IEP - How I see it...

When I first started IEP @ Ilham, my goals were simple.

1) To inspire interest in learning English
2) To boost self-esteem and confidence
3) To encourage an avenue for expression of creativity
4) To improve the level of English

ps: in order of priority

What were my target areas?

1) Creative Thinking
2) Speaking and Pronunciation
3) Reading & Vocabulary

Why I wanted to do it?

I wanted the kids to be exposed to the English Language at an early age...

I wanted them to have an early introduction to public speaking even if it's just amongst those in the classroom, have the courage to present to others in English... have the initiative inside of them to step up and shine from the rest...

I wanted them to enjoy learning the English Language and enjoy learning in genereal... with the hope that they will want to improve their English and other subjects after what they've gone through during IEP Classes...

I wanted my friends and their friends and their friends of friends to join me in volunteering :)

I also wanted the kids to know that there are some of us out there, strangers in fact that care for them and want to see them grow...

I even had this big silly dream that one day, one of them would turn out a very successful man and he'd remember me and the rest of the volunteers as those who taught him that LEARNING IS FUN... hehe...

You see, all this was what I had in mind for IEP... I believe that this was even communicated to the Ilham's Management even before we started IEP in 2004... And whenever there were new volunteers who were interested to join us, the first thing I would say to them is that - "IEP is not like normal classroom teaching, the kids get that in school anyway! IEP is about exposure and confidence building... We learn more when we have a bit of fun along with it"...

You have to remember, that we are not teachers, we are facilitators... For example, I have a degree in Computer Science, not in teaching... So I don't think I'm qualified to be called a teacher :) But like me, the volunteers like to share their knowledge with the kids... and I think they're great at it too!!

Yes, I have to admit that along the way there were some frustrations on my part especially when I was asked to justify why the kids' results/grades were not improving. Yes, it was also a bit frustrating sometimes to see the kids giggling away when you have something important for them to learn and yes, it was very frustrating when there were times you feel your efforts in getting people to come together to be there with the kids were not appreciated by some...

But at the end of the day, I'm not doing it for myself. I'm not doing it to be praised on how wonderful I organised the classes with the other volunteers, I'm not doing it to be known... I'm just doing it because I want to... because I know in some way or another, it is helping the kids grow...

To me, grade isn't everything... I got good grades when I was in school but I didn't get enough exposure in public speaking until I got to Uni... and to me, it would have been a lot easier handling presentations if I had that early exposure... It would have come to me naturally if I was trained since young, I guess...

For the sake of sharing, we did have a list of activities structured out for the IEP kids developed from research based on the school syllabus, on best methods of teaching school kids etc.. done by myself and another friend. The plan was so that we had an inventory of activities: the what, the how, the materials needed etc so that anyone who could make it for class that night can just grab it and run it... but at some point last year when there were consistent change in volunteers, also the lack of time to prepare (do understand that most of us are working people) it was difficult to sustain the plan... Most of the activities became adhoc with little preparations yet they still achieved the objectives set!! That's all that matters...

You must be wondering why I'm writing this?

Well, I'm just writing this to answer some of your questions out there? For example:

How long have you conducted IEP? Have their grades improved? What are you guys doing about it? Do you have modules to teach them? Do you follow school syllabus? Is it difficult to teach? Are you qualified to teach? Do you have plans to continue and the list goes on...

Well, unfortunately a lot of people look at grades for an instant measure of success. I can't deny it is a measure but it is definitely not the only measure of success.

It has come yet to another end of IEP for the year. I'm not sure of the plans for the future but I would very much love to know if anyone would like to volunteer to carry on with what some of us have started here and take up the challenge to make it better... It can be a great opportunity to enhance your facilitation skills especially around kids... and of course there will be some coordination work needed between Ilham's Management and the Volunteers... Anyone up for it?

Listen... Listen!

Abang Bigg and Abang Jeri came up with the lesson plan for tonight. We played the "Whispering Game". Two groups were formed - the Autobots and Decepticons (yeah - Transformers Fever going around at the moment kan :))

Each group had to stand in a straight line. The first group member were given specific sentence to pass to their friends in a whispering mode. One group member at a time, the first to the second person, second to third and so on. At the end of the line, the last group member will have to come to the front and write down what the message or sentence is. The group with the right sentence or the closest to the original sentence collects points.

First sentence

Original: "I'm a Hero, are you?"
Autobots: "Macha, how are you?"
Decepticons: "I'm a Zero"

Second Sentence

Original: "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day"
Autobots: "Today, Nizam celebrated"
Decepticons: "Today is a Saturday"

Third Sentence

Original: "Here I come, there you go"
Autobots: "Hey, I come alone"
Decepticons: "Here I come, .........." oops, sorry I can't remember what was their answer - someone help me out here please

I think it's better that Abang Jeri or Abang Bigg update this entry, I was busy trying to get the message through to Alan that there are times when we need to keep quiet and listen (as he was very naughty tonight and was talking non-stop and not listening to instructions at all!) I wasn't really paying attention and keeping score. (Abang Jeri/Bigg, please help me out here :))

Well, funny thing tonight was that at 9.45pm all the kids disappeared... Getting them to go is usually very difficult, but tonight it was the opposite! You want to know why? They had DURIANs for supper. So at the ring of the bell, all of them rushed to the canteen to get their share of DURIANs!! It was so funny, as Abang Jeri was explaining something, he turned back and the kids were GONE!

They came back 10 minutes later with their durian smelling hands and sat with us to wrap up. Each of them smelled of DURIAN!!

We had Abang Acat with us again tonight - Cool! but he had to leave early. We also had Kak Nurina (Abang Jeri's colleague), Abang Jeri, Abang Bigg,Abang Akash, Kak Zaza and Abang Lie - All quite relunctant to salam with the durian smelling hands of the adik2.. hehe..

Hopefully, they learn a thing or two about paying attention and listening to others and the consequences of not doing so, especially little Mr Alan!!

come read with me..

it was another session of the extra reading class for the 'not so tere' kids. i found this website which has some good materials on teaching kids how to read through phonics. it has a simple and nice layout which was most pleasing and enticing for the kids. so i brought a laptop and went through some of the lesson plans with the kids.

i noticed that rafie was having some trouble with the simplest of words and upon further probing i found out that he mixes up some of the letters. b and d. p and q. a sign of dyslexia. need to be a little bit more patient with him.

well i really need to familiarize myself with some of the techniques to teach kids with special needs. would really appreciate any suggestions that ya'll got to offer.

the lion, the mouse and the narrator..

well yesterday we introduced the kids to some acting. bet and alia got the kids a script. we divided them into groups of threes and we had them practice their lines and then act it out in front of the class. given the short time, we didn't expect them to memorize their lines la but they did give a good attempt at it.

the play was supposed to be done via puppets but we modified it a bit. its that timeless tale of the mouse and the lion. i think everyone knows the story right? little mouse caught by lion. lion lets him go because the mouse was funny. the mouse returned the favour when the lion was caught in a trap. moral of the story, being little doesn't stop u from doing big things.. hehe well that was my take on it.

we did a quick round of voting to see who played the fiercest lion, the most timid of mices and the most serious narrator. hehe the kids were hilarious.



for the session, we also introduced a smile points system (not at all associated with esso or mobil). where for every time the kids speak in english, we will give them a smiley face. at the end of the class the kid with the most smilies will get a prize. well that got them excited. fikry was the one with the most smilies in the end. 21 smilies!!