The
2nd week of Teaching Experience felt so fast, I got so many
experiences more than the first week. I taught 2 classes then I gave a posttest
in one class only because of the schedule which changed unexpectedly. The
schedule that has been given has changed. Actually my schedule for teaching was
Monday at the 3rd and the 4th period for X.2, then the 5th
and the 6th for X.1. However, on Monday morning when I just arrived
in teacher’s room, I saw that my scheduled has changed, the 7th and
8th period for X.2, then 9th and 10th period
for X.1. Actually that was not a problem for me, but suddenly I asked to come
to X.5 to fill the class. There was miscommunication between the guard teacher
(guru piket) and my master teacher, I should only teach for X.1 and X.2.
Finally I come to X.5 then I explained the miscommunication that happened. At
that time, I was ready to teach X.5, but something that made me shock was about
the material.
In SMAN 61
Jakarta, each class has 2 teachers, for mathematics in 10th grade
the teachers are Miss Rima (my master teacher) and Miss Syifa, but they teach
in different material. I should teach Inequalities for continuing Miss Rima’s
lesson, but Miss Syifa’ lesson was about Logarithm. So, when I had to replace
Miss Syifa, I should teach Logarithm. I shocked because I had not any
preparation for Logarithm, but finally I taught them a bit about the proven of
the Logarithm’s Properties. What about my partner? He did come late. After he
come, I asked him to replace me, then finally Miss Rima come and apologized to
us because of the schedule, actually she also did not know about the changing
schedule after that she handled the class and my partner and I prepared the
lesson for teaching in the 7th and 8th period.
After
waiting and preparing the lesson, finally we were ready to go to X.2; suddenly
Miss Rima said “Ahmad, I’m so sorry. Last week I did not come, so X.2 left
behind. Their material does not finish yet, so it’s not good if you continue
with the new material – Inequalities, so you can prepare more for teaching in
the 9th and 10th period.”
After that, my partner and back to seat for waiting until the 9th
period, suddenly another guard teacher asked me to come to XI.IPS 2 to replace
Miss Syifa, again and again. At first, we ignored it because we have not any
preparation, but she pushed us to come to the class, then we agreed and came to
that class. Social class, it’s really different with Science class and 10th
grade, but we thanked full because we did not have to teach them because they
had assignment to answer the mid test of science class. We discussed it
together, actually the material was about Probability, honestly my partner and
I had forgotten about the formulas, so we answered based on our logic, and
finally we passed it well.
The
bell was ringing, and then it’s time to break. After the break, that’s the time
for us to 1st teaching experience. We went to X.1, and then we
prepared the projector. The bad thing was when the projector did not work well,
so we had to wait several minutes until it worked, and it made my plan should
be changed a bit. After that, my partner started the class because of our
agreement. He started nicely, but it’s quiet wasting the time, so I have to
teach them quiet fast. After explaining the material, I made sure they
understood my lesson. I reviewed my lesson, and then always asked them to ask
to me, but none did ask me, so I really hope that they had understood my
lesson. The class was quiet; they paid attention on me when I explained the
material, a nice class.
After that we had group work, we divided the class into 5 groups, 1 group consist of 6 students. We divided them by using a game because we don’t which students who are smart and which are not, so we used a game. They got a piece of paper from us, it contains a title of song and they had to find their group by singing that song. We used some songs that are booming, so it makes the game funny and enjoyable. After they gathered with their group, they had to answer only one question and make a poster in flipchart that had been provided by us. We provided colorful markers and flipchart, so they can express their creativity in the flipchart. After they finished it, they had a presentation, and then we asked them to write reflection. Most of them enjoyed the lesson, some of them still confused, but we had prepared worksheet for them, one worksheet for one group, we really hope that they copied it, then learned it, and ready for posttest on Thursday.
On Tuesday, we also had the same activities, but we did not teach X.2 because their schedule was Monday, so we taught X.4. The atmosphere quiet different, it’s such as a talkative class. We changed the position; I started the class, and then gave the brain teaser, after that my partner explained the material. His way was good but wasting time, he did not consider the time that we had, also this class was quiet hard to be handled, so when they had group discussion, they did it very long. It was wasting time, finally hey had not any presentation, but we still asked them to write reflection. Most of them also said that he learning was great, but some also said still confused. We had problem with projector in the middle of learning. Fortunately, we provide 1 worksheet for each student, so they can learn by looking at the worksheet. After the last teaching, we discussed about the next meeting, the result was we cannot give posttest to X.4 because their schedule was impossible, but we can give posttest to X.1 on Thursday.
On Thursday, we came to X.1. I shocked again because they just copied the worksheet at that day, so they did not learn about the material in their home. I was sad and afraid to give them posttest, I afraid that they will get difficulty to answer the questions. I provided 10 questions, from the easiest until the hardest; it’s like Miss Rima’s suggestion. The first activity, we reviewed about the material, it’s for recall their memory, and then we discussed about their poster. After that, they had posttest for 20 minutes. They said it’s hard, whereas I made those questions based on the worksheet, so it’s their mistake because they did not learn, and also our mistake because we just provided 1 worksheet for one group instead of 1 worksheet for 1 student. After they had posttest, we asked them to write their feeling, any kind of feeling that they felt at that time, after that we took some pictures together.
It was the last meeting in X.1, after that we want to interview Miss Rima, but before we did it, we need to observe her class for the last. After observing the class, we interviewed her. She said that the most often method that she uses is “Lecture Discussion” because Mathematics is natural science that requires individual ability, but for the “Group Interaction” she also used it in the chapter “Dimension-Three” because it’s the hardest material to be learned, so she makes group, and then one group brings one laptop, then they use software “CABRI 3D”. It really helps them to learn the material. For assessment, she uses “daily point” because when the students answer the questions in front of the class, it means that their process to understand the material is good. In example, if the students got 5 points, and got 70 for chapter exam, then their score is 75, that’s the way that she used. Many topics that we discussed; I have attached the result in another file.
After checking the posttest, I felt sad because their result was bad. The best score only 65, the worst is 20. This should be my reflection, why they got bad score? Is my explanation unclear? But their reflection said that my explanation was good, the felt happy because they understood, I also made sure to them my forcing them to ask me about something, the fact they did not ask me anything, so I thought they quiet understand about my explanation. This is my analysis, our mistake was providing them only 1 worksheet for 1 group, so they copied and received it on Thursday. Their mistake, they did not learn it in their home, so I can conclude that it’s better to provide 1 worksheet for 1 student to overcome some problems that unpredictable.
This teaching experience is really good for our practice in teaching. We had been prepared by PETA course about effective teaching, effective teacher, etc. Unfortunately, we had not been prepared about mathematics content to teach them. Based on my friends’ experience that I observed, they did not master the material, so they made some mistakes when they explain the material. That’s okay for our first practice in real classroom, but it will be better if we also mastering the materials – mathematical content.
All in all, so many good experiences that I got in 61 SHS that could not be shared here. Thank you very much for giving us a chance to feel the real teaching in the school even we are still in the 3rd semester, this is very expensive experience for me. It makes me think how to teach better in the future. Let’s make a brighter Indonesia in the future. Future teacher, future leader (SSE, 2011).
