Purposes of Practicum
Conducting practicum or teaching practice in PSU – Integrated High School is aimed at developing the pedagogical knowledge and improving teaching skills through learning and teaching process in the activities’ implementation. This practicum also gives me the opportunity to obtain the ideas on how to design engaging learning activities inside the classroom, how to select and manage appropriate materials and media for teaching, how to motivate students and to engage them in the learning lesson, and how to evaluate the learning and teaching implementation for further improvement in the future.
Procedures of Practicum
There are some steps to follow before the practicum implementation. The steps can be seen as follows:
Observation
Observation is a great chance to get as much as possible all the information related to the classroom management, the teaching strategies and methods applied in the classroom, the amount of the students, the facilities that can be used in the learning activities, etc.
In this step, the teacher provided me opportunities to observe some classes which I could know important things to analyze and to highlight. I got some observations
Mentoring
Mentoring is a stage where the teacher will give some important information about the topic and other things that should be done in the classroom. The supervising instructor or mentor in my teaching practice provided me those information as well as the lesson plan applied in the school.
Lesson planning
Lesson planning is an activity where the student teacher should create a teaching plan which will be used in the classroom. I made the lesson plan in Indonesian version for the first teaching practice which was followed by Philippines version afterward.
Revising the lesson plan
In this step, after the student teacher finished the lesson plan, the mentor or the supervising instructor will give comments or critique so that the student teacher’s teaching plan will improve and be ready for the implementation.
Final supervision
In the final supervision, the student teacher is required to submit the revised lesson plan after revising the previous lesson plan. My supervising instructor accepted the revised lesson plan a day before the teaching practice.
Teaching practice
The teaching practice is a practicum of lesson plan implementation in the classroom. This is when the student teacher will have the opportunity to deliver the topic of the content and material in the classroom.
Post-conference and evaluation
This is the stage where the mentor will give comments and critique based on the performance which is followed by feedback and notes. Furthermore, the mentor will show the evaluation on what things need to be improved in the upcoming teaching practice.
Outcomes of Practicum
The practicum or teaching practice conducted in the PSU – Integrated High School is acquiring beneficial outcomes and advanced progresses of knowledge in teaching education for the student teacher.
The advantages obtained from the teaching practicum are:
The student teacher is able to create lesson plan including on how to prepare the materials, instructional materials, and media or tools can be included in the learning process.
The student teacher is able to manage the classroom and to organize the learning activities process during the lesson.
The student teacher is able to interact and to communicate with other people especially with the students and teachers.
The Challenges of Practicum
During the process of the practicum, I found that there are some challenges that need to encounter:
The different version of curriculum and lesson plan is one of the challenge because the student teacher and the mentor need to adjust the Indonesian curriculum to the Philippines curriculum.
The student teacher has a tight schedule out of the teaching practice such as visiting government building, mayor building, orientation in lingayen, and other schedule that usually takes all of the international students. This tight schedule effected the process of the practicum procedures.
The student teacher got limited resource and Wi-Fi facility which actually really influential because those facilities can help the student teacher in preparing the teaching practice, website and report.
Overall Impression
After the program reached the final session, I personally realized that there are three highlights that can represent my impression:
This program gave me the opportunity to build my self – development growing and improving. I learned a lot like cultural differences, language exchange, being independent and well-organized, and attempting to be responsible as being the best delegate from my university and my country. I am extremely glad and happy to be part of this program.
While teaching came into the last meeting, my students surprised me with their dances, singing and Filipino games. I am overwhelmed to have them as my students. I realized that teaching is learning as I learned so much from my students when I teach them.
This program made me having a number of friendships which feels like a family. The international students are all friendly and easy-going. The buddies are also very handy and communicative. This what makes me feel like I am not ready yet to go home.
Suggestion for Future Improvement
Based on my experience having a program for almost one month, I think it will be better if the schedule of international students can be shared and spread up before the agenda begins. It’s because the necessity of the certainty in every ceremony should give a chance for the international students to get prepared far before it starts and the international students also have their different teaching schedule, so that it can adjust the teaching schedule effectively.
