WEEK THREE: EXTRA PRESSURE, EXTRA EXCITEMENT

DAY 12 (JANUARY 21): KICK OFF PRACTICUM, MY TEACHING PRACTICE

PROCEDURES OF MY TEACHING PROCESS

Starting up my pre-service teaching practicum in the school must commence of knowing the types of learners I will have. I had rendered the two-day observation in the school by knowing what kind learners do I have when I set foot in the actual teaching, how diverse will they be and what standards and level of expectations should I employ to meet their own needs and personal standards.

After the classroom observation, the crafting, trial and error of making the lesson plan was my next challenge. In the procedure of my actual teaching service, lesson planning was the important step in the teaching-learning process. I had made the framework incorporating my culture to the new students, and applying some strategies I’ve learned which might be applicable to the standards and context of the school and to my learners more importantly.

TIME MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZING ACTIVITIES

I constructed my lesson plan embedded with the most basic principle in formulating the expected outcomes and the lesson objectives as SMART as possible, this acronym stands as the guide of teacher in identifying objectives, wherein objectives must be specific – can easily attain and more simple to avoid ambiguous flow of the lesson and to exactly meet the needs of the students against my given standards, second must be measurable – the expected outcomes must be measurable so I would know how far my learners have able to attain the standards, which eventually help my teaching strategies vary on the performance of the students. Third, attainable, the lesson introduce to the students must be attainable in the sense of your purpose is to let them learn and gain something at the end of the lesson. Fourth, result oriented or realistic, the outcomes expected to the students must be authentic so they can apply it to the real life situations and learning will never start up to vanish. Lastly, it must be time bounded, where planning the lesson must suit to the allotted time or session of the class. Managing the time to finish my lesson for a given period was my utmost concern start up new discovery to my students.

Classroom management is not quite challenging in my actual teaching for the students if being oriented by your rules will mostly likely to follow, and will serve as their daily routine. I got a mild difficulty in organizing classroom activities engaging students to my activities because they weren’t gotten used of interactive classroom approaches, they showed unwilling to my academic games found in my drill, review and motivation.

DAY 13 (JANUARY 22): UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER

I wondered from the start before my lesson plan was firmly made whether the methods of teaching and the innovative teaching strategies I have employed will have to work as good as it had been in Philippines, since I happened to apply it in a different context consisting of different students at different localization considering I have not known them all entirely. I was anxious to start up my lesson whether I have an exact thought or I was underestimating myself I could not execute what’s all expected in my lesson. But as I went along, my students had proved that I was all wrong. It was an unexpected moment were all of my students have enjoyed very much to my classroom games and activities I have engaged them. It seemed the classroom was shed by light and captivating smiles of students for the first time. I ended my lesson with generous appreciation to my students and wishing them to continue their active participation in every class.

EMPLOYMENT OF PROBLEM-SOLVING

Problem solving approach was employed to my class found in the different activities of my lesson, like the discovery type of inductive approach, gathering their ideas through an art of questioning and using inferences to my topic.

One of the manifestation of problem solving in my actual teaching in classroom is the consideration of possible strategies applicable to the context, and eventually choosing the best strategies for students to gain a meaningful learning experiences.

DAY 14 (JANUARY 23): THIRD DAY MEETING

We arrived in the school as early as we had never been at the time before. Hence, we able to experience the queue of falling in line with group of teachers and practicum teachers at the entrance of the school and held our hands toward students for “Salim”, an act of putting your hand on someone’s forehead and spreading our open palms for handshaking with them. It’s been a wonderful moment to feel the respect of the students which reminded me of my becoming extinct culture in the Philippines which we did the same for our parents and even to our teachers, the “Pagmamano”, but the fact that this practice had been vanished gradually and seldom manifested to every Filipino youth.

CLASSROOM MANGEMENT

One of my chosen possible way prior of introducing the lesson is to orient my student of simple rules and reminders in the classroom while I am enjoying class with them. This had led them to keep organized, orderly, focused, attentive on class and academically engage during classroom activities. Proper behavior of the students was seemed, while the eagerness to keep engage to what I have introduced classroom fun activities was seemingly less manifested.

DAY 15 (JANUARY 24): FOURTH MEETING

Becoming close to my students is one of the highlights in my fourth day of SEA Teaching Practicum at SMA Negeri 1 Cangkringan. I tried to becoming friend with them, I wore a nice smile as much as I could and without reservation I greeted them delightfully.

I find my lesson quite easy for I need not to have tie the notch at every single end of my strategies for I’ve been discussing the same lesson twice with the other sections. I already knew how to steer my lesson through and diagnose what I have by far experienced trouble in my class.

DAY 16 (JANUARY 25): SUPERVISOR’S OBSERVATION

I was challenged more to perform well and make my teaching practice exemplary because our SEA Teaching supervisor of UII, Ibu Ima will have to take seat in the classroom for her first observation series.

MY OVERALL IMPRESSION IN TEACHING

The result of my overall performance with my pre-service practicum in the school is satisfactory. I had tried out several possible strategies and chose best strategies, techniques and methods of teaching in the diverse context, some had been met half way of the expected goals. Teaching strategies I’ve learned from my country which serve to introduce in the new context of teaching environment had went well.

My demonstration teaching was done successfully, where all of the strategies and activities I had been employed have worked so well. I able to organize students and keep them attentive and focus with the learning task presented to them, and I have also overcome the challenge shown by students to let them become engage and pacify with the task for they seemingly looked uninterested with the classroom games and motivation I have tied up to excruciate in my lesson.

DAY 17 (JANUARY 26): BUDDY’S GRADUATION DAY

As a consolation to being the most kind and amazing family friend in Indonesia, we were intently attended the graduation day of one of our buddies in the UII, Mr. Arfan. Though we weren’t witness the rites since we’re only allowed for the picture taking, we still felt how grateful he was of our presence. We came with graduation tokens and seconded with our warmest felicitations.

DAY 18 (JANUARY 27): TRIP TO BOROBUDUR

An exciting part of my SEA Teacher experience is to kiss the once shelled out from the slides of my report before, the BOROBUDUR TEMPLE. I never imagined the rest of my life going to one of the UNESCO’s wonders became into reality. God has always full of amazing surprises you didn’t think you deserve; He gives the best gifts to His faithful children I could have ever attest.