Faculty of Language and Communication, Christina Yin (sixth left), Director of Wildlife Conservation Sarawak, Dr Melvin Gumal (eighth left) and the participants of ‘The Next 100 Workshop’ at Swinburne
Sarawak in Kuching.
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 the Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak campus) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the university’s campus.
The workshop series, funded by the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and held for the fourth time, included teachers who have up to 28 years of teaching experience and those who had just completed their first year of teaching.
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. Meanwhi le, the Amer ican English Teaching Assistants are graduates but do not necessarily have teaching experiences.
As such, The Next 100 manual of English and Conservation Education activities, co-authored by Director of WCS, Dr Melvin Gumal, Orangutan 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.
They went on a trip to Matang Wildlife Centre to ignite the participants’ curiosity while encouraging creative thinking to solve daily 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, hoping that the teachers would spread the conservation message to school children all over the country.
Meanwhi le, Brenda Chi n Chiew Hiong of SK Lubok Antu in Sarawak commented that the most intriguing aspect of The Next 100 Workshop was the way facilitators triggered her mind into thinking from different perspectives because human beings tend to look at things from the perspectives that they were familiar with.
Chin added that she was keen to try out the collaborative writing in her teaching and learning sessions as she believed that it would encourage her pupils to write stories that would 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 realised the impact and responsibility that 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, added that the topics discussed at the workshop were of great benefit and that it had reignited her passion for teaching.
“I would l ike to apply the strategies taught in the ‘Reading and Writing Workshop’ as they are in line with the 21st Century Teaching and Learning concepts.
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 English by teaching about wildlife conservation was a good approach as it allows the participants to understand the relationship between humans and nature Meanwhile, a teacher from SJK(C) Siong Boon in Bintulu, Jong Yik Ming said that he not only learnt something useful and informative related to animal conservation but also new techniques in reading and writing.
