Reflection of Reflective Life
 
These images came up into my mind at the first time I came to PETA class...
I was thinking, were all of them related to our future as a language teacher? I'm not studying history or geography!, shouted my mind at that time. Ten minutes after the lesson began, I started nodding my head; yes, this is what I need to be an extraordinary teacher. I have to pay attention to this course since I need many knowledge about PETA. Not Pembela Tanah Air or map, but Principle of Effective Teaching and Learning.
                             
From the first meeting, Ms Tika showed us an original song made by Pak Iwan that motivate us to be an awesome teacher who never stop learning. Unfortunately, she didn't want perform that song for us :( . That song became such an eliciting that bring us into the next activity, describing the characteristics of effective teaching. The most interesting part is, we didn't have to look at a long list listed by the experts; we decided by ourselves what the characteristics are. Our previous experience helped us developing the list. By doing this, I can know what are the effective teaching according to my friends. Since our age is not far from Senior High School students, the answers can help me identifying what my students want later on.  Some of them are:   
As the course title, this is not just about teaching but also how to assess students effectively. We were introduced to that since the second meeting on October 4, 2010. Ms Tika gave us a brief explanation how to make lesson design by using Backward design. Set the goals of the subject, design some assessments to see the students' understanding, and then elaborate them into learning activities. Since she only told us the technique at a glance, I think it's fair if we still made such a confusing lesson plan. However, from this activity I notice that most of us still do 'twin sins' of design. Sometimes we only focus on designing fun activities and forget about the goals we want to achieve, and vice versa. But when we are too stick into the curriculum demand that we have to finish all of the topic, it can be boring for students. Yes, interesting lesson is not always effective lesson but this is the challenge for us as the next generation of teacher. Can we make a lesson design that cover the topics yet fun at once? It's another role of teacher: we have to be an awesome designer!
13/10/2010 03:36:03 pm

Haha how come you imagine the PETA troopers, for me at the time I imagined we would learn about map and geography :D

I wanna ask you what the twin sins are actually?

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14/10/2010 02:11:02 am

najib, I was from IPS too... so didn't be afraid actually at that time... you could share with me...okayh...hahahha
from your reflection, It sounds great righht, when the fun and effective teaching process challenge us to make it happen and become the best way for students improve their knowledge and informations... I hope we can learn alot from this class...amien..

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14/10/2010 02:17:25 am

sorry i think i have the technis problem when i wrote the comment above...
i just want to revise the last one...
that I was NOT from IPS

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14/10/2010 10:28:13 am

@ Arsy:
Yes, we've known that all of our prediction was wrong. This course isn't about map at all.

What I understand about "twin sins of design" is such a dilemma. Sometimes teacher is too focus on making an interactive activities yet lack of purpose. In other word, the activities doesn't support student to have a deep understanding about the material.

On the other hand, teacher often emphasizes only on the topic. Teacher will deliver the lesson chapter by chapter, pages by pages, through a traditional lecture. This "sin" usually happen in our country towards UN exam.

That's my understanding. Please correct me if I'm false, Cy.

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najib_skul-is-kul
14/10/2010 10:41:38 am

@ Jaya:
Ok Jaya, thx for your clarification. I know you are not from IPS program. :-D

Yes, I read an artle said that the "coverage" sin typically happened in colleges like us, but you can see, it doesn't happen in our classes, right?
Almost all lecturers can omit those sins by doing many activities related to the topic.
Hopefully, this course help us develop a good lesson plan. :-D

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grace
17/10/2010 01:59:02 am

well, my old najib
i agree with you. pak iwan is very creative and also all of our lecturer. as a teacher candidate, we have to think and create a modern teaching methodology for our class later. it doesn't mean that we have to forget the old one, but let the old one become our reference for teaching in the class :)

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najib_skul-is-kul
17/10/2010 11:45:17 pm

Wow, that's a good point of view Grace. I remember a quote from my teacher, "We should preserve the good things from the previous generations, while develop the new and better ones."

Btw, we're very lucky being here, with marvellous lecturers and friends. Very glad to have you all!

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Sufi
20/10/2010 03:13:39 pm

I always like your words, simple but meaningful. I do agree with u that we should not only focus with curriculum, make our class as effective as possible to improve student's understanding.

Good job for your reflection.

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26/10/2010 11:54:57 am

hei my twin brother :p

I agree with you, we should pay attention with this course because with this course we can learn how to an awesome teacher. I hope we can be teachers like that :D amen

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najib_skul-is-kul
28/10/2010 01:22:35 am

@Sufi
Thanks a lot, Bro!
Anyhow, I don't mean to say that we don't need to focus on the curriculum. As we know, curriculum is a plan for long term period, so we should do what we've planned until the end of the period in order to see the result of the implication of that curriculum.

Anyway, I really appreciate your will to create effective class in the future. we're still studying on it but maybe you can share some ideas to make our class effective, won't you?
^_^

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najib_skul-is-kul
28/10/2010 01:32:26 am

4 Ulung, my Twin sista,
Yes, God must hear our prayer to be awesome teachers...

However, I think, in order to be a great teacher we cannot just learn from this course. Even I heard that teachers who have taught for years still learn to teach effectively. Maybe that's what we call "Long Life Learning, Long Life Teaching"
^^d

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