hectic week

This is the toughest week. I have to think of a concept of a learning blog. I have look for materials and the right curriculum for a listening session. I have modified this concept a lot of times, which made me confused. Looking for a suitable listening material for beginners isn’t easy. At first I just put in all the materials without thinking twice. After I consulted it with my lecturer, I realized that I cannot put everything, the ones I put in need to have a purpose. Then I searched the right curriculum for a beginner level, after that I searched for a suitable listening material. Then I adapted several materials with my own way of speaking. The construction of this blog still continues even at this very second.Wait and see :)

Assessments in a Different Perspective

http://www.ioxassessment.com/index.php?cPath=24

Last Friday was a hectic day, I needed to be an MC (Master of Ceremony), wanted to donate blood, noon has already passed and I haven’t eaten anything. Suddenly my friend told me,” Grace lets go to class.” I was shocked. I didn’t even remember that I have a class that day. The week before my teacher told us that we would have a “make up” class on the following Friday.

We rushed to class, and by the time we reached the class, my classmates looked at us, it turned out that an hour already passed since the class started and they were having a group discussion. I was assigned to the group with Nancy in it. Miss Tika gave me the subject and told me that I only got 5 minutes to read it and understand it. Honestly, I don’t understand a damn thing in that article.

Luckily, the article was about types of assessments and I had the same topic once in LTM (Language Teaching Methodologies) so I already had a rough idea about it. The main idea of the article was types of assignments which are diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.

The first type is diagnostic assessments, usually in the form of a pretest, or oral communication, to know the standard of the class to serve as a guideline throughout the course. The next type is formative assessment, formative assessments takes form as written assignments either in class or home assignment throughout the course. The last type is summative assessments, or usually known better as final exams to know the growth of the students and to know whether the teaching method is effective or not. A good teacher should combine all three types of assessments

A lot of teacher in Indonesia tends to forget that diagnostic assessment is a very important part of a teaching-learning activity.  They only think about the final result (summative assessment) which isn’t really a good practice. A teacher should know the strengths, weakness, and the average ability of the class for a subject to be absorbed optimally by the students. In conclusion all three assessments are very important in a teaching-learning activity.

" A Chat with My Friend"

Last wednesday, me and my friend went to mall for windows shopping.while we were waiting for our menu to come, we were talking about our academic result. She told me so many things about her college life. One thing that made me feel upset was when she told me about her lecturers at her campus. The lecturer did not really care about his/her students progress. The way he/she taught is not interesting, eventhough they already used ICT in her/his classroom. They just teach and teach all the time. My friend said " the lecturer is just like a robot. They came to the class, lecturing with no pauses, then gave us the assignment and i'm sick of it". I think this kind of situation happened almost in all university in Indonesia. The important thing for the lecturer is, they delivered the material to the student, they got the score from the assignment, then it's done.  This sort of problem made my friend thought that the most important thing in studying a subject is the score not the knowledge. Hearing this statement, I felt shock. I suggested her to be more dilligent in order to get the knowledge. The score is nothing. The most important thing is the knowledge. What is the use of score if you don't get the knowledge? As the next generation of teacher, i will try to solve this issue. I will teach and monitor my students progress as well. Teaching will happen if there is a change in our students.

cartoonstock.com

TLL Week 8 Report

Using chalk and board are still dominant in Theresia School. When I did an interview with the teacher, I asked them what type of media that the teacher used the most in language learning. They said that printed material, black board and chalk are the most used media for teaching and learning. They felt more comfortable using those media rather than using a powerpoint slide. The reason was simple. They thought that white/blackboard is easier to use because you just need to write and explain the material. Let the students copy and you can erase it. If they used powerpoint, it will take more time for preparing it. Printed material such as exercise papar was being used all the time. According to the teacher, using printed material is more interactive. She can discuss the exercise with all the students directly, and it works. The teacher and the students gain their goal. The test result was good.

chalk and blackboard

In listening section, the teacher used a CD, a personal computer (PC) and a speaker. She will play the CD and give each of the student a listening book. They have to answer based on what they had heard. Actually, at each table, there is a headphones which is used for listening. The teacher did not use it because the headphones did not link to the same spot. If the teacher use the headphone , I think it will be better for the students, because they can listen more clearly. When I interviewed the teacher about the students scored for listening, the teacher said that the result was quite good. Sometimes the teacher trained the students with songs and it showed a good improvement for listening score. Bringing the students to language lab is an effective method to teach their skill in listening.

language lab

When I was observing the classroom, I imagined myself as the teacher. I would use a laptop with a modem and a LCD projector. I want them to explore more by using the internet. There are many resources for grammar. I can show them many creative question about grammar, so that they not only learn from me as a teacher but also from the world about grammar. When I have to teach them in the classroom about gerund, my team teaching provided a powerpoint game slide. They all are very enthusiastic. They felt that this is a good way to teach grammar. They not only get the knowledge but also fun. If I have to teach listening, I would like to use podcast. The pronounciation and the content of podcast is very good for learning English. For senior high school students, it is good for them if a teacher give them an intermediate level material for listening. They can gain more knowledge and practice their pronounciation based on what they heard. It is good for them in order to prepare the students to the real world of English.

Fresh teacher :)

My School Experience

This week’s experience was very interesting. My teaching team has to do a real teaching for 45 minutes. At first, we were very nervous and confused. We felt like we were not ready to deal with this kind of situation. Luckily, our master teacher helped us a lot. They gave us the guideline so we can develop our lesson plan in a proper way.
When I entered the class, WOW….. I felt awesome. I tried to be calm. The master teacher said that we have to relax. We started the class with a greeting and we tried to elicit their attention. In the first 5 minutes, they don’t show any enthusiasm, but we tried to encourage them to talk. I said to them, “It’s OK to make mistakes, the most important thing is to try.” After they heard what I said, each one of them began to try to speak out. I thought to myself,” WOW…. It actually worked!” Most of the times, students are timid, so we need to encourage them to express themselves.

my team teaching

The next step, we gave them a short passage about Jakarta. My friend Arsy asked them to read together. Then we gave them some time to think about the main idea of that passage. Each of them came up with different ideas.
After discussing the passage, we got to the main subject, gerund. Arsy tried to explain on the blackboard. He delivered it smoothly, slowly and systematically, because teaching grammar isn’t easy.
In the last ten minutes, we wanted to know whether our teaching method gave a good impact or not. We tested them with a quiz. Septo divided the class into 4 groups. Each group will compete for the highest score. They are very excited in participating in this quiz. The students tried to answer each question as fast as possible. The questions are based on gerund. We wanted to know whether they understood what we taught them or not.

Quiz Time

We got a good result from this quiz. They were able to make proper sentences using gerund. Our teaching method works! After the class, we asked for a feedback from the students. They said that we could deliver the lesson in an interesting way. They understood what we were talking about. Then I asked them, “Is this type of teaching is quite effective for you to learn about gerund?” The students replied, “Yes, loved the way you teach, it’s new for us, giving a passage before you enter to the real topic, it’s very effective to elicit our attention.”
In conclusion, our teaching method works like wonders. Getting their attention through games makes learning English more effective. Giving them motivation also makes them feel glad and increase their self esteem and motivation.

We are the next generation

humble teacher :)

My Classroom Observation Week 1

For this week classroom observation, I don’t “really” get the thing that is effective or ineffective in the classroom, because for this week I only observed two classes and one of them is having a listening examination.

For the grammar class, what is effective enough based on what I observed is the teacher let the students to understand the concept of active and passive sentence by themselves. The teacher just asked them and encourage them to recall their understanding about that lesson. All the students showed their enthusiastic in giving the answer. Then the teacher give the student exercise. The teacher asked the answer of the question to the student. One number for one student. After the teacher got the answer from the student, she discussed it and asked why the students gave her those kind of answer. It required an analytical skill to explained the answer. If the students did not give the right answer , teacher will ask them to analyze the characteristic of the sentence. With this method, students will learn from their mistake and hopefully they will not repeat the sama mistake in the future. According to my observation, actually I still wondering is drilling method (teacher give the concept and lots of worksheets) is effective enough to make the students familiar to the concept? Besides teaching a lesson, the teacher also taught the students to behave. There is one student who is quite naughty and when he wanted to do silly things, the teacher always remind hi to behave. Discipline and classroom rules is very important. Without these two things, I think that effective learning will not happen.

If I have to teach them, maybe i will give them a warming up games because the teacher just go directly to the course and it makes the classroom monotonous. Sometimes as a teacher  we are too theoretical and forget that our students also need some jokes or games ro refresh their mind and soul. As a teacher, discipline is number one. It does not mean that you have to scream or get angry all the time. What is more important is you always stick to classroom rules and agreement and try to understand the class and students condition.

Handphone as Learning Tool

What your mobile phone can do?

google.com

Have you explored all the fitures on your handphone (HP)? Or maybe you just use it for text  messanging and making a phone call? Then, it's time for you to explore more and get benefit from your HP. HP can be use for learning tool. How? You don't have to have the expensive one. Make sure that your handphone provide an internet browser. Then just type "google" or other search engine and you will be able to find any material that you want for studying. It's so easy. Internet is a gate of knowledge. Perhaps you can get many important material which is not in your textbook. With HP you can access the information anywhere you want. Nowadays, a seven years old child already have HP. It is not an expensive and weird thing anymore.Unfortunately not all parents and teachers realize that their childrens' hp can be use for learning tool too.They have to teach their child to use hp in an effective way. For teachers, they can encourage their studens to learn something via hp.Example: teacher ask their students to use english in their mobile phones. It can increase their language skill. For maths teacher, you can ask your student to use their handphone as the calculator. It is just as simple as that.So from now on, when you used handphone, don't use it just for SMS and making a phone call, explore more and you will get more.

Here are the video about the evolution of mobilephones :

The Evolution

LTM (multiple intelligences seminar) reflection

expectumf.umf.maine.edu

I felt so happy when my lecturer said that we will have a seminar about multiple intelligences. In my point of view, multiple intelligences is the best teaching methodologies ever. It is a new “weapon” to teach in a class with diverse students. Not like the ancient teaching methodology,  such as: TPR, suggestopedia, Audiolingualism and etc, multiple Intelligences offer the new way of teaching. It provides so many choices in teaching and learning. If we see in Indonesia, there are still many teachers who use the old style of teaching. Then what happen? Flash back to my school experience, the class will be so bored. Teacher treats student as they are all the same, in fact, we are all different. If teacher keep on doing the same things, not all the students can get the knowledge properly. Most of the teachers tend to stereotype student. They said that a clever student is someone who get high score in exam or someone who get the 1^st rank in class. Then what about the other student who don’t achieve the academic score? Are they all stupid? This is an old point of view. In multiple intelligences every student has their own intelligence. It is very unique. As a teacher, we have to consider each intelligence that each student has. We are responsible to implant our knowledge teaching style based on multiple intelligences.  Multiple intelligences provides teacher with so many interactive activity for teaching. This methodology helps teacher to help student for mastering a lesson perfectly. It is good to apply multiple intelligences in Indonesian school in order to achieve students and teachers academic goal.

The Seminar

Multiple Intelligences Flipchart

Diversity Creates Creativity

Imagine that you are a teacher. If all the students were from the same background, religion, ethnics, social economy and characteristics, what it will looks like? For me personally, It will be boring. If we give them a questions, probably they will give the same answer. Then imagine if in one class, there are 23 students with different background, it's gonna be an interesting class. If you ask them a question which needs a critical thought,  each of them will give different answer because they all have different characteristic. It's good to be different. As a teacher, it is a must for us to respect the diversity of our student. We cannot use the same way to approach our student. If you are different from others, it doesn't mean that you are not as good as them. The only key is to respect and tolerate with each other.

_teachers are concept of tolerence_

Long Life Learning (3L)

Teaching means Learning. If you want to teach means you also have to learn. During Technology and Language Learning class, I got a new concept in becoming a teacher. My lecturer Sir Iwan Syahril made a song named "The Teacher". He composed this song when he was studying Teacher Education in Columbia University, United States. The lyric was so touchy that makes me feel lucky to become a teacher in the future. 

www.google.com

The most powerful part of this song for me is "I'm under construction". Sounds like i'm a building which is being repaired and prepared by an architect.The architect represent knowledge and skill in teaching. Teacher doesn't has to be a person who stands in front of the class and give so many assignment to their student. A teacher can be someone who teach you how to behave, how to survive, and how to treat yourself. I hope I can be a good teacher. Be a clever teacher is nice, but be a good teacher is more awesome. Being good in this context means that you are not teaching your student but also listen and learn from your student.

T.E.A.C.H.E.R

I got a picture from www.complete teacher.com last night.

Add caption

Actually it is a simple picture but have a deep meaning.

7 in 1 proffesions:

(playing several key roles)

1. Teacher as an actor. An actor has to act. It means that when you become a teacher you also have to act. Even though you are in a bad mood but infront of your student you shouldn't express your feeling. A teacher is a trend setter as well as an actor. If the teacher was lazy, it will impact the students as well.
2.  Teacher as a writer. To be a writer is not easy. So do be a teacher. You will need inspiration and creativity to write a book or an article so that many people read it. Same like being a teacher. Teaching needs creativity. You have to be creative to create an interesting and effective class. A writer has to be creative so do the teacher.
3. Teacher as a manager. A good teacher is a good manager. You need to have a good skill in managing your time in classroom. A teacher have to be able to delivered the lesson on time. A manager has to manage their employees and company. The employees represent the student and company represent the classroom.
4. Developer. A developer is someone who develops something (such as software, realestate). A success developer needs to have a good strategy in order to create successful project. A teacher have to develop his/her students knowledge and mind. Each students has different characteristics so that teacher needs different strategy to teach every students.
5. Salesperson. Salesperson is someone who sales something.Tthe successfulness of a salesperson is measured by the amount of sales he/she is able to make during a given period of time and how good is in persuading someone to buy his/her product. In teaching teacher have to "sell" his knowledge to his student. The word "sell" not literary means you get money, but sell means you implant your knowledge to your student. the way you "persuade" your students is very important in order to make her/hirbecome interesting to your lesson.
6. Proffesional. According to merriam-webster.com "proffesional" means engaged in one of the learned. A proffesional is someone who mastered something. A teacher have to be a proffesional. you have to be expert in your field.
7. Subject specialist. Mastering a specific subject is a must for a teacher.to take one step a head is a must.

Welcome ^-^

This is my first blog about education. In this blog i will share about my experience studying how to become an effective English teacher in the future. I will tell some interesting topic regarding to teaching methodologies and my experience being a student in Sampoerna school of education.
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