Teaching assistance for me was very interesting program. I have got a lot of experiences and unforettable things during this program. When I first came to MAN 11 Jakarta, I was so happy because the principle’s and staffs’ respon wasa very welcome. We were introduced to the school principle, teachers and some staff. Then we discussed about this program such as the rules for us as teachers assistant etc. At the first day I met my master teacher, I was so happy because he was so humorist. He was so helpful and kind to me and my partner in teaching assitance program. As written on the schedule, the teaching practice should be done on the second week of the program. However, my master teacher asked my team to do it in the first week. My friend and I were very nervous before entered the class. We teached in XI IPS 1. Students’ response there were very anthusias. Moreover, they were so enjoy and comfortable with our method.

    The next teaching practice was in XI IPS 2. In that class, my friend and I did the same things like in the XI IPS 1. We were getting know all students and creating classroom rules or classroom agreement. The students in XI IPS 2 were more active than XI IPS 1. It made me and my friends quite unable to handle. I thought that maybe students forgot about the class rules. Then I decided to remind them again about it. Finally, it worked. They realized that they almost forgot the rules. 

    Something that impressed me was when I was outside the class, students were trying to speak in English. I was so happy, although there were still some mistakes in pronounciation and accuracy. I apreciated it because they were so confident.  

    In the end of our program, my friend and I made a reflection in every class. We asked them to wrote it on the paper. My friend and I were very happy because students understood what we shared to them. That was actually the most important  point for me during this program.

    To me, this program was really helpful. Later I am going to be a teacher, here I already experienced it although just a bit. In the future, I will not surprise with the class condition including the problem within classroom. The most important learning point for me was that we can’t give students the same treatment because they were different individual.

Teaching assistance program was so exciting. I got so many experiences there.  I asked my master teacher about intregating new technology in English teaching-learning process. He told me that it was difficult for him to integrate the new technology in the classroom. He considered about the time, and effectiveness of using new technology in the classroom itself. The technologies which he often used were just a whiteboard, markers, books, pens and handouts. He seldom to use the language laboratory in that school because students often took longer time such as time to go down stair, tell the laboratory rules etc.

However, the thing that impressed me is he has been trying to integrate the new technology into classroom. Instead of using language laboratory, he prefers to bring his laptop to the classroom for teaching listening. He started to use email as a media to submit assignments. He also tried to use social networking such as Facebook. Unfortunately, it did not work effectively because only three students submitted the assignments by email and only few students responded in the Facebook. He thought that it was difficult to enter the students’ world. He stated that his students are in different era and have different way in learning now. At the first, he thought that it would be more challenging for students if he asked his students to submit assignment by email because his students now are very familiar with it. However, the reality is different and unpredictable. After all of those evidences which proved that it could not work effectively. He finally back to the previous one, he remains to the style where he thought it was more effective. He used only laptop, often language laboratory, a marker, text books, handouts and a whiteboard.

If I were teacher on that situation, I would give conspicuous rules for my students.  For example, for students who did not submit the assignment, they would get the discount for their score. This is because I thought that the problem on my master teacher was he could not provide the conspicuous rules for his students. He gave the assignment without any regulations. It might one of the reasons on why almost all students did not submit their assignments. On the other hand, I would also use the multimedia or computer laboratory to engage my students in learning English. I would also give the strict regulations for my students. For example, all students must be punctual in the multimedia or computer laboratory as it should be in the English class. The more they late, the more they will get assignments. In the computer or multimedia laboratory I would impart my students to make a blog. It would aim them in writing skills. I would them to write certain texts such as narrative, recount etc. Then they must report and submit it by email, again with the conspicuous rules.

 Monday, November 1st 2010

My friends and I went to one of High School in North Jakarta at 05.30 a.m in order to avoid traffic jam. During the way to that school, everything was fine. I was not as nervous as the day before. In that first day, we would meet and get acquainted with some teachers in that school. We needed to take two public transportation to go there. Even though we tried to avoid the traffic jam by leaving at 05.30 from Mampang, there was still traffic jam after we took the second public transportation.

Finally, we arrived at that school then met principal and some teachers there. They were so kind and helpful. After we were introduced to principal and some teachers there, we were suggested to meet our own co-teacher. My team was helped by Mr. Alan., an English teacher for social class. He was so kind and humorist. He was also a kind of teacher who always reflects to himself. He also shared about his experience of becoming a teacher. He said that he sometimes confuse because he do not know how to motivate his students. Is it his mistake or maybe he should take another way in teaching English? He told us that maybe we can help him to motivate his students. Well, the first day of teaching assistant program was going smoothly. Hope it will continue to the next day.

Note for first day: Becoming a teacher is not only make our student learn but also how to motivate and stimulate them to learn.

  In the last writing, I wrote about becoming a teacher. Well, tomorrow will be the first day for my friends and I to conduct a school experience. It will be different with the school experience in the first and second semester. In this semester my friends and I are asked to be teacher assistants. Furthermore, we are going to have teaching-practice  twice there. To be honest, I am so happy to face the school experience, however I am nervous if I think about what will happen during the school experience. Hope, everything going to be alright.

 

  I remembered when I was in primary school. I had a book which consists of my friends’ mini data. Each data consist of name, place and date of birth and dreams.
I remember that most of my friends wrote that they want to be a doctor. However, I wrote that I want to be a lecturer. My reason is simply because my parents are teacher and I want to be a teacher but I do not want to be a teacher like my mom or my dad (confusing isn’t it?). If there was someone asked me “why do you want to be a lecturer?” then I answered “because my parents are teacher and I like to be a teacher but one step higher than them, that’s why I want to be a lecturer”

I know that both teacher and lecturer are quite similar. The difference is only the class that they teach. And the other thing that I thought is quite similar is both of that profession is quite difficult. When my teacher in my primary school was teaching me, I thought that becoming a teacher is easy. Because I saw my teacher, they were only teaching me, and when the school hour was over, they could go home. However, all of that thought changes when I am in college. I am not only prepared to be a teacher who simply teach, but also teacher who can help students to understand the materials and to be what they want their dreams).

In Language Teaching Methodologies Course, I learnt about learning styles and learning strategies. Learning styles refer to the way that our students feel comfort when they studying. While, learning strategies refer to the effort on how we help them in order to reach the goal of learning. From that definition, I conclude that learning style and learning strategies related each other. As a candidate of teacher, it is a must to learn about it and later on it is required to apply it in a real class situation.

What I got from this course is that teacher cannot give the same treatment to all students. One of the reasons is because they are not the same individual. Each of them has their own interest, comfort and needs. Instead of giving the same treatment, a teacher is better to make a variety of lessons, material or activities. Because maybe there are students who like to learn while they are listening music, the others like to discuss with their friends etc. I think that is one of the important things that teacher must consider. It is not about what teacher gives to student but how the way teacher gives to students. One thing that I really believe is that when students feel comfort to study, they will get what teacher explained.

Then what I am really disappointed is that only some teachers apply that learning strategies or even for worse, they maybe did not know what learning styles are. As a teacher, according to my opinion, teacher should not only learn about pedagogical studies but also other things about students, because teacher and students related each other. I know that becoming a teacher is not easy, because I need to not only knowing my students but also understanding them. However, if we love our job, we will enjoy it forever.

 

One of my assignments in Environmental Studies Course is calculating our carbon footprint. I was asked to calculate how much electricity, water, waste, petrol and food that I used per day. I was wondering when I checked my carbon footprint. I released 42, 67938 kg of CO2 per day which means that I released 14340, 27168 kg of CO2 for one year. Well, that was ironic. To me this assignment help me a lot to not only knowing about knowledge but also understanding that knowledge is created to be practiced. Furthermore, it can be a reflective material for me.

Well, my mom always asked me to turn off the lamp, TV, fan and other appliances in order to make the electricity cost effective. At that time I just thought that there would no other reasons except effective cost. However, in Environmental Studies Course, I learnt not only to make the electricity cost become effective but also saving the earth. What does it mean by saving the earth? Simply, when we turn on the lamp or other appliance which use electricity means that we released the Carbon dioxide (CO2).  This is because the electricity is made from fossil fuels which are roasted. Then the process of fossil fuels roasting released CO2. In the end the CO2 which has released will make the atmosphere slighter. As we know that atmosphere is a layer in the sky which protects the earth from sun. If we use the electricity wastefully, it will also give impact to the earth. Our earth becomes hotter day by day, because every day we contribute to release CO2.

I hope, my writing is not only making people who read it thinking about our earth but more on doing something to save our earth. I do understand that doing is not as simple as we read or speak or even write. However, starting point is on our self. Now or never. Let’s save our earth.

It is a common thing for almost people in my country to have a cell phone. At least, each member of a family has it. In the third session of TLL course, we discussed about the function of cell phone. We discussed it in term of teaching and learning process. Some people have it and use it to communicate with family, friends and others. However, as the technology growing fast, its function becomes different. Nowadays, cell phone has so many features, such as internet browser, camera, and video etc. People may use it only for entertaining themselves. However, as a candidate of English teacher for future, it reminds me. The nature of technology is only a tool to communicate something so that others can get the information. Long time ago, people only had a blackboard and chalks to write in the class. Then later, we have whiteboard and markers to write in the class. Even a blackboard and chalks quite existed a long time ago, at that time it was also a technology.   

We are fortunate to live in the world where technology is being developed rapidly, especially in electronic. This is because the communication and almost everything is getting easier to do. We can only turn on our cell phone and then call whoever we want, you can also browsing on your cell phone, you can chat and others. To me, my self, the main function of my cell phone is just for communicating. Whether it has so many great features or not, it doesn’t matter for me. In the TLL course, my friends and I were asked on how do our cell phone work, how many features do we have in our cell phone, then the big question is “Can we apply it (Cell phone) as a learning tool?”

The question then come up to my mind. We can maximize what we have in order to make a successful teaching and learning process. Even though we only have a cell phone with only a few features, we can develop it into learning process. For example, we can use the music player in our cell phone. We can play it for our students in order to make students learn:  how to pronounce a word or sentence in the right way. I believe if we can explore all of the features in our cell phone maximally, it will help us to support teaching and learning process. Now, the function of cell phone is not only to communicate but also a tool to support our teaching and learning process.

Environmental issue became an interesting topic to talk about. Some people around the world lately are more care about our environment but there are also some people who aren’t still care about our environment. On Friday 1st October, I’ve got an interesting course. It was environmental studies. This course is explaining about environment. To be honest, I only a little bit knows about environment issues such as; global warming, gas trading, disaster etc from articles which I’ve read. However, I couldn’t really imagine how all of those issues happen. In this course, I knew (although a bit)

The opening of my first environmental studies course was great. We are introduced to the material in the interesting way. My lecturer played us a video from Koes Plus which is Bukan Lautan tapi Kolam Susu. The song is so cheerful, it describes about how easy live in the earth. Everything is there and we can take it whenever we can. One of the lyric also said “a wood stick and stone can be a plant” It means that everything in the earth can be a resource for people who live in. Unfortunately, it was an old song, it was famous in 90’s. Today the reality is different. The earth is not as save as in the past.
In the end of this course, there is a missing piece in my heart. I just realize that the earth is a place where we live and it is an obligation for us to protect it. The feeling is like I only take the earth for granted. I only take a lot of things from our beloved earth without knowing the feeling of earth itself (as if earth can speak) 

“There is always interdependency on each creature that lives in the earth; human, animal, plant and every single thing in this earth. That is why we need to help and protect each other” (Syarifah, 2010)

“The Journey” is a title of my blog because I have some reasons, here they are:

·         T          : Time is always flying

·         H         : However I often do not realize it

·         E          : Everything is change

 

·         J          : Journey is started

·         O         : Off  and on  are always become my fears

·         U         : Unless  I still stand on His way

·         R         : Risk will just like a piece of cake

·         N         : No one always get the easy way

·         E          : Extra miles are required to reach every dream and goal, and 

·         Y          :Youth is the best time to strive and bring it into reality

 

The note above is only an opening for giving deeper elaboration about my reasons. Well, “The Journey” is described my life including my learning life. The philosophy is life and learning has quite similar things. We need to prepare ourselves before we decide something in our life. We also need a lot of things before we learn something, at least we know what we are going to learn.  In the end of this journey, of course we will find our destination. Then I think my destination is my dreams. One thing that I will never stop this journey is because I will never ever stop dreaming.

 

This blog is also a part of my journey on how do I reflect to myself , especially do I really understand about my courses in my college or am I really right to decide something in my life. Well, maybe this blog is also a place for me to think about everything. Hopefully, this blog will also help you all guys to share everything.