In order to comply the number of hours required, we were given two mentors, one for grade 7and 9 while another mentor for grade 8.
IBU NENY is our mentor for grade 7 and 9 and I have noticed that there is a difference in how she acts towards the grade levels.
For grade 7 she treats them as if they are her children. Their lessons are less serious and more interactive through student participation while in grade 9 it is different. She treats them as adults and their activities are more on skill application through reading comprehension, composition and speaking activities.
She plans her lessons everyday. According to her, some of the plans will not always push through since the students can sometimes have difficulty in understanding the lesson. She prepares materials such as toys, articles, videos and stories to reinforce the topic and for the students to further explore the lesson.
During the lesson, I have noticed that Ibu usually starts the class with a question. In some cases, she does a recap on the lesson that they discussed previously as a way for them to start the class. During the discussion, she lets the students supply the learning. She asks questions to make it more interactive and gives out examples in order for them to really understand. She asks students to make their own examples, do group works and have individual tests to assess their learning.
PAK DARSO
is the grade 8 teacher of MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto. He begins the class with vocabulary words. He uses flashcards to test if students can remember the English translation of several Indonesian words. It was a great way for the students to learn more English terms.
Afterwards he presented something on the board and discussed the topic to his students. I have noticed that during his discussions, he uses a schematic diagram to arrange his discussion well. He gives plenty of examples while asking the students to create their own examples too. Whenever a student commits a mistake, he gives positive reinforcements and encouraging remarks.
After his interactive discussion, he proceeds with a pair activity in answering a small questionnaire. When the students are finished answering they discuss the answer together then move on to an individual test. When it is all finished, he lets his student summarize the topic and share their learning.
He uses traditional methods however, in some classes, he uses PowerPoint presentations and videos as an introduction to the topic. He also says that teachers are performers so if the topic is about singing, the teacher has to sing too