Why Do You Want to Be a Teach for Malaysia Fellow

8/12/2019 Why Do You Want to Be a Teach for Malaysia Fellow

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What do you want to accom!lish & achieve during the 2 years as a Fellow?

From elementary to secondary schools' !rofessional develo!ment is a fixture. (sually held

once a month' !rofessional develo!ment days are designed to target areas of weakness withina school faculty or to !re!are educators for new initiatives. These days are necessary and

im!ortant) however' in addition to this collective !rofessional develo!ment' schools often

re*uire teachers to create !rofessional develo!ment !lans for themselves individually. These

!lans' called teacher im!rovement !lans' enrich both individuals and school communities.

Smart Goals and Professional Development

+ne effective strategy for teacher goal setting with regard to !rofessional

develo!ment is the setting of smart goals. These goals are designed to be actionable

and measurable. The word ,smart, stands for s!ecific' measurable' achievable' results

orientated and relevant and time bound. -esigning goals around these conce!ts and

measuring your goals through these *ualifications makes them viable. %mart goals are

the backbone of any teacher im!rovement !lan.

What would you like to do after Teach For Malaysia Fellowshi!?

1. School Improvemento Teacher goal setting and !rofessional develo!ment can not only im!rove

individuals but whole communities. %mart goals and im!rovement !lans

!rovide teachers with an actionable !lan to maximi"e their own !otential'

which in turn maximi"es the school$s !otential.

Student Enrichment

o hen teachers are working hard to achieve their highest !otential' students

benefit directly. %mart goals and teacher im!rovement !lans may refer to

develo!ment in s!ecific areas related to student instruction' such as

differentiation of instruction or clarity of instruction. /ecause smart goals aredesigned to be achieved' goal setting and !rofessional develo!ment of

individuals teachers are in the best interest of each individual student.

2b 0eflective 1nswer

-escribe a time when you encountered serious obstacles to success while working on an

initiative. ou may choose any !rofessional initiatives you have worked on during the !ast

two years.

'eeping students motivated in the tuisyen classroom and out is an obstacle many teacherswill face. (nmotivated students tend to have negative attitudes, a general dislike for school,


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give up easily on set tasks and are the maor cause of classroom disruption )*ggen +'auchak, --. These factors lead to students having a negative impact on other studentsin the classroom, thus making teaching difficult for me. In order for me to motivate thesestudents, different theories of motivation such as behaviourist and humanistic must beimplemented. These theories focus on motivating students through rewards and encouragethem to reach their total potential not only as students but also as human beings )*ggen +'auchak, --. Although many critics believe that rewards send the wrong message tostudents about learning, many teachers use them as forms of motivation in the classroom./ewards such as computer time, free time, praise and candy incite children to continueperforming well. Also compassionate and caring teachers who care about their students bothas human beings and pupils contribute to their nation..

hat was the aimof the !ro3ect?

4ach individual teacher has an o!inion about what the aim of education should be' not only in

their own classroom but also in school in general. Many issues occur when differing o!inions

about the !ur!ose of education collide. It is im!ortant to recogni"e that other !eo!le'

including many of your coworkers' administrators' and your students$ !arents might have a

different !oint of view concerning what education should be all about. Following is a list of

different aims of education that individuals might es!ouse.

Knowledge of Subject Matter Being Taught

The purpose of education to some teachers is to impart knowledge about the subect matter

they are teaching without much thought to other classes. 0hen taken to the e$treme, these

teachers focus on their own subect matter as being more important than what students are

learning in other classes. For e$ample, teachers who are unwilling to compromise their own

subect matter for the good of the students can cause problems for the school at large. 0hen

the school I taught at tried to implement senior proects, we got push back from a couple of

teachers who were not willing to change their lessons to include cross curricular activities.

Whatwere the s!ecific obstacles that arose' and whydid they occur?

%tudents today are technophiles. They love their video games1all fast2paced and addictive1and they can3t put down their smart phones, i4ods, and social networks. And educators?

They might also love new technologies, but even if they don3t, they reali!e that technology

often is the key to locking in a student3s interest. The challenge is, how? &eitrya Anderson, a

Tulsa teacher, puts those phones 5to an educational use6 through a site called 0iffitithat

receives and displays student 7uestions via te$t message. 8thers are usingTwitter1

sending tweets to students to remind them of key points from the day3s lesson or use it as a

language arts tool. *ven Facebookhas its merits. %usan 9ol7uitt, a :ew ;e$ico teacher,

says she uses it to answer her students3 7uestions and mentor them.

Hows!ecifically did you res!ond to those obstacles? Whats!ecific actions did you take?
http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/writingacrossthecurriculumterm.htmhttp://wiffiti.com/http://twitter.com/neatodayhttp://www.facebook.com/nea#!/neatoday?ref=tshttp://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/writingacrossthecurriculumterm.htmhttp://wiffiti.com/http://twitter.com/neatodayhttp://www.facebook.com/nea#!/neatoday?ref=ts


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%chools that have im!lemented goal5setting !rograms are seeing higher grades' test scores'

and school ratings. %ome such !rograms will use a test in the beginning of the semester to

assess what challenges the student will face during the semester. The student and teacher

decide on a date the student will have overcome this obstacle 6conce!t' sub3ect' the act of

doing&turning in their homework7 and break the obstacle into smaller ste!s to be taken over

the entire semester.+ne student !rofiled in the article had been struggling with fractions for years. 8is teachers

!ro!osed they break the obstacles into smaller ste!s' and in that semester he raised his scores

from a 9 to :;9. 8is baseball coach also noticed the difference his goal5setting skills had

on his game. The a!!roach


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The mere re!etition of tasks by studentswhether manual or intellectualis unlikely to lead

to im!roved skills or keener insights. Learning often takes !lace best when students have

o!!ortunities to ex!ress ideas and get feedback from their !eers. /ut for feedback to be most

hel!ful to learners' it must consist of more than the !rovision of correct answers. Feedback

ought to be analytical' to be suggestive' and to come at a time when students are interested in

it. 1nd then there must be time for students to reflect on the feedback they receive' to makead3ustments and to try againa re*uirement that is neglected' it is worth noting' by most

examinationses!ecially finals.

E(pectations )ffect Performance

%tudents res!ond to their own ex!ectations of what they can and cannot learn. If they believe

they are able to learn something' whether solving e*uations or riding a bicycle' they usually

make headway. /ut when they lack confidence' learning eludes them. %tudents grow in self5

confidence as they ex!erience success in learning' 3ust as they lose confidence in the face of

re!eated failure. Thus' teachers need to !rovide students with challenging but attainable

learning tasks and hel! them succeed.

hat is more' students are *uick to !ick u! the ex!ectations of success or failure that others

have for them. The !ositive and negative ex!ectations shown by !arents' counselors'

!rinci!als' !eers' andmore generallyby the news media affect students$ ex!ectations and

hence their learning behavior. hen' for instance' a teacher signals his or her lack of

confidence in the ability of students to understand certain sub3ects' the students may lose

confidence in their ability and may !erform more !oorly than they otherwise might. If this

a!!arent failure reinforces the teacher$s original 3udgment' a disheartening s!iral of

decreasing confidence and !erformance can result.

I worked as a teacher in Cusat Tuisyen %alam Ilmu..

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Why Do You Want to Be a Teach for Malaysia Fellow