Summary

Lots of things were meant to happen in our lives and those things happen for us to learn from them, to grow from them, and to shape us for who we are in the next days. I feel so blessed and grateful to be given the opportunity to join this program that so far has taught me nothing but being grateful for everything that life has thrown us into. There are many things in this world that can help us open our sights more to see the world from different perspectives and to have those perspectives is to experience as many as possible.

This program had helped me to cross a line from by bucket list that is to fly abroad, to experience another culture. From the very first day I had been there I always told my self to embrace everything that might happen because we couldn’t foresee when we our self didn’t even know how it really worked out there and to this day I didn’t regret a thing but to stay longer there.

The practicum program has some purposes such as to introduce the student teachers about the education system outside of what they usually face in their country, to tighten the relationship among the countries that join this programme. Through programme like this, we can get to know each other better to understand the world in lighter views. This also gives so many student-teacher opportunities to experience the situation beyond their normality, to find their selves, and to get more insights so that those can be used as the lesson for the future.  

So far what I have learned when I stayed for 28 days in Cebu City, Philippines  is that our culture is not so far different considering we are still in South East Asia. The foods, the culture, the people, the customs, the weather even the language have some similarities with Indonesia so that was why I didn’t feel so foreign. I got 4 weeks there to do my practicum which consists of 2 weeks doing observation and a bit of assisting work, 1 week assisting my mentor and the last week for teaching practicum. Even though it didn’t run according to the plan, which was first week for observation, second week for assisting, third week for teaching, and fourth week for evaluation time, I still felt it was not so bad, but I felt like it was not enough. More than half of the total hours I spent on observation which was kind of too much for me since the classes that I went to was all grade 10 so there was no really differences of the teaching procedures, the lesson, the method etc among the classes. At first, my mentor told me we would follow the schedule but then she said change of plans, she had to continue first with her lesson and I would have my own lesson to deliver which I had to wait until she finished them all, that was why I only got the fourth week to teach and no time to evaluate which kind of sucks for me since I needed the time to do that there so I could do some consultations with her for my documents for the report. And at first she said I only got 3 days to finish my lesson so that she could continue with other lesson which means I’d only have 3 hours for each class to finish the whole lesson like wow that was kind of like impossible for me since the range of the lesson that I got was quite big and there were a lot to explain and a lot activities to be conducted. Then on third day of my teaching practicum it seemed like I was not done because we had not done the presentation and post test yet, then she decided that I could continue to the next day. I was so thankful because I couldn’t just imagine not finishing the whole procedures it would make me upset just to leave without finishing. So that was the difficulties that I faced during my practicum, also they only have a 24-inch LED tv to be used to show the slides which is not big enough for me since the students are around 40 which is many and I had to adjust the font, my slides overall more than a couple times so that the whole class could read, then the period that is too short with so many materials to tackle so I had to find a way so that the whole steps could be done and the learning goals could be achieved.

In the education part, I noticed some big differences between the two countries, from the curriculum, education system and also the lessons especially in English. As we know that Philippines is a country where English is their second language so that we can see everywhere on the street and public places they use English a lot so no wonder the people there in general have no difficulties in communicating in English. While in Indonesia where English is a foreign language, we may barely come across an announcement board written in English, except for the touristic areas. From there we can see that it is obvious how different the need is to learn English and the gap I felt was quiet big. Here in Indonesia, the curriculum in English is more about general English and how to communicate so we learn more into the structures while in Philippines they learn English more about the literature though there are also parts about using English in real life but the literature parts are dominating. And this was quite a challenge for me, a teacher-student from the third outer teaching English for the students in the inner circle country. Yes, I didn’t have the problem with communicating with the students in classroom considering some of them even speak English in daily basis. The difficulties that I faced were more about mastering the lesson since it’s about English literature while my knowledge when it comes to literature lets just say very minim. Even some of the lessons they learn there in grade 10 are the lessons that I just learned in the college level and even so it was not that thorough. Also some of the differences like for example the curriculum. There, every school has its own curriculum that they design based on their vision and mission and here in Indonesia the Ministry of Education is the one who sets the curriculum for the schools in Indonesia, so basically all schools lessons, system etc based on this one curriculum which is currently using K13. The second is about their school system, in Philippines, there are some schools which still use Kto10 and also some already use Kto12. Grade 1-6 is elementary level, 7-10 is high school level, and for the schools which use Kto12 they have grade 11-12 which is the senior high school. While in Indonesia, grade 1-6 is the elementary, 7-9 is the junior high school and 10-12 is the senior high school.  There are still so many things that I found different but the point is, it is the difference that makes us unique and makes us has our own appeal.

Overall, this programme has taught me a lot of things and mainly my ability to adapt to new situations, how to solve the problems, how to handle the class, how to respect the differences, and how to function socially in the situations given. I am always up for the new challenges that life has in store for me and this is just one more reason on why there are still a lot to see and a ton to understand, be open minded always, embrace the changes and challenges because they are inevitably parts of our growing self. This programme has brought nothings but joy to my life. it has given me an opportunity to see the world from different state and I couldn’t be more thankful that I could take part of it.

I would also like to deliver my gratitude to:

1.      Mr. Telly as the coordinator in University of Mataram.

2.      Mr. Imam and Mr. Dadi that have also involved helping us prepare the program.

3.      Mam Rita as the Dean of University of San Carlos and as the Coordinator of the program in USC.

4.      Mrs. Postrano as my guidance during the practicum.

5.      Ivanna, Adit and Putri as my friends during the stay abroad, who have struggled together with me to finish the program.

6.      My coolest buddies Reggy, Leana, Jill, Farach, Kayla, Jam, Apel, Jesper, Sam, Kirby and others buddies that I can’t mention one by one. Thank you for the amazing moments.

7.      My beloved students (10BMHS, 10FJK, ans 10FJJ).

8.      University of San Carlos.