KUCHING – Eleven teachers from Sarawak, Selangor and Penang had the opportunity to be part of ‘The Next 100 Workshop’, an English workshop recently organised by Swinburne Sarawak and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the university’s campus.
The workshop series, funded by the U.S. Embassy Kuala Lumpur and held for the fourth time, included teachers who have up to 28 years teaching experience and those who have just completed their first year of teaching.
Swinburne Sarawak’s Acting Dean of Faculty of Language and Communication Dr Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman (centre) flanked by Dr Melvin and Yin posing in a group photo with the workshop participants
The workshop was originally designed to help 100 teachers under the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Programme who are Fulbright scholars brought to Malaysia and placed in 100 different schools throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the American English Teaching Assistants are graduates but do not necessarily have teaching experience. As such, The Next 100 manual of English and Conservation Education activities, co-authored by Director of WCS Dr Melvin Gumal, Orang-utan Unit Assistant Coordinator Sylvia Ng and Swinburne Sarawak’s senior lecturer and associate dean in the Faculty of Language and Communication Christina Yin, was written to assist the ETAs in their work and teaching.
Throughout the workshop, the participants were exposed to various pedagogies of teaching and learning English and went on a trip to Matang Wildlife Centre to ignite the participants’ curiosity while encouraging creative thinking to solve day-to-day problems regarding the environment.
According to Dr Gumal, it was heartening to see the teachers’ positive energy as they are the ones who will make a difference to their students whether they are in or out of the classroom, adding that he hopes the teachers would spread the conservation message to school children all over the country.
Meanwhile, Brenda Chin Chiew Hiong of SK Lubok Antu in Sarawak commented the most intriguing aspect about The Next 100 Workshop is how the facilitators triggered her mind in thinking from different perspectives because as human beings, we tend to look at things only from perspectives that we are familiar with.
Furthermore, Chin said she is keen to try out the collaborative writing in her teaching and learning sessions as she believes this would encourage her pupils to write stories that will serve a purpose in writing itself.
A former teacher with Teach for Malaysia, Jessica Yim Sau Theng opined that the visit to Matang Wildlife Centre made her realise the impact and responsibility humans have towards Mother Earth, on top of understanding more about WCS and the work the organisation is doing for wildlife conservation.
Yim, who currently teaches at SMK Tanjung Sepat in Selangor, also said the topics discussed at the workshop were of great benefit and that it had reignited her passion for teaching.
“I would like to apply the strategies taught in the ‘Reading and Writing Workshop’ as they are in line with the 21st Century Teaching and Learning concept. I appreciate the hands-on experience in preparing a lesson plan using the teaching strategies,” said Yim.
Mohd Zaki bin Said who teaches at SMK Mengkuang, Pulau Pinang remarked that learning how to apply English teaching in wildlife conservation is a good approach as it allows the participants to understand the relationship between humans and nature by using English as a medium of instruction, while SJK(C) Siong Boon, Bintulu teacher Jong Yik Ming said he not only learnt something useful and informative related to animal conservation but also new techniques in reading and writing.
For more information about Swinburne Sarawak, visit the university’s website (www.swinburne.edu.my), Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter page (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).