Report on the Forum with Beginning Teachers from Gua Musang

There was a forum conducted specially for the B.Ed TESL Marjon 1 students who had just continued their studies in Malaysia after spending three years in the United Kingdom. This forum was held on 28th of August 2012. The aims of this forum was to give exposure to the Marjon 1 students about the real challenges and expectations in terms of teaching English in schools in Malaysia from various aspects for the beginning teachers. The focus of this forum was to discuss the professional as well as personal development of the beginning teachers. It was hope that through this forum, the students will be more prepared as the beginning teachers of English in Malaysia who are graduated from the overseas. In order to enrich students knowledge and exposure, there were three beginning teachers had been invited to be the panels of this forum. These beginning teachers were the beginning teachers graduated from the overseas. They were Miss Felicia, Mr. Khairul and Mr. Aiman. Hazwani binti Abdul Zalil had been selected as the moderator of the forum while Jaryn Lim Jie Ling as the master ceremony of this event. This forum was conducted as a semi-formal forum. The forum started by introducing the panels and their backgrounds in the first session. This followed up some discussions on the challenges and expectations that they had received once they were posted to the schools. They also shared some of the school systems and how students were being assessed in the schools. As expected, these young beginning teachers revealed that they had been assigned to handle many work by the senior teachers. These beginning teachers advised the Marjon 1 students to learn how to say no if the demands were too much. There was a question and answer session at the end of the forum where the Marjon 1 students had the opportunities to channel their questions to any panels. This helped the Marjon 1 students to gain for more information and learn from their experiences.

The beginning teachers met the Director of IPGKKB before the forum

During the forum

A short Powerpoint presentation by the panel

Marjon 1 students

Q&A session Q: In terms of personal development, do you think you have personally developed or improved in any aspects after teaching, for example, you become fluent in English, social skills? Felicia: She thinks she becomes dumber. It is important to constantly communicate with others so that you wont lose your proficiency in English. Aiman: He says that he becomes better in managing classrooms, giving better instructions. Khairul: He learns to adapt what he has learned, experiments the theories. Q: Being an English teacher, you must have encountered students who are not interested to learn English at all. How do you go about to this? What approaches do you take to overcome? Are they successful? Felicia: She introduced songs scrap book, used songs in teaching. She went through the lyrics, line by line. She taught the students the meaning. She did not mind students using L1 as long as they use the language. Aiman: look for students with potentials, pay more attention to them, mix them with good students (girls). Teachers should be strict but attentive. Khairul: Teacher should know how to tackle, take the students as your little helper, elect them to be the leader doing lessons, or help the teachers do chores. Q: What is your reflective practice? What do you do to reflect your teaching? Felicia: Asks experts; parents, senior teachers, blogging and follow teachers blogs. Khairul: Making network with other teachers. Aiman: Same like Khairul. Share techniques with friends. Q: Have you ever thought of moving to a new school? Do you think that it is good to stay in a school; develop yourself in that school, maintain/gain more control in that school or to move to a new school and start all over again at the new school? Felicia: Its an individual thing. She personally likes to move around, pick up new things at new places. Being a newbie will allow you to learn continuously new things. Khairul: He dint care about this. It is good to stay at a school to explore more of the schools and perhaps you can do more for the school and your own development. Aiman: He agreed with Khairul. One can stay but maybe not for too long. Teachers should stay to learn more from there.

Q: Do you receive any complaints from the teachers? Felicia: A teacher had complaint that she often used songs in her teaching, which was not suitable with Kelantans culture. Khairul: none. Aiman: Mostly the teachers wanted to know what his plans were regarding the teaching.