It’s officially my 3rd week of teaching life, ever since my 2 months of training at IAB, Genting Highlands with other 49 miraculous Teach For Malaysia fellows and amazing training teams. My journey to end the educational inequity has just begun.
It sounds ‘whooaa’ isn’t it?
I am not sure how close am I in achieving this HUGE mission because my biggest concerns now are about myself, my students and my school. Those common worries of mine are often sound like this:
- How far have I adapted to the new working environment?
- How much have I learned from other experienced teachers?
- How effective is my class management?
- How much can I make my students learn and understand now just academic lessons, but humanity as well?
My life now is hard, tough and challenging. Well, I’d prepared myself for these ever since I’ve made up my mind to join Teach For Malaysia, last September. I thought, hey. I am still young and I want to do something big, something meaningful and beneficial to the society. Now I get the chance and I am here, working as a 2 years teacher at a secondary school with 100+ staff and 8 classes (35 X 8=280 students).
A photo & photo frame gift from Reid. It is not placed on my working table. Thank you Reid~
There were ups and downs in my every teaching day, just like any other teacher in any school. I get to understand why my teachers behave and act at certain ways. Also, I am good at predicting reasons behind no-bringing-books-to-class, late for class after recess and the talkative-phenomenal among the students. Guess, my ability now to understand both teachers’ and students’ shoes will help me in facing, dealing and solving some important but neglected issues such as the liveliness in class, effective lesson planning, strategic cultural management and etc.
Just last Friday, I was pretty down because I felt that things that I’d done for the classes in the past 2 weeks were unproductive and meaningless. As my mind was fighting over the down feeling, unexpectedly, a student called me and handed me her artwork. It’s a picture of me. She gave it to me with a smile before leaving the class.
It’s just simply melted my heart though at this point, I still don’t know what I’ve done for her or them. Somehow, my student’s effort has motivated me to work harder and smarter for them, for my family and for myself despite the hardships. I know I will because I want and I can.
I don’t know where I am now but I know where I am leading to – to embrace one’s uniqueness and transform one’s life (including mine) to the better.
