REFLECTION WEEK 1

I believe that teaching is an essential and noble profession. Next to parents, teachers are the most important foundational element in our society. Everything important begins in childhood, especially knowledge, self-knowledge, resilience, and character. Proper preparation is fundamental to living a full, rewarding life. Without self-knowledge, children may follow wrong paths and end up far from their true callings; lost, sad, and unfulfilled. School is a necessary complement to and supplement of this learning.

Well, here I am, back in the schools for my final practicum. The next 12 weeks are going to be very emotionally and physically draining but I know it will be all worth it in the end. I really hope this final semester would be as well. I am glad I have the final practicum in my own school and making myself ready for some observations. Today, I seek help from my senior teacher by observing him teaching and it was great to see just how much can be done in a language class even when the students are only in weak level. I was able to use the checklist that was provided to me by my practicum handout, which really helped me focus on the certain elements of the classroom. For example, I would never notice the way the teacher used scaffolding in lesson in addition to visual supports and gestures. Another thing I noticed was how successful the pair works and group activities was in the class, the students seemed really engaged and happily conversing with their friends. Some students were able to practice a general dialogue with their partner. I am looking forward to working with these students and see what they are capable with.

My first practicum previously at training teacher college tend me problem with classroom management but now the biggest concern however, is my ability to planning my pedagogy that stressed the importance of appealing to a variety multiple intelligences, didik hibur concept and applying to the creative and critical thinking skills. It should set all the students more active and engaged. I am worried that I will be unable to live up the standards. My students learning experiences were so limited in terms of variety that though I know, there are supposed to be different activities, I have problems planning them. The biggest worried was when I get stressed, I will fall back on my basic tool kit of worksheets and teacher-centered classes.

This week has allowed me extra time to prepare my lesson plan. I am looking forward to see with what I am capable to do. The plan is almost done and I am excited how itll pan out with the students. During these weeks , in the first lesson, I taught the game of Simon Says, drilling the vocabulary, naming the body parts and sing a song to a group of year three students. This lesson was held at 7.45 a.m. and in the lesson, I lead the students into a great warm-up activity following with the rules of the game. The group of year three I had was more than eager to learn; exceptionally cooperative and they played the game well without any misdemeanors. They enjoyed the lesson as well and students provided me with more than enough improbable feedback.

As a teacher normally we may have to face a lot of distractions in classroom daily. Sometimes teacher may have to deal with uninterested students or they may suffer from burden in absence of parents support. But for me, being good teachers always remain committed to their profession and try solving the problems no matter what happens. Primary students often show an ignoring and neglecting behavior as they do not know the importance of education especially when having English lesson. Such uninterested and unmotivated students cause frustration with me and are a real challenge to face. To overcome this problem, I need to understand what my students are interested in. therefore, I can then help my students achieving their goals by encouraging them and for the next preparation I have to think suitable activities that can attract them. It is important that we set our goals as teachers to get students physically active, enjoy and the more ways we find to make physical activity motivating and fun, the greater chance we have at reaching that goal. Overall, this course practicum did what is was suppose to do, by providing me with a great positive learning experience and chance to see how rewarding a students achievement and happiness can do for as an educator.

REFLECTIONWEEK 2As for this week, I tend to adapt one of the collaborative teaching method that Ive studied before and looking forward for the implications to my students. The collaborative teaching method that I implements in my teaching is the buzz group. The buzz group is a small, intense discussion group usually involving 2 to 3 persons responding to a specific question or in search of very precise information. The pupils in the classroom are subdivided into the small groups. Its called a buzz group because it mimics the sound of people in intense discussion. It is an extremely useful technique in training, as these small groups can be divided into participants with wide ranging experiences or those with highly advanced pupils mixed up with intermediate and remedial students depending on the topic and the desired outcome. Obviously, a broadly experienced group brings a wider understanding of the problem, which is good for tackling multi problems. The mixed groups, on the other hand, can dig deeper into the issues. Buzz groups are ideal mechanisms for wrestling with very specific issues. Pupils can also add their own personal experience. This technique can be used at anytime throughout the lesson, particularly when you want pupils to become actively engaged with the issues. It is a patent discussions group technique with a high degree of student involvement. This is employed when the students become very motivated and seized with the issues involved. With a view to channeling the plentiful energy aroused in arguments, the teacher employ this technique particularly when the interest generated is at its peak and is so immense that it will ensure students active participation and goal oriented motivation.

The lesson is for a group of students Year Three in my school. I know that it is difficult to handle the buzz group because they need to generate ideas and involve with the discussion. But I pushed myself to see whether they are able to follow the teaching method. Recent lesson learnt had shown that students tend to learn in different ways and that they prefer to use different teaching method as well. Many educators agree on the fact that learning materials shouldnt just reflect of the teachers style, but should be designed for all kinds of students and all kind of learning styles. Even though they agree on the importance of applying these learning styles to different learning systems, various problems still need to be solved, such as matching teaching contents. Students are able to learn and to efficiently improve their learning process with such method. Effective communication is an important part of teaching, learning, and leading a group. It is the way to share ideas and knowledge, expand or learn new teaching skills, and gain experience in leading a group. Buzz group teaching, like other forms of discussion, takes advantage of that significant teaching principle, interaction. The class confronts the subject matter firsthand rather than passively receiving what a teacher has to say. I could have answered any of questions in a lecture, but the answers will be much more meaningful if the pupils can find them own self. Some of the pupils would never participate in a discussion if the whole class were listening to their contribution.

Ill never forget a situation when I used buzz groups with the class. As I explained what we would be doing that morning their eyes filled with terror. This new approach seemed threatening to them, and they would much rather have had me take care of all of the performance. The plan was to have them study and discussed about the environmental issues for about 20 minutes in their buzz groups and then report to the wider group. Things started slowly, but at the end of the 20 minutes when I informed them that they should wrap up their findings and prepare for reports, I had a mini-rebellion on my hands. Quit? Wind up? Ready to report? Why, we just got started. The thrill of learning had set in.

The main reasons Im using the buzz group are to allow pupils to share ideas, debate the issues and come to a common understanding of a content that will help them to achieve some particular learning outcomes. Therefore, it is essential that groups be arranged so that my pupils can communicate with one another easily and concentrate with the issues learnt. Thats why the most effective part was when the pupils buzzing around and sharing ideas with others. It is an effective way to get them to focus on important issues, to clarify their thoughts about the issues I have been presenting and to actively try to construct their own understanding of these issues. This teaching method is useful to create an opportunity for discussion even in a large group. A buzz session gets more people to participate and is less intimidating than a forum. What I planned for the lesson suited perfectly and worked particularly well in my class yet, achieving my goal

As a matter of fact, for the first time I use the technique Im expecting the pupils to be somewhat afraid of the group interaction. This is cause of low proficiency in the language and afraid of using wrong sentences structured. But soon my pupils discover that learning is enjoyable when everyone is directly involved. In the other hand, sometimes the groups will not arrive at the conclusions which the leader might have desired. In group two, as Asmawi as a group leader, he confronts with leadership issues which if he left himself some time to pull together the issues, he may be able to solve the problem. But an honest discussion should not predetermine what conclusions the group is to reach. The process should be as inductive as possible. Thats why, sometimes a weakness shows up in the selection of the group leader. If the leader fails to take the responsibility to keep his group on the subject and to catalytically draw out each member, then the effectiveness of the technique will be in danger.

There are some improvements that I would like to improve but still using the same teaching method. Some pitfalls can be avoided if the teacher will carefully observe some basic principles which facilitate the effectiveness of buzz group teaching.

For me, I realized that I need to plan the management time wisely, means the time budget to allow for moving chairs, explaining the technique, and hearing the reports. These items will usually take longer than I expected. I also have to explain clearly to the class what are the roles of group leader and recorder should be. This is should be done before the entire group so that everyone will know how he is to react to the leader and recorder in his group. The setting of definite time limit for discussion should also be emphasized. The most important is to think that groups will be able to do more in a certain amount of time than they can actually handle effectively. If three group members have 15 minutes to deal with their question, each member of the group can speak to the question only five minutes. Foremost, I should float frequently and fair from group to group to motivate better involvement, help them over any hurdles and generally spread enthusiasm around the room.

REFLECTIONWEEK 3This week would be the third week for my practicum. Working in the mix ability classroom were challenging yet gave me the opportunity to plan, teach and assess individuals as well as a number of different grouping structures. Today, I am planning to do some writing simple poem using the adjectives under the topic colours. Colours were favorite topic for some pupils as they familiar with it previously. First thing in the morning, upon entering the classroom they would instinctively look at the whiteboard to see the days activities. During class the children were given the opportunity to relax, there was 'community circle' everyday, where children spoke freely about teacher guided questions relating to real-life situations that would be used as a precursor to the days subjects and activities

It was also excellent to be able to log onto the Internet to have access to digital tools, which were a great benefit to the children. But, it might cause difficulties to do so even though I knew that the students always enjoyed working with the internet.My preparation and planning for my lesson was well covered and well thought out. Creating simple poem was well explained. The students seem enjoyed their learning activities today. I succeed to maintain the flow of the lesson and understand that the spelling activities requires short or fast teaching time and prompt responses from students. It is however important that 1 need to monitor the progress of the group and revisit if students appear unsure or confused especially with the weaker. I roved the room while the students were working and ensured that they understood both the instructions and the content of the lesson. For the weaker students, I gave extra time and support to those students who needed.

Teachers, during their career, cannot avoid students who misbehave. Dealing with students misbehavior becomes easier after knowing the reason behind it. So the best way to deal with students misbehavior is to understand causes of such behavior. Not everyone in the classroom was problematic. The majority were rather cooperative. But due to the misbehavior of a few, the whole learning process was disrupted. To overcome this problem, the first thing which I can do is to show patience. I stay calm when warning the student and control my anger. I also give that particular student a chance to assume a responsibility to correct his behavior. Teaching students to create simple poem were quite challenging even though Ive given them example and clear instructions. From my observation, this activity was hardly to proceed and need time to execute due to lack of vocabulary and having difficulties with some words. I think the best way to guide them is to be focused in the different level of poems based on the students ability. Based on that, it is recommended that, when teaching grammar especially using poems, fun accompanying activities like acting should be administered for better development.

It is proven that the effectiveness of using poems in teaching grammar effect to help the students to upgrade their achievement in the English subject. It proves that poems can motivate the students and it is one of the interesting method towards learning English especially in grammar lesson. As for further improvement, if I would like to use poem as my method I should create creative environment and interesting lesson in my classroom. Thus, using easy and clear handouts and specific tasks to help making my classroom activities more enjoyable for the students would be indeed considered.

REFLECTIONWEEK 4The journey of my fourth week practicum continues. This week, I tend to use the ICT. The use of ICT is transforming in Malaysias education, whether for good and for bad. The good comes from the ingenious ways that teachers encourage their students to engage in science projects, learn about history by seeing the events for themselves and explore their own ideas on the internet. There are literally thousands of Internet-savvy teachers who regularly exchange ideas about enlivening classrooms to heighten student engagement in learning. The use of technology in schools is a very controversial topic. Some think technology will ruin the school environment. Others think technology will improve education and make learning more enjoyable. Although distractions may be a side effect of technology, I believe technology can provide copious amounts of new learning. The technological side of it only comes into to play if you already knew how to balance pedagogical knowledge with content knowledge. Only then can you understand how best to integrate an iPad or a laptop into a classroom.

It is difficult to be in a classroom where there are students at very different levels and needs to a degree where it's impossible for one teacher to cater to each student as they deserve. Studies found that a technology rich classroom is the perfect place for that level of specialized learning. When teachers and students are trained to use the technology, there are many tools to help track growth, give extra resources, and accelerate learning based on each student's unique pace.

Thats why Ive implementing technology in my teaching focusing the reading skills. Even though there are not much integrated technology used but I found it really helping my lesson working out. Some of the benefits that I encounter when handling the lesson are based on several factors. One of the major benefits of introducing technology into the classroom is the effect it has on the students. In traditional teaching (lecturing, working from a textbook, and taking notes, for example), it's easy for students to fall into a passive role. Even the best students who have a natural passion for learning can have trouble paying attention to a teacher's lecture. But when technology is involved, my students are more likely to be engaged in learning. They need to press buttons, think out problems, and manipulate the tools they have to achieve a goal. Educational technology can improve focus among students and it caters to students who learn independently and to those who are more collaborative. Including technology in the classroom gives me more options and tools to cater to each student individually. From my observation, the students were very enjoy, participate eagerly and become active with learning. Overall, I think that I manage to reach my objectives for the lesson that day.

Technology also changes the way I teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It also enhances the relationship between me and my student. When technology is effectively integrated into subject areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. It helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. Despite of interesting and motivating learning using different kinds of text, graphics and video, my students also learn to use authentic language from blogs, wikis and yet students can learn independent learning. Learning stories with fun materials and variation create more enjoyable thus helping to strengthen students reading skills. While computers do not guarantee that every child will learn, they do provide students with the opportunity to do research and create products that they could not do without the technological tool.

Many school districts want to increase computer usage in the classroom to meet the technological needs and demands of students, but this can be difficult to accomplish because computers are expensive and technology changes at a rapid pace. Adding more computers to every school would be useful for teachers who have the technological skill and motivation to use them in the classroom daily. These teachers would be able to adapt their lessons to incorporate computers. Adding more computers to every school would allow them to stay connected to a digital environment that they typically interact with comfortably. On the other hand, students display varying levels of abilities when it comes to computers and this may increase the knowledge divide in the classroom if certain students are not able to acquire content because of the means used for instructional delivery. Despite of all the benefits that the students get, there are slightly some problems occur. Some of the advantages are I found that there could be technical problem and slack of IT skills from both teachers and students. With the students of mix ability level, some students are advanced while some of them are having difficulties in handling the technologies. I do found that might be hard to control with the classroom management when the students were over excited to use the computer and difficult to draw students attention. Moreover, the biggest and major problems to face for the rural school are the internet connection which I discover were very slow and yet distract the teaching process. Thats why to solve the problems, teacher need to be more creative to cater the problems faced. Some schools can collect fund from the PIBG and parents to solve the internet connection to fastest network. They also can co-operate to buy more computers and parents with the IT skills can also help teachers how to improve the students IT skills.

Overall, the impact of technology in schools is somewhere between its the only way to make a positive change in schools to its a new fad. They see technology as a strong tool for positive change but it must be presented in the right ways. Steps must be taken for technology to make a difference. Leaders of the schools must include everyone at the beginning of the plan, not after technology arrives. Leadership in the school system must plan for technology. Find a model, such as the Project PICT Training Model and use it. Hire a full time technology director, involve the school in the changes, and provide the services that are needed for technology to succeed in the schools. Teachers must change the way they teach. Classrooms must take on the student-centered learning methods. Teachers need to become facilitators. Students need to be allowed to use technology as a tool, which will enable them to collect, analyze, and create major projects.

REFLECTIONWEEK 5I prepared this lesson plan for a year three this week. It was to be my fifth week practicum, and as usual I was quite passion to execute it. Anyway, I had chosen to teach Year 3 'prepositions ', so I browsed through the internet looking for interesting materials and tips that could help me. I came upon this site which I encounter a lot of resources and games that teacher can use. The materials look really interesting but unfortunately they're not free to use. However, after looking at some samples onthat page, I got some good ideas on how to teach prepositions, so thanks anyway and I think it quite helping me.I prepared this lesson plan with a lot of help which I got from the internet. It pretty much challenged my brain to think of interesting ideas to teach, but I still feel that I did not push myself to the limit. I used this video as a Set Induction for the day's lesson. I thought I'd turn it into a game, so I did. I did not want a complicated game, as a Set Induction is only meant to be between 3 to 5 minutes long.

Anyway, back to the game. In a previous lesson, I had taught Year 3 the names of animal. So, just to make sure they would do some thinking and show some reaction to the video, I asked them to put up their hands whenever animal that they liked appeared on the screen. The only rule was they wereforbidden to use their voice. Now it may sound simple enough which just putting up your hands and making sure your mouth is shut, but for children who LOVE to speak, it's quite a challenge. Alif, for instance, has a lot of trouble keeping his mouth shut. Each time an animal that he liked appeared on the screen, he would jump up and say in his high pitched voice, "Aah!! Aah!" which I suppose means he liked the creature. Putting up a hand was not enough. It is quite funny for me but the impact from it was awesome.

It was a simple video but they enjoyed it. Their English was not that good to be able to sing along to the song while they watched it for the first time, but they liked it. I discovered that most of the boys loved the singing activities. It proven that different pupils has different multiple intelligences. I have to admit that it is an enjoyable moment to see that they enjoyed with the lesson that Ive planned for that day. I used to rather dislike teaching grammar. From what I understand, in a grammar class you should focus on teaching your children how to actually use the language in spoken form. This was not the easiest thing to achieve with.I was still unsure of how I was supposed to conduct a good grammar lesson. For one, would they be interested in doing activities. Then, I got the idea. Simple, but practical idea. My students love games and they are rather used to starting a class with a simple game. Every morning when I walk into class that's all they think about. "What game are we playing today? And that's it! The use of games was so practical for students. It helps to keep my students in focus and they love it. At first it was awkward for some of them and I got so frustrated because one or two just would not open their mouths. But now they're used to it and we have a lot of fun in our grammar lesson.

Being a teacher, we need to give clear explanation and get feedback from the students. Students will not interact with us until the students feel they are encouraged to participate in all classroom activities and issues. I do encounter problems with one of my students which he has problem in the classroom. Due to some problem with family background, he was not allowed to be in school from year 1. After he was given permission to enter the school, he gets trouble to get along with the other students since he never get schooling before. It was quite difficult for me to gives guidance to him as my time was a bit limited in the class. But as a teacher, Ill give my best to help him.

Thats why, there are several students that teacher can maximize students participation in the classroom. The most important aspect is we as teacher needs to respect our students in term of to gain respects from them. We have to see things from the students perspective and try out to be an encourager. Innovative teacher should be easy to create and maintain a relaxed learning environment and foremost enhancing our communication skills and build strong rapport with our students so that they can communicate with us without fear. I strongly believe if I could implement all these factors, the objective of the practicum surely could be achieved.

REFLECTIONWEEK 64 weeks more to go. Now, Im in my six week practicum. This week Im planning to teach them about the occupation. Another beautiful day to me .Students were looking fresh when the class started in the beginning of the first period. I have prepared a very interactive Power Point to use for the teaching today. I was notified that students need to learn some basic characters to introduce to the topic occupation. So, I showed the students the video clip to give them ideas how these occupations functions. Pupils enjoyed looking at the video clip and I know it was a good start. Everyone was excited and thrill to do the role playing. I gave them some characters that easy for them to do the role play for example the policeman, the fireman and the doctor. Pictures in the slides helps my students learn clearly with the topic. Students were able to use the words and sentences we taught today to complete a performance-based task which I refer to the riddles activities. Before I started thinking to plan the lesson, I need to think about the learning outcomes that suits with my students ability. From that it helps me to design the suitable activity for my lessons. As what I see based on previous lesson, I need to give students opportunity to present after group work or pair-work , so I was able to assess whether the objectives achieved and what would the students learned. Thats why I knew that the purposes of the games would help me a lot considering that the game activities are a fun learning. Instead of having fun playing with games, I should also consider the effect after the activities. Is the game for mechanical drills or meaningful drills or for an opportunity to use the language to communicate with others?

The biggest concern was, do I really attract the students with the activities and able to cater with students different learning style. I really hope I can find information like what activities goes with certain multiple intelligences. I realized that I rarely design activities which require analytical skills. I need to bear in mind that teachers need to accommodate different learners needs to help them well with their special talents. That really makes teaching job stay away being dull and challenging.

Today, I found ways to improve my teaching style. After some discussion with the other English teacher in school they advising me to do the meaningful drills and also implementing the communicative drills been my teaching style for a long time. Less display questions; more genuine questions would help students to learn in a meaningful and communicative learning. I might under-estimate students ability. They told me that I missed the moment which was the best time to let students work in a pair, so I could go to help students who needed more explanation. I could also let students who already got the idea and the language to practice their speaking more. After a clear modeling, I should shift teacher-fronted to students-centered. Students with different levels could be all taken care well. I could walk around to examine how they each learned while they were in a group. I could help with students who need more explanation and modeling. I will bear that in mind next time when I am teaching.

REFLECTIONWEEK 7This week lesson focus was the listening and speaking lesson based on the topic food. I know exactly that the students would love this topic. Based on my previous experiences, if I could create some enjoyable activities I wouldnt be facing problem handling the lesson later. I was really surprised at how well this lesson went. The children really got into the learning activities. They seemed very eager with the spin bottles activities for the set induction. Of course they were some students that misbehave when doing the activities but thank god I manage to apply the class behavior management skills by stood ground with the misbehave students, didn't lose my anger and didn't allow the situation to take over the lesson.

After teaching the lesson, I realized I did more than what I was included in my lesson for this particular fifteen-minute period. For instance, during the presentation, I did not plan for the students to tell me what their favorite food was in Hari Raya celebration. I was just planning to drill them about the spelling and memorize the words. However, having them telling me their favorite food, made the lesson more interesting and they gives me active participation. They seem quite excited to tell me their favorite food during Hari Raya. Before, the lesson I felt very nervous because I was not sure if the students were going to enjoy the lesson. Overall, the lesson had achieved the target even there were some difficulties. Students understand the concept of balanced diet and able to gives positive feedback with the discussion and getting some input from the video clip. For me, the video clip helps a lot giving the information that I needed.

Beside of that, there are some other issues that I need to cater and taken seriously for improvement. For example problem in handling the slow learners are the major problems for all the teachers no matter what subject we are teaching. Teachers always find it difficult to deal with slow learners. Often teachers try to advise such students and get results by negative enforcement like punishment. But for me, it is not the right solution. As teachers, we should give time to think over such students to reach better solution. For me, encouragement plays an important role in the success of a child. We should find out the strengths of the weak students and applaud him with encouraging words. Sometimes, if students are given confidence, he will feel his importance and worth. Once their confidence level increases, they will improve. Often weak students cannot understand the lesson because he has not understood the previous lessons. Therefore such students should be taught individually according to his understanding level. The most common problems faces by weak students are they have problem that they forget what they learn. Thats why such student loses confidence and he starts differentiating himself from good students. As in my classroom, I did the drilling activities just for them to memorize and also given tips on how to recall and how to write systematically. For me, it is necessary that I should go to weak students and ask him personally whether he has understood the lesson by using polite approach so that they wouldnt be shy and feel embarrassed. Overall, I was pleased with the lesson and how well the students reflected and participated with the activities.

REFLECTIONWEEK 8

This week gives new experiences for me. I cant wait to apply my lesson planning and see the impact. After rethink what activities to do, Ive almost forgot to apply the role play activities for my students. So for this week, Im going to use the role play activities for my language arts lesson. Why did I choose the role play? Role play is a meaningful approach for learning. The students had fun, learned and were on task. They were always eager and excited. Students who look forward to learning are students who will give and get the most out of it.Not only did the use of drama help the students express themselves and learn, but it also allowed them to look at this kind of learning as fun! The material was not forced upon them. It was brought to them in interesting ways, enabling them to learn through the different teaching methods. In using drama, my students were able to clearly demonstrate through writing and performing their understanding and feelings towards the issue.

The creativity and excitement from the students made it all worthwhile. They were happy to learn and eager to participate in each lesson. After teaching in this style, why would you go back to the traditional style? Learning is happening for both the teacher and students and it is meaningful and enjoyable. The practicum helped me become more comfortable in using drama in the classroom, and ultimately more comfortable and aware of who I am as a teacher. This solidified the fact that drama is one of the best ways to teach students. I saw firsthand how effective drama is, how much the students enjoyed it, how to bring the curriculum to life. The collective play building process gave everyone an equal chance to talk, and I noticed that both the outgoing and the quieter students worked together to discuss the best way to display a scene. Every student was equally important within their productions, and they really responded to doing what they were learning about which really made the important parts stick out. They put the play together themselves with us only guiding them. All students were involved in each activity.

The project proved that learning doesnt have to be painful, and at one point the students wondered if they were learning since we were having so much fun with all the activities. Year three students are perfectly capable of doing productive small group work, and of solving differences in opinion without teacher interference. They need to have expectations, yes, but beyond guidelines, I think students thrive on being able to create something new, on their own. The project enhanced my desire to continue to incorporate the arts into my classes. I am always trying to think of ways to make my classes more creative and stimulating for the students. My teaching style was perhaps most greatly affected by this project, from the perspective of tapping resources and talents that I never knew I had. Because of this experience, I feel that I will be able to encourage my students to take risks and try things they otherwise believe they are not suited for.

I felt peers collaborative was phenomenal in that we were all equals and open to others ideas. I hope to replicate this team environment in my future classroom. It was interesting working in a team atmosphere, there were some definite challenges, but things turned out really well for all of us, as well as for the students. It was wonderful to be able to create something in a cooperative effort, have it come together and be viewed by a wide audience and then have it be considered a great dramatic comment on a subject of serious importance. This reinforced my belief that cooperative efforts in the classroom, although sometimes chaotic, can pull together and result in something wonderful and relevant. This project was the highlight of my education program experience. It provided me with an opportunity to learn more about myself and what I can offer the teaching profession, and also gave me the confidence to do a quality job in the classroom. Not only do I have confidence in what I am doing, I now believe in what I am doing. It has contributed to my growth tremendously. I was interested in this project because I knew it would be a risk in my learning and I wanted to challenge myself. I am very proud of the students and myself in what we accomplished with this project. After this drama project, I know that I can do, or try, anything and feel successful. After this experience, I am a confident teacher again. Through the risk I found out that I can be a teacher. Teaching is not a recipe, its about leading kids towards learning, and the path will be different for each kid.

REFLECTIONWEEK 9When I started my practicum I only thought about lessons from the teachers point of view. This week was my 9th week practicum. It means that 1ve one more week to go. I have learned to look at the lesson from the learners point of view and I have come to realize that I must focus on what the learners are doing and what is happening in their brains when I plan a lesson.Theres a lot of benefit Ive got during the practicum which I supposed help me to improve myself to be better. Even though teaching has been part of my life, it doesnt mean that Im a good teacher. At first I worried about such times in a lesson but now I see that actually teaching-learners centered was an important phase and I can relax in this new role as a resource person who is only active when needed. Previous lesson shows that learners can work very efficiently in groups when they have clear instructions and materials. Students get a task sheet with all the instructions for the project. The teacher explains the main tasks very briefly, sets out the materials (worksheets, games) and from then on the students work in small groups, pairs or on their own. Only a small number of activities are organized as whole class activities, usually at the beginning of a lesson or when the teacher wants to introduce a new topic. Many students work in the hallways or on the floor it can get quite noisy but I was surprised by the intensity of the students work and by the good results at the end.

I have also seen that double periods are really useful because the learners are not interrupted as much and can keep working on one topic in a more focused way. When I organized my own discussion I would made sure that the learners would be very active and speak a lot. Therefore I planned several information-gap exercises so they had to walk around and share and exchange the information. The lesson looked very chaotic (I was worried about the noise) but I realized that it was actually very effective because they were all talking in English and using the language from the cards. Nevertheless it was necessary to sum up the story in the end to make sure that all the students had fully understood it.

When planning group-work I need to provide the learners with clear instructions, otherwise they waste a lot of time before getting started. The instructions should also be written down for the learners (to allow them to re-read the instructions and to keep an overview). When learners are working in groups I give them individual feedback as well as whole group feedback and steer them in the right direction. Furthermore, I also need to emphasis on how to design the handouts. I have to design the handouts very carefully. They should be structured clearly so that the learners can use them easily and effectively. I should always make a good master copy that I can keep for later use. Therefore, I have to put a lot of effort into the materials because the learners should see that I do my work in a responsible way. As a consequence, they should handle their own work in a responsible way as well. Teaching materials such as cards for specific exercises should be printed on good paper so that the learners can use them effectively (thin paper might tear). In that way I can also use them again and I have to make sure to get them back after the activity. It is also clever to laminate cards that will be used often.

A little technical tip that I learned in my Practicum is to use different colors for each set of a card game so I can easily put lost cards back into the right pile. Simple, but helpful! When I was watching the classes I noticed that learners tend to speak Malay in groups when they get into hot discussions about a topic. That;s why to make sure they use the language I have the idea of using some form of language police in group work which is one learner makes sure that everybody speaks English. The language police received a badge (printed and laminated) from the teacher and was responsible that his/her group would speak English in this lesson. I use lots of gestures with young learners in order to help them understand what Im saying. The students never felt embarrassed about their mistakes which it seemed very natural and they felt that they had communicated their ideas successfully. I think this is really important, otherwise the learners will not want to speak in front of the class.

REFLECTIONWEEK 10

Finally, hard work comes to the end. This is my 10th week practicum it means that the end of the practicum journey. Over the course of the ten weeks, Ive finally gain a gradual change in dynamics within my profession as a teacher. I could see the development of different strengths in particular students, strengths such as collaboration which they had not noticed before. As well, some of the lower academically achieving students emerged as leaders during the lesson which seemed to boost their selfesteem and motivation.

Overall the lesson was successful throughout the practicum even though there were some problems that need space for changing and improvement. The children were engaged for most part and seemed to enjoy trying to think of words to describe the things used. I defined student success,by observing my students,how well they participated in activities,taking notes, and asking many questions throughout all of the activities we had planned.By takingnotes, observing,and reflecting on both,I decided which students which students were successful, which were not successful,and where I needed to go to further the students understanding of this curriculum outcome.Hands-on activities are necessary to keep the interest of students. The students need time to explore at their own pace.By doing this,students will learn at their pace and have a better grasp of concepts. I believe that all activities were successful to some extent. I feel that my students were most successful during the activity and during the practicum. The students were thoroughly involved.

I cannot say that this was a totally successful unit plan but overall, there have been many lesson plans that were successful. I know that things do not go as we hope and plan and are not always feasible. By using the shared reading activities, brainstorming and discussion encouraging the students to use the language but need a lot of effort to do so. Im encouraging them to use the English when doing the activities rather than using Malay even there would be a lot of grammatical error. And for myself Im not using the Malay translation. On the other hand, I did not want to translate because translation is something that I dont like to do when I teach. Also, I did not want to give the impression that I will be using translation in my future classes. However, after the lesson, I was very satisfied with the results because I did not have to translate and I ended up overusing gestures and hand movements to convey meaning. In my opinion, I enjoyed the lesson and felt that the students were enjoying what they were learning. The students were actively participating and responding to my questions and commands. I felt very comfortable because even though the students were not young learners, they were motivated to learn by singing songs and playing games. Therefore, when I teach, I feel compromise and responsible to meet my students needs and that is why I like to include games, songs, and other scaffolding strategies. As a result, I feel that these experiences will inspire me to make my teaching lessons valuable and meaningful to my students. I was very happy to hear constructive criticism such as great use of scaffolding techniques and error correction. Overall, the activities in the lesson and class dynamics reflect my teaching principles because it is my belief that instruction should be student centered, responsive to students cognitive and personal needs. Also, I believe that a teacher needs to provide meaningful experiential and motivational activities that will encourage the students to learn. In addition, I enjoy teaching young learners because I take part of their energy and I become energetic as well. For this reason, every time there is an opportunity for teaching a class or a short lesson, I try to learn from it and modify my teaching styles according to the needs and personality of my students. Therefore, every teaching moment is a unique learning experience to remember and to put in practice.