Working from the heart
TEACHERS are often considered second parents, especially since they are positioned as role models and influential figures to schoolchildren.
They guide, motivate, sacrifice and inspire students to be better people who will constantly challenge themselves and strive for improvement. It is not an easy or glamorous profession, but the satisfaction that they get from seeing students prosper and grow into successful people can be worth the toil.
Here are several teachers who have embraced their calling, showing the world what it means to be passionate about teaching and contributing to the standard of national education.
No child left behind
Teacher K.A. Razhiyah Mohamed from SMK Panji in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, has close to three decades of experience in special needs education.
She firmly believes that though some students may lack cognitive ability, they deserve to be respected and treated with dignity.
Her efforts and passion in special needs education earned her the Special Education Teacher Award at the national-level Teacher’s Day celebration in 2003 and a spot among the top 50 finalists for the Global Teacher Prize 2018.
One of her greatest contributions and achievements is introducing the Teratak Spa programme in 2008. This programme fuses elements of spa-related skills in areas such as foot massage and facial treatment with vocational syllabi for the benefit of special needs students.
Teratak Spa aims to make children feel welcome and keep them buzzing with excitement, making it easier for them to understand and apply what they learn.
In 2016, the programme was adopted by the Education Ministry as a national benchmark for special needs education.
Equipping children with English skills
With a host of recognitions under his belt, English language teacher Mohd Sirhajwan Idek is known for his patience, positivity and perseverance, working with students from families of low socio-economic status and rural areas who have had little exposure to the outside world and turning them into students that excel in the English language to the point that they shine in English-based competitions.
He was a finalist for the International TESOL Teacher of the Year Award and won Macmillan English’s Teachers at the Heart competition in 2016. Besides that, he was the first place winner in The 5th Innovation & Entrepreneurship Teaching Excellence Awards 2017.
Mohd Sirhajwan uses creative ways to raise money to fund his students’ travel
PROVIDING effective feedback is one of the ways in which schools can be successful in helping students make excellent progress and fulfil their potential at school.
Independent research carried out by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) concluded that schools that successfully provide students with effective feedback can help students make up to nine months’ progress over the course of a year.
It is important that feedback enables students to move forward with their learning. The EEF suggests that examples of excellent feedback often share these three main traits:
l Specific – Examples are given of what and how students need to improve.
l Well timed and meaningful – Feedback is used reasonably sparingly so that it is meaningful and can be acted upon. Students must also be given the opportunity to respond to teacher feedback and improve their learning as a result of the interaction.
l Focused on effort over ability – Where possible, feedback should be attributed to effort and learning behaviours rather than ability so that students understand the need to work hard to improve. This helps children develop a growth mindset and enables them to form clear links between effort and achievement.
Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar (KTJ) International School in Negri Sembilan acknowledges these findings and understands the hugely positive impact that feedback can have on students’ performance, confidence, self-awareness and enthusiasm for learning.
Teachers at KTJ International School use a wide range of feedback strategies to celebrate learning behaviours, identify areas for development and empower students to understand how they learn most effectively.
Students are given timely, personalised feedback that helps them become independent learners who understand what they need to improve and how to achieve it.
KTJ International Primary School has been working on children’s growth mindset and enabling them to learn from the feedback they are given.
This feedback comes in different forms, including verbal, written and online responses, and is delivered by teachers, support staff and students as part of the learning process.
It is then communicated to parents via parent-teacher meetings, online learning journals and shared learning experiences where parents are invited into school to celebrate their children’s learning and achievements.
All of this comes together to ensure that children know the next steps in their learning process and feel confident in taking them. n For more information on KTJ International School or to arrange a visit to the school, call 06-758 2995 or e-mail registrar@ktj.edu.my