Summary and Suggestions
Purposes of Practicum
The purpose of the practicum is to promote diversity among South East Asian student teachers in terms of pedagogy, skills, content knowledge, culture, languages and many more. The SEA-Teacher Program have let students teachers from around South-East Asia to experience the education system as well as the cultural diversity of the neighboring countries.
Procedures of Practicum
Both the sending and the receiving universities have worked well in order to ensure the success of the program. We were accommodated well and were facilitated before, during and after the practice teaching. We were accompanied by our buddies from the university, supervised by competent cooperating teachers and needs were pacified by the receiving university.
Outcomes of Practicum
Outcomes of Practicum
The practicum helped me improve my communication skills, social skills and my capability in teaching. I was also familiarized with the differences of the culture and education system in Indonesia compared to my country. I was able to grow as a future 21st Century educator.
Challenges of Practicum
The first challenge I had encountered was communicating with them. Not all the teachers and students are able to speak English well and Mathematics in their school is taught using Bahasa as the medium of instruction. Another is the number of school days in a week, I was not used to going to school every Saturday but their classes are from Monday to Saturday. I also had to adjust on the foods because almost all of them are really spicy. However, all these challenges have been overcome with the help of the school administrations especially my cooperating teachers.
The month-long internship taught me a lot of things. I may have lost something, yet I gained way more than that.
I have met new people, I've been introduced to a new culture, I have learned about the education system of Lombok, Indonesia...
I have made friends.. family even..
It was fun, challenging and I gained something really valuable. Experiences...
And I guess, one month is quite a short time for everything.
I hope the next batch would have a longer duration because one month ended so fast. I was just beginning to mix well and have finally adjusted but it already was the time to come home.