Darla!

Category: college

  • Table Manner: Round 2

    You might (or might not) remember that last year I took a table manner course as one of the requirements to pass Intercultural Communication class. I passed the class successfully (I got a B); but since I was supposed to take that class this semester, I didn’t take the table manner course with my classmates. It was such a bummer because I got to attend the course with seniors. I didn’t dress very well and didn’t take many pictures.

    That was why I decided to retake the course (not the class, though; only the table manner course).

    Last year, the table manner course was held at lunch time and the students wore more casual. This year, it was held at dinner time and we were asked to wear formal clothes. The guys were all suited up and the girls wore dresses. Everybody took the course very seriously that some of them went dress and shoes hunting and such. Suddenly it was all like high school and prom night over again. It was fun, though, since I didn’t attend my senior prom in high school (it’s a sad story I don’t wanna tell ya. Sorry…)

    I wore a cute pink-ish purple floral dress (of which Velentina said was unlike me at all) and had my make up and hijab done by Ian. I took 130+ photos and had fun. It was much more fun than last year, I swear!

    And being pretty didn’t prevent me from being me. I photobombed. A lot!

  • “Guru adalah pahlawan tanpa tanda jasa.”

    The title is a famous saying in my country. I don’t know if there’s an English version of the saying, but it literally means “Teachers are heroes without medals.” You know, since they have a very noble and honourable job, teaching (and raising) young generations and future leaders.

    And I may or may not become one.

    Growing up, I had always wanted to be a teacher. When I was a kid, I used to play with my friends where they played students and I got to play the teacher. It was fun. And I also have some relatives who are teachers, so teaching has been a part of my life so far. When I was a senior in high school, I knew that I wanted to go major in English education. It was simply because 1) I wanted to be a teacher; and 2) I loved English.

    My dad was a little bit (just a tiny bit) against my idea. He thought that I shouldn’t have taken English as my major; English was supposed to be a complementary, not the primary thing to study. But he let me choose it anyway.

    And here I am now, almost at the end of my seventh semester in English Education Department. Do I still want to be a teacher? I doubt so. Why, you may ask? Because I partially don’t feel the passion anymore. When I’m sitting in front of my laptop like this, writing and reading stuffs on the internet, being a teacher is not what I want anymore. I want to be something else, just not teacher.

    However, I really enjoyed teaching in fifth grade a few weeks ago. I even thought of going back to the school to teach for several more meetings.

    I’ve still yet to figure out what I want to be after graduating university and getting my sarjana pendidikan degree. But as for now, I know I have to be a teacher. At least for the student teaching program; one full semester starting on February.

    Oh and by the way, did I tell you that I’m going to student-teach in SMAN 3 Bandung? It’s currently number one high school in Bandung. Boy am I so afraid to start this program.

  • Oh December!

    For us seniors, this December is the last month to sit in class and (pretend to) listen to the teachers and lecturers. This is the last month to be overwhelmed by the (seemingly) never ending homeworks and assignments. Next month, we’re all going to have our very last exams as college students. After that, we’ll have a drama performance and then we should say goodbye to campus life and focus on the student teaching program. The program will last for a semester, and then we should start focusing on our final paper.

    The end is near; it’s actually getting closer and closer each day.

  • Ninth

    One week before started teaching at Cipaganti Elementary, my friends and I did an observation there. We sat at the back of the class and watched the teacher delivering the lesson. At one point, one of my friends was asked to pronounce some words in front of the class for the students to repeat. She accidentally pronounced ninth as [neenth] instead of [nahynth] and the students all followed her.
    This is the kind of mistake that I’m afraid I would do when teaching them.
    She said she would fix it when she got her chance to teach the class, though. Her turn is this coming Wednesday. Mine is next week. It’s getting closer and closer. I’m really nervous.

  • Teaching Fifth Graders

    I’m not new in teaching. I gave a private English course to a second grader when I was in tenth grade. I also taught a 19 year old boy to prepare for SNMPTN when I was in fourth semester. Not to mention the microteachings I had done for Teaching Media and English Teaching and Learning classes. However, for the English for Teaching Young Learners class I’m taking this semester, I must teach in a real classroom, in a real school, with real students. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t freak me out. I’m really nervous. What if the students don’t like me and give me troubles during the class? What if I do something wrong, like pronouncing a word wrong and they end up pronouncing it wrong too? I took Teaching English to Young Learners class last semester, and from that class I can conclude that teaching children is not easy and we have to be very careful. They’re still in the phase of immitating and if we do something wrong, they can carry that wrong thing all their life.

    This Wednesday, it was Ijal’s turn to teach in the fifth grade in Cipaganti Elementary. I myself got the third turn, so I will teach in the next two weeks. Ijal did a very good job, by the way. He could grab the students’ attention and kept them excited during the whole lesson (something I’m not sure I could do when it comes my turn to teach them). Ijal used puppets, the “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” song, and Simon Says game. His lesson’s focus was on listening, whilst mine would be on reading. Reading; sounds boring huh? A lot of people don’t like reading nowadays, especially children. So I have to come up with a really good idea to make the lesson fun and interesting (since they are the keys of teaching children).

    Now, now… Do you guys have any idea to help me out?

    PS. I changed my header and tweaked some stuffs yesterday. Do you like it?