Third Week (Teaching Week)

In teaching week, I got a lot of experience especially in how to face students with the huge amount (37-52 students in a class). Besides, I got regular class to teach which means there is no technology. So I had to think and be creative because it was quite different with International program in amount of the students and the stuff in the class. In the regular class, I used chalk not board marker and it was first my experience to teach using chalk. Therefore, to safe the time before the bell rang I must go to class and prepare the material that I had to write on the green board and ask one of the student to take the microphone since the amount of the students were much.

My First teaching topic was about “could you do me a favor?”. In this topic, I was focusing on how to teach students and make them able to provide request expression, provide offering expression and the respond (agreeing or rejecting). Since in this time I just focused to improve the speaking ability of the students. I asked them to come forward in pairs and did role play by remembering the conversation that already I give. I asked the other students to listen. After the pairs finished conversation, I corrected the pronunciation but most of them were well.

In my second teaching, the topic was about “Today’s News” and the focused material about past progressive tense. Since the focusing skill was writing of course I had to explain first about past progressive tense. After that, I give the students game to make students more active and did in group. The game called jumble sentence. I gave every the group opportunity to answer by writing it down on the board. They looked curious and gave effort to finish the jumble word because I gave limited time to finish it, also they could work in group. I also gave more attention to the students who look sleepy, play their mobile phone and talk with their friends by asking them to answer my question or come forward to write down the example relate to the material at that day. So, they would be more careful when I gave explanation.

My third teaching experience with the topic same as before “Today’s News” but I change the skill. The focusing skill was reading. This time, I used technology because I asked my mentor that I want to use technology to teach so the students will not bored and we had to move the other building that provide LCD projector. I gave the example of the news about earthquake in Indonesia. Then I asked them to read the text in the power point then I asked them what happen, when the thing happen, where the thing happen, who is related with the thing, why or how the thing happen. So, they knew when they read the news they have to know all of those things. After that, to check their knowledge about the hot news at that time. I provided Kahoot game and the question about news around the world. They were excited but the problem the signal was bad, then we got some problem but I could fixed it. Since the time of teaching in one meeting just 55 minutes I had to manage it properly. In the last, I really appreciate my students because they have big spirit to learn English and they respect to me as foreign student teacher.

Since the International Program class had to prepare Open House (consist of several competitions such as drama, dance, telling story, and singing) I had to help Mr. Bob to handle some students in practice telling story and dance.

In the day of dance competition, my friends and I saw the dance in the white building near the gate. I thought a lot of Thailand’s student interest in dance. They danced very well.

In the wekend of the third week, again A-jarn Kim and buddies took us to the others places. The name of the place was Sala Keoku. In this place, there was a lot of statue with different size and form (most of them are big and tall). Every statue had different name and uniqueness. People also could pray here.

The second place was Na Kha traditional textile market. This place was beside Mekong river. It means across of Mekong river I could see Laos but we did not go there. If we want to go we can cross the bridge and bring our paspor. In this market, there was a lot of Thailand craft, from small bag, clothe, t-shirt, and snack with affordable price.

The third place that we visit was Pho Cai temple. In this temple, we just go inside and take picture and then went out.

This video was the dance by International Program students (M2) in Open House.

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Second Week (Assistant Week)

In assistant week, I tried to help Miss Fah by helping the students who did not understand or did not do what Miss Fah said. I came to the students and sometime several of them shy and curious or had initiative to ask me. There was a day, Miss Fah asked the students to make a sentence in a good grammar and told to me, if it was correct then they could finish the lesson and it made me surprise because they were so active. Also, I helped one of students who try to collect the homework of his friends and I helped Miss Fah for correcting the student’s homework then gave back to Miss Fah.

While in Mr. Bob class, he taught about weather and asked me to come forward and let students to ask anything about Indonesia. Students asked about several information about Indonesia and Bahasa Indonesia vocabularies such as bird = burung, Handsome = ganteng, and etc. They were attractive and interested with the chance. 

One day, in assistant week, Mr. Alex asked me to enter to his English class so that the students got new knowledge and feel how to face foreign teacher. At that time, I tried to give the students motivation to be more evidence in speaking English. I said “Do not be shy or think too much if you want to speak English just speak it out. Do not worry if you say wrong thing. Besides, I told them to use their mobile phone not only for game or social media but also for education, you can try to find the meaning of new word or read the news, so you will have and get more vocabulary and knowledge”. Because I was sure that the lack of the students to speak English did not only because of they were not confident but also the lack of vocabulary and knowledge. Therefore, I suggested to them to use their mobile phone effectively.

There was Open House activity in Udonpittayanukoon which followed by International Program class from M1 until M4. The agendas were drama, dance, singing, group band and story telling competition. In this picture, My friends (Jihad and Vel) and I become the adjudicator of singing competition. I was surprise that there were a lot of sudden sang very well. Their voice were gorgeous and the stage show was incredible.

The picture above was about the group band performance and we could see that there were a lot of audience saw it.

On 16^th January, it was Teacher’s day and it means the school activities were free. In Udonpittayanukoon, the teachers held party in Banchiang hotel near the school on 15^th January at 6 p.m. Udonpittayanukoon teachers not only invited us to come to the party but they lent us the traditional custom from the shop for seven of us. We took a lot of picture because there are a lot of teachers wore unique custom, we eat together with the teachers from International Program and we enjoyed the dance.

In 18^th January, it was anniversary of Udon Thani. In early morning, start from 6 a.m people already gathered along the way by wearing Udon Thani traditional custom. Orange was the color symbol of Udon Thani province. People brought flower and prayed together.

In the night of Udon Thani anniversary, there was fireworks in the Nong Prajak and the music show. The night was very excited and unforgettable.

On the Saturday of assistant week, UDRU lecturer (A-Jarn Kim) and buddies took us again to the some places for city tour. That time was special because we rode tram. Tram was the small and slowly train. There was a female guide who guide us about the place and the road we passed. The first place was Wat Phothisomphon or Phothisomphon Temple. This architecture of this temple was great especially in the inside. In the inside of the temple, several artist create the picture about the life of the Monk. Besides there was a lot of Buddha statues.

Next, the second place was Ban Chiang National Museum. This museum was an example of prehistoric culture and technology for centuries. We could see the  the artifact from several period (Bronze age and late neolithic). 

The last place was Thai-Chinese Cultural Center. In this place, we could see about the statue of Buddhist, how to pray, and also the instruments.

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First Week (Observation Week)

In this week, I did a lot of observation time since my school Udonpittayanukoon was the biggest school in Udon Thani. I thought I was lucky enough to be in Udon Thani province because I got the biggest University (UDRU) and the biggest school Udonpittayanukoon of course there are great people, students, place, and education program.

This picture was the first time of my friends and I who came from different place to came to Udonpittayanukoon. I have to arrived to the school before half past seven. Of course for the first time our buddy take us to the school and that was my first moment to know about "song thew" (the small car or minibus in Thailand). I just need ten bath to ride song thew and about 5 minutes to reach the school. It was very excited because I can meet with Thailand's students and I talk with them even in the simple conversation.

For the first time in Udonpittayanukoon School, the one of English teacher, Mr. Alex took us on the stage in front of the director, about 300 teacher and 4000 more students. Mr.Alex introduced us to the member of Udonpittayanukoon school and let us to introduce ourselves one by one in simple way.

When welcoming us, Udonpittayanukoon school showed the dance from the students and we were enjoyed it because one of the dance was K-Pop. J

All school in Thailand held flag ceremony even Thailand was the only one country in ASEAN which has not colonized by other country. The flag ceremony in Thailand especially in Udonpittayanukoon was flexible. After the flag raised, the student could sit down in the place they stand as long as they listen what the commander of ceremony speech. People should stand up and stop doing anything when they hear the anthem of Thailand as the symbol of respect.

My friends and I got good office in Udonpittayanukoon. The office was the office of several International Program teacher’s office (Mr. Yo, Miss Sonam and the others teachers). The teacher in this office were friendly and kind. Sometime, they asked us about our project in Udonpittayanukoon, about our country, shared about the experience, shared about our individual information, shared about the habitual of the students, they asked us to go lunch together in the canteen and they told us that we could make coffee or tea in the office. Sometime, some teachers from Philippines (Mr. Steve) and India (Mr. Sha) came to our office to share their activity and scholarship experience. I felt comfortable, welcomed and enjoyed in this place.

As long as in the week of observation, I went around the school and found temple in this school. Mr. Boem as one of English teacher accompanied us to go to the temple to see the activity in the temple and I saw the students learn about praying in front of Buddha statue. After that, Mr. Boem took us to see the music instruments and Mr. Boem and one of the teacher played the music instrument, besides the other female teachers danced and sang. It was really awesome and I liked the sounds of the instrument because it was so classic and original. One of the instrument was like flute but the name was Zither , the instrument seem like guitar was Pong Lang and the instrument that played by hitting was Bamboo Mouth Organ.

In my observation week, I learned how my mentor teacher Miss Fah taught the students in huge number. Before the class started, the students stood up together and greet the teacher. The classes those taught by Miss Fah were regular classes. At least the amount of the students in one class was about 37 students and the biggest was 52 students. Even there were in huge number they still focused on the lesson. Miss Fah used microphone because the class was big and a lot of the students. Actually, Miss Fah class focused on grammar but Miss Fah also improve the student’s ability in speaking, writing, listening and reading. The source of the lesson took from the book. In teaching and learning process, Miss Fah make students more active by asking question, asked students to come forward and sometime called the students by the attendance list.

Besides Miss Fah class which was regular class, I also got one International Program class. The teacher was Mr. Robert or we called him Mr. Bob. The students in this class less than regular class, about 31 students. Mr. Bob also focused on grammar as Miss Fah di in teaching English. After checked the attendance list, Mr. Bob start the lesson by writing the lesson and ask the students what kind of sentence was that?.

In the week of observation, I also learned about electronic media that support me and my friends in teaching learning process. One of Mathematics teacher in International Program, Mr. Marvin taught us how to operate the projector. Since the projector was little bit different from power point because it used special pen that we can draw in the slide. After all it was very attractive, useful and make student give more attention to the teacher explanation.

Since we have no class yet to teach, in our spare time we go to the canteen and tried to enjoy the volley ball and besides the volley ball stadium there was office where the information that should be inform by the speaker announced. The teachers were excited when they met us and make conversation also took some pictures with us.

On Saturday of observation week, Udon Thani Rajabhat University lecturer (A-Jarn Kim) and the buddies took us to city tour by their private bus. The first place was Red Lotus Sea but it was not real sea. I thought it was big lake with a lot of beautiful pink lotus blooming. To see the lotus bloom we had to come in the early morning. A-Jar Kim told us to gather at 5 a.m so we can reach the place and still could see the lotus bloom. In the Red Lotus Sea, we rode small boat and it is free because the UDRU paid for us and in the middle of the lake we saw, enjoy, took picture, and took video with beautiful lotus. It was the great and the first experience to see a lot of lotus in from on my eyes. 

After finish took a lot of picture in the lake, we back to the edge of the lake and enjoyed the landmark on that place. In this picture, my friends and I took a picture in the agreement monument between Thailand and South Korean.

Beside the lake, there was also a beautiful temple with red and gold ornament. I entered the temple but I did not take a picture. I just took a picture with my friends outside of the temple. Then Beside the temple there was music instrument but it was special, only for pray. It called “Gong” and if we want to hit “Gong”, we have to hit in odd number. Actually in my country, Indonesia, had the same one. The shape and the name are same just the color sometime different, it could be black or gold. In Indonesia, people used Gong for escort the traditional dance and it was one of traditional music instrument especially in Java.

On sunday, it was our freeday but we did not want to spent our special time in Thailand just stay in the dorm. Luckily, my friend, Resa, and I had same buddies; Victoria and Orange. Therefore, on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m we went to Nong Prajak. We asked our other three friends (Widhi, Nadya and Dwi) to go with us. In Nong Prajak, there is a lake and the dolls of Duck family. After taking picture with the duck’s family, my friends and I buy ticket and ride duck boat. We enjoyed the sunset in this place. In the night, we went to dinner together.

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