NightOwl

Helloooouuuuu

I was first introduced to this ‘student – teacher journalism’ right after I read a novel entitled ‘Push/ Precious’ by Sapphire, and watched the movie. The movie and the novel were so intense to watch and to read.

The whole story is about a girl named ‘Precious’ who was raped by her father since she was a kid, abused by her mother and bullied at her school. She’s only 16, an obese, illiterate and pregnant with her second child (another result of being raped by her father repeatedly).
She discovers herself and her value by writing journal with her teacher.

The journal in this story is CONVERSATIONAL, but in a written form (I’ll tell you how to do it later on).

I was quite eager to try out this approach with my weaker students, but I still hesitated about the idea. However, during my practicum term, I decided to give it a try.

Some of the notebooks went missing when I was packing my stuffs,

But here’s some of the samples that's left:

what I did was not great, and still got lotss to be improved!

REMEMBER;

Their writings won’t be marked / evaluated.

You could still point out some grammar errors if you wished to.

For those who are interested to try it, here’s how to do it,

1 - Find your targets – academically weaker students.

Get their latest exam/ test results and highlight those who didn’t pass the paper (let say English paper). Remember their names.

2. { This is optional } You could start a group with these students, like what I did during my last practicum. We had a meeting and named our group ‘Oh my English!’ (ok ,how childish is that?).

Why is this optional?

Because you’re a new teacher and everyone loves you. Some other students might see you while you’re having this very happy meeting with your group, and they would start asking you why did you choose certain students?, and why didn’t you choose them?, and then you would crack your head because you could not say ‘Because your friends need more help and your English is fine’,

and they would say ‘But teacher, I need help tooooooooo~~’
and gave you this never-ending argument a.k.a DRAMA because they wanted to join that group too.
So, IT IS UP TO YOU TO DECIDE.

3. Go to Mydin, and buy 555 notebooks. It’s really cheap and it’s convenient.

4. Each students will get a notebook. So, write down their names on the front cover of the notebook, so that they would feel like it’s a gift from you. Seriously, you’ll know from their looks after receiving this notebook.

5. On the first page, write

Dear Siti (your student’s name),

How are you today?

*This is not a homework. Just reply to this and I will write back to you.

6. Distribute the notebooks to the chosen ones. And wait….. until you get a reply.

7. Write back to them. For example, you might share a bit of what happen to you on that day, and ask them another question. It’s conversational remember? Basically you may write about anything, but always remember your ethics as a teacher. Give them back the notebook and wait…and the circle goes on.

Always simplify your language.

8. Make sure only English is acceptable in the notebooks. And always collect back the notebooks every single time before the bell rings.

I believe writing journals have ‘forced’ my students to use English more and at the same time, boost their self-esteem by knowing that someone actually notices their existence at school.
As the time goes by, you’ll notice how they want you to reply ASAP, because it is occurred to be fun to them.

They also might grow faith and trust in you. And at this point, you’ll be surprised at how transparent they could be to you and share their life story with you.

As for me, I started to learn more about how their upbringing shaped their personality, and I started to understand my students better.

Some students might grow their obsession to you and pour it out in their journals,

but always always remember that you’re their teacher, not their buddy, and show them that you treat everyone equally and again, remember your ethics as a teacher.

End of my sharing. I hope you’ll try this out. Seriously, it’s harmless.

And if you try it out, please please please let me know how this journal thing works for you.

I’ve always wanted to know how I can do this better in the future,

especially in terms of knowing the right questions to ask, and the right ways to answer them.

Chawww~~

p/s – throughout my practicum, I didn’t even report a single word about my experiment of journal writing to my supervisor. I thought it was nothing, you know, 555 notebook with some conversation inside it, nothing really fancy if you want to compare it to some of my friends’ teaching aids.

But then, when we had our Post- Practicum Exhibition, I just lined these notebooks on a chair, so that at least a person or two might see and read them.

During the exhibition, I had a glance at that chair area where I placed those notebooks while I was soo busy doing paper shoes demonstration to the visitors.

And to my surprise, people were crowding the area, some were sitting on the floor and some were reading a notebook together with their friends!!!

And not long before the exhibition ended, one of my friend said, ‘Zawa, Ms Letch asked why you never spoke a word to her about this journal?’I went to meet her and apologized, and she ended up keeping few samples.

So go and ask Ms Letch if you want to see any sample.

I hope she still keep them with her.