Week 2: The New Semester Starts!

 Assalamualaikum and good morning everyone! 

    

This week, the new semester has finally started, and on Monday, I was actually nervous and excited at the same time because I finally have my own students (instead of being a substitute teacher for random classes) and can start my official journey of teaching in IKM KL. So, here's a recap on what happened this week according to my SWOT analysis:

STRENGTH: I have previous teaching experience, where I taught students both in face-to-face and online classes, thus giving me a sense of what makes students more interested in learning, such as through the usage of videos and mobile apps during class. Having a 2-year teaching experience has enabled me to try and error teaching methods and learning activities, making me now much more prepared than when I first started teaching.

WEAKNESS: Being someone who has previously taught in KPM, a college for diploma students, I believe that my main weakness is that I have this pre-existing expectation of the student's ability to keep up with my teaching. Thus, it came as a surprise to me when I had to repeat my instructions up to 5 times due to students not being able to understand what I am asking them to do. Their competency, as well as proficiency level, are definitely different compared to KPM students. Some students even requested that I communicate in Malay during lessons because they did not understand what I was saying. From this experience, I have learned to alter my expectations and adapt to the learning style of these technical students. Hopefully, I'll be able to adapt and change my ways as soon as possible.

OPPORTUNITIES: Compared to teaching in KPM, the English subject at IKM focuses more on the application of language in the technical field through communication. However, since technical students mostly have low English proficiency, teachers are expected to start from the basics; grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. The way Bahagian Teknikal dan Kemahiran MARA (BKT) constructed the syllabus is to teach 3 topics for the duration of 19 weeks, which gives teachers ample time to cover the basic topics and include a variety of communication activities during the lesson planning.

THREAT: Since I am the new teacher in this college, I will substitute Ms. Aida, the teacher who had moved to work at the MARA headquarters, hence taking over all her classes. This is because this college only has 3 English lecturers, and usually, the same teacher will teach the same classes until they graduate. As a result of this, students have a tendency to compare me with Ms. Aida, making me feel a bit inferior since I am not sure if my teaching style suits the students or not. Plus, Ms. Aida definitely has more teaching experience compared to me since she has been working with MARA for over 10 years. However, I would not let this get to me, because I believe that with time, I WILL in fact gain more experience. So, comparing myself who has just started working with someone who had years of experience would not be a good idea since there is always room for improvement, and I should take this as a challenge to make myself better.

In summary, this week has been a challenge, but one thing is for sure, I'm loving my job more and more each day. Hopefully, this level of enthusiasm I'm currently feeling will stay intact. Pray for me okay!

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Signing off,

Nadia Aqila, still the newbie here.