“Assalamualaikum cikgu!”On 19th April 2010, I start my first day practicum at Sek Men Teknik Gombak. I woke up at 5.50a.m and take my first bath as a practicum counselor. As usual, after performing Subuh prayer, I take my breakfast and preparing myself to go to school. I can’t deny that the anxiety is very high on that morning. Questions such as what must I do on the first day of practicum, who should I meet first, to whom I must report to and how the teacher perception towards me are repeatedly playing in my head.
I reached school at 7.20a.m and saw the students and teachers are preparing for the school assembly. Should I go to the assembly? I become more nervous. After a while, I decided to go to the school administration office and speak to one of the staff there. I introduced myself and inform her that I’m from IIUM and this is my first day as a practicum counselor at the school. She told me that I have to wait for the school principal and report to him first. So, I wait patiently at the school office. Around 8.30a.m, after the assembly is finished, one of the teachers approached me and introduces herself as Cik Hajjah Faezah Hanim, the school’s Penolong Kanan Kokurikulum. She said that the principal is having another meeting and she will handle my registration for the school. After finished on thumb print registration, I went to the Unit Bimbingan dan Kaunseling Room which is located at second floor on the main building.
My day as practicum counselor was not so bad and I enjoyed it. Relief class always fill my timetable for at least one and half hours a day. Sometimes, I had my individual counseling session for about a couple of time a week. There are varieties of problems among school students such as family problem, academic, career and so on. Besides, I also busy preparing my report, log book and journal. I’ve planned to arrange one group counseling on the career topic with a bunch of Form 5 students. Other than that, I involve in a lot in technical task in the school such as preparing multimedia presentation and backdrop for Sambutan Hari Guru 2010, updating counseling’s blog, and etc.
For me, students at Sek Men Teknik Gombak were really nice. Not much disciplinary cases, full of respect towards teachers, concern about their SPM examination and their career after school, enthusiastic, naive, friendly and helpful. When facing students with career issues, I try my best to help them to reach out for information about career, higher education level, job opportunities and etc. Besides, there are also several personal cases such as family problems, depression and referred cases such as smoking in school. Some of the cases are quite difficult and require me to do some revision especially when involved with family issues. Sometimes, I’ve been challenged by a lot of questions from students that not even crossed my mind.
There are many challenges that I have to face in school such as the culture of the school itself, means that I have to mingle with the teachers and helping them with relief class, organizing programs like Sambutan Hari Guru, Hari Anugerah Cemerlang, career guidance program from counseling unit, handling cases that have been referred by Discipline Unit and etc. When dealing with students, at Sek Men Teknik Gombak, the Form 5 students were really concern about their career exploration and which universities that appropriate for them after finishing their school. While for Form 4 students, since the school is a boarding school, many of the students face the adjustment problems that lead to homesickness, low academic performance and so on.
As a conclusion, after two weeks at school, I’ve gained a lot of experience in term of how to deal with students, time management, coping with the school environment, and get the picture of the real counselor in school. I can say that I’m very glad and thankful to all my supervisors especially Dr Haniza Rais for giving me this opportunity to carry out my first practicum at school as an early exposure for me about the roles and responsibilities of school counselor. Thank you.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Practicum 2010: What bother me most about this practicum? Anxieties, worries and concerns.
After two and half years being studying most of the theories, skills and basics in counseling, it is time for me to put them in a real life situation, practicum. As a matter of fact, I can say that this is my first ever practicum in my life since I have been studying. As considered, I was positioned as in training counselor for about seven weeks at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Gombak, Kuala Lumpur started from 19th April till 2nd June 2010. I believed that, same with my friends that having their practicum, there were hundreds of questions in our head that need to be answered mostly by ourselves. How can I handle hundreds of students at school assembly, what is other teachers perception towards me as practicum counselor, how about the school’s culture, can I be patient enough with students and so on. Those are only pieces of questions that repeatedly play in my mind just before the practicum started. What about the feelings? I cannot deny that anxiety is increasing, quite worry, not sure of what will happen and also concern on how far can I performs on my first practicum.
Talk about anxieties, firstly I must stay calm and accept this situation as it will happen sooner or later. Therefore, I cannot say that I’m not ready for it yet. The best I can do is just prepared to face the practicum from physical and mental condition. During on holidays before practicum, I went to Johor Bahru to visits my sister’s family. Luckily, my brother in law is a teacher in one of the school there. So, it is an opportunity for me to tell him about my first practicum and get tips from him on what to do during my practicum. He did share on his first experience during his practicum and it quite helping. At least, I can get a picture on the school culture and environment, how to tackle students and teachers from the school, my role as a practicum teacher and etc. From his story, I can feel that there are lots of feelings emerge inside of me such as happy, worry and exited and they all mixed up together. When coming back to Kuala Lumpur a week after, first thing I’ve done as my preparation to lesser the anxiety attacks, I did my haircut. Maybe, it’s kind of out on topic, but it helps me to be more confident when I face school’s teachers and students for the first time. I also bought some of new clothes and neckties to be wear during my practicum. Other than that, I just praying to Allah s.w.t so that everything will go as planned.
What if something happen not according to the plan? What if the school cannot accept me and students are very reluctant and not participative enough during my session? All this questions also arising and increase my worries toward my practicum time. As my preparation to counter this feeling, I try to be more positive and confident in what I’m doing. I must aware that this is a normal feeling for every one of my friends in term of facing their first practicum in school. It means that, I must learn very quick to get use to the school environment and students.
My concern right now to face the coming practicum is preparation on myself towards my appearance, time management, knowledge such as skills and basics in counseling, interpersonal skills, and try to be more natural and can mingle with school especially students and teachers. One more thing, I must get use to wake up earlier than before since school start at 7.30 in the morning. I feel very lucky because my school is located near with IIUM. One week before practicum started, I train myself to wake up at 6.00 o’clock in the morning and not continue to sleep after performing Subuh prayer.
As conclusion, this coming practicum quite nerves me up and there are certain things that I need to sacrifice in order to run this well. And I hope it worth it. I hope that for this coming seven weeks will go usually as planned and nothing worst will happen. Thanks to everyone around me for the support in making my first practicum going well and good luck to you too. Thank you.
Talk about anxieties, firstly I must stay calm and accept this situation as it will happen sooner or later. Therefore, I cannot say that I’m not ready for it yet. The best I can do is just prepared to face the practicum from physical and mental condition. During on holidays before practicum, I went to Johor Bahru to visits my sister’s family. Luckily, my brother in law is a teacher in one of the school there. So, it is an opportunity for me to tell him about my first practicum and get tips from him on what to do during my practicum. He did share on his first experience during his practicum and it quite helping. At least, I can get a picture on the school culture and environment, how to tackle students and teachers from the school, my role as a practicum teacher and etc. From his story, I can feel that there are lots of feelings emerge inside of me such as happy, worry and exited and they all mixed up together. When coming back to Kuala Lumpur a week after, first thing I’ve done as my preparation to lesser the anxiety attacks, I did my haircut. Maybe, it’s kind of out on topic, but it helps me to be more confident when I face school’s teachers and students for the first time. I also bought some of new clothes and neckties to be wear during my practicum. Other than that, I just praying to Allah s.w.t so that everything will go as planned.
What if something happen not according to the plan? What if the school cannot accept me and students are very reluctant and not participative enough during my session? All this questions also arising and increase my worries toward my practicum time. As my preparation to counter this feeling, I try to be more positive and confident in what I’m doing. I must aware that this is a normal feeling for every one of my friends in term of facing their first practicum in school. It means that, I must learn very quick to get use to the school environment and students.
My concern right now to face the coming practicum is preparation on myself towards my appearance, time management, knowledge such as skills and basics in counseling, interpersonal skills, and try to be more natural and can mingle with school especially students and teachers. One more thing, I must get use to wake up earlier than before since school start at 7.30 in the morning. I feel very lucky because my school is located near with IIUM. One week before practicum started, I train myself to wake up at 6.00 o’clock in the morning and not continue to sleep after performing Subuh prayer.
As conclusion, this coming practicum quite nerves me up and there are certain things that I need to sacrifice in order to run this well. And I hope it worth it. I hope that for this coming seven weeks will go usually as planned and nothing worst will happen. Thanks to everyone around me for the support in making my first practicum going well and good luck to you too. Thank you.
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