Now I know my ABC… – Monday 8th Feb 2010

The weekly big assembly was held this morning, with an interesting observation that the Head Master did not seem to speak sign language, having someone else translate for the children. This seems unusual; however, being the Head Master here seems to be a different role than the principal in Australian schools. While I’m sure all the official and organisational roles are the same – Australian principals seem to be more involved with the students and more present in daily school life.

The weather was a little nicer today due to the thunderstorms last night. Bring them on again tonight I say…

Speech

Zaidee let us listen to a working hearing aid today – there was  a HUGE difference between this one and the one we heard before. Much clearer and I can see how a hearing aid would definitely help a hearing impaired person. While there was still a lot of background noise, it was a marked improvement.

Class # 1 = Mathematics (Oh May Ling)

We observed Oh May Ling’s maths class today with year 6 children. It was run in much the same way as Australian maths classes, with the students learning their times tables. They should know all of their times tables by this age in school; however, there were a couple of children who were quite behind. Oh May Ling involved in the class, getting us to help the children by telling them in they were right or wrong. We therefore, learnt how to count in sign language… and I may have helped the children a little too much by giving them the answers sometimes… but I was just so glad to be able to communicate with them and have them respond.

 

Class # 2 = Communication Class (Sign Language)

This class was ADORABLE! They were year 2 students… and learning the alphabet in sign language. They were very noisy and extremely excitable. Flash cards were used to learn the alphabet, then the children had to match words, pictures and symbols representing the sign for the words. It was great to be able to help the kids with this task, as they were very happy for us to be involved. Jess and I now know (some of) the alphabet in Malaysian sign language – go us!

Nanna napped again this afternoon (for about 4 hours) and we are now waiting for dinner, which our lovely friends are bringing back for us :)

Tomorrow shall be another interesting day I’m sure.

Sweet dreams