UWS PENANG TOUR 2012: Penang Free School- Shannon and Diana

Penang Free School-

Shannon and I were placed at Penang Free school. The original plan of Penang Free School was to provide two schools, one for boys, another for girls. Care was to be taken in providing secular education, and the sentiments of parents against any Christian teachings should be respected. Fees were collected only from those who could afford it. Children whose Malay and Indian parents do not wish for their children to be taught English could be taught in their own language.
Those were the plans but they were never carried out in their entirety. A school was set up, on the 21st of October 1816. As expected, the name Penang Free School created a misunderstanding. Many parents thought "free" means free from fees, but actually, the "free" means the school is "open to all".
The school is open to all races and religions and not focused on one particular culture. This school is also considered the oldest school in Malaysia.

Essentially Shannon and I were slightly nervous on the first day as we did not know what to expect, We were introduced infront of the school at assembly first thing monday morning. Having no idea what they were saying until our names were randomly mentioned in the sentence. We found the first few hours confusing as we had never got shown around, so we made many discoveries on our own which i guess made the days more interesting. Looking back our first week was not as eventful. We taught our classes and made our way to the staffroom after each class and occassionally wandered around to visit other classes. The biggest shock we had was the respect the students had for their elders. Everytime we walked into classrooms they immediately stood up as a matter of fact we forgot to tell the students to sit down a few times and had them patiently standing waiting for us to tell them. Within the school the students have lovely personalities that constantly great us.

On the wednesday we had our first co-curricular assemebly. Both Shannon and I were surprised at how the students come so well presented to the assembly in their uniforms and stand in the heat for over an hour. We were under the shelter and still complaining. Haha. In regards to normal school unfiforms. The students wear it very proudly and are not out of uniform as many Australian students might be.

This week has shown a change in the environment. Shannon and I were put on relief classes which i admit makes the days go much faster. We apparently had relief classes last week but unaware of them. Since neither Shannon or I are English teachers we struggled a little bit on the first relief class to find something interesting to teach. We found that playing celebrity heads was a good way to have students describe their words and put them into YES or NO questions helped us assess the students english speaking skills. We took other classes where we had debates. Our topic was "Should technology be introduced into Football (Soccer). Their was For and Against teams and they battled it out in english. Some of the students really made it interesting saying " What if your technology gets a virus" and the For students said " well we will create an anti virus" LOL. We even had "Technology uses lots of energy" "Not if its Solar Energy". I didn't expect the debate to go in that direction but it was both entertaining and interesting. We also had a class try and structure an essay, the students appreciated it as we went through each step and had them write about a topic they knew lots about a.k.a Football.

In my PE classes, i found it veryodd when students stood in one straight line and did two laps of the oval followed a routined set of stretches. When i took the class i tried a different approach by playing Bull Rush. They had so much fun and didnt even realise it was a warm up Game. I spoke to them about volleyball and broke down the skills, both showing them the actions, demonstratiing them and then having them practice it. You could see that they were enjoying the skills and helping eachother learn which you woulnt commonly see. One of the main similarties is the laziness of some of the PE teachers. Like in Australia many teachers prefer to give students a ball and play for two periods. This is also seen here. Purely because teachers know that Football is their favourite sport and they do not want to argue. I dont disagree with the football, i just think that it becomes to autonomius for students so they never learn to problem solve and provide any critical thinking to the movement. They dont have much of structure to PE like they do in all the other subjects which is a shame but the main thing is, is that they are exercising.

Shannon and I loved the aerobics day we had. I got asked to dance on the stage. I tried my best to do the dance moves and film at the same time haha. It was heaps hot but definetly a memorable experience. It's something you would definetly not see happen in Australia. Not many students would be up for making a fool of themselves. These students enjoy having fun together which is wonderful to see.

As this last week ends its actually beginning to get more interesting at the school. I think the students are starting to feel more confidnet around us and less shy. It's great to see such well disciplined students. Especially walking past many classrooms without teachers where the students are comfortably sitting at their desks doing their homework. Both Shannon and I are enjoying our time in our School. The students are lovely and the teachers are lovely which will make departing very difficult.