MUHAMMAD SHAHRUL AMIR

I’m sorry

It was Wednesday. It was just another day of walking into the same school as a teacher trainee. Past three days I never got any class for relief except today. Just now, Puan Aisyah came to the library. The place for my friends and I hibernated ourselves since the first day of SBE.  In a very well-mannered she asked me to take over her class. The way she did really made me awry whether to take the class or not. “If you want to have some experiences you can take my class but if you feel not, it is okay” she said. Then, I agreed to relief her class as I had no choice. Her class would be on 12.45 on the afternoon.  So, I had another one and a half hour before the class.

Sitting on an obsolete sofa, I was thinking of at least an activity that could help me control the pupils. They were from the last class of Year 2. Although nowadays pupils should not be streaming anymore but I wonder why Puan Aisyah mentioned it that way just now. Spending so much time to think on the activity, I ended up fell asleep on that sofa. Out of the blue, my friend woke me up and said that the pupils were coming to the library. My heart skipped a beat. Nevertheless, after they were all gathered in the library, knowing the total number of them with two absentees helped me to kill the butterflies in my stomach. They were just 16 of them. Thus, I instructed each of them to find a book for each of them to read.

At first, they seem so obedient and followed my instructions very well. But, when they saw the other class which was handled by my friend were so free to do anything including running here and there, the pupils started to be chaos. To deal with that, I made them be seated at one corner first and then I looked for some books for them to read. After that they started reading the books by themselves. Suddenly I realized about a pupil seated next to me who had a book but he did not give me the impression of reading it. I asked him to read aloud but suddenly one of his classmates said, “He cannot read at all.” Then I tried to teach Haziq to read slowly. While doing so, their friends never stop saying that he could not read at all. I felt so bad for him. There were some of them laughing when they noticed he could not even read the simple and common words. So, I chose to stop the session. I knew there are a teacher in the school who in charged for the remedial class in a special session. I hope he would help him with the problem.

To move their attention from Haziq’s issue, I turned out teaching some of them English book. Now, they might feel what Haziq felt just now as they could not even pronounce simple word like ‘driver’ correctly. One of them even sounded it ‘draivel’ and spontaneously the others said, “His father is a Chinese, that’s why he could not pronounce it.” We were laughing. However, while enjoying teaching them the book little did I noticed that, Haziq was not beside me anymore. I never realized when he walked away from the corner. Again, he made me felt guilty.

Ten minutes before the times up, I made them assembled and cleared up the corner before they went back to their classroom. I apologized them for any of my lacking parts during the reading session. After the bell ringing, they left the library, but it would never erase my memory of that day. “I’m sorry…”

My School-Based Experience (SBE)

Day 1 (Sunday, 31^st March 2019)

It was my third SBE. I had chosen Sekolah Kebangsaan Padang Mokan in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The moment I entered the school, I saw two cheerful faces who were welcoming the pupils at the main gate. As the teachers on duty for this week, they were actually fulfilling Guru Penyayang program whereby one of the activity was to welcome the pupils every morning. After meeting with the superb approachable headmaster, we went to canteen for breakfast. Unexpectedly, the moment we wanted to pay for the food, it has already been paid by one of the senior teachers. After that, we spent so much time in the library till the afternoon and then we returned home.

Day 2 (Monday, 1^st April 2019)

            I came to school and straight away go to the assembly. I saw a teacher who was giving a talk to the pupils. It was an informal talk on hygiene. The way she explained it reflected herself as a very soft and caring teacher. The pupils also seem very attentive and responsive towards the sharing. After having breakfast, three of us went to library. Some of the teachers brought their pupils there. So, my friends and I had the chance to observe how they managed their classroom. Some of them even shared about their experiences as a teacher to us.  Everything went smoothly for the day.

Day 3 (Tuesday, 2^nd April 2019)

            As usual, I began my day at the school by joining their assembly. The same teacher as yesterday was giving a speech. But today, she was different to what I had interpreted yesterday. She looked mad when knew some pupils did not take their breakfast for Rancangan Makanan Tambahan (RMT). After all, I knew she was a counselor. Finishing my breakfast, my friends and I rushed to the library. Today my friend got Year 1 class for relief. We found it challenging to control them as they were younger. Luckily, one of the teachers came and helped us. At least we learnt something for the day.

Day 4 (Wednesday, 3^rd April 2019)

We had another one day at this school. I thought that the teachers would give us more classes for relief, but I was wrong. None of them asked anyone of us to relief any of their classes today. However, there was a teacher, Puan Hasnida who came and asked us to do some favor. She gave us forms to evaluate the cleanliness and cheerfulness of all the classrooms for that week. As we also did not have anything to do, we went to observe and give marks together. From my observation, I could say that, those classrooms that had been in charged by a female teacher, the classroom were well decorated. Meanwhile, if it was a male teacher, the classroom looked very warm. It was great experience of mine for the day.

Day 5 (Thursday, 4^th April 2019)

This was my last day of SBE. After attending assembly and having breakfast, my friends and I went to the office to meet the headmaster. Since the first day we were there, he was so nice and friendly. While endorsing our documents, he suddenly said that he would be transferred to another school very soon. He was to handle issues happened at that school. For me, even though he was not happy with that, deep into my heart I felt that he was a good headmaster. There must be qualities that he possessed which made the people to believe in him. Before leaving the school, three of us went to the teachers’ room to say good bye and thank you to all of the teachers.

First day in school

Woke up late made my head ached

Day one at school

Everything should be delightful

But mine was awful

Pupils greeted and I felt great

The way they did choked my lungs with laughter

They bowed as if I’m the prince William

I took it as a great experience

Entering the class I broke the noise

They greeted me in a melodious voice

Telling them I hate chaos

They turned out gave me madness

I taught them reading

But they preferred playing

I tried story telling

They said boring

Ringgggg!!!!

The bell ringing

No time to say anything

The bags they were carrying

After leaving, they forgot everything