Journal Week 1

Problem
This is my first week for the second phase practicum at Sekolah Kebangsaan Matang (SK
Matang). My partner, Muhammad Izzan Muqry and I go to the headmasters room on
Monday to meet him. The headmaster welcomes us at his room and had a few discussion
before we met with our cooperating teacher, Puan Nornazihah. Even though, we met only for
a few hours, she treated my partner and me as her own sons and helped us if there is a
problem. However, I have so many problems to think during this practicum. Will I able to
carry out what I have planned successfully? Will I be able to meet their expectations? How
will the pupils react to my teaching and learning activity? Can I finish my coursework while I
am doing practicum here? I was worried to think and always keep thinking whether I can
balance my time to carry the coursework that have given to me as a teacher trainee or
shouldering myself with practicum duty. Having good rest can no longer fits into my
schedule. Honestly, it is hard. The pressure is intensifying. Also, I need to collect information
for the task which were given by the practicum unit regarding during our week in practicum.

Analysis
The problem may arise due to the lack of mental and physical preparation in facing all the
obstacles to meet my vision of becoming a teacher with exceptional personality. With a little
experience that I have, I knew I need to make a lot of effort to uncover the myriad of
knowledge in this wide world. I could learn from my lectures from IPGKBL, or from the senior
English teachers in SK Matang who are always ready to help, or just from anybody, or any
source that could assist me in strengthening my journey towards building my career as a
teacher. In my opinion, 14 month duration of PISMP in this school will give me more
experience about the challenges as a teacher. Nevertheless, I have to admit that my lectures
in IPGKBL have been a great mind opener by working diligently to relay and share their
knowledge in making a skillful teacher out of their students including me. They have also
been a remarkable source of motivation. Hence it is up to us to never giving up our effort by
applying what have been learnt using our own creativity to uphold the teaching and learning
method devised the Ministry of Education. What is more, sincerity is the number one
essence in carrying out my duty as a teacher.
Suggestion for improvement
There are several ways that could be done to overcome the problem mentioned earlier:

I must make a proper mental and physical preparation by reading a lot of materials
related to motivation and pedagogical approaches in education.
I need to ask for help and support from my supervising lecturer, my cooperating
teacher, the senior teachers or those who are more experience, to discuss on the
best way to overcome my problems and anxieties. I need to have faith in myself.
I have to learn to cope with the new atmosphere by taking it positively to ensure
that I can manage my core business successfully even though I undergo loads of
obstacles and have too many commitments to meet. I will not let any of these
problems bog me down. I have to be strong and preserve despite of having time
constraint due to the lack of opportunity to focus on my practicum duty.

I need to reschedule my time management in order to carry out my responsibilities

efficiently. If I cannot do my work during the day, then I will do it in the middle of the
night. Even if I will not get enough sleep and rest. I will give more room for my
practicum and put aside the less important work.

Duration
I will try to overcome my problems soonest possible, that is prior to week two of the
practicum. I realize that if I am unable to manage the major problems that I am facing this
week, it could jeopardize my capability of performing my practicum duty and delivering the
teaching and learning activity efficiently.

Assessment of success
I will need the assistance from my cooperating teacher and colleagues to assess the
effectiveness and success of my handling the problems. I will also need to do some self
assessment to solve these matters.

Further action
I will think of ways to deal with my problems from time to time. I will always seek guidance
and help from my supervising lecturer and cooperating teacher who have been wonderful
assistance so far. I will also seek for advice and support from other teachers, and my partner
colleagues to make sure my problem can be overcome.

Conclusion/Reflection
Every cloud has a silver lining. It means that every difficult situation has a bright side. This
idiom closely referred to my current state. Even though my problems make me feel
apprehensive, it is actually a gift from God. This situation has really put my capability and
potential to the test. I just want to take them positively and I will endure all difficulties with
Gods help. I will grab every opportunity that permits me to give more focus on teaching and
learning activity. After all, that is the core business of a teacher.

__________________________________
Puan Nornazihah
Cooperating teacher of SK Matang

__________________________________
Balachandran Annamalai
Supervising lecturer of IPGKBL

Journal Week 2
Problem
After a week on finding information about SK Matang and its classes, the time have finally
come for me to teach 4A, the class which I have assigned by the GPK 1. From 3 August
2015 to 7 August 2015, I had realized it during teaching this class that I am still lacking on
classroom management, lesson planning on the lesson, and thinking creatively on making
activity for the pupils. Firstly about the 4As pupils which they are hard to control as some of
them like to make noise in the classroom. Also, they will move and play around in the
classroom which give you a hard time as you need to focus on teaching the pupils who want
to learn and also controlling the pupils who plays around. Then, I have observation on the
third day of teaching the class. It was the worst day of my life and my lecturer also comment
that my lesson plan did not have a flow on every stages. This situation had made me stress
and depressed. I was thinking to myself, Can I manage to survive in few more weeks?
which makes me more depressed including controlling the pupils.
Not to mention, planning a lesson plan is extremely challenging but preparing the teaching
aids can really exacerbate the present mind boggling problems. I have a lot of doubts
coming into my mind when preparing a lesson; is the activity suitable for my pupils? What
should I plan for the closure stage? The Set Induction stage takes only 5 minutes, but why
did I take forever to come out with a suitable activity? Does the activity to provide a lead in
to the next activity? Where and how should I apply the strategies and ideas suggested by
the reference books and the websites that I referred to?

Analysis
The difficulty of managing classroom which makes the class become noisy and havoc is due
to my weakness that did not prepare rules for the class and also the lessons are not
interesting to the pupils. Next, the difficulty to make a lesson plan is due to my inexperience
on planning the lesson and efficacy in organizing my time.

Suggestion for improvement

There are several ways that could be done to overcome the problem mentioned earlier:

I must make a proper mental and physical preparation by reading a lot of materials
related to motivation and pedagogical approaches in education.
I need to ask for help and support from my supervising lecturer, my cooperating
teacher, the senior teachers or those who are more experience, to discuss on the
best way to overcome my difficulties.
I need to reschedule my time management in order to carry out my responsibilities
efficiently. I will grab every opportunity that permits me to give more focus on the
teaching and learning activity.

Duration

I will try to overcome my problems soonest possible; that is prior to week three of practicum.
I realize that if I am unable to manage these problems immediately, especially in the aspect
of effective time management skills, the situation might jeopardize my practicum duty as a
teacher.

Further Action
In the preparation of a daily lesson plan, I need to be resourceful in planning activities which
will suit the curriculum specifications and the learning objectives within the time stipulated. I
will always seek guidance and help from my supervising lecturer and cooperating teacher
who have been wonderful assistance so far.

Conclusion
As a future teacher to be, I need to increase my knowledge on how to save time without
sacrificing the quality of my teaching. I need to learn how to organize my work. I am hoping
for excellence and flawlessness in my teaching and learning process. I will not tolerate
mediocrity as it does not deserve a place in my dictionary of life.

__________________________________
Puan Nornazihah
Cooperating teacher of SK Matang

__________________________________
Balachandran Annamalai
Supervising lecturer of IPGKBL

Journal Week 3
Problem
It had been three weeks since the first day I stepped foot in SK Matang. The biggest problem
I faced in this week is the same problem as the last week, finding ideas which can be
implemented in the teaching and learning activity. Most of the time, I really felt to give up on
making an interesting lesson and proceed to make a boring lesson. However, I want my
pupils to enjoy and learn something from my lesson as it makes me feel like a happiest
person.
Planning a lesson plan is still a problem to me as it takes a lot of time and need to think
carefully. It is hard to device the teaching and learning activity so that it will coincide with the
curriculum specifications and the learning objectives stipulated in the lesson plan. Not to
mention, I need to prepare the teaching aids that will complement my lesson plan, which is
also time consuming and would drag my time up to 4 oclock in the morning.

Analysis
My short of ideas in finding the best method to be implemented in my teaching and learning
activity may be due to my lack of experience and efficacy in developing good lesson plan. I
am also sceptical to apply the ideas that I found from the internet because I always think that
the activities suggested are not suitable for my pupils level and that they will not enjoy the
activities.
Suggestion for improvement
There are several ways that could be done to overcome the problem mentioned earlier:

I must make a proper mental and physical preparation by reading a lot of materials
related to motivation and pedagogical approaches in education.
I need to ask for help and support from my supervising lecturer, my cooperating
teacher, the senior teachers or those who are more experience, to discuss on the
best way to overcome my difficulties.

Duration
I will try to overcome my problems soonest possible; that is prior to week four of practicum. I
realize that I am unable to manage these problems immediately, the situation might spoil and
jeopardize the achievement of the learning objectives in the teaching and learning activity
that is planned in the daily lesson plan.

Assessment of Success
I will need the assistance from my cooperating teacher and colleagues to assess the
effectiveness and success of my handling the problems. I will also need to do some self
assessment to solve these matters.

Further Action
In the preparation of a daily lesson plan, I need to be resourceful in planning activities which
will suit the curriculum specifications and the learning objectives within the time stipulated. I
will always seek guidance and help from my supervising lecturer and cooperating teacher
who have been wonderful assistance so far.

Conclusion
I spend a long time in writing neatly organized lesson plans. I think it is good because it
forces me to think about things like how long an activity should take, what the goal is, and
what kind of interaction it involves. Any teacher will agree that these things are important and
should not just be forgotten. A good teacher needs to build up a stock of activities that can
be adapted to whatever he/she is teaching. And these things, do not come from experience.
They come from experience. So I just need to hang it here.

__________________________________
Puan Nornazihah
Cooperating teacher of SK Matang

__________________________________
Balachandran Annamalai
Supervising lecturer of IPGKBL