Penang Day 15

Erin was running an arts and craft lesson first thing this morning, so I started there. I left a little early to head off to my English class. On the way, I passed a class without a teacher, so I popped in, and taught them a maths game with playing cards. It was very simple, but they enjoyed it, and even simple maths is made more difficult when you are expected to answer in a second language!

Check this guy out!

My English lesson was for a triple period. I had known that Puan Susan would be busy rehearsing with the dance group, so I had done full lesson preparation, and was able to run it on my own. Considering it was for 1½ hours, I felt that this was a good lesson, and that I managed to actually teach them something new.

I ate lunch with some of the other teachers, and had a good discussion. I’ve said it before – it is so valuable to be able to talk to other people from a different culture about life, and education. I really feel as if I am absorbing so much knowledge, just through simple lunch time conversation, as well as the passing conversations we are able to have with the students.

The computer attached to the projector in the Science lab.

My final lesson was a double science. Again, Puan Ainda had to look after a dance group, so I had the class to myself. She had already organised a DVD on the planets for them, but I had done some lesson planning, just in case the DVD didn’t happen. It did, but the planning I had done allowed me to break the DVD occasionally and engage the class in discussion. The class was so well behaved, except for one student. Not only would he not engage, he was disrupting the other students. I tried a couple of behaviour management strategies, and they actually worked! I was able to engage him in the lesson, without any negative implications for him; in turn, this simple engagement prevented misbehaviour. All in all, a very good day for me, lesson wise!

Class 4A

As we are the school the farthest away from RECSAM, we were picked up first by the bus, as usual. We had quite a wait at Bukit Gambir, as they don’t finish until about 45 minutes after we arrive. While we were waiting, a group of kids from the primary school next door decided they wanted to wait for their bus in cool air-conditioning too, so Basrah, our driver, let them on. We had a lot of fun talking to them while we were waiting, and they were desperate to show off their English.

After school we had an official high tea, with representatives from RECSAM, the State Education Office, and the schools. We all received certificates of participation, which are very impressive, as well as a small gift. There were several speeches, followed by the afternoon tea. I appreciated the fact that we were able to officially recognise the schools and the teachers that have done so much for us.

The 6 lane main road we have been running across to catch the Rapid bus.
Luckily there is an island in the middle - you've got to be on your toes here!

 Now it is time to continue packing, figure out what I can leave, repack, and possibly repack again after our farewell at school tomorrow. This is likely to be the last post directly from Penang. Tomorrow we go to school, teach, come home, finish packing, and head for the plane!

Dinner - Seafood porridge. Porridge here is made from rice. It was quite tasty.

Penang Day 14

Today was the full dress rehearsal for the Award Ceremony that will be taking place on Saturday (unfortunately, we will be home by then). Besides awards being given out, there will be cultural dances, modern dances, a storytelling recital, a small play and a fashion show by Kindergarten. As each section is organised by a different teacher, a full dress rehearsal is needed to determine how everything will flow. Erin and I mostly acted as photographers, although we did help a little with hair and makeup for the dancers. Due to some technical issues, the rehearsal ended up going all day, so Erin and I did not teach today. We took lots and lots of photographs of the kids, because they all want their photographs taken!

Girls helping each other get ready.

Applying makeup

Boys watching the preparations

Fully costumed, waiting to perform.

After school, Erin and I were heading over the road to grab a drink. We saw a conglomeration of boys, so stepped in to investigate. It turns out there had been a fight, right in front of the school. We were too late to deal with both parties, as one of the boys was already on a bus, heading out. The other boy, however, was in tears, his shirt was torn, and he had a really nasty cut across his chest. We took him back into the school to wash his face and hands, and ideally grab a teacher. Another boy, however, said a teacher had already been informed. The boy involved in the incident didn’t want to take it any further; it was all I could do to get him to wash. He just wanted to go home. I stopped another teacher on the way out of the school, and although she was concerned that blood had been shed, here in Penang the duty of care ends the moment they step outside the school gate. There seems to be nothing she could do. Erin and I will be speaking individually to our classes tomorrow, not only about fighting, but also about standing around and either encouraging, or not intervening. We will also see whether the school can receive a warning at their next assembly. This has been the most confronting issue of my visit – I hadn’t realised how ingrained the duty of care is, not just educationally, but emotionally and physically; or how important to me it is to prevent issues of bullying as this is likely to have been. Don’t get me wrong - I know it goes on in every single school in Australia. Maybe I’m more shocked that it happened so obviously here, rather than hidden in a back street or a dark corner outside of the sight of the school and teachers.

Actors, waiting to play their part.

The gentle soul who volunteered to help me yesterday.

Friends!

Nearly lost my iPod after school this afternoon – I left it in the RECSAM bus. Luckily I figured it out fairly quickly, but I certainly inconvenienced Basrah, the bus driver, so it was off to Tesco for me to buy a box of thank you chocolates!

Traditional performance

Bollywood performance

Stayed in tonight for lesson planning and other administrative things. I was off printing and laminating, then joined the others directly in the canteen for dinner. This meant that I missed most of the blackout we had in our rooms – no fan, no air conditioning, and no lights. I was just getting ready to have a shower in the dark when it all came back on. I was using my laptop screen for light, and had decided I would be able to read a book on my iPod in bed, so in one way, technology saved the day. In another way, it was the loss of technology that forced me to turn to technology - infinity loop! Brain explosion!

We love Seri Relau. Peace!

Penang Day 13

The whole school at morning gathering. The colours are their sports uniform, for the different houses. Penang is a very colourful place, I really enjoy seeing it.

Began the day by playing batu seremban again, then reading a book. We are less novel now, having been here for a week, so there aren’t as many children interested in listening to the reading. I watched Erin teach her Maths class, and spoke with the teacher about aspects of Australian teaching, and how we teach mathematics. It is always valuable to be able to talk about teaching, especially with those who are practiced. Below is a report that the teachers must fill out at the end of every lesson. They are in a book, which must be handed in to a head teacher for checking, each Friday. At first glance, I thought it was an awful lot of paperwork, and wouldn’t work in our system. I do think it would be somewhat problematic to implement, as we do not get periods off in the day to fill it out, and in Kindergarten, for example, each lesson is only 20 minutes long! However, I like the idea, so maybe using my technology it would be possible to at least do a voice recording of the elements after the main lessons each day.

More paperwork!

That was followed by my PE lesson. Luckily it wasn’t as hot as yesterday, however we were still out in the full sun, running around. I taught the students two traditional Indigenous games. There was no easy way to differentiate them into teams by sight, so as much as I didn’t like it, we split them into boys and girls (they were very happy!). The first game we played was munhanganing, a version of bull rush. The boys got the girls out very quickly. We then swapped, and the game lasted much longer. The girls did very well, and quickly worked out a strategy, which was interesting to watch develop. As much as I would have liked to have let it continue to the end, it was too hot, so I called a stop, and sent them off for a drink and a rest. The second game was tarnambai, where one student bowls a ball along the ground, and another races to pick it up and return it. It wasn’t so bad, as you can rest while you are bowling, but I think the girls were pooped. We set up a competition between 2 teams of boys, where there was one clear winner; then 2 teams of girls. The girls finished their race surprisingly quickly, and we believe that not everybody ran, so theirs was declared a tie. They were mightily disappointed, however, when I handed prizes out to the winning boys team.

I think they're having fun, don't you?

After PE, I was invited to the Principal’s office, where I was fed a dish of glutinous rice, with a durian/coconut sauce, made by the Principal herself! I also purchased a long, cool iced tea after all of that running around.

Doesn't look much chop, but it was tasty. Sweet and chewy and coconutty (I made that up)

After the break, I taught my 3A English class. Most of the class wasn’t there; they were preparing for another event. I again struggled to stop the children writing what was on the board word for word. I had the sentences below, with the idea that they substitute their own words. Unfortunately, most of them copied them down with blank lines. It took a lot of encouragement to get them to write what they ate for dinner, as every person’s was different. The same struggle then appeared with the ingredients for their individual dinners. By the time they were to identify which food groups their ingredients belonged to, we were almost there – most of them were able to substitute their own answers. We then managed to play a game where they were given random foods, and had to find others that shared the same food group. They enjoyed that, and there was learning as they had to identify what the English words for certain foods meant.

And then… it happened. I had been asked to cover a first grade class for Bahasa Malaysian! Considering I know numbers, colours, and the odd random word in Malaysian, that was never going to work. As these children are approximately 6 years old, their English was also very limited. I walked in to the class to find another teacher walking out after just chastising them. Not a good start! There were more than 30 in the class. I can’t tell you the exact number, because for the entire lesson, it was like counting ants from a kicked anthill. Our lecturer had said if you were unable to teach a particular subject, simply change it and teach to your strengths, so I began by showing them some Australian animals, and we did some actions for each, walking around the classroom. They were full of energy, so I thought this might be a good start. It wasn’t too bad, but they were very noisy! Following that, I read one of the picture books I bought with me. The girls sat and listened, but the boys moved to one side with some abacuses/abaci. They were relatively quiet (relatively!), so I decided not to press the issue. Once the story finished, I decided to send them back to their desks and get some playing card mathematics started. This was completely unsuccessful – trying to get all of them to sit at their desks at one time was like trying to hold a handful of jelly. I’d just get one lot settled, when another would be up and around. In the end I resorted to doing number matching adding to 10 on the board. Again, this gained most of their attention, but there was still some chaos, which ended in one little boy crying. At that point I raised my voice and insisted they all return to their desks.

Throughout all of this, I had almost every student from the class approach me and ask to go to the toilet. As this had been mentioned as an issue at assembly the other day, I let the first one go, then said no to each request after that. I ended up pulling in another older student, and getting her to explain in Malay that I would be saying no! This was only a single period (oh my, thank goodness), so I said they could wait and ask their next teacher.

The period finally ended, and their teacher came in. She began by showing me her blood pressure results – 160/100! Her doctor has told her that she must control her stress. She invited her doctor to spend a day with that class, and then revisit that advice! At least I know it wasn’t just me, but wow, that was a huge challenge, and one I think I met very poorly! Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kindergarten Cop: “They're six-year-olds. How much trouble can they be?”

No pictures from that class, so here is a handsome fellow I saw around the school. I do not know what type of bird it is.

Had our usual meeting after school, the we headed to Komtar for some last minute shopping. I managed to find some self-inking stamps for teachers. So cheap! We had dinner at World Park Square, a large food court just down from Komtar. My dinner was lovely, but I wanted to share dessert with you. This is called ice kachung, and is available pretty much everywhere here. Yes, this IS icecream, corn and kidney beans, along with some other unidentified ingredients. It is a bit strange at first (they don’t even use the sweetened corn!), but once it all melts together, it’s fine. We decided it is the “pantry” dessert – you reach into the pantry, and mix whatever you can find with icecream!

Ice Kachung

Penang Day 12

Today was hot. Humid, sticky, oppressively hot. The air simply did not move. I found myself stopping in a stairwell, simply because the covered concrete stairs gave a couple of degrees relief. There were no clouds, and no haze. Who would have thought I would desire haze? Malaysia has a haze index, just as we have a UV index. The burning of forests in Indonesia creates the haze. If it gets really bad, then the government will tell people to stay inside. Apparently last time it got that bad was the year the Princess Diana died, so it isn’t a frequent event.

Batu seremban. I think I'm getting better with practice...

I finally played batu seremban with my young friend, and I’m pleased to announce that I wasn’t thrashed as badly as I had expected to be. We had Monday morning assembly, same as last week. This time they were given warnings about truancy rates, and told that anyone with a truly poor attendance rate will receive a visit from the Vice Principal at home. That drew some shocked looks! They were also warned about asking to go to the toilet in class, as an excuse to get out of class, rather than actually needing to go to the toilet. Both of these things are problems in Australian schools also.

Many (not all) of the teachers of Seri Relau. The Principal is in grey, the two Vice Principals (as I understand!) are in yellow and green, to her right.

 Straight after assembly, it turned out they were having teacher photographs. The teachers were all dressed in their best suits, and made sure they were wearing their name badges. There were some beautiful outfits! There wasn’t an official photographer as such, Puan Grace used her camera on a tripod to take them. Straight after that I discussed my music lesson with Puan Grace. I had just returned to the staffroom to do some more lesson planning, when I was summoned to the computer labs. A class was studying traditional outfits for English, and they had co-opted Erin into modelling a Sari for them. She looked beautiful! I was then asked to model a baju kebaya, a 2 piece suit made from the lightest of fabrics. I was allowed to stay in it all day. I received some lovely comments from teachers and students alike.

Erin with the girls of 5A

Erin with the boys of 5A

Straight after the modelling, I had my music class. As I don’t have a recorder with me, I was unable to practice the song before teaching it, and I was certainly rusty. I began by explaining what a kookaburra was, showed a picture of a kookaburra, and played a recording of its laugh. I then handed out the music, and played an MP3 of the song, so they had an idea of how it should sound. We discussed the notes in the song, then before starting, Puan Grace suggested we clap the rhythm. We then slowly began to practice the song on recorder, with Puan Grace accompanying on piano … by ear! We blended learning the recorder with singing, and they picked it up very quickly. All this time, they were sitting on the ground, so I gave them a bit of a break by asking them to stand up, have a shake, and then we turned it into some kookaburra actions to get them to stretch and wiggle. Puan Grace played some appropriate music on the piano while we were doing this; it was fun! Finally, they were able to play the entire song, and sing the entire song, so we split the class into 2, playing and singing. I then asked them to play the favourite song they had learned, and to sing the school song (just because it sounds fun, and I wanted to hear it again!) Finally, we attempted to sing the Kookaburra song in rounds, which was also successful. All in all, it was a good lesson, but I was lucky to have Puan Grace and Erin there to help me with the little things. Always something to improve, and I am taking home the idea of clapping a rhythm before launching in to playing it.

Recorders and singing... "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree"

 Erin and I then had our lunch. Unfortunately, all the ice had run out, so instead of cold drinks, there was only hot on offer! Lucky I like their coffee anyway. After lunch, I was to teach a single period of English, which I had planned for. The teacher asked if it was alright if she wasn’t there, as she is planning a dance for the award ceremony this Saturday. That was fine, and the lesson went well. After that, I was asked to teach the same lesson over 2 periods for a different class. That one was a bit more difficult, as the level of English comprehension wasn’t as high. I needed to modify it on the run to suit the children, however I think it went reasonably well. The only thing I struggled with is that they insist on writing down every single thing you write on the board – whether it is correct or not! I had let them make some mistakes on the board so we could discuss them, but despite my protests, most of them wrote it down verbatim, then had to make changes once we had discussed the reasoning behind our choices. Finally, it was time for Science. The students were beginning to learn about the solar system, so I simply helped in the class while Ainda explained the necessary aspects. It was an interesting lesson.

We had to stop on the way home from school to let these cows cross the road. After we contined, they stopped at the T intersection!

After school, Erin, Nadia and I went to the Snake Temple. I’ll let you read about it on the net. It was only small, but had pretty gardens, and some snakes hanging around in trees. There was also a monk who was praying with her eyes closed, and apparently as soon as Nadia pointed a camera at her, they flew open and she glared at Nadia! Spooky 3^rd eye…

Pretty snakes, all tuckered out in the heat.

Dinner was char kuey/koay/keow teow, along with a strawberry lassi, and carrot milk! Yes, I finally tried it. It is a bit strange, it tastes like carrots, only a bit sweeter. I liked it enough that I would order it again.

Char kuey teow (vegetarian), or so the menu said. It came with prawns!

Strawberry lassi and carrot milk.

When we returned, we found this big lizard (I’ve been told it is a monitor lizard) digging around the base of a tree for his dinner. He was a beauty!

Penang Day 10 & 11 (Lite)

I had THE BEST WEEKEND, but I am so tired, this post will have to be in photographs, for the moment.

Paddy fields as we are driving past. They stretch in all directions.

This is how durians grow - on a tree. The durian is known as the King of Fruit.

Four durians. You have to wait for them to fall in order to harvest them.

A durian, fresh from the tree. They smell awful, I guess like rotting meat, however they taste delicious. They are a very rich fruit (the Malay people call it a 'hot' fruit), so you can't eat too much.

Rambutans, growing on their tree. So many!

An enormous pile of rambutans and mangosteens (The Queen of Fruit!) for Ainda to take back. I also got a bag to share with everyone here. You just can't get any fresher.

Jackfruit

Ainda's gorgeous youngest daughter Mazuin (Awin) with one of the world's most patient cats.

Ainda's husband Wan grinding fresh coconut to go into our lunch.

The coconut after it has been ground.

Wan's mother Rokiah making coconut milk. Who would have known it doesn't come straight from a tin?

A homemade feast for lunch.

The family, from left, all as related to Wan:

Grandmother, mother, auntie and uncle.

Amazing 360 degree panorama at the Paddy Museum.

Totally handpainted by the Korean workers who established the paddy fields.

A monkey in a park. Those are our stolen goods he is eating. Ainda was literally in the middle of warning me about them - we were so engrossed in our conversation that he ran up and pinched our food!

They do look cute.

Ainda's gorgeous eldest daughter Maisara (Sara)

Wan's sister Irneiza off to work as a policewoman

The bathroom. You use the dipper in this giant pool of water to wet yourself, soap up, and then sluice off the soap. The initial splash is invigorating, but it is so hot that it is appreciated.

One of the rooms in Wan's parent's house.

This is an outdoor shower area, where they will shower on very hot days. They live on a... compound, I guess you could call it. Wan's parent's house is next door to his grandmother's, aunties/uncles.

The water feature that Wan's father built. It was so cool, sitting next to it.

The reason for this short post. These are some hot springs. Imagine your local theme park with a wave pool on a hot day. Now take that number of people, and transport them to 3 o'clock in the morning! Yes, we left at midnight for a 1.5 hour drive to the hot springs. When we arrived, the place was absolutely buzzing. There were cars and people everywhere, shops selling food, people camping in tents! It is too hot during the day to enjoy the benefits of the hot springs, so people come at night, once it has cooled down. There are 4 pools, getting gradually cooler. The hot one is fenced off to stop people jumping in. I tried to put my finger in there, but couldn't leave it in. The final one is the children's pool, just lukewarm. We sat in number 2, and although it was hot, it was OK once you got used to it. I was proud of myself... until I found out it was actually pool 3. Pool number 2 was HOT. I managed to sit there with my feet in for a while, and it does feel fantastic, however any movement makes it almost unbearable.

So much more to say, but I have to go to bed. School tomorrow, with a lesson on teaching the Kookaburra song on recorder.