Sigit's Teaching Environment

I teach English in a private primary school in Surabaya, Eastern Java province, the second biggest city after the capital. It is under the umbrella of AL Hikmah Educational Foundation, a non-government organization which covers educational institutions from pre-school to University level (teaching institute). Unlike most primary schools in my country (esp public) that have a 5 hour school day everyday, the school where I teach lasts more than 8 hours everyday. It begins at 7.10 a.m and finishes at 3.45 in the afternoon. We, teachers have to get to the school at least 10 minutes earlier and leave at least 15 later than the students.

English is not widely used in our country, even though it is taught in primary schools from grade 1. On formal occasions, we use our national language and switch to our local (ethnic) language in a less formal atmosphere, such as when talking personally, joking or when playing.

We have two type of classes in our school: international and regular. In international classes, where students have to take international assessments on three subjects: English, Math, and Science, those three classes use English as the medium of instructions. However, I would say less than 80% English is actually used especially in science and maths class since some deep concepts of particular topics require more elaboration of precise terminologies and complicated explanation than we could do. In regular classes, we also use English for the English subject but sometimes switch to our national language (Bahasa) when students appear to be completely lost. In other subjects, we use only Bahasa.

There are 6 classes in every grade level, (except grade 1 which has 7 classes) each of which consists of 30 students at most. Every class has one home room teacher and one teacher that helps him/her; both are responsible to teach various subjects (except Physical Education, Art, English, Quran). Besides our interaction with students, we normally also have intensive communication with our colleagues within the same grade (we call it team 1, team 2, to team 6). And it is within our team that a number of programs, both academic and non-academic, are designed, evaluated, and shared, led by a team leader and under the supervision of a vice principal (sometimes under direct control of the principal). We are used to having a different composition of teachers within a team every year. Some of us may stay to teach in the same grade level while others may go to another. It is not uncommon that sometimes a teacher who has been responsible for taking care of adorable first graders has to suddenly work with young teenagers able to recite every single line of Bruno Mars' or One Direction's songs in another grade level.

In English class we always select English textbooks which are enriched with interesting features kids are mostly fascinated with like animals, puzzles, enchanting songs and rhymes while still accommodating higher graders' need for more challenging activities like crosswords, stories, or history across the world. And the books that we have been using seem to meet those needs, so that the way we teach are generally following the steps set already in the book. Yet we do make some additional supporting media like slide shows, flashcards or handouts (of interview or small quizzes) in order that the students can be involved in more various activities the book may not cover. Every classroom is equipped with, a screen, a set of sound systems, LCD projector, and a computer with internet access enabling us to create a teaching design in an unconventional way. However, we often find it uncomfortable when using the internet right in front of the kids for some incidents did happen when for example inappropriate images show up instead of things we wish to appear. So, we generally use a computer and LCD to play CDs (from English textbooks), already downloaded nursery songs/rhymes, or show powerpoint slide shows. As in most primary schools, the students are generally very active. They never hesitate to raise their hands asking about many things, and those are often irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

In our international classes, where students are mostly well motivated, we feel completely at ease. Many of them attend extra English class in a cram school or English course institution after school. Some of them have reached a remarkable level of English not only for daily communication but also to perform higher tasks, such as speeches or presentations. No significant disruptive behaviour, an attentive audience, and fast learners really makes us teachers including English teachers able to save our energy, to be used up in the other classes : regular classes on the same day.

In regular classes, where students are composed of a quite different level of development, our job becomes tougher. Moreover, sixth graders of primary school are required to take a national final exam that 6 team teachers focus more on affective aspect, i.e., how to build their inner motivation for learning and to be self reliant individuals before working on their cognitive aspect at the very beginning of the academic year. As a private school receiving no financial back-up from the government, we, and especially the 6 team teachers, have to work hard in order that our students' national exam show no unsatisfying results. We do set our own quality assurance as well as innovate breakthroughs (we think) better than most public schools, but since the majority of our community concern so much about the Final Examination to then judge a quality or non quality school, we have to work hard on it at all cost. Though we belong to a non-profit organization, again since we are a private institution, to some extent we have to think and act like a company in how to be competitive and to meet the demands of the market in order to survive.

And here in grade six, plenty of tasks have to be carried out. In this grade too, students have to make a science final project to be presented in front of their parents. This job is mainly handled by a science teacher, but it also involves the home room teacher and his/her partner since the project really takes time and needs relatively intensive guidance from us. Affiliation to a religion (Islam), means that our school also has strong emphasis on students' mastery of Islamic subjects like the Quran. And in this grade too, students are required to get through with it. Those previously mentioned activities, field trips, tests from other subjects, a series of try outs (national exam prep), as well as many other supporting programs are clear reasons for us to prepare our sixth grade students to be both mentally and physically ready. And often it is not until the second semester, to our surprise, that they finally come to understand and have the qualities of sixth graders we would like to shape.

English, as it is excluded from  the list of national examination subjects students have to take, is often seen as the right place to escape from the stressful stuff. In most regular classes, students just want to have fun with us during English classes. And we understand from them that we have to be ready with games or other less stressful teaching scenario. At least once in a semester, the vice principal in charge of academic affairs, come to our class to watch us teaching and discuss what he has observed during the class. In addition to our role as a teacher, no matter our discipline of teaching background, we are also required to be students' spiritual guide. We are allowed (in fact, obliged) to monitor students' activities using either a monitoring book to be filled out by parents and, or making a phone call. In many cases, our students whose parents are mostly working couples, trust us their teachers more than their own parents. And we sometimes reveal interesting findings concerning causes of students' problems such as aggression or other misbehaviours that their own parents are not even aware of. This is good in a way that we could play optimally our roles as teachers, advisors, etc, to help our students reach goals, but is actually not so since we do not want to take away parents' roles and be more superior than them with whom students spend more time. We do have a parent-school committee intending to bridge school's and parents' vision to come to a harmonious synergy, but then we often come to the conclusion that most parents are happy with this situation, simply because they are busy.