Teacher: a Fabulous communicator

Asalamuallaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh...

Hi positive people! Let me give you a special quote in relation to what I write here

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” 
― Albert Einstein

I love that quote because it is simple but meaningful. Many people say that life must go on and as a human being, we cannot turn anything back. The question is

 'why should I dwell with past when my life now is much more interesting?' 

To me, a pleasure and comfort are some abstract stuff that can make me stay in committing what I suppose to do. I like to learn and do something differently day by day. No job could actually be like what I say before. However, I think, being a teacher is the way I can discover many unique and diverse things every day. I also like to be useful to the people around because I believe one of our roles as a human being is to benefit others. Again, I think, being a teacher is the way I can give my positive contribution to my surroundings.

Here is a little bit of my story that I consider as an interesting activity in my daily life: Being a teacher!

People may say being a teacher is such kind of tough job; teaching students with different ability, shaping their characters, measuring their academic achievements, identify the needs of each student, help students to develop their own potential, motivate them to study more, and many other responsibilities.

In a real life, a teacher definitely finds a lot of problems. Not all of the students have motivation to study and develop their skills. Some students do not even know what potential they have, what skill they need to be developed and how to utilize it in appropriate and good way. In another words, teacher is needed to be able to analyze and identify students’ potential and help them to develop their skills through the communication. Due to those reasons, I believe that a teacher is not only the one who give students a lesson but also the one who helps the students to overcome their problems in terms of academic or even non-academic matters.  Further, a teacher should have four competences and one of them is social competence. This competence is actually the ability of teacher to interact and socialize to the people around especially the students. I think it is no exaggeration to say that a teacher can be classified as a fabulous communicator.

 

The situation of  my students (XII IPS 1) in English class

The situation of  my students (XII IPA 1) in English class

I personally discover many problems as a teacher. Sometimes, I feel miserable why my students are not able to be what I expect. I think that perhaps there is something wrong with my students or even me. The problems are diverse and sometimes appear in particular situation. But, time passes by; I learn many things from my experiences being a teacher. I then realize that every student have their own unique characters. They are special with their own way. I cannot force them to be what I expect. I should let them explore what they are interested in. I need to understand in what area my students will pay more attention. But, how could I know that? I cannot read their mind and guess it randomly. So, to identify what my students are fascinated with, I provide several minutes in my class to let them share their problem. They can write their problem in a piece of paper or express it by talking directly to me. I ask them to share their story or problem by using English. If they cannot do it in fully English, I ask them to combine their words with English and Bahasa Indonesia. Sometimes, they have funny jokes to utter when I apply this activity in the class. They speak some words in Bahasa Indonesia but pronounce it in English way. I know my students attempt to use English even though they still have difficulty in it. I do appreciate their effort. Then, from that activity, I have a chance to understand what my students’ problem and I can analyze how to solve it.

An example of my students’ problem is they think English is difficult and that is what makes them dislike English. It is actually the most problem I found in many classes I teach. Well, I literary sad knowing this fact because English will be useful for their life in the future. From my interview with them, the most and main problems in learning English is when they do not know the meaning of many words. They cannot understand the text provided in their English workbook and have no idea to answer its questions. I understand their dilemma and try to help them by offering a solution that may help them. One of my solutions that I assume will not encumber them is to memorize 1-2 new vocabularies every day. If they can remember only 1 vocabulary per day, they will obtain 7 new vocabularies in a week. 30 new vocabularies in a month and can you imagine if they can remember one new word everyday in a year? Yes, I think this is the appropriate way to make them learn English with easy and fun way. I believe if they understand many words in their mind, English will not be as difficult as they think anymore.

My students (XII IPA I) when they work in a group

I understand that I need to assist my students finding their potential, developing their skills, and motivating them to get what they want. I meet many lovable students who want to share their experiences and problems with me. They talk actively and expressively. I am pleased because it means that I am considered necessary for them. One more thing, I am glad I can help people around and spend my time with them. To sum up, I can say that my interesting activity for being a teacher is when I meet them every day except weekend and day off, talk to them, share their problems and find the solution, get many positive vibes, and laugh because of their ridiculous jokes.

Wallaikumsalam Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh...