IPG Student (Confession III)

Being a student, is never easy. Being a teacher trainee, is NEVER EVER easy. Those who says that being a teacher is easy and lame, you can leave right now. 

It has been three years I've been in this programme (waiting for another two years till graduate). Being an English teacher in training took a lot of hardship along the way. Actually, it doesn't matter what course we took, it will all go in the same process. But do you know, we have to take TWO different courses in one semester? In my situation, there is the TESL as the core subject, and there's my forever arch enemy, Science as my elective subject. 

"hold up. It's just science. You guys are not learning biology, chemistry..."

NO! you have no idea! We do, okay! And like you people having that mindset saying being a teacher is easy, try to be one and you'll see what we're going through. Like I said, doesn't matter Science or Seni, or P. Jasmani; we here in IPG have to go deep into these subjects, just like any other students who take them as core subjects. and believe me, there is no such thing as "EASY" tasks from my campus. 

Lecturers here take our assignments pretty seriously (yea we also heard some IPGs were given easier assignments and easier marks too, so don't say it). We go deep into core subjects textbook and notes and even taking trips to University Malaya library almost every weekend. (don't you ever say we're living at ease, because we're not!) I can pretty much say we don't have life outside campus, especially when you're a JPP, that's the toughest. there is no such thing as 4 flat pointer here, just 3.8. (surprised?) and there's the lesson plans you have to prepare everytime during our practicum, the materials, the remedial/enrichment activities, the "whatever else we had to do to impress our lecturers". so, it's common for students like us have mental breakdowns. Here, we cried way more on our work than on our personal life. not only it is tough taking the 3-credit hour core subjects, but it's tougher when our elective subjects are also 3-credit hour too! we literally took everything we learnt very seriously. so here's the story:

"a friend of mine took Seni as his elective subjects. but it wasn't his first choice either. he didn't have the artistic flare, so we can't blame him, because it was either Science, Seni and P.Jasmani; so he has to make the biggest choice. we surveyed all the subjects from our seniors' experiences, and finally chose which one is more capable to handle. and as soon as we chose them, we soon realized that our RMK was totally different than our seniors above us. it really took us by surprise, it was like zombie apocalypse-kind-of-situation, we weren't prepare for the bad news. so this friend of mine, after two years taking Seni, it literally break him apart. believe me when I say this, their assignments are way tougher than any of us here. One task requires portfolios, lesson plans and artworks. so imagine having 2-3 tasks for one semester that they have to go through. he literally had restless nights and burnt the most midnight oil than anyone else. not only that, there was also the technology course that we have to take, and he didn't like that subject too. it made things worst for him. and today, he finally lose it and cried. we' all felt sorry for him. it was our first time seeing him 'losing it' in public like that, and it was our first time seeing him lost his confidence in scoring good pointers like he always do.

to sum it up, we're all getting ready digging our own graves for this semester. even the juniors below us were already expressing to us how hard it was to be in IPG. so easy to say, no matter you're ipts/ipta/ipg student, we're all going through the same thing. so don't ever doubt what other people do in life, because you never know what they have gone through to be there, especially us IPG students. 
Lesson of the Day: don't judge our life based on our social media posts, because not everything in our life is meant to tell. 
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