THE AUTHOR AND THE JOURNEY

Sandro A. Silverio is a 4th year student taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED) Major in Mathematics of the West Visayas State University.

He has been awarded as the Student of the Year of the College of Education of his university for 3 consecutive years and consistent First Honors of the Bachelor of Secondary Education Program.

He is a holistic person since he also has organizations to lead and many competitions to join. In fact, he bagged a lot of awards in Public Speaking not only in his university and region, but to the entire Philippines.

MY JOURNEY IN SEA TEACHER PROGRAM

August 11, 2018 was indeed a special day. Many have happened! This day wasn’t special not only because of my first international travel but this is also my natal day! I celebrated my birthday in different airports hahahaha. First from Iloilo International Airports for my Iloilo to Manila , second, in Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for my Manila to Jakarta and in Jakarta Airport for my Jakarta to Yogyakarta. Together with Rain and Sabel we made my special day a memorable one.

I was a little bit sad because I will not spend my special day with my loved ones! My Cubay family really did celebrate! I cried seeing their greeting and singing of songs especially when I see Hannah blew the candle of my cake! Hahahha

Hundreds of comments, notifications and personal message I did receive in this day! And they really resonate in my heart. I realized though I don’t have a family beside me, God has given more than the desires of my heart.

I was also touched when the whole Valenzuela family offered to drop me in the airport. So they woke up early just to send me to the airport.

We just sieze the moment! What strucked me the most was when we arrived at Jakarta! While the plane was on his way to land I’ve seen down there the beauty of light that reflect in each building. And we were amazed with their airport! Very antique! There was also a sky train! And we took a lot of pictures, like seriously, a lot! Hahahahah

It was very challenging for us because we don’t know where are we going after we arrived at the airport in Jakarta since our flight was still in the early morning! So we just asked some personas lol they don’t know how to speak English so both our verbal and NON VERBAL skills in communication have helped us to triumph in this endeavor!

We arrived at the airport of Yogyakarta at 7 am, August 12. And it was very tiring since we were awake the whole night and day last Aug. 11. So we were actually awake for almost 24 hours. And the mentors and lecturers of Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta (UMBY), Maam Restu Arini together with our buddy, Deavy and Hesan. So we took a picture with the tarpaulin that they brought. I was wondering why there were lot of Indonesian flags everywhere. And the guy lecturer said that they are celebrating their independence day.

After some talks and heartwarming welcome, we were picked up by 2 cars. And we looked for a restaurant or establishment where we could eat our breakfast. And I learned two words “TUTUP” and “BUKA” which means close and open, respectively. We tried to look for a restaurant but they were tutup hahaha, so Ms. Arini decided to bring us to KFC.

We dropped by Sabel to her boarding house since we had different assigned school. I and Shiena will be assigned to the same university. And I was mesmerized by that boarding house; very antique and unique. And the lady who is Muslim greeted us and the girls shook their hands to her, and I also tried to extend my hand, and I was surprised she denied it. Hesan told me that don’t be offended if that is the case. Because in their culture the woman who usually does that are highly religious.

Deavy stayed with Sabel to help her adjust the environment! And Hesan went with us! He is really a fluent English speaker! It has accent! After I arranged my stuff in my room, we looked for a sim card where we could use to connect with the line, fb, messenger, etc.. And while we were on our way, many people in every corner had their own short programs with games to celebrate their independence! And I was impressed on how they reminisce and celebrate!The celebration was a whole week where the young people in every community spearheaded the games and facilitated the programs!

We captured the attention of everybody while we were observing them since our faces are quite new for them. And Hesan introduced us to the group of people. And their leader invited us to join the “eating contest”. Hesan took photos and videos as we were seizing the moment! And after it, we were accommodated very well. They gave us food and drinks. Some of the kids, young people and even the elder of the community had requested us to take photos with them!

We really had a hard time looking for a sim since it’s Sunday and most of the establishments were TUTUP. We walked and walked still we haven’t bought the sim yet. So we decided to eat in an open restaurant, and it was a buffet type! I was amazed because it was very cheap. Only 1-2 U.S. Dollar! The food are sumptuous but I didn’t have the appetite because the craving for sleep overpowered the craving of food!

We already used taxi to buy sim, and finally we found it. Unfortunately, my phone didn’t work. I was a little bit sad! So only Shienna had it! And I just connect my phone to her!

These were just the scenarios in our first week of stay in Yogyakarta.

There was also a day where we went to our receiving university which is Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta (UMBY). A welcome ceremony or program was prepared for us . “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today,” Malcon X.

The quote above was my introduction as I was tasked to deliver a speech in behalf of my fellow student teachers in Philippines and Thailand. We were welcomed very warmly by the faculty and directors of the Universitas Mercu Buana Jogjakarta. Since it’s a “holiday” (sembreak is the term in the Philippines) there are no students in the university only the highest official who really attended the program.

I had also the opportunity to meet my mentor. His name is Pak Heru, and we took a picture together. He gave me his username and password for me to access the free wifi in the different campuses of UMBY.

During the presentation of the mentors and coordinators I learned a lot of new words like “pak”-married man, “mas”-single man, “ibuk”-married woman, and “mba”- single woman. They attached these terms before saying their first name.

The most exciting part was the tour outside the UMBY. We were toured to the different campuses of UMBY; they have also 3 campuses. And the infrastructures were all great. All have the same design in terms of buildings. And I was in awe when all rooms are air-conditioned.

We were excited when we were officially turned over to our own school for us to do our student teaching there. The name of the school is Kesatuan Bangsa School Yogyakarta. The faculty and staff and the assistant director of Universitas Mercu Buana Yogyakarta (UMBY) had a small program prepared for us. We were welcomed by the principal and the owner of the school himself. The owner of the school is an Australian and I am so happy since the school is an international school, it means all students know how to speak even just a little bit of English.

The Kesatuan Bangsa is a boarding school. The students just stay inside the campus. The girls and boys are separated in class. The canteen where ladies and gentlemen eat their food is also separated. Since they are housed it means they have a routine to follow every day. I asked one of the teachers regarding the activities that they have every day and he said that in the night they allot at least 2 hours of independent study.

My cooperating teacher Ms. Hida met me at the library of the school, and it is where she oriented me about every activity and lesson that I will be teaching to in the next weeks. She is quite sweet and very accommodating also. After which she accompanied me to my office together with some gents there. That is the place where I will be staying to in 3 weeks of stay there in the school. They are quite sensitive in terms of gender that’s why even the the office of ladies and gentlemen teachers are also separated.

I was surprised because the curriculum that they are using is from Cambridge. And I’ve seen how it is quite different compared to the curriculum of the Philippines. And what I love the most, aside from the course book and practice book from Cambridge, the school per se developed their own workbook but it is being localized and contextualized.

I had also a fruitful discussion with some male teachers in the office. I shared to them the educational system of the Philippines and we did compare and contrast in many aspects of it. I also did ask some question to them about the how the school, Kesatuan Bangsa, works. All my queries were really answered because they are quite kind and humble. I found out that there are more than 350 students who are staying and studying there. Almost 90 percent of the students come from a well off family and each one of them is paying $350 per month.

I thought this school is only an ordinary school, but I was amazed because this school participates in international competitions in all fields (Science Investigation, Invention, Math Quiz, etc.), and guess, they are not only participants but they bring home the bacon!

When it was lunch time, I asked permission from one of my “colleagues” if it’s ok to accompany Ma’am Rain (my school mate who is also with me) to eat lunch and he smiled to me and replied, “You won’t join us?” I was a little bit confused and I told him, “I can, but where can I buy my food?” And he smiled again and said, “The food here is free. You are a teacher here,”. “Oh ok, thank you very much,” I replied. Truly, teachers are really valued and respected in this place. I was a little bit emotional after such conversation because the situations of teachers in my country just went inside my thoughts.

I also did observation also to some mathematics teachers there. For an instance, I did observed 2 different grade levels: the class of Mr. Tito Auditama and Ms. Medina, grade 12 and grade 8, respectively. I gained a lot of techniques and strategies while observing these two expert mathematics teacher.

Mr. Tito is teaching grade 12 students and when I entered his room, he told his students that they have visitor. He gave me an opportunity to introduce myself and to discuss my purpose why am I here. And of course with bravado, I delivered my short introduction about myself, my university and the thrust of the SEA-Teacher Project. After my closing statement, I was surprised that they gave me a round of applause. Mr. Tito gave me a seat at the back where I could observe the whole class. His lesson was all about definite integral. He began the class by comparing and contrasting definite and indefinite integral. He used the chalk to give some examples of it. After some examples, he gave the page number of practice exercises for them to work on using their chrome book. But that was a guided practice since Mr. Tito roamed around and catered some of the queries of his students. Indeed, in learning mathematics the 3 major keys are PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and PRACTICE. Yes, after the students heard the lecture of their teacher they just automatically took out their notebook and chrome book and then solve as many problems as they can. I also like the atmosphere of the classroom because students help each other when their classmates found some difficulties in analyzing and solving the problems. I have found out that inside that room there are some geniuses since some of them have gone and won some international mathematics quiz bee.

On the other hand, Ms. Medina is teaching grade 8 students. I did enjoy my three-hour straight observation in her class because of her style in facilitating the class. I can’t believe that she sustained the energy of her students in that very long period of time. She believes in constructive and collaborative learning but she also believes in the power of scaffolding. He integrated games like domino in her teaching. After she discussed the concepts of function and mapping of function, she grouped them and she then chose the captain/leader in each group. Each captain is responsible for his members, they need to help each other to accomplish the task. While the group activity was going on, Ms. Medina and I roamed around for us to check if the can follow and to answer some their queries too. And after the allotted time for a specific activity, Ms. Medina checked the progress of her students by letting each captain report the performance of his or her members. I really like this idea and I could benchmark this one because this is quite superb. By doing this, students can monitor their progress by assessing themselves (Assessment As Learning). What I like the most was when she started to discuss the lesson about the inverse of the function. What she did, instead of practice exercises using a paper or activity sheet, she made it into a domino where students needed to connect the inverse of the the function by connecting the right one. Excellent! Ms. Medina then approached me and said, “Mr. Sandro, we have to learn these concepts in a very fun way so that my students will enjoy it, considering that 3 hours is quite long.” She also shared to me the app that she is using in finding the right game for her lessons. I also saw her classroom management skills, routine was really observed in her class. I saw some rules and posted on the wall that the students made by themselves . When they were a little bit noisy, Ms. Medina just waved her hands, and in a second silence was observed. I also like her approach in motivating her students, she really appreciates every act that the student is showing by saying, “I appreciate that” “good job”” very good” “wow”. At the end of the class, one of the students approached me and asked the question, “Mr. why do you love math?” And I answered him, “Math is fun! I have a lot of “AHA” moments in studying it.” And when I said that one student gave me five because he also love mathematics.

Trult, obseravation was full of learning and realizations. Thank you Lord!

Teaching Assistant was also exciting and superb. I really like the transition because last week I had the opportunity to meet and know my students. It was like testing the waters first before jumping on it. Finally, I have already coped up and adjusted with the style of teaching of Kesatuan Bangsa.

I have assisted two teachers, Mr. Fadhil and Ms. Medina. In 7:30-8:55, I went with Mr. Fadhil and we taught the Grade 7-B (all boys). The lesson was all about sequences and patterns. While he was introducing the concept of sequence, I started to roam around to see if what the students are doing, and If I saw them doing something that wasn’t relevant to the topic, I gently tapped the sh

oulder of the students and whispered to him that he needed to focus. When Mr. Fadhil went out to have some break or some emergency, I took over the class and then added some facts and elucidated some concepts about the lesson. For example, since our class was all about patterns and sequences, Mr. Fadhil showed to them the general formula of the arithmetic sequence. I know that some of the students were not able to appreciate the generated formula, so when Mr. Fadhil went outside, I told them that this formula will make their life easier. I cited an example for them to appreciate it more, “What if in the test you will be asked to find the 150th term or 300th term?” And everybody murmured… maybe their minds were disturbed. And then I began to speak, “Don’t worry class, because all you have to do is to substitute all the given data and then find the unknown using this formula.” And I saw how they were happy and surprised! Indeed, in teaching mathematics we teachers need to inculcate in the minds of our students that math is really fun and it makes our lives simpler and better. After some discussions, they answered the practice exercises on their workbook. And I received some queries from them, and I was glad that I answered all of them. To check if how much they learn, Mr. Fadhil requested them to take out their chromebook to answer some multiple choice questions in a form of a game in the site quizizz.com. This was really fantastic because while the game was on going I and Mr. Fadhil knew if who among our students mastered the lesson. The ranking of the players can be seen, that was why remediation and intervention can be done immediately since you already knew the students who need help. This kind of game can be a very good help for item analysis for example since in each question, the number of students who did answer correct and wrong are stated.

On the other hand, after I came out from the room of Mr. Fadhil, I automatically went to the room of Ms. Medina, and I did ask permission to assist her in her discussion. And the response was a resounding “yes”! We did start the class by reviewing about inverse function. Ms. Medina tried to draw out information and concepts that they learned last meeting. Surely, I can conclude that they already mastered the concepts since their answers were all correct plus we did check the homework and most of them did it right. But, to really make sure, Ms. Medina gave a pop quiz, she let them answer two problems about inverse function with doing scaffolding and without notes. Consequently, after the pop quiz we played an ice breaker and it was entitled “Think inversely”. She instructed them to form a big circle, and I was surprised that she told me to join also. The mechanics is to make an opposite act when she announced the instruction. For example, she will say move 2 steps to the left, but we will do the opposite, we’ll move 2 steps to the right. If it’s backward, we will do forward… and so on. And after that, she introduced the PEMDAS, the order of operations, to her students. She provided them some colourful letters for her students to post on their workbook. This would actually cater the visual and tactile learners inside the classroom. Ms. Medina really knows the need of her students. I observed, that every action that she does is really anchored to some theories of learning and some theories that I learned in my Professional Education subjects.

Mr. Fadhil tasked me to discuss the next lesson which is “Representing Simple Functions”. I am already excited about this one.

Thank you Lord!

In my teaching practice, I did apply all the learning and realization that transpired during my observation and teaching assistanship. I was glad since the flow of my classes was really good. The students did participative and cooperative. That's why I got adwanced in my evaluation sheet that was given to SEAMEO.