Tuesday 28 October 2014

Our Little Letzhop VIPs

Hello. It is my turn again to come out with an article for your reading. I hope this article will be beneficial to all readers. This time I would like to share about my experience with Letzhop children. 

I would like to let you know how I get my interest in teaching. I really admire teaching since I am in primary school. I always believe all the teachers are brilliant because they are able to produce successful doctors, engineers, pilots, officers, business persons, and eventually a useful human being! For that, I have the biggest respect of their career and wish to become a passionate teacher myself. 

Here at Letzhop, I am officially a teacher for these wonderful kids. We always hear that teaching younger kids are tough. However, I take that as a challenge! Although teaching and nurturing them is a huge responsibility, I still find it interesting and fun. How can we resist from their laughter and cute smile? The difficulty I encounter whenever I am teaching them seems to disappear when I get to hear them giggle and having lots of fun in class. 

My passion grows every day as I see their innocent faces at school. There will be times when they are just difficult to deal with (our little VIPs), they argue with one another and cry when they don't get what they want - but that is solved quickly with a little bit of love and attention from a teacher. 

When dealing with our little VIPs I always make sure to remember that they are just innocent and they are not matured enough to think or do things like an adult. Hence our job as a teacher to assist and guide them as well as to nurture them with patience about how to do things. As a teacher, I make sure that the children are familiar with a routine (when going to the toilet, washing hands before and after eating, and even on how to greet their friends at school). 

Apart from that, you will see the children running around, picking on their friends or even taking other children's pencils/toys. This is the part where my role as a teacher comes in - to mould on good, positive behaviors in them. Manners, the dos and don’ts, and a whole lot more other things that I need to consider when I am called a teacher. 

Now, why am I doing all these and not just teach everything there is in the book again? 

That is definitely because to me, children are like gold, you won't get it as clean as the ones you see on the shelves. You need to wash, clean and polish it - so that it could shine.



Show and tell the children the way to do things, they will surely do wonders. 


Authored by,
Teacher Zeeda,
LETZHOP Bukit Jalil

Tuesday 21 October 2014

An Eye Opening Experience at Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih

We had a wonderful opportunity on 17 July 2014 to teach English to destitute street children at Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih near Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event, called the “Program Prihatin Ilmu”, was held in collaboration with Zurriyat Ventures Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Islamic Children’s Fair (MICF).


It was an eye-opening experience for us as we have not had any experience teaching these children before. What came as a wonderful surprise to us was that they could understand some English words, and they were quick learners too! We taught about twenty primary school children, the various body parts of a human and proceeded to teach them on how to make a muppet out of paper bags and cut outs.






What I learnt personally from these bright children is that, all children, regardless of their background, family history and status, need love, a nurturing hand, support, attention, acceptance, validation and acknowledgement to thrive in this world. Everybody deserves second chances – same goes to these children.

Before we left, one of the little girls from the class came up to me and and said goodbye. She hugged my legs and innocently asked me, "Will you come back and teach us? I really liked the English class."

I said, "I really hope so too, kid", hugged her tightly.


Authored by,
Ms. Sarini Bujang
Principal and Teacher
LETZHOP Damansara

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Simply Learning by Playing

Hi, my name is Farhanim and I am known as Ms Aniem here at Letzhop. I have been teaching Letzhop children for almost a year now and teaching the K1 children (3 to 4 years old) has been a fun working experience for me by far. Teaching in a K1 class is especially fun when I can play together with my students – to be one of them.

Learning and playing are two ways that I personally that can’t be separated. I prefer my K1 to move about in class instead of asking them to sit still and just listen to me or to look at the white board while I'm standing in front of the classroom. As for some teachers, that may be fine but not for me, not for my students – learning should be fun, in which they should move about, explore and imagine things.

I believe in learning by playing where the children can use their imaginations and creativity – touch and feel the object used as the topic of learning, sense with their fingers the rough or smooth surface of a triangle shape to recognize what is a ‘triangle’ and to even cut their own play dough so that they’ll learn the process of cutting.

Learning by playing deems the teacher’s creativity to prepare interesting activities so that the children can explore the topic learned in class and here, I would like to list and maybe suggest to all teachers out there, the activities that I have done so far with my K1 children.

Cutting Play Dough 

An activity that will help the children to practice on holding on to a pair of scissors correctly and cut better – a simple activity in which I will ask the students to cut their play dough (or associate it with a food item) so that I can eat it. They will be so eager to “feed” when I told them to do so.


It may be a simple activity but the role playing and imaginative play that they are associated with imposes a lot of learning possibilities. You might be surprised at what these children may learn from the activity – at a time, a child showed team work when he saw one of his friends were having a difficulty holding on to a pair of scissors – he showed to his friend and said, “this is how you hold the scissors” and you’ll be glad to have that simple cutting activity.

Build your own House Cake?


Initially, the activity was supposed to be on building their own big house with the play blocks but as they were building their “houses”, it ended up becoming a cake! They brought up the “cake” to me and asked me to blow the candle. I was so impressed with their imagination as later after that, they started to imagine on how to bake the cake in the “chair oven”.


The play they imagined showed how they have had been exposed to knowledge on cake and baking – they could replicate the oven found in the kitchen with a chair! That indicates how their brains and experience can relate objects using their critical and creative thinking skill that eventually leads to what I have always believed in – they learn by playing.

Clean-up Session 

A clean-up session after an activity may be seen as not important but this is when they show their team work – I get to see them cleaning up their toys, moving the toys containers and pass to everyone in the class and then I’ll see everyone moving and walking around the class to put the toys inside the box, until the class is clean. There will be times that they will fight with one another over the “moving boxes” out of making sure that the class is super clean, but what is important to me, they work together.

When the clean-up session is fun, I'm sure they will not have any problem to do it again and again. The activity may take time but as long as they are doing it together, that means that they are doing it okay.

There are so many other things in the world that we could do with them to teach or to impose well, positive values. I would suggest more in my next entry so that you could do with your children at home or even at your own school.

Until next time!


Authored by,
Teacher Aniem
LETZHOP Bandar Baru Bangi

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Letzhop Sports Day 2014

Apart from a formal learning, physical activities are equally important in children’s development and process of growth. Sports, in specific, contribute not only to the physical well-being, but also for the psychological and social development of children.

In order to promote a healthy lifestyle among our students, Letzhop conducted a Sports Day event on 17 May 2014 at Pusat Komuniti Sri Petaling. The event, joined by our Bandar Baru Bangi, Selayang and Shah Alam centres, was quite a successful event.

 
At the beginning of the event, there was a School Marching competition between all participated centres. Letzhop Shah Alam won the best school marching contingent award, followed by Letzhop Bandar Baru Bangi and Letzhop Selayang, at the second and third place, respectively. All centres were very much participative in giving their best performance.


Letzhop Sports Day is unique because we added a carnival atmosphere to the event. All students need to complete five (5) challenges in order to collect prizes at the final checkpoint counter. The games and activities are carefully selected from fairground favourites. Each of these fairground games comes complete with a checkpoint card that can be used to collect prizes. So, it is like attending a fun fair!

 
 
Congratulations to the students for the enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Sincere thanks for parents for the continued support, and deepest gratitude to all teachers and the whole team members for the dedication and commitment!

 


Authored by,
Ms. Aishah
LETZHOP HQ