{"id":5115,"date":"2018-02-03T07:28:42","date_gmt":"2018-02-03T07:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/warda-lessons-from-the-fellowship-part-2\/"},"modified":"2018-02-03T07:28:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-03T07:28:42","slug":"warda-lessons-from-the-fellowship-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/warda-lessons-from-the-fellowship-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Warda: Lessons from the Fellowship | Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click sini<\/a>\u00a0for Part 1<\/p>\n

#Growing student leaders<\/b><\/h5>\n
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\"\"<\/p>\n

For my second-year initiative, I started BLISS because I want to shift the \u201c<\/span>budak kampung<\/span><\/i>\u201d mindset. I want to empower students like Hakim to lead their own learning <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>which meant changing their mindset, and arming them with the necessary skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

To do that, BLISS focuses on developing students\u2019 skills in five areas: project management, event planning, fundraising, pitching and ICT skills. With the help of Yen Teng (2017 Fellow), I kickstarted the programme with a camp and a challenge: by the end of the year, the participants had to organise the closing camp entirely by themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

For my first cohort, I recruited 24 Form 1 and Form 2 students, especially those I identified to be shy and unconfident but eager to learn and grow. During the early stages, I coached the students on the basics of event management and fundraising, then I slowly stepped aside and let them take charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Managing BLISS alongside my teacherly duties and weekend DPLI (<\/span>Diploma Pendidikan Lepasan Ijazah<\/span><\/i>) assignments was tough, but so rewarding. During BLISS\u2019s year-end camp, which was held in UTM Skudai, I remember the surprise of the UTM staff when they discovered they\u2019d been corresponding with students all along!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#Growing my own leadership<\/b><\/h5>\n

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But it wasn\u2019t just my students who were learning. With every step along the Fellowship, I was constantly challenged to grow <\/span>\u2014 <\/span>or rather, I had to grow, or I\u2019d be overwhelmed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My first year was tough. I worked hard to adapt to my community, to gain the trust of my students, while fulfilling my duties as a teacher and a Fellow. I knew I had 2 years to build a connection, and create my impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a thinker, I sometimes struggled to understand others emotionally; but interacting with my students has opened my eyes, and taught me to see without judging. Learning about the difficulties my students face \u2014 Hakim being just one example of many \u2014 has made me more patient, and more empathetic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being able to understand my students made managing the classroom so much easier. I learnt to deal with the myriad challenges a room full of teenagers can throw at you, with fairness, sensitivity, and kindness, so they eventually grew to respect me.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#Building myself up to build others<\/b><\/h5>\n

I learnt to manage myself, too. That\u2019s what made my second year better, even though I actually had a heavier workload. A lot of my first year was spent stressing out, but with support from my peers and mentoring from my Leadership Development Officer, I learnt to prioritise and manage my time better.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also freed up time for me to focus on improving my skill set. When I started BLISS, I had pitched and received RM3,500 in corporate funding from Dragons\u2019 Den. However, I had no idea how to measure and represent BLISS\u2019s progress, even though I knew it was doing well! I needed to learn data analysis, so I set aside time to learn independently from the internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

But most valuable of all, to me, was learning to be a better coach. When I first started BLISS, I\u2019d often think <\/span>for<\/span><\/i> my students because I wanted problems to be resolved faster. However, this resulted in students not feeling invested in their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had to change my approach, learning to think <\/span>with<\/span><\/i> my students by including them in the brainstorming process. Instead of outright rejecting an idea, I learnt to suspend judgment in favour of understanding: understanding where they\u2019re coming from, and how we can all arrive at a common solution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I learnt that effective leadership isn\u2019t about being right; it\u2019s about being right together.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#A journey of a lifetime<\/b><\/h5>\n

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The Fellowship has changed me, as it has changed some of my students too. Hakim, once the shy Form 1 student on the verge of dropping out, is now a mentor, helping to coach the next cohort of BLISS students. During the school week, Hakim now stays under the care of a fellow teacher, and goes home during weekends. He attends school regularly and is performing well in the \u201ctop\u201d Form 2 class.<\/span><\/p>\n

Myself, I\u2019ve had a remarkable journey filled with crests and troughs: priceless memories and valuable lessons. It might\u2019ve been overwhelming if I were alone, but the support I received from the community and my peers, especially my housemates, sustained me during those steep learning curves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two years ago, I embarked on the Fellowship because I figured I had a knack for teaching. The Fellowship has solidified my purpose and perspective \u2014 my wish now is to empower students with their voice, so we can all learn from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014 Woodrow Wilson<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BLISS – a programme to promote student leadership by developing their soft skills. In particular, I focused on 5 areas: project management, event management, fundraising, pitching and ICT skills.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Warda was a Teach For Malaysia Fellow in the 2016 Cohort, who taught Sejarah at a high-need school in Pasir Gudang. She graduated with a Business and Management with proficiency in Mandarin Chinese from the University of Exeter. Read Part 1 here.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here\u00a0for Part 1 #Growing student leaders For my second-year initiative, I started BLISS because I want to shift the \u201cbudak kampung\u201d mindset. I want to empower students like Hakim…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,113,114,120,116],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fellow","8":"category-movement","9":"category-region","10":"category-south","11":"category-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","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=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachformalaysia.org\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}