Happy Monday!

I was going to title this blog post "A Wonderful Start to the Week" but as I skimmed through my previous posts I realized I had already titled a post that a few months ago. That quickly brings me to the main point of this post.... I continue to feel so blessed to be working at a job that a truly love... where I look forward to work and to Monday's.

The past two weeks we have been on semester break so that made this Monday even more exciting. I hadn't seen most of the kids in a little over two weeks and I really missed them. With the start of the new semester today came new books and new lessons to teach. I am happy to be teaching something new but especially in the 5 year old class this comes with added (personal) pressure. This is the time in their school where the 5 year olds are really taught to read. We are now starting the transition of reading words. By now they should have a pretty decent understanding of what sound each letter of the alphabet makes and now its just putting the sounds together to make a word. I am pleased to report that the first day went surprisingly well. I was pretty shocked but the kids caught on very quickly. I really hope that it sticks and the children continue to absorb the information as well as they did today.

Overall today was about as perfect as days come. It was a laid back and fun day filled with happy, eager to learn, laughing and smiling children. The kids were all well behaved and seemed to take in what I was teaching them faster than normal. After school I quickly set up for my afternoon tutoring class and then went out for lunch with Principal. Then it was time for my afternoon class. My Monday/Wednesday class is my more advanced class and they are very chill and lots of fun. Even though they are more advanced and their English is pretty good it continues to be rewarding for me when they understand me clearly... and as the children have gradually gotten comfortable speaking more English with me. It's also fun to see what English they pick up from me. They especially like the word "silly" and use it often now.

After the tutoring class finished I worked a little more with Adam on his reading and then walked him home. Then I went back to school and did a little more work. Principal and two of her daughters, Ivy (18) and Kristy (9) also came over to school. Principal did work, Ivy did school work and Kristy was nice enough to help me with a craft for the children. Then I went to Principal's for dinner. We all weren't too hungry so we made our own dinner and I made peanut butter and jelly on toasted bread. Wow, it was delicious. Haha... I'm sure that sounds funny, but I can't remember the last time I've had PBJ.

You may be reading this and thinking that this doesn't sound like an overly special day or not enough to be a perfect day. The reason it I said this is because it was just so normal and relaxed. And, of course, because I was so happy to see the children. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the day... even now as I sit here on Principal's couch.... my eyes starting to feel heavy as I listen to them speaking Chinese. I am savoring all of my time I have left with my family and I so love being around them and just being part of the family. They are all so special to me.

The perfect ending to the day is that I just checked online and my parent's flight has safely reached Hong Kong! As I write this my parents are in Hong Kong! My parents are in the same time zone as me. It's crazy for me to think that they're on my side of the world now :) They will spend the next day and a half in Hong Kong and then arrive in Malaysia early evening on Wednesday. I can't wait to see them and to have them be part of my life here.

I apologize that I have not been making many posts the last few months. At the beginning of this year abroad I had it in my mind to post a few blogs a week. But then life happens and a month passes before I am able to sit down and write a blog. As I begin my last six weeks in Malaysia I am going to try to write a post a week instead of writing in my journal that day. I hope this finds you all happy and healthy and having a wonderful Monday!

In the Mindset of a Teacher

Even though May marks the ninth month for me as a teacher I often forget that I really am a teacher. I think this is mainly because I mostly think of myself as a YAGM volunteer and not as a teacher. But even if I am not completely used to the title of teacher I certainly am getting into the teacher mindset. I say this because the highlight of last week and this week has been that Adam got 100% on his weekly spelling tests. Adam is one of my favorite boys who is in the 6 year old class and who comes to my afternoon tutoring class.

The 6 year old children take weekly English, Malay and Chinese spelling tests. It is not part of my teaching responsibilities to teach them their spelling and until recently I didn't pay too much attention to it. However a few weeks ago I happened to look at Adam's spelling book (the notebook that he does all of his spelling tests in) I flipped back and look at the previous seven spelling tests. He had not got a single word right. This did not make me too happy. I didn't know how it was possible. I asked his teacher if she talked to his parents. She said no she didn't but that the parents had to sign each page to show that they had seen it. Sure enough, there was a signature on each page. I stormed down to Principal's office to show her. I just couldn't believe that Adam was doing so poorly. Yes, she knew. She said Adam just doesn't do that well in school. Ha... well if there isn't a comment like that to spark my "I'll prove you wrong" attitude.

I got the list of weekly spelling words for the rest of the semester from his teacher and I started working with Adam regularly on the spelling words. It definitely was not easy at first. I would say the words and then sound out every letter. It took lots of practice that was tiring for both of us. After a week of working on the words Adam took his spelling test... they have their English spelling test on Tuesday. Adam got one word right. I was very pleased with this. It was progress. I thought... okay I'll work to aim for one more word right every week. Again we worked hard and he took the next spelling test... only one word right. This time I was a bit disappointed, but I made sure to still give Adam positive feedback. I thought we were working about has hard as we could so I didn't do too much to change our studying. Again we worked hard studying the spelling words. This time there were seven words instead of the normal six. Now Adam was starting to get much more comfortable with it. When I would quiz him he would finish writing a word and then say another word and right it. I felt like he was definitely improving. On Tuesday mid morning I went to check his spelling test.... 100%!! I was ecstatic and so was Adam. He went from seven weeks of getting no words right, to two weeks of one word right to getting all of the words right! After school he came to my office.... he was ready for his new spelling words. Wow... and I was prepared to take a break that day since he had just taken his test. Yesterday he took his English spelling test.... another 100%. I couldn't be more proud. This is certainly what it feels like to be a teacher and it is very nice to see such improvements far more quickly that I anticipated. Adam is so pleased with himself that he is doing well and since I have started working with him I have seen his confidence rise quite a bit. I have even been in contact with his mom and she has thanked me for working extra with him. She works very long hours and doesn't have much time to work with him. What makes me just as happy as the 100% is the fact that Adam enjoys spelling now. Every day he asks to practice spelling. Now principal wants me to start working on his Malay spelling because apparently he needs to improve in that as well. I am going to try to squeeze it in but the next two weeks they have eight and then nine spelling words so we still have to continue to work hard on the English spelling. Next weeks spelling words are definitely the hardest yet... bank, sink, trunk, pink, drink, king, ring and sing. However we started working on them yesterday and as of today (Wednesday) I think he knows most of them already. So I am hoping for another 100%.

I have also been working a little on spelling in my afternoon tutoring class and I have a spelling progress chart for the children. When they get 100% on their English spelling test they get to put up a star next to their name. All of the children have improved since I stared this a few weeks ago.

I also continue to feel more in the teacher mindset as I progressively grow harder on myself. I really want the children to learn. I am often thinking of new ways to motivate the children to learn. At this point I have my style of teaching as set as I am going to considering that I'm leaving in three months. But of course, for the children to learn they have to be motivated to learn.

The hardest thing about my mindset now is that I continue to see how much improvement I can have when I work more individually with the children... Adam being an excellent example. Many of the students who aren't at the top of the class simply need more time and attention and when they get that they begin to excel faster. However... there are 150 students at the kindergarten and there are only so many hours in the day. I remind myself that although I can't make as much progress as I would if I worked with them each individually they are all still improving quite a bit. In the mornings before schools starts I assess all of the 6 year olds individually in their reading. This is part of my job and I really enjoy it because I do get to work one on one with the children. This is also rewarding because I can see that they really are learning and often more than I may realize.

I think it is pretty important teaching children at this age since it is the building blocks for everything else. I feel pretty lucky that I get to mold these children's brains... and especially these children who are all so amazing.

Highlights from a Good Week

Here are some highlights from my past week...

This week I started tutoring my favorite little boy Datu Afif. For those of you who receive my newsletters, I wrote about him in my February newsletter. He is 5 years old and quite the cutie. I will be tutoring him from 5 pm - 6pm every Tuesday and Thursday. This past Wednesday morning when his dad dropped him off at school he started crying... rare, I don't think I've ever seen him cry. Principal and his dad were talking to him in Malay and I couldn't understand... but I heard them say the word tutoring. After his dad took him to class I asked Principal what the problem was and if he had enjoyed being tutored the day before.... I was a little worried maybe he didn't like it, or it was too much pressure or something. She laughed and said, "Well he said he didn't want to come to school anymore, he just wanted to be tutored!" Hahaha... so cute! :) I went to his class to check on him after his dad left and he was completely fine... so that was good.

Thursday was our second tutoring session we review the letters b and c. When we were learning b I taught him the word boy and explained that he was a boy and I was a girl. Since girl didn't start with b or c, I only said it that once and didn't repeat it again. At the end of tutoring I took a picture of the two of us (pictured above). He asked to me to show him the picture and when I did he pointed to himself and said "boy" then pointed to me and said "girl" I was so proud! Up until now he hasn't seemed to have the greatest memory but maybe with some one-on-one attention it will be a lot better. I'm also looking forward to see how much progress I can make with him in the next few months. He is pretty much at the beginning... barely knows any English... and this is my first time giving one-on-one tutoring which is what I think I enjoy the most. So we'll see! So far it's great.

On Thursday afternoon got the craving for grilled cheese. So I asked Principal to take me to the store and said I'd make dinner for the family. So I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Jennifer and Ivy, Principal's daughters (ages 19 and 17) were so excited because they play the Sims game on their computer and they said they always feed there people grilled cheese but they didn't know what it was... it just sounded good to them :) Haha... I honestly didn't think Principal and her family would like it because people do not eat cheese here but they actually really enjoyed it and want me to make it again. It was delicious (although the cheese doesn't compare) and a nice dinner to have!

Happy Palm Sunday!

So Many Languages

Last night Principal, her daughters and I went to the beach for dinner. Delicious food + a beautiful sunset = my favorite place to eat in KK. While enjoying the view and the sunset we had an interesting conversation about what it's like growing up learning three languages as Principal's daughters, Jennifer, Ivy and Kristy did. After living here for almost seven months it still amazes me to hear someone quickly switch from speaking Malay, to Mandarin and then to English. It's something I hear pretty regularly so I feel I shouldn't be so awe struck anymore, but as I struggle to learn one foreign language the fact that everyone I'm around regularly speaks three languages still seems pretty incredible. I asked the girls what it was like growing up with parents whose first languages are different. Principal's husband is Malay and he doesn't know how to speak Mandarin, which is Principal's first language. The girls said that since they didn't know anything else, it was pretty regular. Their dad always spoke Malay to them and so they have always spoken Malay with him... and their mom always spoke Mandarin to them so they have always spoken Mandarin with her... and I witness that's how it is to this day. It's fun to observe but I will admit as I try to learn the languages (mainly Malay) it has its moments of frustration. The whole family knows English well but they only speak it when I'm around.

It's also amazing to me that Principal's husband (I call him Uncle) doesn't speak Mandarin...although he can understand quite a bit, he doesn't speak it. From what I've observed the majority language spoken in their home is Mandarin. I laughed when Jennifer said that sometimes when Uncle is scolding Kristy (age 9) she will mumble Mandarin under her breath. I would think that it would be quite frustrating living having your daughters and wife usually speaking a language you can't speak... but Principal and the girls said it doesn't really bother him.

Not only is the language barrier an interesting dynamic in the family life here but also it's also something I enjoy observing in the school. At our school most of the children come to us knowing two languages well... whether it's Mandarin and Malay, or Mandarin and English or Malay and English. Often when a teacher is just generally speaking to the class she will say most things in two languages, sometimes all three. The curriculum and weekly schedule is set up as such that the teachers have different parts of the day when they are to be speaking one given language to the students and it rotates through out the week. For example during snack time on Monday the teachers only speak Mandarin to the students... on Tuesday they only speak Malay and on Wednesday only English. All general parts of the school day are scheduled this way. The teachers actually have a set number of minutes they are suppose to speak each language to the students every week.

Recently I have begun to feel like the students are really beginning to grasp the idea of English. As their English teacher this is obviously a very rewarding feeling. It is absolutely incredible to me how quickly their young brains can absorb a new language. They seem to progressively understand me better and are starting to speak with me more and more. As I learn more Malay I am able to understand when they speak to me in Malay and then translate it to English for them.

It's safe to say I am fully enjoying the opportunity to be around people speaking three different languages and I look forward to see how much further the children's English skills will progress.

A Wonderful Start to the Week

This week is a holiday break for the school. There isn't any holiday but we can't really call is Spring break because there is no such thing as Spring here! I am looking forward to having the week to relax and catch up on life and lesson plans... but I am already missing the children.

Today, I decided to go downtown KK to a coffee shop and get caught up on emails and work on my newsletter. To get downtown I take the public bus, which is about a 15/20 minute drive depending on traffic. As usual I got on the bus at the stop closest to my house. At the following stop a Muslim women got on the bus, sat next to me and quickly started up a conversation. At first I was caught off guard because her English was so good. Of course, she asked where I was from and what I was doing in Malaysia. She was such a sweet lady; she talked to me for the rest of the ride to KK. She told me about her family and her job as a primary school teacher (children age 10). She told me about her home town, a remote village with no running water and electricity. She told me about the families and children that lived there now and how hard their lives are; that they struggle to get food. I felt pretty touched that she felt so comfortable sharing so much with me and the unexpected conversation on the bus certainly brightened my morning. It reminded me that you never know what your day holds and who you will find a companion in.

Although, I have only had someone talk to me on the bus on one other occasion, this is a perfect example of how friendly the people of KK are. I stick out like sore thumb here and I get starred at quite a bit, but usually if I look at the people starring they will smile back at me. Now and then people will strike up conversations with me and I always enjoy the opportunity to learn more about KK and Malaysia through another persons eyes.

Happy Monday!

2 pictures from my day

I have to apologize for not posting a blog recently. I will admit that the main reason is because I keep thinking the next post I made needed to be something extravagant since I haven't posted in such a long time. However, I am realizing now, that this is a blog and there is no need for that. As always there is no way for me to easily share every part of my life here and I can't always keep everyone up to speed on everything. The main purpose of this blog is just to share fun little stories and reflections about my life here.

So I simply want to share two pictures with you from my day today. The first picture is of Nureen. As you can see she is on the swings at our school playground and she is reading a book. I took the picture at my afternoon tutoring class. I always give the children time to play on the playground, which for most of the kids seems to be the highlight of the afternoon. However, Nureen is usually a bit more quiet and often prefers to sit next to me and read. Today she decided to play and read. She first spent a few minutes sitting on the slide reading and then when I swing opened up, she swung and read for a good ten minutes. It was a cute sight to see.

The picture below is of myself and Alyssa and Yazleen. They are two other girls in my afternoon tutoring class. I typically enjoy teaching my afternoon class but today was especially nice because I only had 12 kids instead of the normal number of 18 kids. It was a relaxed day and I let the kids have most of the time to play with whatever toys they wanted... whether it be play dough, coloring, painting or writing on the white board...which was the favorite today. They wrote English words and then would read to me what they wrote. They I would say a word in English and they would sound it out and spell it as it sounded. They are a smart group of kids and I enjoy spending my afternoons with them.

Friday

The Friday school schedule is quite a bit different from the normal Monday - Thursday school day. On Friday's we spend the first two hours of the morning as a whole school singing songs, doing exercise/dance, and having Bible story time. If I have any lesson planning or grading to catch up on, I will spend this time in my office. Otherwise I will help out with the morning activities. It's fun having all the kids together in one room and I think we all like Friday mornings. After returning to the classrooms everyone has their regular tea break/snack and then go back to their studies for the remaining hour and a half left of the school day. During this time I teach both 4 year old classes (separately). The 4 year old classes are the simplest class for me to teach, so Fridays are a very relaxed and low key days for me.

This Friday (today) I had quite a bit of grading to catch up on so I spent the morning in my office. One of my favorite students, Datu Affif (5 year old), had been absent the previous day, so I had him come into my office to go over what I had taught his class yesterday (the letter h) and have him do the activity in his workbook. He is the most adorable kid and although he knows very little English, he is a fast learner. I have discovered how easily he retains the information I teach so I am excited to see how much I can teach him in the next six months. I don't quite know how to explain this, but I often forget that we don't have a language in common. I think that Datu Affif (or Affif for short) is well aware of the fact that he is one of my favorites, but he has yet to abuse this. He usually sits quietly and pays attention in class. When I walk by his class room and stop to peer in the window he doesn't scream out "Teacher Katherine!!!" when he sees me, like most of the kids do. Often he will notice me before the other kids, and he will give me a cute smile and little wave and then will go back to paying attention to Teacher Pang. I will write more about his progress with English in the months to come.

This morning I decided to teach the 4 year olds the song, Mr. Sun. "Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me..." It's a great song, but not extremely necessary for us to be singing since the sun has been out all week and has been extra hot! After learning the song, the children did a sun craft. They colored a small paper plate (whatever color they wanted their sun to be... I am working hard with them to use their creativity) and then I helped them tape on sun rays, made out of strips of poster board. Above is a picture of the final product. We ended the class singing the song again with the suns they made. It was a special treat for the 4 year olds to do a craft during my class and they really seemed to enjoy it. They are simply too young to do much gluing or cutting as most crafts require. They really like coloring so usually I will just have them color a picture that pertains to the lesson I teach.

I am now having a relaxing Friday afternoon, catching up on my emails and finishing lesson plans for next week. I will leave you with a simple but important quote from "The Shack" which I just finished reading last night.

"Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship."

A New Church Home

I was 18 years old and a freshmen in college when I had the first experience of finding my own church and attending church without my family. Although, I didn’t have too much difficulty attending church on my own, there was something I quickly noticed was missing…. My mother’s wonderful and boisterous singing voice.

Something I took for granted growing up was my mom’s amazing and strong voice. I have always enjoyed singing in church and I think I have a fairly decent voice, but it was always comforting to be singing next to my mom. Initially I thought adjusting to the lack of my mom’s voice would not be too difficult. However, it turns out it was actually rather hard. Through out my college years it is something I got used to, but still always noticed was missing.

At the beginning of January, I began attending the BCCM Petagas church. The church service is all in Mandarin Chinese. This was something I was actually looking forward to. Yes, I don’t understand too much, but there is something to be said about experiencing a church service in a different language. You would actually be surprised at how much you can still understand and gather from it.

I have only attended the church two Sundays now but it is already beginning to feel like a home church to me. Surprised to hear this since the service is in Mandarin? The reason the church feels like home to me is because Teacher Wong (class CBlue teacher) has a beautiful and strong singing voice, just like my mom. She sits behind me and there have been a few times where I have actually thought it was my mom singing… you know, aside from the fact that she’s singing in Mandarin. This is also very helpful since I am just beginning to learn the songs. I can try to sing but still am over powered enough that if I completely botch a pronunciation, (which I’m sure I do at least 80% of the time) nobody will notice.

I feel like it is a real blessing to feel so at home in a church that could easily be quite foreign to me. I am really enjoying worshipping with the teachers from school and hope that I am able to pick up Mandarin somewhat quickly. I at least hope I can learn to sing the songs sooner vs. later… understanding will be the next step ☺

Happy New Year from Malaysia

With Li Mei in her home village of Kota Marudu

At the Tip of Borneo

Happy New Year! Today was definitely the strangest time to experience the 14 hour time difference. It is so weird for me to think that when I when I was ringing in the New Year here in Kota Kinabalu it was only 10 am back in the Midwest... and when all of you back home are celebrating, it will already be 2 pm on January 1, 2010 here. I am pleased to tell you that the new year is going very well already! I had a very nice time last night celebrating with the other volunteers and a few new friends here.

Back-tracking a little....

When the school year ended in November I anticipated December would be a very low key month with little to occupy my time. I didn't think I would see the teachers from my school much because it is a long drive from where they live in KK to where I live. Luckily, these two assumptions could not have been more inaccurate. As you may have guessed from my lack of blog posts (sorry!) I have been keeping very busy; December was an eventful month.

Among the highlights were...

-visiting Li Mei's (a teacher at my school) home village, Kota Marudu, twice. It is two hours away from KK.

-visiting the Tip of Borneo with Teacher Hiew and her family... 3 hours away from KK.

-going to see The Princess and the Frog with Leon (one of my students), his little brother and Li Mei

-spending the day Christmas shopping with Jennifer (20 years old, the daughter of the principal at my school)

-spending Christmas in a small village in the countryside (aka jungle)

Through out the month I have developed a strong group of friends and I am very blessed that it is a wide range of friends comprised of different ages and different backgrounds/cultures. I really feel like I am part of a community now. I may have said this before but this has been a gradual process and it continues to grow stronger every day. I feel like everything is coming together now and will just continue to feel more like "normal" life as it continues. In the first three months here I developed different pieces of a puzzle for my life here and over the month of December I feel the pieces of the puzzle have come together.

One of the biggest changes that happened in December... actually just earlier this week... was that I moved to a different district in KK. Before I lived in the district of Likas and now I have moved to the district of Petagas. I moved to be closer to my school. When I lived in Likas someone had to pick me up every morning and take me home in the afternoon. Each way it took at least 15 minutes and that was if there was no traffic. It was a huge hassle for everyone so we decided to find a place for me to live close to school. I now live in an apartment with Li Mei, who taught the 6 year old class ARed last year. It is within walking distance of the school... about 5 blocks. I have only lived here for 4 days now and I am already really enjoying the change. It is so much more convenient and I like being closer to school and to where all of the teachers live.

The new school year begins on Monday, January 4th and so this weekend I am very busy preparing for the first week. We have two new teachers so I will spend the first week helping one of the new teachers in her classroom. The second week of school I will start teaching English in all of the classes again. I will also start my afternoon tutoring class on the second week in January.

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas season and a very happy new year!

With Leon (on right) and his brother at The Princess and the Frog

Beautiful sunset at the beach in KK