Message body

Introduction

Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions. Being a teacher

has never been easy. It requires a lot of hard work and full commitment as teachers

responsible for preparing the young generations for the future by giving them a

perfect education. As we have vowed to the law of Ministry of Education, we must

abide by the rules of the ministry, which is to give what is the best for the students

and to the school as well.

My required task this time, whereby I had to make an interview with someone that is

appropriate and caters the criteria needed by the task. I have some options such as

headmasters, teachers, doctors, district education officers and others. This has

made me think, who should I go for? After a deep and long thought, I finally came

across an excellent teacher in my school. This is because he is my colleague, and

this really helps me as we are in the same school. I am free to approach him without

any hesitation and feel embarrassed as I will not have to undergo any procedures for

such meetings. The fact of choosing En. Mazri is because he is a teacher like me,

after all. We start off at the same platform and have gone through the similar

environment. I believe education is more suitable for me to discover compared to

other majors because education is the only way for me in which I use to educate

people and to develop human capital to the public. This will increase my knowledge

and ideas that I might be able to explore and use for the process of teaching and

learning. Maybe this will winch up my spirits and definitely boost my confidence to

become a better teacher someday, InshaAllah. Before I interviewed the interviewee,

I have to make some preparations such as questions to be raised, and of course I

need to be ready physically and mentally so that everything will proceed smoothly

without any hesitations. Interviews will be held at the school, on school holidays. This

is because my time constraints. Too many do I need to either finish my job as a

teacher at the school and my job as a student of distance learning. This all requires

time to spare.

Biography of interviewee:

The person I choose to be interviewed is an excellent teacher, my colleague in

school and he is Mr. Mazri b. Md. Hussin. He was born on June 18, 1973. En. Mazri

is a science teacher. He is a competent and a very professional educator in

technology too. He can also repair computer equipments during his free time. If there

are technological tools that are damaged or old, he will perk up the tools and put

together so that all his colleagues are able to use it. He is a good science teacher

and he EMIS data teacher in my school. He is a kind man and always helps friends

in need, especially in the IT field. He loves to surf the internet during his leisure time.

He gets new and latest information whenever he surfs the internet. At times, he feels

that the internet will make him more energetic and creative. En. Mazri too likes to

spend his free time playing football in the school field with his friends and pupils. The

game make him fits and healthy.

He was born in a family of medium, where his father was a labourer and his mother

is a full-time housewife. He is the second child of five siblings. He has a sister who is

now furthering her studies in the Faculty of Medicine at Mansoura University in

Egypt. He has a wife who is also a teacher, and just completed her studies at

Universiti Sains Malaysia majoring in Mathematics. He always gives full support and
encouragement to her to finish her education because in his opinion, the burden of

duties as a wife, mother and teacher is challenging her credibility. So, he needs to

give full encouragement and moral support to her beloved wife. He has three

children, all girls, aged between six years to thirteen years old. His eldest daughter

had scored 5As in the UPSR last year and is now studying at the Sekolah Menengah

Maahad (P) in Kota Bharu. His second child is in year 4 and the youngest is now in

the kinder garden.He began his schooling at Sekolah Kebangsaan Baung,

Pengkalan Chepa Kota Bharu and continues his studies at Sekolah Menengah

Kebangsaan Pengkalan Chepa, Kota Bharu. Then he got an offer to further his

study at the Institute of Language Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur. Not long after that,

he continued his studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia to get hold of a degree. He also

dreams to pursue his studies to the highest level. When I asked why he changed his

option from the Malay language teachers to science teachers, he said that he had a

great interest in science since childhood. If there is an opportunity, he will not let it

slip away. Now as he is a Science and Bahasa Melayu educators, he can teach both

subjects in school.

Report

Mr. Mazri b. Md Hussin began his career as a teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan

Kuang, Rawang, Selangor in July 1997. After serving for seven years in the school

he was awarded as the most outstanding teacher in PPD Gombak in 2004. Later, he

joined Sekolah Kebangsaan Bintang, Setiu, Terengganu. As he was bestowed with

the recognition as an excellent teacher, approximately on 16 July 2008, he earned

that title while teaching in Sekolah Kebangsaan Bintang, Setiu, Terengganu. In 2009,

he was transferred to Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Nal, Kuala Krai. While teaching in

Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Nal, Kuala Krai, he received awards for excellence in
teaching and learning from PPD Kuala Krai. This is the sweetest and joyous victory

for him as he worked hard to get it. He is satisfied. When I asked about the feeling of

recognition as an outstanding teacher, he just gave me a smile yet so proud and

thrilled. Above all, deep in his heart he realizes the burden he has to face each day is

never going to be easy. However, he is very grateful to his parents, wife and

daughters who are the inspiration for his successes. To gain recognition as an

excellent teacher, a person must meet up the condition of service as an excellent

teacher as set by the Ministry of Education and the annual performance must be

outstanding three years in row. The path is tough but when you have the

determination and give completely your full commitment, everything is possible.

Among the characteristic that an excellent teacher should have are, a very

good personality and charismatic attitude. He/she has to cover an extensive

knowledge and skills, as for En. Mazri in Science of course. He has to make sure

that the effort he presents can be used efficiently by the teachers as well as the

pupils. As an excellent teacher, communication skills play a vital and an important

role for En. Mazri. Since he has to motivate and be an expert in the relevant

subjects, being able to deliver and answer all the problems arouse by the teachers.

He has to contribute not only to his school but also to other schools in PPD Kuala

Krai. He must always be dedicated, innovated and be motivated all the time in

implementing his duty and responsibility. He also must provide an internal training to

enhance a better teachers professionalism to other teachers, not only to his

colleagues but to other teachers as well. Excellent teachers also must determine the

approach and the latest teaching strategies as well as be able to communicate to

other teachers. En. Mazri also helps another Science teacher in the school by

planning and implementing co-curricular activities that can help improve students'
academic performance. Using co-curricular activities, he can construct numerous

non-academic activities that are fun and enjoyable yet knowledgeable.

Speaking on the challenges that he received either before or after being an

excellent teacher, he mentioned that before he hold the title of an excellent teacher,

he had to work hard to maintain the best annual performance for three years in row.

He too has to pass the selection that is made by the selection committee or his

representative. Every teacher has to go through this observation because the

selection committee wants to maintain the quality of the services itself. After he was

appointed as an excellent teacher, he received another great challenge in which

people often talk about his integrity as an outstanding Science teacher. Here he had

to show his ability as an excellent teacher so that his authority as an excellent

teacher will not be doubt. He also had to work hard to maintain excellent

performance to remain reliability with the title of an excellent teacher that he holds.

He must also ensure the educational progress of students is increasing pleasantly,

together taught by excellent teachers and did not disappoint the expectations of the

school administrators. Besides that, he too must constantly come with many

appealing and long-winded ideas. Mentally, he has to keep up with many challenges

and keep on learning along with the increase of work in school.

As far as he concerned, he too must reflect a highly good self-image and

occupied with self-confident. This is to ensure that other people can be inspired by

him and also be induced by the credibility that he carries with himself. On top,

leadership skill is a must when you are awarded with such title. For En. Mazri, he

has to master the skills and has the ability to influence other teachers. He again

stressed that all the above problems are burden and the challenges he must face
and overcome. As time goes by, it is a trivial problem and may be considered as

trifles. As of today, he is still able to face all the challenges and put aside the

unimportant matters as for him teaching is his passion.

When talking about the achievement or contribution to society, especially

public schools, he quickly answered, there are too many things to be done and too

many teachers and pupils who want him to help and contribute, but time constraints

has limit his eagerness. He stressed again, as of today, he managed to build a

module of teaching and learning of science. Based on these modules, he is able to

provide new knowledge to the students. He stated again, as an excellent teacher, a

person must be served with full during the period. This is the greatest contribution to

the pupils. In addition, he stated that he would conduct a science camp where

students will be exposed to techniques on how to answer questions. This is not just

for children in year six that are facing their examination in September but also for

children in year four and five. This will be a great exposure for the pupils as they rely

to their teachers to gain knowledge. Science Camp is not just for his students but

open to other schools. He will also hold a camp for science teachers on teaching

techniques and learning science in primary schools. This is to make sure that the

learning methods are done efficiently to all schools in the district of Kuala Krai. He

will continue to teach on how to create a new and selective module in Science Panel

where he is always invited to many school to give talk on new techniques of teaching

and learning in Science subject. In addition, he has prepared a management module

in science laboratory. This is for the use of other science teachers at the school. By

using the module, teaching of science and the usage of the science room will be

more organized and done more efficiently.

He is also being invited by the PPD to give lectures and share any latest ideas on

subjects of science to science teachers in another school regularly. He would provide

a clearer view of the teaching techniques and give many new ideas to the science

teachers in other school. En. Mazri is also willing to share brilliant ideas and at the

same time he is ready to learn more from other Science teachers. He also joined the

trip to Gua Musang with the PPD group to visit and come together with the native

people for a week. While there, he mixed around and learnt how native people's lives

and how the cultures revolved around there as well as teaching them about the

features of life. In addition, he also joined another excellent teacher to visit schools

with lower percentage in Kuala Krai and Gua Musang to provide guidance and

proper solutions to the problems they are having. He too gave advices about

learning and teaching difficulties. These are some of the achievements and

contributions that he has accomplished and given to the school or community during

his service as an excellent teacher.

En. Mazri expects the younger generation to be more interested in the teaching

profession because it is more beneficial either to themselves or to others. As the

saying goes, if we be kind to others and they will give us more. People will make use

of the knowledge we delivered, and in return we may be rewarded with something.

So he hopes younger generations not only choose the teaching profession because

of the fear that they will not get any occupation but to love the profession from the

bottom of the heart. Choose the teaching profession because of interest and not

forced by others or condition. Becoming a teacher who is professional, dedicated,

competent and high attitude as this is the picture of a good teacher and a great

educator in the publics eye.

En. Mazri also hopes that the younger generations will have more interest in IT. He is

looking forward to see that the future youth ahead of him to use the IT by means in

the proper way. Not just for leisure and spending their spare time only but to get full

use of the technology to learn and explore the world beyond our expectation.

Conclusion

From my interview with Mr. Mazri that I had conducted recently, I can conclude

that Mr. Mazri believes that is not easy to become an excellent teacher. He has to

face many challenges before or after being an excellent and brilliant teacher. But

armed with patience and persistence he finally managed to hold the title. During the

interview with Mr. Mazri, I was a little bit messy because of the questions that I gave

did not fulfil the requirements of the lecturers need. In that case, I had to prepare

another question and this takes time. Fortunately Mr. Mazri is willing to cooperate

even though he had come all the way from home only to be interviewed by me. His

cooperation is very much appreciated. The situation is more complicated because

the interview occurred on school holidays. There are some questions that I had

missed and I had to call him. This was my first experience interviewing someone. It

is not as easy as I expected. There are many procedures that I should follow and

from Mr. Mazris experience as an excellent teacher, there are lot of new knowledge

that can be applied in my teaching skills and learning process. Even though I am

not a science teacher, but I may be able to carry and make use of some of his

creative ideas in science module to the Malay Language or Mathematics subject. I

too feel quite encouraging to listen to him talking about his dream and achievement.

Deep in my heart I feel like to follow his footsteps and work together with him in
making education more interesting and enjoyable. This interview really opens my

minds and I am more confident to pursue my study higher to the next level.

Above all this, I could hardly notice myself in his place. I have the picture of me being

the next excellent teacher in my school. By the time, I will work hard and try to do my

very best. The effort to achieve my dreams to be an excellent teacher can be done in

no time if I have the gut to give what is needed to get to my higher level of education.

At the end of the interview, he mentioned that as an excellent teacher, he had a

dream to be implemented in his schools that is to create a school of excellence and

achieve high percentage especially in science subjects. Even if he will be transferred

to another school he will pursue and continue his dreams in order to see a glimpse of

the future generations success. I hope that Mr. Mazri dreams be answered by God

and I also hope one day I will get the chance to be able to taste the success as En.

Mazri had.
Appendices :

Appendix 1

Interview Questions

1. What are the conditions for the teachers?

2. What are the tasks an excellent teacher?

3. Tell us about an interesting time to be teachers?

4. Tell us about the challenges faced during the teachers?

5. What hopes or dreams as teachers?

6. What is the contribution or achievement as teachers?

7. What are the expectations of teachers to the younger generation now in

education?

Appendix 2

Appendix 3