Final Reflection

It was really awesome joining the Micro Teaching Class of this semester (6). In the class I had twenty great friends. These twenty friends really helped me enrich myself to become someone who can pursue a professional English teaching career. In this very last self-reflection, I would like to generally recall all of my experiences of learning in the sophisticated Lab A and B throughout this semester.

Great semester Six!

1.    Experiences in the class room that I will not forget.

Since the first day of attending the Micro Teaching classes I tried to always be on time. However, some three times or so I was late, including on the day of the last class (last Tuesday), I was late by more or less twenty minutes. It was because I was still in Lion Air Agency to arrange my ticket to Nabire, Papua. At 13.10 I sent an SMS to Erika and Maris, hoping they could inform the lecturer about my situation.

Some of my dear friends were wondering why I was so late. That is why there was a bit of noise when I entered the class. I inferred that they did not like me to be late. As a candidate for a future position as an English teacher, I know I shouldn`t have come late. So, I have to admit that I have broken one of the characteristics of a good teacher.

One more thing that I will not forget is our close relationship. I really felt that all of my classmates, some of them twenty years younger than me, did not hesitate to treat me as their close friend despite my social status and age difference. I was very happy that they just called me by my name: “Anton” or “old man” or “opa” or “Santiago” or “Johnson Anderson.” They didn`t want to keep any distance between us. This was one of the facts that made our classes so lively.

Our classes were always filled with loud laughter. Teasing each other was the typicality of our class.  Our days were a combination of seriousness, panic, lots of smiles, giggles, chuckles, and outbursts of laughter. In this typical way, being closer with them, I learned to be myself.

2.   Things that I have learned in the class room.

There are many wonderful things I have learned in the classrooms from lecturer and classmates. From the lecturer, I learned theories connected to practical English teaching in the classroom and outside the classroom. From the twenty friends, I learned how to construct good and proper lesson plans, and how to prepare interesting and useful teaching materials. I learned how to utilize media resources for teaching in accordance with students` backgrounds and needs, and the classroom/school`s situation as well as the national and school`s curriculum.

I also learned how to implement these skills in a real classroom. I learned how to be relaxed and be patient with all students, especially the trouble makers; to be punctual entering the class; to be friendly with all students, aware of students` needs, creative in lecturing and finding information, objective in assessing, honest in doing tests, responsible for work and duties/tasks, and to be open-minded in all the different situations that can arise. These are the other very important things I have learned so far.

3.   I have achieved.

I have achieved, so far, in the classroom: Teaching students without feeling hesitant, nervous, and shy; but confident.  I mastered subjects that I taught. I appreciated my students saying: “Great,” “very good,” “good,” “excellent,” “wow…..great!,”  among other encouraging comments.

I was creative when taking the second teaching test: When Ss were sleepy in the class; I managed to make them feel fresh, by asking them to stand up and take a deep breath several times.  Besides that, I managed to design the lesson plans and syllabus.

4.   Things that worked in class room.

In the whole Micro Teaching class, from the beginning to the very end, there were two major activities in the class: Lecturing done by the lecturer and teaching practice done by students. The lecturer explained about feasible theories. All of the students took notes on each theme or topic. The lecturing was done in five meetings; most of it was “lecturer centered”.

The other 13 meetings were student centered; all of the students were given a chance to practice teaching in the class (Lab A & B) and outside the Lab. Teaching in the Lab was divided into three categories:  Teaching in two small groups of 10/11 students for 5 minutes, teaching in the class (one big group) for 30 minutes, and teaching in the class for 35 minutes. Teaching outside the Lab took place at lower level classes.

In each kind of teaching, there were some evaluators, consisting of some students and lecturers. After teaching, each one of us as the teacher was given feedback straight away from the evaluators. So we were able to read it and reflect on all of the notes. Besides that each of our teaching sessions were recorded on video cassettes.  It was a great step to make a self-evaluation of the teaching style we had just done.

Since the evaluation on each of our teachings was done by some friends and the lecturer, it must have been quite objective. I am happy with the very honest opinions of friends` and the lecturer`s evaluations on my teaching demonstrations. When I compared these evaluations and video-recordings, I agreed with them. There are things I must improve on for the sake of my skills and the English students I will teach. I still tend to use sophisticated terms when teaching semester 2 junior high school students as well as semester 2 senior high school students. The teaching experience has reminded me to adjust my language according to the level of the students I am teaching. I was annoyed with trouble makers even though they  made only minor disturbances. It was a good reminder that students need ground rules from the beginning and that this is something I can plan for when I have my own classes in the future.

5.   Things that did not work in the classroom.

In my first progress test, I did not provide enough time for students to practice theories I had just explained to them. It was because I did not take enough notice of the time that had elapsed while teaching. This was a good reminder of how important it is to manage my class time. One more thing I did not do in time was to reflect on two last weeks as I was occupied with preparation for our Play Performance and a progress test of some other subjects.