After the 28 days of staying and teaching in Sekolah Menengah Atas Negeri 3 Samarinda, Indonesia, I was able to learn a lot of things about the educational system in Indonesia about their culture and language. In this ares includes the purposes of my practicum, the procedure, the outcomes, the challenges I faced during the practicum, my overall impression, and the suggestions for future improvement.
Before the start of my practicum in Indonesia, I view this practicum as positive, even though I feel nervous at first because I feel pressured since I’m just the only one who will meet the school administration of SMA 3 and I need to become presentable and formal to the meeting since I representing the Philippines and I am an exchange student coming from Mulawarman University (receiving school). But after that, I feel confident because the people are not intimidating, they are very nice and kind, and SMA 3 are very welcoming. They are glad that I will teach in their school because this is their first time to have a filipino student teacher and will teach mathematics in English (because the medium of communication in math in Indonesia is in mother tongue or in Bahasa Indonesia).
I am also glad and very lucky to have SMA 3 as my school for my practice teaching because I feel that I am welcome to their school and that makes me thrilled to start my practice teaching, to meet other teachers, and of course to meet my Indonesian students.
Purposes of Practicum
I apply for the SeaTeach program of SEAMEO because there’s a purpose, one of which is this will help me as an education student to expose in different kind of teaching experience. I will be able to see different kind of educational system, meet Indonesian teachers and students, to feel different kind of school environment, and to get to know about the school in Indonesia. Learning something new from what I usually see gave me a wider perspective about the differences and similarities of Indonesia to Philippines.
This practicum outside our country really helps me to improve the way I teach because in other country I expect that it is very different from what I usually do in the Philippines. I need to adjust what is normal or what is they usually do in school. For example, in the Philippines we are used to use English as a medium of communication inside the classroom but in Indonesia is not, so what I did is we try to adjust like we try to translate some of the English to Bahasa Indonesia so that students can still understand what I am trying to say, not them adjusting for us, because it is what they usually do. Another purpose of this practicum is this will help me to improve my English skills by means of communicating even though that we used simple English because they find English language hard to understand but still we are challenged on how can we express our thoughts still in English so that they will be able to understand what I am trying to say. This program really gave me the big opportunity as a future teacher to enrich and widen my experience and perspective in teaching.
Procedure of Practicum
In procedure of teaching is I used the method of lecture demonstration which is somehow like an expository method, where I discuss the concept, then gave some sample problems, and ask them to answer some seat works for practice. I start from the discussion until evaluation or assessment of what we talk about. I used their book as my reference in the class because the student is usually used the textbook available in the library.
I used powerpoint presentation with the use of both English language and Indonesian language for the student to understand it well.
Outcomes of Practicum
My whole practicum in SMA Negeri 3 was my best experience that I had because I learned and realized a lot of things. I learned to strive for more or do beyond of what I usually do just to meet the needs of my students. I am glad that my students are very diligent, they know how to become serious in times of learning. Also, they show their interest in math and the willingness to learn from me and from what I am discussing about. The students very participative and I am happy that they learn from my discussion.
My practicum in Indonesia helps me to grow and improve as a student teacher trainee. Like, it improves how I plan my lesson, since my topic there is vectors under geometry and geometry is not my forte in math, so it was a challenge to me and I feel anxious if how will I teach vectors to my students – what I did is I try to study and understand the topic using the textbook given by the school and other references in the internet. I need to make a lot of efforts in order for me to deliver my lesson properly, from studying the lesson to how will I discuss it to the class. Since my students are not used to use the English so I try to translate some of the texts in my powerpoint to Bahasa Indonesia so that they will be able to understand and follow the discussion. I try also to speak little Bahasa Indonesia when instructing some of my activities and I try to do a lot of gestures or charades in order for them to visualize some complicated English terms.
All the efforts that I gave during my practicum is worth the effort because I can see that my students are learning from me and it is based on the assessment that I gave, most of the scores of my student are perfect, so I am happy that all my effort was reciprocated with good grades.
The Challenges of Practicum
The only challenge that I have encountered during my practicum is the communication. In my class there are students who can both understand and speak in English so I don’t have any problems with them but mostly of my students just know how to understand English but can’t speak well – but it was okay at least they are trying to speak in English especially if I ask some question/s and I want to seek an answer to the students who are shy so I call them randomly – and they can answer the question even that they find it hard to express their thoughts in English and I am so proud with them.
Not only to my students that challenged in communicating but also to the teachers in SMA 3 because there are some of the teachers who don’t speak and understand English but it was okay, I understand, it was just hard to my part to understand them and them to understand me because of the language barrier – so what I did is I always prepare my translation app, so if they have something to say to me then I can use the app to translate it and there I can understand what they are trying to say, and they do it the same if I have something to say, they also use a translation app.
Overall Impression
If I will rate my experience in SMA Negeri 3 from 1 to 10, as 10 being the highest, I think my scores will be 9 because as I have said that my journey in Indonesia is my best experience that I had in my life even that we had experienced some challenges along the way but still I was able to enjoy the stay. I was able to meet a lot of people, to learn different culture, to live like them, to become more understanding in everything, to be able to get along with Muslim people, and to have a family and friends in Indonesia. I was able to make the most out of it in Indonesia and now that we just end the 28 days of staying and teaching, I can say that this journey is worth remembering for and I will make sure to go back in here soon.
I will not say again what I already shared in this blog but for closing note I just want to say Terima kasih banyak (thank you very much) and Aku cinta Indonesia (I love Indonesia). See you soon and Aku cinta kamu (I love you).
Suggestions for Future Improvement
Suggestion for the future improvement of this program is to have a weekly report to the coordinator of the receiving school about what happened during the week of the students so that the students can make a report about their experience and concerns in their assigned schools if there are. So, if there are problems raised during the report, then the coordinators can make an immediate action to this problem. Then, this weekly report can help to monitor by the coordinators about what is happening to their exchange students.
TERIMA KASIH (THANK YOU) SMA Negeri 3 Samarinda and Mulawarman University (UNMUL)
Thank you Mulawarman University (UNMUL) for the warm welcome that you gave to me and to my other Filipino friends, you guided us during the stay in Indonesia and we get to experience a lot of amazing things. You make Indonesia beautiful because you let us immerse to the real world in Indonesia and that was amazing.
Thank you SMA Negeri 3 Samarinda for accommodating me in your school, it was the best teaching experience that I had as an education student. I learned a lot of things and I promise to never forget the things in SMA 3 impart to my life and as a person. SMA 3 is the best.
