Hello! Le post is going to be about my experience at Kem SKORlah (KS) which is the practical part of PSP.
Kem SKORlah (KS) is an English Camp which lasts for about 3 weeks during the school holidays and ends with the prestigious Open Day.
There were three schools for KS - PLC 2, 4 and 6 were placed in 19, PLC 3 & 5 were placed in SK and my group PLC 1 was placed in a school in Klang. (All the school's name are of acronyms or numbers to keep the privacy intact).
Our Classroom Culture setting
Weeks before KS started, we were separated within our own group and had our team members (aka collabs) who would work with you and teach the same class, set class culture and basically do everything together. This would later apply in the fellowship as well where we'll have our collabs in the same school (or not, since most of the Johor peeps are now alone).
All 63 of us had to work with our teams and come up with our classroom setting, culture, rules, deco and brainstorm ideas for activities. We also support one another in terms of lesson plans and many other miscellaneous things. I was placed with Brian and YT, and we were open to each other's ideas - taking everything into account and then weighing our options on what's feasible and what's not feasible.
This is how my team works with one another:
Brian - Our Personal Ops team (who provides every material from papers to printer to projectors) which made it easier for our team since we didn't need to go to the legit ops team at level 36 and fight for the printer every night and we didn't need to book the projectors provided.
YT - The Calm one who gets everything done in an orderly manner, checking if everything is there and what is missing.
Me - The creative juice flow?
We call it the Sampan Analogy.
We chose to name our class ALPHA! (with an exclamation mark, because I'm extra like that) after many deliberations and my team's unanimous agreement.
Why ALPHA! ?
The poster was drawn by my students, we actually split them into groups and got them to vote for each logo design and once they selected their favourite design, we transferred it to a bigger platform and made stickers out of it for them as well!
Simple, we believe that everyone's born a leader and they are capable of many things and of different aspects and just because you're not talented in a something specific, does not mean you can't contribute to the team or be a leader. Everyone is flawed but we also believe that everyone has a unique ability which somewhat complements each other's flaws.
The poster was drawn by my students, we actually split them into groups and got them to vote for each logo design and once they selected their favourite design, we transferred it to a bigger platform and made stickers out of it for them as well!
We had a choice to pick out of the four classes - Form 1 (x2), Form 2 and Form 4. We decided to go ahead with Form 2, which I deem as the year or the age where teenagers are filled with curiousity and where they begin to explore more of themselves and seek who they really are.
Materials we made for our class!
My team and I prepared - logbooks (for students to write their notes and thoughts in), activities, the roda impian for quizzes and many others. We also agreed that students are allowed to eat soft food in class as long as it does not disturb the rest.
We travelled every morning at 6 in the morning (hence waking up at around 4.30am to get ready and such) and ofcourse a 45 - 60 min ride to school with the bus provided by the ops team. The funny story is that our bus driver/bus changes nearly every single day and they get lost all the time whenever we go to school or come back from school. HAHA. To much joy for my group, ofcourse.
First days of everything is usually the day where everyone is nervous or clueless about every single thing. Since our group was the only group in the school, whilst the rest of the other groups are away. Each of us had a role and task to complete on that day itself, and I helped out with the registration table - with ofcourse my beloved Roshinee and Nicole who came on that day to help out!
The schedule for KS is pretty simple - English classes which consists of Speaking, Reading and Writing (as to which each of us will take turns to teach) and at the end, we'll have something called the English Club where we will conduct fun activities and projects for students to take ownership of their own work.
The Wheel of Fortune my team and I made for our Club Activities
I wouldn't call my teaching perfect, hell - it's far from perfect to be completely honest. I lack in so many divisions, yet I can't deny that whenever I face those kids - I ensure that I will definitely improve myself.
Just like how we fellows are supposed to take charge of assemblies everyday, we also got our students from each class each day to give out breakfast/lunch to the other students to allow them to engage with other students. Basically, to empower them into being independent with the things they do in daily life.
My student giving a speech about her experience at Kem SKORlah. Couldn't be more proud of her!
Lil' Champs class's presentation about bullying
Shooting Star's presentation about Ideal Classrooms
As part of the KS journey, students are required to present their projects (made during English Club) during open day to their parents, teachers and friends who attend. They're also required to perform something on that day as well. ALPHA!'s students are split into two groups and my class decided to present their projects on social issues - which we brainstormed together. I also encouraged them to include the use of technology into their projects and presentation, subsequently exposing them to Fintech, but I do admit that they have a long way to go.
One group focused on animal abuse and another focused on racism, they incorporated 21st century learning into their presentations and engaged with students from other classes in order to launch their project. The class also had to perform something during open day be it singing or dancing. My class decided to sing 'All for Me' by John Legend. Idek why but they chose the song (yay student empowerment).
Here's just a little sneak peak of the presentation of stakeholders going around looking at our kids projects and so on.
However, the main highlight of Kem SKORlah was our one and only WATERGUN WAR Activitty! It took a weeks time to plan (due to our busy-ness with lesson plannings and what not) and I am extremely thankful to my PLC team for being the most hardworking and the best team players any team could ever have. The preparation to get the water guns, and the sponsored water guns by one of our fellows - Rheena (who is now teaching in the South!) and getting the materials prepared for just a day's activity.
John being John and also delivering our milo and teh ais to us.
Best team anyone could ever ask for.
Getting soaked and feeling nasty after that.
Despite the challenges we had to face, the kids definitely had fun with the activity. We even got them to mix around disregarding age and race because that was our main aim of the activity - team work. That was the best feeling ever, to be able to see them run around after two weeks of studying and getting to vent out their frustrations and have fun with their peers.
After three weeks, everything had to come to an end and while not everyone is in the picture but I'm glad that these people decided to attend the camp and took their holiday time off and spend it in school. Our teachings were not perfect and I believe that my ways of teaching isn't near to perfection at all, if anything I still lack in many things. But thank you for the surprise performance, it really touched the team and I. I appreciate each and every one of you and hopefully what we have taught you has somewhat been ingrained in your brain and you guys are moving forward to improve yourselves and be better than what you think you are.
Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.
- Babe Ruth.
A quote that I have kept close to my heart and I was glad that I was able to share it with everyone. Because true to words, to try is to fail and to fail is to try. As long we keep trying, it shows growth and improvement.
It is indeed quite hard for me to put my entire feelings into words, hence the lack of updates eventhough Kem SKORlah was a few months ago. But this it. I am finally able to finish this post and put this behind me, moving forward but keeping the memories really close to me.
Signing off.
Signing off.
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