ‘NO’. Some of them do not know how and when to use CD-Rom while teaching. For me, CD-Rom can be used in anytime during the teaching. Even though it looks like a normal educational video clips but actually it is also interactive. Depends on how teachers manipulate when using it…

My BUT… and AND...

Learning science is interesting. Learning technology is also interesting. BUT… learning science with technology at the same time is REALLY interesting. Haha. Integrating the knowledge seems to be difficult at first. But later I found that it is not that difficult. My first impression when I entered my first science class was “head-aching”. I was asked to create a blog. The main reason is to share. I did not really get what my lecturer wants at that time. By using my existing blog, which I have not used it for over a year, my heart said, “It’s going to be boring”. BUT… when I think back, it is not going to boring if I have a lot of things to write. Yes. I have a lot of things to write in my “processor”, and to share especially with my friends. Science to me is a miracle. Science would be either logic or illogic. People are always attracted with non-logic things. AND… that is what I want to write. I hope I will get something interesting in this science class, something that I can write and share with others especially non-logic things. Hahaha… Since that class was the first class, not much things I have learned. Mr Fauzi only touched a bit about science knowledge on that day. The rest, he talked about how to be a “smart” learner using a story “The Hare and The Rabbit”. Even though the story is meant for young children, BUT… the way he told the story was really “brainstorming”. I didn’t really put my attention on the story at first. The message is simple but the way he delivered the message has caught my mind and my eyes. In the end, I said,” You are right”. The most important thing a student, specifically a science student, must have which is cooperation. To be a smart learner, I know that I have to cooperate with my friends. AND… I hope 26 of us could be together and help each other to succeed.

Who Wants My Knowledge? Its Free!!!

What will you do if you have a lot of information? The answer is…SHARE it with everybody. This is what I learned from Mr Fauzi, my science lecturer in his first class. Sharing is caring. Maybe that’s the best words to represent knowledge. For me, it is no use if we just keep what we know from anyone else because I believe that once we share something, we will get other things. But what I want to share? And why I have to share? The answer came into my mind long time ago. For me, knowledge is not ours but HIS. As a human, it will be my responsibility to let other people know what I know. By doing that I am actually helping other people through things that I know. The requirement for this course that needs me to create a blog to share is a good thing. Two things at the same time; LEARNING and SHARING. By the end of the lesson, everybody gets everything.