The God

By: Ira Ernawati

The world has already been exist before I was born. Then I believe it is here because it was created by the creator so who is the creator? This question sometimes comes to everyone included me. Based on my religion which I believe in every single thing which is exist in the world is created by the god. When some people ask me who is your god? Do you believe him?

I think everyone has their own definition to describe the god. It is because they have different preservative to see who the god is. It also happens to me. My answer to this question is the god is the creator of anything and the king of the king who has the real power of this life. It is because He can create what he wants and also can make it broken as like what He wants. He is the rightness of the rightness so he becomes a peaceful place that I want to reach every time. He is not man or woman and He does not have family as like us.

The god that I believe is different from Marxs’ belief.  Here the god that I believe is based on my religion, Islam where He always keeps, cares and feeds their creation but on other hand Marx believed that his god which is according to their religion as the product of master or men in power. Then it is totally different from Freud. According to him God can be closed when people have passed their suffering but based on my belief my god never makes His creation suffering. It is because He always teaches their creation to love each others.

I believe Him as I believe that I am alive in this world even I can not see Him with my eyes even I can not touch Him with my hands but I believe he is alive. He lives in my belief and my heart. I am here because of Him but I cannot lie that when I was child. My parents and my teachers in school always taught me to believe that god is really exist. They taught me to thank to god for everything. Time to time I realize that I find my own belief that god is here besides me because of my experience of my life. Everything that I got is because help of Him for example when I got difficulties or problems then no one could help me. He helped me to solve my problem with showing me the right way even He did not really come to and see me.  He helped me through other ways. For me the true way in believing god is always keeps Him in our heart and mind that He always stays together with us then do the best thing to reach Him whatever the condition.

When some body asked me what kind of god do I believe. I am sure. I answer that I believe in only one god. Based on my belief and my religion that there is no other god except Allah SWT I still remember my teacher ever said that there was no kind of god because actually everyone has the same god that is Allah SWT but it seems different because of everyone has different way to describe, understand, and believe in Him. Thus god appears different.

There are many evidences which show the existence of god. First is form environment around people for example there is the change of time, night to morning. It happens under control of god because people cannot do that. Second is about our body, as we might our body can make movement and our brain can work. Those things happen because there is some powers that control it. Then I believe that is because of the power of god. There are many other evidences that I can mention one by one. One thing that people should understand is they cannot force themselves to think about those things because their ability to think is limited. To show it in detail is not really easy. It is like mystery and also the existence of god.

Technology to Develop Students’ skill

By Ira Ernawati

As a teacher we should understand about our students’ ability and skill. It is because they have different Multiple Intelligent. Hence by understanding them, it will help us in monitoring where they are good at in learning process. We also can see where their strength is and where their weakness is. Hence we can help them to develop their skill to reach the best result in learning process.

One thing that we can do with technology is providing some learning medias which can increase students’ progress. Nowadays there are many learning media which can be used and support in learning such as blogspot, wordpress, weebly, tumblr and wix. Actually there are more media than what I have mentioned. That kind of media absolutely has its own strength and weakness. Here I am going to share about one of those media. It is about wix.

Actually wix is a new media learning that I just known. It was my first time used it in my TLL class. It is because usually I just use blogspot or wordpress. Wix is similar with blog. It has some strength. Those are

1.      It has several good templates which we can get free or cost.

2.      The navigation is easy to manage.

3.      Then we can use some kind multimedia there for example picture, music, doc, and smf. Its size is unlimited.

But the weakness, it only can be used by flash. As we may know that not all computers have flash. Hence if a teacher wants to use it hence he/she must install flash player at the first time.

Hopefully by providing that kinds of media in learning process a teacher can help his / her students in developing their skill involves listening, speaking, writing and reading for example (a) by providing video and podcast in wix. It is to support in expanding students listening skill. (b) Providing some reading text. It is also be used to developing students reading skill.

By using the technology a teacher can design the learning process based on student’s level. Hence the lesson that we can develop and support in developing thinking here a teacher can also use the different instruction modal of learning by considering Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Finally I state that I agree that technology can be utilized students’ skill but as a teacher we should thinking about the weakness.

Journal Reflection: Classroom Assessment

By: Ira Ernawati

The last PETA class was really nice class. I enjoyed this class. The lecture gave us some different activities for example by asking us to draw some pictures to show our thought. It was really challenging. Through those activities all students could share about their ideas and also their feeling easily. Hence the interaction that we did was not boring. The other activity was discussion about assessment.

Some people may think that assessment is a test but the true definition of it is not only about test. Assessment is an instrument which is can be used to collect and interpret data of students through test or exercises. By giving assessment so a teacher can know the progress of students in learning process.

There are three general ways to collect data of students. Those are students’ product, observation and oral question.  We can get the students’ product such as by giving test them or asking them to making journal. Then we can see their result. The observation can be done during conducting activity in the class and also the oral question. It can be given to students during teaching and learning process.

The assessment that is given to students has to consider to the purpose, measurement, use, and evaluation of the assessment itself. The purpose of it must be must be clear, what for it is. Here a teacher also should consider to students’ need and level. Hence it is not useless and a teacher can get what he / she want.  To achieve the purpose, the teacher can use a rubric in assessing their students.The measurement that a teacher uses in assessing students must be clear and it also has to consider in students’ multiple intelligent. As we may know that they have different background and do not make them bored or confused. So it is mush be prepared well. It is also much be valid and reliable. Then it can be use to see the students’ progress and reflection of a teacher in his/her teaching process. Through assessing, it can be used to make evaluation both the teacher and students. The evaluation that is given to students is feedback of students so by giving it students can see their strength and weakness or mistake which can be fixed next time.

There are three domains of classroom assessment. Those are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The cognitive includes students’ knowledge or comprehension. The affective includes the attitude of students then psychomotor includes organizing skill of students. The way to give assessment, it can be formative and summative assessment. The formative assessment is given during teaching or learning process for example by questioning students about the material which is delivered by the teacher. Then summative assessment is given in the end of teaching or learning process for example is final examination.

Discussing about it makes me more understand what assessment is and how to give assessment to students. Hopefully it can be useful for preparing my future.

Identity among others

By Ira Ernawati

Many problems come around us. It usually happens because of misunderstanding. I think, the basic cause of this problem is because we do not really understand others. As like words ‘Tak Kenal Maka Tak Sayang’ which is very popular in our country. People never know others well if they do not really understand them. Even they are close friend but it does not guarantee that they have understood each other well.

In other hand, I say nothing is impossible. It means that I believe that everyone can understand each other. The differences are just in the way in understanding and also the process of understanding itself. By understanding life will be easy. So we can not be stubborn, because basically we can not live without others.

Understanding others is really important but we can not lie that it is difficult to do. It needs willing to do it. it must come from our heart. Moreover in our country which has different culture, religion, race, and ethnic group from Sabang until Merauke. All the differences that I have mentioned show different identity of everyone.

If we understand the identity of someone. It will make us easy to understand him / her. In the fact, many people can not do that easily included me. When people meet someone whom they do not know yet. It usually makes them having prejudice, stereotype and sometime discriminates him / her because they different. What do you think about it?

For me, it is not really surprising. Many people have prejudice and stereotype to others whom they do not know yet. And I think it is bad thing that we should avoid. So to over come this case, we should change our mindset about differences that difference is not always bad and the key to solve it is understanding.

Here the example of how important understanding is, when Javanese people meet Batak  people, first time they think that Batak are rude and rampageus. It is because they do not understand Batak’s background or behavior. Hence they have own prejudice and also stereotype that Batak are not good people. Then Javanese only feels comfort with their group. Whereas, Batak people are not like what Javanese thought. Ya.. We see that Batak always speak loudly as like angry people. Actually that is just their habit but for Javanese people. It looks impolite because they are not used to speak like that. 

It is just one example of case that happens around us. If we analysis deeply it is only about different habit. It is about different identity but if we do not care to this case, it can be big problem among ethnic. Here, Humanistic Study has big impact to help us in facing and preparing our future. Then as teacher candidate, we should also perceptive to this case even we will meet and have students from different culture and background.

Utilization Technology in Listening and Speaking Skill

By Ira Ernawati

I still remember when I was a student of senior or junior high school, listening was king of boring activity. There was no challenging part of this activity. It was because the teacher just used type recorder and asked student to listen. Hence it is a duty of us as a teacher candidate to create new way in delivering listening material.

Studying Technology Language Learning enriches my knowledge about technology which we can use to teach listening. By using new media that uses high technology. It can make our listening class more interesting. Then the material of listening is various so we can choose based on our need. There are some facilities that we can apply in listening class for instance by video and game. We can find those facilities from blog or you tube.

The other activity is speaking, you know guys? Before joining Technology Language Learning class last Friday, I never thought that we could use technology in speaking class. Based on my experience in junior or senior high school, I never saw my teachers applied technology to deliver their speaking material. Well, maybe it was because the technology which was exists at that time as not advance as right now, and then it could be caused by their limitation in using technology itself. Hence I thought it was very difficult to fine technology which could apply in speaking class. But my opinion was not true anymore. Nowadays, everything is possible. 

By studying TLL, I got much knowledge in utilizing technology especially in speaking class. Today technology can provide some media which can be used in learning and teaching language. It is very good chance. For me it is very important to be understood. So as a teacher candidate, we should be up date in following the development of technology. As we know that technology is a part or our life, every time and every where, we need technology to help our activity as like in teaching and learning English.

There are many media which we can find in internet to aid our learning and teaching speaking process such us Blog, English club and also website. Those media usually provide some interesting facility to help us in developing skill. It is really interesting media.

The kind of blog that we can access is like Kalinago.blogspot.com. this media provides many videos which we can be downloaded. Then we can do some activities in developing speaking skill such us discussion, debate, role play and conversation. The materials of our speaking era shared in that video. I think it is unique way to learn or teach speaking. This media also has benefit because it provides some videos for any level of learner.

The other media that can help us is English club and website. Today there are many English clubs online and website which offer some programs in involving our speaking for example ESL Chat Room in English Club. Usually the program is free.

The ability that we can develop when we use those media and do the activity which is provided is pronunciation, articulation, fluency. As we see, if we use video which has native speaker in it. They can give right example how to pronoun and say the language well. And doing activity as like discussion or debate about the content of video it can support us to speak so it will influence our fluency.

As teacher candidate, we can not believe to all media that we use. We should be selective in using media for our listening or speaking class. Then remember role of teacher is to guide the students.

MALL: Technology and Pedagogy

By Ira Ernawati

Technology develops very fast day by day. Hence it can provide everything than we want easily. It also has many various types. One type of technology which is used in teaching and learning language is MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning). From the word ‘Mobile’, we can see that type of this technology is available and portable.

I think MALL can make our teaching and learning language more flexible especially for student who can not join class directly, do not have face to face learning and also for students who have problem with distance because they study far away.

MALL applications which we can use in teaching and learning language are

1.      Cell Phones

Basically cell phone is often used in communication but nowadays it can be utilized in as the facility in teaching and learning language. The teacher can use it for sharing material or lesson for example by SMS text messaging. The other way, the teacher can use it to help listening class. It also can be use to record teacher or student dialogue in the conversation class. Well, modern cell phone, it usually provides high application as like dictionary and internet access for example Yahoo, Google and blog. Hence student can use it to search the material. Finally, the teaching and learning language can be easily.

2.      IPod

It is one kind of MALL application in teaching and learning language which usually can be use in listening class. It helps the teacher to assess students’ listening skill. It provides high-quality audio and sound.

3.      PDAs

Persona Digital Assistants here is like camera digital. We can use it to record material in speaking class for example is by making a record of students’ role play .

As the teacher candidate, we should realize that all MALL application which I have already mentioned have strength and weakness. So we should understand it well and use it wisely. The strength from those applications is it is portable application. It can be use everywhere and every time and it is usually less expensive. the weakness that we should know that it does not provide good visual and the size is also limited.

Well, today MALL goes to CALL, Computer Assisted Language Learning. It is because CALL has high quality visual and audio than MALL. Even it is really good but it still has weakness. It is not portable application so we can use it outdoor. Whatever the application and technology that we are going to use. The main point that we should realize is technology is not everything. We can not only rely on it in teaching and learning language. Understanding pedagogy is more important thing and it is a basic thing of teaching. It is a study about teaching itself. If we can understand it well it will help us to teach effectively. We also can consider what kind of technology which appropriate to apply in our teaching MALL or CALL.

Hopefully, what I have learned in TLL can help me in preparing myself in teaching someday.