Phonics Workshop at Jerantut PPD - Our 1st work as a Cluster

There is a new cluster in town and to get things off to a good start, before the school year came to an end, we did our first bit of teamwork, a Phonics Workshop.  It was a week long workshop run by the Jerantut PPD.  They asked us if we would kindly volunteer to do a section on phonics.  There were teachers from all of the primary schools in the area.  Jinks, Josh and I had some of our TELL2 teachers present but there were also lots of other teachers that joined the workshop.

When some teachers hear the word phonics it can bring up a sense of concern.   Our goal for the workshop was to ease this concern and show the teachers’ phonics is not the scary monster it seems to be.  We wanted teachers to walk away from the workshop with useful and practical information that they can use with their students in the classroom and also for themselves.  Another valuable point we wanted teachers to gain was the realisation of how beneficial group work and activities can be to the process of learning.  We did this by doing a lot of group work and activities with them.  This led to a practical workshop that everyone seemed to enjoy.   

Our key focus areas were:

• The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
• Practical teaching methods
• Phonics activities for the classroom.

Teachers discussing the IPA

The IPA is a useful tool for teachers to use outside of the classroom.  It can give teachers clarity as to how words are pronounced.  We wanted teachers to familiarise themselves with the IPA and for them to see its usefulness in any language.

Having fun with the mouth diagrams.

A practical teaching method we showed the teachers was drawing mouth diagrams to represent the sounds.  These simple diagrams show where the tongue is situated in relation to the teeth and what shapes the lips are in for each sound.  Teachers were then given a chance to draw their own creative diagrams in groups.  They then had to swap with other groups and guess what sound had been drawn.  It was a practical activity for the teachers as it got them thinking how similar sounds are different eg. P and B or F and V.  We all enjoyed drawing hilarious diagrams and trying to guess what sound had been drawn.

Another fun activity we did with the teachers just before we broke for lunch was phonics bingo. Instead of having numbers on the bingo sheet students should write the phonics sounds.  Its a good way to get students to listen carefully as to what sounds are being said plus everybody loves bingo and winning prizes.  As a modification students can even be selected to read out the sound themselves.

To demonstrate phonics activities in the classroom we divided the teachers into groups and gave each group a ball and a container full of phonics sound cards. We then asked them to think of and create fun activities themselves.  The groups then had a chance to share their ideas with everyone. The teachers were extremely creative and almost every group came up with a unique and useful English activity.  We then shared some activities that we had prepared with the teachers. We also showed teachers numerous catchy phonics songs and chants teachers can use for classroom warm ups.  The songs were certainly stuck in my head for a good few days!

By the end of the workshop teachers were no longer is neat classroom rows but scattered in groups.

For Josh and I it was a great opportunity to get to work with Jinks before the year's end and to meet more teachers in the area.  Thank you to all the teachers who attended and participated, we had an incredibly enjoyable and fun day with you and hope we will get to work with you all again next year.  What a good note to end the year off on and we are looking forward to 2015!

Melissa Simon (ELP Jerantut)

A Warm Welcome

There are so many emotions attached to relocating to a new country and workplace.  The mix of adventurous excitement and confidence from past experiences mixes with trepidation from all the unknowns that lie ahead to produce a roiling stew pot of feelings.  Our arrival in Malaysia has been no exception, but it has quickly become apparent that our placement in Jerantut has set us up for success.


Melissa and I have been working as English teachers, trainers, and mentors abroad for the last 5 years.  Our teaching experiences have been in both rural and urban locations around S. Korea which is where we met. We were married in August 2014, and we wanted to begin this new chapter of our lives in a new place... a truly fresh start!

Although we were happy and successful in our jobs in Korea, we felt there was room to do more
when it comes to really raising the English skills of young students.  Putting a native English teacher in a classroom with young learners does provide a great boost to their abilities, but those results are limited by the amount of time we can spend with them.  It was often the case that we would see any particular classroom of students only once a week and for only about 40 minutes per class.   We simply felt that there had to be a better way to utilize our experience and expertise for a greater impact on English education.  In our current roles as TELL mentors we have already seen that in working together with the teachers our energies are focused towards those who really have the most time with and understanding of the individual students, and therefore, makes a much greater impact on the results.  Furthermore, that impact is not limited to how long we stay in Malaysia or to one class of students, but carries on with each Malaysian English teacher long after we are gone.


On top of our belief in the work, we have been so warmly received by all the people we have met here in Jerantut.  Thank you to everyone from the GBs, to the teachers and staff, and especially to Jinks for all of your help and kindness while we have gotten settled.  Thank you for all of the biscuits and cups of coffee/tea in the canteens.  Thank you for all the advice on where and how to find housing, set up utilities, and find random things like our favorite brand of cereal or wifi.  All of you have really made us feel at home here in Jerantut, and as this school year comes to a close we couldn't be more happy with our new town and look forward to working together with all of you in 2015!

Josh Simon (ELP Jerantut)

End of Year Event - Level 2 Quiz

Wrapping up the Year

2014 has galloped by, and now we are at the very end of the school year. Classes are over and teachers are busy organising celebrations and events to mark the end of the year and to keep the students busy and interested right up to the end of the school year.

It has been a good opportunity for me to help out the teachers with activities and also to do something with the Level 2 students. In the larger schools (SK Jerantut Jaya and SJK(C) Sungai Jan) there are a lot of Year 6 students spread over many classes, but in the smaller schools (SKs Pulau Mansok and Kuala Tembeling) it was possible to combine Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils in the one activity.

We have taken an interactive PowerPoint and quiz game into the hall and divided the pupils into five large teams. The teams all compete to get as much information from the PowerPoint in order to be able to ask and answer questions about Malaysia and New Zealand - and points are dished out like candy. There is a lot of interaction with the quiz material and pupils must respond in different ways (asking and answering questions, describing slides, writing notes, listening to different people speaking, and much more) before the actual quiz. The pupils use a lot of English during this activity, and they are also able to display their general knowledge of Malaysia and share experiences of New Zealand. It is also a lot of fun and it can get quite noisy with all the cheering. As well as appealing to different skill-sets and encouraging noise, there is also a bit of running around so the pupils can let of steam between periods of knowledge-focused activity.

There has been so much going on with prize-giving ceremonies and meetings that it has sometimes been a bit difficult to schedule a 2-3 hour event like the PowerPoint Quiz. We managed it at most places, but we will try again in the new year at SK Teh. We can run a fun English medium content-focused event at any of the participating schools in 2015, even if you've already had one. Talk to your mentor!

We now have three mentors in Jerantut; this means that next year is going to be an exciting one for the Year 1, 2 and 3 pupils, but we will also be available for English co-curricular activities with all the Level 2 students.

Thank you for an eventful and satisfying year in 2014, and I'm looking forward to more of the same in 2015,

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)