Learning English is Fun
I arrived early at SMA Negeri1 Baturraden today and was asked by Ibu Cici (our school coordinator) to sit-in on her English class while waiting for my schedule to teach. The class was so quite as students were reading novels and other reading materials. Students normally starts their day by reading some books it can either be in English or in Bahasa (but based of them reads materials in Bahasa) and then they will write the synopsis of what they understood from the text. The teacher will then collect the booklet where they wrote the synopsis and sign it. Before the teacher started her lesson proper, she ask someone to lead the class in sing a traditional Indonesian song. Today’s topic is about parts of speech and verb tenses. Ibu Cici provided formula so students can identify the correct verb tense easily. She introduced and ran lesson with ease and I can see that students are having fun listening to her.
The Smiling Ibu Adel
Done with English class and I am excited to go to my next class because at last I will be able to see how the teacher in sociology will run her class. I was waiting outside the class when Ibu Adel who is the sociology teacher assigned to me arrived. She looks fashionable on her outfit and she elegantly carry her self. She possesses a very bright personality that radiate across the room. She always smile and every time she does it, her eyes will do the same and when you look at her, you feel like you would like to do the same too. Her smile is indeed very contagious. As runs her class, I can tell that she breaks some jokes to the class even if I don’t understand most of the words she is saying because it is in Bahasa Indonesia, I believe that her class loves here because all of the attention are on her. She then stop and talked to Ibu Cici who was with me at that time and ask her to tell me that I need to introduce myself to the class and continue discussing the lesson. I was honestly stunned for awhile as I was thinking that I will just observe for the day. I know what the topic is but I am not yet finished with my PowerPoint presentation that I plan to use during the discussion. My inner body was shivering like a bucket of ice was poured at me. I took and deep breath, stand and walk near the white board.
Sociology in Bahasa
Ibu Adel, discussed the lesson in Bahasa and the materials that they are using are in Bahasa including the lesson plan. It is really different in our country because the materials and instruction on English. Prior going in front, Ibu Cici reminded me to speak slowly so that students can catch-up with my pace. This time I’ve got my white board marker as a sword as my weapon in the battlefield full of thirsty warriors to join and learn how to fight. I started scribbling the word “GLOBALIZATION” and did some Socratic questioning as a test whether the students can understand what I saying, can catch-up with my pace and if the students have an idea on the topic that I am about to discuss. I am grateful that students can understand me but they cannot express their thoughts well in English. With this set-up, I asked myself whether I will survive or not but nevertheless I accept the challenge and I will never back down.