[This article is the last in a 3 part series of Teach For Malaysia’s response to SPM for the 2020 Cohort of Form 5 students. Click here to read the first article on whether SPM remains a good proxy to students’ academic capabilities during the pandemic, and issues related to education inequity in Malaysia which continue to be exacerbated by the pandemic. Click here to read the second article on our recommendations to address these challenges.]
In this article, we will be sharing a compilation of resources which students, parents and teachers may find useful. We will also be sharing some of the initiatives which we at Teach For Malaysia have been working on to provide more children in Malaysia an opportunity to attain an excellent education during the pandemic.
Resources for students, parents and teachers (make this an expandable list)
- #SaveSPM2020 Campaign
Teach For Malaysia (TFM) is partnering with Askbee, a platform that aims to provide 1-to-1 tutoring for SPM students (as featured on NST, Business Today, and Malaysian Insight). Do visit www.askbee.my/savespm2020 for more information, and feel free to share this with anyone who you know that might be interested to sign up as a volunteer tutor or have SPM Cohort 2020 students that could benefit from it as well. - YTL-TFM Learn From Home Project
In collaboration with YTL, we created free, engaging, curriculum-aligned lessons for primary and secondary school students. 66 individuals from TFM (including Fellows, Alumni and staff) came together to create and review 685 Math, Science and English lessons.
The lessons are available for free here.
- Teach For Malaysia Distance Learning Initiative
With generous funding from Yayasan Hasanah and in partnership with Bain & Company, we built an online platform (available in three languages) to share best practices of distance learning with students, teachers, teachers and school leaders. As part of this initiative, we also held Professional Learning Communities workshops, where teachers came together to learn from each other.
Check out our Student Leadership Strategy Playbook, Teacher Wellbeing Playbook and more guidelines here! You can also join our Telegram group, where we share more free resources for distance learning. - Student Wellbeing
We have taken other measures to support student wellbeing as well. Throughout 2020, we encouraged our Fellows to check in emotionally with their students on a regular basis. Apart from that, we also compiled and shared information on mental health services available to students. These include:
– Buddy Bear Childline
– Befrienders
– Life Line Malaysia. - We Think Digital
In collaboration with Facebook, TFM and our Alumni are providing training to equip Malaysian students with basic digital literacy and digital citizenship skills they need for the online world through the We Think Digital program. Find out more about this project here. - Leaps
TFM is one of the key partners for Leaps of Knowledge: The HEART Series, a series of digital events tackling key questions in education and providing a home ground for every educator worldwide, as we explore diverse perspectives and spark conversations with people who believe they can make a difference. The series will start on 3 March 2021, and will be fully online. You can register for the event at www.leapsofknowledge.com.
- The Mary Poppin’s Bag of Virtual Icebreakers
Amanda Navaratnam (2017 TFM Alumna) compiled a list of virtual icebreakers that are tried and tested by some of our Alumni. If you’re a teacher and are ever in need of an idea or two to start your online lessons, this Mary Poppin’s Bag of Virtual Icebreakers is here for you! Do follow the website for monthly teacher resources from our Alumni community.
- Digital Library For Kids
This digital library is free for educators to use; a 30-day free trial is available to parents. - MYReaders resources
Want to read for your children but don’t have storybooks at home? Here are some resources for you,collected by MYReaders, a social enterprise founded by TFM Alumni!
– ReadAtHome Campaign Youtube Playlist
– The Gadis Chapter Youtube Playlist
Other initiatives we are working on to support students’ learning during the pandemic
- Learning Box Project with Yayasan Hartalega
The Yayasan Hartalega Learning Box is a self-directed learning resource box containing engaging activities and materials that can help students continue learning even in limited or zero bandwidth environments. The learning box is curated to spark curiosity and develop self-motivated learners who are able to find practical and relevant connections between the learning objectives of the syllabus and their natural environment.
With Yayasan Hartalega, we were able to deliver 1578 learning boxes to 475 students from 12 schools in Lawas (Sarawak), Semporna (Sabah) and Gopeng (Perak). You may read more about it here! - Orang Asli Community Learning Hub
To address the growing need to support Orang Asli students in zero-bandwidth areas in their learning, we are proposing an Orang Asli Community Learning Hub that serves as a sustainable platform to cultivate student interest in learning through developing local teaching talent by creating a conducive learning environment that is compatible with Orang Asli’s circumstances and environment. We will share more information about this project in the near future, so stay tuned!
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