Week 1: Before the Semester Starts...

Assalamualaikum all! 

        Welcome back to my blog! I'm excited to share with you my experiences after two weeks of working at Institut Kemahiran MARA Kuala Lumpur (IKMKL). Here we go!

    As per mentioned in my previous post, I was relocated to IKM just about the time students were about to take their finals before going back home for their semester break. However, I will not officially start teaching until the new students arrive. Hence, my first task in IKM KL is to prepare the scheme of work (SOW) and contents for the subjects that I will be teaching for the new semester since the current semester was already ending. While going through this process, I did the SWOT analysis and this is what I have learned so far;

STRENGTH: I am guided by an experienced mentor, Ms. Nia, who has been teaching for almost 20 years. She shared with me a lot of tips and tricks of being a teacher in IKM, and she helped me a lot in understanding the kind of students that I will be expecting to teach soon. We discussed students' proficiency levels, and how different they are compared to the Diploma students I taught during my teaching years in Kolej Professional MARA Indera Mahkota (KPMIM). Besides that, Ms. Nia also discussed and shared her experience handling students' attitudes that could become an issue during class, such as their lateness in coming to class (could be up to 30 minutes), and also their lack of focus during lessons. She advised that it is our responsibility as teachers to face these issues head-on and to find ways in ensuring students become interested in learning by introducing fun activities and creative ways of teaching during class. Her advice has been very helpful in preparing me for the upcoming weeks.

WEAKNESS: Since I previously worked at KPM, I have a slight problem adapting to the teaching system in IKM. Even though both colleges are under MARA, they are in different categories, in which KPM falls under Bahagian Pengajian Tinggi (BPT), while IKM is under Bahagian Kemahiran Teknikal (BKT). Both departments have different learning and teaching systems, such as BPT allowing teachers to be much more independent when preparing subject contents, while BKT is much more constructed, where modules are provided for teachers to use during lessons. I discovered that my knowledge is lacking in a lot of areas, especially when I go through the modules given by BKT, which expect teachers to teach students technical English, and for some of the terms found in the modules, I have no idea what they even mean. I still have a long way to go.

OPPORTUNITIES: As a way to gain the experience and confidence to teach certificate students, I was given the opportunity to enter the current existing classes and do some revisions with the students for their upcoming final examinations next week. As per expected, teaching Diploma students (during my years in KPMIM) is definitely different compared to teaching certificate students in IKM KL. Besides the difference in their English proficiency levels, their attitudes are also different. While Diploma students are more obedient and self-sufficient, where they follow instructions easily and can do their own self-study, certificate students are much more reliant on teachers in providing elaborated instructions and guidance during lessons. This transition from being the type of teacher who depends on students' ability to learn independently to becoming someone who becomes much more involved in the student's learning process. This opportunity to teach the current students has been helpful in introducing me to new teaching experiences.

THREAT: During my years in KPM, I discovered that students enjoyed using mobile learning apps such as Kahoot! and Quizziz during class since it's something new compared to just writing things on the whiteboard. However, the issue with adapting this activity in IKM is that the internet connection, both wifi and mobile data, in this college is quite bad. So, even if I want students to even Google something on their phones, it takes up a lot of time, thus disrupts the flow of the class.

All in all, I hope that the future classes will be better and I will be able to overcome all these boundaries in my journey to becoming a better teacher.

_______________________________________________________________

Signing off,

Nadia Aqila, the new teacher.