Another PAL reading class at SK Bandar Temerloh with Jimmy and his mentee Ms. Nurulhyda. The PAL reading class is a great class to help develop the students' love of reading. Mentors support having PAL reading classes at least once a month.

The core difference between PAL reading classes and reading done in the classroom is that in readings done in the classroom, students have to comprehend what they are reading. Readings done in PAL reading classes, students want to comprehend what they are reading.

Some students are reading quite well on their own. Other students need a little help from their teacher (left).

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Mentakab TELL2 mentor Jimmy was able to help add in some community effort with his mentee Ms. Suhana from SK Bangau this week. The activity that the students engaged in resulted in donations to other children. Since the SK Bangau school received so much flood aid, it was a good experience for the students to "give back" in this way.

The lesson that the students were learning was based on cleanliness and the additional work involved thinking about different diseases and the causes, symptoms, and remedies for diseases.

Jimmy introduced a worksheet created by the Pfizer company in which students would design capes for the 'superhero" that would fight pneumococcal disease. Each cape designed can be turned in to Pfizer. For each designed cape that Pfizer receives, they will donate 5rm to the underprivileged

.

This blog is updated and maintained by Jimmy Ma

Many schools were devastated by flooding earlier this year in Temerloh. Jimmy's SJKC Khee Chee school was no exception. Thanks to the flood relief efforts of many different organizations, most of the schools have been cleaned and are fully handling regular school life. However, this doesn't mean that all of the school's aesthetics are what they used to be.

Jimmy's TELL2 school SJKC Khee Chee had help from the Petronas organization in donating time, money, and supplies to beautify their walls. Wall murals were painted around the school with different areas painted by different classes and one area painted by teachers.

Jimmy joined his TELL2 mentees and the other faculty at his school to help in the effort to make the school look a little bit better.

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Chinese New Year always means big celebration and is a major for Malaysia. Martina's TELL2 SJKC Mentakab 1 school had a lot of festivities and fun activities on the last day before the Chinese New Year break. Martina joined in with them to show off her calligraphy skills.

Students are enjoying a day away from classes, for Chinese New Year, with many different activities.

Martina, her TELL2 Mentees, and other teachers from SJKC Mentakab 1

Martina, her TELL2 Mentees, and other teachers from SJKC Mentakab 1

This blog is updated and maintained by Jimmy Ma

Once again, just before the schools break for Chinese New Year's, Martina and Jimmy conduct their workshop. This workshop was done in the TELL2 school SK Kampong Tengah with students from TELL2 teacher Ms. Maisyara's class. The students seemed to enjoy making mind maps much more than answering comprehension questions. They were also excellent at using the mind map to re-tell the story that they mapped.

Students started off a little confused with the journal entries, however as soon as they understood that they could write about anything they wanted, they set to work. Many students' groups wrote about their favorite video games, teachers, and football teams. Many groups also wrote more than the required number of sentences because they enjoyed it so much.

This kind of enthusiasm for English language writing is exactly what Martina and Jimmy are looking to get out of this workshop! We hope that teachers will see this enthusiasm and use these skills throughout the year for these students.

Martina works with her students to help them make mind maps of the story. Jimmy encourages the students to ask the "WH" questions. SK Kampong Tengah teacher Ms. Maisyara helps her students figure out how to get started.

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Earlier this week, all three of the Temerloh mentors got together to help facilitate a workshop in the PPD. This workshop was organized by Ms. Amilin from the special education department.

This workshop included both TELL2 and non-TELL2 schools and was a collection of year 2 teachers. The theme of the workshop was "Fun with English!" This is an aspect of teaching that the TELL2 mentors try to emphasize. We always advocate teachers creating a fun English environment in the classroom with decorations and fun activities.

Jimmy compiled a list of helpful learning hints, activities, and classroom resources to help with creating a fun English environment that can be downloaded by clicking this sentence.

This blog is updated and maintained by Jimmy Ma

Martina and Jimmy have had a busy start to the year! Here they are again, with their reading and writing workshop in TELL2 school SK Batu Kapor.

This workshop has had a lot of success with the students and the teachers. The students are having fun and hopefully will learn some skills. The teachers are also enjoying the skills and preparing to use them in more classes.

Please contact Martina or Jimmy if you are interested in having this workshop in your school.

This blog is updated and maintained by Jimmy Ma

TELL2 mentors Jimmy and Martina have been doing a great job with their reading and writing workshop. But what's the outcome? Here, we can see some examples of how this workshop has positively affected the teachers and students.

Below, we can see several examples of teachers that have started to use journal writing in their schools. The pictures below are from SJKC Khee Chee's Ms. Chiang's year 3 class and Ms. Hoo's year 4 class.

As you can see, some students write a lot and some students write a little less. The goal of this program is to get the students writing outside of class. Students are encouraged to use their artistic abilities to make journal writing more exciting if they would like, to improve overall enjoyment of this activity.

Added benefits when reading the journals are being able to gauge whether students understand different vocabulary and determining possible problems with students.

Ms. Chiang's year 3 class. The student on top left could just a little extra help with understanding some vocabulary.

The student on the top left may have problems with how they see words and letters. The top right and bottom pictures are from Ms. Hoo's year 5 class. They are asked to write a little more and encouraged to make their journals more fun!

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One of the best ways to promote English learning in the classroom is to help students enjoy using English. One of the best ways for this to happen is to have students play games with English.

TELL2 mentor Martina is helping her year 3 class in SK Abu Bakar play board games using English vocabulary. This is a fun way for students to work in groups, have fun, use English, and learn English.

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TELL2 mentors Jimmy and Martina are helping their schools by encouraging the students to improve their writing and reading skills with a reading and writing workshop. SK Bangau is one of the first schools in 2015 to conduct this workshop.

Martina helps with reading skills by demonstrating mind maps to the students and then asking them to create their own mind map.

Jimmy helps with writing skills by encouraging teachers and students to start writing journals.

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Peer Assisted Learning is a program that TELL2 mentors hope to use in all of their schools. In the pictures below, Jimmy is conducting a PAL - Reading lesson in his SJKC Khee Chee School.

Jimmy combined the two classes of his TELL2 mentees Ms. Chiang and Ms. Teoh for this PAL-Reading class. With the help of the mentees, the students were paired in groups with stronger and weaker students. The students then chose books to read and read them to each other.

There are many benefits to this seemingly easy class activity. Students are encouraged to read, given the freedom to choose what they read, and work with each other to improve their reading skills.

Ms. Chiang (middle) and Ms. Teoh (right) help students with PAL-Reading

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One of the focuses of TELL2 is to enhance and promote reading. Specifically, we want to promote reading using two students working together. This program of focus is called PAL-Reading (Peer Assisted Learning). TELL2 mentor Jimmy Ma is not one to lose focus after a break.

Here he is with TELL2 mentee Noraini from SK Bandar Temerloh conducting a PAL-Reading class. This type of class gives students the freedom to choose what books they want to read and also lets them work in groups. One of the goals of this program, other than to improve literacy, is to help students start enjoying reading. 

Stay tuned throughout the year as we continue this program and continue to blog with updates.

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TELL2 Mentor Martina Gilmartin jumped right back into the swing of things during the first few weeks back in school. This is a class in which she helped teach introductions with the students at TELL2 school SJKT Ladang Semantan. The students were very excited to see her in the classroom again, but I am sure that they weren't as happy as TELL2 mentee Mohana to see Martina in 2015!

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All week, the schools in the Temerloh area have been doing cross-country runs within their school. What was it all for? The district cross-country finals, of course! TELL2 mentors Jimmy and Martina were at SMK Bukit Chermin last week in order to attend the cross-country district finals. They came out to support their schools and their teachers.

A panoramic shot of all the participants in the district finals. These included primary and secondary students.

TELL2 School SK Bangau on the left and SK Bandar Temerloh on the right.

TELL2 school SK Abu Bakar on the left and SJKC Khee Chee on the right.

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