Teaching Over Altitudes

Posted on by Rowell Esteves
  • Student Name: Rowell Respicio Esteves
  • Home University: Mariano Marcos State University
  • Receiving School: Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha
  • Blog Address: estevesrowell.home.blog

School: General Information and Academic Administration


School Profile

Name of Institution

  • SMP LABORATORIUM UNDIKSHA SINGARAJA

NPSN

  • 50100266

Established in

  • 1977

Address

Name of Street

  • Jln. Jatayu no. 10 Singaraja (81116)

Village

  • Kaliuntu

Sub-district

  • Kec. Buleleng

City

  • Kab. Buleleng

Province

  • Bali

Phone Number

  • (03262)22572 / 08283720494

School Status

  • Private

School Principal

  • I Made Suantara, S. Pd.

School Accreditation

  • ACCREDITATION OF TAMAN KANAK – KANAK (TK)
  • ACCREDITATION OF A BASIC SCHOOL (SD) 
  • ACCREDITATION OF THE FIRST MEDIUM SCHOOL 
  • ACCREDITATION OF MIDDLE SCHOOL SCHOOL (HIGH SCHOOL) 

Vision of Undiksha Lab:

Steady in the commendable discipline of achievement based on national and cultural values.

Missions of Undiksha:

  1. Carrying out effective learning and guidance as well as remedial and enrichment programs so students can develop optimally according to their potential. As well as fostering the spirit of competing in the academic and non-academic fields to improve learning outcomes and national and school examinations and student achievements in various sub-districts, districts, provinces and national levels
  2. Completing and reviewing and perfecting school curriculum documents in the form of book I and book II, such as KKM, annual program, semester, RPP syllabus, education calendar and other documents.
  3. Implementing an effective and efficient learning process by implementing CTL and ICT-based.
  4. Opening the widest opportunity for teachers and employees to develop themselves through seminars, workshops, training and upgrading and to continue their studies to a higher level in order to improve professionalism.
  5. Adding infrastructure that does not yet exist, maintaining and repairing existing ones so that SSN standard facilities and infrastructure are met to support the quality learning process.
  6. Carrying out services and management of conducive, effective, transparent and accountable education.
  7. Exploring various educational funding sources (government, committees, parents and other parties), so that educational activities become cheap and run smoothly.
  8. Carrying out the assessment process of learning based on quality and quality class assessment in accordance with national standards.
SMP Undiksha Lab
Photo Source: Google

Academic support system

The school comprises of various academic support systems which become a way for the institution to further enrich the student learning not only for knowledge but also for social, spiritual and life skills. These are the educational services, teaching methods, assessment strategies and school activities that come together to hone and develop the student learning and progress. The school is also equipped with media and technology centers such as libraries for academic and leisure reading, computer laboratories for computer related activities, science laboratories for experimentation, multimedia centers for performance and entertainment, and language centers for speech communication. Thus, the school is fit to cater students’ holistic development.

Teaching system

SMP Undiksha Lab is a laboratory school of Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha. The school is known for their student centered approach wherein they let the learners discover learning and improve their communication skills. The way teachers teach provides an avenue for learners to apply the skills acquired in the discussion. Moreover, it is not just only about focusing on one domain but also a combination and integration of other domains such as the affective and pyschomotor. Learners are exposed to various activities that empower their learning as students of the said school. These are prayers, greetings, courtesies and entrance and exit routines.

Materials and other learning sources

SMP Undiksha Lab is equipped with learning facilities that make the learning of the students more meaningful and lasting. The students are able to grasp learning through facilities such as LCD projectors, laptops, science laboratories, computer laboratories, libraries, multimedia centers and libraries. These learning sources are the ones that where students can access knowledge and information.

Measurement and evaluation system

SMP Undiksha Lab uses authentic assessment, peer evaluation, and hands-on activities to measure students’ knowledge and development. These kinds of assessments make sure that the learners grasp the concepts intelligibly. Teachers are also given the freedom to create scoring rubrics in accordance to the activities they give in class.

Curriculum

For the curriculum in SMP Undiksha Lab, they use the 2013 curriculum which is focused on the scientific approach. It has five aspects: these are observing, questioning, exploring, associating, and communicating. The indicators focus on basic competence 3 and 4; where basic competence 3 is about knowledge and basic competence 4 is about skills. All activities in class should include character building and also 4c- 4c stands for communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

Teaching Plan

The activity plan starts with the overall scheme of the lesson then is followed by the Core Competencies  which adhere to Spiritual Attitude, Social Attitude and Skills such as Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking.  After which, the basic competencies and its indicators follow. To understand it more, here is a copy of the lesson plan for the grade 7 class.

Pedagogical concepts

Teaching methods of the teacher that you observed

Throughout the observations held inside the classroom, the most evident teaching method I have observed was that the teacher used Communicative Language Teaching Method(CLT). CLT is a method wherein it emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of the discussion. Given the fact that Indonesia views English as a Foreign Language (EFL), it is an effective way to let the learners grasp English because the language itself is being utilized in speaking – communicating. Thus, the Communicative Language Teaching is a powerful tool to initiate the learners into a speaking activity that lets them utilize the English language. I found it too as an effective way to teach the students the language that they are somewhat afraid of speaking.


Their learning materials and innovation

I found out that the room is equipped with an LCD projector, a projector screen, the teacher’s laptop, a whiteboard and a pair of speakers. The teacher used powerpoint presentations and video clips to teach the students concepts about the subject matter. The learners attend to the discussion through such materials.


Sources of learning and technology used by the teachers

The source of teachers in teaching the subject was the 7th grade English book titled “Bahasa Inggris: When English Rings a Bell”. This was where the teacher got the guide for the topics to be discussed inside the class. As a matter of fact, the teacher assumes that the learners already did their previous reading at home. There were also dictionaries provided in the classroom to help them in their translation from their native language to English. The dictionaries come in two forms: the abridged and electronic ones.


Authentic assessment used by the teachers

The teachers provided authentic assessment to the students by means of performing tasks that are meaningful applications of skills such as performing a dialogue in class etc. There were sets of activities that the students arr engaged to in order for their skills to be measured in varied ways.

Teaching Plan

Curriculum

SMP Undiksha Lab provides an avenue for learners to develop cognitive, spiritual, social and life skills while being in the campus. The school imposes a religious practice of Hindus (which are for Hindus only) to pray regularly and on-time using a centralized announcing system within the school. SMP does not only avert itself into developing the macro skills but also, put great effort in teaching life and social skills such as scouting and club activities every Friday.

Teaching plan related to your major

Students, especially the grade seven are fond of kinestetic activities. They like to engage themselves in activities that integrate their motor skills. As such, their language skills, cognitive and moral skills are developed further.

Teaching Practice

Procedures of teaching

Before teaching my students, I first made a Lesson Plan prescribed by the school and prepared the administrations needed such as the Scoring Sheets, Student attendance and Teacher’s Journal. Most specifically, I also prepared the materials needed to teach inside the class.

Teaching Practice #1

I began my teaching journey through meeting my 7th-2 class who shared enthusiasm in learning through me. It also happened to be my first observation teaching  with Bapak Agus, my cooperating teacher and Ibu Diah, my lecturer.

The class started with a greeting initiated by the class representative. I taught the students about the qualites of things. The lesson started with an apperception, using an image which was covered with shapes making it appear mysterious. The students provided a description that unlocked the image behind the shapes letting them activate their knowledge about adjectives. Then I let them imagine that they are inside my house and let them describe what’s inside to extend their knowledge on adjectives. After which, I let them describe the authentic things I brought in the class. After those different exercises, their next task was to create a dialogue and present in class. Then we concluded learning through recalling the things that we discussed that time.

My students engaged in the class with eagerness to learn about the topic and the activities we did became meaningful because there was cooperation. Even though I taught them for the first time, I felt like they are my students for a very long time already.

Teaching Practice #2

My second day as a teacher is a team teaching with Ms. Ida for the 7th-1 class. We taught the students using the same lesson plan that I used for the 7th-2; and just like the 7th-2 class, I have found myself enchanted with their eagerness to learn under our teaching. Using the reward system as a strategy, it became a good technique to motivate the students to recite in class.

In one class, there are two sessions and I taught for the first session while Ms. Ida taught for the second half.

During the activities, I have encountered their enjoyment in the discussion and their willingness to learn the english language. Bapak Agus had entrusted us the two sections making us feel that we will be able to supervise them.

Teaching Practice #3

We had an enrichment lesson and discussion on the qualities of things. This time, it was about the opposite adjectives and we did an activity in which I portrayed the adjective and they gave its counterpart, e.g. I portray the adjective “big” and they say the adjective “small.” They also played language games because they like moving and that’s how they absorb the lessons. In order to improve their speaking, each student was given a chance to speak in front of the class through acting as a reporter in their groups.  After which, the class ended successfully. The students said good bye to us through a courtesy they always do after the end of the class.

Teaching Practice #4 

After teaching them the qualities of things, we proceeded to the qualities of animals. After the greetings, I began the class through asking the students about their favorite animals in class and described it. Then they were grouped into 4 and did an activity wherein they were taken in the forest and described the animals that they saw there. Then after that activity, I told them a story about my lost pet and they acted as investigators by trying to guess how it looked like through the descriptions that they gave. Then after that, they went back to their group and did activity wherein they solved a puzzle which was a picture of an animal and; shortly after that, they described it in front of the class. The students did an activity which is a matching type, they looked for a partner and made a dialogue about their favorite pet. I then assessed their speaking skills while they demonstrated it in class.

The class ended with them saying good bye through a courtesy they always do after every class.

Teaching Practice #5

It’s Thursday and we wore again the Balinese traditional clothes. This time, we discussed the functions of giving and asking information regarding the qualities of animals. The class started with a refreshment activity wherein they are tasked to describe five images of animals tackled in the previous meeting. Then they watched a video and through that, they listed down the different expressions of asking and giving information. I explained that asking information is the question and giving information is a response and they understood it well. After that, the students played the 4Pics1Word game- Animals Edition. The students actively participated in the game and were eager to answer each item that I flashed in the screen. After the game, they listened to an audio of a conversation about animals and answered an activity sheet wherein they filled in the blanks the missing statements in the tranacript of the audio; this was used to test their listening skills. After that, they composed a dialogue and presented it in class. While doing so, I was there assessing their speaking skills.

Teaching Practice #6

Today was my final evaluation day. Ibu Diah called it the Valentine’s day test. I had to pour out my love so I showed my students, Bapak Agus and Ibu Diah my passion for teaching. I was born ready.

As the usual routine goes, it started with greetings initiated by the class representative. The apperception was the 4Pics 1Word game which they played last meeting to test if they were able to remember the past lesson. It turned out they were able to retain the learning last meeting. The lesson was an enrichment for the qualities of animals. The students were grouped into five and each group was given a set of adjectives that are appropriate in the name of the animals pasted on the board. After that, we discussed the answers and clarified the adjectives presented in class. We also played the game called “The Boat is Sinking” wherein they portrayed a character of an animal. They really enjoyed the activity and wishrd it was longer but the time was too limited. After that, they looked for their partner for the dialogue making and they made a dialogue about an animal that they saw in the zoo. They demonstrated it in class and I assessed their speaking skills.

Then the bell finally rang. Just exactly as I was done teaching the students.

Time management and organizing activities

The way I managed time was according to the class schedule prescribed by the school. We go to school at 7:00 AM and go back to Edutel at 3:00 PM. Because it is a junior high school, I did not stay with them in one classroom. I just met the class when it’s our time to meet. The only thing that confused me was how their class schedule format worked because it was kinda new to us. So what we did was we let someone explain it for us and we gave it a summary in a way that we can understand. I always put a reminder in my phone and in my laptop so that I will not be late in class and I will not be able to forget to do the teaching plan for the next lesson. While in  my lesson, I always put a timer in the activities that they will do so that we will be able to finish all tasks intended for that day.

Problem-solving

Perhaps, the main problem I encountered at first was the language barrier. The first time I met the students, I noticed that they have an apprehension regarding speaking the English language. But as time went by, I was able to communicate with them well through learning their language vigorously. I really asked for the help of the my Indonesian friends who were also student teachers to teach me some Indonesian words and phrases. Thankfully, I was able to teach them properly because they cooperated in my whole teaching practicum. I have noticed their hardwork in learning the English language as well as just to communicate with me and that was my motivation to teach them too.

Classroom management

In managing the class, the factors that I needed to consider were my students, the environment, the lesson, the materials and facilities. I was really hands-on from the facilities and materials that I used in my class so that I cannot encounter major problems in delivering the lesson. I made sure that everything was prepared before I begin to teach.

Usually, the students loved the activities I let them do inside the class. And because of this, the class becomes noisy and all of them were very energetic in participating in the tasks. As a teacher, educational noise is good but too much noise will always need to be addressed. Shushing them around was not enough. What I always did was clap with a pattern that I taught them before and if they hear that, they will imitate it as a sign that they are still listening to me. In that way, the noise will be controlled and the activity can now push through. I also did the reward system in order to initiate student recitation without forcing them to recite. A simple star was able to make a whole difference in their confidence level and I was happy it worked with them.

Summary and Suggestions

Purposes of practicum

The purposes of the practicum opened a path for me as a future educator to enhance my teaching skills and expand my knowledge regarding my teaching practice overseas. This practicum made me develop my: 1) efficiency as a teacher who faced varied learners and was situated in a different learning background; 2) understanding of different cultures as I was faced with a new environment; 3) social skills as I communicated with different people every day; 4) compassion and empathy as I was exposed to different situations I did not expect it existed; 5) flexibility as a future educator who happened to meet different challenges and was able to overcome it even I was not in my comfort zone and lastly; 6) competence in all aspect as I was honed to and trained to be productive, time conscious and innovative in the practicum which are the skills needed to be on par in the global arena.  

Procedures of practicum

The practicum started with an observation of the classes. There were four sections and we observed them for a week. We were assigned with a teaching pair from the receiving university and worked with them in constructing the lesson plan. In the practicum I originally taught 9 times but I handled two classes so I was teaching the lesson twice a week and there were two meetings for a week. That means that I taught four lessons in two weeks and one more lesson for the final practicum. In the first week, it was about the qualities of things. In the second week, it was about the qualities of animals. I always made sure that the objectives placed in the lesson plan were targeted in the days that I taught the students. In my teaching, I was told to consistently do the administrations and prepare the material and the facilities needed in my class. Because of these, I believe that the students were able to learn from me and made it as meaningful and as memorable as possible through the activities, games and tasks that I prepared for them.

Outcomes of practicum

Teaching has never been an easy profession. But with much passion and dedication, I was able to embrace teaching as a part of my life and this teaching practicum helped me to do so. Because of this practicum, I was able to discover myself in different situations in teaching and develop my creativity and resourcefulness inside the classroom. I was able to encounter different realizations in teaching and apply it as an improvement for me as a future educator. I was able to develop patience and eagerness to teach because of the practice instilled in me. Moreover, I have embraced other teaching strategies in which made the learning of the students meaningful and memorable. Apart from that, I was able to open my eyes and embrace the beauty of other cultures through experiencing it myself and that also creates a big impact in my teaching journey overseas. With much more developed in me, I was able to view myself clearer as a future educator like a loaded gun which is ready to face in a war and claim victory over battles.

The challenges of practicum

Being out of my comfort zone was the very first challenge I encountered. Before, I have never imagined myself being put in a situation wherein there will be no one I know, specifically from my family to help me personally. It taught me to master independence and build a strong self esteem. Another challenge was the language barrier. Indonesia treats English as a foreign language. This means there were only few people who can really converse with us in English and it was difficult to explain myself because there are terms that they don’t understand. Thus, it taught me patience. Another thing was I dealt with a different culture, tradition and religion. It was a challenge on the very first days because I had to adjust myself to some of their customs but because I embraced it and understood it the soonest, I was able to adjust well and blend with the living that they had there. I believe that respect is the key in making it easier to understand their ways.

With many more challenges we have faced, I have realized that all of these serve as a turning point in life wherein there are lots of new horizons to see far from our comfort zones. There is a world waiting for us if we think outside the box and that world will lead us to better improvement, wider perspective and deeper understanding.

Overall impression

This teaching experience overseas was a great avenue for future educators to expose themselves in a different viewpoint and develop the flexibility within. The world of teaching does not only revolve around yourself- we will always be faced with varied perspectives and because of that, we must always prepare ourselves and widen our understanding. Teaching is not only limited within the four corners of the classroom-it is extended to the outside world because everywhere you go, you carry yourself the profession and that alone is a challenge we face every day. This is what this program taught me- which we must be always open to change and let’s dare to break boundaries to create the best outcome because after all, life is the greatest teacher of all time. I have learned so much more than just being a teacher. I have taught myself to be independent, self-sufficient, innovative, resourceful, creative and patient. I have learned life skills that I will carry all throughout my journey onwards; and I will be forever grateful for this.

Suggestions for future improvement

Perhaps the only thing that I could suggest is on the school that I went to. The reason why they can’t understand the language is because they don’t use it very often. If the goal is for them to learn English more, there must be at least activities that let them use the English language. In that way, they will be able to learn more about the language because they are actually using it in a certain context and is not just limited to the English classes.

Advertisement