Reflection of UET

SMA Santa Theresia

In this semester, I should go to a school named SMA Santa Theresia to have school experience.  As in the previous semester, it is a Catholic School; I should be a teacher assistant and do team teaching there. The difference is about the limited of time. In the previous semester, I have two weeks to be in the school, but in this semester, I just have seven days to be in the school because of Easter Day. It was one of obstacles that I had there.  I have not taught in that school yet until now. I just did observation there because I should teach there in the third week.

When the first time I came to that school, I was amazed with the school, especially with the class. This school is different and unique with another school. All of class is opened class. It has no door and no window. My master teacher said that it makes teacher easy to control their students from outside and inside. I did not understand about what my master teacher said because I thought that opened class make us hard to control our students. I thought that the students will not be easy to pay attention to teacher’s explanation.

I did observation in XI Sains 2. In XI Sains 2, I cannot enter the class because this class was too small, so my master teacher asked me to observe outside. It made me hard to observe the class. Even it made me so hard to see what was going on in the class. Before I observed that class, my teacher had told me that Sains Class is really serious in studying. That is why I was not surprised at that time. The students were really serious in listening and paying attention to teachers. They did all of problems that teacher gave well. My master teacher can control and manage the class well. He knew what he should do to his students. He had loud and clear voice in that opened class, so that his students can listen what he said clearly.

There was one thing that I salute to my master teacher. He really mastered the material. He can explain the material to his students clearly. He gave challenging problems to his students. By those challenging problems, he can measure his students’ understanding.

After I observed the class, I talked to my master teacher.

“What do you think about opened class?”, asked my master teacher.

“Unique, Mister. It is different with another school”, I said.

“Which one do you like between teaching in opened class and closed class? Why?”, asked him again.

“I like teaching in closed class because I think teaching in closed class is easier than teaching in opened class, Mister. I can control and manage my class well in closed class. But if I should teach here, it will be one of challenge for me and it will be the nicest experience I will have”, answered me.

“No matter how the classroom is, you should enjoy in teaching. Understand the material and prepare all of things, you can control and manage your students well. Instead of that, experience is great teacher for the next generation like you”, explained him.

Now I understand why he said that it is easy to control the students in opened class. In opened class, we can know what our students do in outside. We also can know what our students do in inside if we are in outside. I really agree with my master teacher said. No matter how the classroom is, whether it is closed class or opened class, I should enjoy in teaching. Instead of that, as a teacher we should understand the material deeply. If we understand the material, we can use any methods to make the learning process interesting. I do agree that experience is the best teacher that we have. By having experiences, we can know how to face our students which have different background each other.