Week 3 in action!

It had been a week of highs and lows.

As teachers, we might not get enough rest, but we definitely get enough dramas. One moment we might be at cloud nine because of the achievement of our students, the very next moment we might be pushed to the verge of weeping because of their misbehavior. Sometimes, it’s the same group of students who lead us to experience from one extreme to another.

Here, I would like to highlight some people and some moments that had made my days for the past week better and made my hard work worthwhile.

First, let's start with some school related stuff. :D

I am currently teaching Civic Studies, Mandarin, and Art to lower secondary form students. For art classes, we were covering the topic of ‘Lines’ for the past 2 weeks.

For my Form 1 classes, I asked the students to draw a tree according to their own imagination, and they were encouraged to include as many types of lines as possible in their drawing. Some examples of types of lines are dotted line, curved line, spiral line, straight line, thick line and etc. 

I purposely gave them very little instruction so that I could see how they communicate and work in group.
One of my classes amazed me with their high quality artwork, so I would like to share their artworks here with you:

(The photo has been edited to intensify the lines drawn using pencil so that you can see the drawings better.)

For my Form 2 classes, I did ‘capan’ with them this week. Definition of capan in Malay is as follow:

Teknik capan merupakan teknik yang menggunakan bahan semula jadi yang mempunyai jalinan tertentu untuk menghasilkan karya.

Students were asked to produce an artwork in groups through combination of prints. They can make prints using leaves and/or other items that have natural patterns. Some of the other things with natural patterns that can be used to make prints are palm and fingers, crumpled paper balls, Amanda, coins, and etc.

Here are some of my students’ artworks:

As for my Form 3 classes, I taught the students how to make small greeting cards using the technique ‘lipatan dan guntingan’.

Each student was given 2 color papers. They were asked to fold one into small piece and cut the paper while it is folded. When they unfolded the cut paper afterwards, they will get a paper with 3D recurring patterns. Then, they pasted the cut paper on another paper of different color to make a simple card.

The task is simple but it’s not mundane! My Form 3 students from the front class really immersed themselves in the cutting and pasting because the task allowed them to relax and do hands-on activity to explore and express their creativity. The class certainly had a ‘zen’ vibe going on when all the students were occupied with creating their own artwork. 

Here are some of my students' artworks:

Okay. Enough with school. Let's move on to some social events!

My housemates and I hosted the second Christian Fellowship gathering at our apartment last Tuesday!

Amanda and I hung out at Aeon Tebrau on Friday after our weekend classes at teaching school. 

Grace’s aunt had generously given us a lot of big tiger prawns last week. Wait, ‘big’ is an understatement. The prawns were as gigantic as my palm!  In fact, ‘a lot’ is an understatement as well. To be exact, we received around 50 prawns from her!

Last Saturday night, Sui Yang had selflessly offered to cook cereal prawns to satisfy everyone’s craving. He had to split the prawns into 3 batches when he cooked because the wok cannot fit all goodness in one! He has proven himself to be a terrific chef. The prawns tasted so delicious!

*Everyone please pause reading and give a round of applause for Sui Yang*

Friends came to join us for the prawn tasting feast. It was a nice time savoring good food and chatting with friends. We were enjoying ourselves so much till we forgot to take a group picture to commemorate the occasion!

Once again, thank you Grace for sharing, thank you Sui Yang for cooking, and thank you to everyone who came and shared the moment with us! J

5 more days of teaching and I can go back to Ipoh for CNY break! Hooray! I need my sleep and space out time...