A trip to " Sekolah Menengah Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Shah Alam"

On the 13/03/2013, our school of Education has organised a trip to a special needs school in Shah Alam. We were told to wait at the bus stop near Pangkor hall before 7.15am. It took us almost one hour to reach the school. This is my first time going to a special needs school in Malaysia. My first impression of the school is so big and has many building blocks.

Aftethat, me and my classmates( First Years), Second Year Students and our lecturers were assisted by Ms. Pravina, a teacher of the school. We went to the teacher's meeting room, and were introduced to the principal and she gave her speech about the school. In addition, we were given a school brochure by Ms.Pravina, to know more about the school ,what are the programmes being offered in the school and how does the school evaluate students performance. Then, we had a Q & A session, where we get to ask questions regarding the school. From that discussion, I can see that the school is only for students who are blind, students with hearing impairment and learning disabilities. There was one part where one of the teachers pointed out that this school is only for the "deaf and dumb" and then she quickly changed her mind. I was shocked to hear that the term "dumb" because I found it a very offensive and sad to hear that some people still used that "negative term" in today's society. Another thing is the school only used two sign languages. There are Manually Coded Malay (KTBM) and American Sign Language(ASL). According to one of the teachers, students who perform well in their studies, they will sent to a special needs school in Penang. One of my peers raised a question that " do students here create their own language to communicate with their friends". They responded by saying that students do create their own language to communicate whether there are in their dorms and in the classroom itself.

Moreover, this school offered seven programmes such as  7 courses such as cooking, builders, welding, hair saloon, automotive engine, housekeeping, learn about making dresses and blouses, and learn how to create images on posters or even making  scrapbooks. Ms. Pravina gave us a tour to explore the classrooms and have a look on what are the students there are studying. The one thing that amazed me was the school had apple computers for children to design and make posters and the another thing was the silk cloth designs and the clothes made by the students was absolutely amazing to look at.

Ms. Pravina took us around the school and she showed us the students dorms( girls and boys dorms separately), the football court and the school field. At the end of the day, we took a group photo and left the school. Above all, it was an unforgettable experience.


Here are some pictures:

 

 

Handbags, photoframes, drawings of silk patterns made by the students

 

 

 

Students artwork.

Students have to study the Electrical System

 

 

 

 

HouseKeeping

 

Hair Saloon

Builders

A Memorable Experience( UNHCR Refugee School)

On 1/7/2013,  we gathered at FIA11 to welcome the Myammar Refugee kids, aged 5 to 17 years. When they arrived, the Education students assisted them to their seats. When I first look at those kids, I was thinking "Are those kids really from a Refugee School?". Because you can see, by the way they dressed, some of them even wearing their headphones on, and others having cool mobile phones. Then, we move on with the ice-breaking games, where we get to know the children names and we also get to dance and sing  along with the song called "If You Happy and You Know It". It seems that many of the kids could not understand and communicate in English, so luckily they have a translator who can translate for them. Afterthat, we get the kids to split into groups of five. These five groups represented by colour, which are orange, green, yellow, pink and blue. According to the article that I've read, the third move in the I-R-F exchange structure where the "I" represents the initiating move, such as the question that's being posed by the teacher. The "R" is the response from the class and "F" is the follow-up comment by the teacher(Cullen, 2002). Upon my experience with the Myammar Refugee Kids, I was helping the little ones to put on their colour wristbrands and I try to communicate with them, they is no response. Therefore, no follow up and I-R-F does not exist. Some of the kids could not speak English, so I have to use gestures to communicate with them.

                                        

                                         

The Scavenger hunt team will take their group of kids to places where the station games are. The station games consist of  four games:

• Traffic Light Game
• Building Bridge with Newspapers
• Blindfold Game
• Loop News Paper Game

 



 

 

 

The Kids :)

                                          

While the kids busy playing with the station games, me and my  other two friends Flora and Agnes are part of the Indoor Games Group. So, we went to F3B08, to arrange the chairs and set up the music for the "Musical Chairs" games. Then, when the kids arrived at 10.10am, one of the Education students gave instructions regarding the activities. I was in charge of playing the music. I chose two different songs and mash them up together. The songs I chose were High School Musical- We all in this together and The Wanted-Chasing The Sun. I was consider  to be the "DJ" of the event. The kids really had so much fun playing Musical Chairs and then we move on to "Rock,Paper, Scissors Game". My classmate Phoebe, gave instructions and she and I demonstrate how to play this game. I  had a good laugh when I was playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors Game" with Kay, and she was so excited and thought she won the game. Hahaha :)

 

 

                                                                    

 

   

 

High School Musical- We're all in this together

 

 

 

 

The Wanted-Chasing The Sun

 

 

 





 After the games, we took the kids to the Nottingham Adminstration Building to have refreshments.  While having our refreshments, I chatted with one of the kids and it seems that she could speak English very well compare to other kids. There is IRF, where I initiate by asking a question such as "Hi, what is your name?". She responds by saying her name and there is a follow up, where I said "Oh, I mention her name again, and said things like nice to meet you. Then, we took a group photo and they left the University. It is sad for us to see the kids go, one of my classmate almost cried and refuse to see the kids go. It was an unforgettable experience for me and my classmate, as we had a lot of fun when these kids are around and they just made us feel young again. There were really wonderful and we missed them. Hopefully, we get to see them in the future.

 

 

On the next activity, I would like to join the Scavenger Hunt Team, to get to know the kids well, engage in conversations, ask questions, and more importantly, play together with them. I would want to achieve IRF, an effective tool for interpersonal communication.

 

References:

 

Cullen,R.(2002).Supportive teacher talk:the importance of the F-move. Oxford University Press,56(2), 117-127.

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

   

 

A Letter to Ms.Ho Koon Wei

Dear Ms.Ho,

I’m Sonia, a Year 1 Undergraduate Student from the School of Education. I’m grateful to meet and listen to your presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation the other day. This is my first time meeting and listening a Deaf lecturer giving a wonderful presentation on   “Learning and Living: A Deaf speaker. Your delivery was so engaging that I lost all track of time. I was so amazed to see your friend (the sign language translator) was translating very fast especially the way she uses her hand gestures and translating in sign language.  I was really impressed to see u and your friend (the sign language translator) being cooperative and communicate very professionally.

Before this, I didn’t have any understanding about how the language is learned and I didn’t know that without hearing it is almost impossible to learn to speak. I was also unclear about the term labeled as “Deaf and Dumb” and why does that “label” exist in the society, which to me it sounds horrible and it is very offensive. After hearing your presentation, I learnt a lot about deaf people lives and the differences between pre-lingual deafness and post-lingual deafness. Another thing that I would like to say, that before this I had this question on what language do deaf people used to communicate?. How do they think? I had the impression that they thought "with their hands," not with the feeling of hand movements (if I got that right). Your presentation on the language of Deaf had given me a clear picture that deaf communities make their own language and sign language, is their first language. When they master their own native sign language, they could easily learn other sign languages.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to learn a lot about deaf people lives. It is really an eye-opening experience for me.

 

Regards,

Sonia

Year 1 Undergraduate Student.