ONE VISION, ONE IDENTITY, ONE COMMUNITY
A Remarkable Footstep in Banjarmasin
WEEK ONE
Some people will say, in every problem there is greater opportunity all we need to do is to be optimistic. Our journey going to Banjarmasin, Indonesia was never easy.January 12-13, 2019 was our schedulegoing to the place to have our internship and to be part of the SEAMEO SEA – Teachers batch 7. But sadly, our flight from Davao to Manila was delayed for 2 hours. I thought that it was fine, but it’s not.Because we did not arrive on time for our flight going to Jakarta at 8:05 in the evening of January 12. And everything just happened, we arrived in Manila 9:00 o’clock in the evening, therefore we need to stay in Manila for one-night, good thing that the airline company gave us a hotel accommodation. Knowing that we missed our flight to Jakarta, we also missed our flight to Banjarmasin, and that was a very sad story for us. Fortunately, one of our teachers accompany us and find a way so that we may able to reach Banjarmasin on 14 of January in the afternoon. Although we are late, still the receiving university, Universitas Lambung Mangkurat, gave us their warm welcome and hospitality and we are very thankful for that.
After that day, I went to the laboratory school of Lambung Mangkurat University where I will have my internship, the SDN Pasar Lama 1 headed by Mr. Sakerani. I was assigned in grade IV-C under Mrs. Nafisah handling art, social science, science, and religious study. As we arrived in the school I was really surprised and amazed because we are told by our buddies to form a line in front of the gate so that the students can have a “salim”. Salim is their sign of respect to teachers, elders, and parents which is equal to “pagmamano” in the Philippines. I am very happy as every student did that to me because it is my first time to experience that kind of gesture among my students. Truly, they preserved their culture and practices as Indonesians.
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When I entered my class to have my observation, I was very nervous that time yet excited. That day, IbuNafisah was teaching art I was mesmerized how she handle her class, because it was very interactive since she used a song as a strategy to review and discuss her lessons. On the next day, as I continue with my class observation, their topic was all about the life cycle of animals and even I just watch them I really enjoyed because IbuNafisah conducted a group activity, the mechanic is that every group need to read all of the information posted in the classroom and they will memorize and recite it in front of the class in a form of a song. By observing them for the whole week it gives me eagerness to teach them because my students are and participative in class discussion.
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Today is Sunday, we have no class. YEY! And we will go to the traditional floating market in Sering, the representation of the real floating market in Sungai Pinang Village, Martapura River. In there, we rode a boat and bought some goods. During the tour, I saw the rich culture of the Indonesian wherein they really patronizing and selling their own products. They also gave time to their family to have some bonding and quality time. One thing also I observed is that, even though they lived here in Banjarmasin they still went to their traditional places and still find joy and amusement in there.
ON BECOMING A TEACHER
The second and third week of the internship was the teaching assistant and the actual teaching practice. During my first day of being a teaching assistant, I helped my cooperating teacher to prepare for her activity because she will have a group presentation. She gave pictures to every student and the pupils will classify if the picture they are holding is clothing, medicine, food products. I observed that her strategy was a combination of kinesthetic and logical intelligence in which it let the students to organize the given pictures. I found that activity to be effective because the pictures are contextualized which means it is related to the real life and experiences of the students. Also, in this week I experienced to be a poet. HAHA. This happened, my mentor taught about language specifically on how to put stresses in a poem, but before that, she let her students to make their own one stanza poem about police and all students must present their poems with proper diction and emotion. Out of curiosity I also made my poem and I told my buddy about it. Surprisingly, she told my mentor that I will also present my poem, and it was hard for me to say no because all of the pupils including my mentor were cheering for me. So, I accept the challenge, I translated my poem from English into Bahasa and presented both of it in front of the class.
WEEK TWO AND THREE
Hooray! This is the third week of my internship. And guess what? I will be the teacher for my class, I am very happy that finally I will teach my beloved students. My topic was all about the benefits of natural resources. During the planning and preparation of my lesson, I preferred to have videos so that my students can really understand my topic because I knew and according to my buddy that if I will do all the talking they will not understand me because of the language barrier. In my activity, I chose to have a role play so that my students can really understand and for me to check if they appreciate the value of natural resources to humans. I was very glad that I finally taught in a totally different school and students compared to what I had experienced in the Philippines, but still my teaching needs to have improvement because as I evaluated myself I am still adjusting on the new environment that I encountered.
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This week, we went to Lambung Mangkurat museum as part of our excursion activity, I was really amazed on the things I’ve seen inside of it. The museum displays the national treasure of Banjarmasin and the whole Indonesia which is speaks and parts of their history. During the tour I saw and reflect on the rich culture of Indonesia, their simple way of living in ancient times which are still observable until today although it is modernized, like for example the using of boat to sell goods is reflected on the floating market today. I really enjoyed the tour in the museum because some of the things that was being displayed in there has a great similarity to the Philippines and Filipinos’ way of life because until today we still keep on using it especially the tools used for farming. We also went to Matapura Market, in there, they sell so many gift items and souvenirs and I bought a lot of it for my family and teachers as a sign of gratitude for helping me experience Indonesia.
The sadness of Hellos - Goodbye
This is my week of pain. Because this is the schedule of my final demonstration teaching and my last class in SDN Pasar Lama 1, I am very happy because I passed my final teaching through weeks of preparation, I got good grades from Dr. Norhafizah. I work so hard for my final teaching and I did a lot of preparation such as making my model and visual aids, I made a model of a mountain showing the effect if we care and we exploit our trees, when I entered the room, I was very nervous knowing that my supervisor was already there, however I gained confidence when I saw my students who are very excited for our discussion since they notice that I brought a model. The overall teaching went well; I did not expect that my supervisor will be happy for my performance. I am very thankful for my mentor and my buddy for helping me in my entire internship.
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But there will always be an end for every story, it’s time for me to say goodbye. I am very sad that time although my final teaching went great. My mentor and my students including their parents prepared something for me our classroom. I am very surprised and touched for what they did; I never thought that will prepare something special for me. I cried when one of the parents expressed her word of thanks for me. I cried because it is really hard for me to let go, I am much attached with them since my students are very kind and respectful to me although I am not an Indonesian but they treated me as part of their family. I am always be thankful to all the people who helped me and let me feel that I am still at home.
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Truly, this is not the goodbye but a see you soon!
WEEK FOUR
