Cikgu..Mam..Kak

Salam,

Being a full time worker now, the only days I look forward to are Saturdays and Sundays. That's why you can see me sharing all my weekend plans in this blog because weekends to me are the peak of the week,the time I get to don on my nice weekend clothes, to doll up a little more than usual.

So, what had I been up to last weekend?

I was a Math teacher last weekend. A friend of mine, Hamidah, was the leader of this 'Jom Belajar Matematik' project. She offers free tutoring service at Pusat Makan under BELAMISKIN.ORG. You can google 'BELAMISKIN' and read up about the organization. Back to the project. So Hamidah gives tutoring on Monday nights at the Pusat Makan, and this particular project was held in conjunction with the school holidays. She was looking for volunteers, and I brought along Pao, Tira and Sal to join.

So there we were, being Math teachers to Standard 4-Form 2 kids from Section 16, Shah Alam. Majority of them join Hamidah's Monday nights tuition. Since they come from low-income families, they couldn't afford paid tuition. I don't want to stereotype, but in most cases, we can see chain of problems in low-income families. Parents don't really bother about their children's education, asalkan pergi sekolah, dah cukup. Most of them have at least 5-6 siblings, with only one parent working. They live in flat houses with only 1 room, 2 the most. With siblings that much, and house that small, the environment these kids are in is not conducive for studying. That is why, most of them underperform at school.

One thing I notice about these kids is they lack of motivation. I believe they very well know that education can take them places and do wonders to them and their families, but they just don't have enough motivation to drive them forward. This is where parents play an important role. Parents should always encouraged their kids to do well at school, as only with education they can change the fate of their families.

OK now, seriousness aside. Let me share my fun experience being a 'Math teacher' for two days. I was assigned the group of 8 Form 2 kids. If you asked me which group I would prefer teaching, I'd say all. I seem to have problems connecting to babies and toddlers. I just can't work my charm with them (cey 'charm' la sangat) Other than that, I am fine. The kids in my group are average students, they can do Math, but with a little bit of help. Erm maybe a lot of help. Yang geram sekali, they don't memorize SIFIR. Instead of knowing the sifir by heart, they would list down the numbers on paper e.g 7,14,21,28 and count from top 1,2,3,4 to get 7x4. They also struggle with positive and negative numbers. They just couldn't grasp the concept even after I gave them many examples. 

Apart of all that, I'm grateful that I got the chance to help them. A two-days program can't change much, but hopefully they gained something in that two days. Something is better than nothing, right? Yang comelnya, budak-budak ni panggil ktorg 'Cikgu', even though they know that we are not real teachers. Bangga sekejap jadi cikgu. I got to spend a weekend with my besties, and got to visit Taman Pertanian Shah Alam for the first time. Such a big park it is. Tak habis tour the whole park, though. I might come again later :) Oh oh, we went to I-City. Not too bad, at least for someone who love lights like me. The place was SO CROWDED. Sedih part is, camera cabuk I tak membantu dalam menghasilkan gambar-gambar cun melecun. Nasib ada DSLR Sal. Oh, and we got to visit Section 18 and took a stroll down memory lane. INTEC oh INTEC. Tira and I were singing 'Sandarkan Pada Kenangan' while reminiscing our memories. Great weekend with great company :)