procedures of teaching
After a week of just observing the class and how the teachers teach their students, my cooperating teachers asked me to teach the next week and I prepared my instructional materials, lesson plan and myself over the weekend. Then, the teachers told us that we will have a rotation, that we would teach in different classes and levels because they want the children to experience us teaching them in English.
I planned my routine each day. Before I start the lesson, we will sing first the good morning songs that would engage my students' interests. After that, we will sing with me the days of the week and the weather song. Then we proceeded to complete today’s calendar that I prepared. The students were the ones who put the flashcards to their respective places to complete the calendar. When I teach my lesson, we have a short time to review some Bahasa Indonesian words and translate them in English for them to understand the words I'm talking about. After that, we sing the alphabet and we count numbers from 1 to 10. Then, I now proceed to my lesson proper.
During my 2nd week of stay in Indonesia, I was given the topic of land transportation where I used different examples of vehicles and I made a puzzle that the students will solve and complete. Then I call the students to present the transportation that they completed and told the class what is it. Then I asked them what is it called in Indonesia then I told them the counterpart of it in English and explained the parts and uses of it in English then their Ibu Guru explained it in Indonesian. Then after that, I reviewed them by asking about the land transportation vehicles that we talked about and then they were able to answer it. I gave them worksheet about the lesson. On my 3rd week, the topic was about the air and water transportation, and I did the same routine with the land transportation.
time management & organizing activities
Every week, I have a new topic to teach and I'm supposed to teach it in five different classes. The teachers assigned in each class where I taught always helped me in explaining the lesson to the students in their own language, since the students don’t speak English fluently. I always prepare my materials and activities before the class start. I am only given 1 hour to teach my lesson, and I divide that one hour among 4 parts: motivation, lesson proper, development of the lesson and the evaluation.
classroom management
I had a hard time mostly because of the language barrier. Whenever I give instructions in English the students and the teacher have a hard time understanding me. I need to do some gestures with it so they will understand me. Before the lesson time starts, I emphasize the three rules that we have in my time which is listen, be quiet and hands on the table. One of the things I like here in Bengkulu is that they have the chant “Ana sole” which means are you ready to listen then they will respond “Siap” that means okay.
Problem solving
Staying here in Bengkulu for one month together with these little kids is one of the best moments in my entire life. I encountered different challenges due to the language barrier, but it didn’t stop me from teaching them and learning as well about their culture. Every day, I am thinking of what to do to engage in the lesson. They cannot understand me that much because of the different languages that we speak. I did ask my buddies to translate some basic words so that I can converse to my students. It was a big help because I was able to understand some of their questions. Also, the Google translator helped me in talking to my students and to our teachers since English is a foreign language for them.
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In terms of the materials, making our own instructional materials was also one of the problems I encountered because not all the materials were available. I thought of ways to compromise and improvise with the materials that they have in their school supplies store. Like for example they don’t have the colored papers we have in the Philippines, they only have here origami papers. Also, the plastic cover was different from what I am using. But after all the challenges I faces, I still made it. I made a today’s calendar for our routine and the instructional materials that I used during my lessons.
OVERALL
This chance of teaching in Indonesia was the best teaching experience I had during my practicum. I was exposed to a different culture that made me experience diversity at another level. I was able to adjust on it and be aware and eager to know the do's and dont's. I was able to teach different sets of kids and experience new things every day. I was able to see teaching in another angle that even though you have obstacles in front of you, it will not stop the teaching and learning process. Overall, I think that my experience here in TK Kemala Bhayangkari really made me not only a better teacher but a better person as well. It made me realized that nothing can stop us from learning. Being flexible, open-minded and kind to everyone are the things I gained in this training. All the things I learned from this practicum will serve as my guide in teaching my future students. I also got to realize that even if there are different countries, cultures, religions, as preschool teacher we have our main goal which is to help develop each child into their best potential. And to instill with them the value and importance of education not only in their lives, but in their society as well.
