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| My Form 5 class photo with Cikgu Anis, our class teacher since Form 4. π I know it’s a little blurry, but can you find me? Also, guess the year! |
**Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by McDonald’s Malaysia. Their Anugerah Guru Inspirasi is one of very few initiatives ever to appreciate & recognise teachers like you & me at a national scale. In conjunction with Teachers’ Day, the 2019 award recipients will be officially announced on 13 May! I’m hoping that my nomination gets selected!**
As the old clichΓ© goes, “monkey see, monkey do.” It is not uncommon for a teacher to recreate the experiences they’ve had as students. All that theory we learned at university is great. But, only when we’ve experienced something for ourselves, can we attempt to reverse engineer it in our classrooms. That is not to say that a teacher with abysmal experiences as a student would make a abysmal teacher. I’m just saying that I have had many great teachers in my life who made my transition into teacher-hood so much more easier. One of my most treasured teachers in secondary school was Cikgu Anis Abdullah, my class teacher & English teacher.
At Form 4, my English language proficiency was way beyond what was necessary to ace the SPM test. By then I was winning essay competitions, reading elaborate novels for pleasure, singing English songs in a rock band, & transcribing pop songs on the radio by ear. Transferring from a Chinese independent school to a Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan, I didn’t do too well in PMR, so I was streamed into a mid-tier class, where the English development needs of my classmates were very different from mine. As I wasn’t being challenged in her English language classroom, Cikgu Anis allowed me to work on subjects I was struggling with during her class periods, but only after I’ve completed her assignments. On occasion, she’d use me as a resource during her lessons.
Unfortunately, teachers rarely get remembered for what they do in their classrooms. 2-3 hours of contact per week is surely not enough time to really get to know someone. I remember Cikgu Anis for her confidence in responding to my parents’ anxieties & especially for her role in producing the school’s play for the interschool competition.
