3 GETTING STARTED

3.1 BE ON TIME
    Be in school building, the industrial place or the 'training area' and at the right place at least fifteen [15] minutes before the starting time of your first class.  Starting promptly is a credit to the instructor and an incentive to the students.  Early arrival also allows time for last minute checking on facilities and materials plus the opportunity to talk or discuss individual problems or questions with some of the students.

3.2 DETERMINE OBJECTIVES OF COURSE
      Examine your teaching assignment in terms of the 'end products'.  Is it your responsibility to teach a complete unit or a single operation?  Does your schedule call for group teaching or individual instruction? First determine the objectives and purposes of your course and from them you will be able to develop the scope, content, time required and equipment needs.

2. WHAT IT TAKES

2.1  PERSONALITY

              Personality is often the "spark" or dynamic quality that types the individual teacher.  This can usually be observed through the enthusiasm, tactfulness, confidence and interest displayed in his teaching. The combination of a friendly attitude, a well-groomed appearance and a pleasant voice make for an excellent teaching personality.

2.2  KNOWLEDGE OF SUBJECT

                Accumulated knowledge and experience in your particular field, whether it be social work, science, machine shop, cooking, agriculture or art, will be invaluable.  Constantly improve your background, show enthusiasm for your subject, keep up with current trends and develop creative, interesting demonstration lessons and experiments.  These are the things that make good teachers better teachers.

2.3  SKILL IN TEACHING

               Skill in teaching is often judged on results.  You must have the 'show-how' as well as 'know-how' plus careful and adequate lesson planning.  A skillful teacher avoids stalling.  His questions have definite value and direction.  His tools, equipment and references are ready for use.

2.4  ABILITY TO GET ALONG WITH OTHERS

               A sense of humor is a must, along with the following; and understanding of human relations, a desire to help, the ability to listen, and the willingness to work cooperatively with your students or trainees and colleagues.  Practice these suggestions for successfully getting along with others.

2.5  LEADERSHIP

                 Effective leadership in teaching requires the ability and willingness to inspire, guide, direct and control youths and adults.  Try to understand group needs and desires.  Plan your course and lead the way. Be fair and gain the confidence of each students.

WHY TEACH?

1.5 Special Need

With the ever -present teacher shortage, the increased need for apprentice training, retraining, "new job" training, and the need for training and educating youth and adults in foreign lands, many men and women are entering teaching in response to this overall situation. 

While many of these teachers will leave teaching at the end of their assignments, others will remain in the field.  Good teachers are always a valuable asset to our country, in our schools, in business and industry, and in governmental organizations.

TECHNIQUES NOTES FOR TEACHERS - part 2

it has been a long time since i publish a few pages of the book entitled TECHNIQUE NOTES FOR TEACHERS....an old book found which had been used by my eldest brother when he was studying at SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY [1983].

i decided to publish the rest as i found out that its contain is very useful for me and other teachers...

WHY TEACH?

1.4 Salary

Incomes for teachers in our schools are improving all the time.  Teachers of apprentices and other workers in industry are likewise experiencing increased pay checks for their "special services".  Special "government teaching assignment" usually include good pay, subsistence allowance and opportunity to travel.  The public is recognizing that teaching is a profession.  In the plant, the teacher is being recognized as a "key person" in the organization.  This all points to continuing improvement in salary schedules.  The economic status of those assigned to teach will improve in proportion to their attitude and ability to do the job.

money or responsibility?

teaching is a noble job.  it is not about money, but a responsibility.  teachers teach, while the pupils learn.  pupils gain knowledge while teachers gain satisfaction   unluckily, there are some teachers who are claiming that they don't get anything through teaching.  all they get are only tiredness and other big burdens..teachers have to deal with time pressure, rules and regulations, discipline problems from students and co-curricular activities that can drain away their energy.  why do more if the financial reward is not there?

things become different if we take this [teaching] as a responsibility..we are able to change people, from zero to hero...we are able to do more than others do...we work with people, not with machines...working with machines is simple....
just push the button and the machine will do everything...
working with people, we could not push any button...sometimes they push us back...imagine how a teacher could manage to handle 40 different heads with 40 different ideas......in a square room that we call classroom...then, the teacher has to treat all the different heads with different ideas within a limited time.....to satisfy the parents and their expectation...

wise words 2

He who knows not, and knows not
that he knows not, is a fool; shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he
knows not is a student; teach him.

He who knows, and knows not that
he knows is asleep; wake him.
He who knows and knows that
he knows is wise; follow him.


*******************Asian proverb**********

force to teach?

yes, i was forced to teach English at first, but now i know that this subject is actually helped me a lot.  i started teaching English when i was in Kota Tinggi, at SK Sri Setia Jaya, Tg Sedili.  I can still remember how my GPK asked me to teach English for Year One pupils. He simply said," cikgu, you learned English since you were in Year 1.  you learned English for eleven years [year 1 - form 5].  Takkanlah setakat yes, no, alright, thank you..cikgu tak boleh ajar...." 

since that, i never teach Bahasa Melayu which is my major option in teacher training college.  what a pity!  in those days of my teaching, i didn't enjoy but i had to do my job until i got the opportunity to attend a course specially for non-optionist .  i experienced new things and started to like my teaching days...Now, i am still teaching English,not the non-optional English teacher anymore since i was graduated in TESL a few years ago.

A lecturer read to me Confucious saying," When you enjoy what you do, you will never have to work a day in your life."  It means, if you enjoy your work, it is no longer a work...whenever the students tell me that they have enjoyed  my class and learnt something from me, that will be the greatest reward of all. 

the unwanted

when i was young, i used to dream about being a rich lady, with a big car, big bungalow and have a lot of money. i wished i would do anything that i like without any worry to pay or to spend my money because money is not my problem at all. i dreamed to be an architect who designed many beautiful buildings..sometimes i dreamed about being a famous baker and open a big bakery with a boutique inside, so every time my customers come to buy my delicious cakes they may also choose or buy beautiful clothes that is designed by me...

unluckily, my dreams were only dreams..and i never think to be a teacher although sometimes i play teaching.....my sister and cousins were the 'victims'. they had to act as the pupils while i was the one who acted as the teacher.

i can still remember the moment when my late brother brought home the 'unwanted' form for me to fill in. i was forced to complete the form and my brother checked and posted it.

a few months later, the 'unwanted' letter came. i had to attend 'the unwanted' test and interview..then, the unwanted day came when i had to register in a teacher training college in kl.

time after time......................yes, people changed, so did me.............i began to fall in love to this career...

a teacher is always a teacher 2

being a teacher, i'll never regret but feel grateful and thanked my late brother for 'forcing' me to fill in the maktab form.

seeing Cikgu Bedah, my former ustazah and warden, i should say that a teacher is always a teacher for still 'teaching' us about life and motivating us to be the best person wherever we are. she even giving us a small cute book of 'doa' .

a teacher is always a teacher

a few years ago, i accidentally met my former lecturer in school. she was observing a few trainees from the nearby teaching college. she asked about my life as a teacher in school. i told her that, it was quite tough since i'm teaching year 6 and there's much more duties to be completed, to be settled not only teaching but sometimes tired of attending courses here and there, filling up forms, doing others' work and many other tasks that sometimes made me confused. she smiled sweetly and said, "if you said so, that means you have chose the wrong profession!"

at first, i didn't understand her words....but now i know what she means. i'll try to do whatever tasks given to me as long as it is related to my priority as a teacher. wherever you go, whatever you be, a teacher is always a teacher....a noble, hard profession that needs us to be tough enough inner and outer....

Wise Words 1

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness - Chinese Proverbs

It is better to do our job instead of blaming others for not helping us. In teaching, we can't blame the children if they are not able to do as good as what we expect them to do. The most important thing is to ask them what problem they are facing and try to help them to solve it.

to be a teacher is to be alert

yes...... to be a teacher is to be alert to anything happens around us. especially when it is related to our profession. sometimes, teacher is a walking dictionary when anybody asks about meaning of words. sometimes we are walking encyclopedia when our children said,"you are a teacher, so you are suppose to know every things!"

in school, sometimes we are also gardeners and canteen workers too.....since teacher as a clerk is a normal scene.

unbelievable? believe it..or experience it. ada berani?

commitment

it is not easy to give our full commitment to our priority [job etc..]. teachers are still teachers although during the school holidays...there's another responsibility to be taken care of.....marking exam papers, key in the marks and many other extra chores......................................... being a teacher means you are ready to spend every seconds in your life doing school work.

Jason Bay Beach

there's a beach nearby my house when i was in tg sedili. the beach was popular among the villagers and outsiders around kota tinggi and mersing. every weekend, we could see crowd had picnic at the beach. a few kilometres from that beach was a quite popular resort too at kg sedili kecil, but it was a private resort and we had to pay for parking etc.

i went to tg sedili last year and everythings seem had changed. the beach was dirty and all equipments were damaged. felt sad but what can i do..............

A Long Journey

i still remember teaching in SJK[C] school in Johore Bahru..it is a big school with more than 1500 pupils and more than 70 teachers. i have to learn some mandarin words in order to communicate with some children who are small, young and couldn't speak malay at all. i still remember what the canteen man said to me, "cikgu, susah aaa..cikgu cakap serupa macam itik cakap sama ayam..". It is true! Some pupils called me 'lausyer' [teacher in mandarin] rather than calling me cikgu. Ha ha.. It was my first school after posting, and for abour three years there, i was teaching bahasa melayu..surprise yea..at first, it was a shocked actually....because i had no experience teaching before; except the practical teaching months in Brickfield. i tried very hard to teach the pupils since i had to teach year 2, 3 and 5. it was easier to speak or communicate to the year 5 pupils, maybe they had more malay vocabulary. sometimes i had to translate the words into English because they knew more English than Bahasa Melayu. surprise? it was a reality........!! And, it was in 1989........

i was at that school for three years before transferring to another school in Kota Tinggi after i got married. here,i taught almost all subjects.........................except Pengetahuan Agama Islam. the pupils called me 'cikgu' for the Malay medium subjects and 'teacher' for English. i wondered who were confused, the pupils or me...! here, i got a lot of experience...................teaching in rural area..'very the rural'.......................................because the parents, sometimes .............made us scared, confused, worried...

my husband's friend was threatened by a family...........the whole family came to his house with the parang, guns and other weapons...the grandfather, who was a big tough guy shouted...asking him to come out...his housemates asked him to hide in the house [nextdoor] through the back door. then they said the teacher was not at home....but then, the grandfather said,"bagitau cikgu tu, hari ini nasib dia baik..kalau tidak, mayat dia kami hantar balik Mersing![his hometown]"

however, it was only a small part of my experience there.............i have a lot more sweet memories living at the kampung, nearby the beach, with beautiful scenery and many friendly neighbours and friends...living there, i became a 'body buider' ha ha...coz i ate fresh seafood every day...........some kinds parents came to my house and sent some of their very fresh catch...big squids, small squids, big fish , small fish, crabs, prawns.............ah....wonderful!

during weekends, my husband took me around the village, wandering from a beach to other beaches.........like a scene in hindi movie, bercanda di pasiran pantai........................beautiful! i will never forget those days.................................................to be continued.

A Meaningful Visit

How grateful i am to have the opportunity to visit my former teacher who was also my hostel warden. It was so great, i feel like crying to see her, to kiss and hug her and seeing her standing in front of me.

Thank you cikgu for your warm welcome!!!

How touching when she still remember me and my friends...My friend brought two albums and we enjoyed ourselves talking, chatting, exchanging and sharing our stories.....How i wish i would see her again some other day,....

busy

school holidays.................but..........it seems nothing special because i am busy with extra classes and paper marking.............

i see busy housewives too, who seem busy scolding or nagging to their children for not helping them with the house chores. ah, they said they prefer school days to school holidays so, no kids will play around the house or make noise..

time is gold

i miss to write in the blog but unluckily, i've very limited time......how i wish i would write every day...