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Monday, 7 July 2008
Sunday, 22 June 2008
English For Young Learners
English, just like other languages spoken in the world, is used orally more often than for written communication. This fact should affect the teaching method used by English teachers at schools, especially in countries where English is not the first language (English as the second language/ L2), such as in
As we know that children learn a language through some phases. They learn by listening and trying to speak (mumbling) first before they are able to speak, and learn to read and write. So, in the early years of learning L2 (English), like in Elementary schools, children should get enough chances to ”experience” the simple forms of it. Let them play with it, and give them more encouragement to explore it further. In the other words, teachers should deliver the Target Language (explain the lesson) in L2. By using this strategy, students will be able to use English in more meaningful communication or in any situation.
It will be much different if the English teaching and learning process only emphasizes more on students’ writing skill. Moreover if the teachers deliver the lesson in L1 (Bahasa Indonesia), students will find difficulties when they are asked to use English in the real communication. It will obviously give them hard time.
Every level should also get different method of assessment. For them in Elementary Schools, they shouldn’t get English test with papers full of question which they have to write down the answer like what they have got in Math or Science. The English “test” (maybe it’s better called as assessment) for children or young learners ought to be focused on oral/ speaking skill, especially the vocabularies and the exactness of the diction. Of course, this type of assessment doesn’t need any formal occasion like Mid-Term or Final Test when they have to spend long time in front of their note books to study before the test. It has to be simple, and is done daily right every time after the students get the TL. It must resemble the fun of the class activities so that students don’t realize that their progress is assessed.
In Junior High Schools, Grammar is introduced. However, Teaching and Learning Process is still in interactive way: Teacher → Students, Student → Student, and Students → Teacher. Written tests can be given to this level, but still, it must be in the right portion.
At the level of Senior High School, especially in Vocational Schools, advanced English like ESP, TOEFL, etc. can be given to those “speaking” students.
Saturday, 12 January 2008
Is It Easy To Make Children Speak L2?
The way students pick up English is much different from the way they learn any other subjects at school. The students will be able to use the language after a bit long term of process. They have to strive by trying to get used to listen, think, and speak in this language before they master it by heart. In the other words, people can hardly communicate in English, as L2, even though they have got its subject from schools (Elementary, Junior High, and Senior High Schools) for years.
There are some factors needed in the process;
- Parents/ Family
Home can be a good place to develop a lingual ability of children. Parents have a chance to encourage their children to make speaking English as a habit. They can start introducing English to the children as early as possible. During the pre school period or the early years of elementary school is the best time to develop the vocabularies and structure/grammatical skill.
- Teachers
Schools may play the most important role in the process, but anyway, it doesn't mean that English teacher is the only man who carries this "heavy job". In this case, I may pick out what Mr. Yeo (SVO) said in his workshop; "There's no Harry Potter's
-Environmental Aspect
English environment should not be created at home and school only. Friends sometimes influence the skills development process much more than what parents and teachers do. However, teachers and parents only take a little part in this aspect. Moreover, it really happens when a child doesn't really have enough time to get along with his/ her parents. Some linguists even say that a "lingua franca"s learning process is much influenced by the learner's social interaction.
Without any support from those elements above, I think it's a bit hard to make a child speaks English. Parents cannot expect their children become bilingual just by sending them into an English course if they do not see any English atmosphere at home, at their playtime outside, or at school hours; No matter how expensive it costs, or how good the teacher is.
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
Reading Materials for Teens II
WHERE WILL THE POLAR BEARS GO?
Splash! A polar bear jumps off a cracking ice floe and swims to another nearby. Crack! This ice floe breaks also, making him crash into the water once again. Steam and water droplets blow from the polar bear’s nose as he lifts his big white head out of the icy water.
He swims on to three other floating ice masses before he finds a solid one large enough to support his massive weight. Eventually, however, he will be forced inland like so many other bears because of melting ice.
By comparison, this bear is lucky. Polar bears, typically strong swimmers, are drowning in increasing numbers because more and more are being stranded out at sea. The sea ice cover of the Arctic, the polar bears’ natural and only habitat, is shrinking.
Warmer temperatures are causing the ice to melt unusually early in the season and in greater proportions. The Canadian Wildlife Service reports that the average winter temperatures in the Canadian Arctic have increased three to four degrees over the last 50 years.
In the Hudson Bay, ice is melting an average of two and a half weeks earlier than in the mid-1970s, which many scientists believe is due to global warming. Polar bears in this region rely on the ice coverage in the winter and spring in order to hunt ringed seals, which are further out to sea.
The shrinking ice cover significantly shortens the bears’ hunting season. During this time they must build up their fat stores to survive their nomadic hibernation through the long winter. Studies have shown that the bears are now coming to shore, on average, 15 percent lighter than they were 20 years ago. In addition, the Hudson Bay polar bear population has decreased by 22 percent, from 1,194 to 935, since 1987.
In Alaska, the summer thaw of 2004 was much more drastic, with the ice retreating in some areas as much as 200 miles. This left polar bears stranded out in the open ocean. Many drowned while trying to make it back to land. Though strong swimmers that can often swim 60 or even 100 miles at a time, they can’t swim 200 miles.
What is to become of the polar bear? Sadly, there is no other suitable habitat for them. If the polar ice cap melts, polar bears may indeed face extinction. Scientists and conservationists are duly concerned. Several conservation groups filed a petition in 2006 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Protection under the ESA means that at least the bear’s habitat in the United States is protected from human activities like oil and gas development. This may not stop the melting of their ice habitat, but it will certainly bring awareness to their plight, and is a step in the right direction.
Global Warming: More Information
Carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring gases help to keep our planet warm and habitable. But too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing. Specifically, increases in carbon dioxide from coal, auto emissions, factories, and other sources of pollution have created a much heavier layer in the earth’s atmosphere than we need. The result is that the sun’s ultraviolet rays can enter, but cannot be reflected back into space. This heavy “blanket” warms the air, water, and land below, melting the polar ice sheets in the Arctic and other glaciers around the world.
When more water and land become exposed, the earth absorbs more heat. Radiation from the sun that was once reflected back into space by glaciers and sea ice is now being absorbed by the newly exposed dark surfaces of the land and ocean.
This warming trend is impacting the entire planet. One Greenland glacier is melting at a rate of 9 miles per year. That’s enough water to fill Lake Erie, the tenth largest lake in the world, each year! In Siberia, a 386,000-square-mile expanse of permafrost that has been frozen for an estimated 11,000 years is now thawing. Permafrost is essentially a frozen peat bog, which is made up of dead and decayed plants. The melting of the bog is significant because peat generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Also impacted are plant, insect, and animal populations. In Southern California, the beetle population exploded in 2005, the hottest year on record. This population boom led to the death of hundreds of evergreen trees, which in turn provided hundreds of acres of fuel for the devastating wildfires that year.
Each of these examples taken by themselves is startling. Taken together, with all other environmental impacts not mentioned here, the idea of global warming can be downright alarming. However, there are actions we can all take to help minimize our individual impact on the earth’s surface.
Splash! A polar bear jumps off a cracking ice floe and swims to another nearby. Crack! This ice floe breaks also, making him crash into the water once again. Steam and water droplets blow from the polar bear’s nose as he lifts his big white head out of the icy water.
He swims on to three other floating ice masses before he finds a solid one large enough to support his massive weight. Eventually, however, he will be forced inland like so many other bears because of melting ice.
By comparison, this bear is lucky. Polar bears, typically strong swimmers, are drowning in increasing numbers because more and more are being stranded out at sea. The sea ice cover of the Arctic, the polar bears’ natural and only habitat, is shrinking.
Warmer temperatures are causing the ice to melt unusually early in the season and in greater proportions. The Canadian Wildlife Service reports that the average winter temperatures in the Canadian Arctic have increased three to four degrees over the last 50 years.
In the Hudson Bay, ice is melting an average of two and a half weeks earlier than in the mid-1970s, which many scientists believe is due to global warming. Polar bears in this region rely on the ice coverage in the winter and spring in order to hunt ringed seals, which are further out to sea.
The shrinking ice cover significantly shortens the bears’ hunting season. During this time they must build up their fat stores to survive their nomadic hibernation through the long winter. Studies have shown that the bears are now coming to shore, on average, 15 percent lighter than they were 20 years ago. In addition, the Hudson Bay polar bear population has decreased by 22 percent, from 1,194 to 935, since 1987.
In Alaska, the summer thaw of 2004 was much more drastic, with the ice retreating in some areas as much as 200 miles. This left polar bears stranded out in the open ocean. Many drowned while trying to make it back to land. Though strong swimmers that can often swim 60 or even 100 miles at a time, they can’t swim 200 miles.
What is to become of the polar bear? Sadly, there is no other suitable habitat for them. If the polar ice cap melts, polar bears may indeed face extinction. Scientists and conservationists are duly concerned. Several conservation groups filed a petition in 2006 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Protection under the ESA means that at least the bear’s habitat in the United States is protected from human activities like oil and gas development. This may not stop the melting of their ice habitat, but it will certainly bring awareness to their plight, and is a step in the right direction.
Global Warming: More Information
Carbon dioxide and other naturally occurring gases help to keep our planet warm and habitable. But too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing. Specifically, increases in carbon dioxide from coal, auto emissions, factories, and other sources of pollution have created a much heavier layer in the earth’s atmosphere than we need. The result is that the sun’s ultraviolet rays can enter, but cannot be reflected back into space. This heavy “blanket” warms the air, water, and land below, melting the polar ice sheets in the Arctic and other glaciers around the world.
When more water and land become exposed, the earth absorbs more heat. Radiation from the sun that was once reflected back into space by glaciers and sea ice is now being absorbed by the newly exposed dark surfaces of the land and ocean.
This warming trend is impacting the entire planet. One Greenland glacier is melting at a rate of 9 miles per year. That’s enough water to fill Lake Erie, the tenth largest lake in the world, each year! In Siberia, a 386,000-square-mile expanse of permafrost that has been frozen for an estimated 11,000 years is now thawing. Permafrost is essentially a frozen peat bog, which is made up of dead and decayed plants. The melting of the bog is significant because peat generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Also impacted are plant, insect, and animal populations. In Southern California, the beetle population exploded in 2005, the hottest year on record. This population boom led to the death of hundreds of evergreen trees, which in turn provided hundreds of acres of fuel for the devastating wildfires that year.
Each of these examples taken by themselves is startling. Taken together, with all other environmental impacts not mentioned here, the idea of global warming can be downright alarming. However, there are actions we can all take to help minimize our individual impact on the earth’s surface.
Reading Materials for Teens I
THE SWEETEST PET
If you’re a pet owner, I bet you’d say you have the nicest animal in the world. But some animal lovers might disagree with you. These people own sugar gliders; and for them, no animal is sweeter.
The sugar glider is a marsupial. The females have pouches on the outside of their bodies. These pouches are homes to their newborns, called joeys. The joeys live inside for weeks or months until they mature. When they are fully developed, they crawl out of the pouch. There are about 200 species of marsupials.
The sugar glider belongs to the same marsupial group as kangaroos and possums.
Sugar gliders look like small, gray squirrels with dark streaks on their faces. A dark stripe runs from their nose to the tip of their tail. Adult gliders weigh between 4-6 ounces. They measure about 12 inches from their nose to their tail.
These marsupials are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. They have large, round eyes which help them see in the dark. Sugar gliders live in eastern Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. In the wild, sugar gliders can live up to 9 years. When raised in captivity, they can reach 12-14 years of age.
As you might guess, sugar gliders got the first part of their name because they have a sweet tooth. Their diet consists of nectar and sap, as well as leaves, petals, and insects. One of their favorite foods is the sap that flows from the manna gum. The manna gum is a tree native to the eastern states of Australia.
The other part of the name—glider—describes their ability to soar through the air. Sugar gliders possess a loose skin membrane that’s attached to the sides of their bodies between the wrists and the ankles. When sugar gliders take off from a tree branch, they spread their limbs. This tightens the membrane, which allows them to glide up to 150 feet!
Sugar gliders are highly social creatures. They live in communities of nests with up to seven adults and their young. Communities of sugar gliders rarely fight. That’s because the males mark family members with a scent to identify each other. In fact, sugar gliders raised as pets will also mark their owner, so that the owner becomes “theirs.”
Though sugar gliders can be owned as pets, there are some things you need to know. Sugar gliders are classified as exotic pets. Before buying one, check your state and city regulations. Also, the cost of these pets runs from $99.00 - $200.00, not including the setup. A cage, exercise wheel, climbing ladders, and a nesting box for sleeping can add up to hundreds of dollars. Moreover, sugar gliders need to have a special diet that may not be found at some pet stores. Failure to provide the proper diet or housing may result in medical problems for a glider.
Veterinarians encourage neutering males to prevent aggressive behavior. Retailers suggest buying sugar gliders in pairs because they like company. If an owner is unable to purchase two, he must be willing to spend time with it. The International Sugar Glider Association recommends that adults always supervise while children are playing with these fragile creatures.
Despite the challenges of ownership, sugar gliders make wonderful pets. They bond easily with people and love to be cuddled. People can carry them in a pouch or a shirt pocket.
With proper care, these marsupials can have a good long life. Owners acknowledge that sugar gliders have a sweet tooth, but that’s not the only reason they make the sweetest pet in the world.
If you’re a pet owner, I bet you’d say you have the nicest animal in the world. But some animal lovers might disagree with you. These people own sugar gliders; and for them, no animal is sweeter.
The sugar glider is a marsupial. The females have pouches on the outside of their bodies. These pouches are homes to their newborns, called joeys. The joeys live inside for weeks or months until they mature. When they are fully developed, they crawl out of the pouch. There are about 200 species of marsupials.
The sugar glider belongs to the same marsupial group as kangaroos and possums.
Sugar gliders look like small, gray squirrels with dark streaks on their faces. A dark stripe runs from their nose to the tip of their tail. Adult gliders weigh between 4-6 ounces. They measure about 12 inches from their nose to their tail.
These marsupials are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. They have large, round eyes which help them see in the dark. Sugar gliders live in eastern Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. In the wild, sugar gliders can live up to 9 years. When raised in captivity, they can reach 12-14 years of age.
As you might guess, sugar gliders got the first part of their name because they have a sweet tooth. Their diet consists of nectar and sap, as well as leaves, petals, and insects. One of their favorite foods is the sap that flows from the manna gum. The manna gum is a tree native to the eastern states of Australia.
The other part of the name—glider—describes their ability to soar through the air. Sugar gliders possess a loose skin membrane that’s attached to the sides of their bodies between the wrists and the ankles. When sugar gliders take off from a tree branch, they spread their limbs. This tightens the membrane, which allows them to glide up to 150 feet!
Sugar gliders are highly social creatures. They live in communities of nests with up to seven adults and their young. Communities of sugar gliders rarely fight. That’s because the males mark family members with a scent to identify each other. In fact, sugar gliders raised as pets will also mark their owner, so that the owner becomes “theirs.”
Though sugar gliders can be owned as pets, there are some things you need to know. Sugar gliders are classified as exotic pets. Before buying one, check your state and city regulations. Also, the cost of these pets runs from $99.00 - $200.00, not including the setup. A cage, exercise wheel, climbing ladders, and a nesting box for sleeping can add up to hundreds of dollars. Moreover, sugar gliders need to have a special diet that may not be found at some pet stores. Failure to provide the proper diet or housing may result in medical problems for a glider.
Veterinarians encourage neutering males to prevent aggressive behavior. Retailers suggest buying sugar gliders in pairs because they like company. If an owner is unable to purchase two, he must be willing to spend time with it. The International Sugar Glider Association recommends that adults always supervise while children are playing with these fragile creatures.
Despite the challenges of ownership, sugar gliders make wonderful pets. They bond easily with people and love to be cuddled. People can carry them in a pouch or a shirt pocket.
With proper care, these marsupials can have a good long life. Owners acknowledge that sugar gliders have a sweet tooth, but that’s not the only reason they make the sweetest pet in the world.
Monday, 12 November 2007
Teaching Tips for English Teachers
Even this writing isn’t based on a very scientific research done by an expert, it’s not merely an unacceptable-foolish opinion. However, I guess no one’s going to doubt if this is the truth.
Since everyone can predict the answers which come up for the questions “Is the result of English Teaching in Highschools in Indonesia like what we people all expect?”, teachers have to consider any idea to improve it.
In the aspect of quality, the material given to students in the third year of SMA is the equal of material given to students of intermediate levels in English courses. However, many students with good score can’t speak English as well as their score. Maybe it’s because of their final exam is only a kind of written test or even a multiple choice test, it affects teachers’ method in delivering the lesson.
It emphasizes on the written tasks only and doesn’t encourage them much to speak it. The students rarely get the chance to consider and realize that people mostly use language as a mean of ‘oral’ communication rather than writing and reading.
Here I point out some ideas which maybe useful for teachers;
- Decrease the teacher’s talking time.
Anyway, it doesn’t mean that students have longer time to quiet behind their tables.
- Modify the Student Books
Teachers often find out that the task provided by Student Books doesn’t support students to practice their English. By modifying the task, teacher can make it suitable for group-work or pair-work.
- Modify the teaching method
Stop saying “Now, open page thirty nine and do task four, five, six, and eight,… Leave task seven…”. An interesting “Lead-in” is needed to engage their interest before getting in every learning and teaching stage.
- Be fun
Teachers are not jailers. Care about the students whenever they’re in a bad mood. Discuss something new or their favourite Rock-star at the “Lead-in” or between stages will help the situations.
- Don’t be a “Do-as-I-say-Not-do-as-I-do” teacher
I guess everybody knows it clearly.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
How To Create Interesting Games For Children Class
Learning English, especially for children and teenagers, should be a kind of interesting activity. However, teachers don’t have to worry it much. Just like what Yeo Khirn Hup (Singapore Overseas Volunteer) said at English Pedagogy Workshop, “There’s no magic formula to make it (an English class) interesting.”
All teachers need to do is just modify the way they deliver the Target Language. Actually, teachers can even give them fun by shuffling games or interesting quizzes into every teaching stage; warmer, lesson presentation, practice, or freer activity. It wouldn’t be a matter if teachers put it in every stage. Sometimes, they have to change their point of view in defining “fun” with children’s.
The following hints can help teachers in creating good games for Children English class;
1. Use media such as pictures which has something to do with their favorite cartoon, better the newest ones (i.e; Spongebob Squarepants)
2. Put them into groups.
Children also love competition as adults do. However, don’t forget to mix the group before starting a new group work (class activity).
3. Every student takes the turn equally.
4. Explain the rule clearly before starting the game, and make sure they get it.
5. Be consistent with your own rule.
It’ll be a kind of problem when teachers hear one of students protests, “It’s not fair…!!!!”
6. Give more points to the hard questions.
It’ll encourage students to memorize the new vocabulary or Target Language.
7. Don’t give rewards which can give them new problem.
Sometimes just saying, “Congratulation to you guys and for groups which lose the game, don’t be discouraged, you can make it next time…”, is enough.
8. Make it suitable to the condition of your classroom.
All teachers need to do is just modify the way they deliver the Target Language. Actually, teachers can even give them fun by shuffling games or interesting quizzes into every teaching stage; warmer, lesson presentation, practice, or freer activity. It wouldn’t be a matter if teachers put it in every stage. Sometimes, they have to change their point of view in defining “fun” with children’s.
The following hints can help teachers in creating good games for Children English class;
1. Use media such as pictures which has something to do with their favorite cartoon, better the newest ones (i.e; Spongebob Squarepants)
2. Put them into groups.
Children also love competition as adults do. However, don’t forget to mix the group before starting a new group work (class activity).
3. Every student takes the turn equally.
4. Explain the rule clearly before starting the game, and make sure they get it.
5. Be consistent with your own rule.
It’ll be a kind of problem when teachers hear one of students protests, “It’s not fair…!!!!”
6. Give more points to the hard questions.
It’ll encourage students to memorize the new vocabulary or Target Language.
7. Don’t give rewards which can give them new problem.
Sometimes just saying, “Congratulation to you guys and for groups which lose the game, don’t be discouraged, you can make it next time…”, is enough.
8. Make it suitable to the condition of your classroom.
Friday, 2 November 2007
Handling Miss-Behaved Students
Do You Have "Miss-Behaved" Students In Your Class?
Almost every teacher has experienced these situations; "a student keeps on chatting with her friends", "refuses to do tasks given", or even "goes out without permission during the lesson". Nearly all of us have to handle students with unpleasant behaviour in their classes. We do need some strategies to handle such students, especially when the students are in GE levels or those in adolescence.
During this stage, the adolescents need extra attention from others because they are making a strong effort to answer the question "who am I?". They try to find the answer by learning everything from their social life, including family and school.
Losing parents' attention, getting bad effect of technology and modern lifestyle have stimulated them to disobey the class' rules, or to get teacher's attention with wrong ways. I still remember clearly my conversation with Adrian, my Basic 3 student in SMA, as follows;
T : ....You said you lost your workbook?
Well, it means you have to pay Rp 20.000 to get the new one, right?
S : ....(smile), well actually it's not lost, Sir, I just left it at home.
I'm just too lazy to bring it to school. It's too heavy...
Another cause is a fact that the existence of ILP in class is just an additional lesson. We can analogize if English in High Schools is a “dinner”, ILP is not “the main course”, it is just “the appetizer” or even just “the dessert”. It seems that ILP doesn’t play an important role in students’ assessments. ILP doesn’t decide whether a student passes the exam or he has to repeat the same class. This fact often makes low-motivated students be more stubborn because they do think that ILP won’t influence their score in final test.
Problems & Solutions.
1. Separate The Class.
Bad behaviour is just like a “contagious disease”, it spreads easily and gives bad effect on the infected ones. A good student , let say his name is Dian, can turn to be “naughty” when he is surrounded by “miss-behaved” students. Different condition will be seen when Dian is a real good student with strong motivation. He will surely be annoyed by his “miss-behaved” friends’ attitude during the class.
To avoid this, putting them in a special class will be helpful. However, this classification must be based on students’ motivation, not based on their achievements.
2. Consult With Class Teacher & Principal.
First, we can get the information about some students from other teacher, for example from their class teacher. The information given to you will be your reason to build a suitable teaching strategy. If there’s something we can’t handle, report it to our principal before taking further steps.
3. Give Them Special Treatments
Because ILP is different in many ways from conventional schools, we also should create different strategies from what conventional teacher do to handle “miss-behaved” students. We can’t waste our energy and time just to push our students with bad behaviour to behave well like the good student Dian with the very common way; getting mad all the time.
Not being mad doesn’t mean that we ignore them. It means we can think of another strategy based on the following two facts;
• “Miss behaved” students don’t like restrictive things and rules. They accept the result of agreement rather than rules. What I mean here is involving those students in making rules. For example, we can say this; “Okay class, just as usual… Since you are having a test, you have to submit your workbook next meeting. Let’s decide the punishment for those who forget to bring the workbook. Any idea?”
• We don’t have to get rid of them. “Naughty” student is also a student. He or she has the same rights with other students in the class. It means he is still under our responsibility. We can’t hate our “miss-behaved” students just because they are naughty. We don’t have to give up easily.
4. Prepare Ourselves.
The preparation here emphasizes on our mental preparation. We are trying to make this “appetizer” as the right thing that stimulates people to eat the main course, or to make this “dessert” as a nice-closing menu that will make a dinner perfect.
Besides preparing ILP’s PPP, we have to be ready and able to get along with such students. Sometimes, we have to be their friend because they obey their friends more than they obey their teachers. A friendly-small chat before or after lesson can break the ice and lead us to get close to our students, and then we can pursue our pedagogy that we have already learned from our colleges and ILP’s Teacher Training Program. And finally we can give them lesson according to the fun of PPP.
Almost every teacher has experienced these situations; "a student keeps on chatting with her friends", "refuses to do tasks given", or even "goes out without permission during the lesson". Nearly all of us have to handle students with unpleasant behaviour in their classes. We do need some strategies to handle such students, especially when the students are in GE levels or those in adolescence.
During this stage, the adolescents need extra attention from others because they are making a strong effort to answer the question "who am I?". They try to find the answer by learning everything from their social life, including family and school.
Losing parents' attention, getting bad effect of technology and modern lifestyle have stimulated them to disobey the class' rules, or to get teacher's attention with wrong ways. I still remember clearly my conversation with Adrian, my Basic 3 student in SMA, as follows;
T : ....You said you lost your workbook?
Well, it means you have to pay Rp 20.000 to get the new one, right?
S : ....(smile), well actually it's not lost, Sir, I just left it at home.
I'm just too lazy to bring it to school. It's too heavy...
Another cause is a fact that the existence of ILP in class is just an additional lesson. We can analogize if English in High Schools is a “dinner”, ILP is not “the main course”, it is just “the appetizer” or even just “the dessert”. It seems that ILP doesn’t play an important role in students’ assessments. ILP doesn’t decide whether a student passes the exam or he has to repeat the same class. This fact often makes low-motivated students be more stubborn because they do think that ILP won’t influence their score in final test.
Problems & Solutions.
1. Separate The Class.
Bad behaviour is just like a “contagious disease”, it spreads easily and gives bad effect on the infected ones. A good student , let say his name is Dian, can turn to be “naughty” when he is surrounded by “miss-behaved” students. Different condition will be seen when Dian is a real good student with strong motivation. He will surely be annoyed by his “miss-behaved” friends’ attitude during the class.
To avoid this, putting them in a special class will be helpful. However, this classification must be based on students’ motivation, not based on their achievements.
2. Consult With Class Teacher & Principal.
First, we can get the information about some students from other teacher, for example from their class teacher. The information given to you will be your reason to build a suitable teaching strategy. If there’s something we can’t handle, report it to our principal before taking further steps.
3. Give Them Special Treatments
Because ILP is different in many ways from conventional schools, we also should create different strategies from what conventional teacher do to handle “miss-behaved” students. We can’t waste our energy and time just to push our students with bad behaviour to behave well like the good student Dian with the very common way; getting mad all the time.
Not being mad doesn’t mean that we ignore them. It means we can think of another strategy based on the following two facts;
• “Miss behaved” students don’t like restrictive things and rules. They accept the result of agreement rather than rules. What I mean here is involving those students in making rules. For example, we can say this; “Okay class, just as usual… Since you are having a test, you have to submit your workbook next meeting. Let’s decide the punishment for those who forget to bring the workbook. Any idea?”
• We don’t have to get rid of them. “Naughty” student is also a student. He or she has the same rights with other students in the class. It means he is still under our responsibility. We can’t hate our “miss-behaved” students just because they are naughty. We don’t have to give up easily.
4. Prepare Ourselves.
The preparation here emphasizes on our mental preparation. We are trying to make this “appetizer” as the right thing that stimulates people to eat the main course, or to make this “dessert” as a nice-closing menu that will make a dinner perfect.
Besides preparing ILP’s PPP, we have to be ready and able to get along with such students. Sometimes, we have to be their friend because they obey their friends more than they obey their teachers. A friendly-small chat before or after lesson can break the ice and lead us to get close to our students, and then we can pursue our pedagogy that we have already learned from our colleges and ILP’s Teacher Training Program. And finally we can give them lesson according to the fun of PPP.
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