Another day to bond with SEA – Exchange Students, the three of us we’re invited by Ma’am Tsuroyya to attend the post-celebration of Independence Day and at the same time a Welcome Party to the Freshmen of Communication class in the Main UNESA.
Poppy (from Thailand) participating in the Batik Wear Relay.
We we’re grouped with the fourth years of that course and it is really fun because despite of not being able to understand each other sometimes we find ways. The games we’re very creative, especially the tic-tac-toe where in it was made into a race. I also liked the cheering competition though I can’t cheer because I don’t know the words so I just danced. During the program we were able to meet new friends, it is really good because some knows how to speak our language “Filipino,” even if it’s just for a little.
At the end of the day, I got to learn new games and new ways how to cheer which I can surely apply it in a classroom for the students’ growth and development. Being in a primary education, students still thinks of playing, so a teacher must know a lot but at times we simply ran out of ideas, so it is good and I’m very thankful to be a part of the Communication Class Program.
Me (right) and Michelle (left) wearing the groups handmade props fro cheering.
“It’s nice seeing your students get into the depths of what you are teaching, despite of them being so loud and noisy, seeing them enjoy and learn something, it heals the soul,” Mr. Chris, an English teacher at Great Crystal School shared to me, when we are passing the time after dismissal.
I can somewhat relate to what he said with the experience I’ve got on the 15th with the Primary 2 class. Despite the rules and conditions given, when this students got so excited and can’t wait they’ll just go on talking and sharing all things they know. Though making the class quiet is important, at times it doesn’t have to be always to in that kind of situation.
Letting them be on their own and go against by the rules sometimes is also worth it, because in everything that people do we all learn something whether in a good or bad situation. Then as teachers we’ll just need to help and guide them understand the consequences of their actions.
Assessment day is nearing, time to prepare and be creative.
Equipped with learning and skills, I hope I will be able to fully use the things they’ve taught me at Benguet State University. I planned for appropriate learning materials, though my specific topic isn’t given yet, I just reorganized my thoughts and tried to select materials which may fit to teaching different skills and different lessons. After that I proceed into making them but not all because I haven’t got some of the materials yet.
Pocket Chart
Doing this instructional materials may be hard and expensive but at the very least it makes the class become active and helps them enhance their skills like in socializing and also their confidence to speak in front of a crowd. Not only that but it helps builds a good atmosphere in the classroom and a great relationship between classmates and the teacher.
Hopefully, I will be able to pull things through and better than how I taught on the 15th because in the end what matters most is the quality of education or learning imparted. So how I maneuver this materials and address to the students need at the coming present time is the greatest challenge I have yet to face.
I was so excited for this day to come, because I will get to wear batik clothes and also I have memorized Indonesia’s National Anthem but we SEA exchange students were late for an hour, since we were given a wrong information of the time it’s going to start. Nevertheless, now that I’ve memorized it I can sing with the students in Great Crystal School during their flag ceremony.
In addition, UNESA also conducted their welcoming ceremony for the freshmen, it was such a wonderful event, because basically in my school during welcoming ceremony the students are welcomed per batch or group with different time in a day while in UNESA the freshmen prepares for a week, according to Jami a UNESA student whom I got to know, and I really also saw it because every evening student would flock outside our dorm and create their props. It is such a nice idea because the students bonds immediately and get to know each other, as Jami had said it is an activity that sets and cleanses the mind of each students.
We SEA exchange students helped the International Office with their booth in welcoming the freshmen. We folded and gave out brochures to the students, we even have explained to some of them the purpose of the Office and their program. We met a lot of personalities and characters but overall it was so interesting and funny. It’s interesting because I’ve been able to create a crown of people I do not know and listen to what I say and it’s also funny because not all of the students can speak English and we just laugh out of it together.
With this activity the bond we SEA exchange students created grew stronger together with the people who have accepted us. We we’re able to tell stories together, know another acquaintances and friends. So at the end of the day, though I’m so tired just thinking back of the memories made, it is worth it, no chances missed.
Most of the schools, this day, has a post-celebration today as a part of the Indonesia Independence Day, I got to this conclusion because the school I’m assigned to had set an activity and also to the school my roommate goes to.
It’s such a good experience to be able to witness what other country do during a very important day. Breaking out from regular classroom sessions, the committee in Great Crystal School planned for lots of games for the students. The students were all so hyper and very joyful of being able to play outside with their friends from the other classes. It was very much fun watching them getting into the act.
In the evening, SEA exchange students in UNESA were invited by Ma’am Tsurroya to join an activity held at the main building. I learned that this is some kind of activity wherein they pray and give alms to the children at the orphanage. I was so amazed because they don’t do something like this in our country (it’s the extent of what I know). But before going in that activity, we three (SEA exchange students) acted funny and worried, because in the message given we are to wear our own clothes from our country. Weird thoughts of presenting our own culture raised through our mind so we practiced at the last minute because honestly we haven’t practiced what to present yet. Then we arrived at the place and saw the style of the ceremony, I thought we worried for nothing.
Ma’am Tsuroyya (head of the International Office), Gracielle (me), Saithan ( from Thailand), and Michelle (from Philippines), wearing our own traditional clothes on the eve before the Indonesian Independence Day
We we’re properly welcomed at the place and was graciously accepted to join the ceremony. Though I can’t understand the language, people gathered to pray and to commemorate together, it made me realized that I have never been ever thankful whenever we celebrate Independence in our country because usually I just let it pass by, do my everyday routines and just treat it like a normal day. When I saw how the elder tells his story to the crowd, though I can’t understand, wherein he says it with such pride with a big smile plastered on his face, I’m so disappointed in myself. Sure I know the greatness of our National Heroes, but for once I think I haven’t even have treated July 12 (Philippine Independence Day) special. It was such a shame for me that I have to learn its value to another country despite the things I’ve learnt at school.
So now, I promise that when July 12 comes again, I will never let it pass by so easily, not without a prayer.
The day was started with a prayer during religion class. I prayed that I’ll be able to deliver the message or the content of my lesson to the students of Primary 2 today that I hope they’ll be able to manifest it with their lives.
Guess what????
My lesson for Character Building is The Dependable Child, it talks about young children being able to do things on their own and/or lesser helping from their parents. Through pictures and a poem printed in a meter length paper I was able to make specific points came out from the students like “a dependable child makes her parents happy,” “a dependable child does her works without being told to.” The students also were able to enumerate things a dependent child can do, like eating by yourself, helping in cleaning the house and many others. After the discussion I let them answer the activity on their book because it is required that they need to finish all activities written in there and that it will also serve as their review material.
At the end of the lesson, Ma’am Merry a teacher assistant of the class adviser immediately told me that I did really good and even added that I’m much better than the others around over there. Somehow I felt relieved, so for verification, I personally asked the class adviser of points for improvement of my performance and just said that “you did very well.”
Time to check 🙂
With all the years I spent studying at my University, it is now paying off. The sleepless night we have for creating and preparing thousands of instructional materials, the sleepless nights of writing more than seven pages of lesson plans in cursive, and the sleepless nights of preparing for a demo teaching. I can now see and feel the effect on me. So I thank you my professors who willingly spent time with us and checked and criticized our works page by page, telling us to redo and a lot of things. You have prepared us for the world we are to meet and dwell within and I’m very grateful for that. Thank you very much.
Since the day I started, I always start my day drawing landscapes, after that help students copy announcement in their journals then for the rest of the day I help in managing the students who needs special assistance.
The student’s journals for announcement and reminders
I always work fast so that I can accommodate upcoming activities. Though there are two of us working as assistants we sometimes fall short of hand. This made me imagine a future situation of mine, wherein I will be handling a class composed of 30-40 diverse students all alone from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM of Monday until Friday.
I draw and he (one of the special students) colors.
I imagined what will be my state then and my conditions. So as long as I’m here I will see to it that I’ll be able to bring back and keep memories and learning that will help me in the future.
In each classroom, two teachers can be found, one adviser and one assistant teacher. Both of them helps each other to create a conducive learning environment. They share works and fill each other’s flaws or shortcomings during the teaching-learning process.
The adviser is the one in-charge of teaching the class, she provides activities and oversees the class. On the other hand, the assistant teacher is the one that looks after the class, while the classes is on-going she goes around and help learners in need of help especially the students who needs special intervention.
Both supports each other’s back also, for example are incidents like a parent complaining to the adviser about some things, the assistant teacher shares the advisers’ sorrow and helps make sure that the next time it won’t happen again. While for the assistant teacher, when she wasn’t able to manage one of the students’ behavior she asks for the adviser takes over will help settle the child.
Ms. Merry, Albert and me
Today, I felt another level of happiness because of the word thank you, though it is common that we hear and say it everyday, I realized that sometimes it can give a surge of feeling. Ms. Merry the assistant teacher said, “Thank you very much, you’ve given me such a new strategy that I can use, a very good idea” with two thumbs up. She even congratulated the student just like a real mother who is proud of child for achieving something and that sight made my heart flutter because it gave off a warm and happy light despite the condition of the room at the moment wherein it’s a little bit messy. Nothing can make me happier that day because I was able to impart something out of the observation I made last week.
This day is so nostalgic and is very overwhelming that I nearly cried.
Poppy, my roommate from Thailand, invited me to her school Surabaya Intercultural School for a Welcome Back to School Barbecue Party. There I was able to see a new side, it much more diverse than the school where I attended. Then at some time, the adviser of Poppys’ class came with a person and itroduced her to me, I was bewildered, I got my tongue-tied, I was baffled… I don’t exactly how I felt. Why? Hearing the language I grew up within a foreign country then hearing that they’re from the same country as I am and from the same province, I nearly brought myself into tears.
Being brave to be in a new society, sometimes takes a lot of guts. I remembered then that when Poppy invited me, I wasn’t set up to go, until the last minute, good thing I just followed what my body wants to do and went with her. It is the right decision made, because I felt more alive and comfortable.
During the whole week of my observation, a lot of things came new to me.
For example was their lesson plan, at my University one subject matter is equal to more than seven pages while at GCS (Great Crystal School) one lesson can fit in along bond paper. When I saw the lesson plan of GCS, it is in a matrix form in the Microsoft Word and for seven pages a lesson plan for all the lessons are already there.
Sample Lesson Plan Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4obNYIWveGBNzNoZGJKc19IUmc4dnllTmRQODZYLWhCR0Z3
Another one was the inclusive education the school have, almost all of the grades has 3 or more. So it was really a great learning experience for me to be here because in the Philippines the schools are just starting to go inclusive. Also during recess and lunch the teachers eat with their students at the dining hall, especially for Kindergarten, Primary 1 and Primary 2. Though it’s supposed to be a time where teachers can relax and break away for some minutes from classroom sessions, they are still checking on their students.
My students sharing stories over food.
For example making sure that every last bit of the food is scraped before going back to the class and to always remind the student to eat their food when students are too engrossed with their story telling. When dismissal comes also, the teachers checks each of the students water bottle, if it isn’t emptied they need to drink it all before going out of the room. This scene usually doesn’t happen in my country, during this break times teachers and students are on their own and I think it is really good because no foods are wasted and it is healthy.
Learning new things everyday, I love it, though it is a long process, it is worth it. Upon arriving I have been experiencing exciting and beautiful things, and I think it is a good progress while I wait for another week to come.
The Forward Step 