This document contains a short story, non-fiction prose, and poem submitted by a student for an online creative writing course. The short story describes the student's experience conducting a school-based experience (SBE) at SK Sungai Manila over one week. It details the activities conducted each day, including observing classes, interviewing teachers, and helping establish an English reading corner. The non-fiction prose provides a history of SK Sungai Manila from its founding in 1967 to the present day. The poem expresses how teachers light the way for students and serve as their inspiration.

1. TSLB3252
CREATIVE
WRITING:
ONLINE
ENTRIES

2. NAme:
Kelvin Mclean John
MAtric number:
2019072340012
ic number:
000401-12-0821
Group/Unit:
TESL SK1
Name of lecturer:
MAdam caroline val madin
date of submission:
12th april 2021

3. SCHOOL BASED
EXPERIENCE: SECOND (2)
SCHOOL: SK SUNGAI
MANILA

4. CONTENT
Short Story
Non-Fiction Prose
Poem
1.
2.
3.

5. SHORT STORY:
A WEEK IN SCHOOL
It is Monday, at the same time the day for our
first SBE, we were both excited and nervous
at the same time for our SBE. For the SBE we
conducted it at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai
Manila. Upon arriving at the school can be
seen teachers and the school’s staff adhering
to the new norms of taking body
temperature and sanitizing hands at the
entrance of the school. After parking the car
we proceeded to the headmaster office to
report and introduce ourselves.
Unfortunately, the headmaster was nowhere
to be found. Thankfully seeing us in search of
the headmaster the clerk told us the
headmaster was at the school gate observing
the compliance of the Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP). Quickly we went there to
meet the headmaster, Mr Zaini Bin Osman.
Upon meeting the headmaster, we
introduced ourselves and reported that we
were going to conduct our SBE at the school.
The headmaster welcomed us with an open
hand and briefed us a bit about the new
norms in the school. After that, he proceeded
to introduce us to all the school teaching
staff. All the teachers were so friendly to us.
The rest of the day just went by with the
headmaster giving us a tour to the school
and talking about the history of the school.

6. On the second day, we went to meet
one of the English teachers, Azlianey Binti
Obing to ask if we may go inside her English
class to observe how the teaching and
learning was in a real-time classroom. Luckily,
she let us join her class. Observing the
teaching and learning session I had gained
lots of new insights. Now I know that it is not
easy to teach a class full of young learners.
The teacher also mentioned that she is ought
to use Bahasa Melayu along the teaching
session as the students were not expose to
English language and if she were to use
English fully during the lesson the students
would not even be able to participate in the
learning session at all as they would not
understand what the teacher is talking about.

7. On the following day, on Wednesday
we had taken the initiative after consulting
with the headmaster to label things around
the school in English. It is our way in
contributing to the school throughout our
SBE and as a memento of us being there. We
had labelled things such as the fire
extinguisher, the rostrum, the notice board
and much more. On the other hand, we also
helped Madam Zubaidah, one of SK Sungai
Manila teachers in constructing the English
reading corner. Due to the fact that the
budget for the reading corner was quite
limited, the old broken bookcase had to be
used. So Evan and I split the work in repairing
the bookcase. I was in charge of nailing any of
the loose parts and Evan was responsible for
painting the repaired bookcase. All the effort
paid off, when the reading corner had been
established and the students were able to
benefit from it.

8. On the fourth day of our SBE, we
mainly focused on interviewing the teachers
and staff about the school. We had
interviewed Mr Lee Yun Keng, the teacher
that is responsible for the remedials class. He
mentioned that the main factor that led the
students to fail academically was
environment, genetics and family issues. On
the other hand, we had also interviewed Mr
Jibid Bin Sampai the senior administrative
assistant regarding the vision, mission of the
school and issues in the school. Fortunately,
Mr Jibid explained that there were no severe
issues in school. The only issue is the
punctuality of the students as there were
students that often came late to school.

9. On Friday and the last day of our SBE
at the school, we went to meet the
headmaster for him to sign a few documents.
After that we had our breakfast in the
teacher’s as the school had organised a small
feast as it was our last day at the school. I
was asked to give a speech and thankfully I
managed to do the impromptu speech
smoothly. We also took a few pictures with
the headmaster and teacher. With it our SBE
at SK Sungai Manila came to an end and it
was such a wonderful experience that I would
never forget.

10. NON-FICTION PROSE:
SK SUNGAI MANILA'S HISTORY
Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Manila is a
primary school that is located in the rural
area of Sandakan. It is located far inside
the mile 12, Rancangan Sungai Manila and
it is 30 kilometres away from the Sandakan
city. SK Sungai Manila gets its name from
the small village that was called Kampung
Sungai Manila. Initially at the early stage
of development this school was built by
Sabah State Land Development Authority
for settler children under the name
Government English Primary School
(G.E.P.S) at first and uses English as it’s
medium of instruction.

11. The first school building was completed in
late 1966 and was opened in early 1967.
The school during that time was said to be
surrounded by forest as the school area
was fenced with trees that are not logged
by the loggers. It is due to the fact that
the loggers only took trees with good
quality woods.

12. On the other hand, students that enroll in
SK Sungai Manila consist of diverse races
such as Bajau, Kadazan, Chinese and
others. In addition, the number of students
in the school increased rapidly and in only
half a year the numbers of students
reached 80 people. By the end of 1967 the
number of students had increased to 150
people. The prompt increase in student
numbers was due to the employment of
settlers at the oil palm estate. At the
beginning of the school opening the
majority of students that signed up to
enroll at the school were settlers’ children
that had migrated with their parents to
mile 12. Due to the small numbers of
teachers and students year two, year three,
year four and year five students had been
consolidated into one class which was the
year one class. The only assigned teacher
at that time was Mrs Vergeos who was of
Indian descent. She was also the first
headmaster of this school.

13. Back in those days the only transportation
for the students was a big pick-up truck
that belonged to Sabah State Land
Development that had been used to carter
the students. On the other hand, there
were some students that preferred walking
to school. In 1968, another school building
was completed. It was to accommodate the
increasing student numbers. Within two
years a total of three classes were opened,
namely year one, year two and year three.
In addition, from the year 1970 to 1973
there was a rapid increase in the student
number coming from 750 students to
almost a thousand. The rapid increase was
due to the opening of an oil palm
processing plant near the school. Most of
the newly employed workers that migrated
to work at the processing plant send their
children to the school.

14. Moving on, in year 1981 the now concrete
building of Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai
Manila was opened in a suitable place with
13 classrooms, a headmaster’s room, a
teachers’ room and six stores. Three
teachers’ houses were also built in front
the school building.

15. Now in the year 2021 the school enrolled
1012 students and employs 59 teachers
teaching at the school. The teachers are
also 100% trained and are able to improve
the students’ performance in both
curriculum and co-curriculum. In addition,
due to the insufficient school facilities to
accommodate all the 1012 students at the
same time, the school had taken the
initiative in splitting the school session
into both morning and evening sessions.
The morning sessions are for year one,
year two, and year three students
meanwhile the evening session are for
year four, year five and year six students.

16. POEM: BEING A TEACHER
Being teacher is like a candlelight,
That makes the young generation shine,
By guiding them what is right,
To make sure they are fine.
Teacher’s perseverance,
Teacher’s determination,
Teacher’s assurance,
Is their source of inspiration.