Friday, July 20, 2012

Sing a Song

Things to be grateful this week:

1. Poem Recitation Competition went well.  The champion, who is the daughter of a PPD officer, recited with 'The Dead Crow' by A. Samad Said with such passion! The girl I trained won third place :) Most of them have serious pronunciation mistakes. How to teach them pronunciation? Hm....

2. Submitted program book for Marching Competition. A last minute but satisfactory job! It's way motivating to work under a leader who doesn't put pressure on you. Thanks to my helpful colleagues too :)

3. Form 1 is currently sitting for the Diagnostic Test. They will be streamed according to their level of proficiency for every English lessons. I wonder how practical will changing classrooms and time table be...

4. Discipline teacher came to rescue again! Today, managed to conduct Arts Lesson as planned simply because he was in the classroom and the kids sat obediently in their seats. Ah, if only I have that power to silent them...On the bright side, their little mischief made me laugh. Amanda shared about being less of an angry teacher but take things lighter as it is their problem if they are not interested in studies..Gotta constantly remind myself to 'switch-on/off' button; thou shall switch off the sadness/anger/disappointment upon leaving class.

5. Going to SONG tomorrow!! Woots!! Will be joining the basketball team there tomorrow, as early as 6:45am!

Thank you Lord! Happy weekend to all! (^_^)

4 comments:

  1. I find that Kapit students have very poor pronunciation. Chinese kids speak mostly if not only Mandarin.
    If you want to improve their pronunciation, you need to provide a good model. There are plenty of videos from youtube they can imitate.
    Why don't you ask the discipline teacher how he attained such a level of influence? You might not want to do what he did.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the Iban kids here speak better English than the Chinese...

      Did show my girls youtube. I drilled the word 'RECITE' for 10 times, yet all 3 of them read 'RESET' during the competition. Haha

      Oh...Mr Hii. Do u know him? He's from Song. He is blessed with stern eyes, cool facial expression and I think his 190cm height sorta intimidate the kids. I tried not smiling in class, it's so exhaustive!

      Thanks for your feedback!

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    2. If they couldn't pronounce it, why not change the word to something else?

      I don't know, Mr Hii. He sounds like the type students wouldn't know how to react to.
      In the end, you have to choose what outcome you want. If you really want them to sit down & shut up, sacrifices have to be made. Speak to Mr Hii about this. He will be better equipped to advise you.

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    3. recite --> present. Ah, thanks teacher!

      Haha, he smiled and said TIME. I'll need to reason with them and if things really get out of control, just fill in the Demerit cards, he'll take care of them.

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