The Final Reflection

After the whole semester attending the Micro Teaching class (even though sometimes I did not attend it), my view and opinion about being a teacher began to change. I felt that being a teacher could be fun and interesting. I used to think that being a teacher is a misery for me, remembering that the teacher's salary in Indonesia is not very high but the teacher should work extra hard for the sake of the students. That's why I hate if I have to be a teacher one day. That's why I did not raise my hand when Mr. Prast asked who wanted to be teacher at the very beginning of the class. Now my view begins to change. Now I think that being a teacher is a very great job. Being a teacher is about how we could make our students gain their knowledge but with their own hand. It means that I will be only their guide, but for the mastery of the knowledge it would be the students task. I like such a kind of role. That's why in my last performance I ask my students to figure it out what they will learn and what they have learned. This kind of role reminds me to my favourite movies: Star Wars. In Star Wars, my favorite character is not Luke Skywalker; instead, my favourite character is Master Yoda. Master Yoda taugh every single thing about being a Jedi Knight to Luke, but he was not merely teaching. He was only giving clues to Luke and let Luke figure it out by himself; and it work. Finally Luke found his Force and he was able to use it. I think that's what I will do in my teaching next semester. I will only give clues to my students and let them figure it out by themselves. I like this role very much. Mr. Prast, thank you very much for giving me a new understanding and vision about being a teacher. Thank you very much for our relationship and cooperation for this semester. Hopefully, we could cooperate again for the next semester. Your presence give me, and maybe the rest of your class, a new inspiration. I am trully awfully sorry if I had committed something wrong the class (especially when the time I was being a "Santa", hahaha....). I promise I won't commit the same mistake again. Last but not least, there is nothing more I could say.

Thirteenth Week Reflection a.k.a The Final Stand

Today is my turn to teach. Even though I got the last turn, but that's fine. Just for your information, I stilI got the new material: listening. I admitted that I was a little bit traumatic with my previous teaching, but it doesn't matter for me. I believe that I could do my best today. I have had a consultation with my elder sister, who used to be a teacher and also the graduate from PBI, and she gave a some very useful suggestions. She said do not give too many prizes to my students. Then, she also said that I should use my students in the teaching. It means that I should make them learn by themself. In brief, I listened to her and I conducted all of her suggestions in my class. Guess what??? It turned to be very good. I feel like this is my best performance than ever. Even though I still have to improve it, but that's fine. I will improve my teaching while I learn how tobe a good and interesting teachers. Last but not least, I love my final stand, especially because I am the last to perform in the class. In other words, I close the Microteaching Class: what an honour for me. Oh yes, one thing that I should not do again is my being still discuss the listening passage while time is running out. This is a fatal mistake, for me. I should not discuss the passage anymore, but I should already moved to the closure and summarize what the students have learnt. I promise I won't do this again.

Twelfth Week Reflection

Fortunately, I did not perform on the third week (I'm sorry, it should be the third one not the second one). One of my friends asked me whether I would like to switch turn with him or not. I say I would like to, therefore I will be the last of the last, while he takes my place. That's fine. However, I take it too easy again and I did not realize that my turn will come next week. What a fool I am. Fortunately my friends reminded me at the end of the class, so I still have sometimes to prepare it. Oh yes, there is one clumsy thing happened to the third week (while Mr. Prast is going out town or something). There is an electrical shutdown not long after the class has begun. The operator could not say how long it will last. So the class was over sooner, in fact very sooner, than before. This is very good for us, especially for me, because I have more spare time to spend by finishing my assignments. Thank God for the electrical shutdown.

Eleventh Week Reflection

I hate this day. I could not attend the Microteaching class because I have to attend the English Action Days 2009 Debate Contest. I am joining the Liasions Officer Committee, which is the part of Debate Contest. Actually this year is not my time anymore, but I want to teach my yuniors about how to be a goo Liaisons Officer. Guess what??? I have a lot of friends and I have found new relatives, who are the boys and girls under my supervision. This is very fun!!! Hopefully, I will not lose this relationship anymore.

Tenth Week Reflection

Today, even though it was already happened four days ago, is a great day for us. Finally, our lovely Microteaching Lecturer, Mr. Prast, got married. We wish you have a nice and wonderful marriage, Sir. Congratulations!!!! And I think that's why some of us were very happy today. They look so bright, including me. All of our teachers today look so happy. There is nothing more I could say than that. Wish you all the best Sir...

Ninth Week Reflection

This is the first week of the second period. Today, we should be the students of SMK, who has certain capabilites. For example, we are from SMK Pariwisata and therefore we have the ability to be a guide or other abilities that contribute to the world of tourism. Unfortunately, our English is not very good and our teacher should fix our pronunciation over and over. I think I couldn't do this because it is too heavy for me. Besides, I am a person who could easily loose my temper. Anyway, I will try to be a good teacher for my students. That's all we have for this week.

Eight Week Reflection

Finally, this is the last week of the first teaching period. From my observation, I saw that the last teachers are very energic and they give their best to teach well. Looking at this makes me feel so embarrased. I didn't mean to be proud of myself but those are not better than me, but they could do their best. I think I should earn more than them. I promise to myself I will earn more than them. Then, even though today is the end of the first period, it doesn't mean that there will be any breaks. Mr. Prast already prepared the lottery and guess what??? I got number 14, which means that I will perform on the second week. And I got better material: speaking. Hopefully this material will help me to conduct my teaching better. I will do my best to prepare this. And I also have a surprise in my mind. We'll see what happens next.

Seventh Week Reflection

My turn has passed. Let's forget that moment for a while. Today, I'm going to be the observer. This is my first time to be the observer. I think I just sit in the observation room and see what's going on the class. However, it turns to be not that simple. Instead of watching what's going on the class, I should also have to review my friends' lesson plan. It is very important, because it will help our friends to produce the better lesson plan. One thing that I don't like from today's performance is that one of the teacher used too many Bahasa Indonesia in the class. If the students are SMP ones or SMK ones, that's fine because their ability is not very good. However, what he faced before him is the SMA students, who has the standard ability in using English. This is very ridiculous. But at least, I could learn from him.

SIxth Week Reflection

Today is my turn to teach. Today I will be last teacher. I have seen some of my friend' performances. Their performances are good and it seems like I'm the only one who is unprepared. Well, that's the fact. I felt that I'm the only worst teacher, the worst of all. I give too many stimulus and prizes and I did not realize that what I have done turn the situation of the class to be much worse than before. It is far under my expectation. I know that teaching in the last period will be the hardest time of all, but I take it too easy. And this is what I got: a boring a class with a boring teacher that is me. Everything seems to be useless, and I could do nothing to help this. God, please take away this cup from me.... One of the observer said that I look like a Santa more than a teacher. And I agree with him. I will fix this and I will show my best. Until that time is come, I will prepare myself.

Fifth Week Reflection

This is the second week of our teaching. Remembering last week, there are some funny things happened. For example, many of our teachers do what we called as mispronunciation. We are usually mock our friends who suffer this "disease", but now it happens to us. It's very funny, though I know that it is a very big mistake laughing to our friends. Next week will be my turn. Hopefully, I could give the best for my students.

Forth Week Translation

In this forth week, we are preparing ourselves to be a teacher but not a real one. What we have in this class is only somekind of simulation. However, this simulation is very good because this simulation help us to prepare ourself to teach the students. Moreover, this simulation helps us to imagine what we are going to do with the class later on. I believe that my friends who are teaching today is very nervous. I know it, and I'm sure I will feel the same when my time has come. Fortunately, I could learn from them so that I could prepare myself better.

The Summary of "CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND GENERAL TIPS"

Classroom Management and General Tips

1. Arrange the seatings to help

The seating rearrangement could be helpful for teachers, especially in language classroom. No matter how you rearrange the seating, you have to bear this point in mind: the seating should suggest that the students are encouraged to talk to each other and at the same time the seating should allow for the removal of teacher from a central, dominant role.

2. Stand up when you’re directing activity

This one means we must know when we have to sit as well as when we have to stand up. We could sit when the students are doing something that does not involve us and when we have a conversation or a discussion with the class. For most activities in the classroom it is important that the students could see you, and this will be easier to be done when you are standing. Standing also means that you can see all the students cleary and can use your eyes and hands effectively.

3. Look at the students

Eye contact plays an important role in our teaching. With our eye contact we could know what happens with our students, especially when they are confused, long before they tell us that. We could also help the students to concentrate by looking all over the class. The point is with looking to your students, we have built and we have reinforced the contact with our students.

4. Use your hands to encourage and direct students

There are three main ways of showing student what you want – your voice, your eyes, and your hands. There are two reasons why you have to use your hands – to avoid unnecessary language which can distract students and to increase who is going to answer the question or which pair of students should read the dialogue. This gesture could indicate that something is wrong (by holding up one hand and shaking it from side to side) or to repeat something (by doing a circular “rolling” motion with one hand). You could also indicate what is required from individual students or even from the whole class.

5. Use the back of your hand to point

This gesture is less intimidating and conveys an invitation rather than a direction. If you point in conventional ways, it would be aggressive and inhibit the students.

6. Use pauses to punctuate what you say

If we read without punctuation, it will be very hard for our students to understand what we say, whereas the written text (the one that we read) have punctuation marks. One of the main ways to provide this “spoken punctuation” is to make very short pauses before each change in the use of language from, for example, instruction to example. These pauses are an important feature of the way the teacher uses language in the classroom.

7. Vary your voice

Vary your voice means you have to mark the changes in why you are speaking. Pauses, stress, and changes of pitch when you change from, for example, comment to instruction, is important because by doing that the students will be easier in following what we say.

8. Keep your language to a minimum when students are doing something

Unnecessary language could distract your students’ concentration, so you need to keep you language at a minimum level. There are several important implication for this point:

a. Do not interrupt students unnecesarrily while they are preparing something.

b. Do not dominate discussion yourself.

c. Do not tell students what they want to say.

d. Do not use more language than is necessary to direct and control classroom activity.

We can use our eyes as well as our hands to reduce the amounts of unnecessary language. Sometimes we need verbal lamguage and there is a simple secret about this verbal language – the verbal instruction are given using the imperative. This automatically avoid unnecessary language. The combination of gesture and the imperative ensures both clarity and a brisk lively pace.

9. Don’t commentate

It is essential to involve students in the learning process and discussion of classroom activities. Unfortunately, students never know whether what you are saying is important or not. Any commentary you give should be of help the students and not used either to reassure yourself or simply to fill up silence.

10. Don’t be afraid of silence

Silence is also important in a language classroom. With silence, we allow our students to think, collect their thoughts, take notes etc. Silence is particularly desirable:

a. When students are doing something individually.

b. An individual is hesitating when during an exercise or looking for a word.

c. In discussion the student sometimes needs time to formulate a thought and, most important of all, if the teacher is constantly injecting ideas, students will soon sit back and expect the teacher to do the work.

d. If something hectic has been happening: there is to be change of activity, or students need, for example, to get a new book.

11. Don’t be afraid of noises

A quiet class is not always a good class, especially for language one. In language class, the aim is to increase the students talk time. It means that anyone who is making a serious effort to teach oral English must be regularly usring choral work, pair work, and group work. So if 30 students speak altogether in the same time, there will be a lot of noise. That is fine, because there is more constructive activity going on. Additionally, thenoise does not mean disorder or that time is being wasted.

12. Using pairwork to increase student talking time – even if it seems chaos

Like I have stated above, the aim of language classroom is to increase the students talk time. Well-organised pair work is one of the most important ways to achieve this. In order to be well-organised, the teacher should give clear and explicit instruction. The teachers should also move around the class monitoring and also guiding and correcting what individual pairs are doing.

In order to make your pair work more effectively, you could do several things below:

a. Divide the group into pairs yourself and make sure that all students know who are they working with and which role they are to take.

b. Make sure everyone is clear about what they are meant to be doing.

c. Go round, listen, and check that they are doing it.

d. Stop the activity when it is clear that everyone is finished. Pair work is not an excuse for the teacher to sit back.

e. Follow up the pair work with a demonstration or summary from one or more pairs. If it is not well done, correct and provide help and then ask students to do the same practice again.

f. Make a habit of it.

13. Use group work to increase student talking time

Group work would increase the student talking time. The more the students talk, the less the teacher talks and therefore they will help each other and the atmosphere is more relaxed and conducive to good language learning. To make the group work well organized, the teacher should make the task clear as well as who is working with whom and for how long. Appoint a secretary – the one who takes note or writes answer to report back to the group – could be a good idea. But remember, it should be followed by a general class activity when the results are reported and the teacher gives comment to it.

14. Be explicit

This deals with the classroom instructions and explanation. The instructions should be simple, precise, and explicit; regarding to the fact that this is the teacher duty to structure the classroom activities. In doing these, the teachers should give explanation in order to make clear the instructions. The more explicit the instruction, the easier it is for students to concentrate on the content rather than the organization of the activities.

15. Don’t ask, “Do you understand?”

This question is a sign of laziness in the part of the teacher or something teachers say while thinking of what they really want to say. Students are very rare in admitting this for some reasons, like to avoid being appeared in a slow pace. We could avoid this by doing the regular eye contact, since their eyes could not tell a lie to us. If anybody has not understood yet, it will be immediately apparent. It is then the teacher’s job to anticipate difficulties and misunderstandings, and to make it as easy as possible for the students to show their difficulties without embarrassment.

16. Don’t go ‘round the class’ if individuals can prepare particular examples

Sometimes in doing the class practice, such from those of the grammar textbook practice, we tend to follow the class pattern. In such pattern, the students could prepare their examples in advance, but they tend to not listen to others’ examples. To avoid this, we could pick individuals randomly in order to make them listen to their friends’ examples. In addition, this guiding principle could be of help:

If the student is more likely to be able to ‘switch off’ if you follow a pattern, then you choose individuals to answer. If the emphasis is on speed and students will remain involved because of the pace, it is often more efficient to do those things in an “obvious” way.

17. Admit your ignorance

English is a huge subject. No matter how hard and how long you have studied it; still there are any possibilities for unsolved questions or problems. Sometimes, those questions or problems bother us so much that we could not fall asleep. Well, the solution for this is straightforward – admit that you do not know, consult a colleague or look the answer up, and make sure that if you say you will tell the students in the next lesson, you do actually say something about the problem – even if you can’t find the answer.

The worst thing to do is to give an ad hoc explanation that later turn out to be untrue. The best thing to do, in this as so many in other things, is to take the students into your confidence – do your best to help them, but if there are occasions when you cannot, make that, and the reasons for it, clear to them.

18. Consult colleagues

One of the quickest and easiest ways of finding the answer to a question you cannot answer is to ask someone else, especially those who have a lot of experiences more than us. We could also refer to self-help groups instead of our friends or colleagues. Because of the varied background of their participants, a combination of the insights of the several group members can often produce a solution which no individual member would produce alone. There is a saying: A trouble shared, is a trouble halved; it is as true for the language teachers as for nobody else.

19. Consult students

Consult students are done in order to know whether we have conducted the teaching in the proper manner or not. By consulting the students, we could also learn whether they have understood the materials or not. We could consult them by asking some questions, for example:

Did you particularly enjoy today’s lesson? Why / Why not? What activities in your English lessons do you particularly like/dislike? What activities do you think when we spend too much/too little time on in English classes?

But remember, there is a danger in consulting the students too frequently, so that they feel the process of language learning is more important the learning itself. Providing, however, that you take the students’ comments seriously and do not do it too frequently, consulting students can have a very beneficial effect on the general atmosphere of your class, and sometime reveal concrete ways in which your classes can be made more enjoyable or more effective for that particular group of students.

20. Demonstrate, rather than explain, new activities

In conducting the new activities, it is right to give explanation so that the students could understand what do you want. But sometimes the explanation itself could cause the confusion among students. That’s why you have to demonstrate the new activities so that the students will understand what do you want and the teaching will run effectively.

21. Exploit real events

Most of the teachers set up situations where the language is being used so they forget the real events; whereas the language should be used in the real events. This is the essential things that the teacher mostly forget. Use the natural language (natural language is the one that always being used in the real events) in your classroom while teaching, for example when you sneeze say “Excuse me”, when you are late say “Sorry, I’m late . . .”, and so on. Some of the most lively and natural language use can be stimulated by asking students about what they already know, and are interested in.

22. Divide the blackboard

The aim of dividing the blackboard is to help the students read the materials being presented. The ideal division, especially for the larger boards, should divide the blackboard into three parts – two smaller side panels and a larger central area. Below is the explanation of the divisions:

a. One side panel is used for listing new words and phrases; not cleaned during the lesson.

b. The other panel is used for doodles, drawings, unexpected odds, and ends etc; may be cleaned constantly.

c. A larger central section is used to present the main material of the lesson – grammatical examples, examples for exercises, etc; this may also be cleaned as required.

23. Use the overhead projector to control what students see

The advantages of using the overhead projector is:

a. It is easier to write on transparency than on the blackboard; the transparencies can be prepared in advance.

b. Important transparencies can be re-used, with different classes, or from day-to-day with the same class; the teacher can build up a file of transparencies giving frequently needed exercises and clear, well-prepared examples for the most common grammar points.

But remember, it is extremely annoying to be asked to look at a projected transparency where the text is too small for you to read. So, check what size of handwriting you need to use to make sure it is visible to every student in the room.

24. Machinery will not solve all of your problems

Nowadays there are so many teaching aids that could help us improving our teaching. But we should remember that those aids are designed to help us, not to solve our problems. You have to solve the problems by yourself, since teaching is a personal activity and anything that obscures that needs to be treated with the greatest caution.

25. Expand, don’t clutter

Finally, the last point of all. In teaching, we must not to be too rigid. We are teaching, not reading the materials from the book to the students. We should give a space for improvisation; we should expand the materials we teach. Remember, students learn best when they are relaxed: similarly teacher teach best when they are prepared and alert but equally are also relaxed.

My Third Week Reflection

Today, I learned that teaching is not as easy as I thought. It is not only a matter of lecturing the subjects to students, but also how to set the proper induction and closure. It also deals with how to deliver the materials in the best way by using the available means or media such as blackboard, whiteboard etc. From the observation sheet, I learned that I already have the related capabilities of a teacher but I didn't maximize it. Or in the other words, if I may say, I couldn't maximize and improve it. My observers said that I have all of the aspects but all of them are not developed or whatsoever stated in the sheet. Well, their statement alarmed me to improve my teaching capabilities (Am I already a teacher?? I didn't know why I say this.)so that I would be a better teacher. But I also found something new. My friends in the same group used a rather different approaches in teaching. May be, from the other group's point of view, we tend to be joking all times, but we definitely learned the materials. May be it soudns crazy, but this is a new way of teaching. May be we could apply it in our PPL 2. Finally, I just want to say this. God bless you all may brothers and sisters!!!!

My Second Week Reflection

First of all, I would like to say I'm sorry for being not attended this week's class. Me and one of my classmates were being dummy variables (kelinci percobaan) for a research conducted by the Nutrition Study Program or whatsoever from Gadjah Mada University. That's why we skip the class, even though we had had the permission from Mr. Prast himself. Actually, I have nothing to write this week. But, in my being absence, I learned something new. I learned that conducted a research needed a great deal of money. In the research, we were given money to buy the food according to the given money. Then, the researcher observe our progress in 24 hours a day via sms. The next day, they measured our calorie and gave us some kind of energetic drinks. After that, before having the measuring our stamina on the field, our calorie were measured again for the second time. All of this was done in order to measure the effect of giving supplement toward the performance on the field. Based on this experience, I learned that research means expensive. We have to spent a great deal of money in order to learn about something which is new for us. However, for the sake of knowledge, there is nothing expensive to learn about something new. This semester I take RPW and RELT class. Hopefully, I could design a good, or even great, research so that it will be useful for the sake of us and the sake of knowledge. God bless you all, my brothers and sisters!!!!

My 2nd Week Reflection

My Reflection

Hi friends, this is what I feel when we have our 1st microteaching class. Well, first of all, I feel like I am a little bit older, remembering that now we are in the 6th semester. I still remember the first time I have ny course, it feels like yesterday. Anyway, I still didn't believe that now is our turn to be a teacher, just like what our senior have done. Since this is our turn, so we have to prepare it well. I hope from this microteaching class I could learn how to be a good teacher like what we have mentioned in the class. Even though I don't want to be a teacher, but like it or not, I have to be a teacher. This is the consequence from my choice to study in this study program.
Anyway, I learned that to be a teacher is not as easy as I imagine. Back in my junior and senior high school, I thought that to be a teacher is easy. We just need to come to the class, explain the lessons, and then give some exercises. After that, the lesson is over and the students are allowed to take a break. But now, after heard the lectures from Mr. Prast, we need more than what was in my mind. We need gestures, we need to master the materials, and many other things.
Then, I also remember that being a teacher means being a friend, but in particular occasions. It means that we have to show our dignity while we are teaching, but in the same time we have to pretend our students as well as we pretend ourself. I remember all of our teachers in my senior high schools are our friends, but we know when we have to be friends and when we have to be teachers and students.
Since yesterday is our first meeting, so I haven't found work and did not work yet. But there is one question remain in my heart: could we be a good teacher one day? I guess we'll find it out later. Have a nice and God bless all of us, Zico.