During the final reflection session of #AgEd2Malaysia, we captured the responses of all #AgEd2Malaysia participants to five final reflection questions. This blog post is part of a series to showcase some of the responses to those questions. The fourth question prompt was:
What were some of the most challenging moments, and what made them so?
“Living with my host family at FELDA was challenging because of language barriers. I wanted so badly to talk with my host mom and grandma but felt helpless because we didn’t speak the same language. Along those same lines, our first teaching experience was challenging because of the language barrier. I have never felt so helpless in the classroom.” – Shelby, Ohio Agriscience Teacher
“My challenge task making reflection and teaching in class. I feel unusually anxious and nervous. I also felt afraid to answer any question asked because of my lack of self confidence.” – Azira, University of Teknologi Malaysia Teacher Candidate
“Personally, I was very scared to fail at times, riding bikes, the waterfall experience, communicating and assimilating into the group. But as we step out of our comfort zone and tackle fears we grow and build new strengths.” – Thomas, Penn State Agricultural Teacher Candidate
“To talk in front of public especially in English. This is because I don’t have enough confidence. I also had a lot of challenges in understanding some words in English.” – Nisah, University of Teknologi Malaysia Teacher Candidate
“Some of the most challenging moments of this trip were communicating with my host family at FELDA because I could not speak Malay. I had so much to tell and ask this family but felt guilty to bother Yazlin, my UTM roommate to translate my thoughts.” – Darla, Pennsylvania Agriscience Teacher
“The most challenging moment in this program is when I am the only student who had to (partner with) two USA students when teaching a lesson at the first school. This is because I’m not too good to communicate with them. Beside I don’t have the teaching experience.” – Ali, University of Teknologi Malaysia Teacher Candidate
“The most challenging moment for me is to teach for me the first time at the school. This is because not only I’m going to teach the students, who most of them does not used to foreign teacher, but it is also my first time teaching in a real class at school. The other challenging moment is when we first met at the airport and I’m afraid to how I’m supposed to approach them for the first time.” – Yazlin, University of Teknologi Malaysia Teacher Candidate
“The most challenging moments is having using the same bathroom with USA students because we use wet toilets and they use dry toilet. But day by day we are flexible, to go through this challenge. I’m happy to stay with them. For me, throw out this toilet challenge and lets make a new experience.” – Syed Huzaimi, University of Teknologi Malaysia Teacher Candidate
“Learning everyone’s names at the beginning was challenging because I had never heard names that unique before. I really wanted to know them and correctly say them though because I feel that is one of the best ways to show respect and that you care about them.” – Tessa, Iowa State Agricultural Teacher Candidate