Penang Day 8

Woke up to the sound of thunder and rain again, but I was well rested. Lucky, because today was a long day!

Finally, a picture of the front of the school.
It is dark when we arrive each morning, so I haven't been able to get a picture until now.

Erin was teaching art and craft as her first lesson, so I popped in towards the middle. She was teaching the children about indigenous dot painting. Perfection is very important here in Penang, but as we all know, perfection can get in the way of actually getting things done! The idea was to draw some shapes or pictures in pencil first, then use paint on their little fingers to add the dots. Some students still had blank pieces of paper near the end of the lesson, because they would draw something, and rub it out. Draw something, and rub it out. Others barely managed to begin painting, because they wanted their drawings to be perfect before they started. While the perfectionist in me empathises with this, the idea of the lesson was to experiment with dot painting, not drawing! The children really enjoyed the lesson, and there were some very good artworks created.

This young man did an excellent job.
He has also challenged me to batu seremban (jacks) tomorrow morning.
I do believe I will be thrashed!

I then had my triple English lesson, planned with Puan Susan. This went well. I recapped what we had studied yesterday, then we went out in the school to look at the plants in the school garden. We were working on description, so before we left the classroom, I modelled what to put in a description – what something looks/smells/tastes/feels and sounds like. Of course with the school garden, we neglected the taste, feel and sound aspects. I began by getting a few students up to tell the class about a particular plant, but they were too excited at being in the garden, so they were not paying attention. I then asked them to all stand in front of an individual plant. This worked much better, and I walked around while they described the plants to me.

We then moved to the canteen area, where they were to stand in front of the class and describe the fruit they had bought with them from home. With all of the exotic fruit available, they mostly brought… apples! There were also some oranges, a lot of rambutan, one durian, and one pear. I had purchased a dragon fruit. The idea was that after their descriptions, they could eat their fruit. This activity worked very well, and the Principal also came down and took some photographs. Unfortunately I didn’t get to taste the dragonfruit, as when Puan Susan cut it up, the children descended on it! There’s always a next time :-)

Three of the boys from 3A, after their fruit demonstration.

We returned to the staffroom, and were then invited to the library, where some teachers were creating the costumes for the traditional dance some students will be performing in a competition. Teachers must have many skills beside teaching! I helped a little, but I was mostly talking to 6A, who had a lot of questions for me.

Straight after that, I went to Science with Puan Ainda. I simply helped in the class, as she had a lesson already prepared. The children were investigating the types of conditions that rust will form under. They placed paperclips in test tubes, and then covered them with water, oil, and silica gel. They will have to wait for a couple of weeks to get the results, but they predicted based on the knowledge they gained last lesson.

Girls from 5A performing the experiment.

Boys from 5A performing the experiment.

 Straight after Science was the cultural dance practice for the competition. The girls are practicing for 2 hours after school, twice a week! The teacher is from the tourism department. He was late, so they practiced another dance they had choreographed themselves – to a song called “What the Hell” by Avril Lavigne! I think the video is too large to post, sorry.

Girls in a small part of their cultural dance costumes.

After dancing, there was a 1 ½ hour break before Sport began. Erin and I said we were going to duck across the road to get something to eat (skipped lunch, another thing that teachers do). Puan Ainda spoke to another teacher, who said that over the road wasn’t very good, so she would take us to a shopping centre, where we could grab something. She told the Principal, who then suggested that the four of us go to a restaurant. After we arrived at the restaurant, four of the male teachers also came. So what started as ducking across the road turned into a full banquet meal with 8 people! Apparently this is something that happens in Malaysia. The meal was delicious; I even enjoyed the Tom Yum, which I do not like at home. Maybe I just have Malaysia goggles on, where I enjoy everything that I eat!

We only just made it back in time for sport. We did the warm-ups with the girls playing netball, then did some throwing drills with them. Some of the girls then played a game, while others played poison ball. I also played, but as I hadn’t had time to change, running in a skirt is difficult! Erin then taught them Captain Ball, while I watched the game. After netball finished, we moved on to volleyball, which had four teachers playing as well. It was all a lot of fun, and it was great to see the teachers fully involved.

Getting the netball ring.

Netball (hockey in the foreground).

Another action shot.

We then caught the bus to meet the others in Little India, but as we had already eaten, we simply had something to drink, and returned to Komtar before going home. I had lost the lens cap for my camera. I decided that I was just going to buy one from a camera shop, no darn haggling. I went it, it was 90 Ringgit, when I went to pay, he charged me 50 Rinngit! Of course, there was a reason … all of a sudden, it was important that I purchased this for my camera, and that for my camera (all from him, for a good price!). I was very good, and resisted. It helped that I was there with Anthony, and the guy was addressing all of his sales pitch to Anthony!

Anyway, back home now and tired. I learned the word for tired in Bahasa Malaysian is “penat”. This is something I will be using a lot!

Finally, something that has nothing to do with this post - where you are lucky enough to find a pedestrian crossing, they sometimes have countdown timers to tell you how long you must wait on the red, and then how long the light will be green. I love it! Be careful, however, because the motorbikes don't stop just because of some silly red light!

Countdown timer

Penang Day 7

Wow, I’m exhausted. The tour leader said it would hit us either today or tomorrow, and he was right. Began the day by playing jacks again – I think this is something I will be doing every morning. This time we moved to the stage area to read a book. Erin did the reading, while I looked at some of the other games the children were playing. One of them is a traditional Malaysian game, so I am hoping to get them to teach me how to play tomorrow.

The students are fascinated by Erin reading to them. Look at the little girl on the right!

The traditional game I hope to be able to learn.
The black counters are shaped like coffee beans, and the board is usually wooden (when played by adults)

We began the teaching day by being given extra classes, as they were short some teachers. Erin picked up an English class, and I picked up Living Skills, however, with absolutely no idea what they were learning in Living Skills, and no-one to ask, we worked on English – when were you born (months of the year). Erin taught PE, so I helped with that class. The children have their own warm-up routine that they have memorised, so that helps! Erin then ran some traditional indigenous games for them, but we had 15 minutes left at the end of the lesson. They were begging to play soccer, so that is what we did. They were adamant that each team was to have a name – one was the Super Strikers, the other was the Malaysians. Score by the end of the game: undecided. It is very difficult to be running around in the morning in the heat. I absolutely stank by the end of it, but there is nothing I can do. Deodorant only goes so far over here, even the super strength ones. I feel sorry for the other teachers that have to put up with me.

Kangaroo races Version 1

Kangaroo races Version 2!

Lunch was rice, with a chilli fish, and some Spicy Anchovies with petai. I sat with the teachers and students from the Special Education class. After lunch I taught my prepared English lesson. For the first time, the teacher stayed with me (thank you, Puan Susan!) The lesson was reasonable, but the snakes and ladders game I prepared needed some extra work – such as arrows to tell the students what direction to take around the board. I had decided to use coins as dice, with heads counting for 2 spaces, and tails counting for 1 space (it was only a small grid), however I had forgotten to organise counters for the students. They were able to use rubbers or sharpeners, but it says a lot for my lack of preparation. As I have said previously, no more going out after school. I also bought some vegetables last night, as one of the pages in their textbook was to practice saying "Is that a chilli? No it is not/Yes it is". Instead of doing it from the book, we did it with real vegetables. That went down a treat, and the children really participated well. We have a triple period tomorrow, and Puan Susan worked with me to decide what we would teach. I think between the two of us, we have come up with some good lessons, and we will be able to get them out of the classroom, which is always appreciated by the students.

We visited the library, as we have only brought a few books with us from home, so we wanted to borrow some more to read to the children in the mornings. The library has books in both Bahasa Malaysian and English. We were able to borrow a few story books. There is a big difference in the number of books in the library, compared to those in schools at home.

The entire library.

Puan Fazliani, the Librarian

After school today, they had clubs. It is compulsory for all students to join three clubs – uniform, marching and sports. The education department wants the students to be well-rounded, rather than purely focusing on a knowledge curriculum. There is a choice of Girl Guides, or Scouts or others that I have forgotten, for the uniform clubs. We attended Girl Guides, where they were learning to put up a tent! Thank goodness for those camping experiences during my schooling. The tents were actually very easy to put up. This was lucky, as we had to demonstrate it, then pull it apart 4 times to allow the girls to do it in groups.

Girl Guides Club, with a successfully erected tent!

Erin and I with Puan Nurul Ainda: Girl Guides Leader & science teacher.

Because I’m so tired, I’ve had to forgo a trip out tonight with the others. I am disappointed, but I need to get to bed, otherwise I won’t be able to go to school tomorrow. I am here for the teaching, after all, and who knows what classes I might have to suddenly teach! Preparation is everything…