Breaking My Boredom..

     Well.. Hello, everyone! How's life? It has been a long time to not to greet "the world" through this blog... :) Okay then.. The theme of my writing now is "throwing away" the laziness that has been infected me for so long. It should be no longer available in my life. but, I'm still trying. :D

     I'm trying to be more enthusiastic in writing rather than talking. I'm trying to keep my curiosity longer than before. I'm trying to write everything that comes in my mind. One of the media is this blog!! yeeaaah... I'm on fire now! *mudah2an istiqomah! aamiin... *

     Hmm.. because the theme of this occasion is to break my boredom of facing many tasks, so it is better for me to share about "fun" theme. Here I wanna talk about my experience today. 

      Today, I just taught in my lovely school, however the condition of my teaching today was so different. It was started by my lateness in coming.. Then my young brother's existence in my teaching process. Yes, he decided to wait for my teaching ends for the sake of going to my dormitory. He planned to enjoy his long holiday by going around & "jajan2" in Gerlong. 

       In short, my teaching ends, I and my young brother went by bus & omprengan. Before going to dormitory, I'd rather choose to go to Baltos first, there I tried to confirm my shoes order. Unfortunately, that shoes hadn't been available! Oh God! It took more than a month to have that shoes. It's really annoying & disappointing actually, but what should I do then? since this shoes was waited and really expected, I should be patient!!
Because of the disappointment, we just did "windows shopping" for about ten minutes, but.. it turns to be "really shopping" in fact -____-. My young brother saw an eye catching item to grab: LEGO !  My heart was racing, my mouth was murmuring indicated "Please, don't ask me to buy this one....!" but.. I saw his face turns bright when he held that toy. Well, I lost! I called my father to ask for his agreement to buy that "expensive" toy. Unbelievably, my mother knew this as well. as I thought before, there wouldn't be "yes" answer from her amazing mouth. hehehe... but still, that toy was succeeded to be brought by him. 

aaaah.... the shoes wasn't successfully taken but my money was still decreased. nasyiiiiib :D
Finally, we decided to go to dormitory earlier than what we have planned (red: to avoid unexpected matter). heheheh.. 

That's all my story about today..
guuuuuud byeeeeee 

:)

 

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Summary of Classroom Management by Harmer

Are you an English Education student? or are you a teacher?  If you are included in both criteria, this following material will be really helpful. As a common thing, teachers dominantly hold teaching activity in classroom. Therefore, managing the classroom situation will be essential for the sake of succeeding a teaching learning process. To know more about it, here I summarize important points of managing classroom taken from Harmer (2007,p.34-45).

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

For managing classroom in an effective way, teachers should be able to handle a range of variable. It consists of organizing classroom space, students’ working, and classroom time. We also need to notice how we appear to student, how we use their voice, the way teachers talk to the students, who talks most in the lesson, and the role of mother tongue in lessons.

            To manage the classroom, we teachers should consider our physical presence and behavior in the classroom. The way we move, stand, respond to what happen in class, the degree of awareness to the classroom situation, and marking the difference between successful and less satisfactory lesson are the matters of appropriacy. We teachers also should consider how close we are to the students. The matter is about proximity.

Movement

Every teacher has their own way to take a look to their movement. Nevertheless, moving around the classroom to some extent is regarded as the most successful way to do. It can retain students’ interest and make closer to smaller group. However, it depends on the teachers’ personality to choose which physical way they want to do.

Awareness

Awareness is assessing what students have said and responding appropriately because making contact with students is the key of helping students to learn in the classroom. Self-awareness is also important because by having this, teachers can measure their behavior and know how students see them. Therefore, awareness can be concluded in personality aspect to manage classroom.

Using the voice

Teachers’ voice should be audible by students who sit in the front until in the back of class. Being audible here means they tend to have a good projection rather than a high volume. Teachers should vary the volume of voice that depends on the activity. The volume of voice will be different when we are giving instruction, introducing a new activity, and having an informal conversation.

Conservation

It means that teachers should control their voice by emphasizing the important thing to conserve their voice.

Talking to students

The manner of teachers’ talk/interact with students is one important thing. An ability that is commonly used by teachers is rough-tune the language. The ability is the way to make teachers be more understood. Teachers adapt their language by using physical movement, gesture, expression, and mime.

Giving instructions

In giving instruction, it is better for teachers to keep giving a simple and logical thing. It is also necessary to check whether the students have understood or not. It is carried out by asking students or one of them to show the other students in the class how the exercise works.

Student talk and teacher talk

In this matter, the activity should be student-centered. It means that student talk time should dominate the activity than teacher talk time. Teachers also should consider teachers talk quality.

Using the L1

The using of L1 should be done dominantly in class. L1 may be used when there are complicated instructions that should be conveyed to students. It is forgiven to use L1 in order to make sure the students’ comprehension about the instructions.

Creating Lesson Stages

The beginning of lesson stage should be necessarily clear. It may give students’ interest. Here the teachers really need students’ attention from the beginning to the last stage of lesson.

Different seating arrangements

It indicates the approach that the teachers used. It means that different seating arrangement gives different approach in conducting teaching-learning activity. For making it clear, here is the details of each arrangement.

Orderly rows

It can be used when doing organized activity such as explain grammar points, watching DVD, using board, etc. in this seating arrangement, the teachers can keep her eye contact and reach students’ attention in classroom. It is to make sure that their students involve in classroom activity.

Circles and horseshoes

It is especially used in smaller classes. This arrangement makes the students feel equal. It can lower the barrier between teachers and students. The students can see the expression, gesture, and body movement each other.

 Separate tables

It can make the teachers easier to see the students’ work in group. Teachers can explain in a smaller group. It is also effectively used in collaborative writing, working around screen or listening. However it may be a problem when not all students are happy to work in group.

Different students grouping

Whole class

This will increase the sense of belonging between teachers and students. The students will make the students motivated and treat them as the same part of the group. Nevertheless, this way is less effective if we want to get individual participation.

Group work and pair work

It makes students work individually and independently. The students will feel free to do the work. It makes teachers are able to give more focus on a group who needs a more attention. On contrary, this seating arrangement also gives some disadvantages. It will be a problem when the students do not want to be in the same group. They would not be happy. Then, the problem also happens in the unequal participation among students. The using of the same first language could be another problem as well.

Solo work

The students can do as they want. They know when the best time to think. They also can consider their need and progress.

Class to class

It can motivate students in different level. For students in lower level, they will be motivated by the higher level class. Then for the students of higher level, they will feel positive because they are able to help another student to learn. 

Reference: 

Harmer, Jeremy. 2007b. How to Teach English. China: Pearson Education Limited.

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The Only One Option: Being a Teacher!

      Teacher; one of professions that I never thought before. Started from my childhood, I was always wondering of another wonderful professions such as a doctor, reporter, and presenter. I thought those professions could make a lot of money. hehehe.. Yeah, that's a classic statement when we were asked to tell the reason. However, when I wondered other professions, it didn't mean that I disliked another job like a teacher. I was always proud of this profession because both my mom and dad were teachers too. My pride of this profession came from a huge number of sacrifice given while we are carrying out the job. 

      Along with my happy life when I was in junior and senior high school, my dreams became more realistic. My interest went further to be someone who had to live in medical sector. Thus, I kept asking myself "what is my 'real' dream?", "What is the kind of life that you really want to face?". Those questions kept confusing inside my head. My immature behaviour in choosing some options met a real temptation when I had to choose what major I had to choose. 

      There were so many options that gave me a chance to choose my future at that time. Furthermore, I consulted my interest to my parents. My father still had a dream to make me be the part of medical team. He wanted me to be a doctor, pharmaceutist, midwife, or medical analyst. Meanwhile, my mom suggested that I'd better to be a teacher. It was very great professions, she said. After taking a long deliberation, I realized I am a talkative one and I loved to feel school atmosphere. Thus, I had to choose a job that needs to talk a lot. Moreover, I thought that becoming a teacher was one of suitable job for me. Finally, I chose an education major in a public university in Bandung. 

      From that story, I just realized that I chose this profession as the only one option. This fact always makes me feel proud.    

      

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