a lately post but hopefully a better one

Wow, this is the most lately reflection posting ever, :'(

I would like to say really sorry to Mrs. Lydia cause of my late posting and I have to be brave to say that, I forget to post my reflection on last meeting. I am so sorry miss.

Here are my reflections,

The last meeting before holiday was the great moment for me. Again, I was serviced a creative method to deliver the material. I really like the way Mrs. Lydia guide us to discover the kind of feedback. By providing us a usual game but really meaningful of content, tends to make me learn it as the easier one. The activities such as ball games, guessing and sharing sessions, were interesting and have the purposes in every little stride. Moreover I think the classroom climates inspire me to construct the same climates when I am becoming teacher later. It could make a friendly and comfortable session but still have the meaningful knowledge.

Actually, I felt I was in a discussion session with the guidance to discover the course material rather than being in the classroom of a course. I really enjoyed and I think I got the point that should be reached. I realized that feedback is one of media that can be used as the reminder for us (teacher and students) whether there were still process or outcomes that should be improved.

Sharing (again).

Well, It's too fast for me to pass this week and sharing (again) the reflection of PETA class last tuesday. Generally, I always really happy to learn PETA in every week because there were always the creative and innovative methods in doing the learning process which is provided by Mrs. Lydia. For instance, when we were going to learn what the important of a rubric, Mrs. Lydia guided us to discuss why the assessment should not be a subjective one, till then we realized that we have to make a rubric when we do the assessment. Besides that, when we were going to learn how to make a rubric, we are provided the fun activity which leads us to consider which ones the good rubric are. The activity is 2011 Clapping Competition, it really a good example for me in which I can learn that there always be a creative way for us as the next generation of teacher to create the fun activity within a fully learning purposes. 

However, I think we have not learned deeper about how to make an effective rubric, because in my opinion we only learned that a good rubric is the clear one which has the detail criteria and the reasonable scoring. I think we have not learned yet to practice in creating an effective rubric.

Nevertheless, I was really grateful because we have much learned about formative and summative assessment, so that I have known that when we would like to create an assessment we should consider the purposes before we judge it as the formative or summative assessment.

A Brighter Insight, ^^

Last tuesday, I do the gallery walk to be explained about some topic of assessment and there is a topic that grabe my attention more. it is not because of the explanation, but it is because of the focused topic. The topic is about domains of classroom assessment. The poster displayed that there are 3 domains of classroom assessments, they are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. I just do realize that when we do the classroom assessment, it is not always about how to assess their knowledge, their comprehension or another their cognitive development. I was conciously reminded that there are affective and psychomotor categories that should be assessed too. The mastered knowledge, the deeply comprehension is nothing without the right purpose of its application and implementation which is in affective categories. The ability to respond a phenomena, the ability to give an appropriate value of some issues is also the important ability that should be undertaken in classroom assessment. We can not generalize that students who have deeply comprehension and able to make a new pattern and solution, are the best learner because there are others categories that should be noticed.

Missing Class,^^

Well, I should be heartened because I could not attend to the 5^th PETA class so that I loss the chance to get experience of learning with Mrs. Lydia. Moreover, my friend tells me that last Tuesday they were discussing about classroom assessment, I feel really miserably cause of it. Thus, I am amused enough because of the succeed presentation of my Social Activity Group, our concept was accepted, yeay! ^^

Back to the topic, :D

Classroom assessment is one of the most important processes in learning—in my opinion, it makes teaching and learning process perfect. Without assessment we could not do the evaluation of our learning activities because one of its functions is for helping teacher and students evaluate the effectiveness of their learning process. Unfortunately, in my last experience, assessment such as written test was considered as the only one learning outcomes that should be emphasized for getting the best mark. Hence, most of students—include me—tend to focus to the final test rather than the learning process itself.  

SSE opens my mind about assessment. I am really happy being here, one of the reasons is because of the assessment. SSE provides an innovative assessment which inspires me that there are many ways to know the learning outcomes of students’ learning. SSE always assess our HOT (High Order Thinking)-skills rather than our LOT-skills. It makes me easier because actually I don’t really like the assessment which the question words are MENTION and EXPLAIN,^^ 

Sharing Session

The last session of peta at the first half of semester has been ended. It was a little bit noisy class because most of us actively share the experiences of Teacher Assistant activities. There were so many stories that I heard and most of them are the important lesson learns for our teaching career later. Generally I got the conclusion that it was not easy to teach many students in a class, moreover the students are Senior High School students who are essentially in their adolescent period. When doing the teaching practice most of us got problem in managing the classroom. Moreover it was my first time teaching a big class that needs extra management class. For a moment, I thought that it was crazy for delivering the lesson to students who don’t have interest and willing to learn mathematics subject. Then I realize that it is the reason why SSE exists. I am studying in SSE is for answer that question, although it needs process to adapt them in doing the essential and effective learning process. We could not force our method to be applied for all class, but we have to consider with students’ needs so that we have to be creative in providing the learning process for students, I think the best method is the appropriate one, in which the method are according to students’ needs. The most important thing for adapting the students is the learning objectives could be reached by doing the activities as well as the methods.

I am really pleasured because SSE provides this school experience program every semester. I could not imagine if we have to get teaching practice in the 7^th semester as likely others universities program. Hence, I get these experiences later and will realize the obstacle of teaching profession at the end of my bachelor. I am not sure I’ll still have the big desire to become a teacher as likely my dream. Fortunately, SSE always provide the best program for facilitating my dream for becoming the next generation of teacher. :)

Be Taught by Teaching Assistant Program, ^^

Well, teaching assistant program has been ended for this semester, and it’s time to reflect every moment that was exceedingly unexpected. Actually, I spent my time for two weeks for attending to MAN 11 Jakarta but it was a short time for me to be acquainted with all of students there. I only remember some of their names and I’m still in the process to acquaint what is their learning style but suddenly I have to come back to my university. It makes me little bit feel guilty because I think I just started to introduce some new methods in teaching to them and they was started to adapt with it, but it doesn’t take a long time and they should readapt to back to their usual methods.

In the second week, my team got a chance to interview our master teacher for giving some questions to know more about their teaching process and also to clarify the observation result that we get previously. By interviewing him I get that there are correlation between the observation result and what is he said. He said that he has been a teacher for many years and getting bored. Actually he has surely known what will be taught to his students so that he thinks he doesn’t need the lesson plan anymore. In fact, when we observed him we found that the teaching process was not really well organized because he didn’t manage his students to do the learning activity orderly. We also found that some students were busy with their activity which is chatting with another.

Actually I don’t agree with my master teachers’ opinion, lesson plan is used to help us in providing an effective learning activity for students. World changes every time and also the generation of our students, there will always a new development in every sector especially in technology. I think in order to provide the effective teaching and assessment for our sophisticated technology students we should provide a creative one, so that they will be interested to learn with us. Hence, for becoming a teacher even for many years later, I think it will be challenging because I should be creative and innovative in providing the learning activity.

Besides that from this teaching assistant program, I also realize that there are some points that have to be given more attention to create an effective teaching and assessment which are the prior knowledge, students’ needs, students’ learning style and students’ background. The successful learning process is affected by students’ prior knowledge that can make the process easier if the students really acquaint the previous material. Besides that by understanding students’ needs, students’ learning style and students’ background, we could provide the effective learning and teaching process for them by using the appropriate methods.

Teaching Assistance is inspiring me, ^_^

Great! This will be my new great experience since I visit to the senior high school ever. That was my first impression when I was going to go to MAN 11 Jakarta for being teacher assistance as my schools experience program task. After observing the learning process, I think for becoming a teacher we should be an expert, a professional, a specialist, skilled, highly competent. :) Because you know, actually teacher is a narrator, a story teller, a marketer, an actor, a singer and also a comedian. Teachers should deliver the content by narrating even make it becoming a story, they should promote their subject in order to build students interest, they should be professional in doing their job, forgetting their personal problems when teach in the class and they also should be able to sing even make some joke as the energizer.

Besides that, content of the instructional materials is very important for a professional teacher and the teaching skill is also really important and it is enhanced by practice. It is right if people say practice makes perfect. In this first week, I have observed and helped the teacher to teach the students and I realize that how good the lessons plan that has been made, but if the students didn’t learn well, it’s really useless. A good lesson plan is the appropriate one, appropriate to students’ ability. It means the lessons plan should cover all of the different students’ ability in receiving the materials. Previously, if I make a lesson plan I tend to focus only to how the learning process could build students’ conceptual understanding and what is the method that will be applied so that it’s becoming an effective teaching. But after becoming teacher assistance, I realize that there are some cases that influence how the learning process will be going on. For instance, the prior knowledge, it really influences the students’ ability in receiving the materials in the next topic. I found that if students don’t really understand the previous topic, they tend to hardly understand to the next topic. Then, time management is needed to organize the activities that are planned because it takes a longer time in delivering those topics. It’s confusing enough to decide whether i should focus to the lesson plan or continuing to explain it until the students understand, and I consider that the students’ understanding is the most important.

E-Reflection_Susi Dariah_4th meetings

Becoming a teacher, standing in front of the class, transferring a subject, it was what I have done with my team in the last session of PETA class. From that activity, I realize that it’s really complicated enough for becoming a teacher. I really appreciate all efforts that my elementary and high school teachers have done to provide learning process for me. Even I sometimes say that most of activities in the class were not really interesting, it may be because of the teaching method but actually becoming a teacher is not as easy as I thought. The effective teaching and learning starts from the lesson plan that teacher have made previously. But the effective and interesting lesson plan doesn’t mean anything if the teacher can not apply it well in class.  

Although my teachers doesn’t apply model of instruction in the teaching process and they just apply teacher-centered learning, but I really appreciate them. They are very patient and sincere in doing their job. They taught me everything that is very useful for my life. I ever have a teacher that really kind to me whereas I don’t really like her subject. But because of her, I tend to be more interested to learn more about her subject. I realize that for becoming a teacher, it’s not only content knowledge acquisition and teaching methods that we have to master of, but also the teaching skills. How to make a closely relationship with our students, how to enhance students’ interest, how to play a role in front of class, because teacher is an actor who has to be professional like Mrs. Lydia said, and I am still learning for mastering it. I hope in teaching assistance later, I could teach very well. :D

E-Reflection_Susi Dariah_#3rd meetings

Well, this is my third reflection and I am going to review some activities that I’ve done in PETA class last Tuesday. Actually I was really enjoying those activities because there’re some bodily activities that keep my spirit on and also being not bored at that time. I was really like the learning process because Mrs. Lydia was very creative in packaging the material. We learned about some models of instruction but actually we have been applied those models of instruction by Mrs. Lydia. For instance, in the opening session Mrs. Lydia guides us to practice ‘lecture discussion’ which is one of models instruction. She also provides us to do ‘group discussion’ in which we were asked to discuss about models of instruction in expert group and transfer the result to the main group. By previously  reading the material from the resources that she provides, Mrs. Lydia guides us to discover our understanding by ourselves. It shows that she applied ‘guided discover’ in her teaching process. Of course, for the ‘direct instruction’ she also applied in our activity. But, unfortunately Mrs. Lydia didn’t tell and discuss with us that we have done what we learned about models of instruction. I think it will be clearer for us if we reflect that what we have done is the real example of those models of instruction.

Besides that, we also had micro teaching as the last activity. I guess that last Tuesday there would be some of groups that present their lesson plan and I also hoped my group could present it. I was wrong of it because just one group who had micro teaching whereas my group has prepared the learning tools. But don’t worry, may be my group will present the lesson plan next session, so wait for that time, guys. ^^

Susi Dariah's Reflection #2nd meeting

It was really nice for getting the second meeting of PETA which was opened by watching a video. Moreover, I could watch an activity of elementary school classroom. Watching how the elementary students learn and also watching their innocent face when the camera were going to shoot their activity, make me being full of yearning to visit the elementary school and doing the observation such as my school experience in the first and second semester ago. I hope in this semester I also could visit the elementary school, but unfortunately refer to the announcement, in the 3^rd semester the program of school experience in my university is going to visit and do teaching assistance in secondary school. Hence, I could not look the amusing elementary students and being excited talking with them again.

Besides watching a video, there’s also an activity to analyze 4 vignettes and we are asked to decide whether they are considered as activity focused design or coverage approach. When I read the first vignettes, I was surprised and just being able to show my sheepish smile because the situation is some of my last experience. The vignette sketches someone who easily to memorize the material but also easily to forget it after the exam gone. Suddenly after I read it, I reflect on my own high school experience that I ever could memorize many textbook to face the written exam of entrepreneurship subject, but after the exam gone I forget many of it. I realize that last time, I just memorize it without trying to understand and analyze how those materials can be applied in my real life problems so that I easily to forget it. I only thought that I should memorize all of the materials in order to be able to do the examination very well. That assessment was not well structured, because the questions only assessed the low order thinking skills like as bloom’s taxonomy point out.

Refer to that experience, as a teacher candidate, I should have known that conceptual understanding is really needed in learning process, like as Grant and Wiggins (2005) propose the understanding by design can be used to solve activity-focused and coverage approach problems. Hence, when I teach later, I will try to make the effective teaching and assessment to facilitate my (future) students’ understanding. J

Susi Dariah_E-Reflection_1st meeting

The second day attending class in 3^rd semester on last Tuesday is learning about Principles of Effective Teaching and Assessment. Actually, I was not in a good condition because of a cough that I was suffering from, so that I didn’t really focus at all. Fortunately, that is the first meeting of this subject, so that the activities is most of about introduction about ourselves (students and lecturer) and also about what this subject will be about.

There were some of activities in that course, for example we were asked to reflect about our experience of having a wonderful teacher even an awful teacher in our learning journey. At the process of thinking about it, I reflect that on my journey I was very often getting the interest in a course because of the teacher. Because of the teacher who had the good way to teach me, who could inspired me, who had a good personality, who always motivated me, and other reasons that stimulating me to recognize that teacher has a big role for the successful teaching and learning process. If I used to be influenced by my teacher to get the better even the worse learning process, why my students could not be influenced by me in the future? From that question, I recognize that I will have a big role to the learning process of my future students..

When I remember about the awful teachers in my past learning, suddenly I think that will I be a teacher like them? it’s actually a scary question for me, but I do believe because I’m still learning how to become a great teacher at this great university (at least for me) and I just started to learn how to build effective teaching and assessment by this course, I will be able to give the good influence for my future students. :)

 

Regards,

Susi Dariah