EXCHANGE PROGRAMME
On the online exchange programme she started in 2022, Sydney said the idea for the initiative came about after she realised many of her students had become disinterested in their studies after experiencing “burnout” due to having to undergo home-based online classes in 2020 and 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For them, it (home-based learning) was just not the same (as face-to-face learning in school),” she said.
The young teacher then collaborated with Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) VOCTECH to initiate an online exchange programme where students could get to experience a new learning environment by participating in classes conducted by teachers in other parts of Malaysia and the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia.
SEAMEO VOCTECH is the Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Training that was established by SEAMEO in 1990.
The first edition of the three-month exchange programme kicked off in 2022. Sydney said 112 students from the four countries, including 45 from KVC, participated in it.
“In 2023, the number (of participants in the online exchange programme) increased to 252 with 70 of them from KVC,” she told Bernama here recently.
Sydney said the exchange programme has enabled her students to not only improve their command of English but also their communication skills, cultural competence and knowledge about topics beyond their standard curriculum.
“It complements classroom teaching,” she said, adding, “They (her students at KVC) not only get to meet new people but also learn new things and subjects outside their own courses.”
She said the exchange programme is still ongoing and hoped “we can take it a step further by conducting it physically in the future”.
READING HABIT
As for her approach to enhancing her students’ proficiency in English, Sydney said she helps to instil the reading habit in her students by incorporating elements of arts and literature in her lessons since most of them are visual learners and natural artists.
“For instance, as part of my lessons, I would ask my students to pick an English storybook from the library and draw a mini-comic based on their favourite scene from the book to share with the class,” she said.
She recalled when she was in primary school, she became interested in learning English due to her teachers’ fascinating teaching methods.
Sydney, who also speaks Bahasa Melayu and her native Kadazandusun language fluently, said she was inspired to become a teacher by her parents who are both in the teaching profession (her father retired in 2022). Some of her uncles, aunties and cousins are also teachers.
Sydney, whose favourite pastime is reading especially books authored by Mitch Albom and Hanya Yanagihara, added she plans to introduce and conduct more international programmes for her students and teachers to get involved in.
“This will be a good learning experience for my students and an opportunity for them to venture out globally,” she said.
