Reflection of Motivational Project Let’s Save Money

It Is Difficult to be Motivator
Become a motivator as same as a constructor who build a home. It is not easy to be a motivator because it needs the big effort and it is not like we make the fried egg. I have seen a lot of motivators in television such as Mario Teguh and Erbe Sentanu. For the first, I think they are the laziest people in the world because they are only talking in front of the people, cheering the people and do nothing. It makes them become popular and get a lot of money. The people around them also respect to them. Those kinds of things make me confused why the people who have job just talking can be as an important element in someone’s life.  I think I can do the same thing like them because it is easy, talking to the people, giving advice and support them.

           
 MMSEL course challenge my friend and I to be little motivators who can share the knowledge that hoped will be useful for the other people. We should motivate a community and focused in one thing. My group decided to focus on children with aged of Elementary and junior school to invite them in saving money movement. I think that is easy case to ask them do the same thing as our purpose but the reality not run well. Am I too arrogant because I underestimated the job of motivator? I know the feeling to be motivators and it was totally different with my thoughts. It was very hard and difficult to influence the other people to do the same thing like we want or to be the better person.

           
 From the project that I did in Pancoran Dalam, I felt some feelings that I have not felt before. First, I was happy because the Pak RT in Pancoran Dalam was very welcome with our project and it was not difficult to get their permission to conduct the meeting with children at there. After get the permission and make appointment, it was time to prepare the activities for the children according to the topic and purpose of the meeting. That is to encourage the children in managing and saving their own money. At the mentioned that, the first meeting with children was nervous. We are like strangers that come into the other world. Fortunately, they are kind and funny.

           
 As strangers, we tried to introduce ourselves to get their attention and to build nice relationship. We have done so many activities such as make the piggy bank, told the children the advantages of saving money, share knowledge with them about managing money and watched movie. Everything was run well but the way to make it is not really smooth. I felt difficult to encourage them to save the money. They said that it is difficult to do that because they only have a little amount and they used it to buy food in school. The difficulty was when I had communication with them. I should come into their world and use understandable language, children language. I could not force them but try to influence them. I should do it step by step and it was very tired but made me excited. The most interesting part is when the children tried to make their own piggy bank and said that they will fill it with coins every day. I was touched and realize that the knowledge I shared was used by the other people.

            
 From the project, my thought about motivators is different. It is hard to influence the other people to have better life. The most important is how big the activities or event that we conduct or the long words that we said to the people but the effect that will be shown from our sharing session. Motivator is great and I think they should have extra motivation to motivate themselves in motivation the other people.

Reflection 4: Multi Talented Teacher

Can anything be more challenging than grabbing students' interest in the subjects and try to keep them to focus during learning process?

            Grab students’ attention in the beginning of the class is one of the challenges that should be faced by teacher. There are some strategies to make students focus in the early of lesson; by using question or example of case problem, concrete example and the information of the objective of lesson. Roehler and Duffy (1991) said the activities that teacher do in the beginning of the class should integrate students’ focus and prior knowledge of students to build a schemata of lesson. In the other say, what we do in the beginning of the class should represent the knowledge that will be taught. I tried to use some pictures which related with the subject. For example, I taught causative and modal verb words which used in rules or regulation and relate it with current topic of reality show. I show some pictures of reality show that students’ know and then ask them to mention the rules of the game in reality show. After that we analyze each of rule and tell them that in make rules commonly we use causative or modal verb.

            The activity should run step by step. Building schemata by using prior knowledge, analyze the example and then the explanation or additional knowledge to improve their cognitive development. In my opinion as a teacher we should be follow the trend that popular in students but we should have good control in class. It is use for help teacher in deliver the information or grabs students’ attention. The weakness is our plan will be ruined if we cannot control the students in using trending topic for learning. 

            In guide students in learning, teacher should provide clear instruction and explanation which is contextual. The level of instruction and opportunity for learning which teacher provide affect Students achievement in comprehending knowledge (Tuttle, 1991). The activity should involve the participation from students and give good feedback for the improvement of students’ level. It is as scaffolding from teacher because teachers try to help students to relate the basic knowledge with the knowledge or activity to make new meaning in learning process (Resenshine & Meister, 1992). Based on my experiences I prefer to ask my students to work in group. They can share the knowledge and more involve in learning process. I do not feed them all of the material because my role here as a guide, so I should control the students understanding from outside the group. Cooperative learning will improve students in socializing (Knapp, Turnbull & Shields, 1990) so I choose it to develop their social skill.  I usually give feedback in orally by ask the other students to analyze the question if there is a students who make wrong answer. The feedback style is according to the activity. To tell students about what should be improved it will be better deliver by face to face or paper feedback for the confidentiality of students. 

            Try to combine all of aspects in instructional variable and become multi talented teacher which have different roles in different situation are the way to create focus learning and teaching. That is my strategy to develop my teaching and help my students in learning. How about you friend?

Reference:

 An article Instructional Variables in Meeting Individual Needs. Retrieved November 21, 2012 from  http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/meet2.html.

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.

       

We Need Something to Support Our Learning Process

                Motivation to learn is influenced by internal and external factors that come from inside or outside learners. External factors means that environment, relationship, social interaction and needs of relatedness which is learner will feel that she/he accepted by others can take place in arrange the motivation to learn. From the inside, internal factors also take important role because it consists of the ability to solve all the problem, ability to reach full potential in doing some jobs.  All of the factors above are part of needs which students’ have and will determine their level of motivation to learn.

                In this part, I have learned about the influence of needs in learning. In my opinion, everyone will think what she/he needs or feel first before do the other activity includes learning. According Maslow there are some needs that have to be fulfilled in engage someone to be motivated especially in learning process. They are consist of psychological needs, safety, acceptance and love from environment, self esteem and the reason to reach our potential ability in struggle with challenge. I am agreeing with Maslow that above aspects will determine the effort that we give in learning. For instance if I have problem in psychological needs like I feel hungry or sleepy it will affect my learning process is not effective because I will think about food or bed rather than the lesson while I am in learning process. Besides that, the way of social life accepts us and safety also influence our thought to learn. The way we accepted in environment such as the response or feedback from teacher, the friendships have bigger role in influence motivation. Victim of bullying does not have motivation to learn because she/he feels not safe and alone in this world; it makes someone scary and avoids learning in school. Bullying is serious and big case I think. It is a bit different with case of teachers who do not response or pay attention the students, never appreciate students’ work or give feedback in assertive way but in rude way. They are simply case that usually happen in learning process but have same impact with bullying case. All of those make students lost the motivation in learning because they feel the environment is not support them to reach their maximum level.

                Every need that someone has will affect to the appearance of psychical things such as work, learn or play. Everyone wants to be connected to others, have ability or effective function in social life and be independent in take decision. They are needs of self determination, the other theory of needs in learning. In my opinion, Maslow theory and these needs are related each other even they are different in name. In these theory shows that activity in class such as the role of learners in choosing the topic for their assignment, to determine classroom management, the role of teachers in praise the students, the ability to compete with the other in fair when solve the problem in learning are things that can be applied in classroom to empower students’ motivation. Every theory is correlated because all of those things above will not reach maximum potential if the students’ need in psychology was not fulfilled. That example tells that simple need that usually be ignored can give big impact to the other need.

                As candidate of teacher I have learn that we cannot ignore students’ need and only think about the development of academic skill itself. I do not want to be a teacher who always proud because I can give difficult challenge for my students and even though they can solve it but they are not comfort with me, all of my effort were nothing. In my opinion, it make the material only take place in short term memory not in long term because students will lose their motivation to learn or review again the content that I give, everything because I ignore their needs of self determination. As a student now, I comfort if my teacher appreciate my work, give feedback of it and always include me when we have classroom management. I feel it when I have been learn in 3^rd grade of Vocational High School up to now. My home teacher gave the students to free but still be responsible in everything we do, it made us comfort and be motivated in learning even the material was very difficult for example Mathematics.

                The teachers who never give feedback of students’ work or check it will decrease students’ respect to them. It happened with my friend and I when we have a lecture who gave us a lot of assignments but never give feedback so we did not know our development in learning. The result was we become as procrastinator people who did the task almost the deadline and we ignored him/her. We just blame her/him indirectly if we had late in submitted the task. From this experience I learned that everything that happens with my students is according to me. Everything based on how I response them, how am I will support them and how am I invite them into the learning process.