Teacher's Professional Development

(RE)GROUPING YANG SERU

–by Mierza Miranti

“New semester means new groups in Englicious Class!”

“Yaaay!” murid-murid kelas 12 itu pun berseru gaduh. Haduuh… ko kelasku tidak seperti kelas 12 ya…

“Yaiyalah… liat aja gurunya!” Itu komentar rekan kerja saya sesama guru. Wew… ~____~”

Lalu, saya tawarkan murid-murid tercinta saya itu untuk membuat group sendiri dengan batasan bahwa dalam satu kelompok terdiri dari laki-laki dan perempuan.

Ajaibnya, mereka menolak lho! Berbeda dengan tahun lalu yang langsung iya-iya aja karena mereka memang ingin bergabung dengan kelompok bermainnya (geng maksudnya).

Tahun ini anak-anak menunjukkan wajah bingung ketika saya meminta mereka memilih sendiri anggota kelompoknya. (Haduuh.. bu Mierza… ingat2! setiap anak itu unik.. begitu juga tiap generasi!) Anggap saja tahun ini setiap kelas itu kompak, sehingga bingung mau dengan siapa….(terus berpikir positif J)

Baiklah.. putar otak…. akhirnya si jurus grouping pun dikeluarkan!

“Alright students…. Since you ask for it, I’m going to regroup you in a natural way.” (Halah! Natural way? Bingung habisnya mau ngomong apa.. hehe…)

“Please stand up and get ready to listen.”

Stop!

Ceritanya akan saya hentikan disini ya karena lamannya mungkin tidak akan cukup, berhubung saya mengajar 5 kelas yang berbeda.  Yang pasti pengelompokkan tadi berjalan seru, menyenangkan, serta menegangkan dan mungkin bisa menjadi ide ice breaking juga.

Nah… Berikut 2 tipe grouping seru yang pernah saya lakukan di kelas.

A.  Object Grouping

Object Grouping

(RE)Grouping yang satu ini hanya mengandalkan sisi auditory  dan kinestetik siswa (dan mungkin gurunya juga, hehe). Dari object grouping, kita bisa mengelompokkan siswa menjadi pasangan atau kelompok bertiga, berempat, berlima, dst… dst.. tergantung kebutuhan.

Yang harus dilakukan pertama yaitu mengkomunikasikan apa yang harus dilakukan dan pastikan siswa mengerti. Jika dibutuhkan (dan biasanya diperlukan), guru ikut memperagakan objek yang dimaksud dengan variasi sesuai pribadi masing-masing tentunya. Namun, seperti yang dibilang murid-murid saya: semakin lebay semakin oke! Hehehe.

Peraturan lainn yang saya terapkan yaitu pada setiap perubahan gerakan, anak-anak harus memastikan bahwa anggota kelompoknya benar-benar baru! Ini untuk menghindari kelompok yang mencoba untuk terus bersama. Kalaupun ada anak yang ingin memolakan, silahkan.. mereka jadi terpacu untuk berpikir mengenai peluangnya kan. (Hehe… gotcha!)

Objek dan gerakan yang saya pilih lalu jelaskan kepada anak-anak adalah sebagai berikut:

  1. Liberty Statue. Anak-anak diminta memperagakan patung liberty dengan satu tangan di atas berpura-pura memegang obor dan satu tangan lain memegang buku. Biasanya saya meminta anak-anak untuk memerankannya secara anggun (setelah saya peragakan tentunya J).
  2. Welcome Statue. Kalau yang ini saya ambil dari patung selamat datang. Anak harus mencari teman berbeda jenis kelamin den memeragakan patung ini dengan seimbang. Biasanya saya lebih-lebihkan peragaannya sehingga anak-anak harus berdiri satu kaki, dengan satu tangan ke depan dan yang satu ke belakang. (Gambar menyusul deh…J)
  3. Traffic light. Nah, kalau yang ini lebih mudah. Dengan mencari dua orang berbeda, anggota kelompok diminta berbaris. Yang paling depan jongkok, yang di tengah membungkuk, dan yang terakhir berdiri dengan posisi agak menjorok kedepan. (Iya..iya… gambar menyusul ya….)
  4. Train. Untuk membentuk kelompok berisi empat orang, anak-anak diminta berbaris dengan tangan yang bergerak-gerak ke depan dan belakang persis seperti roda kereta api dengan siswa yang paling depan memperagakan masinis yang menarik tali untuk membunyikan… ng… apa ya namanya? Peluit? Yang bunyinya tuuut… tuuuut… Oya minta anak-anak membunyikannya juga… Huahahahaha.. seru deh pokonya.

Biasanya saya hanya membuat kelompok paling banyak berisi empat orang agar kerjanya efektif. Tapi kalau anda ingin membuat lebih.. silahkan cari ide lainnya. Yang pasti kegiatan ini sangat saya rekomendasikan.. terutama setelah istirahat makan siang. ^_____^.

B. Category grouping.

Kalau yang ini, kita harus menyiapkan kertas sejumlah anak yang mau kita bagi. Lalu, tentukan jumlah kelompoknya. Idenya banyak untuk grouping yang ini dan sangat bisa disesuaikan dengan pembelajaran. Biasanya, saya meminta anak untuk tidak memperlihatkan kertas yang dia dapat (atau malah saya minta lagi kertasnya hehe). Hal ini saya lakukan agar dia bisa ingat kata-kata yang dia dengar dan akan aktif mengucapkannya.

Category grouping yang pernah saya lakukan (dan yang saya ingat tentunya J):

1.   Animal sound grouping. Ini seru… karena kelas anda akan berubah menjadi KANDANG!!! Hehehe… Pertama bagikan secara acak suara-suara binatang (kalau saya waktu itu ya suara binatang dalam bahasa Inggris): ruff-ruff  (anjing), Meow (kucing), Oink-oink (babi), cockle-doodle-doo(ayam), dan quack-quack (bebek). Anda bisa membahas ini setelah mereka duduk dengan kelompoknya.

2.  Parts of Speech sound grouping. Untuk pengelompokkan yang ini, karena tujuannya adalah grouping, maka anak-anak saya haruskan membawa kamus sehingga mereka tahu kelompok parts of speech-nya (haduh.. apa ya bahasa Indonesianya?). Sama dengan animal sound, pastikan anda sudah menyiapkannya. Contoh:

Nouns: classroom, toilet, tree, door

Verbs: leave, write, smile, try

Adjective : beautiful, great, enormous, terrible

Dst.. dst..

Grouping ini sangat bisa anda variasikan sesuai dengan pembelajaran jika terdapat pengelompokan-pengelompokan yang harus dihapalkan. Dari pengalaman saya, banyak anak (kinestetik terutama) yang terbantu untuk menghapal kategori yang memusingkan (misalkan pengarang dan buku-bukunya atau nama binatang langka dan habitatnya) dan terbukti mereka mampu memilahnya ketika saya membahas di akhir pengelompokkan.  Biar anak-anak dulu yang mencoba mencari tahu. Sehingga tidak hanya disuapi (itu menurut saya loo…)

3.   Pasangan peribahasa. Kalau yang ini ketika saya mengajar bahasa Indonesia di SD dan saya memang mau mereview peribahasa sekalian meminta anak duduk dan bekerja berpasangan. Caranya, siapkan sejumlah peribahasa yang harus dihapalkan anak. Jika memang hanya 5, misalnya, silahkan dikalikan hingga mencapai jumlah anak. Misalkan terdapat 20 anak di kelas,berarti ada 4 set peribahasa yang harus disiapkan. Lalu, potong peribahasa tersebut agar bisa dipasangkan. Contohnya peribahasa berikut adalah satu set yang ditulis di kertas terpisah: “Berakit-rakit ke hulu, berenang-renang ke tepian” dan “Bersakit-sakit dahulu, bersenang-senang kemudian”. Terakhir, jangan lupa acak set yang sudah disiapkan. Lagi-lagi… pengelompokkan ini juga bisa didesain untuk mata pelajaran apapun yang membutuhkan kemampuan anak untuk mampu memasangkan.

Satu hal yang harus selalu diingat adalah aturan main. Agar seru dan tidak menimbulkan ekses yang berlebihan, pastikan anak didik anda tahu apa yang harus dilakukan dan bagaimana melakukannya. Selain itu, saya selalu membuat kelas saya adalah panggung teater. Karena saya percaya :

“Teaching is 50% preparation and 50% theatre!” Hehehe…

Jika anda memiliki ide pengelompokkan yang lebih seru lagi jangan sungkan berbagi, ya!

Salam Pendidikan!

 ***visit also klastulistiwa.guru-indonesia.net***

Students' Masterpieces

FRESH!!! The First Semester FE Question Guideline for S-12 of 2011-2012

S-12 Semester Test Guideline 2011-2012

There you go… hope you can prepare yourself well for the first semester final exam. Good luck, guys! ^___^

 

Teacher's Professional Development

5 Gifts from Munif Chatib’s Session

On October 8, 2011, the rain would not stop 8 teachers and I to go to a seminar in Tanjung Karang. Even it was raining cats and dogs, we gathered in front of the Single Quarter (the lodgings provided by the company for single teachers or those having no child at the site) at five – not really punctual though, all of us departed 10 minutes afterward :P.

 Okay…

We arrived at 7.50, 10 minutes earlier since the seminar started at eight. The committee welcomed us warmly. They even  showed us the way to their canteen (maybe it was really shown that we were REALLY starving.. Hahaha! – “Come on, we departed at 5!” as we always defended ourselves :D)

About the seminar itself.

Since it was held in Sekolah Global Madani, an Islamic school, the first agenda after the opening speeches is Al Qur’an recitation. It was so amazing to see a high school student reciting it without reading.

Now… What we have been waiting for: MUNIF CHATIB *applause*

I do not remember exactly what he presented, but I always remember the 5 gifts teachers should give when she comes into a classroom.

1. To see that every child is a STAR

 Every human is a masterpiece. Calling – or even thinking – names to be given to a child such as stupid, lazy, or any other names would only discourage them. Every child is born to be a star of their own…

2. To understand the OCEAN of their capacities

The slides show a turn-around pyramid. From the biggest to smallest space, it was written:

– Ahlaq – affective

– Creativity – psycho motor

– Cognitive

If we can combine them, not only focusing on the last smallest portion i.e. cognitive, we could have the best final  result: THE BENEFIT

3. To find out the TREASURE in every child

He redefined the term INTELLIGENCE into HABIT. By creating activities that will provoke them to improve their CREATIVITY and PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS.

He also put forward the danger of forcing students’ cognitive aspect. It will finally make their character and creativity to withdrawn and finally will create a COGNITIVE SHUT DOWN. We have to make sure, as a teacher, we give proper stimulus, in order to help them developing their competence.

What we have to bear in mind is that one’s intelligence is not related  to their physical and brain conditions as well as the result of standardized tests. Yet, it is closely related to DISCOVERING ABILITY, THE PROPER PLACE, and BENEFIT.

4. DIVING to discover their ability

As educators, we have to train ourselves to find out their abilities, NOT heir inabilities. As what we have known before, there are 9 multiple intelligence. We have to be able to find out what intelligence surfaces from every child.

5. Find out their talent

Every child has a potential to have a talent. If one has found it, it could grow into a hobby, and developed into ability, which is supported by their interest, and finally could go more serious into their hobby.

Wow…

The way he packed the session is interesting. Especially at the time he used some videos of children whom we might think that they could go that far.

Well. actually we expected more from this seminar. We expect something applicative so we can share and apply it in the classroom. However, the school promise to hold a workshop on that one. After then… I have no more to say… Let’s see….

 

 

My Reflection

A Case Against Ranked School Report

Reading Pak Marsudi W. Kisworo’s blog (he’s the Head of Perbanas) entitled “Guru yang Melahirkan Kehebatan (dari Rhenald Kasali)” reminds me to a national event held a couple of month ago: The Independence Day of Indonesia on 17 August 2011…

In this site, we celebrated it by starting the day with a flag ceremony. All employees of the companies – I live in a sugar cane site where all employees are provided housings and free education (How lucky we are!) – as well as the school communities gathered in a field.

One of the agenda is to announce the students with the best achievements. The first rank students- as they would call them literally translated. And there you go, one by one students were called by the announcers…

At a glance, I saw a wishful face of my students… wishing that they would be called as well. But that would not happen since the number of students called were even less that one percent. Some students might think that it would be such a fantasy to be appreciated like that. To be known to be the best… the best that they can be however.

It has been far too long that we put exaggerated priority on the cognitive level of the students. I professionally think – as an educator – instead of encouraging them, it would be the other way around. How about some students who are improved their interpersonal skill who do not face any difficulties in mingling with anyone. Or the ones who have a strong character that they could be the a promising leader. Why don’t we also put them in the “rank”?

How long will we be trapped in this “ranking system” that only creates more and more problems in maintaining characters? We have been through some years in which cheating is considered not special anymore in facing the national exam. How could we build better generations if this continues to happen?

The questions.. I bet… should be answered by myself. I should continue my fight to put forward this case… against the ranked school report. So that the future generations can be well acknowledged more than their brain to be the best in the class room, but to be the best that they can be.

Students' Masterpieces

The Menu for 2011-2012

Welcome the new generation of Ibu Mierza’s Englicious Students 2011-2012! Yup… We are starting fresh and rejuvenated in this delicious English classroom. We’re not going to only to prepare you to be the best that you can be in using English, but also to have fun with it.

The main topic for the first semester will be about the Glocal Poverty Issues happening around us. The appetizer is on the introduction to Glocal Poverty itself by being in it through a theatrical performance. Afterward, I invite you to investigate the causes and effects of Glocal Poverty and result a sequences based on your own analysis. And finally, the semester will end with the fascinating desert of your rebuttal opinions and arguments on what YOU can do to overcome poverty (I personally never believe in the word ABOLISH POVERTY).

As for the second semester, at a glance, I will show you that preparing for the next step to your future – a.k.a. The National Exam – can be also as delicious as dining itself. We’re going to cherish every moment of it and make it as wonderful as we can… in our very own Englicious Classroom. Hopefully you are patient enough in waiting for it to happen.

Well, happy tasting the deli of English and tell the world – through your blog – that you are the Glocal Generation!

Students' Masterpieces

NEW!!! FE MATERIAL!!!

Guys…

Herewith I attach the  list of materials you will face in the final exam this semester. Just click on the link and happy downloading…

Good luck!

English 1st Semester FE 1011

 

Ms. M

Students' Masterpieces

The Menu

Welcome to Englicious, 12 Graders!

Now we are starting fresh and getting ready to be rejuvenated in the classroom. The main topic (as always) will be the glocal issues happening around us. This year, we will deal with our own way of Perceiving the World Differently through  topic of Global Poverty, as well as to find out our role in maintaining Environmental Sustainability through the issue of Global Warming (Between Myth and Reality), and of course – since this class will face the what is so-called National Exam, the final menu on the list is Preparing for the Future that mostly will deal with types of texts and expressions.

The things we cover will most likely be as follow:

  1. Expressions for : suggesting, begging, complaining, discussing possibilities to do something, giving commands, acknowledging one’s fault, promises, blaming, expressing curiosity, stating stances, persuading, suggesting, criticizing, giving expectation, reminding, showing regrets, making plans, stating purpose and aim, giving prediction, speculating, and giving opinion.
  2. Types of text: narrative, explanation, discussion, and review.
  3. All the things that most likely will appear in the National Exam.

Well, happy tasting the deli of English and tell the world – through your blog – that you are the Glocal Generation!

Note: Herewith I attached the  Assessment Rubric for Engliciousclass Blog Project 2010.

Regards,

Ms. M