SBE/ROS - Portfolio/Logbook

   I mentioned in my previous entry that I produced a +-300 pages of portfolio or logbook. It does sound rather overwhelming when I think of it, but then again you should know that we were required to go for SBE/ROS for ONE MONTH.

  From what I hear, people usually only spend at the most two weeks in school for SBE/ROS. We  spent ONE MONTH. Yeah. I don't know why, I guess IIUM and maktab arranged for it to happen that way. My friends from other teacher training prorammes at the maktab said they only spent one or two weeks at school, and they do it several times, in stages. The same goes for their practicum. We, on the other hand, do both SBE and practicum at one go. One month for SBE and three for practicum. Gilo. Haha.

   Hence the +-300 pages for the SBE portfolio. I think that's pretty okay compared to some friends who had over 400 pages! Lagi hebat! It's no wonder so many of my friends got As for their SBE. And since SBE was the only course we signed up for for that particular semester, (and SBE was a 2-credit hour course) a lot of people got 4 flat for their gpa. Congrats guys! (it's a bit late for that, but anyway...)

So did I! So did I! I got an A for SBE, but trust me- it's no biggie and nothing to brag about.
I'll let you know why in my next post.
source

   Anywa, in this post I'd like to 'citer sikit' about the portfolio that we produced for SBE (sorry I'm tired of writing 'SBE/ROS', but they're the same thing really). The truth is we did not really get a lot of info on how to prepare them during the briefing. We were told to look at the samples produced by our seniors, but I was too lazy to do it, so I just did what I thought was necessary and I got an A (haha) so I guess what I submitted was okay.

  Basically what you have to put into the portfolio is any information that you can get about the school. Anything ranging from the school management to the panel documents. Since I was a B.Ed TESL student, and we were used to producing reports and assignments in English, I planned to prepare the portfolio in English. However, most of the information I retrieved was of course in Bahasa Melayu. So what I did was to prepare a bi-lingual table of contents, which you can download and take a look at here (see how generous I am? hehe):

SBE Portfolio Table of Contents (bi-lingual: English and Malay)

   This was what I did- your portfolio could be planned and arranged in a different way. As far as I know, students in my programme are given a free hand in doing it. If your are, then make sure that you arrange everything as neatly as possible. Prepare relevant dividers so that it's easy to flip through your portfolio and take a look-see at things according to their categories. You can divide the portfolio into several chapters like what I did for mine (refer to the table of contents).

   There are a number of things that you have to prepare to be put into the portfolios:

   1. School information
   - Just collect basically anything info that you can find on the school. One Tip that I can share is that as soon as you've settled down at school and got to know who your guiding teacher is, ask for the 'Buku Pengurusan Sekolah'. (There might be a different name for it, so ask). As far as I know all schools have it. Usually the Buku Pengurusan Sekolah will have all the info that you need on the school, but if it doesn't, you'll have to search manually. (This is the part where you have to 'pandai-pandai buat baik dengan cikgu2'.

   2. Reports on Observations
   - This is something that you are required to do. You have to choose to observe any teacher carrying out his/her TnL (teaching & learning) activities in the classroom. Make sure you ask for permission first. Some teachers don't like the idea of being 'observed', so make sure you ask them really nicely. As far as I know, you can ask to observe on any subjects, but it may help to focus on your major subject (which i my case is English) because it'll give you an insight on what you will have to deal with when you teach.

   3. Lesson Plans
    - Don't forget to ask for the lesson plans that the teacher used for the classes you observed. Put them in the portfolio/logbook. The LPs are usually very short and simple, not like the ones we have to prepare for assignments and during practicum. If you can, ask for the worksheets used as well.

   4. Pictures
   - Make sure you take lots and lots of pictures of the school. You can include:
     (i) School facilities
     (ii) School compound
     (iii) Teaching and  learning activities
     (iv) School programmes - meetings, Teacher's Day, PTA meetings etc.
     (v) photos of the pupils! and teachers too, if you like

   5. Other related stuff
   - This can be almost anything, ranging from your punch card, attendance list, relief class memos etc.

   If you have a chance to be on the committee for some programme then grab the chance! The purpose of SBE is really to get oriented with the school environment. Since you're going to be teachers, you might as well get used to it.

   I hope this helps if you're a bit stuck on what to do for SBE. Remember the requirements are probably different for different programmes, but this might help any of my juniors who've been asking me, hehe. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. TTFN.