philosophisation of philosophical philosophy

Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Noberta Nissa Edina R

112007130

English Department

Satya Wacana Christian University

 First entering this beloved English Department, I did not have any idea that this Department requires me to do such ‘teaching practicum’ program in order to fulfil the prerequisite to graduate and to get my S, Pd. degree. I thought I have entered an English Literature Department, and in my imagination, I would be taking literature as my major later on. In point of fact, I don’t even want to be a teacher, and the most important thing is that I don’t even like teaching. Yet, everything has happened. As the time went by, I finally could except the real state of being a well prepared English teacher. All of the required courses that were provided before I take the PPL program really gave me super guidance and knowledge.

I really got great experiences in MICRO TEACHING course. Here in micro teaching course, I also learned a lot of useful things for my teaching skills later on. Now that I know, I learned how to design materials for students in school ages (SD-SMP-SMA) using the KTSP. Swore to God, it really got me crazy. Those mapping, syllabus, and lesson plans had me going with the dizziness. But in the end of this class, I could felt my progress in making the three of them. Even though I have learned how to make a lesson plan and syllabus in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and CURRMADEV (Curriculum and Material Development), in micro teaching, my ability in designing those three sacred things in teaching learning process increased. TLS (Teaching Learning Strategies) course also gave me some teaching techniques and how to deal with different kinds of students. From TEFC (Teaching Fun English for Children) course, I grasped some important things that would help me so much in my PPL program. This course taught me how to teach well, how to understand our students, how to design a motivating and attractive material and activity for the students, and how to manage a classroom.  

I soon begin to enjoy being a ‘teacher’. I am now also giving private courses to some elementary students in my home town. The worthy of note is that someday, being a teacher is really advantageous yet valuable.

         

I personally think that being a  teacher is like being a creative team of an advertisement. In advertising, as it is proposed by Landa (2006: 259), the creative team includes an art director, a copywriter, and a creative director. Together they develop idea behind an advertisement. After generating ideas, the art director is responsible for the design decisions and the copywriter is responsible for the writing. They are usually supervised by a creative director, who makes the decisions about the idea, creative approach, art direction, and copywriting before the work is presented to the target audience. Here, I use the analogy of advertising world and teaching-learning field. A teacher has the equivalence duty as a creative team in advertising. One thing that differ them is that in a creative team, they divide their own responsibilities, yet, a teacher has a combination of a creative team’s duty.

Teachers have to be an art director, a copywriter, and a creative director at the same time. It is the same when a creative team has to develop ideas, generate them, and explore their creativity in making the advertisement. They must be aware of the needs of the audience. Teachers, first thing first, must be acquainted with their students’ need. Then, after knowing their students’ need, teachers could develop ideas, generate them, and design what activity they should make in order to accomplish the objectives of the lesson. Teachers also have to think about teaching methods or approaches they need to apply in a class so that the main message of the lesson can be transferred well and the students can achieve the objectives that the teachers has aspired.

             

To be a well-prepared teacher, what you should consider is that you have to learn a lot and ascertain your teaching skills. Teaching involves skills and experiences. The more you get experiences in transferring the materials, the more you get good progress in developing your teaching skills. Besides, teachers also have to build clear objectives they want to achieve in delivering the lesson. I myself really wish that in the teaching learning process that I will conduct later on, I could position myself as my students’ mate in their learning process. I believe that a good relationship between teacher and learners with no boundaries will result better in delivering and transferring the comprehensive knowledge to my students. Last words, wise words that I have picked from my favorite song, Hawaii by MEW, “Time goes by fast like rain, it swallows your every sound, from whisper to icy howl. Good luck trying to be someone, if you make it then you won, you’ll grow up to be someone!” All in all, you’d better keep moving forward for your own sake. Conquer and take over your ego, learn from your failure and keep exploring your talent, you will be what you really want!

References:

Anonymous. (2010). Teaching practicum handbook. Salatiga: English Department Satya Wacana Christian University.

Landa, R. (2006). Graphic design solutions. New York: Thomson Delmar Learning.

*T'WAS A MURMURING THUNDER, MATEY!