Teaching: On Troublemakers In Class

teaching is equal to learning - friend taken photography

I was quite shocked when I entered a classroom full of laughing and noisy students for the first time. My shared teacher told me to “beware of the boys”. I thought it was going to be just a regular noisy class and she was just exaggerating. But to be honest, the class was a disaster! It wasn’t just some noisy class.

Being in the class was quite irritating. But I’m a pacifist. I didn’t want to make a direct rude encounter. So I patiently taught, and noticed that among the boys, there was one kid played the role of the leader of the pack

Among the commotion, I thought, what would Wahyu did if he was in the exact particular classroom facing kids like them. Wahyu is one of my best friend, an educator, a project manager for an NGO, a therapist, and a writer. By putting myself in his shoes, suddenly I knew what to do. I kept teaching, trying to get the sympathy from them, not feeling mad, ignoring tolerable bad conduct they’re doing, trying to understand that they might have done that because of exhaustion from school, praising them if they made a good work, and encouraging them to do their best. I also tried to gain support from the pack leader. By doing that, I slowly understand that teaching is not only about transferring knowledge. Often, it’s not only about knowledge, but it’s about attitude. Our attitude as a teacher. Teaching isn’t only about being the most knowledgeable in the class, but being the best facilitator to bring out the potentials in our students.

Happy teaching

The Quad Squad

It was on November 25, 2011 that all of us was officially accepted as an English teacher in ELTI. Even though we became acquainted with each other before we signed the contract, it was when we got accepted and are undergoing training sessions (which will last until next week), we became closer. And now, I have found 3 new great friends. This post is dedicated for them.

Tinus Eska

He was born in Kupang, and has lived in many places in Indonesia, including the U.S. for around 8 years, that’s why he developed his pronunciation well. We nicknamed him “the serious one”, but even though he might looked quite serious, actually he often shows himself as an open and funny person. He is also very creative when it comes to class activities, and quite resourceful. I often feel emotionally closer with him because, among the four of us, we both came from non-English majors. He loves public transportation, and that’s why I bumped him often on my way to ELTI.

Wahyu Riyadi Herjito

He has never left Jogja (province) all his life. He was born in Bantul, and has lived almost his entire life there. Wahyu is a helpful and funny friend. Tinus described him as someone whom you’ll look for if you arrived in a room full of strangers, referring to his friendly appearance and easy-going personality. Well, I have to agree with Tinus. Wahyu is also the only one who shares unusual interests with me, except for Dangdut, which I don’t quite like, yet apparently he enjoys very much.

Andita Rahmaliliana Ekaputri

Andita was born in Lampung, but actually she is of Javanese descent. She’s the only woman in our group, while also the only women in our batch. Considering that ELTI seems to need more male teachers, we hit the right composition. Andita looks very mature, calm, and patient, which might be resulted from her new marriage (among us, she’s “the married one”). She is also very resourceful. We ask her questions regarding English grammar, especially when I and Tinus have questions about it (since we both didn’t come from English major). She went to the same college with Wahyu.

On the other hand, they describe me as a cheerful, patient, funny, passionate, energetic, and playful guy. Hmm…

One surprising fact is that all of us are of the same age!

Life issues

Life has provided humans with abundant amazement and plenty options. You can live it with your own ways, in accordance with your own personal uniqueness.

But life also offers us issues to deal with…

Everyone has their own issues. I dealt with what profession should I choose, considering that I don’t want to be a doctor and I’ve always liked language up to now, and that working or pursuing a career in linguistics/language is a very hard turn for me.

Some of my friends deal with their sexuality. Some others deal with having the right partner/lover.

What would be your issue? And how do you plan to overcome it?

health inequities

I’ve been struggling to understand the usage of the word “inequity” and its difference from “inequality”, at least for the past several hours. I found it in WHO website, and WHO defines “inequity” in its Glossary section.

Health inequalities can be defined as differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups. For example, differences in mobility between elderly people and younger populations or differences in mortality rates between people from different social classes. It is important to distinguish between inequality in health and inequity. Some health inequalities are attributable to biological variations or free choice and others are attributable to the external environment and conditions mainly outside the control of the individuals concerned. In the first case it may be impossible or ethically or ideologically unacceptable to change the health determinants and so the health inequalities are unavoidable. In the second, the uneven distribution may be unnecessary and avoidable as well as unjust and unfair, so that the resulting health inequalities also lead to inequity in health. (http://www.who.int/hia/about/glos/en/index1.html)

I’ve been thinking, under this evening drizzle when I went home from ELTI, that some inequities actually happened around me that made me decide not to become a practicing physician, which can be considered as health inequities.

On one side, doctors are being put in the spotlight (or perhaps cornered) by giving them heavy penalties, and treated as criminals, if they make mistakes which often are not because of bad intention. The common people also tend to be the “wise guy” by giving negative comments about doctors, like “doctors are late to see patients because they’re busy having business lunch or playing golf” which is sometimes are not correct. In my country, some doctors that work in remote areas as a non permanent employee (including those who are doing their internship) tend to receive their salary several months late. I also have friends working in certain remote area, and they’re very helpful and understanding for their patients, to the extent of giving their patients money to check themselves to a larger hospital.

On the other hand, I have also met or heard about some doctors that ignore their patients’ needs, blatantly charging patients with expensive costs for a not-so-much-of-a-service, “changing vulva into volvo (cars)” -a satire common among obstetricians, and many examples. They don’t give benefits except to themselves. They merely collect money from patients, which some are poor patients, for their own sake.

Can both cases be regarded as inequities? They might not really health inequities as expressed by WHO, but for me, they are inequities in health .

Mangafest! Not Empty Handed

The Action Figure of Luffy D. Monkey from One Piece - self taken photograph

I and my friend were attending Mangafest (I’m not really sure if it is a festival, considering the lack of its festivity ) on Saturday and Sunday, just 2 days ago. My friend was participating in the comic competition, and was drawing a comic in 2 sheets of A3 paper for like 3 hours.

After the competition over, which he thankfully finished just in time, we attended a talk  show (still in the same event) of dubbing, and were presented several dubbers, among them was the dubber for Naruto. After some session of sharing, the dubbers gave us opportunity to perform, to do our own dubbing session. I volunteered without hesitation, and they gave me a positive response, saying that I have a great voice but less power. But in the end, when the time came for them to decide who are the best dubbers (male and female), they chose me. They gave me an action figure of Luffy D. Monkey from One Piece (which apparently is also dubbed by the same dubber dubbing for Naruto).

And on the next day, my friend won the second place for the comic competition. Wow… we went there barely without money (except my friend’s contribution for the competition), and we went home not empty handed.

Not sure about yourself? Ask others…

There are times when you don’t feel confident. Me too. But here’s a great thing to do. Ask your friends about you. If you’ve just finished doing things with other people especially those whom you just knew, ask for their feedback. They would usually give you a more objective feedback, and you would never know what they might say.

They might say that you need this and that, or need to improve this and that, yet often they will also tell you that you’re kind, polite, punctual, careful, and so forth And as I said on my previous blog, focus on the good stuff. Then you will get more and more positive things from those around you.

a nomination in my second day teaching demo

I might not be an oscar nominee, but a nomination from http://simplystephanieblog.wordpress.com has just made my day! A bunch thanks for you Steph!

I aware of the Versatile Blogger Award just this morning (9.00 am; +7 GMT) right on my second day of teaching demo at ELTI. This is such an honor. And apparently this is how it works.

1. Nominate 15 friends (I will happily nominate 4-5 friends, since I don’t have that much of a follower nor I follow that many bloggers)

2. Inform the bloggers of their nomination.

3. Share 7 random things about me.

4. Thank the blogger who nominated me.

5. Add the versatile blogger award pic on my post!

Well then, I think I shall share 7 random things about me. Not a secretive one, of course.

1. I almost graduated as an MD, but I don’t like working as a physician.

2. Writing and reading are parts of my life. I can enjoy days without friends, as long as I have books around me.

3. Language is something that I adore much. I have always wanted to be a linguist and master many languages. I learned Japanese since I was in my Junior High School, but it was self-taught, so I don’t have many vocabularies, but I aware very much of the grammar.

4. Teaching is an important part of me. Teaching is a way of having a deeper understanding of something. It also keeps me updated with things I’m teaching.

5. I’ve been living in Yogyakarta for the past 10 years of my life, and this city has mesmerized me with its fascinating milieu. I enjoy every second of my life here. It’s feels like home to me.

6. Giving contribution to people around me has been a passion for the past several months. I’m lucky to have supportive friends that share the same passion. We have been doing several social projects, including ‘Selimut Hati untuk Tunawisma’ (giving blankets to the homeless people).

7. I enjoy learning basic sciences and getting involved in short-term projects.

And now it’s time for me to nominate these bloggers!

1. DREAMBUCKET – a great illustrator! We’ve been doing some projects together.

2. Tyo’s Room – a great productive writer, now working for an NGO in East Nusa Tenggara.

3. Simply Stephanie – Hi Florida!

4. wordsfallfrommyeyes – Like she said, words fall from her eyes, suddenly you’ll drowned yourselves in words.

5. PS – a radio announcer from Semarang, Indonesia!

As much as this has made my day, I’m hoping the same with you guys

Focus on the good stuff

focus? - self taken photograph

My teaching demo this afternoon went great! The observers liked it, and the students were like asking questions like “are you going to teach us again?”. It’s a wowzer for me! I didn’t really expect to get such a reception from them. I did make some mistakes in certain expressions, but the whole demo was fun!

Suddenly, all of the feelings I had prior to the demo had vanished. Even in the middle of the lesson, I didn’t feel nervous at all. It just ran well, just like that.

I remembered a book written by Mike Robbins, “focus on the good stuff,” and I was like, “wow… it went absolutely fantastic. I just need to focus on the successes I did in my life. I presented my research for like 4 times when I was in college, and I won a title of best presenter from one of those 4 times. I also teach at an academy. I just need to focus on my strength, not my failures.”

What we pay attention, will grow stronger in our lives… So make sure you concern the right thing.

Teaching Demo @ ELTI – First Day

old pic - friend taken photograph

Today will be my first day of teaching demo at ELTI, as a part of the whole recruitment process. I have prepared three lesson plans for my successive three days of teaching demo on Saturday and Sunday (I literally used those two full days to prepare the lesson plans). Today, I will be teaching General English class for High School Students.

So, wish me luck guys (and girls)… This might as well the path to make my position firm in language and linguistics.

Review: Happy for no reason

Me Elisa Diny - self taken photograph

One of the best book ever, written by Marci Shimoff with Carol Kline.

I read this book several months ago, and I promised myself that I would run through it again, and bring it in my bag every single day to remind me to always be happy even if we have no reason for it.

We often feel happy for external things. Something that is not from us, not from our original self. We seek happiness from worldly objects that neither essentially make us feel complete nor leaven our very essence of living.

This book guides us to be happy, to feel happy. Our happiness depends on ourselves, not others, because it’s an active process.

In order to be happy for no reason; i.e. having an internally eternal and accessible happiness, we need to focus on several things. First, focus on yourself. Second, don’t always trust what your mind is telling you, because sometimes it might harm you with jealousy, worries, and so on. Third, focus in loving (also an active process, such as thanking, forgiving, and loving itself). Fourth, don’t forget your physical needs; your body needs exercise and good nutrition. Fifth, whatever name you use, whether God, or The Force, or The Ultimate Existence, keep on connecting with Him. Sixth, have goals, but be flexible. Just do your regular stuff, and let your goals guide you in making decisions. Seventh, cultivate a strong and significant relationship with people around you.

And let us enjoy life

Writing this post reminds me of Yui. A Japanese singer, a guitarist herself, and a song writer. Most (if not all) of her songs are self-written. With her unique and strong voice, she has been writing such strong messages in her songs.

This is a translation of one of her song, It’s happy line.

Who are you living for?
As you spend these gloomy days

How much weakness and pain do you feel?

Even if you’re lost in an unsatisfying past
And today doesn’t live up to the day you pictured in your dreams, yeah yeah

The stars that shine before dawn
Have they gone? Have they gone to tomorrow?

Tomorrow never knows
It’s happy line

What should I believe?
As I spend these days I can’t see

No matter what night you’re seeing, don’t look so down anymore

Everyone has a smile they call happiness
Can you see it? Even if you don’t smile, yeah yeah

With my feelings for tomorrow in my heart
I tried to see it through rose-tinted glasses
And smile

Tomorrow never knows
It’s happy line

Even if you’re lost in an unsatisfying past
And today doesn’t live up to the day you pictured in your dreams, yeah yeah

The stars that shine before dawn
Have they gone? Have they gone to tomorrow?

Tomorrow never knows
It’s happy line