Weekly Journal ~week 9~

WEEKLY JOURNAL

WEEK 9 (12^th September – 16^th September  2011)

1.0       Masalah / Isu

Teaching is regarded as a noble profession. In Malaysian society, people usually look up to teachers, especially kids. They seem to think that whatever the teachers say is right, even sometimes teachers get it wrong. The profession itself is maybe not as glamorous as doctor, engineer or architect, who pays lucrative salary, but it is a teacher who helps in shaping a child's future. The demands for teachers in Malaysia are still high, especially for critical subjects such as English and Mathematics, and the government is working hard to make sure that the demands are met. I myself is a teacher trainee, and on my way to becoming an English teacher. I always question myself how to be a good teacher seems there is much workload for teachers. Teachers do not only need to perform in the class, but they need to be mothers or fathers to their pupils when the pupils are seeking for attention, they need to be a clerk to do so many administration work and they need to be a planner to plan their pupils’ potential is academically inclined or not.

2.0       Analisis (Apakah punca masalah)

Teachers are burdened with so many tasks and need to be completed in the minimum time duration. Time constraint is the major problem faced by the teachers to complete the task within the range time given. As for example, an English teacher will not only be a teacher who teach English in the class, but she will be a head of English panel, a librarian, a committee of Nilam programme, a committee of Standard Kualiti Pengurusan Malaysia, a committee of discipline, a class teacher, advisor of Uniform unit, advisor of club and a committee of school’s sports day. Sometimes teachers need to come to school at night for activities such as Solat Hajat, school’s camping and tuition. As for teachers, pupils and school are their first priority. My mentor was a ‘Guru Cemerlang’ before and she told me tasks and works will not come to end.

3.0       Cadangan untuk memperbaiki / Alternatif

I myself experienced it when I was a Guru Sandaran Tidak Terlatih before. I had a lot of job specifications and really understand this situation and regarding to this, I will always seek for the best time management to accomplish the entire task within the time given. In house training focusing on the time management for teachers is such a good way to improve teachers’ time management because teachers are not only responsible to their duty at school but also at home. Teachers are always asked to do the task in teamwork. Teamwork does help much to accomplish variety job specification. Tony Swainston (2008) in Effective Teachers in Secondary Schools state that teamwork between school colleagues, including support staff and others in the school community, is necessary to ensure an integrated and coherent approach that make sense to pupils and facilitates their learning. United we stand, divided we fall means that we should cooperate to ensure the things that we work on will meet the expectation. Besides that, teachers should always think positive of their responsible and sincere to carry out their duty. This will help teachers to be more motivated to carry out their duty and will not feel they are burdened with the tasks. 

4.0       Tempoh masa

The tasks will not be reduced or thrown away. It must be completed as told to do so. During my practicum, I should complete all pending work before final week of my practicum to prevent a heap of work load that I need to carry on my shoulder. I knew that if I fail to do all the pending tasks, I am going to feel so stressed out due to the work load that I need to fulfill during my practicum. My failure could affect me physically and emotionally because I need to double up my effort to finish all urgent work.

5.0       Tindakan susulan

As the teacher-to-be, I should prepare myself to enrich my knowledge and my skills to ensure that I would be ready to face the challenges in the education field. As mentioned earlier, it takes time to be a great teacher. I will continue to do more research from the reference books and the internet to find the best way to prepare myself to be a good teacher. I will also continue to seek help and support from my lecturer, my mentor, the senior teachers or those who are more experienced, to discuss on how to carry out the tasks effectively..

6.0       Kesimpulan/ Harapan

As for me, I really hope that I will gain as much experiences as possible during my practical programme. After I finish this KPLI programme, I will adapt the experiences and the knowledge that I collect during my practicum. I hope that I could be a good teacher and carry out my responsibilities along my journey as a teacher.