Prose Non-Fiction : The Journey of My School-Based Experience (Part 1)

The first day, 

        The loud sound of a siren-like alarm echoed all across the room. Alongside that, the soft voice of a familiar voice screaming my name can be heard. Turn out that it was the first day of Ramadan and my mother woke me up for sahur. It also marks my first day of School-Based Experience (SBE) at SK Tengku Mahmud, Besut, Terengganu. After finished eating for sahur and waiting for prayer, I was getting ready and prepared the documents that needed to be brought to school for the report duty session with the principal. My feeling was mixed between excitement and nervousness as I was going to a new school that I had never visited before but still, the thought of going to a new place and meeting new friends excites me.

        Upon arriving at the school at approximately 7:15 a.m, I was greeted with a sincerely wide smile from the school's guard and he also guided and helped me to find parking for my car. The surprise kindness just when entering the school makes me feel more energetic to start my SBE journey. After that, I quickly went to the school's office to meet the principal. As I was entering the office, I saw a couple of people around my age sitting on chairs and sofas which I assume also waiting for the principal. Turn out that my assumption was correct as they are my SBE partners from other IPG. From there, I was informed that there are four girls and three other boys that will do their SBE at the school.

        After the session with the principal, we all agreed to have a tour all around the school and visited every facility at the school. The tour was very much successful and also enjoyable as I saw some unique landmarks or decorations at the school. For example, there is a decoration that mimics the Kaabah near the school mosque which I find quite fascinating. 

However, during the first day, we still would not be able to know each other really well as we are still shy with each other and we were just so immersed in sight-seeing the school that the day just went on pretty quickly. Then, around 1:30 p.m, we were given permission to go home and all of us did exactly that.

The second day, 

        After a busy first day, I was already expecting an even busier second day and I was totally right. Right after me and my SBE partners arrived at the school and mark our attendance, the senior administrative assistant of the school, Mr Zulkifli call us to enter some classrooms for relief. He explained to us that we are not actually allowed to teach yet during SBE but he wants us to gain some new experience handling the post-covid students as it is much more difficult than the other generation of students in the past. There are some students that neglected more than two years of their learning development when the online learning was conducted during the PKP which becomes a serious challenge for the teachers to help them recover. 

        Then, Mr Zulkifli gave each of us one class of various subjects randomly and  I was given a year 5 class for the subject Mathematics despite my major being English. However, I took the class willingly as a challenge for myself to handle the year 5 students. Despite that, I was still not sure to handle the class alone, thus I decided to enter the class with one of my SBE partners. I was totally surprised by the students' attitude and reaction, as they were obedient and like to listen to us talk and conduct some simple activities to fill their time. However, of course, there were still some students that a bit more naughty and harder to control. In the end, I was able to bond with the students and know what kind of students that I will be dealing with in the future.

        All in all, the second day was not wasted at all as it gave me a lot of experience and taught me many things about the new generation of students. It can be seen how modern they are with how much they cope with current trends and are very knowledgeable about technologies and gadgets. As a result, it is wise that all teachers to use new and innovative approaches for teaching and learning activities in the classroom. I was ultimately satisfied with the knowledge that I gained that day.