WEEK 1 - MY FIRST WEEK EVER! (4 SEPTEMBER

Assalamualaikum and Hi to the readers of my blog journey of me as a teacher. I am Fatin Ainaa Syamimi Binti Mohd Asbul and I'm here to share my practicum journey for these 14 weeks. I chose SK Sungai Tua Baharu because no school near our home in Cheras wants to accept practicum teachers. So me and my bestie (Ainun Sofeya) chose SK Sungai Tua Baharu because she has a relative’s house that is near the school. It is so much easier for us to go to the school.

This is my first week going to practicum. The first week that I entered SK Sungai Tua Baharu, we were only to observe and take note of the environment of the school. On the first day, we arrived early at the school. We woke up at 5.30AM and we arrived and the school around 7.15 AM. After we arrived, we straightly went to the school office to report our attendance but the assembly was about the start so we went to the assembly first. The kids were so confused and excited when they first saw us at the assembly. The teachers there are also very welcoming. I finally got to experience the assembly again after 3 years of leaving my school. After the assembly ended we went to the school office again and met the Senior Assistant of the school (Encik Radzi) since the headmasters were not there yet. He said that we would get the morning session since the school is short of English teachers for the morning session. After that, Encik Radzi introduced us to other teachers and guided us to the teacher’s room to search for our table to sit for these 14 weeks.

On the second day, I have been assigned to teach English for year 6 as my major subject. I will be teaching 6 Kreatif for 14 weeks. At first, I was very surprised and afraid because when we did micro-teaching in college our lectures only assigned us to do micro-teaching for years 1-5 only. I have no experience teaching year 6 topics. But I need to challenge myself and teach year 6 pupils. I first entered 4DLP with Ainun Sofeya which is Madam Azura’s class to teach on our second day. I'm mentally not prepared actually because my friends said on their first week at school they didn’t even start teaching yet. I took the challenge and tried teaching 4DLP with my best. After the lesson ended Madam Azura was very kind she gave us feedback after the lesson so that I could improve myself in the future. My mentor who will be supervising and mentoring me in teaching English in school is Madam Liza but I didn’t have the chance to meet her yet.

On the third day, I finally met my mentor and she asked me to enter 6 Kreatif with her. She asked me to observe the way she handled the class. When I entered the class they were so excited and kept on asking my mentor if me going to teach them. They were so happy when my mentor introduced me as their new teacher who would teach them for these 14 weeks. I'm so happy that they are so welcoming and accept me as their teacher. I entered and observed how Madam Liza teaches 6 Kreatif and I took some notes on how to communicate and deliver the lesson. At this time, I also took the opportunity to get to know some of my soon-to-be students and I have already memorized a few names and faces.

The next day, I started to enter 6 Kreatif on my own and I did an ice-breaking session with them since I needed to know more about my pupils. The session went kind of well and I got to know them better and they also got to know me better. So that our lesson will not be so awkward in the future. My first class with 6 Kreatif ended so well that I'm so happy that I got the chance to get to know them. But honestly some of them still give me side eyes maybe they are still awkward with me. I told myself not to be sad and to give them some space to accept me. At 12.30 we have a meeting for Gotong Royong Madani that will be conducted on the weekend which is on 9 September 2023. The meeting went smoothly and I was assigned as an AJK Penyediaan Makanan. We went home at 2PM on that day.

Last day of the week which is Friday, the pupils of SK Sungai Tua Baharu will recite Surah Yassin every Friday. After the Surah Yassin recitation, the school was having a farewell event for their two English teachers who will be posting to a new school. The kids were so sad and crying when the teachers gave their speech for the last time. The farewell event also went smoothly and my class with 6 Kreatif got postponed on that day since we needed to give our last respect to the teachers that will be posting soon.

I thought Friday was my last day of the week, but we also need to come to school on Saturday because we have a Gotong Royong Madani. I was assigned to prepare food for the parents and pupils on that day who came to clean the school’s surroundings. I'm so happy with my work. When the activity ended, I went home and slept because it was such a tiring week for me.

Even though it was only the first week, I learned a lot of things such as the location of most facilities and classes. Sometimes I was tasked to substitute a class of an absent teacher and got to know some of the students. However, it was a good experience and I also got to know the teachers and pupils better. That's all for my week 1’s journey!