Hello from TFM Fellow, Aisyah

NOVEMBER 2018

We are happy to hear from Teach For Malaysia Fellow, Aisyah Ajib. She is currently teaching English in a high-need school in Pasir Gudang, Johor.

“In my first year of teaching, I facilitated students to take ownership of their learning. In my classes, I asked students to set personal targets at the beginning of each lesson based on the respective lessons’ learning objectives. These learning objectives and their explanations were displayed on a board in the classroom as a written reminder for the students. The students learned how the activities that they conduct in class are linked to these learning objectives and they can track their own progress. I also instilled a culture of using dictionaries in all of my English lessons and each student has a Word Bank for them to keep a record of their vocabulary development.”

In line with facilitating students to take ownership of their learning, another initiative that I oversaw was the students’ choral speaking competition. The team learned how to work together without fully relying on the teacher. They became conscious about their progress throughout each practice session and worked together to problem-solve and identify areas of improvement. In the end, the team managed to reach the final round in a national competition. It was a great achievement for a high-need school like ours and it was their very first time competing.”

Aisyah is entering her second year of teaching under TFM with much excitement. We will continue to cheer for her and her students!