Today marks the first day of my actual internship. As I mentioned, I am assigned at the SMP Negeri 2 Banjarmasin, together with Dom and Tony.
After we were introduced to the school community during the flag hoisting ceremony, we toured the campus which was, to my estimation, only about 4,000 square metres. There were 4 buildings with 2 levels each.
The school has 37 combined teaching and non-teaching staff lead by the headmaster, Mr. Satoli and administration officials who were all welcoming and accommodating to us. I suppose they were just excited to have student teachers as we were the first student teachers that the school catered. Perhaps even more so that we are from other countries.
All the 715 students in this school are grouped by level, and then by class of about 34 students each. Each class has its own room where the subject teachers would go to for their classes except for when the students are required to be in the special room for specific lessons such as science experiments or music lessons where then they would go to the respective room for such lessons.
Here is a slideshow of the different learning resources/areas the school has.
These pictures are (per order of appearance): the general classroom, Natural Science Laboratory, Language Laboratory, Computer Room, Music Room, Multipurpose Hall, Religion Books, Language Books, Microscopes, Laboratory apparatuses (boxed as the lab is being prepared for renovation), a science project, model of the solar system and a globe, human organ system model, a tap by the garden and the canteen.
One of the food sold at the canteen is pecel (pronounced pe-chel), a traditional Javanese food made of lontong (riced cooked in a banana leaf), tahu (tofu, fried), taugi (bean sprouts), some greens, and peanut sauce.
Since it is a public school, they follow the national curriculum which has the following courses: Math, Social Sciences (History and Economics), Natural Sciences (Biology and Physics), Islamic Religion, Christianity Education, Physical Education, Music Education, Arts (Traditional Dance, Painting/Drawing), Indonesian Language, Indonesian Nationality Education, English Language Education, and Computer Science Education. They also have extra-curricular activities where the students will get grades for. These include sports, performance arts, and clubs like those who hoist the flag during the flag ceremony on Mondays. They start their classes at 7:30 am and finish at 1:50 pm with two breaks in between.
The school also follows the national evaluation for the 9th grade through a computers-based exam (CBE). The exam will be happening in 2 weeks' time so the 9th graders are busy preparing for it, together with the preparation for the Spenda Expo - a yearly cultural event for the school.
In the next days I will be observing my cooperating teacher whom I have not met yet. I will then be posting more about the school as I am sure there is more to it that I have not seen/discovered yet.