Maria and Evey (...not real names)

The class felt a little bit tense today - but well, wasn’t every microteaching class tense? But it really got especially tense today, since we all knew that one of us was going to be teaching the rest of the class, I guess..

…I was actually pretty excited at the thought, I mean, BRING IT ON!!!

I was really torn between wanting to stay low-profile and suppressing my desire to practice teaching…

Anyways, Mr. Prast began the class with this long list of classroom management tips which, ohmegosh, contained a lot of things I hadn’t thought of before?

I didn’t know, for example, that you shouldn’t ask the students whether or not they are understanding what you’re teaching them, that it’s being considered being “lazy”??? I mean, I thought it was considered “being thoughtful”? I mean, yeah, there are smarter ways to check up on students’ comprehension, like giving them tests or sort of, I just didn’t know that doing it straight-forward was being lazy.

But then again checking up on the students by testing them will improve my questioning skill, so yeah, I’d better use that more often…

There are about 25 points, which is quite a lot (though very interesting). Therefore, to save you readers from boredom, I’ll just post my summary of the classroom management tips up on the next post, so you can skip it altogether if you like.

Anyways, the time came when one of us had to practice teaching the class, and we were finally chosen randomly since nobody volunteered (duh… *rolls eyes*).

The first lucky person was Maria! I mean, yeah, for a random choice, it’s a really good choice. I doubt she’d agree that it’s a good thing, but, well, you know, I really thought she’s up to snuff. I’ve never actually seen Sarce teaching in class, but I’ve noticed that she was one of those people who’d catch on to things really quickly in the class, besides another girl whose name i'm going to withold…

Mr. Prast asked for two volunteers to accompany him into the… I really don’t know what they call it, but I’m just going to call it “the command center” (Since, you know, it sounds awesome)… and Zeek and me offered ourselves. I’ve seriously been curious about the room ever since the first microteaching class so there’s no way I’m not gonna volunteer. So a minute before Sarce had to begin teaching, the two of us entered the room and WOAH!

I knew there were cameras in the microteaching room, but I didn’t know they were working… I know, I’m stupid, whatever, move on... three cameras, all with different angles, all with working microphones which, my God, must be set on maximum coz I swear I could hear every whisper in the room through the headphones.

Anyways, Maria started, and she didn’t disappoint. Even thought she taught without any prior preparations, her only problem was that she was a little bit nervous when she began. She clapped her hands a lot and told a story which was dragging on a little bit. But the rest of the class went okay, and I think we all saw her potential. She could be fantastic with enough practice.

The second person that was randomly picked was Evey, which didn’t thrill her at all. She was much more anxious than Sarce, so I really couldn’t predict how things were going to turn out. But you know what, Evey was a bomb! She only had minor problems, but she really managed to get the whole class excited to learn things. It actually, and Mr. Prast seemed to agree to this, felt like a real class.

At the end of the day, I think we all went home feeling like we’ve been given a great performance by two really promising teachers.

I noticed something that was quite disturbing, however: Not a lot of English was being exchanged in the classroom neither Sarce’s or Evey’s sessions.
For me, it’s a really fatal problem. But then, after so many suggestions to use less English, I didn’t think I have a clue what the level of high-schoolers should be, so I just kept quiet.

But honestly, no matter how low the level of Yogyakarta high-schoolers is, I really think they should be made accustomed to practice English constantly. It’s because speaking English is not made a habit that their English level is so low, IMHO.

Of course, I really don’t know what effect it will have on students’ motivation, so… I think I’ll just attempt using English when I start teaching in schools.

…That about concludes this week’s reflection, I guess.

Take good care you all,
See you on the next reflection.

22 - 2 - 09