Berpindah!

Dengan nama Allah, Maha Mengetahui segala sesuatu.

Sudah berapa lama saya tidak menulis entri di blog ini? Terasa sedikit kekok membiarkan jemari ini kembali menari di atas papan kekunci, setelah bertahun tidak menulis...


Kesibukan sentiasa menghimpit diri beberapa tahun ini, but all was good. Mudah-mudahan selepas ini dapat meluang masa untuk kembali blogging walaupun sibuk. Doakan ya!

InshaaAllah, entry kali ini ingin berkongsi sesuatu yang menarik. Teruskan membaca. :)

***

Beberapa hari yang lalu, saya telah menimbulkan satu kontroversi dan kekecohan di kalangan pelajar saya di alam maya (Facebook dan Wechat) apabila saya memuatnaik status yang amat ambiguous pada 14 Disember lalu yang berbunyi,

"Rasanya dah tiba masa untuk berpindah..."

Statement tersebut di Facebook dan Wechat menerima banyak komen yang bertanyakan ke manakah saya mahu berpindah . . .

. . . yang telah mengisi idea nakal dalam kotak fikiran saya - ya, cubaan untuk mengenakan para pelajar yang banyak bertanya. It was the longest and most elaborate cyber prank I have ever done, and the result was...unpredictably heart-warming. Rasa berbunga hati ini. Ehehe.

Sebenarnya, status asal saya itu punya maksud lain tetapi melihatkan ramai yang pantas membuat kesimpulan yang saya akan berpindah sekolah, I decided to play along. Dua hari selepas status berpindah yang pertama, saya memuatnaik status berikut:

"Alhamdulillah, telah mendapat keizinan untuk berpindah."

Semakin ramai yang meninggalkan komen - rakan-rakan yang bertanya dan mengucap tahniah, dan para pelajar yang mahukan jawapan. Saya tidak reply langsung di ruangan komen - I left them with their own imagination.

Keesokannya, saya sengaja "memanaskan" lagi keadaan dengan status baharu:

"Alhamdulillah, dah melawat tempat baharu tadi. Semuanya okay walaupun tidak sehebat yang lama."

Status ini diikuti dengan kenyataan mahu mengemas barang-barang di bilik guru dan permintaan andai ada yang sudi menghulur bantuan. Sekali lagi, status ini dibanjir pelbagai jenis komen dari yang bertanya kepada yang mula membuat pelbagai spekulasi. Tidak kurang jugak yang mula kehilangan sabar kerana saya langsung tidak respons. Beberapa orang pelajar mula menghantar chat kepada saya,

Ramai yang bersungguh bertanyakan sebab saya berpindah,

Ada yang begitu concerned and ready to lend their ears andainya saya ada masalah sehinggakan mahu berpindah,

Malah ada yang mula emosional,

Tak kurang juga yang mula merayu agar saya tidak berpindah,

Pelajar-pelajar lelaki pula cuba menyembunyikan perasaan sedih mereka,

Saya sudah mula rasa tersentuh dan terharu dengan responses yang saya terima dari para pelajar yang benar-benar tidak mahu saya berpindah. Akhirnya, saya terpaksa mengalah kepada beberapa orang pelajar perempuan yang hampir menangis and were very close to breaking down.

...tetapi "permainan" ini masih diteruskan lagi!

Bagi memastikan prank ini berjaya, saya telah berkomplot dengan beberapa orang yang telah tahu (pelajar-pelajar perempuan di atas ini dan beberapa rakan sekerja) agar mereka diam dan act natural seolah-olah mereka tidak tahu apa-apa.

Tiga orang pelajar telah menawarkan diri untuk membantu saya mengemas meja dan packing barang-barang di bilik guru. Mereka juga telah saya beritahu hal sebenar dan mereka berjanji untuk tidak memberitahu rakan-rakan mereka berkenaan prank ini. Usai mengemas meja, saya memuat naik gambar ini dengan caption yang amat ambiguous,

"Meja telah dikosongkan. Tak sabarnya untuk berpindah! Goodbye yang lama. Hello yang baharu."

Ada pelajar yang sudah mula syak bahawa saya hanya akan berpindah meja, tapi tidak kurang juga yang masih bersedih kerana menganggap saya akan berpindah sekolah!

Akhirnya, saya mendedahkan juga hal sebenar kerana kasihan melihat pelajar-pelajar bersedih, terutamanya mereka yang berharap dan menjangkakan saya akan mengajar kelas mereka pada tahun hadapan. I feel so loved!

Honestly, I didn't mean to troll anyone. Saya bersembang dengan seorang rakan sekerja, Cikgu S, yang mencadangkan saya berpindah meja supaya ada ruang untuk meletakkan rak-rak buku untuk projek I Want To Read A Book tahun hadapan. Idea untuk troll tu datang kemudian. Ehehe.

***

Mungkin ada yang tertanya: Kenapa troll pelajar?

Mungkin ada yang tak bersetuju dengan cara saya, but here's my answer:

Belajar zaman sekarang tak sama macam belajar zaman dahulu. Students are more creative these days, tapi kurang hands-on experience. Setakat duduk sahaja dalam kelas, pagi bawa ke malam cuba siapkan kerja rumah...it can be very stressful. Instead of sajikan mereka dengan hiburan-hiburan murahan, a teacher's good sense of humour is what these students need. Kalau guru dan pembelajaran pun mendatar (monotonous) dan tak menarik, bagaimana pelajar nak pupuk minat? At least, bila ada surprises (and trolls!) seperti ini, para pelajar akan berasa lebih teruja dan look forward to learn more. At least that is what I believe.

Selain itu, prank ini juga telah memberikan kesan yang amat positif pada diri saya sendiri sebagai seorang guru. Setiap guru tahu adanya pasang surut dalam karier ini - in fact, lebih banyak down daripada up dengan permasalahan dan kerenah dari pelbagai pihak sehinggakan profesion keguruan ini menjadi sangat stressful. Bila tertekan, mulalah hilang motivasi dan semangat untuk mengajar. Betul? Bila keadaan sebegitu, kita perlukan dorongan untuk membakar semula semangat mengajar itu and from this little prank, I was reminded why I got into teaching profession.

Dari respons para pelajar, I feel needed, loved and appreciated. And these things are the important things that keep all teachers going, to keep us motivated and rekindling our passion in teaching.


Teaching is not only giving; there is give and take in teaching too, after all.

"Ya Allah! Ikhlaskanlah hati ini dalam mengajarkan ilmu dan mendidik generasi muda, sabarkanlah hati ini dengan kerenah mereka, dan janganlah Engkau padamkan semangat ini walau bertahun berada di lapangan dakwah yang kecil ini. Ameen."

Classroom and Flowers

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious.

Yesterday was my birthday. I would like to thank everyone who wished me well. All your prayers and wishes are wonderful birthdays gifts and I hope all your prayers and wishes effect you too. Personally, I think the best gift a person can have on his birthday is the opportunity to breathe and love everyone. And for that, I thank Allah for "the gift". :')



Today, I attended a seminar on Integrity. The content was supposedly good but the planning was not so good. When planning a seminar, you have to consider your audience first. Be practical and considerate - just who in the world can sit still for 6 hours straight only listening? Humans, youth like me especially, have short attention span. Hence, recess should be considered in between talks lest the audience gets too tired and sleep through the seminar. Just my opinion, really.

All in all, the seminar was good. I love the last speaker. He has the wisdom though his presentation was somewhat . . . monotonous. No jokes cracked and most audience fell asleep. But I do not blame him given he presented the last when the audience was all mentally and physically tired. But he did left me with the best impressions out of his wise speech. I remember him talked about a wonderful story he read from Reader's Digest about a story of teacher who managed to touched his students' heart.

Even though he did not elaborate on the story, I think I would like to re-write the story from my own perspective here. :')

-----o-----

Flowers in the Classroom

Do you like flowers? I love flowers, especially sunflowers, and I'd love to share my story why I so love flowers.

Many years ago, I was one of the students whom you would label as delinquents. Most people do not put much hope nor trust in youth like me. Even teachers in my all-boy school back then gave up on me and my classmates who the teachers labelled as rebels and delinquents.

One day, a new teacher was sent to our school. We never cared who he was because we thought all teachers were the same. They gave up on us, entering class doing their routines of chalk-and-talk. They never cared to ask what we want in the class, yet we were scolded and humiliated in the class if we were to fall asleep or do any of those "misbehaviours" they said. So, why should we care about this one new teacher?

The next day after the new teacher was transferred to our school, I was sent to see the school's counsellor by my English teacher. I was rude, so he said. But he was being rude to me first, that was what I wanted to say but I was not given the opportunity to speak out. After counselling session ended, the councillor told me that the new teacher will take over the current English teacher's lesson. I was not surprised as I know how she hated our class so much.

***

THE new teacher entered our class the next day. We did not care about him and continued making noise. To our surprise, the teacher entered the class and sat by his table watching us without scolding and shouting at us to be quiet. The loud noise in the classroom was reduced to whispers and we tried to "discuss" with one another about this anomaly.

Suddenly, the teacher stood up and went to the blackboard. He wrote "NOSNIHCTUH MADA" and returned to his table and resumed his action of watching us silently. Five minutes of murmuring between us passed by before I dared myself to raise my hand and asked,

"What's that on the board? It's not in English, is it?"

The teacher smiled and responded, "Ah, not bad! You know how to read after all." He clapped his hands and continued, "but these two are English words."

"Really?" the whole class was almost dumbfounded and staring at him. No eyes blinked.

"Yes, it is." He smiled again. "You all think I'm not making any sense here, right?"

We nodded our heads vigorously. Of course, he wasn't making any sense. How in the world those weird words are English words?

The new teacher laughed and said, "Why don't you try reading this from right to left? Anyone wants to try?"

A boy from the back of the class, Harris, wanted to try. He read slowly and found out that "Adam Hutchinson" was written on the board. The teacher smiled and politely introduced himself. Adam Hutchinson was his name, engaged to an accountant, and would be teaching us English language. And he loved flowers.

"No worries, boys. We are NOT going to learn all those boooooring grammar stuffs today." He said as he neared me and continued, "What we are going to do today is, learn about each other. What's your name, young man? Care to tell us MORE about yourself?"

That day, all we learnt was about ourselves. I never did know that Harris has travelled Europe before. Nor did I know that Matt was the top-sprinter when he was in kindergarten. Honestly, we did not know much about ourselves. That day, for the first time in many years, we had someone who listened and wanted to listen to us.

***

The next day, we had a hell of a scoldings and name-callings during History lesson. I had no idea what made the History teacher so angry when she entered the class and sleeping in her class only resulted in ticking her off even more. We actually were anticipating for Mr. Adam's lesson but with all those scoldings and name-callings, can you imagine how we would feel and look at that time? Yes, were all frowning and feeling grumpy. Sorry, Mr. Adam.

Mr. Adam entered our class looking all sweaty and we could see that his blue shirt had the trace of fresh earth on it. But I guess we were all too deep in emotions that we overlooked all these details. The English teacher looked puzzled when he entered the classroom.

"I guess you boys just had a bad day today, eh?" The question was left unanswered.

Nobody said anything but he continued, "we are going to learn new vocabulary today. But not in this class when the atmosphere is like this." Most of us started to pay our attention to him. He smiled as he asked, "do you like flowers?"

Mr. Adam took us to the school's backyard. The ground there was not used and left unattended for many years and it surprised us to see that the same backyard was now clean.

"Yes, I cleared all the weeds and bushes here," declared Mr. Adam as if he could read our expression. "And I want to plant sunflowers here."

As the English teacher thrust a spade into the ground, he told us to gather around him while he whispered, "I want to share a secret with all of you. Can you all keep secrets, boys?" We all nodded. "Good! I like you all. Now, my fiancée loves sunflower and I'm planning to give these flowers when I propose her for a marriage later. So, do you mind helping me? When the sunflowers grow big enough, you can give them to your girlfriend too."

Nobody went against him. Everyone felt special and trusted the moment he said he was sharing his secret with us. Everyone wanted to help clear the ground and plant the sunflower seeds. We had so much fun gardening at the backyard while learning new vocabulary about sunflowers. Mr. Adam told us that each of us can take one pot of flower and plant the seed in the classroom, but with one strict condition: We have to take care of the flower as if we are taking care of ourselves. If we failed to do that, Mr. Adam will confiscate the flower from us. We agreed and took our own flower pot to class. We were laughing the whole day even though we were scolded again by other teachers who were angry at our filthy clothes covered in mud and soil. But we paid no attention to them because we were happy.

***

MANY weeks passed by. We attended to our own sunflowers as if they are our girlfriends. From merely seeds, the sunflowers now have grown big enough that the other teachers who scolded us for bringing in the pots into classroom were now fascinated by their beauty. And we took pride in that.

In one of his grammar lessons, Mr. Adam told us that her fiancée had agreed to a marriage when he proposed to her with the sunflowers we helped him to plant. He thanked us for helping and invited us to attend the wedding. We felt honoured but more importantly, we were happy that we felt that we had been useful to him. Mr. Adam wrapped the lesson that day with a speech that touched everyone's heart:

"I love planting flowers. It takes a lot of efforts, patience and perseverance to make sure the seed turns into beautiful flowers. You have to be responsible to your flowers. You need to water them everyday, give them enough fertiliser and make sure they are safe from pests. You experienced it yourselves, don't you boys? All your efforts and patience were paid off in the end, right? I heard Jake got a girlfriend thanks to his sunflower. Yes, that's why I love flowers. They teach me to be responsible, to be patient and never give up on future. Each of you are my flower seeds, and I'd love to see you grow into beautiful flowers in many years to come. I know you boys can do it and I believe in your potential. So don't give up on yourself and try your best in everything despite what other people say about you. Even bad seeds can grow beautiful flowers if you have faith in them."

That very speech brought us all to tears and today, most of us are successful in our own fields. And we still have this habit of keeping a pot of flower in our room to commemorate the English teacher who changed our lives with his sunflowers.

Now, do you love flowers?

-----o-----

This story shares some of my views about what and how a teacher should treat his or her students. Just my two-pence, though.



"O Allah! I seek refuge in You from any prideful thoughts and I pray for the barakah of knowledge you bestowed on me so that I can share and spread it because of You and for the love of knowledge, not for any other reasons."