The First Lesson: 14th December 2015

Anxious, all volunteers waited right on the dot at 3pm @ Laman Santai of IPPP. The students were a tad late giving extra time for last minute preparation for the volunteers. The theme is 'Greetings'. Basic 'hellos' and 'his' for the students.

Education Volunteers @Laman Santai

Amanda, an 8 year old, joined this time to assist Najibah with Sajja, the 8 year old Palestinian girl who seemed scared the first time they met, last Friday. Amanda brought along her Barbie dolls. Both Najibah and Amanda coaxed Sajja into drawing a cat and a flowersbefore saying 'Cat' and 'Flower'. Sajja repeated shyly but the fact that she was colouring and paying attention was priceless for Najibah (who was ever so nervous). :-). 

Drawings

Jibs, Sajja and Amanda

Barbies!

Surprisingly, a new face appeared - Malik. He is an 11 year old boy who was not at the meet and greet session. Madihah who had prepared a lesson for Saif, realized that Saif was not there (apparently Said was at check up at UMMC) immediately made changes to her lesson to fit Malik, the 11 year old. That's right guys, we need to be ever flexible as educators - we move with the flow and look at the needs of our students. That way we can easily adapt to changes. Nothing is stagnant and still. Constant movement is constant. Malik has some English Language background - thank God. The lesson Madihah prepared could easily be adjusted to fit Malik. 

Madihah and Malik

I am fine, thank you.

Aiman had paper puppets and could be witnessed laughing away with her student. She also had flags of Malaysia and Palestine. let's see what she has to say about her own lesson. 

Aiman and student-friend

Iran and Malaysia flags

Aiman's Lesson Plan 

Yasmin clicked very well with Roolaa. Roolaa too has a smattering of English. Yasmin could be seen in a peer-like situation, guiding Roola very well. Remember the Vygotskian scaffolding? It does not just mean adult-child or teacher-student assistance but also peer-peer assistance. I guess this was evident today.

Engaging

Yasmin and Roola

Irfan tried his best with his student - Anaz. Irfan was supposed to be an assistant but had to step in when another volunteer could not make it. Irfan did a splendid job with his browh-type of teaching. He built a friendship first before moving on with teaching, I could tell. 

Irfan and Anaz

I am proud of you guys! Keep up the good work!

l-r: Madihah, Amanda, Aiman, Yasmin, Jibs
Behind: Irfan

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14th December 2015 

First Class with Yousef, Aiman's Reflections/Musings.  

Aiman here!

The first class I had with Yousef was quite an experience. I suppose partly because I underestimated him and his English proficiency (lesson definitely learnt!)

Our theme for the first class was: Greetings. Hence, I prepared a lesson plan involving teaching Yousef how to say:

"How are you?"

"Where are you from?"

"How old are you?"

"What is your hobby?"

"What do you like to eat?"

As well as how to reply:

"I am good."

"I am from Palestine."

"I am 18 years old."

"I like to smoke shisha/watch movies online."

"I like to eat Makluba."

(The replies were all his and his alone).

My stick puppets were a little too under aged. An 8 year old (cough, Saja/Amanda cough) would have liked it, but as a teacher, I didn't want Yousef to feel like I was treating him like a baby, so we abandoned the stick puppets 5 minutes into the lesson.

What I learnt:

Even though your student has an EFL proficiency, it is still important to treat your student according to his age. 

Which reminds me of what Dr Adele, Dr PK, Madam Rose, Dr Ju and various other lecturers taught us throughout our lessons:

In order to gauge your students interest, the things you teach your students must be AUTHENTIC. (Authentic in the sense that it is relevant to your students' lives). 

As mentioned earlier, my lesson plan was a little too easy for Yousef, so it was done in 15 minutes, which also taught me that:

Always be prepared. Have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Make sure you constantly have activities to give your student/students. 

Hence, the next 45 minutes or so was spent getting to know Yousef better. It was from there that I learnt Yousef has

1) A 15 year old girlfriend.

2) Has three brothers and three sisters.

3) His youngest sibling is five years old.

4) He wants to be a lawyer because he wants to fight for Palestine, freeing it from the Israeli invasion.

5) He likes the colour blue/turquoise.

6) His girlfriend likes the colour pink!

7) He doesn't contact his girlfriend (wants to do it the halal way?)

8) Loves chocolate cake.

9) Likes watching movies - Fast and Furious (we sang the 'We Own It' song).

10) Listens to a lot of music - (Impossible by Shontelle, I'm not kidding).

11) Has a Facebook account.

12) Calls himself Justin Bieber.

13) Wants to visit France and Turkey one day (ameen!)

14) Loves apple flavoured Shisha.

15) Likes to say "maybe" a lot.

It wasn't a very satisfying lesson - since I felt like I let Yousef down by underestimating him and not providing him with the knowledge he expected. But then again, I guess that's what teaching (and life) is about: Trial and Error. Hence, reflecting on towards the end of the lesson, the errors I made drove me to provide him with better lesson plans in the future.

Oh well, mistakes make you wiser! :)

Pictures:

Stick puppets (which were cute in THEORY haha) 

A selfie (for better lessons to come!) 

That's it from me.

Best, 

Aiman.