RALPH ROBLES
teaching practice
25 AUGUST 2018
I can feel my heart beating out of my chest as my actual teaching closely approaches. I was nervous not because of speaking in front of the class, but of the thought that my students will not learn from me because of the language barrier. I believe that I have gained confidence through my teaching demo in Ateneo, but this time, I guess it was different. Teaching in front of students who are non-speakers of English challenged me to go beyond my limits. Language was no excuse for me not to do my best. I have learned how to adapt to changes and maintain my composure, despite how thoughts and emotions played within my system. All this for the love of teaching!
I was assigned to teach in Grade 8A and 8B classes under Bu Tati, and Grade 8G and 8H classes under Bu Yugi. The topic that they gave me was about the Cartesian Coordinate Plane. I felt happy the moment they gave me the topic because I can maximize the use of their grid board. I was lucky to have Bu Tati’s and Bu Yugi’s student-teachers to help me prepare for my actual teaching. Safrina, one of the student-teachers, gave me the files that I need which includes Bu Tati’s lesson plan, PowerPoint presentation, worksheets, and learning resources. But, I was given the chance to also create my own version, so I was not limited with what she provided. For my actual teaching, I will try to use the teaching methodologies that I learned from my observation.
During the start of my actual teaching, the usual routine was conducted. The students were given 20 minutes for the prayer, singing of the national anthem, and literasi. As the students were reading a book, I used the time to prepare all the materials that I need. I connected my laptop to the projector, prepared the grid board, and organized the worksheets on the teacher’s desk. After the 20 minutes, I greeted my students with a smile. “Selamat Pagi!”, I said. They greeted back with excitement and enthusiasm, then I continued by saying, “In the Philippines, ‘Selamat Pagi’ is ‘Magandang Umaga!”. The students were laughing because they could not pronounce it right. Those two words suddenly became a tongue twister. Then, I introduced the lesson by telling them a short story.
“As you all know, Sir Ralph came all the way from the Philippines. From the Philippines, he traveled to be here in the beautiful Semarang, Indonesia for his practice teaching. As Sir Ralph came out of the airport, the first thing that he needs to do was to find the money changer. But the problem is, Semarang is too big. Sir Ralph couldn’t find the money changer, so he was worried that cannot have rupiahs to buy his favorite . Good thing! Sir Ralph remembered that he does need to worry because he knows about coordinates.”
From that, I started to introduce that coordinates will help Sir Ralph to locate a particular point or location in order for him to find the money changer. I also showed picture of real-life applications of coordinates like their seating arrangement, bus seat, longitude and latitude in the world map, and cross-stitching.
I connected the new lesson based from what the students know. I first showed them the number line which they already learned in Grade 7. From there, I let them observe what will happen to this number line if we try to rotate it halfway counterclockwise. Therefore, we were able to create a vertical number line. I asked the students where they see the positive and negative numbers. Then, I continued by asking them what will happen if we try to intersect the horizontal and vertical number line perpendicularly. With that, students were able to see that we were able to form a new figure with four right angles which I introduced as the Cartesian Coordinate Plane.
Then, I called the horizontal number line as the x-axis, the vertical number line as the y-axis, and the intersecting point as the origin. The students are now ready to plot points. I introduced the ordered pair and demonstrated some examples on how to plot by letting them observe the movement of the point in my PowerPoint presentation. I also asked the students about the distance of the point from the x and y axes. After that, I gave more examples and called some volunteers to plot the points. I created a Coordinate Plane in their grid board and let the students answer in front.
After all the points are plotted, I now introduced the quadrants. I let the students observe which among these points belong to Quadrant I, II, III, and IV. I asked them if they have questions and clarifications, then we began the activity. The class was again divided into groups with four members each. Bu Tati, together with her student-teachers, helped me monitor the progress of each group in my 8A and 8B classes. Same with Bu Yugi and her student-teachers who also helped me in my 8G ad 8H classes. They translated what the students need to do for every part of the worksheet. Each group received two worksheets, one in Bahasa and the other in English. Safrina translated my worksheet into Bahasa so that students can understand what to do.
I assigned some groups to present their answers in front of the class. The students explained how they were able to plot the points in their own words. Some of them even tried to explain it in English which I really appreciated, but I allowed others to speak in Bahasa since it’s their most comfortable language. After the presentation, we gave them again a GOOD JOB clap.
We ended the lesson by generalizing the signs of the x and y coordinates for every quadrant. Without plotting the points, the students were able to determine where a particular point lies in the Cartesian Coordinate Plane. I also asked the students to explain in their own words the steps on plotting points and its importance in their lives. Before the class ends, my co-student-teachers helped me distribute the assignment to the students.
8A
8H
