Jumat, 21 Oktober 2011
Team Teaching in School Experience
Created by: Dian Ayu Utami
Teaching in Senior High School is challenging. Why? It's because they are already in a bold move to deliver something more bluntly. In the first week in school experience, I found many things that I can pick up the postive point and fix the negative ones. And there are many facts that I found related with my study to teach.
Taught for 30 years has undeniable expertise in explaining and answering questions, she is mathematics teacher and be my master teacher for 2 weeks at senior high school in South Jakarta, called her with Mrs. A. When I had to do observation and followed her and be her assistant, my partners and I tried to find out about her and asked a lot of things about the system of teaching, including lesson plans and teaching methods. Actually, I shocked when I hear the answer of my question. I asked “how about lesson plans Mrs. A, do we should make a new lesson plan or follow yours?” she answered “I never make a lesson plan, actually. It is because, in class, many lesson plans can not apply and it is different with the lesson plan.” I can not talk more about this, what I learned in school about the importance of lesson plan to guide the teacher, may not be consistent with Mrs. A. And I still believe that lesson plans can help teachers to become a better director of their class.
When I interviewed Mrs. A, she relized that she still teach with conventional method. And she said “I don’t understand about ICT” and according to her, the reason that she did not learn ICT because she will soon retire and it was too late to learn ICT. I can follow the mindset of Mrs. A, in fact she would like to learn, but prevents age and tenure. As a new generation, I should care with my audiences, which almost all of them are users of digital media. ICT will help me in explaining the material.
Mathematics. There are still many people who think that mathematics was difficult and dangerous, as well as students in X-3 class, in the same secondary school. They complained that their mathematics teacher is not good in explaination, too fast and serious. There are things that I can reflect about this, to be a teacher is not quite easy, moreover, to be a favorite teacher is very difficult. Some of mathematics contents are difficult and it makes me to think creatively to make class still fun. And my students are ordinary human that can bad mood, it makes me to be more concerned about my students feeling.
This was my first time to teach mathematics in real mathematics class, not extra time or private, the condition and enviroment was different. Actually, my partners and I can not wait to join existing classes to teach. But I feel my heart beating so fast. I was nervous. I just thought that I will do my best that I can do. Actually, when I consulted with master teacher, she suggested to cut some of activities in my agenda, because she tought that the time was limited. After that, my partners and I discussed about this problem and we was optimism with our agenda. But, in implementation of agenda, the time was not enough. Fortunately, after my class was only clinic class and the teacher can not teach them and the students asked me and my partners to continue the class until the end of our agenda. I thought that to make lesson plan and agenda, I have to think more about time and class conditions that will occur when I teach.
Jumat, 30 September 2011
Sederet Kata yang Bermakna
“Nama seorang anak akan menentukan masa depannya”, begitulah orang bijak berkata. Nama memang bukan hal yang mudah untuk dipikirkan. Setiap orang tua menginginkan nama terbaik untuk anak mereka. Melalui nama, seseorang dapat menerka karakteristik keluarga dari si punya nama. Ya, meski bukan hal mudah dan mengandung banyak arti, tapi penulis akan mencoba menerka dan menggali lebih dalam tentang nama penulis dengan sudut pandang penulis.
Dian Ayu Utami, begitulah nama saya. Cukup singkat dan mudah diingat. Terkadang jika saya harus memperkenalkan diri menggunakan nama “Dian” tanpa harus bertemu, saya kerap kali dipikir seorang laki-laki. Ya, entahlah, mengapa demikian, mungkin karena nama Dian juga dipakai untuk laki-laki. Mengenai maknanya, sesungguhnya tak ada arti mendalam yang ayah dan ibu harapkan dari nama itu. Mereka hanya menginginkan saya menjadi “lentera utama yang cantik”, ya kurang lebih seperti itu. Menurut penuturan ibu, saya lahir pada tahun dimana nenek saya meninggal dunia dan kakak ibu saya harus melakukan operasi. Menurut keluarga, itu adalah tahun kelam. Lalu, lahirlah saya sang lentera yang diharapkan. Namun tidak hanya itu, ayah pun memiliki penafsiran sendiri atas nama yang ia berikan, beliau berharap kelak saat ia tak ada di samping ibu, ada saya yang akan selalu menerangi ibu dalam dukanya. Nama yang sangat cocok untuk keadaan seperti itu.
Saya sering sekali berpikir, apakah itu nama yang pantas untuk saya? Sesungguhnya saya ingin sekali menerangi sekeliling saya dengan lentera saya. Namun akankah saya dapat melakukan itu terus menerus? Bintang saja akan kehilangan cahayanya jika ia terus berpijar. Saya takut nantinya saya akan menyalahi makna dari nama saya. Selain itu, jika saya boleh memilih, saya ingin sekali mengganti nama saya. Hal ini dikarenakan nama Dian sudah cukup banyak dan terkesan “pasaran” dan tak original dari ayah dan ibu. Di kelas saja sudah ada 2 Dian dan di luar sana belum dihitung. Terlalu banyak nama Dian sepertinya. Lagipula, orang tua saya kan bisa menamai saya dengan nama yang jarang dimiliki orang lain, Alkherissa mungkin.
Nama memang bukan sekedar rentetan kata tanpa makna. Ayah dan ibu saya pasti telah memikirkan kemungkinan yang dapat terjadi pada saya sehingga mereka memberikan nama “Dian Ayu Utami” itu pada saya. Meski terkesan pasaran, tak apalah, belum tentu nama Alkherissa jauh lebih baik dari nama saya sekarang ini. Kalaupun diganti saya takut nantinya jadi “keberatan” nama. Sampai saat ini pun, saya merasa saya telah menjadi lentera pada tempatnya. Saya pun sadar, memberi nama itu bukan perkara mudah. Saya sangat menghargai pemberian nama dari orang tua saya dan berharap dapat mengaplikasikan maknanya ke kehidupan saya.