goodmorningpapua.com – Trias Agata Roni, one of the mover teachers at the Christian Education Foundation (YPK) Diaspora Kotaraja High School, Jayapura, Papua Province, recounted her experience when teaching in class. He realized that one of the obstacles in learning activities in English class was that the class felt boring or a little monotonous.
Before becoming a mover teacher, the woman who was born on May 5, 1990 saw herself as a fierce teacher. When teaching, he felt that the children were not interested and not enthusiastic about learning, instead they tended to be passive.
The teacher teaching in class XI and XII also feels that the class atmosphere is not lively and boring so that children are not actively asking and sharing during lessons and tend to be lazy to learn. In the process of self-reflection, he got up and began to think about the changes that must be made immediately to revive the teaching and learning process.
“Learning and teaching can’t just go on like it’s just passing time, but it must have a deep impression in student learning activities, make students active and accommodate potential development and develop student abilities,” he said.
One day, he read information online about a mover teacher and was interested in following him. For nine months, through the Motivating Teacher program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, he was able to learn a lot from independent projects, training from teachers and from fellow motivator teachers.
Trias participates in online training, workshops, conferences, and mentoring. In addition to developing self-competence, he also has self-study experiences and guided, structured, and fun groups, as well as learning experiences together with other fellow teachers.
The mover teachers are learning leaders who encourage student growth holistically, actively and proactively in developing other educators to implement student-centered learning, as well as being role models and agents of transformation of the educational ecosystem to realize the profile of Pancasila Students.
“Hopefully, after becoming a driving teacher, you will get tips, ways to make learning in class interesting,” said the graduate from Cenderawasih University (Uncen) Jayapura.
When he joined the Mover Teacher program, he received adequate training that could accelerate his teaching skills and had a community to learn from, remind and exchange information about teaching methods that create enthusiasm and arouse student activity.
The honorary teacher who has taught at YPK Diaspora Kotaraja High School since 2015 is trying to become a teacher who can provide flexibility for students to work and develop their potential through interesting activities and learning materials.
One of the materials in the Mover Teacher program that impressed Trias was related to social-emotional learning. Trias likes the material because he can find out how teachers can help children become interested and active in the learning process.
Teaching with the lecture method from the beginning to open learning activities is not effective in generating enthusiasm for learning. According to Trias, the challenge now is how to get the children’s interest first to be further involved in the learning process, before giving the subject matter.
In practice, when he enters class to teach, he first asks the child’s feelings, and does not immediately “lecture” delivering the subject matter. He also regularly prepares and plays interesting games to arouse the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of students before class starts.
“How do you feel now?” is one of the opening sentences for the class that attracts students’ attention, which is presented by Trias.
Then, the students were engaged to play like speaking in English which was packaged in a simple but fun way. In the game, students were asked to make an extension of the letter prefix of each letter in their nickname. The length of the name must describe the character possessed by the student. For example, a student named Fera.
Therefore, the extension that can be made is fun, energetic, responsible and active. Without realizing it, even though they are playing, actually students have entered the learning process.
A class X3 student of YPK Diaspora High School Amelia Demena admitted that she felt happy and active while studying at school. The games that were played before the class started were felt to be able to liven up the learning atmosphere.
He also likes to learn by using the internet so that many learning resources can be accessed quickly. “Before we enter the ‘mood’ we are made ‘happy’ (happy). The teacher teaches us to pray, greets in English. Before learning there is a game,” he said.
English learning activities are also diverse and utilize various learning media such as watching films, presentations, and telling stories. “More confident, more understanding, the teacher is not too pressing. The teacher understands, we understand,” he said.
The same is true for class X1 student at SMA YPK Diaspora Frits Yosefus Dorinya, who admitted that he enjoyed project-based learning such as learning by observing the surrounding environment, making enzyme fertilizers from fruits, and making papeda food.
The learning model is applicable and useful for life. “Learning is more understanding, more creative,” said Frits.
A teacher education and differentiated learning are expected to bring about real changes in fun teaching and learning activities and improve students’ abilities according to the potential and needs of learning and teaching.