An unforgettable experience to be able to get the opportunity to teach overseas. not an easy thing for me to teach, especially beyond the country, the Philippines. besides I have to understand the circumstances and their learning culture, I also have to be able to adjust the language they use, and the way of pronunciation. because apparently, even though we are speaking English, each country has a different pronunciation. All praises are to Allah, teaching foreign languages is not the first thing for me. Before, when I was in high school I was the chief of Branch Language Improvement (BLI) and taught new vocabs English and Arabic every day.

formerly, I did teach in a foreign language, but non-formal. so, don’t need a great lesson plan before teaching. because now I have to teach formally, so I have to prepare everything carefully, starting from the material, lesson plans, methods, procedures, time management, etc. From experience, I learned a lot, I learned things that I had never known and gotten before.

In making lesson plans, many things we need to notice. the main is the goals/objectives. Usually the learning objectives are have been written in the curriculum. here, I teach grade 5 elementary school with “coordinating conjunction” material. so, learning objectives are taken from the goals that have been arranged in the curriculum by the Department of Education.

Further, we explain the subject matter. which consist of topics that we will discuss, references or sources of material and information. subject references here must be taken from a minimum of three books, internet, YouTube, etc. then what kind of media we will use is also explained in the lesson plan. because I implement active learning and want to foster team building, I try to apply learning with paper cut games, where I also need audiovisual equipment, prepare power points to help make it easier to explain the material, the card that I cut myself, and worksheets on coordinating conjunction to test the extent of student understanding.

making lesson plans is not easy, yesterday I made it within a week. after making, my teacher asked to be printed and he corrected. after getting corrections, I revised after 2-3 days. finalizing the concepts and methods of teaching to be precise within 40 minutes, we can complete our teaching procedures. starting from praying, pre-activity, drill or review of yesterday’s lesson, motivation, that is warming up on the topic to be discussed that day, explaining the material, generalization in the form of a few questions that cover the entire discussion on that day. application is a more specific question about the topic of learning. Evaluate the coordinating conjunction where I give assignments to do exercises from books, as well as small quizzes before leaving class. all that must be done for 40 minutes. Isn’t that not an easy matter to manage class conditions and manage time well? although Ma’am Trance as a teacher in the class has told and taught me a lot, but I still need a lot of knowledge and experience to teach. so students can easily catch what I’m explaining. making lesson plans is not easy, yesterday I made it within a week. after making, my teacher asked to be printed and she corrected it. after getting corrections, I revised after 2-3 days. finalizing the concepts and methods of teaching to be precise within 40 minutes, we can complete our teaching procedures. starting from praying, Pre-activity, drill or review about lesson yesterday, a motivation that is warming up on the topic to be discussed that day, the procedure is explaining the material, generalization in the form of a few questions that cover the entire discussion on that day. application is a more specific question about the topic of learning. Evaluate the coordinating conjunction where I give assignments to do exercises from books, as well as small quizzes before leaving class. all that must be done for 40 minutes. Isn’t that an easy matter to manage class conditions and manage time well? although Ma’am Trance as a teacher in the class has told and taught me a lot, I still need a lot of knowledge and experience to teach. so that, students can easily catch what I’m explaining.

Today is our second day to observation in Central Philippine University. Yesterday, we have observation around the campus and the school. But today, we observe about situation in the class. I am so glad to meet them here. Now, I am a student teacher at Central Philippine University.

Ma’am Janet as principal of elementary school asks to us about what subject we want to teach. But, it’s only between grade 5 and 6. So, I believe in myself that I can teach English. Then, start from today I observe an English class V-Humility in Elementary school building room 203. I accompany Ms. Ruth Marie B. Trance to teach here.

The class start from 7.30 till 04.00 PM. It’s full enough for me to study during a day. Because, I easy to feel bored. I guess it’s not too far with Indonesia students, because they also easy to bored. At 09.00 a.m. we have to rest, so Ma’am Trance explain me about the schedule what will we do tomorrow.

This week we have “Christ Emphasis Week” (CWE) then, every students must to go to the Rose Memorial Auditorium to pray. It’s hold on 2.30-4.00 PM. students are always happy and cheerful even though it is late afternoon. Because I am a Moslem and I have to pray. Then, usually I ask permission to back to the dormitory to take a little rest and do the Ashar prayer.

At the night at 7pm we are invited to have a dinner together with Central Philippine University crew at Festive Walk Mega world. We met in elementary school and went there by car. the distance from the CPU to the Festive walk is not too far. It is a beautiful place which has a light water fountain. So, they treat us to have a dinner at Kuya J Restaurant. We try a variety of typical Filipino foods. Because we are a moslem, and they know forbid to us to eat pork, then, they order a lot of food which has no pork. Like a noodles, chicken, egg with eggplant inside, fish.

We are so glad to have them. At last, they introduce us to eat “halo-halo”. It’s one of typical Filipino foods which made of ice, milk, ice cream, taro, banana, bubble etc. it’s taste is sweet like me, hehehe :D. After having a dinner together we take a picture together and walk around festive walk to see the beautiful of Iloilo city.

This is my next story after I invite you to tour around Central Philippine University. Yesterday, I told about the CPU in my blog and also in my Youtube channel. Here, I will tell you about how to teach in the Philippines.

My first week I was at CPUES it could be said to be an experience where I adapted. Starting from adapting the new environment, culture and educational environment there. In my opinion, there are significant differences between primary schools in Indonesia and the Philippines. Normally, the state of the class in the Philippines, especially the school where I teach, is included as a good school. Each class has adequate lighting, a fan, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a small library, CPU mottoes, a picket schedule, etc. The number of students in each class is also normal around 30-35 students. Besides, CPU-ES also has a CCTV in each room which always monitored by the principal (Ma’am Jaco) from her room.

I did the observe around the school, teaching and learning activities in the classroom. I got an allocation in grade 5 humility English subject. Ma’am Ruth Marie B. Trance is the main teacher in this class. In my case, she always applies a lot of learning methods, depends on the goals that she will achieve. But, she more often applies active learning. She is a great teacher for me. She taught me a lot of things, including how to manage the class. It is not an easy thing for me to manage the class. Moreover, children of their age are very active and like to play so much. Usually, she has her own way of quieting the children, by saying “left hand, zip!” immediately all the children are silent and pay attention. Actually, all teachers have their own ways to control the class.

Many things are got from joining this program. Especially from Ma’am Trance who taught me a lot both from words and actions related to education. She always prepares many things before entering class. Starting from ice breaking, dances, games until a movie that she connects with the lesson she will teach that day. She always has a great idea and new ways to make the students excited and feel not bored with learning. In preparing before teaching, she arranges the various innovations that she will apply every day. She always took from many sources of learning material, such as a minimum three books, internet and YouTube.  She said that “books and the internet are very helpful, you can combine them and make your style worksheet”. Because this a digital era makes us be able to access many learning resources easily.

After making the preparation starting from the material, objectives, strategies, methods have been implemented well, the teacher must and need to know the level of understanding of the material delivered from each student. Then how to measure it? The tricks are to give the exercise and quiz at the end of the lesson. In addition, every at the end of the week there will be a little exam in which their mark will be entered into the school record. If the students who gain a score above 70 with a percentage of more than 50% then learning in the class can be declared successful. Meanwhile, if students who achieve a score above 70 only one, two, three students, then learning cannot be continued, or the teacher must override learning. So how if there are only a few students who get scores below 60? Then, who gets the grade below the average must follow remedial from the teacher. The aim of this remedial test is to strengthen students’ understanding and grade of the lesson. This remedial test is mandatory, but students do not need to worry because this test is free of charge.

Here the student test is divided into two test; formative and summative. The formative test is carried out immediately after learning without entering student grades into school records. While the summative test is a weekly test, usually held on Friday, where the value will be entered into the school record. Here is the way to teach in the Philippines especially in Central Philippine University-Elementary School.