Reflection 3: I want to be a Teacher who is like a Gardener

That was my first opportunity to teaching individually for two weeks during School Experience Program. It was incredible and amazing. I learned a lot of things from my school, master teacher and students. For the first, I want to ask you friend. Have you ever met students with messy classroom situation but the students are smart and active?

            This is the story of my teaching. I was shocked because I thought Science class and the condition of the class was unforgettable. The students like to make jokes, screaming and loud laughing during the learning process. In fact they cannot face 100% serious atmosphere in learning. In my imagination, it will be hard to raise their motivation in learning and to make them follow all of my plans. I just naïf at that time until I read that effective teaching is not about the success of all activities but the experiential learning that guide student become self regulated learners who have motivation, belief and values (Smith & Ragan, 1999).

            I tried to struggle with the big challenge that is my students’ unique characteristics. Create a plan with the concern of active students in classroom and positive situation that can empower students’ motivation in learning were my strategy. First, I tend to be teacher who is not strict but still firm. The purpose is to make positive feeling in classroom because it can influence the process of learning; the students who scared of the teacher or disappointed because the teachers do not respect to the students will limit them in comprehending the knowledge (Cole, 1991; Dobson & Dobson, 1981).

            I applied classroom rules to create order and safety environment in learning. Marzano & Marzano (2003) stated that invite students to make fair, clear, logic and promote affective development (feeling and behavior) rules in class is effective to build the positive learning. it is also as the control for classroom climate (Jones & Jones, 2000). This thing helps me a lot in controlling the class. My great students become more polite and actively follow the activities.

            After made classroom rules the activity was continue to the explanation session. I ask them a question and they should imagine the cases to answer my question. I taught conditional sentence so I tried to build the schemata by using simple cases. I explain each of conditional sentence by analyze the pattern and function from each case. That is to increase self confidence of students, practices and focus to the way to motivate them to get condusif classroom (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). I tried to avoid judge students if they did mistake because it can decrease the

            The students did the task after they get explanation. The task is making a story which includes all of conditional. They can combine exist narrative story such as Twilight or Harry Potter with their own idea. I give the decision to the students to do the task. I want to be as a gardener (Sir William Robinson, 2012) which cannot make the plant grow but can help it to grow by give fertilized and water. The gardener cannot decide the plant will grow if the plant itself does not want to grow. Teacher and gardener provide the condition and opportunity for students or plants to grow. We tend to create environments where students feel motivated, interested and excited in learning (Brokofsky, 2012).

            Students should face challenging task to make them excited in learning process. I gave my students task and I want them to work in group, so they can improve their excitement in doing the task (Schmuck & Schmuck, 2001). Many of them said that the task was difficult but they were not giving up. I tried to guide them but not as a key answer who help them solve the problem. By support from environment, students will try finish the task even it was difficult and develop their skills (Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde& Whalen 42). Finally my students finish their story and presented it in front of the class. The stories were creative, imaginative and contextual.

            In the end of learning they said some sentence for me using right conditional pattern. Actually, it was not a part of my planning. I feel touched and know that they acquiring the knowledge well. I realized that as a teacher we cannot assume our students as a robot. We just let the final decision to the students whether they want to learn or not. We only can give opportunity to them by provide motivating environment in learning, support and session for them to show their ability. That is why I want to be like gardener which helps the plants to grow well.

References:

Philips, Susan. G. n.d. Affective education and experiential learning. City University of Hongkong. Retrieved: October 28, 2012 from sganop@umflint.edu.

Dorney, Zoltan. n.d. Creating a motivating classroom environment. The University of Nottingham. Retrieved: November 15, 2012

Daniels, Erika. 2010. Creating motivating learning environments: what we can learn from researchers and students. English journal.