Mission Complete!

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
Assalamualaikum

Title: Mission complete!

I woke up really early on Sunday morning, to prepare myself for the class that I'll be reliefing at Darul Makmur later that morning. I was tasked to relief a Secondary 1(girls) teens a.l.i.v.e class. My heart was beating so fast as I made my journey to the mosque; because I was unsure of what to expect.

I have already been briefed about what to teach them, a day before.

(a) Rukun & syarat solat.
I was to introduce this chapter to them in a form of a powerpoint slide; that have already been prepared by their ustazah. For once, I really felt like a teacher. Lol!

(b) Choosing the right friends.
I managed to have a heart-to-heart talk with the students. And honestly, I never thought that they could actually open up to me thaaat easily. I shall elaborate more about that, in the next few paragraphs to come.

So the students came in exactly at 8am. Based on the attendance file that was given to me, I was to expect for a class of about 18 students to arrive, but only 8 had turned up; much to my surprise. But oh well, I thought to myself; a class of 8 students is a good number for me to start with, given the fact that i am still new to this teaching industry.

All eyes were on me, as they made their way into the air-conditioned classroom. I got up from my teacher's seat and greeted them with a smile and an exaggerated hi. Lol, I was nervous mind you! Some of them smiled sheepishly back at me, while some stared ahead at me with a blank look of expression on their faces. At one glance, all of the students looked rather human-friendly. Innocent, decent looking faces. Alhamdulilah, phew.

I was unsure of what to do at first, so I started off with attendance marking. When all names have already been called, the ustaz from next door came in and made an explanation to the class on why their Ustazah couldn't come etc. Then he introduced me as Ustazah Suhaidah to the class. I was like whaaaaat?! I had wanted them to address me as Miss Su instead but oh nevermind. Before he left, he told the class to listen attentively to me; as they would to their own Ustazah and he jokingly warned them to not bully me. Then he left, & the class was now mine to teach.

I started the class with Surah Al Fatihah & doa belajar. I was sooo nervous that the first thing I did, before formally introducing myself to the class, was to give them a silly wave, a short hi, and a little giggle. I was laughed at in return. Sooo I laughed along as well. Haha!

By then, I was a little less nervous alhamdulilah. I introduced myself, my name, my age etc. I told them honestly that it was my first time teaching a class of youths and I admitted to being a little nervous and all that. Then I got everyone to introduce themselves and started with our first lesson for the day.

Teaching them about the 13 rukuns of solat was a little hard on me because some of them were not familiar with terms like i'tidal, takbiratul ihram and tuma'ninah etc. It was expected that they do not know about these terms and so my job was to explain about these terms to them, in an interactive manner. But I think, my style of teaching was a little too dry. However, I hope that they've gained a little something or two from this 'rukun-rukun & syarat-syarat solat' lesson of mine.

Recess was at 9am, and while they went to the canteen to purchase food, I prepared the materials for the second part of the lesson. It'll be a brainstorming session on 'how to choose the right friends.' I did a mind-map on the whiteboard.

The students came back to class with some foods at hand. Apparently, they would eat their snacks in class and as they munched on their snacks, their ustazah would have an open chit-chat session with them. So I took that opportunity to know them at a closer length, asking them about their ccas, school life etc. They responded well and when I was at a lost for a topic for discussion, I allowed them to ask me questions pertaining to anything. The classroom environment got a little bit more lively this time.

They asked me random questions like:

" Ustazah, do you listen to K-Pop? "

" Did you take A-maths? "

" What's your favourite number? "

" Do you have facebook? "

Aren't they cute? So we kinda have bonded pretty well during this short chitchat session. They could open up to me and are no longer as quiet as before. Alhamdulilah, I felt even more motivated to teach, and at 9:30am, I started with the second part of the lesson for the day; 'choosing the right friends'.

While we were doing our brainstorming session, a student suddenly stopped me and asked me a question:

" Ustazah, what would you do if you have a friend who is overly sensitive? Because I have a friend who......" and so on and so fourth.

I answered her questions to the best of my ability because I'm dealing with a real life situation. More questions started to pour in from the rest of the students after that. It became sort of a like a story telling session and I thought it was a good platform for the students to express themselves better because they get to verbalise their inner thoughts out.

The lesson when on for quite a while and I told them about how friendship is relevant to Islam and all that that. I closed the lesson with a short story about the close friendship ties between Abu Bakr r.a & the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. It was already 10:30am by then and it is time for them to be dismissed.

I ended the class with tasbih kafarrah and Surah Al-Asr. Before they left, I apologised to them if I couldn't be a good teacher for them etc, and then one girl spoke up and told me:

" Oh its okay Ustazah. We like you, so don't worry. "

Awwwww. Then they shook hands with me, and they left. What a memorable experience to remember. I don't know if I've taught them well enough, but I certainly hope they have at least learnt something and I look forward to seeing them again bi idznillah. ['=