Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Journal entry 2 The impact of Teachers burn out in Elite school: personal, interpersonal and organizational factors. Teachers are often expected to correct social problems, educate students in academic and skill areas, provide enrichment activities, meet the individual needs of students with a wide range of abilities, and encourage students' moral and ethical development . . . . Human and financial resources required to meet the diverse expectations have not been forthcoming. (Maslach et al., 1996, pp. 27-28) In reality, many factors, including those mentioned above, are likely to contribute to the development of burnout. These can be grouped into three broad categories, namely, personal, interpersonal and organizational factors. The individual factors which may contribute to burnout include certain personality traits and background characteristics. For the individual teacher, feelings of burnout may result in both psychological and physical dysfunction and this may reflected in feelings of exhaustion, depression and irritability, and increased susceptibility to illness. At the interpersonal level the question of interest is directed at looking at the impact on teachers of the social environment. The nature of teachers involvement with students, colleagues, parents and members of the community are posited to affect self-perceptions of burnout. If teachers experience tensions and difficulties associated with this involvement, then this may be reflected in their behaviour towards others more specifically their colleagues. Third, at the organizational level, ways in which the school setting contributes to burnout include a lack of clarity in the definition of teachers duties, vague rules and regulations, large classes, role of media in emphasizing schools achievement. The effects of burnout at the school level may be reflected in staff turnover, absenteeism and teacher dissatisfaction. Employer contributions to burnout include poor communication and implementing decisions which affect teachers without having consulted them, inflexible policies on staffing and leave, inadequate teacher welfare services, and a general lack of formal support systems for teachers. Based on the issues discussed, the best solution is to focus on ourselves instead by fostering positivity in ourselves. Instead of focusing on the negative, I believe that we should turn our negative thoughts into positive ones. Every time we think a negative thought reward it in our own mind. If you always think about negative thoughts, that's just what you're doing to yourself. Therefore, to avoid stress and teacher burnout, we, as future teachers, should really examine the messages we are sending to ourselves about the job. For example if you keep on thinking, "This job is so hard. There are just too many demands," then you really are not giving yourself any reason not to burn out.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

I also think that it is also a good practice to consult in your colleagues about your experiences. When you choose your fellow colleagues make sure that they are close to you and preferably older in terms of teaching experience. I am sure in one way or another they themselves experienced teacher burnout and have unique ways of solving it. They are sure to be able to relate with what you are going through and can provide you with solutions that are effective for them. The drawback of this is that you need to seek your colleagues who had the same problem with yours. Finding one might be quite difficult at first but there are people out there who face the same problems such as you and are just waiting for help. i feel that through consulting with fellow colleagues, you do not just save yourself from burning out, but also them who might just be at their last straw. Personally, learning about this topic has rendered me speechless. I had always thought that teachers are always passionate about their profession. They just have to be! Well, there might be rough patches along the way but I had always believed that teachers would stand tall for all time. But now I know what I took for a teacher to be standing thus tall for a long time. Well at least until they reached the Golden Era. Nevertheless, there are always ways of preventing this from happening as suggested above. Hopefully I would burn up for a long time with these tips at hand.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Journal entry 3 Social changes in Education Poverty causes families in certain countries like India and Pakistan to send only boys for schooling. (Van Der Berg, 2008) Gender Inequality - Girls are denied education due to the belief that they are supposed to be housewives, besides preventing them to argue for their rights. (An estimated 65 million girls are being denied basic education, increasing the likelihood they will live in poverty or die young, (UNICEF, 2012). Reading these two articles, just one thing came into my mind then. WE. NEED. TO. CHANGE. Without effort being put into changing the mindsets of people around the world, women and children would always being stomped over by the men in their society. Sometimes it makes me sick that even educated people do deprive women of their deserved right to learn simply because they fear that these women might have minds on their own and create problems to the men. W omens right to have access to education is even taboo to certain culture in parts of the world. Reflecting on what I have read from the report by UNICEF, I think that the society needed to be assured that by providing equal access to education would benefit the women and the society at large. Firstly, with higher levels of education, young women will care better for their children, raising a generation that are more likely to survive, to go to school, and to be healthy. This is because they would have the knowledge about hygiene, concept of safety and would be able to take a proper care of themselves and thus the children later. Secondly, girls that continue their education at the secondary level can benefit from being a part of a community of young scholars and from a curriculum which addresses issues such as HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. This is because they would have early exposure to the effects of HIV/AIDS and how to protect themselves against these diseases. Thirdly, education would contribute to an empowering experience whereby girls recognize their rights and their ability to protect themselves from unwanted sexual advances or social pressures. Thus these women would stand a better chance to live peacefully and respectfully. In conclusion, I believe that education, formal or non-formal, is a very crucial element of humans life. We needed to have knowledge about things around us. This is so as to provide ourselves with a chance to live life as God has destined for us to live.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Journal entry 4 Leadership styles. Teachers are classroom managers and may apply different classroom management styles. (Ekici, 2004) Teachers, as the primary authority in the classroom, are entitled to choose to apply whichever classroom management styles theyd prefer. Most of the time, teachers opt for authoritative as it ensures total submission of the students to teachers place as the master in the classroom. Sometimes, teachers adopt this management style throughout the schooling period and even throughout the schooling year. Based on my own experience as a student, I had encountered teachers who adopted this management style throughout their teaching career. However, the teacher was perceived as unreachable and cold. Now as a student, dealing with distant teacher is a trying time for me as I rarely get to have my say in anything happening in the classroom. it also demotivates me as I feel that I could not connect to the teacher and make the teacher see that I could not understand what they are teaching. Now coming back to 2012, when I learn about the different leadership styles (or classroom management style), I feel like i could connect to the teachers during my schooling years. Some opt to be autocratic, while others democratic and a few laissez-faire. But to practice these styles on its own is not a very clever move. This is because certain leadership style would suit perfectly on certain situation, thus making the teacher seemed professional and caring of the students welfare at the same time. For example, when asserting punishment on misbehaving students, teachers should adopt the autocratic leadership style and opt for democratic leadership style when negotiating with the students about the classroom election. I would hope that once I become a teacher, I would be able to know when to adopt which leadership style during the lesson. I do not what to demotivate my future students just because I choose to opt for the easy way out by demanding the students attentions with unnecessary power show.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Journal entry 5 Teachers misconducts. I am always fascinated by the news on teachers misconduct exposed by the media. Somehow it pricks my conscience when teachers, who were hold with the highest esteem by the society, would betray the societys trust and become the trouble-maker instead. One example is a teacher who beat his male student to death when he is supposed to be protecting him and not forgetting, he is the warden of the students hostel. Yet, he decides to ruin the students life by letting his mind to be clouded by his emotion. My personal opinion is that these kinds of teachers are not fit to teach, and that they really should repent, because they are not passionate about their work and they see the students as property rather than human being to be loved and cherished for what they are. Some people would say that the teachers are blinded by lust or greed or whichever one of the 7 deadly sins that is relevant and they could not make rational judgement at that point of time, but I think that whenever you let yourself be ruled by those emotions, youre are risking your students future as well. So, you really need to try to remain calm amidst the storm of emotions within you. Reflecting on my own being, I found that yes I to have the capacity to act out those emotions impulsively. And yes, everyone is capable of stopping themselves just in time before you act upon you anger or lust. I sincerely hoped that I could be those with those capability because I really love this profession and I could not imagine myself as anything but an educator. This is because I strive to become a murabbi just like my idol and would really hate to meet him one day and be ashamed of myself for not coming up to his example.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

Journal entry 6 Reflection on the course so far. Teaching, as I see it, is like taking a walk in a forest. There is a lot to be seen and learnt about from the walk. I might stumble upon fallen trees, steep walkways, unwanted visitors, and unexpected cliffs. However, in order for me to be able to explore the forest, I had to be prepared with required knowledge and sufficient gadgets to get me through. Should I come to a moment when these items I have prepared proved to be useless and I am in the situation that is foreign to me, I must be ready to be creative and adaptive to the situation. From my perspective, the obstacles I might found during my journey equals to the challenges that would lie in front of me throughout my teaching career. So, I have to be creative and adaptive to situations that might be new to me. In truth, sometimes I do not feel really ready to face the fresh faces of eager students hunger for and curious about the world around them. I always believe that an effective teaching and learning means that the teacher is the captain of her field and the students are the spectators who learn from what the teacher preaches. This understanding were supported by my own personal experience as a student and based on my own interpretation of teacher-centred strategy that, based on my shallow experience, seemed successful on its own. Now I see that the strategy should only be used in certain aspect of teaching and learning context. I used to think that being a teacher, especially an ESL teacher, means that I really have to be very good in English subject. Even when I started my degree year, I still believe that I just had to be very excellent in my grammar and writing essays, then I would have a smooth sailing career. However, during my encounter with unit such as Professional Development, I found that, there is a lot more aspect that I had to be good at in order for me to be a good English teacher. Fortunately throughout my journey in this course, I discovered more and more interesting and trenchant teaching methods that help to eradicate my previous belief. There are several theories that really help shaped my teaching principles, which was then strengthened through the assistance of this unit. I begin to realise that teaching in general is hard enough, but teaching language is another story. From theorists such as Vygotsky, Piaget and B. F. Skinner, I disclosed that apart from being a knowledgeable teacher, a teacher needs to know their students as well and be passionate about teaching. One of my principles of teaching that has been shaped by this course is that I am not alone in teaching. As asserts by Creese (2005), the aim of teaching partnership is to

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

change the mainstream classroom to a place where different expertise were brought together to benefit the diverse learning needs found there. Therefore, teaching partnership is a very important teaching strategy in which teacher collaborates with other teachers, parents and/or volunteers to bring into the class experts to assist the teacher and the students with their knowledge and skills. This strategy is an essential aspect of pedagogy for EFL primary context because by having assistance from another experts in certain fields, teacher will gain more information about the topics themselves besides exposing the students to the experts and providing the students with opportunities to be assisted directly the these experts in doing tasks. Back in Brisbane, I was amazed by partnerships that the class teacher had with her teacher aides and volunteering parents in the classroom. This changes my view on teaching where I used to view teaching as a 'one-man' profession. During school visits in Brisbane as well, there are evidences suggesting that teaching partnership is indeed an effective strategy that should be applied in Malaysian primary classroom context. I am fascinated by the fact that young learners there were exposed to this teaching strategy and show great participation in class and better understand of the topics learned. This reminded me of Malaysian educational philosophy that aims at integrating language skills across subjects, be it mathematics, science or music. Thus, this teaching strategy is one of the steps that could be taken in moving forward to achieving the aim. Teaching partnership bring about a lot of benefits to young learners in primary schools in Malaysian. This is because young learners are often curious about topics that they are learning. So, it the teacher themselves are not very familiar or have in depth knowledge of the topic, they might face problem in explaining certain concepts or even telling the wrong information. Thus, employing teaching partnership is the best way of providing the reliable source of information besides giving the teacher confidence in teaching the topics as they will have an expert to fall back on to. From my observation, teaching partnership is a suitable for Malaysian primary classroom context because as classrooms in Malaysia are quite large in terms of the number of students per class, individual teacher faces difficulties in catering to the students' needs as they will need to abandon some students' needs in catering another. Thus, by employing this strategy in Malaysian classroom, both teachers could cater to specific students' needs and paying more attention to their learning ability and weaknesses. Young learners, especially, requires more attention from the teacher as they are in a very active stage of acquiring and constructing knowledge. Through teaching partnership, teachers in primary classrooms will have more opportunity to observe and facilitate these young learners.

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

I hope in the future, teaching partnership could be implemented in my classroom as it would benefit not only the teacher, but also the students. However, one important lesson that I have learnt from my action research is that I must be skilful at questioning students in engaging them to learn. Myhill (2006) pointed that teacher may construct questions prior to lesson but they must also be flexible in expanding subsequent questions to support learning, should there be need. This was also supported Black and William (1998) in Myhill and Dunkin (2005, that it is important for teachers to have effective questioning strategies that would help students to understand better. I now understand that I should not ask questions to students just for the sake of asking questions. This is because from my experience, wrong questions during lesson would lead to students misbehaving and losing focus in class. Through my experience in teaching small groups of young learners, I learn that I have a lot more to learn in terms of scaffolding students to, not only support them in learning, but also motivate them to learn. I need to be able to encourage students to think and challenge their mind so that they would continue to be eager to learn. One more aspect of teaching that I had discovered to be very helpful for teacher, especially those teaching young learners is that learning does not only mean chalk and talk, but also play. Thomas (1999) also emphasises on the need for teacher to motivate the young learners, to construct their own knowledge, by tailoring the activities that the children perceive as play. Besides that, Jensen in Woolworth (2010) also suggested that body and brain shuts down when human sits for a long period of time, thus leading to lower motivation and engagement in learning. This is also supported by Waite-Stupiansky and Findlay (2001) in Woolworth (2010), who the further explain that physical movement fuels oxygen to brain and causes mood-enhancing chemical to be released, hence, learners will be able to master new ideas and retain old information as they become more attentive in learning and less fidgety. Therefore, as children grow older and their brain develops, they can have a greater ability to take control of both their thinking and their learning (Bodrova & Leong (2009) in Woolworth, 2010). Coming to what I would perceive as my final hours of preparing myself to be an effective teacher, I believe that along this 3 and a half years of studying in this course, generally, had had much impact in how I would vision my future class would be. To conclude this reflection, my experiences of observing real teachers teaching had given me insights on what teachers are facing in classrooms both in Australia and Malaysia. I hope that I would improve on how I would teach a class by employing collaboration with my colleague, which I

Amira Najat Binti Mohd Noor [Year]

believe would be everyone in this wonderful cohort, games as part of my teaching aid, and use scaffoldings that invite students into getting involved in their learning process. References Creese, A. (2005). Teacher collaboration and talk in multilingual classroom. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Myhill, D., & Dunkin, F. (2005). Questioning Learning. Language & Education 9(5). Retrieved April 10th, 2011 from https://cmd.library.qut.edu.au/download/EDB010/EDB010_AR_213244.pdf Myhill, D. (2006). Talk, talk, talk : Teaching and learning in whole class discussion. Research paper in education, 21 (1). Retrieved April 13th, 2011 from http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/doc/t/talktalk.doc Woolworth, E. E. (2010) Effects of Movement breaks on students' attention. Retrieved April 13th, 2011 from http://www.cu portland.edu/coe/thesis/documents/emily%20woolworth%20action%2.pdf