{"id":5029,"date":"2017-04-04T10:03:49","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T10:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/teo-yen-ming-i-teach-for-ain-aiman\/"},"modified":"2017-04-04T10:03:49","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T10:03:49","slug":"teo-yen-ming-i-teach-for-ain-aiman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/teo-yen-ming-i-teach-for-ain-aiman\/","title":{"rendered":"Teo Yen Ming: I Teach For Ain & Aiman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe think students have\u00a0low English proficiency because they don\u2019t see the relevance of learning English, they are not interested, they don\u2019t care.\u00a0In reality, we fail to see that many have tried, many feel frustrated, and many have given up because they are tired of trying without support.\u201d \u2013 Teo Yen Ming, 2016 Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n

\"yay\"<\/p>\n

On my way to the staffroom one day, I passed\u00a0a group of students in the midst of marching practice. I noticed that the commander was a\u00a0student from my class, and\u00a0I approached her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, Ain*! Good job! When is the marching competition?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUhm\u2026\u00a0Lima hari bulan empat<\/em>, Miss Teo.\u201d<\/p>\n

In my head, I calculated the number of days left to the PT3 speaking test. She would have\u00a0less than a\u00a0week to prepare for her speaking test after she was done with the competition.<\/p>\n

I decided to remind her.\u00a0\u201cOh wow! Do you know that speaking test is on the 12th\u00a0of April?\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately, her face dropped.\u00a0\u201cMiss Teo,\u00a0saya nak cakap sesuatu<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pulled me aside and muttered the words.\u00a0\u201cCikgu\u2026 Bahasa Inggeris saya\u2026 Memang tak bolehlah.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not? You understand me, and you know what I am talking about. Ain, you can do this. I am preparing a module for all of you\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I became quiet. I noticed that she was staring at me, teary-eyed.<\/p>\n

After consoling her, I went to the staffroom\u00a0and my heart sank. Behind the tears, I wondered how much frustration, desperation and helplessness she felt.<\/p>\n

Often times, we think students have\u00a0low English proficiency because:
\n\u201cThey don\u2019t see the relevance of learning English.\u201d
\n\u201cThey are not interested.\u201d
\n\u201cThey don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reality, we fail to see that many have tried, many feel frustrated, and many have given up because they are tired of trying without support.\u00a0I teach for Ain<\/strong>\u00a0who represents many more who are desperate for help, and are on the verge of giving up.<\/p>\n

\"wooo\"<\/p>\n

Every Sunday, I run workshops on\u00a0Arduino programming and design thinking to\u00a0train students in\u00a0a variety of skills for different competitions.\u00a0For example, coming up with an\u00a0innovative product or idea to solve problems in their community.<\/p>\n

I pointed to a page on the Arduino module which read, \u201cSoil temperature and moisture level are factors that drive germination, blooming, composting, and a variety of other processes. You will design a soil sensor to measure these two parameters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Aiman*,\u00a0sensor ini adalah untuk mengukur tahap kelembapan dan suhu tanah. Siapakah yang menjaga\u00a0tahap kelembapan dan suhu tanah<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cErr\u2026 Er\u2026 Er\u2026\u00a0Manusia<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYa\u2026 Manusia siapa? Siapakah yang tanam sayur, pokok dan bunga? Siapa yang kena pastikan tanah tu lembap dan tak terlalu panas?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cErr\u2026\u00a0Orang lain<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYa\u2026 Siapa tu? Pekerjaan apa? Cikgu ke?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYa<\/em>\u2026\u201d He nodded his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cYa ke? Cikgu taman sayur, pokok dan bunga tiap-tiap hari?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEh, bukan\u2026 Siapa ya\u2026 Err\u2026 Err\u2026 Petani ya?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYa, betul!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiman is a slow learner and to be honest, teaching him\u00a0has been one of my biggest challenges this year. I am often very tempted to tell him to stop coming to my workshops as he would slow down other students\u2019 progress.\u00a0Nonetheless, week after week, he is determined to\u00a0push himself to come to the workshops, even though most of the time he could not tell me what he has learnt for the day. He has taught me what it means to persevere and pursue our interests. I now know how to teach with patience\u00a0as he has made my heart a little bit bigger.<\/p>\n

I teach for Aiman<\/strong>\u00a0who relentlessly pursues his interest despite the challenges he faces.<\/p>\n

*Students\u2019 names have been changed to protect their identity.<\/p>\n

Teo Yen Ming\u00a0is a 2016 Fellow\u00a0and is currently a second-year teacher at a\u00a0school in Pasir Gudang, Johor. Yen Ming graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from\u00a0University of Michigan \u2013 Ann Arbor.\u00a0Teach For Malaysia recruits, trains and supports Fellows to teach in high-need schools across the nation. Beyond the Fellowship, our Alumni continue to champion education in different ways. To date, we\u2019ve impacted over 44,000 students, working with the Ministry of Education and other partners.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe think students have\u00a0low English proficiency because they don\u2019t see the relevance of learning English, they are not interested, they don\u2019t care.\u00a0In reality, we fail to see that many have…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,110,103,113,105,114,120,116,133],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fellow","7":"category-illiteracy","8":"category-impact","9":"category-movement","10":"category-problem","11":"category-region","12":"category-south","13":"category-student","14":"category-student-impact"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}