SARAWAK — An English teacher in Malaysia has earned praise online for cleverly taking the Barbie craze into his classroom to make learning more fun for his pupils.

In a series of tweets on Sunday (Aug 20), Mr Muhammad Nazmi Rosli, a teacher in Sarawak, shared how he built a human-sized Barbie box and planned several Barbie-themed activities to teach his Year 2 students at SK Long Sebangan simple nouns and adjectives. Year 2 students are typically seven to eight years of age in Malaysia.

Mr Nazmi’s tweets were written as a lesson plan that other educators could adopt.

The 30-year-old teacher started off his lesson by letting his class of 25 students describe the Barbie doll’s box packaging, as well as the doll and items inside it, as a way of learning new vocabulary.

His pupils were also given the opportunity to have their pictures taken in the large Barbie box, much like the interactive photo booths frequently seen at cinemas and promotional events.

This was followed by a group activity in which the students discussed what accessories they would want in their box if they were a Barbie doll. Mr Nazmi also prepared worksheets with illustrations of accessories that his pupils could cut out and paste on a template of their Barbie box.

Towards the end of the lesson, Mr Nazmi asked his students to think about the physical features they would want as a doll.

He then summed up the activity by imparting the most important lesson of all: “We are already good enough to be a Barbie. Doesn’t matter our differences. And it is always better to be ourselves. (Because) we are original, not a knock-off and super limited.”

Speaking to TODAY, Mr Nazmi shared that he constructed the Barbie box from a recycled cardboard box and materials which he paid for out of his own pocket. 

When asked about how his pupils took to the lesson, the teacher of six years said: "They loved it so much. Most of them know Barbie from the TV animation on (Malaysian channel) TV3, some of them bought the knock-off Barbie doll, so seeing this in real life made them excited."

NETIZENS PRAISE TEACHER FOR HIS DEDICATION

Mr Nazmi’s tweet has received close to 500 likes and been retweeted over 230 times as of Friday afternoon.

Many X users praised the teacher for his dedication, saying that the students are lucky to have him as their teacher.

One person wrote: “I love how you bring the world into your classroom! You are my inspiration since I was a trainee till now. Keep on making education fun, Cikgu (teacher in Malay)!”

Another user commented: “English (or) any language lesson can be so much fun when you (do) this. Good job teacher! I remember still how torturous mine was.”

This is not the first time Mr Nazmi has touched hearts with his passion for teaching.

In 2020, Mr Nazmi was named one of the winners of the Star Golden Hearts Award by Malaysian news outlet The Star for delivering homework by hand to his students in a rural Sarawakian village amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

His story loosely inspired a telefilm titled Cikgu Daniel (Teacher Daniel) which premiered on May 16 this year.