Monday
Class: X Multi Media, X Akuntansi
Observation Hours: 4 hrs 30 mins
Lesson: Congratulating Others
This will be my first time to teach English as a foreign language. At the same time, this will also be the first time for the students of SMKM 3 to learn English using English. English is taught here using their language, Bahasa. Unlike in the Philippines, English is taught using English.
Thanks to my previous experiences and the preparation phase (i.e. Observation, Teaching Assistant) they have given last week, I was able to assess the proficiency level of my students. This gave me ideas as to how I can make my lesson interesting, engaging and meaningful.
Check out my revised lesson plan according to Ibu Aulia’s comments here.
Somehow teaching here is more challenging simply because of the language barrier. Aside from the language barrier I don’t see other difficulties because my students were very much eager to learn from me. Beginner’s luck I guess. I used the same strategy my cooperating teacher used (i.e. to show an entertaining video clip at the beginning of the lesson). I got a clip from the movie, Hancock (2008) to relate it to my lesson: Congratulating Others.
Apparently, I asked help from my buddy Rabi to translate the instructions I was giving. She had to help me during pre-activity for my Vocabulary Game. Seemed like the students had a good time.
After teaching X Multi Media, I realized I had to talk slower and had to give emphasis on keywords. I’m happy that the students are still eager to learn even if they have a foreigner as their English teacher. I used learner/student-centered as my approach since I saw that there will be difficulty in learning if all the input will come from me, the teacher. I had my students do a role play and a slogan as a reinforcement activity and an opportunity for them to apply what they’ve learned.
If you want to see how creative my students are check out the photos on my next entry.
Word of the Day: Paham – understand, understood
During my first day of teaching, I had to ask, “Do you understand?” a lot and I didn’t get much response. But when I asked, “Paham?” the students didn’t hesitate to say yes.