Weekly Journal

Week 1: 12/4/2015 16/4/2015

On the first week of my practicum weeks, not much of problems I have encountered. I was only
able to enter my class starting on Tuesday as I only met with my assigned teacher on the
previous day. The first time I entered the class I was so surprised with how packed the class
was! The first activity I did with pupils in the classroom was role-playing. This was a follow up
activity after they did a writing exercise. The space and the amount of pupils in the class were a
perfect equation for disaster. I said this because they had only a small space left at the front of
the class and when the pupils were presenting their act, their friends who sat at the front kept
disrupting them. I had to keep warning and reminding them to respect their friends who were
presenting at front.
So during my free time, I went scouting around school, looking for rooms that are big and
comfortable to accommodate 37 pupils. I found two rooms that are possible for me to use for my
teaching and comfortable enough for the pupils to move around for group work. The first room
was the computer lab and the second room was the multimedia room. The computer lab is big
and has the easy access to the LCD projector but one thing I found is that the table
arrangement is not compliances to the 21 st century teaching and learning style. While the
multimedia has a big and empty space where it is suitable for group work but has not access to
LCD projector and there are no tables and chairs.
So next week, I will see which of these rooms can be used for teaching and learning session
with most of the activities is for group work.

Weekly Journal
Week 2: 19/4/2015 -23/4/2015
Last week, I have found two rooms that are possible for me to use with my pupils. This is
because their classroom is too packed and there are not many spaces available for the pupils to
move around especially for group presentation. So for listening and speaking lesson, I went to
the computer lab to see how my pupils behave in such room. The computer lab is very
comfortable with big space and it is well equipped with air conditioners. So the lab is cool and
just nice especially during the hot day.
The thing about my pupils is they are easily excited with new environment especially when they
entered the computer lab. It was hard for me to control their movements and stopping them from
touching all the audio equipment. I began my lesson by showing them a video related to the
topic. This grabbed the pupils attention but still, I noticed a few pupils at the back were playing
among themselves. I called their names but this only stopped them for a few minutes before
they started playing again. I wanted to go to their seats but I cannot leave all the equipment at
the front because the boys were very curious and they wanted to touch everything. So I was
only able to call their names once in a while to show that I was aware with what they were doing
at the back. It was really hard to control the pupils in the computer lab because there was a
distance between me and the pupils. I did not really like how the lesson went and I was really
looking forward for the next class as I was going to try the multimedia room.
The next day, I went to try the multimedia room. The room is much smaller than the computer
lab but it has a big space where pupils can sit in groups without problems except there are no
chairs or table. I thought that was okay because most of the times, the pupils will be doing group
work where they will sit together to discuss or creating something. I honestly prefer the
multimedia room compared to the pupils classroom and the computer lab because I felt much
closer to the pupils and the pupils also can always ask for my help.
On the second week too, I noticed a few pupils who are constantly playing during the lesson. I
need to find a way how to engage these pupils in the lesson so that they are paying attention to
the lesson and take part in the activities.