Remembering Why I Came Here

So, I have started my second week of teaching with renewed energy and vigor. During my first few weeks in this country, the name of the game was negotiation, adjustment and gaining knowledge. But when I entered that classroom for the first time… why I remembered why I came here in the first place! Teaching is invigorating, exciting and a complete adrenal rush – you are on your toes attempting to control a classroom, help students, answer questions, perform in front of the class and try to get out before you hit the time limit. Today, I had a Form 1 class (13 year olds) that I also had last Sunday, on my first day of teaching. This class was one that I branded as “petrified” and “deer in the headlights”. Therefore you can imagine my delight when I heard the class speaking up eagerly today to define words – heck they even screamed out English words during a game of Pictionary.

Sure, teaching is scary stuff, and this is coming from me, who was absurdly quiet during classes in high school and scared of talking in front of large groups for much of my life. But, ever since I’ve gotten here, I’ve been put on display and watched with delight by all the students and teachers so much that I’ve almost gotten used to being center stage as the loveable, silly American girl from California. So, I figure that I might as well have fun and talk, joke and sing while I’m under the spotlight in the classroom! (I think that the students today were particularly amused when I started dancing around the classroom in an attempt to define the word “ballerina”.)

One especially cool thing about this job is that I’m like the “fun Aunt” when it comes to teaching English. I’m certainly not a qualified teacher, English or otherwise, so I don’t have the heavy responsibility that the other English teachers have – to prepare them for the national exams and get them through the syllabus. I’m the “fun Aunt” that gets to play English games with the students throughout the whole period! Pretty good deal, doing all the fun parts of teaching with little of the stress. To the left is a picture of some of the teachers at my school, taken during "Sports Day" here at the school.

Bless the magic of a routine! There are still some basic things that I am lacking and trying to get, but the beauty of routines and habits to ease chaotic situations has not been lost on me. There are definitely some perks about living on campus, my favorite being rolling out of bed at 6:55am, getting ready in 15 minutes (or even 10 minutes when I’m really sleepy!) and then walking onto the campus about 5 minutes later. I’ve also learned that I can block almost anything (aka high school girls screaming and playing into the night) with my lovely ipod, so I often fall asleep listening to my music on shuffle. Pure awesome.

I have been having a lot of fun learning Bahasa Melayu, and have been practicing with everyone, including my students outside the classroom. I’m even starting to make friends with the workers at the school and they thoughtfully use their basic English on me, while I answer back with my shaking Malay. Today, I even had my first full Bahasa Melayu conversation with one of the lunch ladies at my canteen (the lunch workers are some of the nicest people that I’ve ever met), though it was limited and I had to throw in some English words every now and then. But it was certainly progress!

I think that the kids are really starting to get attached to me. Their faces fall when they realize that I won’t be there tomorrow, or in this case, when I say that I won’t be there for another few more weeks (I’m teaching Form 2 – 14 year olds – next week). It’s hard not to love these students.