Final Reflection

It was more or less six months.
It was tiring, fun, hard, and it was so meaningful for my life, especially for my future.
Because, as a teacher I had to learn more and more in order to I could be a good teacher and would give the best for my students.

This semester was not an easy semester. I took microteaching and play performance.
However, play had taken much time and it was a little hard to manage the time.
The weekly reflection was stop and it was like a hard thing to keep on writing the weekly reflection. (Sorry Sir T_T)
But, I always tried hard to make everything balance.

The first time I came to the micro teaching class E was strange and I thought I could not make it.
I felt shy and I always thought that teaching was like a nightmare because I had to speak and teach other people.

I thought it was the hardest thing to do.
Yes. I thought teaching was difficult.
Teaching was needed high responsible because we had to transfer our knowledge to our students and it was not an easy thing to do.
We needed patience, passion, and we also had to work hard, very hard.

The first teaching practice was in pair, it seemed easy, and fun because I taught my close friend and it just liked when I had conversation with her.
However, it was also difficult because I had to spend more energy to speak louder and louder. Sometimes my student did not hear my voice clearly, because there were ten teachers who were teaching.
It was so crowded and I had to do something to make my students paid attention for me.

After taught in pair, I had to teach while my friend was teaching too.
It was also a difficult thing to do.
In addition, my friend’s voice was louder than me and my students were looked very lazy and sleepy.
I felt so desperate.
I did not know what to do and I really want to cry.
All of them were talking by themselves and some of them were looking at the other teacher.
It was really hard to get the student’s attention.
And they were students who sit in the front row who paid attention to me.
It broke my heart.

But, it was not the real world because I will experience it in PPL II.
I hope I can be better than PPL I.

Progress Test I was the first chance for me to make up my mistakes in my previous teaching practices.
I prepared everything well for the lesson plan and the handout.
But…
It was not easy and I did some mistakes by asked my students to read a passage one sentence for one students.
It was wasting time and I thought it was meaningless.
“What for?” I asked that question for myself.
My voice was not loud enough and my students were so sleepy and lazy.
And I failed to make them “wake up”.

Second progress test was fun.
I taught pronunciation II.
I came to Pak Gunawan’s class twice to have a class observation.
The students were very nice and they really helped us who taught them.
However, Pak Gun was very kind and patience.
Pak Gun was helping me and my friends, and he was lead us to prepare the materials before we taught the students.
Pak Gun was also gave some advices to me after teaching.
And I was very lucky because of that.

On the Final Test, I tried my best to do the best thing I could do.
This time, I prepared picture media to “lead” my students to the materials, which I would give to them.
They were very like my picture and fortunately, I could get their attention and they looked in spirit.
But, on the last task, I was too long and I just had few times to do set closure, which did not proper.
On the other hand, I made mistakes on the handout and I was giving my students lack of reading strategy to read the text effectively.

If I can say what score, which should I get, I will say “B” or more or less 80-81.
Because I think, I had prepared my lesson plans and my materials quite good and well prepared.
Meanwhile, I also use picture media for my second progress test and final test, which can help me to teach and attract the students’ attention.
Nevertheless, I always do some progress such as in the volume, or using picture for the media.

I hope we have the same opinion Sir and thank you for helping me for more or less six months.
Thank you for being patience and for leading and guiding us, in order we can be a good teacher in the future.
GBU.

Final Test…

Being the last teacher was not an easy job because most of the students were tired to follow the lesson and so do the teacher.
We have to be more enthusiastic and keep on spirit in order we can transfer it to the students.

From my last experience that my students were look sleepy and lazy so that I had to do something to get their attention and attract them.
I decided to use picture in my final test.
Fortunately, my students were attracted to the lesson and they seemed to be enthusiastic.

But, for the last exercise, I thought I was too long on it.
I made the wrong prediction for the time, which might spend on the last exercise.
On the result, I had not proper set closure and five minute left, I still discussed the task.
However, I should ask their difficulties and explained deeper on the materials given.
I also had to give a reading strategy to my students in order to they could read effectively.

The thing that was developed was my voice.
I asked some my friends and they said that my voice was clear and loud enough.

I was trying hard to make it good and perfect.
And the students (my friends) were really helping me.

Second Progress Test…

Teaching 2009 students was a new experience for me.
It was fun and I could get many benefits by teaching them.
They were really helping me and they were all nice students.
Pak Gun was also helping me to teach them.
He helped me to prepare the materials and review the materials also.
He was so patience and he also gave me some advices in the end of my teaching practice.

Actually, I did not sure, that I could teach them.
On the night before the D-day, I had a play performance practice until 10 p.m. and I have to teach at 7 O’clock in the morning.
Honestly, I could not sleep well in the night.
I really needed to teach soon because I wanted it over so that I could feel better.

In the morning I felt nervous, but after standing in front of the class I did not feel nervous but I enjoyed teaching them.
It was fun and they were really nice and very helping me.

By reading their comment, they said that they liked to be with me and some day they wanted me to teach them in pronunciation class.

However, one thing that was very important was that I had to make my voice clear and louder when I taught.
It was a very important thing.
How the students will get the knowledge well if the students in the last row cannot hear their teacher’s voice clearly.

On the other hand, I forget to ask them to pronounce it together.
I just asked them pronounce it one by one after I gave them example.

However, it was a meaningful experience and I was glad to be there.

Progress Test Week 4

This week was Popon’s, Bajeng’s, Icha’s, Lala’s, Aci’s, and Dwi’s turned

Popon’s set induction was good to open the lesson by asking Seto’s appearance.
However, her time management was not really good and she still had many times before she closed the lesson.
On the other hand, she didn’t review the previous material.

Bajeng’s way when her students asked her about the meaning of some words quite success. She didn’t tell her students directly but she asked her students to find them by themselves and her alibi that it was not vocabulary class but reading class.
Creative.

Ica was also good. Her set induction was also good. I like her way to ask the students to answer Ardi’s and Seto’s questions based on the clue which they gave.
That’s nice and can attract the students and she could get the students’ attention easier.

Lala’s listering material was cute, but it was too easy when it given to the first grade of Senior High School students. It was interesting but her way to teach was look like when she taught in the kindergarten (sorry Lala).

Achi looked nervous but generally, she did her job well.
However, she could make her nervousness invisible.
She gave many expressions, which could help her students and broaden their knowledge of all of the expression she gave.
When she decided us in the group, she should not decide what kind of expression but the students must use all the expression in order to they could mastery all of the materials given.

Dwi’s set induction was great.
He was communicative but maybe he should give exact limited time to his students to read the reading passage so that the students would get the effect effectively.
Great job Dwi. You’ll be a good teacher
Don’t give up.

Progress Test Week 3

Today is Phe’s, Susan’s, and Mei’s turned.

I want to comment Phe first.
Her way to teach was good and she used the different media from others. Her voice is clear enough, enthusiastic, and generally, her performance was good.
However, what makes me questioning for many times was that she gave me so many texts and it just like a reading class.
We had to read a text for the first time, but then she discussed all of the text (the generic structure of the text). I waited for a few times, wondering that she would give us a writing task. Then it had just given in the last lesson.
The other thing, which made me confuse, was that she also gave their students so many copies of handout and material. She’s so rich, I guess. Because she could spend her money to copy all of the material, she brought.

Susan was so lucky because Dwi had the software she needed to compress or change her audios form.
Her performance was good and she could be still calm down whether she had a problem with her materials. In other words, she could solve her problem well.

Mei looked nervous but her way to teach was good and light.
She didn’t give us difficult explanation but simple and clear.

On Tuesday, it was Seto’s, Ayu’s, and Ardi’s turned.

It was different from the previous teachers because I could find the students laughing and chatting, so much jokes there.
I was an observer when they were perform in front of the class.

Seto was lack of movement, and his gesture…
Oh my God, can somebody help Seto to change his way to stand? ;)
He directly told his students of the materials.
He could give some clue, etc, not directly told what he asking to.

Ayu, should not only focus on Ardi, because she has the other students. And Ardi…
He laughed too much.
In my opinion, Ardi should show his authority in the class and control the class because after he made a joke, the class went to crazy.

Progress Test Week 2

Last week, the weather was worst, the wind was blowing so hard, thunder and lightning was always coma and go. Two of our friends who have to teach the week before have to teach on the week after.

This week was Galih’s, Eyik’s, and Luci’s turned.

Honestly, Galih’s listening materials was good and challenging but maybe it would be better if she give this listening material to the third grade of Senior High School students. In my opinion, the level of difficulty was not matching with the students of the first grade. Her listening passage was also very long. Maybe it would be better if her listening passage was only three or three and a half minutes because she also have to pay attention of the time management.
She also miss pronouncing some words and speechless in some moment.

On the other hand, Eyik do her job well but in my opinion, she gave the material too much. Maybe it would be better if she asked her students to analyze the first hand out and relate it to the materials. She did not give her students time to read it and it was hard to follow her at the first time.
It went too fast I think.

On the second material she did it better.
She gave the students some time to read the reading passage. In addition, one thing that I like from the way she taught is she did not give the meaning of the difficult words directly but she asked her students to guess the meaning.

Guessing the meaning from the context of the sentence was also one of a good ways. The teacher can list some difficult words and also prepare some words, then the students have to match the meaning from the reading passage.
This way is good to build the student’s way of thinking

I like Luci’s way to teach.
She gave a small quiz on the speaking class. She asked her students to have a conversation with his or her partner—asking and answering the questions—and they have to write the answer on the answer sheet.

These are nice and I will adopt some of their way to teach in my teaching practice 2 weeks later.

The first Progress Test has come!

This week, class teaching for the first progress test was started and it was Wendy’s, Nidya’s and Nia’s turned. Actually, it should be six students that were teaching in front of the class but Ebo was not come, and the weather was getting worse. Actually, it did not matter because class could be as usual.

From Wendy’s and Nidya’s performance I could “catch” some important things.
Wendy’ had performed very well and his listening material was very interesting and it was not really difficult if it is given to the first grade of Senior High School students.

It will be good if we later becoming a teacher, we should give interesting materials—of course that is related to the material—in order to our students will not fell bored.

However, I also found some important things on the way he taught. He always tells directly to the students about the material. For example, he directly tells the students the meaning of recount text and the generic structure.
On the other hand, his set induction was very good.

I like his way to ask the students of their past experienced that was interesting in their life and relate it to the materials.
He is so confident. The way he taught was a little bit plain. However, it was better than his previous class teaching practice.

For Nidya, she also performed well.
Her set induction and set closure was nice. She gave the summary of the material in the end of the class. I think it is better that we give directly of the materials to our students.

Her way to ask the students to be cooperative was also nice. She could make the students followed her instructions.
She was mastering the materials, she could answer the students’ questions, and her explanation was very clear.

Maybe I can “cheat” Nidya’s way to teach by not giving directly of the materials, analyze the reading passage, and relate it to the materials, etc.

In the mean time, Nia’s performance was not really good. She looked very nervous and many of her students were have bad behaviour, so she felt difficult to handle them.

I have to pay attention too to this problem.
The one who should control the class is the teacher not the students. If students who are controlling the class, it means that, we are not a success teacher.

It’s getting interesting….

Week by week microteaching is getting harder and harder and it’s also getting interesting for me. However, I have to keep on “struggling and fighting” in this subject. My friends who did their class teaching practice was good and I believe that they will be better in their class teaching.

Actually, I had prepared my material for the class teaching practice. It’s about news items in a form of listening. I planned to teach the first grade of senior high school and I had prepared all that I wanted.

I had asked Dwi whether he would be the first volunteer for the first teacher or not because I want to be the second teacher. However, before the class my friend told me that if I would teach listening I have to bring my own laptop and speaker(s). In fact, I did not bring all of the media that was needed because the computer in the laboratory was still broken because of the thunder. I just hoped that I could use the computer in the microteaching laboratory.

I had designed a different way to teach me students by added a song which is quite related to the material to make them feel comfortable in my class.
Actually, it was only one teacher on that day and I felt doubt to say “Yes, Sir. I want to be the volunteer for the class teaching practice”.
But I was afraid. I was afraid that I would not have the change.
Yes it was true. I had not changed to be the teacher.

Phe was the only volunteer at that time. She taught very well. She taught reading but she looked like teaching pronunciation because when she asked the students to read the reading passage aloud, she always stopped to correct the students’ pronunciation.

Mr. Prast said that it would be better if she let her students read all of the passage until they finished it. Then, she could give corrections for her students’ pronunciation. On the other hand, she could also write the words that were pronounced incorrect in the whiteboard. After that, she could ask the students to pronounce the words together.

I hope these comment could be useful for my class teaching.

Then, go to the next step…

7th and 8th meeting were interesting meeting for me. I could get some inputs from my friends who were doing their class teaching.

Yes, the next step is class teaching after struggled in group teaching.
It makes my heart beating so fast and also challenges me.
Many questions come into my mind; can I do the class teaching better than the previous teacher can, or will I do the same mistakes as the previous teaching practice, etc.

I know it’s hard to use English every time in front of the class because I know that my students (friends) have a high sense of humour, especially in Javanese. Sometimes it’s not funny if we commented their jokes in English.
I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t right.

As a teacher we have to use all of the media as maximum as possible because how little it is, it can help them on the process of teaching and learning. On the other hand, it can also help our students to absorb our explanation by writing it on the black/whiteboard for example.

The other thing we have to give attention to all of the students, not only the smartest student or the laziest or maybe the naughtiest student in the class. Because if we just only focus on some students, the other students will feel that their teacher have denied them. It can make them feel bored. It’s not easy, right!
It needs some effort and blood.


To get the students’ attention is not easy too.
Maybe we need to make some activities, which can build their spirit to study.
But it also depend on the situation and the students itself.

The other thing that we must give attention on it is interaction between students and teacher. It’s time to switch the focus of class.
Teacher focus is old-fashioned.
Students focus is fresh and better. Students need to explore their self because who want to study at school are them (even thought teacher is still also need to learn a lot, but students must have much more portion than teacher must).

A Struggle to be the Best

My group teaching experience was not remaining good impression to my students. In my opinion, my teaching performance was not good, or maybe it close to worst—I thought—although my observers said that my performance was good. When the first time I stood in front of my students it was like a big responsible that I had to do to make them got and absorbed everything that I said. Some of them just chatted with her friends; some of them looked very very sleepy; some of them looked at me, as I was a boring teacher— yes, I am. However, I will not make it stay too long and take root too deep. I will change it, soon; I have to!

I was so confuse. I thought so hard how to solve this problem, how to make a good impression for the first time, so that the students will admire me or maybe they will devote their attention— only me as their focus. Nevertheless, it was hard actually. However, it was a boring class with a boring teacher and boring exercises. I gave too many exercises with less explanation of the materials and less focus on my topic, goals, and objection.

Besides, my voice was almost gone. Because the other teacher who also taught has a loud voice and his students are have loud voice too. In addition, my students just only sit in the silence. It made me depress. I could not control the class.

Moreover, the thing that made me disappointed was that my students always saw the other group. I did not fell nervous. I was just too afraid. I was afraid if I could not make my students felt comfortable.

Then after I saw my friends’ performance, I hope I can teach better.

The Next Steps to be a Good Teacher

This week, in micro teaching class, I learned many new things about teaching-learning skill, such as verbal and non-verbal reinforcement, technique to pause, mastering the material, etc. These kinds of new things are really help me to improve and increase my teaching skill. Besides, when I was be an observer I also learned from my friends who were practice teaching in front of the class.

Be an observer also gave me illustration how to teach in front of the class. However, their mistake could also be the things, which I had to avoid. Things that I can imitate from my friends such as speaking clearly and loud —pronunciation, diction, grammar are important too— and then, well preparation, focus, etc.

Actually, it is right that the most important thing is that preparation is the most important thing in teaching-learning process. It can make us unconfident and looks “silly” in front of our students if we are not prepare our material because the students can “smell” it.

In my opinion, if we want to be a good and professional teacher we have to prepare all of the things we need because our preparation can support our success in teaching-learning process.

We should not give up to be a good and professional teacher. We should keep on practice, practice, and practice.

Viva la Teaching!

Viva la Teaching!

The most important thing I had learned during the class that teaching was not an easy and simple thing. We need to practice, practice, and practice and prepare everything-anything which is needed in teaching-learning activities.

Actually, my first teaching practice was not perfect. There were so many things which I must repair and make up. I wasn’t only forget to tell the objective(s) of my lesson, but also I wasn’t deliver the material well.

My time management was also need to be repaired. It made me didn’t summarize the material that I gave to the student—even though I made the lesson plan.

But, however, I had done my set induction quite well by greeting my student, made a small talk, and reviewed the previous lesson by asked the student to answer my questions.

I have done the set induction quite well but I have to develop it and also I have to be careful with the time management in order to I will not teaching in a rush.

first reflection

Catharina Brameswari
071214124

First Reflection

At the first time, I thought that teaching was not my world, but now I have to think twice about it. In my opinion, after joining Micro Teaching class, teaching and speaking in front of people won’t be a “hell” for me, but it becomes my motivation to build and develop my speaking and teaching skill. However, it also challenges me to be a “real” teacher (maybe in the future) for my students.

Besides, to be a good teacher is not easy. Here are so many criteria, obstacles, tears, blood and we need energy to be a good teacher.

Few months age I started my “carrier” as a private teacher for a sixth grade of elementary school student. It’s not easy to handle an elementary school student. I felt I couldn’t handle it, but it just need a little patience and I had learn\ from Micro Teaching class that becoming a teacher is not an easy thing. We need to practice, practice, and practice, to get an excellent result.

Micro Teaching class has burned my spirit to learn and practice in order to be a good teacher in the future.

I’m still wondering how to be a good teacher who is confidence, smart, care, etc. Nevertheless, I think that time will answer it because; maybe I will get so many experiences which are so worthy.

When the first time Mr. Prast explained about the lab facilities, I believe that all of the facilities will help me to make up and increase my skill in teaching.
However, my Micro Teaching class is after my play performance class, and maybe it will be the most tiring day in a week.
But I always keep thinking positively that it just a challenge.