Ibu Noorjannah and the 8th Graders

#ibu #8thgraders

Class 8D with Ibu Noorjannah in brown hijab

I was introduced to my cooperating teacher, Ibu Noorjannah, on Tuesday. I observed 2 classes of hers that day and one class on each of the other days.

Trivia 1: The term "Ibu" is used to address a married woman or a mother in Indonesia, hence Ibu Noorjannah.

Trivia 2: The school, just like the other schools in the city, has classes from Mondays to Saturdays. We were asked to be at school only from Mondays to Fridays, though.

This schedule of classes was posted on the wall inside the administration office.

Ibu Noorjannah holds English classes. She handles 4 sections of 8th graders and 1 section for 7th grade. I only observed three 8th grade classes. She meets with each class twice a week. Each meeting is good for two periods.

She usually starts her classes with greetings in Islam (Arabic) followed by greetings in English. Throughout the lesson, she uses mostly their local language which made me realise she is most likely using the translation method. The students use a textbook/workbook that relies mostly on the teacher's translations, as per my buddy's comment. I did not see much learning aides, or learning materials being used. The school has projectors but perhaps its usage is limited to who booked it first.

A copy of the assessment test given to the classes I observed.

A non-teaching staff usually makes the assessment for the week's topic/topics which would be used by all the 8th graders.

The students answering the test

The class activities were concentrated in answering activities in their books. The focus of the lesson was mostly on writing sentences. I did not witness any speaking and listening drills which I think are very essential in learning a different language. I also had a glance at their curriculum guide which is written in Bahasa Indonesia.

A copy of the first page of the school's syllabus

I had to ask my buddy and the supervising teacher to translate it for me. Their translation was sufficient for me to get a grasp of what competencies are aimed for. However, the lesson plan I was asked to follow was a bit too challenging for my style of teaching. I had to ask my supervising teacher's permission if I could tweak the lesson plan to my convenience, and I am so grateful to Mr. Fajeri for trusting me to design my own lesson.

Mr. Fajeri holding up a musical instrument at the music room. He deserves so much credit for all the help he rendered starting from when he picked me up at the airport.

Amah. I jokingly said she is my mother in Indonesia. She is always ready to assist me and always seeing through that I got everything I need. She is easily my favourite Indonesian.

With what I have observed, I would need to design a lesson that not only is effective but also fun for the students. A lesson that enhances not only their reading and writing skills but more so on their listening and speaking skills in English. I could not gauge their english level as I have not heard them speak and the teacher talked to them in their language 90 percent of the time. I also cannot speak nor understand their language so next week will be a great challenge teaching them a topic that I think is for intermediate level English learners.