Sharing Teaching Experience with College Students

In the world of education, or of any other fields, experience or knowledge sharing is key to improve someone's capacity and quality. In other words, sharing what an experienced teacher has done-which worked effectively to address an issue in his/her classroom, would be a sort of empowerment for the other teachers. 

Yesterday, Saturday, May 22, 2021, I had an opportunity to do that. Around a week ago, my friend, who used to work with me at the Office of International Affairs and Partnerships, UNY, but now is a teacher at a state Islamic Institute in Cirebon, offered me the opportunity. At first I was quite surprised as I never thought of someone would offer me such an opportunity. 

So, this sharing session was actually for her semester 5 students who are going to have a field teaching practice in the next semester. My friend organised that to give them insights about what the teaching world would be like. It's expected to provide them with first hand shared experience to minimize unexpected occurrences.

The session actually presented three speakers, including me. The other two are Ibu Nanik, an English teacher at SMPN 25 Surakarta and Ibu Faris, another English teacher at MA Al Hikmah 2 Sirampog, Brebes. Each of us shared different stories and experiences, of course, and they seemed to give the students a depiction of what they are going to face in their field teaching practice.

I presented my experience of teaching in two national-plus schools-the first one at Sekolah Pilar Indonesia Bogor and the second one at SD Islam Al Azhar 55 Yogyakarta. I explained that both schools, as they are national-plus, using an international curriculum each, require homeroom teachers who are fluent in speaking English, as their language of instruction is English. Therefore, I emphasized the importance of keeping practicing speaking (and writing) English for them to be able to be a great English teacher. Code switching of course occurs, but we keep trying to improve our English skills by speaking it and correcting each other. Practice and correction are very key to improve those skills. 

The other two speakers focused on code switching as it frequently occurs in their classes. Some students asked them questions about practical strategies to teach English in their settings that could be beneficial for their future practice and career.

All and all, the session was very impressive. I thought I couldn't make it, but I did. I'm glad to be able to share my experience with them and to know a little more about code switching. If such an opportunity comes to me again, I would definitely be very glad to do it.