am i doing the right thing?

it makes me wonder..

am i doing the right thing?

feels like talking no one..

what type of world are we living in now?

• babies being found at dumpsites, in the river
• father and sons charged for raping disabled daughter and sisters
• kid killed after house full with crackers exploded
• father slaughtered son

Astaghafirullah hal azim.. Nauzubillahi min zalik..

Kudos dear students!

The results of UPS 1 (mid semester exam) for matriculation students was announced yesterday.

Alhamdulillah, 6 out of 10 students from my mentor mentee class achieved 4.00 GPA, while the rest got 3.5 and above.

As a result, the class is awarded with the honour of "Kelas Berprestasi Tinggi" by the college.

Congratulations, dear students!

Thank you for all the lecturers who have worked very hard to teach all the students.

Jazakallahu Khairan Kathira.

Don't be too happy, work hard and work smart, score better. The journey is still winding and long.

p/s: Even the girl whom i mentioned that afraid to speak in English managed to get 4.00! I need to add on my approach to help improve her English or else it will be a waste for her.

O ALLAH, my lord, give me strength

it's already night of 12th ramadhan 1431H.

it's saturday evening.

alhamdulillah, i've completed 11 days of fasting,

performed solat sunat tarawih every night without fail..

although i was very tired from work and study..

and this ramadhan is quite different

it is more meaningful,

i just learned that we pray to ALLAH not because He does not know what we want,

in fact He has given us more than we prayed for

but we pray to Him,

because we are His servants,

i have a little time but so many things to complete:

assignments, workloads, wedding preparation, housechores..

and

ALLAH,

i pray to you

to give me more strength of Iman and faith,

for me to complete all these things under Your Rahmah and blessings, amin

"we love you, miss jaja"

the sentence was written on the blackboard in class 6C, Sek keb Pedu, a remote school.

It is located about 1 hour drive from Alor Star.

We: Me, k.nurul and k.tia are assigned to teach English to standard 6 students there as a social service activity by our college. We have started the programme since June. We go there every Wednesday.

The students come from various family background.

They are Malay and Siamese students, a new environment for us the college lecturers.

Their English language competency is also varies.

Some are advanced, some are just at the intermediate level.

they are afraid to speak in English, but they do not even speak standard Bahasa Melayu, they speak very thick Kedah dialect..

During the first class there, I told my colleagues that I was not fit to teach primary students, they were just so naughty and noisy.. they could not sit still after 5 minutes.. they would walk around and make noise..

Week by week, i've started to understand them better..

I introduce rules such as they need to be quiet when i'm teaching, speak when i ask them to do so, finish up the work, speak English, and if it is very difficult, use standard BM, not Kedah dialect.

One thing that i like about these students is that they respect the teacher.

Although they are quite naughty, when you instruct them to do something, they will do it.

They are also very excited to to the exercise. they will finish up the work as fast as they can, and they will compete who is going to finish up first and show it to me.

I start to feel at ease with them..

Today, is our first meeting after quite long holidays; school break, matrix break, awal Ramadhan public holiday.

and this is what i saw when i walked in the class this afternoon:

"We love you, miss jaja"

i love you too, students.. perhaps my short duration class and my lack of experience and knowledge in teaching UPSR students, will just help you a little, but i hope it will be very meaningful ..

one more meeting, and the class will end.. school will go on holiday, matrix will have Raya break, and after that UPSR is waiting..

tico, sayo tok pehe kecek inglish

teacher, i do not understand English

this is my 3rd batch of matriculation students.

i have taught

previously, i had very great students. coming from good background of English..

and even some of them were not very good, they still managed to speak in English although broken ones, or wrote an essay with a number of grammatical errors but with great ideas, at least they could write in English,,

for the first time, i have student who come into my class with "E" in English subject SPM.

she is second intake student.

and i asked her to introduce herself in class.

she just stared at me.

i asked "what is your name"

she said, "tico, sayo tok pehe kecek inglish"

then i asked "your name? nama?"

only after that, she replied with very slow voice

in another class, we had a discussion on quality of today's teachers.

i later asked the class to write about it.

i gave them subtopics to talk about.

only 3 subtopics.

i asked them whether they understand my instruction and know how to do it.

all of them said fine

when time was up.

i collected all the essays.

but she looked at me and said that she did not know how to do it.

she looked like as if she wanted to cry

then i asked her to write only points.

she came out with 3 points.

i asked her to write about herself,

she can write.

i believe it's her own work.

i want to have faith in her.

she failed her listening quiz, leaving blanks for the answer spaces..

she failed her reading quiz, she answered based on her instincts.

now, i have just finished marking her standardised test, for essay question, she wrote one paragraph which was the question.

what am i going to do with her?

He who knows everything

you have something linger in your mind

good or bad intention

no one knows

but Allah knows

you see someone

you start to think about that person

no one knows

but Allah knows

you sleep late

watch movie or drama

wake up late

miss the Subuh prayer

no one knows

but Allah knows

it's Ramadhan

fasting month

you do not eat, do not drink

but you talk bad about others

not everyone knows

but Allah knows