Selasa, 23 Agustus 2016

MARVELOUS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN PENANG

Master of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
Tanjungpura University, Pontianak-Indonesia

Who said that the quality of university in Pontianak is not better than universities in Java or other places? In Tanjungpura university especially Master of Education in Teaching English as a foreign Language Faculty of Teaching Training and Education helps the students to have international minded by facilitating the students to present at overseas conference.

MICOLLAC PRESENTATION
The 9th Malaysia International Conference in Languages, Literature, and Culture (MICOLLAC) 2016 was held for 3 days. It started on 16 to 18 August. It was in Rainbow Paradise Beach Resort, Tanjung Bungah, Penang. It was organized by Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages & Communication, Universitas Putra Malaysia (UPM). By participating in this conference, we were able to meet colleagues not only from Malaysia buat also from other countries. There were many academics who shared their view and research. If you were academics, teacher, graduate students, education officers, language policy and program planner, or linguist, you might become the participant in this conference. In this forum, the participants could have meaningful discussion but still it was related to the theme of ‘Engaging Threads and Trends.’
Tanjungpura University Students
with Mark R. Freiermuth
There were 10 people from Tanjungpura University, Indonesia, who became the speaker in MICOLLAC 2016. They were Marwandi, Militansina Usman (Improving Speaking skill through problem-based learning and environment education for middle school), Slamet Tumpal Manurung (In transition: The students’ attitude towards the institutional policy regarding the use of internet enabled devices in the classroom), Dudi Effendy, Isti Arbaniah (Developing supplementary material to teach basic English Dialogue for EFL learners with value-based curriculum by utilizing web-page maker), Umayrah Tiffani (Improving vocabulary through V-A-K Learning model for junior high school students), Nurrahmiani (The urgency of developing midwifery reading materials using flash application), and Tri Mulyaningsih (An error analysis of overgeneralization, simplification, and interlingual interference by EFL young learners in speaking comprehension). They are still pursuing their master degree. Other two are Gatot Sutapa and Regina. They are lecturers in Tanjungpura University. Besides the speaker, there were 24 participant who are also the students in Language Faculty Untan.
In the paper presentation, the speakers were given 15 minutes to present and 5 minutes to ask and answer. In the question and answer session, some participant asked about the opinion of the speaker about the topics and some others gave their opinion and suggestion to improve the research. It was great time to see people from different culture and background presented their papers. It was also good time to open our mind for the criticism and opinion from other researchers.
By opening our mind, we could learn many things about the area of interest in our research, about the world, about research knowledge, etc. We were also able to build our confidence to present in front of other researchers from all over the world. Besides, we could get insight on other research field. Smart people would use this time to learn as much as possible and meet other researcher as many as possible.e
This conference was the first international conference I attended. Before attending this conference I did not have any motivation to do anything as I did not think that research would be interesting. But this conference gave me insight that there were a lot of smart people with different mind and different interest. They opened my mind that research can be so interesting. We can also share it to others and know how other people respond to it. We can also make contribution in our life from the research.

THE SPEAKERS IN PLENARY SESSION
There were many speaker in the plenary session. They are Adam Jaworsky, Yap Nge Thai, Cathy Carut, Hu Guangwei, Johan bin Jaafar, and Ismail S. Talib. In the first plenary session Associate Professor Dr. Yap Nge Thai presented about her three ongoing research about 1) the acquisition of second language phonology, 2) the development of the Malay cross-linguistic lexical task, and 3) multilingual brain. Her explanation was very clear and impressive. But, great people would never out from criticism. In the Q&A session there was some participants who did not agree with her mind especially about the purpose of the research. It is said that the problems of the research were not urgent and important due to some reasons. But, impressively she could respond it in a humble way.
Keynote speaker: Professor Adam Jaworsky
who presented about multilingual and globalization
We learned a lot from those speaker. Most of their researches were related to linguistics area. As My friend and I are from Language Education faculty, we actually expected that there was also a topic which discussed about language teaching in the classroom. We hope in the next conference, if we get another opportunity to attend it, we can find some researches related to that area so we can learn and apply it in the classroom.

FAVOURITE SPEAKERS
From all of speakers who attended MICOLLAC I personally have my own favorite speakers. They are Angela Karsten and David Yoong. Angela Karsten presented about Motivational Currents among L2 Learners in Japan. She said that there will be contribution of her research in the area of education. By doing this research, it is expected that this research will help professionals in the education area to add the current to learners’ experience by knowing how DMCs are triggered, sustained or even suppressed. It looked like this research would be difficult to be conducted as it was really difficult to measure motivation. In small number of students it is possible for the teacher to motivate them continuously and intensively. But in large number of students, it will be difficult to be applied. So, It think it will be a challenge for this kind of research.
David Yoong
Different from Angela Karsten, David Yoong Soon Chye presented about integrative system called MACRO (Management and Accounting of Learning Outcomes to help course coordinator, instructors, and curriculum designer (CIC) to manage and account for students’ learning outcomes. He looked so confident and could explain his research in understandable words. As we know that LO is very important to get more accurate picture about the topic that students should learn and about students’ learning experience. It then becomes a challenge for CIC. In the easy way, he could explain about the challenge faced by CIC when there is differences between expectation (for a specific course) and the actual results. When the result for students accomplishing LO are below expectation, there is a need to find out the reasons which in turn can be used to solve the problem before the next semester. It is stated that there are many benefits from MACRO especially in institutions located in developing nations or remote areas which make his article more interesting.

PERSONAL VIEW
Who Do you want to be? I always ask my self that question. I don’t want to be big fish in small pond. I want to be small fish in big pond. That’s how I feel after attending the conference. It was really great experience to be able to share your opinion and listen to others opinion from other point of view. The more you learn, the more you develop yourself. Those great people who I saw in the conference showed me that awesome people were not arrogant. Instead they were very humble that they show themselves as empty glass who are thirsty to knowledge even from people who haven’t had name.

I never regret the day I chose to be one of the students in Tanjungpura University to get my master degree. It is a right decision. I am really grateful for this faculty to introduce and facilitate me and my friends to have this wonderful experience. I hope someday I can have more than this.

when we were having our lunch

Mr Marwandy and Prof. Dr. Rosli Talif

Mr. Gatot Sutapa, a lecturer in Tanjungpura university
opening ceremony, day 2


Kamis, 16 Juni 2016

Simple Way to Make Brownies and decorate it

Brownies is a simple dessert for everyone. You can enjoy it with your friends while watching TV or you can enjoy this brownies accompanied with a glass of tea when you are reading magazine. I will share the recipe to you. Hope that you can try it at home.

 INGREDIENTS:
6 Eggs
225 ounce sugar
pinch of salt
ovalet
125 ounce Flour
75 ounce Chocolate powder
125 ml Coconut oil
100 g Dark cooking chocolate

HOW TO MAKE:

1.  Mix the caster sugar and eggs in the bowl.
Pour the sugar and the eggs into medium-sized bowl and stir the ingredients together until they are fully incorporated.  Use the electric mixer to stir the ingredients together. It will takes about several minutes.

2.  Pour the salt, ovalet, and chocolate pasta.
After you pour the salt, ovalet, and chocolate pasta into the sugar and egg mixture, stir them.

3.  Mix the flour and chocolate powder in separated bowl.
I use cocoa van houten dark chocolate powder. Pour the flour and chocolate powder mixture into the batter by shifting it gently. You can use wooden spoon to mix them.

4.  Pour the coconut oil and melted chocolate.
Then stir until the batter well mixed in. The melted chocolate will make the batter nice, chocolate rich and creamy mixture.

5.  Divide the batter into 3 different bowl.
You need to divide it into 3 different bowl to give the layer in your brownies. Give sweeten condensed milk to one of the bowls.

6.  Pour the ingredients into the cake mold.
The cake mould should be given a little coconut oil. Don’t forget to line the cake mold with oil paper. Distribute 1/3 of the batter into the cake mold.

7.  Steam the batter.
Steam the first layer around 10 minutes. After that pour the batter with sweetened condensed milk on it. Steam it about 10 minutes. Then, pour the batter again on it as the last layer. Steam it around 20 minutes.

8.  Remove the brownies from the steamer and let it cool.

You have to wait at least 5 minutes to let the cake cool. Then, you can slice it.





cake decoration I made

CAKE DECORATION

After you have your brownies, you can decorate it with whipped cream to turn it into beautiful food art. Use your creativity for doing this. It can be as simple as you want or if you have more creativity the decoration can be more complex. To color your cake, you can use food coloring.

hello kitty decoration
I use whipped cream to decorate cake with several reasons. First, the cake can be served outdoor since whipped cream can retain its shape longer. So, it will not melt easily even though it is away from refrigerator. Second, it is easier to pipe the cream and shape it as I want.




                                   HOW TO MAKE BUTTER CREAM

barbie cake
Ingredients:
100 g butter
100 g white butter
sweetened condensed milk
vanilla

How to make:
Mix all of the ingredients in the bowl using electric mixer until you get the texture you want. Put it into the freezer for about 15 minutes. Make sure it is cold before you start to use it.




Senin, 13 Juni 2016

Getting the LOA

Many scholarship in Indonesia such as LPDP (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan) and Dikti (Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi) require the applicant to have LOA (Letter of Acceptance). Getting LOA is not easy because there is process to be followed. If you want to get LOA means that you have to apply to the university in the overseas. Before you apply to the university, you have to know about the university and the major that you want to take.
One thing that you need to know if you apply for your master degree that there are two types of master; Taught Postgraduate and Master by Research. In taught postgraduate, you still have to attend the class and still have to do dissertation. In master by Research, there is no class to attend because all you have to do just doing research.  
illustration of LOA
There are two types of LOA; LOA conditional and LOA unconditional. LOA unconditional means that you are 100% accepted in that university. On the other hand, LOA conditional means that you are accepted but you still have a requirement to fulfill, as for the example showing your IELTS score with overall score 6.5.
How to get this LOA? You can apply online to the website of the university. After registration, you have to send the documents needed such as academic qualification and transcript, personal statement, two completed references, and proof of English language competency. If you are success in getting this LOA, the university will send you an e-mail.





Minggu, 12 Juni 2016

“Teachers are the unsung Heroes.” Are they now?

Teacher. I have always wanted to be a teacher since I was in elementary school. Teachers are like parents at school. I always put my respect on them. “Teachers are the unsung heroes.” I thought that it was true. They taught their students sincerely even though they did not get much from it. They educated children until they could be what they wanted to be when they grew up. They deserved respect for those things. But then, it came to be the question whether “teachers are the unsung heroes” still exist or not.
It happened in Indonesian education when teachers are no longer figure to be respected now. If I compare it to the condition in the past it is totally different. I remember that we had to  bow every time we walked pass the teacher. We also shook teachers’ hand before and after the class. We listened to every things they said. In brieft, they got the respect on top. But now, it is different. Many students do not have respect to the teachers. They become impolite and do not want to listen to the teachers. As the example, in August 2015 a biology teacher from junior high school, Bantaeng, South Sulawesi, got into jail just because pinched her naughty students as the students flushed dirty water to the musholla in school. The parents reported to the police which result in teacher containment. In June 2016, located in SMAN 2 East Sinjai, a teacher also had to be put in jail because of the report from the parent of student. The teacher only wanted the student to be discipline by cutting his hair as stated in school rule. So, the teacher cut the student’s hair. In the process of cutting the hair, the student did self defense with his arm which caused him to have  scratch on his arm.
Another example came from Kubu Raya regency, west Kalimantan in June 2016. A honorer teacher had to felt harassment by getting her long hair been cut by the parents of the students just because she wanted her students to be discipline. She cut the students hair because after several times admonition these boys still let their hair long. The parents who did not accept their sons’ hair been cut, came to the this teacher’s house. They  take off the head covering worn by the teacher and then cut her long hair. As this happened, the teacher who felt afraid decided to stop teaching for a while and went back to her family. It was so pathetic. As the words saying “to cherish a viper in one’s bosom.” The dedication of the teachers to educate students is not appreciated. Otherwise, they are considered as the helpers who help students to study. But they forget, teachers are more than that. Teachers do not only teach. They educate students to be better human. If the teachers have to teach in fear that they will be reported to the police and be put into jail, we can just wait that this country will be going to the era of stupidity which has no morality.
I, myself, ever had experience like this when one of parents come to me and scolded me in front of many people in the lobby of the school. He accused that there was violence to his child which was not. His kid got injured while he was playing with other students. There was abrasion on his cheek. It was an accident. The parent did not want to know. He did not want an explanation. He even insisted to do VER (Visum et Repertum) without asking what happened. Can you feel what I felt at that time? Wow, I was very shock. It was embarrassing. I took care of his child. I educate him well. But this was the result. Just because teacher earn little for this profession it does not mean that students or parents can do everything they want. No every single teacher in this world wants to harm the students. All teachers want the best for their students instead. But the parents can only find black sheep for everything happen to their children.

So, are the teachers still the unsung heroes? It is like “A nut forgets its shell.” They forget they can read and write because of teachers. They forget that they can be success because of teachers. They forget that teacher do not teach only knowledge but teacher also teach morality, discipline, and attitude. For the parents who forget about this please teach your children by yourselves. You can not imagine how hard it can be because you only know how to pay and send your children to school. 

 “Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.”  Helen Caldicott


Jumat, 10 Juni 2016

What is IB PYP?


Since the implementation of 2013 curriculum which was officially launched on July 15, 2013, English subject for elementary schools was removed. Attitude has more priority than skill competencies and knowledge in this curriculum. It makes English no longer subject list for primary school. It can only learn in an extracurricular subject with time allocation 2 hours in a week. In 2013, English classes were phased out for students in grade one to three. In 2014-2015 school year, English classes was phased out  for students in grade four. Then, in 2015-2016 there were no longer English classes for students in grade five and six in the curriculum.
While government schools scrap English subject, many of private sector schools still use English as compulsory subject and as medium of instruction at primary level. They intend to go beyond the minimum government requirements. They use international-based curriculum even though they still have to follow national examination.

Tunas Bangsa school is the only school in Pontianak which use international-based curriculum in the teaching learning process. It is SPK (Satuan Pendidikan Kerjasama) – Cooperative Education Unit school which offer IB (International Baccalaureate) PYP (Primary Years Program) but still use the element of national curriculum.
Two years ago, when I walked in to this school for the first time, I had no idea about what IB was. I did not realize the difference of IB and national curriculum. But then, after 2 years teaching in this school I have learnt a lot of things about IB. There are many things that can not be found in public school.

What is IB?
The IB, including the IBPYP, can be viewed as being positioned within the field of international education (Dolbi and Rahman, 2008) in (Ledger, 2014, p. 17)
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP) refers to “the particular programme developed by the IBO for students in the primary years and which is outlined in terms of its ideology, underlying beliefs, mission, values, paedagogy, and required resources.” (Hill 2007) in (Ledger, 2014, p. 2) It is designed for students aged from 3 to 12 years old.
“The IBPYP aims to promote ‘international mindedness’ in students and educators through what is called the IB Learner Profile (IBO, 2003B). In learner profile it is belived that the students should be inquirers, be knowledgeble, be thinkers, be communicators, be principled, be open-minded, be caring, be risk-takers, be balanced, and be reflective. All of those attribute can be seen in the IB mission statement:
The international baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
This programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. (IBO, 2009)
IB-PYP is a trans-disciplinary programme designed to foster  child development. The curriculum framework for IBPYP is structured in a transdisciplinary way around three types of curriculum: written curriculum, taught curriculum, and assessed curriculum.

1) The written Curriculum (What do we want to learn?)
In written curriculum, the is identification of a framework of what’s worth knowing. The acquisition of essential knowledge should be balance with development of conceptual understanding, demonstration of positive attitude, and taking of responsible action. This is what is expected from PYP. In order to get this balance, the five essential elements are emphasized. They are knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and action.
a.       Knowledge
It is about the content which is significan and relevant to the students and is expected to be explored and known by them. In creating the content,  students prior knowledge and understanding are taken into consideration.
In traditional subject areas, there are language, mathematics, social studies, science; personal, social and physical education; and the arts. Eventhough teaching students in a set of isolated subject area is necessary, it is not appropriate for education because one subject has connection to others subject which cannot be separated. The students need to study and get the skill within context. Besides, they need to explore the content of knowledge that relevant to them which is more than traditional subjects boundaries. They have to be able to make integration among separate subject and relate what they have learnt to the real life. In this point, a set of themes that represents shared human experiences and membership in  group was proposed by rnest Boyer. These are called “core commonalities.” From the idea of commonalities, the six transdisciplinary themes are selected. Those theme have many benefit for the students since the students can get the opportunity to explore the commonalities of human experience. Here are the six PYP transdisciplinary themes and its description:

PYP transdisciplinary theme:

Who we are

Where we are in place in time

How we express ourselves

How the world works

How we organize ourselves

Sharing the planet



a.       Concept
Concept is important in PYP because there is belief that teacher can begin to improve the real understanding of the students by starting with their prior knowledge and by facing and developing their earlier conception and constructs. Besides, the students can deepen their conceptual understanding because of different range perspective they use on the concept. “The key concepts, also expressed as key questions, help teachers and students to consider ways of thinking and learning about the world, and act as a provocation to extend and deepen student inquiries” (IBO, 2009, p. 16)
There are 8 key concept in PYP: form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection.

b.      Skills
There are 8 transdisciplinary skills that suggested by PYP: thinking skill, social skill, communication skill, self management skill, and research skill.
c.       Attitudes
The development of personal attitudes is important to be international minded person. There are 12 attitudes that encouraged by PYP: appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, and tolerance. The attitudes are not part of hidden curriculum but instead it is part of vernacular of PYP classroom.

d.      Action
Action is the result of the inquiry. The action is initiated by the students as a concequence of learning process. The students’ learning will be extended. That is why teacher has responsibility to enable the students in choosing their action carefully, facilitate their action, and to encourage them to reflect on the action they undertake.

2) The Taught Curriculum (How best will we learn?)
“The taught curriculum is the written curriculum in action” (IBO, 2009, p. 28)

3) The assessed curriculum (How will we know what we have learned?)
Assessment is essential in PYP because it can provide feedback  on the learning process. In the school’s curriculum, the school component can be subdivided into three: Assessing, recording, and reporting.

a.         Assessing
Assessment is important to discover what students have learnt. It is divided into formative assessment and summative assessment. According to Brown (2003)  formative assessment is “evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process.” Formative assessment can provide information about what students already know and can do. The teachers can use this information to plan the next stage in learning.
On the other hand summative assessment “aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction” (Brown, 2003, p.6). Summative assessment takes place at the end of the instructional unit or after the learning has been completed so that the students learning can be evaluated by comparing it against standard. Summative assessment is different with formative assessment which focus on the process toward completing the product because summative assessment is more product oriented and assesses final product. In summative assessment, rubric can be used. For the students, this rubric can help them to know about the criteria that are expected from them. That is why this rubric is given to the teacher before they begin to work on particular object. For the teachers, this rubric can help them to be more objective when deriving the summative by following the same criteria students used for completing the project. The examples of summative assessment are examination, final examination, final project, presentation or report, and portfolios.
In the classroom evidence of students’ understanding and thinking will be collected. The learning processes of group and individuals will also be documented. All of them will be used to provide the information about students’ learning. By using this information the teacher can make judgement about whether the purpose or objectives have been met.and decide whether the assessment procedure should be changed or not.
For the students, the assessment is said to be effective if it allows students to share their learning and understanding with others,  demonstrate a range of knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills, and participate in reflection, self assessment, and peer assessment. For the teacher, assessment can be said as effective assessment if it can inform about the teaching learning process in every stage and allow the teacher to develop criteria for producing a quality product or performance. Not only for students and teacher, assessment which can give make the parents to have an understanding about the students’ progres can also be said effective for parents.
“The assessment of the development and learning of young students is an essential component of the curriculum, and helps to inform continued development, learning, and teaching” (IBO, 2009, p. 47). It is clear that young students need to be observed using a wide range of assessment to identify what and how the students is thinking and learning.

b.      Recording
In order to know what the students have learnt, the teacher needs to use assessment strategy and tools. Assessment strategies that can be used to gather the information are observations, performance assessment, process-focused assessment, selected responses, and open ended task.

·         Observation
In observation the teacher observes all students regularly. The teacher can focus to observe one students and later on focus to the whole class. He can also become the participant or non-participant.
·         Performance assessment
In performance assessment the students are required to perform a task rather than to choose the answer from the list given. “Performance assessment should be basen on curriculum rather than constructed by someone unfamiliar with the particular state, district, or school curriculum” (Sweet, 1993)
·         Process-focused assessment
Process-focused assessment will be beneficial to the students as the students will be encouraged to be aware about the process that they are using in completing the assessment. Besides, the students will be more creative and be brave to take intellectual risk. Not only that, the students also get freedom in completing the assessment in condition that they will do the same process but still can have different product.
·         Selected response
In selected response each question has a right and wrong answer which makes it easier to be scored. The examples of this assessment are multiple choice, matching, and true/false.
·         Open-ended task
Open-ended task has multiple answers and approaches to the solution.
The tools are used to collect the data about students’ learning. The example of the tools that can be used are rubrics, exemplars, checklist, anecdotal record, and continuum.

c.       Reporting
Reporting is about the way to communicate the information about the assessment. The communication can be used in two ways. First, communication through conference. Second, communication through the written report.

English Language in IB PYP Curriculum
There are three language strands in PYP: oral language, visual language, and written language. Those strands are learned across and throughout the curriculum. Each of the strand is an integral part of language learning. There are two aspects for each strand: receptive and expressive. Receptive aspect means receiving and constructing meaning while expressive aspect means creating and sharing meaning.

In Tunas Bangsa school which adopt IP BYP curriculum, English language becomes medium of instruction. So all subjects are taught in English. Almost all students do not have problems in language. They can communicate well with their teachers and their students. It means that English can be taught since the early age so that they can speak English well. Personally, I think it is not wise if the students can not get English lesson in school and have to postpone it until they are in secondary school with a very limited time. The older they learn English the more difficult learning language for them.