Name: Ketut Lingga Bimantara
Major: English Language Education
Home University: Ganesha University of Education
Receiving University: Prince of Sonkla University
Blog: http://linggastoryjourney.wordpress.com
Name of School: PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School
Om Swastyastu, Sawaddee Krab everyone. Sawaddee Krab kinda cute greetings right? Yes, I heard this phrase from P’Nair when I arrived at Prince of Songkhla University. Shout out to UNDIKSHA my beloved University that gave me a chance to go abroad and get a new experience here in Thailand. I never know that I will be able to go to this country and learn new things here. It was a pleasure to get this chance. Here, I get a chance to do my teaching practice and teach Thailand’s students. The vibes in the classroom are different from my country and the students here are friendly. Doing teaching practice for one month here in Thailand is the best experience ever that I can get. I cannot wait to share my journey here to you and you can imagine how happy I’m to stay here for one month. Besides doing teaching practice, I also learned about their culture, get new friends, and taste Thailand’s food. Therefore, this is my report for doing teaching practice at PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School.
1. General Information.
1.1 School Profile:
PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani or students usually call PSU Wit School was established on 27th December 2012 under the administration of Prince of Songkhla University. PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani has a philosophy “Our Soul is for the Benefit of Mankind” where it is created a vision to create a positive workplace culture and develop to be the high education. PSU Wittayanusorn has the identity “Virtue and Wisdom” and Core Values called “Family”. There is a meaning behind Family such as; F is for Facility, A is for Active, M is for Marshalship, I is for Inspiration, L is for Leadership, and Y is for Youth. PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani moves from the old building to the new building near the administration office of Prince Of Songkhla University.
1.2 Academic Facilities:
The area of the new building of PSU Wittayanusorn School is consist of 30 classrooms. In this new building, the school does not need to share the same room with Prince of Songkhla University like in U Building. In PSU Wittayanusorn School’s new building also supported by some sports building where the students do the sports activities there such as; swimming pool, basketball court, badminton court, and futsal court. PSU Wittayanusorn also has a library, school health unit, laboratories, administration room, teacher room, and a meeting room. The good thing about this school is very comfortable and quiet. Students can do the learning process very well without interference. It is because the location of the school is far away from the highway. For public transportation, students usually use the bus or orange car where the students will be stand in front of the school waiting for the pickup. The parking area of PSU Wittayanusorn School is large so it can accommodate the vehicles from teachers and students.
1.3 Teaching System:
PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School has two levels of education there is Junior High School and senior high school. Both level education is called as Matrium (Matthayom). In this school has 6 Matrium. Matrium 1-3 is for Junior High School students and Matrium 4-6 is for Senior High School Students. The learning process of this school starts from 08.30 a.m to 04.00 p.m from Monday to Friday. For the English course, in Thailand divides English course into two, namely Fundamental English and Additional English. Those two English course have different focuses. Fundamental English is an English course where it is more focuses on students’ English Grammar, meanwhile Additional English is an English course where it is more focuses on students’ listening and speaking skills.
2. Pedagogical Contents:
2.1 Teaching Method:
The teaching method that applies in PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School is the Active Learning Method. This method is to apply in all courses. The Active Learning Method has a function to gain the potential from the students’ where the students will be able to achieve the learning outcomes related with students individual characters. This method will make the students focus more on things where the teacher taught in the classroom.
2.2 Source of Learning:
For the source of learning, there are two books for teacher resources in English subjects. The first book is called students’ book where it contains material and as the guiding book. Meanwhile, the workbook is a practice book where it contains about a question that the students’ need to answer it. Students filled the question in the classroom or given as a task from the teacher.
2.3 Authentic Assessment:
In this part, the teacher evaluates the students by giving tests where it is held in every third meeting in a week. After that, the teacher will give a unit test for the students for each unit that the teacher taught. There are also midterm test conducted in the middle semester and final test conducted at the end of the semester. For the additional points, the students can get additional points or bonus points by answering some question that the teacher said. This additional points will be helping the students for their final grade or if they got fail in midterm or unit test, they can use the additional points to fix the score.
3. Teaching Plan:
3.1 Curriculum:
The curriculum used by PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School is a semester program where it is already designed and adjusted to Thailand’s school system rule. However, in making my lesson plan, I am assisted by the tutor teacher and make my version of the lesson plan.
3.2 Lesson Plan:
In Thailand, the teacher also prepared a lesson plan for teaching in the classroom as a reference. There are some differences in the lesson plan in Thailand and Indonesia. In Thailand, the lesson plan is simpler than Indonesia and 1 lesson plan is used for 1-week teaching in the classroom. The lesson plan here is not described as detail as a lesson plan in Indonesia but the lesson plan here is concise so the teacher will be not fixated of the steps in teaching. Also, there are some activities in the classroom such as opening lessons, giving a reinforcement, giving a question, closing lessons which are similar like the teacher used in Indonesia.
3.3 Others:
Teaching Program https://linggastoryjourney.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/teaching-program
Lesson Plan https://linggastoryjourney.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/my-lesson-plan/
4. Teaching Practice:
4.1 Teaching procedures in the classroom:
The teaching procedures in PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School is similar to teaching procedures in Indonesia. There are three core parts in teaching procedures where both Thailand and Indonesia use it. Namely opening, core activity, and closure. I use these three core parts to teach in the classroom. The following procedures as follows:
1. Opening:
For the opening part, I came to the class and automatically the students stand up and do the greeting “Good morning Teacher”. After the greeting, I did the present list to know who is absent in the classroom. After that, I did brainstorming to relate the material by asked some questions to the students.
2. Core activity:
In the core activity, I divided into two parts. The first meeting I explained to the students about the material to make them understand and I gave 15 minutes to them to answer the student’s book to know their understanding of the material. If the answer is all correct I’ll give them a sticker which has 10 points. For the second meeting, I gave them another a worksheet related to the material that I gave before and after that, I checked the answer and put their score beside the present list.
3. Closure:
In this part, I concluded the material before I ended the material and sometimes I asked the students “What material that we learn today?” if the students answer it correctly I’ll give them 10 point sticker. Sometimes I gave them homework to make them get another point in which very useful to support the score on the final test.
4.2 Time Management and Activites For Each Meeting:
In PSU Wittayanusorn Suratthani School for the fundamental English, the students will get 2 meetings a week. For each meeting is 50 minutes of study. This is the description of 2 meetings are as follows; a) on the first meeting the teacher only gives them a very detail explanation about the material that the students are going to study, b) at the second meeting students will get worksheet or mini test to know their understanding of the material. In the teaching practice, I followed this step because I do not want to disturb the school routine to teach in the classroom.
4.3 Problem Solving:
There are some problems that I met when I did teaching practise at PSU Wittayanusorn School. The first problem is the school let the students bring their phone. Bring a mobile phone has good and bad effects for the students. The good effect is the students are easier to find the material by searching on the internet. In another hand, the students take advantage of this opportunity to play a game in the class, video call with their friends, or listen to music. To fix this problem, before I start the class I will instruct that the students need to put their phone inside of their bags or If they do not put it I will decrease their points from the sticker that they got.
4.4 Others:
Teaching Practice
Explain to the students when they do not understand
Checking their answers in student’s book
Give a brief explanation before they do the mini test
I
5. Summary and Suggestions:
5.1 Purpose of the teaching practice:
The purpose of teaching practice is to give the future teacher the real situation and experience to how to handle a task of teaching in the classroom in another country. By joining this practice teaching in another country, the future teacher is expected to be a good and professional teacher. The other purpose of teaching practice as follows:
a. Applying the teaching ability to teach in full time and integrated skill in real situations.
b. Make the future teachers mastering their teaching skills c. Develop their social and personal around the school.
d. Develop their learning competencies in English course.
e. Know the school environment conditions of the school abroad.
f. Get experience to teach students in school abroad
g. Understand the academic and non-academic process in school abroad.
5.2 Outcomes of the Practice:
a. Having international experience in developing teacher competencies
b. Having the competence to compete in the era of Globalization and Industrial 4.0
c. Becoming UNDIKSHA ambassador in education and culture field abroad.
5.3 Challenges of the Practice:
The challenges of this practice are the students are low in English. Although I have sufficient English skills in Thailand, only a few people can speak English. Moreover, students’ English skills are very low so to make my teaching practice work smoothly I need to learn some Thai phrases so the students will understand. It does not mean that I’m giving up, sometimes I push them to speak in English because practice makes perfect.
5.4 Overall Impression:
The teaching practice abroad is an interesting program and challenging at the same time. For me, by joining this program I can get new experience in teaching and add it to my mind as new knowledge. Also, I can know the education system in another country. By joining this program makes me become an open-minded person and understand that every country has its education system.
5.5 Suggestion for Future Improvement:
For the next candidate of teaching practice abroad please make your self well prepared mentally and physically because it is not easy like what you thought. You need to deal with students here which are have different culture and mindset. You will learn the education system here in which different from your own country and you do not need to be shocked about it. For the physical, you need to prepare your body, check your health condition because here you need to walk from dormitory to school about 40 minutes (return) every day. Also, you need to be able to adjust your food here because the taste of some food is different from your own country. Next, you need to be able to socialize with people; partners, teachers, staff in the school, students, and society. For the last is a team working is very useful here.
I think that is all about my report and from what I got here when I did teaching practice in Thailand. I hope this report can motivate you to join this program and make you understand that every country has their own unique. I cannot wait to welcome you as a new member for the teaching practice abroad.
Khob Kun khap, Thank you, Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om.
