Laskar Pelangi, Pelajaran Hebat Bagi Guru

Sangat inspiratif, menggugah dan menyentuh...Ini adalah kesimpulan saya setelah menyaksikan film Laskar Pelangi di Botani Square Bogor yang digarap oleh Riri Riza dan Mira Lesmana di akhir Ramadhan bersama istri saya sambil ngabuburit. Film yang mengisahkan kondisi pendidikan dasar di Belitong dan perjuangan 10 orang siswa pelangi di sebuah sekolah dasar Muhammadiah ini banyak diminati masyarakat Indonesia karena memiliki nilai-nilai yang menggugah dan menyentuh para penontonnya, sekaligus beberapa cuil kisah lucu dari pemeran-pemeran cilik dalam film itu.

Saya jadi teringat film tentang perjuangan guru dari Amerika yang juga di angkat dari kisah nyata dan buku yang telah beredar sebelumnya. "The Ron Clarak Stroy" adalah kisah seorang guru SD di New York yang pandai mengubah kelas "preman" menjadi kelas luar biasa karena kegigihannya dalam menerapkan sentuhan-sentuhan manajemen kelas yang sangat inspiratif dan aplikatif. Si guru sendiri memperoleh penghargaan "Teacher of the Year" dari pemerintah AS karena dedikasi dan kegigihannya. Film lainnya adalah "The Freedom Writers" yang juga mengisahkan kegigihan serta semangat pantang menyerah seorang guru SMA yang begitu "gerah" melihat siswa-siswi di sekolah dan kelasnya yang sangat rasial dan tidak punya keinginan tulus dalam belajar. Kekerasan demi kekerasan sering terjadi dan permusuhan serta saling curiga tampak setiap hari dalam lingkungan kelas dan sekolah. Pada akhirnya, si guru sukses menginspirasikan nilai-nilai keadilan, keperayaan dan saling mempercayai satu sama lain melalui metode-metode menarik dalam belajar sehingga murid-muridnya mau mulai menulis akan kisah-kisah hidup mereka dan akhirnya terbangun saling percaya satu sama lain. Walaupun harus bergulat dengan manajemen sekolah yang tidak mendukung usahanya serta mengeluarkan kocek sendiri, kisah dalam film The Freedom Writers membuktikan kegigihan adalah awal dari sebuah proses menuju perubahan dan kesuksesan.

Kembali ke Laskar Pelangi, film yang diangkat dari novel dengan judul sama karangan Andrea Hirata, si anak Belitong, ini adalah film tentang potret sebuah pendidikan dan kegigihan guru serta murid-muridnya yang pertama yang saya pikir baru ada di Indonesia. Dengan semakin kencangnya isu-isu perubahan menuju perbaikan mutu pendidikan dan guru yang beberapa tahun belakangan ini santer dihembuskan, nampaknya film ini menjadi tontonan wajib bagi seluruh guru (2,7 juta orang) serta siswa (25 juta siswa). Bayangkan bila seluruh guru menyaksikan film ini dan kemudian mengambil nilai-nilai kegigihan dan dedikasi tinggi akan pentingnya membimbing anak bangsa ini menjadi insan yang cerdas dan berakhlak, merubah cara pandang mereka tentang profesi mereka yang luhur serta terus menjadi guru hebat yang dapat menginspirasikan anak-anak mereka agar terus belajar untuk terus maju tidak terus menjadi bangsa yang terpuruk. Bayangkan juga bila siswa yang 25 juta anak itu mengambil nilai-nilai perjuangan ke-10 laskar-laskar cilik yang tidak pernah berhenti belajar walaupun jarak, keterbatasan ekonomi sampai bahkan harus menanggung bahaya (ingat Lintang yang harus menunggu buaya masuk ke habitatnya untuk bisa terus mengayuh sepedanya), dapat dipastikan bangsa ini dapat menghasilkan manusia-manusia berkaliber luar biasa yang cerdas, gigih serta berakhlak mulia karena mereka dapat menyadari ilmu-ilmu duniawi bagi pembangunan ini serta ilmu-ilmu religi yang membentuk mereka menjadi manusia yang takwa dan berbudipekerti baik. Yakin kedepan, bangsa kita ini akan memiliki pemimpin-pemimpin yang bersih, anti korup dan mengabdi pada rakyat agar terjaga dari kebangkrutan, kemiskinan dan kebodohan.

Salut dengan film Laskar Pelangi. Semoga guru dan siswa dan siapa saja dapat mengambil nilai-nilai inspiratif akan film yang telah menyedot 1,5 juta penonton ini dalam kurun waktu 2 minggu penayangannya, sehingga pendidikan bisa terus maju dengan mengutamakan nilai-nilai akhlak dan budi pekerti agar kita semua terhindar dari kehancuran. Semoga semakin banyak film-film nasional bermutu yang jauh dari angin-angin materialisme, kekerasan dan kejahatan.

Kini saya harus memiliki DVD film itu sambil menganalisanya untuk dijadikan klip-klip gugahan bagi guru dalam modul pelatihan saya...

Ourdoor Learning is so much fun!

Recently, I facilitated a short training on English teaching methodology to around 30 primary teachers in kabupaten Tangerang. Many of them were public school teachers. It was held outdoor in a greeny and cool windy park in tanah tingal, bintaro. It was very unique place and in fact it was my first training conducted outdoor. I introduced them how to play one-on-one communication to learn on prepositions using pictorials index cards I had prepared. They also learned how to experience a collaborative approach called round robin, where each member of a team has to contribute for a team's goal. So much fun, laugh and it made them learn to grow to teach better for their students.

Guru MI Belajar Manajemen Kelas di SDIT Dinamika Umat

Sekitar 16 guru dan kepala sekolah Madrasah Ibtidaiyah (MI) kecamatan Kemang, Bogor mengikuti pelatihan manajeman kelas yang difasilitasi oleh Bapak Jalu Cahyanto hari Sabtu, tanggal 17 Mei 2008 lalu di SDIT Dinamika Umat, Telaga Kahuripan Parung, Bogor. Materi yang disampaikan adalah bukan barang baru bagi para guru namun bagi guru-guru MI, mereka sangat mendapatkan banyak hal-hal baru dalam hal teknik bagaimana mengelola kelas agar tercipta lingkungan belajar siswa yang kondusif, positif dan berdisiplin. Hal yang paling menarik yang didapat ialah bahwa para guru ditekankan pentingnya membuat 'Class Belief' atau yang biasa disebut dengan peraturan kelas, yang harus diciptakan oleh para siswa dan guru bersama-sama. Siswa harus dilibatkan untuk memikirkan lingkungan belajar kelas yang diinginkan dan guru dapat memfasilitasi kegiatan diskusi tersebut. Dengan begitu, siswa dibangun rasa memiliki kelas yang dicita-citakan tersebut dalam proses belajar mereka. Peraturan kelas bukanlah peraturan sekolah yang dibuat oleh sekolah yang memiliki banyak poin dan kesamaan untuk seluruh kelas. Peraturan kelas yang dimaksud merupakan semacam kesepatkan yang dibuat bersama untuk tujuan bersama dalam kegiatan belajar agar guru lancar memfasilitasi pembelajaran dan siswa juga lancar dalam proses belajarnya.

Beberapa tips yang di sampaikan fasilitator dalam membangun manajemen kelas antara lain:

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• Didasarkan atas bagaimana mereka berinteraksi satu sama lain

• Melibatkan siswa dan terbuka menerima feedback. Modifikasi bila perlu.

• Buat seminimal mungkin (lima) dan umum

• Gunakan kalimat positif dan singkat

• Gunakan visualisasi

• Guru harus aktif mengajarkan dan menjadi model yang tepat

• Dalam praktek, berikan penguatan pada perilaku positif siswa

Kegiatan berlangusng sangat kondusif dan bersifat workshop karena banyak melibatkan peserta dalam berdisuksi kelompok, permainan pembentukan kelompok dan sesi tanya jawab. Peserta merasakan materi yang sangat menarik dan penyampaian workshop yang fastastik. Mereka berharap ada kelanjutan untuk workshop berikutnya untuk kelanjutan ataupun dengan materi yang lain.

Training for Madrasah Teachers, SATA Donates Teaching Materials

As a SATA teacher trainer, recently I was invited by Prasasti Imani Foundation (PIF) Bogor to deliver a 5-hour workshop for Madrasah teachers in the district of Bogor, West Java. PIF is a non profit organization which is doing a one-year project for improving the competency of Bogor madrasah teachers of basic education through a comprehensive program of a series of training and workshop. The session covered a topic on developing understanding and methods of assessment of learning. An assessment is a crucial part of learning process because this part determines student achievement. A lot of teachers use conventional ways of conducting assessment, which is paper and pencil test but actually there are many ways of doing assessment rather than just paper pencil base. As many as around 80 teachers received comprehensive knowledge of effective assessment of the process of learning. Rubric, Rating Scale and Check list assessment techniques were reinforced to the teachers so that they comprehended target and method of assessing student's performance or product. They were involved in discussion and group work of creating a model of appropriate assessment form to target the learning process of students. At the end of the program, SATA donated teaching materials for teachers to upgrade their English skills to 15 school representative who were present in the workshop.

Alumni Conference, Manila 2007

As an active alumnus of State Dept Exchange program, the American Embassy invited me to participate in the Regional Exchange Alumni Conference in Manila. The cost was fully financed by the Embassy. I flew Singapore Airlines and stayed 3 nights at 5-star hotel Hyatt Hotel in Manila. I loved the trip so much!!

On October 2 -5 2007, I, and other Indonesian delegates (Shita of the US embassy Jakarta, Esti of the US Consulate Surabaya and Silvia of 2005 alumna) had the opportunity to participate in the Regional Exchange Alumni Conference Manila, Philipines hosted by the IVP-Phils, the International Visitor Leadership Program Alumni Association of the Philippines.

The two-day conference began with a gathering at the US embassy Manila and speeches from Deputy Chief of Mission Paul Jones, Philippine House of Representatives Congressman Roman Romulo, and IVP-Phils founding members, Aniceto Sobrepena and Adolfo Suzara. The evening reception resumed beautifully with a series of art, dances, and musical shows on “Arts Across Borders” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. I personally met many great and active personnel of the Philippines alumni that formed the very active organization IVP-Phils that I can learn a lot from. In addition, I had valuable conversations about the success stories of alumni activities with the delegates from other different countries such as Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, PNG, Australia, Taiwan, and other East Asia and Pacific countries. I posed with Silvia and Suzanne Weinerman, Global Alumni Coordinator.

The tight-schedule-two-day conference has given us, the Indonesian alumni, fruitful lessons with a variety content of activities such as plenary sessions, workshops, country situation sharing sessions, presentations, luncheons, and special site visit to Bulacan province with its warm people, wonderful art, dances and musical performances. It is also an inspiring session for us to boost the existing associations we have here (educator’s alumni and alumni chapters) to work more actively by reaching more alumni personnel to contribute real actions and setting targeted programs to the community and encourage other alumni to network via communication, even though it still seems to be the challenges.

I act as a coordinator of the alumni project of alumni educator’s association establishment which focuses on the teacher development programs and community services. State Alumni Teacher Association Indonesia seeks for the joint work to run a program on digital video conference with the regional exchange alumni to share issues on educational enhancement.

One of the activities was visiting a primary school in Bulacan. The school looked like Indonesian school physically. The building, the environtment, the students in the uniform and the classroom including a traditional seat setting. Well I could tell that not many differences I saw from our public school. I came in to the classroom and had a chance to chat to the students in class. They welcomed me by saying "Mabuhai!". They were very responsive to my questions and were very happy students. The classroom was equipped with a lot of stuffs to support the process of learning such as books, dictionaries, maps, and other teaching aids. It had many displays of students works as well. This school is public and supported by the alumni association in the Philippines.

Thank you especially to US embassy Jakarta which has made this fruitful event possible for me to attend so that I can learn a lot from and also to IVP-Phils and US embassy Manila that provided familial and friendly welcome and all delegates from East Asia and the Pacific for the fruitful sharing. I believe, after being there, this encourages us all to ‘START WITH US…FROM NOW…FROM SMALL THINGS WE CAN DO’ to contribute to the betterment of our community, nation, region, and the world.

5th Asiatefl Conference, KL

Secuil catatan dari partisipasi aktif dalam konferensi Asiatefl, di KL tahun lalu:

My participation in the conference Asiatefl Conference KL, 7-12 June 2007, as a presenter was full-financially sponsored by the Alumni Grant of the US embassy Jakarta.

Day 1: I flew Garuda Indonesia at 11.00 a.m. and landed in KL around 1 p.m. local time. Kuala Lumpur International Airport is a really spectacular airport. It is very modern, comfortable and very well-organized. I am very astonished by the modern architecture it displays. After getting my luggage, I took the KLIA Express train to the city. From the city, I got a taxi to the hotel where I stayed in. In the evening, I went to the conference venue for registration and collecting the materials of the conference.

Day 2: I joined the conference. It was a great opening and opened by the minister of higher education Malaysia. I met new people. One of them was Mr. Too. He is Malaysian and works for the dept. of education Malaysia. He supervises Malaysian public schools in KL. I think it is a good network. Also, I met Ibu Suwarsih Madya who is the Chair of Asiatefl Indonesia and the Professor of Linguistic of UNY, Yogyakarta. Knowing that I work for SF, she expected and welcomed SF to participate in the next conference such as sponsoring great teacher presenters. A number of workshops, demonstrations, presentations, and Plenary sessions by great Int’l speakers take places on the first day. Some that I joined were:

1. Incorporating CALL into communicative language teaching (Mr. Abdul Hadi)
2. Using Project as a springboard to writing in primary classroom (Ms. Allison Lyall, Malaysia)
3. Introducing a Teacher Certification Renewal System in Japan: Problem and Prospects (Hisamura Ken, et. All, Japan)
4. Motivating the reluctant language learners (Mr. T. Nava, Malaysia)
5. Online support for teaching English through English in EFL Teacher Education (Hoo-Dong Kang, South Korea)
6. Using technology in EFL writing classrooms (Seo Yoonsuk, Malaysia)

Day 3: I presented my paper this day. As it was an addendum to the conference, unfortunately my paper presentation was not printed in the programme book. So, I thought that many didn’t know the revised schedule. Poorly, the committee did not announce publicly the changes. There were about 15 audiences coming to my presentation. I talked about “Encouraging students to write through collaborative int’l project. I shared my experience during my teaching years on how to motivate students to write: hook them with people from other country and assign them to write letters each other for a period of one year. Here, I introduced as well how to apply ICT in the classroom for the primary students. Good welcome from the audience and they hoped to work collaboratively in EFL throughout Asia and the globe.

Besides presenting, I also joined some workshops and presentations:

1. Using blogs to develop interest among ESL students (Nadzar Abu Bakar, Malaysia)
2. Preparing pre-service teachers for teaching science using English as the medium of instruction (Peter Hudson, Australia)
3. How Global English is changing the world (Plenary Speaker: David Graddol, England)
4. Elementary teacher English Education programme in South Korea (Im Yong Suk, Korea)
5. The English teacher is on fire: Wearing Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, Koh Soo Ling, Malaysia)

Day 4: Paper Presentations and Workshops that I entered:

1. Movies in ESL writing classrooms (Fariza or, Malaysia)
2. Spoken Grammar, Written Grammar: From Corpus to Classroom (Ronald Carter, UK)
3. Recycling Junk emails (Sheba Doray, Malaysia)
4. Establishing an Intercultural Communication Class Project: Case Study between TaiwanJapan (Joshua Borden, Taiwan & Fumiko Kurihara, japan) and
5. The Power Point as an interactive tool for classroom use (Michael Hughes, Malaysia)
6. Injecting HOPE into the Profession (Michael Rudder, Indonesia)

Day 5: I met some Indonesian students studying in KL and they toured me around the city of KL in the afternoon. I also met an old online friend that I used to correspond via emails. He is Mr. Zait Isa. He organizes school networks and welcomes Indonesian schools to participate in the projects with Malaysian schools. Now, he is running “Independence Day Celebration” for Malaysian schools and asks me to invite Indonesian schools to work collaboratively. At the peak event, the schools will be invited to Malaysia to perform the projects.

Day 6: In the morning, I summarize my stay in KL preparing the report outline. And at 11.00, I departed to the airport to fly back to Jakarta.

Conclusion:
I have gained a lot of learning experience from this Asiatefl conference. Some were very inspiring to excel my teaching performance and I could adopt a lot of new technological applications for my skills. I also learned from other countries such as Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesian fellows from the speakers about some researches and teacher training and education in EFL frameworks.

The next Asiatefl conference will be in Bali, 8-10 August, 2008. Everyone hopes to come again next year.

State Alumni Teacher Association for Makassar English Teacher Workshop

3 days after my return from Pangkal Pinang, I flew to Makassar for one day training of english teacher at UIN Hasanuddin Makassar held by SATA Makassar under leadership of Ratna, alumna 2005. I flew via Surabaya for a meeting with Mike Hannahan, my American host program of my 2005 exchange program from Univ. of Massachussetts. He traveled around Indonesia for speaking at several universities in Jakarta, Denpasar, Surabaya dan Riau.
During the workshop, I enganged participants with coop learning in ESL class. I had them involved in round robin, think-pair-share, and jig saw activities that illustrated how to get students active as learners and produce a lot of english skills outcomes particularly for their speaking skills. I donated a book of ESL activities for them as a resource. Games were part of the program and they laughed a lot and gained much more strategies in developing games. There were about 25 english teachers as beneficiaries of the workshop and they said they had fun and this was satisfying them to get inspired to teach better.

Master Teacher di Pangkal Pinang

Salah satu program pengembangan guru dari Sampoerna Foundation Teacher Institute (SFTI) adalah program Master Teacher & School Leader yang diselenggarakan bagi para pendidik dan pemimpin sekolah di provinsi DKI, Bali dan Bangka Belitung. Sebanyak 24 calon master teacher dan leader dari 6 sekolah terpilih untuk mengikuti program ini yang difasilitasi oleh SFTI dan Edith Cowan Universitu (ECU), Perth Australia. Fase 1 telah dilangsungkan di kampus SFTI Jakarta dengan agen sosialisasi program kepada peserta dan pelatihan leadership bagi para peserta. Fase kedua berlangsung pada bulan Februari lalu dan saya mendapatkan kesempatan untuk mendampingi fasilitator dari ECU yaitu Lynette Moss. Program ini menampilkan fasilitator dari ECU makanya peserta wajib memiliki kemampuan bahasa Inggris yang baik. Terbang ke Pangkal Pinang adalah pengalaman pertama saya di pulau Bangka dan kami berdua mengunjungi proses belajar mengajar di SMAN 1 Pemali dan SMAN1 Pangkal Pinang. Sambutan yang luar biasa karena menyambut kehadiran kami bak pejabat penting dgn tarian lokal yang indah disaksiskan. BAhkan di SMAN1 Pangkal Pinang wakil walikota langsung hadir membuka fase kedua program tersebut. Pada fase ini difokuskan pada action reserach dan peer coaching. Peserta kami bimbing merancang riset tindakan kelas dan bagaimana melaksanakan peer coaching dengan baik. Kami mengamati langsung kegiatan mengajar guru peserta dan kemudian mendiskusikannya. Peserta kini memiliki proyek penelitina disekolah atau dikelasnya dan akan dilaporkan kepada seluruh peserta di fase ketiga. Pada fase tersebut mereka juga diharuskan melalukan diseminasi progra kepada 50 orang guru sebagai tindak lanjut program master teacher.

Di akhir acara kami diajak mampir ke restoran perahu ditepi pantai untuk makan malam dan menikmati hidangan laut nan lezat di sana. Tentu tidak lupa bawa krupuk ikan khas bangka. Wah enaknya....

Cooperative Learning di SMPN 83 Jakarta

Akhir bulan Desember 2007 lalu, semasa libur sekolah, saya diundang oleh SMPN 83 Jakarta untuk mengisi workshop sehari tentang metodologi pembelajaran bagi 30an orang guru di sana. Tidak dengan spesifik merinci materi yang diharapkan dari pengundang, saya menawarkan untuk membawakan materi favorit saya yaitu cooperative learning, dan mengajak partner saya Sopyan MK. Mengapa? Ini karena masih banyak proses pembelajaran dikelas masih bersifat konvensional dan menjadikan siswa sebagai obyek belajar, juga guru-guru yang tidak kaya dengan beragam metodologi pembelajaran yang berpusat pada siswa. Benar saja, ketika saya menyampaikan materi tersebut, banyak guru yang tidak terlalu mengenal istilah-istilah pendekatan atau strategi pembelajaran seperti round robin, think-pair-share, dll. Yang mereka kenal hanya satu dalam coop learning, yaitu jig-saw. Kepala sekolah dan jajarannya menerima saya dengan baik dan diadakan acarapembkaan sederhana segala. Tapi yang saya terkejut, para guru ternyata tidak bersikap positif saar kegiatan pembukaan berlangsung karena mereka sibuk dengan berkas-berkas yang harus mereka selelsaikan segera seperti menghitung nilai siswa, menyiapkan RPP, dan lain sebagainya. Bahkan ketika saya membuka kegiatan, mereka toh tetap saja sibuk dengan urusan administratif tersebut. Dengan berani, saya meminta mereka (yang rata-rata guru sudah senior)untuk stop kegiatan apapun karena sesi ini adalah sesi belajar, dan saya hadir untuk membantu mereka belajar satu metode baru buat belajar. Agak keras memang, tapi saya sampaikan dengan sopan dan akhirnya saya membuat aturan untuk workshop untuk disepakati seperti: HP harus off-silent, angkat tangan untuk bicara, tidak boleh keluar masuk seenaknya alias harus ijin, tidak merokok selama pelatihan dan tentunya tidak ada yang mengerjakan kerjaan lain selain harus fokus pada workshop.
Selama workshop berlangsung mereka mendapatkan tehnik2 baru dalam kooperatif learning dan langsung mempraktekkannya. Luar biasa mereka nampak enjoy dengan apa yang saya terapkan dan merasakan hal baru dalam strategipembelajaran. Walaupun ada nada-nada sumbang agak sulit diterapkan kata mereka, tapi banyak guru yakin ini bisa membuat perubahan dalam praktek dikelas sehingga siswa bisa leboh enjoy belajar dikelas atau diluar kelas. Setelah pelatihan dilakukan evaluasi dengan hasil sbb: