Teaching Remote Students
Aziza Restu Febrianto
This is a story I’ve got from
my teaching experiences in a village located in Ende – Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.
There, I taught seven and eight grade students of Junior High School. As a
professional teacher, I always prepared myself a lot some days before teaching.
At the first time in class, I was so happy to see my new students. I thought I
was very lucky to have a chance of teaching like this at the time. They also seemed very happy for getting to
know that I would be their English teacher for a semester left.
Firstly, I introduced myself and
shared my life and experiences to them. I was also trying to get their attention
by telling them about my family, my hobbies, my dreams, etc. And well, it was
successful. Then, most of them got interested in me and began to ask some
questions. I was so glad that I could give a first impression like this to
them. I did it over and over again in all classes on that day. And it was the
first day of my teaching activities in the village. Self introducing was
considered to be enough. There was no need to deal with the main lesson.
The following day, as I entered
the class, I was quite surprised knowing that all my students were screaming
aloud calling me and welcoming me back to their class. I knew that that was
their expression of happiness to have a new English teacher like me in their
class. As best as they can, they were trying to get my attention.
It was actually my second day of
teaching in the village. It was of course impossible to have a lesson at the
beginning. I had to try to motivate them and make them interested in the
subject at first. I thought that telling a story would be an effective start.
What I was trying to do was telling them about why I like English and why we
should learn English. This was to show how important English language is. I was
also telling them about the history of English and how it is finally used by
many different people on the globe till today. It was actually not easy anyway.
I had got to try too hard to make my explanation much convincing and impressive
in order that they wouldn’t fall asleep. Joke must also have been included
here. Sometimes, I acted like an actor of the story I told hoping that they would
pay more attention to me. Thanks God, it was eventually successful again.
I was so happy that all my
students finally followed my instruction after listening to my story. But it
unfortunately happened for a minute. When they got bored of the lesson, they
always asked me to tell a story again. Some even screamed and said, “Please,
story again, sir! Story again!.” It honestly made me feel confused enough. I
didn’t know how to do then. If I just told them a story again, when would I
explain the materials? There were so many materials that they had to learn in
the week. But if I just focused on the lesson seriously, the students would not
even listen. And it wouldn’t be effective at all. I was thinking so hard and
eventually decided to use a game. Well, game did it successfully.
This is actually hard to find a
method or approach to use in a chaotic class. As a teacher, we are responsible
to get our students encouraged by using certain methods like game and inspiring
stories. However, the lessons to learn must be completed as well according to
the time schedule. A teacher should be very skillful in this case. He/ she has to
understand when to use encouraging and inspiring approaches and when the
lessons should be given.
For me, probably, it is concluded
that all teachers must be creative enough in using approaches which are
integrated with the lesson at the same time. So, teaching is definitely not
easy, isn’t it?
