Rehearsals for SJKC English Drama and Music Day begins.

With SJKC Rompin being the most musical of all my schools, I decided to hold an English Drama and musical day there in July.

Each level one class will perform a drama/role-play from the textbook or another source as well as perform a short English song.  Parents and non-tell teachers will attend to watch.

Mentees have cast the characters for their roles and students are beginning to rehearse for the event.

Already students are showing an increase in confidence, ability to speak English in front of peers and to act out different scenarios and emotions.

I look forward to seeing how they perform on the day! -Lauren

Level One Students experimenting with costumes and props.

Decoration for English Display Competition Begins.

With the deadline for the English Display Competition looming for four schools in Rompin, mentees have started to don their painting gear and decorating an designated English corner within their school.

On a decided date in August, the PM and DLO will go around to judge the schools in terms of how creative, interactive and accessible this English space is to learners.

Not only will these spaces beautify the schools but act as areas for English teachers to use an a learning space for English classes and encourage students to have fun with English throughout the school day.

Good Luck to all schools!

                                              Painting begins at SK Tanjung Gemok.

2 Day Tioman English Camp at Non-Tell Schools!

As Tioman Island falls within the Rompin region, it was up to me as Rompin ELC to organise and plan this year's English Camp with non-Tell schools of SK Tekek and SK Juara.

Together with a great team of mentors from various clusters : Tom, Tara and Meryl; Jinks, Melissa and Josh; Siobhan and Linda from Mersing we headed to Tioman for a two day event with Ziba, the Rompin DLO, Puan Salme and ELO of Pahang.

Within the theme of 'Little Red Riding Hood', we ran Art, Drama, Reading and Writing sessions throughout the day at both schools.  Students were able to experience English within each of these sessions throughout the day before ending off with a fun quiz with prizes at the end.

In Art, students were able to experiment with finger puppets and draw different aspects of the story.  In Drama, they practised basic characterisation, expressed various emotions of characters and at the end used props and costumes to act out the play. In Reading and Writing, fun games were used to really help students enjoy and learn how to read and write within the scope of this well known children's story.

Drama Class with myself and Siobhan.

Professional Development.

In terms of Professional Development, teachers were paired with mentors and spent the day assisting them in each session learning skills and activities they could use within their own classrooms.  Throughout the day they completed a survey and took notes and gave feedback on which sessions they enjoyed the most and how they would adapt certain ideas for their daily lesson plans.

A fun day was had by all and both students and teachers from these non-Tell schools expressed their enjoyment throughout the day. At the end of each day Brighton mascots made an appearance and thrilled the students with prizes and fun.  Thanks to all involved for a great event! - Lauren 

PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) Days in Rompin.

After initially holding a successful PAL workshop at the PPD in Rompin, teachers were eager to introduce PAL to their schools and discover if this method of teaching could really assist their students to read.

I held PAL reading days at each school over the course of two weeks.  We first experimented by pairing higher year classes with lower year classes e.g Year 4 with Year 2, Year 3 with Year 2 etc.  Teachers were then guided to use the PAL method of teaching in their own classrooms by pairing high level students with the lower level learners.

PAL  Reading Day at SJKC Rompin.

                                                      PAL Reading Day at SK Sarang Tiong.

                                                         PAL Reading Day at SK Denai.

Together with the mentees, I found that the in most cases, this method of teaching reading proved highly successful except when there weren't sufficient high level learners to guide lower level readers.     Teachers realised how well this works especially when faced with big classes with over 30 students.  Instead of trying to teach them all how to read, the students assist the teacher and assume a teaching role.  The greatest reward for all of us was to witness some students read who couldn't previously string a couple words together. Many teachers continue to use this method of teaching reading in their own classes. -Lauren McShane