THE GREATEST JOURNEY OF ALL TIMES “A Teacher’s Metamorphosis”
Who says teachers are the less privilege and the teaching profession as the easiest job?
Life is a book we write every single day and every day is a new page of various adventures. It’s no special book after all; it’s a limited edition one because we can never turn back the page and rewrite them. All we can do is to go back and reminisce each page all over again.
January 13, 2019
The tedious flight of Bali to Makassar. In our arrival, we were welcomed by Dr. Yasser Djawad. Setting foot outside the airport took me by a trillionth surprise as to how humid and scorching the weather was in Makassar which perhaps can be compared to Manila’s heat. I didn’t know it but I think my body reacted rather quickly after staying in an air-conditioned place for a day. This situation gave me tons of crystal sweats however I thought of it as a warm welcome from the place I would soon venture.
We traveled an hour from the airport to the main city of Makassar and had our first meal at KFC. The thing about traveling from one place to another is that we can experience first-hand the various cultural practices on that particular place hence the word culture shock which happens all the time. Usually in the Philippines, we are influenced by the western culture of dining especially on restaurants and fast food chains.
Now, we were there with the hopes and assumptions of having the same practices but culture shock took quite a hit on us. For the readers’ information which is very important for those who want to visit Indonesia, beware people eat barehanded in fast food restaurants like KFC, McDonalds and other fast food chains with the exception of soup or noodles.
Eventually, we stayed at La Macca Hotel, the receiving hotel of Universitas Negeri Makassar, just across the institution’s primary building. Settling in a new environment would have been hard if not for the company of our buddies and of course our co-pre-service exchange students from the Philippines and Thailand. There were eight Filipino students and two Thai students.
January 14, 2019
We had our orientation at Pinisi Tower 8th floor where we met our coordinators, Dr. Widya Admad and Dr. Yasser Djawad. The next day on January 15, 2019, our micro-teaching simulation took place at the Tower which was a good start for all of us. We also had a taste of one of the delicacies of Makasssar: Pisang Goreng, a squeezed fried banana coated with flavors of chocolate, cheese and milk. We had our lunch at the university cafeteria with another traditional menu on the table. It was called Nasi Rawon and a cup of kopi su-su (Bali coffee with milk).
On January 16, 2019, we had our school tour at the host school, Sekolah Islam Athirah, owned by the incumbent vice-president of Indonesia, Muhammad Jusuf Kalla who also happened to be the CEO of Kalla Group, one of the leading business groups in Indonesia. The school was named Athirah meaning fragrance, determined and strong in honour of his mother Athirah. Sekolah Islam Athirah (Athirah Islamic Boarding School) is one of the famous private schools in Indonesia which was founded in April 24, 1984.
V I S I O N
Become a superior school that is characterized by Islam, national spirit and global outlook.
Mission
Develop a learning system that is able to equip students with spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence, and intellectual intelligence.
The school also embraced the motto “Anggun, Unggul, Cerdas!” which means:
in behaving and Islamic behaviour
Excellent in quality and achievement
Smart in science and technology
There are three campuses of Athirah School in Indonesia. There are six levels being accommodated in Athirah namely a baby house, kindergarten level, elementary school, middle school, junior high school and senior high school. The baby house is a place intended for toddlers to be taken care of while parents go to work. The school holds their flag ceremonies on Mondays and I have noticed differences with how Indonesians conduct it to how we Filipinos do it.
Indonesian students have to read several rules with a marching ceremony in respect for their flag before it is raised and they sing several anthems which makes their ceremony essential in developing a strong and deeper sense of nationalism. School days end on Fridays at 12 noon.
The school is considered an Eco-friendly environment that it disregards the use of plastic bottles inside the campus in which students have to bring their own Eco-bottles as there are actually available water refilling stations in the school.
The medium of instruction for almost all the subjects were in Bahasa except for foreign languages such as English, Chinese, and Spanish. Entering the junior high school level in Athirah is very peculiar since junior levels are sub-divided into three more levels; grades 7, 8, 9 and senior levels; grades 10, 11, 12.
English class is called Bahasa Inggris Kelas which is divided into two rooms where students have to go from one classroom to another. In the Philippines, the teachers are the ones going around looking for classrooms while in Athirah the teachers have the luxury of having their ow n classroom for a specific subject and the students will be looking for the class they are enrolled in.
Inside the classroom there are two to three teachers; one mentor and the other called an assistant teacher who aid students with special needs and slow coping mechanisms. After silent observations of Bahasa Inggris Kelas by Ibu Nunung in terms of strategies and techniques, Athirah embraces self-learning where the teacher serves only as a speaker and facilitator guiding students to do their own works individually and lecture methods were obsolete.
The teacher gives an instruction to the students for instance finding the meaning and examples of a certain topic. After, the teacher distributes their phones as a means of searching needed information and permits the students to self-discover. Only raised questions will then be addressed by the teacher.
It is a student-centered method wherein students are expected to know and learn terminologies at home and the school serves as an avenue to discover the students’ potentials rather than spoon feed information. They also help students engage in sports such as basketball, football, swimming and badminton. There were other special subjects in cooking and a time for prayer and reading the Quran.
For my field of specialization, Bahasa Inggris adapted a book entitled Bahasa Inggris “Where English Rings A Bell” as the source of activities and guide to learning. This book is widely known and available around the country. The concrete form of evaluation and assessment as explained by my cooperating teacher is the activity notebooks that students have in school in which they put all exercises and activities they had in a particular subject including their journal reflections after a certain topic.
The notebooks are then collected by the subject teacher for checking in which half of their grades will be coming from and another part comes from class participation within and outside the classroom.
My teacher uses semi-detailed lesson plan with two columns: the right side for the title and the other side is for the activity of the day. But, in my teaching plans she allowed me to use the format we use in our university. In teaching Bahasa Inggris, I made use of games as a strategy to retain the attention of my students on the subject matter since they were already knowledgeable of it.
I also tried using group activities since it was rarely used but the struggle is on the division of groups since I still have to separate girls from boys which was expected for Islamic schools. Nevertheless, I was able to accumulate good reactions as a successful feedback of my teaching from my students and my mentor.
Summary
Learning is always spontaneous, expect the unexpected as they say. The whole practicum experience was indeed boundless, limitless, and spectacular. It does not only opens the eye to new views but warms the heart to full understanding and appreciation of our differences.
At first, I thought there was a standard way of doing and learning things may it be through social media network sites, books and stories but involving oneself in the whole experience is totally peculiar.
Teaching is not just about the information, not only about lecturing and sharing what’s on the min; the real teaching experience happens when you connect with the students, the environment and the culture. For it is through this connection that we can fully understand each other despite the boundaries in culture, language, practices and others.
Stating that I learned a lot from this exchange program is an understatement. It actually changed me to someone I never knew I could become. Can anyone believe me when I say I actually know how to act, to sing, to dance, to crack jokes and be funny now? These simple things never used to define me; I was the exact opposite of it all.
In my opinion, I see this program as a magic mirror because it is only through these experiences that you will be able to complete the puzzles in yourself. It is to all the pre-service teachers to know that there is a lot more to do than just lecturing. Through this you will see more of yourself away from your comfort zones, from your family, friends and you will have nothing to count on but yourself. There are a lot of challenges, barriers and hindrances specifically in the communication process but it will definitely sharpens the communication skills, you learn new languages, new insights about life and a lot more about the teaching-learning process.
This exchange program experience is the best investment I have had because the return of investment it gave me is immeasurable. In conclusion, having a good view in life after hurdling on the hardships of teaching in a foreign land would someday contribute for greater outputs in life.
