Part 1
Let me take you back
where it started.
On October 30th my
Mom sent me an announcement about English Anthology Book project. The theme was
"The Unforgettable Time with English". I read the information then I
thought "I can do this." I mean why not? The theme was fairly light,
easy, and fun for me. I wrote a little about it on my Wattpad. There was
required fee but it was affordable, not very expensive. However, I didn't read
all the words thoroughly. I misread the deadline. I thought it was October 30th
but in fact the deadline was November 30th. Mind you, at that time I was
already so busy with my work duties. But then, I didn't want to miss the
opportunity.
So I just tried to get it done. I was rushing a little bit due to try to make it sent before midnight. In the end, I sent my script at 11.50 pm. I wasn't sure to whom did I send it. There was just an email account without a name, but it mentioned that the project was guided by Dra. Sri Sugiastuti, M.Pd.
I got a reply shortly after I submitted my script. It stated that I had to contact Mz.Phia regarding the follow up for this program. I reached out to Mz.Phia a few days after that day. By that time I already joined the Whatsapp Group of English Book Writing, but I saw there were only 4 people there including myself.
Long story short, I contacted Mz.Phia and she said I was the first to submit the script. I was still confused though. I thought I wouldn't make the cut because I sent it late. Turned out, I just misread the deadline! How silly I was. 😅
Couple weeks after
that, Mz.Phia texted me. She offered me to be a team on English teaching
program for teachers. I said yes. She said it was free and I won't be paid. I
said that's okay, I'm still in no matter what. I joined the English for
Teachers group chat. We discussed for another couple weeks on the curriculum,
timeline, speaker, and everything.
One day we had a
committee meeting via zoom. That was where things started heating up. I wasn't
expected that every member of them would be appointed as KEYNOTE SPEAKER! As
moderator yes, that's doable. Some of the team might be a key note speaker,
yes, I believe there are people in the team who are qualified and have more
experiences than I do. But never did I expect that I will be one of the keynote
speaker.
I kind of jumped in
during the team meeting when we decided on the speakers. "First meeting
will be Basic English Self-Introduction, who wants to be the speaker? Miss
Vina?" I thought this as fast as I could. If every member on the team
would ended up being a speaker, I might as well took up the first meeting. The
topic was fairly basic as well. Nothing I didn't know about the topic.
What I didn't know
was HOW TO TEACH? Let me add some more so you know how stressed out I
was.
HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH
TO TEACHERS?
HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH
TO ENGLISH TEACHERS?
HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH
TO TEACHERS ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY WHO I AM 100% SURE ARE SMARTER, MORE
EXPERIENCED, MORE SUCCESSFUL, AND MORE ACCOMPLISHED THAN ME?
SOME OF THEM I AM
SURE WERE SENIOR TEACHERS, A WELL-KNOWN AND RESPECTED TEACHERS WITH MASTER
DEGREE, CERTIFIED, AND MORE.
WHO AM I DARE ENOUGH
TO DO THIS?😓
💖Vina
Part 2
The duration between
team meeting and the first class meeting was less than a week. If I'm not
mistaken the team meeting was on Tuesday November 23rd. Then the first class
meeting was planned to be held on October 30th. During those period, honestly,
every single day between that, I was a wreck. Well, to say I was wreck is
probably an understatement. I WAS NERVOUS, TERRIFIED, CONFUSED. I couldn't
sleep. I couldn't focus on my daily job. I didn't help much with house duties
'cause normally I help out in kitchen as in cooking daily meal for my
family.
I couldn't stop
questioning myself. "Will I be good enough? Can I do this? What will they
think of me? What am I even going to speak about? Do I write a narration? Do I
just speak directly?" The questions just went on and on.
Here's a lyric from a
song titled "Wondering" from High School Musical The Musical The
Series.
Olivia Rodrigo, Julia Lester - Wondering (HSMTMTS | Ashlyn & Nini Piano Version | Disney+)
Seems like a part of me will
always have to lose
Every single time I have to choose
Swore that it felt right, but was I wrong?
Is this where I'm supposed to be at all?
I don't have the answers, not today
It's like nothing makes the questions go away
What I'd give to see if the grass was greener
On the other side of all I've had
and lost
Would it be enough, or would I still be wondering?
If I could go back and change the
past
Be a little braver than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
To me?
Feels like I might have broke the
best thing that I had
I said too much to ever take it back
Scared I'll never find something as good
And would I even know it if I could?
From the other side of all I've
had and lost
Would it be enough, or would I still be wondering?
(Or would I still be wondering, oh)
If I could go back and change the
past
Be a little brave than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
Maybe I should turn around and
take the other road
Or maybe I'm just looking for what I already know
I'm just wondering
If I could go back and change the
past
Be a little brave than I had
And bet against the odds
Would I still be lost?
Even if I woke up in my dreams
Would there still be something I'm missing
If I had everything, would it mean anything
To me?
Would it be enough
Or would I still be wondering?
To sum up what I was feeling, it was a WONDERING. I was wondering way too much about myself and about what was going to happen next.
I tried to keep my
spirit up, give myself some pep-talks, and I shared what I felt to my family,
my colleagues, Mz.Phia, and the rest of the team. It helped calm me down. I'm
grateful that I had been surrounded by kind people and their positivity.
I used the limited
times and resources I had to prepare as best as I could. I understood I
couldn't be perfect in doing it, and no one expected me to be perfect. I JUST
HAD TO DO IT.
However, I couldn't
help it. I have always been an over-thinking person. When I looked up for a fun
PPT template, I believe it took me more than 24 hours until I was satisfied.
And guess what? I changed the template ONE DAY before the schedule. I don't
know. My first PPT template was actually good. It was bright and attractive.
But one day before I was supposed to teach, I changed it. I ended up using
Canva presentation template. I found it easier to handle because there are so
many fun elements there, the editing and adjusting process were also easier to
do. All in all, it was manageable.
Oh yeah, almost
forget. I felt like I needed more time to prepare myself not only materially
but also mentally. On October 30th, I was supposed to come working at office
while the other admin staff named Pak Yoyok was supposed to work from home. It
has been our system since the pandemic. I asked Pak Yoyok to switch with me. So
he came to office on November 30th but worked from home on November 29th when
he was originally supposed to come to office. I came to office on November 29th
but took a day-off on the 30th. Was that confusing?
Well anyway, on the
D-day, October 30th, in the morning, I was feeling queasy. I was hungry but I
couldn't stomach eating anything. I had a cup of fruit salads in late morning
around 9.30 am but before that I didn't eat anything, and I woke up at 4 am.
I was still dealing
with preparation. I wrote down my narration so I could speak fluently without
having to say, "Ummmmm....." Here's what I had written down
sequentially.
I felt more
prepared and confident after I wrote those notes. I had few hours to spare so I
decided to rest a little. I took a nap for one hour and a half before noon.
At noon I woke up
and opened my Whatsapp. One of my colleague named Ibu Evi asked me to come to
the office because there were so many food brought up by Pak Ditsar, one of our
clinical psychologist in the department. He just had his second child born and
wanted us to celebrate together. In Islamic term it is called Aqiqah. I was
hesitant to come to office but Bu Evi convinced me that the sooner I went to
office, the sooner I could go back home. So I went to office after I moved my
laptop, charger, headphone, and other necessity into my sister's house. My
sister lives in 2 houses next to my house. She has a spare room, so I asked to
have the meeting in that room. There are just so many people in my own house
and prefer a quieter place so I could be more focus. I left my house and went
to office around 12.30 pm.
When I arrived in
the office, I realized I was starving. Remember, I only had a cup of fruit
salad on that day. So, I ate wholeheartedly but just enough, not too much.
After finished eating, I decided to help out in cleaning the table and tidying
up here and there. Seeing the time, I asked permission to leave and went back
home. In the middle of the road, the rain poured down heavily. My pants and the
front of my hijab were soaked. I arrived at home at 2.30 pm. I was closing it
really tight. The class was almost started.
I quickly parked my
motorcycle in my house, took off my helmet, then still wearing my raincoat I
went to my sister's house. Luckily, I put a spare pants there already. So I
hastily took off my raincoat, went inside, prepared my laptop and everything.
While my laptop was starting up, I changed my pants. I was still wearing my
soaked hijab, because I didn't prepare a change for that. It wasn't soaked that
bad so I let it air dry.
At exactly 3.00 pm, everything was ready. I took a deep breath and entered the zoom room.
💖Vina
Part 3
What a day!
What a moment! What an experience! 😄
Here's what
happened during zoom meeting and what I did for the rest of that particular
day.
The moderator
for first class meeting was Ms. Leni from Jakarta. She was very lovely, kind,
and great in doing her job. I was happy that we got to work together. I wish
we'll get another opportunity to do it again. 😍
The beginning
of the class went as well as could be expected. When it was my time to speak I
started to deliver the presentation that I prepared. There were 32 slides in
total. I also put my notes in front of me so I wouldn't missed on what I was
going to say.
There were
six sections on the presentation slides.
1.
Disclaimers
You can
actually see on Part 2 in a picture of notes that I put there. I mentioned that
disclaimers for me was necessary because I needed boundaries and assurances.
I'm not a "formal" teacher with teaching degree like S.Pd or M.Pd. I
never had or give any English lecturing. I only ever did a private tutoring
with no more than 2 students and they were all kids. I never taught anything to
any adults. I never even became a speaker for nation wide, ever. I never speak
anywhere but in English debating environment. My debating experience was
different compared to what I was going to do. I was going to LITERALLY TEACHING
all teachers from all around Indonesia. I broke a record of many firsts I did
on that day.
Having said
that, it was bound to be different. There had to be different expectations,
opinions, views, methods, and so forth. THAT IS WHY I made some
disclaimers.
2.
Speaker's profile
In this
section, again, I was going tell a little bit about my upbringing. A quick
story of where I came from and how did I get there. An unknown person, a
non-teacher, out of nowhere TEACHING to INDONESIAN TEACHERS. At the end of this
section, a ruckus started to rise.
I admit that
some of what happened was due to my recklessness in delivering my presentation.
I spoke way too fast for them. I used full English since I started speaking.
People started to get confused. They scratched their heads and put their hands
up. The chat room was blown up. People saying, "Please slow down.",
and things like that. It was pretty comical though. 😁
Ms. Leni then
spoke up. She kindly told me what was happening and she also helped me so much
in calming down the participants. I could never handled that situation well if
it wasn't for Ms. Leni. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much
Ms. Leni. 😘
After we got
the situation under control, I continued my presentation only this time I tried
to use bilingual, mixing it with Bahasa.
3. All
About Mindset
For this
section, let me rewind a little bit further. Why did I made this section?
As you can
see, the topic was BASIC ENGLISH (SELF-INTRODUCTION). For me, seeing that
title, I thought "That was easy. Anyone can do self-introduction. What
more can I tell?" Yes indeed, there are some aspects regarding
self-introduction but like, it wasn't that much. I confirmed to Mz. Phia prior
regarding the rundown of the meeting. She said I had 50 minutes. 50 minutes to
only speak about self-introduction was way too much time.
So I decided
to explore on the BASIC ENGLISH. But, I didn't want it to be like regular
things we got in school. As far as I know the formal curriculum at school is
more like a "themed" chapters. For example, first chapter is about
classroom. Teacher told students that pencil is pensil, eraser is penghapus,
table is meja, and so forth. That was not what I wanted.
When I think
of BASIC ENGLISH, I think about the nature of English. English is a language.
Then the nature of language is a way of communication. Then communication was
inherently everybody's need as human. Meaning that communication is important
and when we think more about it, everything keeps evolving. The world, the
people, the technology, everything keeps changing. In order to keep up with
that we had to be able to communicate better. That's why we need to see English
as a communication, something that we needed to understand and to master.
I believe
it's ALL ABOUT MINDSET because like it or not, that's where everything starts,
MINDSET. Just seeing who we are right now, what do we do, how do we see things,
what are our characteristics as a person, all of things are subconsciously from
the mindset that we had before. People decided to be teacher because they
wanted to share knowledge, to educate future generations. It was huge self-less
act that came from where? MINDSET.
If people
think that their life is all about money and profit, they would not choose to
be a teacher. They would take business class, be entrepreneur, or work in big
companies. But teachers are none of those ideas.
By changing
our mindset about how we perceive English language it would increase our
determination to learn English. We understand the urgency of it, so we feel
that we need to learn it. Then the nature of learning is a PROCESS. PROCESS
TAKES TIMES. It's going to be different for each and every single individual.
Some might be able to go faster, some might need to go at slower pace, but it
will be okay as long as we got the right mindset in the first place.
It will
prevent us for giving up when we're facing obstacles, it will fuel us to keep
going on further.
In relation
with proving how big the importance of the right mindset, I was also attempt to
invite the participant to not use anything as excuses. One of the excuse that
people usually mentioned to justify their lack of English ability is THEIR PAST
LIVE. They said how they were born in remote area or villages with no access.
Some said they never had any English lesson back when they were still in
school. The list goes on.
With the
right mindset I was going to encourage everyone to shift their point of of view
regarding their past live. We should not dwell on the past. Let's be grateful
and be at peace with the live we had, all the memories we made and the
knowledge we gained. Let's try not judged our past as good nor bad rather than
just IT HAPPENED, meaning there was nothing we could do to change it. The only
thing we can do is move forward. Let's grow into a better person, do better at
what we can do, learn better so we can improve more, and share better to the
others.
THAT IS WHAT
I WAS ATTEMPTED TO EXPLAIN.
Fiuuh.. This
has gotten more emotional than I thought. 😅
For the 4th
to 6th section, let's continue on the next part.
💖Vina
Part 4
We're back again. Let's
continue without further ado, shall we?
These are the next 3
sections I had left from presentation slides.
4. Basic English
During the transition from
the previous section to this section I got cut off. I'm going tell what
happened exactly later on.
Now I would like to explain
what is the purpose of this section. Here I was hoping to give some tips for
beginners on how to start using English easily. I categorized it into 4 major
points which I think are the essences of communication. The 4 major points were
reading, writing, conversing, and speaking.
Before I was going to
elaborate on each point. Again, I prepared a case where I wanted to bring
different perspective which is the learner's point of view.
The usual process of how
come people who at least had gotten an English lesson in their life before but
could not apply it in current situation. People think of English as a foreign
language. Nature of foreign is different or uncommon. Unfortunately whenever
something uncommon regarding communication appears, what people do is
TRANSLATING the language. Anytime they receive anything in English they would
think, "What is the meaning in Bahasa?" As times went on the level of
difficulties on the subject itself increased. So many new themes to learn,
words to memorize, grammars, and so forth. It got more difficult. Finally, they
lost interest in the language.
Now, what if we do not do
that? What if we do not differentiate any languages?. Just think that foreign
language means new language to learn. We learn so that we can understand and
apply it. So, what's the better thing to do here?
We start with basics. First
one is from the easiest activity to do in English which is reading. Anyone can
read any English text. The alphabets are the same as Bahasa. What people think
it's difficult is understanding it. However when you try to understand an
English text, it's better to understand it as a whole, NOT TRANSLATING EVERY
SINGLE WORD.
What is the text
about?
What is its purpose?
What is the main
idea?
What does it explain?
What is the
conclusion?
Those are the questions
that can be used when we read anything in English. Focus on the context and
content.
Second is when you write
anything in English. Almost similar like when you read, again, let's not tend
to translate. When you write you're the one who gets to control on the writing.
Have no fear. Don't concern too much if you make the right sentences or not, if
you proper words and grammars. Don't think too much about how it's going to be.
Just write it first.
What do you want to write?
What's your story?
What are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
Just pour everything from
your mind and heart. Make the words appeared.
The third point is tips for
when you're in a conversation. Try to grasp what are you and the others talking
about? See the context.
Where is the conversation
taken place?
Is it a meeting at work or
casual hang out in restaurant?
Those are some of the
questions that can be used as a guidance.
The last point, the forth
one is when you speak.
This is what commonly found
as the most terrifying to do by people who just started learning English. In
this point I only had ONE SUGGESTION which is JUST GO FOR IT because IF YOU
NEVER GO YOU'LL NEVER KNOW.
I was hoping to push
everyone who hasn't dare enough to speak up. There are no reason to be afraid.
You all got this. You know the words in your head I'm highly sure. Just sound
it out loud. Don't keep them in your head. Nothing can be perfect on the first
try and that's why we practice.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.
Let me add few thoughts
regarding grammars here. I do believe that learning grammars is important. It
makes huge different meaning in the language. BUT, do not use grammars as an
excuse or as a justification that English is hard. Take it easy. I'm sure as
time goes on, technology and people are developing, there are a lot of ways to
learn grammars easily. Back then when I was in middle school, I could only rely
on my teacher to teach me grammars. It took me years to really understand and
able to use them. When I take a look back of what I wrote in middle school, I
feel a little embarrass. I can tell you that it is nothing like how I write nowadays.
Let's back to during the
meeting. As I mentioned before, I couldn't get everything I was attempted to
share out fully due to being cut off in the middle.
As I was going to move on
to this section with all those explanation I prepared, someone in the room who
is not a moderator suddenly cut me off and said, "Miss Vina, can we please
start practicing self-introduction now?"
To be honest I was shocked.
My respond then was, "Sorry. Is it because of the duration or what?"
After that I just said to everybody who joined that I ALREADY PREPARED
materials on self-introduction and I was going to deliver it later. I still had
times based on the duration.
After that, I could not
think as clearly as before again. I allowed myself to being cut off rudely. The
rest that I prepared was just went out the wind.
Finally I was like,
"Alright everyone. You can now practice introduce yourself." But
inside I still think that it was rude and unacceptable for someone to just cut
me off in the middle. If this said person happened to read this, just so you
know, that by the time you are reading this, I had moved on; not forgotten
because it was memorable and somehow a little funny. But I understood the
reason behind that action. I just hope that next time we all can do better than
that.
After that, the only thing
I thought was JUST GETTING THROUGH THIS. Just get this done because then I had
more things to do next.
Finally, some participants
were given a chance to introduce themselves and they were all very happy to do
so.
In the middle of it all, I
tried to slip in some materials I got left that I didn't get to deliver,
again, because I was cut off.
The next section on the
slides I prepared was supposed to be as follow:
5. Self-Introduction
I was going to explain some
easy ways to do it. I prepared some examples I made by myself. I even did
couple researches on this.
6. Practice Drill
On the last section was
where I was planned to have the practice drill. There was video of
self-introduction mentioned but I was honestly just meant that to be a
SUGGESTION. They can do that as THEIR OWN PRACTICE.
Due to my shock residue
from being cut off, I ended up telling the participants that it was their
assignments which then led to yet another ruckus because some participants
thought it was too difficult for them. Also because we already announced the
they had to make and submit resume for each meeting.
What I gather was that
RESUME is the original assignment and it was hard enough to do so that we did
not need another assignments.
At the end of the day, the
committee decided that it was OPTIONAL. Participant can CHOOSE whether they
decided to make and submit resume OR make a video task.
Not that I didn't care
anymore but at that moment I honestly just thought WHATEVER 😒. I was relieved it was over😌. I commend the team in their
quick thinking and reacting to this issue. I was grateful for that.
💖Vina
Part 5
I would like to
dedicate this part of the series of The First Milestone in Writing and Teaching
to ALL PARTICIPANTS who joined my class session on November 30th. This is my
special tribute to all of you great teachers all around the nation.
First of all,
I could never say enough thank you that all of you decided to join the class. I
am sure that every single one of you had your own business. Maybe in that day
you were super busy, maybe you were having a big problem, maybe you were just
not in the best mood and spirit. And despite everything that was going on in
your life, you still CHOSE to join the class. You were willing to spare your
time, your energy, and your brain in order to learn something that YOU WANT, to
listen to someone YOU NEVER KNEW BEFORE.
Remember the
first day when our WAG was created? It was blown up. More than 200 participants
filled the group in span of hours. One group chat was full in less than 48
hours so the team decided to create 2nd group chat. There were
constant posts everyday all day long. Everyone was so pumped up and happy that
it existed! Question on where the class would start kept appearing.
Please do
remember that before November 30th, I never once got the opportunity
to be your acquaintance anywhere at all, be it online classes, WAG classes or
anything, WE NEVER MET ANYWHERE and WE DID NOT KNOW EACH OTHER. I’m not a
teacher therefore I had never had any business with PGRI community. Some of you
I am sure already had relationship with one another for weeks, months, or even
years prior to EFT program; for example like in the same group of writing class
or speaking class or any other program under PGRI.
As a nobody,
an outsider, with only Diploma title and short amount of experiences, I
honestly felt NERVOUS. Prior to the 1st meeting I paid extra
detail to EVERYTHING EVERYONE SAID on group chats. I gathered that many of the
participants are English teachers; just great, smart, successful, and
accomplished teachers. Even the non-English teachers were just as great, smart,
successful, and accomplished. Most of you had so many achievements and way way
more experiences than I ever had. There are writers, bloggers, motivators,
poets, content creators; the list goes on, while I am just a regular office
worker with an unimpressive life.
Every time
anyone posted a link of their YouTube channel or blog, I opened it and I just
thought “wow”. In my mind it was like, “Who are these amazing people? Who am I
compared to them? How could I dare enough to teach them anything?” There were
moments when I doubted myself. I thought there was not much that I could ever
share to you. I would never want to come across as disrespecting you.
But then I
tried to push myself and did not back down. I didn’t want to run away. I always
believe that when fate gives me something to do, it means I CAN DO IT. Even
though it was I who decided to do it, if I didn’t have even the smallest
confidence in my ability, I would never say YES in the first place. So I just
stayed focus. I used all the times I had to prepare the best I could.
Second of
all, I will attempt to try to see things from your point of view. Here’s what I
got. Each of you had your own unique characteristics and background. You all
came from different places and cultures. You were also from different era with
different upbringing. There was a wide range of ages.
As far as
your intentions in joining EFT, I could categorize it into 3 main groups. But
before I go further, let us all established that every single participant was
not 100% completely new to English language. You know the language, you see it
anywhere, you did ever get English lesson no matter when it happened, you
listened at least to one English song and watched at least one movie in English
language. So please never think that YOU DON’T KNOW because YOU DO KNOW.
Based on the
intentions of why you decided to participate in EFT, I’m going to say there are
3 main groups of people.
1.
Participants with beginner level of ability
2.
Participants with intermediate level of ability
3. Participants
with advance level of ability
Please take a
note that by ability I mean about basic language ability which are reading,
writing, and speaking. Speaking means all type of speaking such conversation,
speech, story-telling, poetry-reading, public speaking, and so on.
I’m not going
to put each of you into a certain category because you’re the only one to know
and understand your self-capability. PEOPLE MAY HAVE OPINION BUT THE
ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS YOU BEST ARE YOURSELVES.
One similar
thing that every participant had was A PURPOSE. You have one same purpose to
join EFT which is TO LEARN and IMPROVE. Those are THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS.
It doesn’t
matter where you are right now in terms of your English ability, if you feel
like you’re a beginner or not, all doesn’t matter. You have the same purpose.
Having said
all of that, I know that everybody’s expectations were bound to be varied. One
would expect the speaker to be very good and fluent in English; maybe speak
with the correct pronunciation all the time, use impressive vocabs and correct
grammars, and many more. The other one would perhaps expect the speaker to just
be friendly, patience, teach slowly, and engaging. Then the other other one
might expected the teacher to be just straightforward teaching the topic.
Imagine 250 participants with 250 different expectations, then who did you
think get to decide what kind of teacher you were going to get? Was it you? No,
it was not. At this point no one could ever choose what kind of teacher you
were going to get. On the other hand, it was the same; no teacher could ever
choose what kind of students he/she was going to teach.
That is why
all honorable great teachers out there who are participating in EFT class, we
all need TO BE READY since the beginning. Let’s start fresh! Just like the
beginning of school year. Or perhaps you could imagine yourself as a new
student in a new university and just about to meet your first lecturer.
No matter
where you are right now and which level that you think you are, the main goal
was the same right? That is TO IMPROVE a.k.a BE BETTER. Remember where did I
mention a whole case about being better? On my 3rd section on
my presentation material which was ALL ABOUT MINDSET.
Now, the
formula to get your goal is the same. So after putting your mindset properly,
the next step will be JUST DOING IT. That was it! JUST DO IT! By doing it, I
mean using everything you have, practicing what you can, and utilizing all that
you can use; just all around LEARNING.
Let’s take a
few tangible examples.
1. Whatsapp group chats
It is never
quite over there, isn’t it? But guess what? That is exactly how it should be.
It’s a facility to accommodate your learning process. You get something every
day all day long just by joining and checking the group. You can practice your
reading from chats and posts, your listening as well; but don’t just stop
there. Take it even further. Go practice your writing. After that, do some
more, practice your speaking skill. Let the other knows what you
think, hear your voice, share what you have, be more engaging.
Please let me
know, is there anything that you can’t do at all in group chat for the sake of
your English improvement? I am sure the answer to that would be NOTHING. There
is nothing that you can’t do in group chat for the sake of your English
improvement. Pick what you want to do over there and then JUST DO IT.
2. Zoom meeting sessions
Zoom session
is a place where participants can interact directly though virtually with other
participants, speakers, and teams. You get valuable lesson from everyone, not
just from speaker. When someone asks something, everyone would listened so you
practice your listening at the same time someone who ask a question practice
her/his speaking. When the speaker gives her/his presentation you get to
practice your reading and listening. Even in the chat room, you also practice
your reading and writing if you decide to send a chat. Not to mention on
Q&A session, you can ask anything you want then discuss some more. The
amount of lesson you get is infinite.
3. Expand your network
A lot of
times you might find other person that you think can help with your personal
affair. For example, if you’re an English teacher who has been having trouble
in your class, you can ask other English teacher for suggestions. Another
example, if you’re a teacher who maybe currently working some writings and in
need of reader’s feedback or others point of views, you can share your work and
have everybody else read it. There are no limits I think. But, we still must
uphold good ethics and social values while doing those.
Based from
those examples, is there anything more you need?
I might came
across as someone who tends to give TOUGH LOVE; a hard headed no nonsense girl
from out of nowhere. I admit that sometimes I do that. What driven me more is
my rationality. However, in my defense, I also understand very well that I
can't always be rational. There are moments where I need to put aside my
thoughts and concern more what the heart says. I mean like be more empathetic,
loving, things like that, I guess. 😍 Or maybe, there are
also moments when I can be both rational and empathetic at the same time. Do you
know what is the key answer to all of that? BALANCE. Balance is one thing I've
been working on so far until now. I'm learning how to do that and most likely
will still learning about it for as long as I live.
I’m going to
add or update more later on when I think of anything else to say on this
matter. In the meantime, how about letting us know what do you think?
💖Vina
Part 6
I believe it is not
fair if I just keep rambling on about other people. That would be unacceptable,
rude, and disrespectful. In the spirit increasing awareness of how greatly
different people are and how crucial it is to be tolerance, in this chapter I am
going to try to do in depth self-evaluation to myself. This time I will be the
object of what I’m going to rant about.
Oh dear, as if I’m
not a complicated over-thinking person already, now I’m attempting to analyze
and criticize myself. All of which I actually have been doing literally half of
my life. My apology in advance if it gets confusing for some of you. Just be
ready. Anyway, let’s see how it goes, shall we?
Let me please go back
a little bit to the time when it was just decided that I would take on being
the speaker of EFT first meeting. I asked Mz. Phia about whether or not the
speaker of each meeting has authority to make the materials then I also
mentioned my intention of focusing not just on self-introduction but also on
basic English itself. Basically her respond was yes and she said that I was
free to explore.
In reality after
getting that answer from Mz. Phia, I was focusing ONLY on what I WANT TO
DELIVER. I opt not to ask or find or research much. Why? Because I was already
feeling stressed and overwhelmed. I believed by finding more and receiving
more, that would increase the level of stress I was already in. For days I
worked on the materials. I couldn’t sleep well literally every day prior to the
D-day. There were many points and ideas in my head but I struggled with make it
neat or structured so it can be understood well and easily. I am so glad that I
was able to get through finishing the material.
However, I believe
there were some points that I could have done BETTER during that time in
preparing the material.
1. I should have never be afraid to ask more.
Just because I
believed that a certain impacts would happen had I ask more, it doesn’t mean
that it would happen. All those negative thinking were only inside my mind. The
thing about thinking negatively, it prevented me for doing something that MIGHT
TURNED OUT GOOD.
2. I should have never be focusing solely on my self-preparation
Just because I didn’t
know who the participants were and what they were going to be like, it didn’t
mean that I had to leave it be like that. I mean being unknown at this case
actually went both ways. Just as I didn’t know the participants, they also didn’t
know me. At that point it was I who had the capacity to change the situation.
None of participant would ever did their research on me or found out who I am
prior to the meeting. But, I could have done that to them. I mean I could’ve
had asked around more, found more what were they like and what did they capable
of. For example I could ask my Mom who joined writing classes by PGRI and got
information about them, or I could ask my fellow team.
I should never be
afraid of something I didn’t know yet. Who knew? Maybe I would get more
insights and suggestions, then I could prepare more not just material wise but
also performance wise. For example, perhaps I could’ve gotten information that
the participants were actually varied in age, culture, and background then
someone would suggest to that I’D BETTER SPEAK BILINGUALLY SINCE BEGINNING AND
SLOWER, as in really slower. That was also what most of the participants
complained about. So sorry everyone, I did accept all the criticism
wholeheartedly and definitely will work on it.
It would change so
many things so much had I done all of those things. But just like people say,
“What’s done is done.” We can’t turn back time. What we can do is just move
forward. By moving forward it doesn’t mean that we have to forget what
happened, just take the good lessons and apply them on the future when we can.
I added this
paragraph to say my deepest thank you for those who managed to do the task.
Some participants I know wrote a resume regarding what I presented in the class
on their blog. I was honestly blown away because amidst of all that happened
during the meeting, some of you honorable great teachers STILL COULD UNDERSTAND
what I was trying to explain and the messages I tried to convey. Thanks for all
the compliments, acknowledgement, and support. You are all amazing. 😍
Ant Clemons - Better Days ft. Justin Timberlake (Performance from Fair Fight/Rock the Runoff)
Here’s a lyric from
one of my favorite song. The title is Better Days by Ant Clemons ft. Justin
Timberlake.
I always feel more
relax and energize every time I hear that song.
💖Vina
Part 7
It had been almost a
week since I started writing this series of The First Milestone in Writing and
Teaching. I'm planning on making this part THE LAST PART. So, deep breath, get
the fingers ready, get it all out, and finally, MOVE ON. That's what I'm hoping
to do.
Here we go.
This series started
from the very beginning of how did I get involve in English for Teachers
program with PGRI. I told the whole chronological details and I tried to see
everything from every aspect I could think about. I stated my defenses as firm
as I could but I also threw the ball back as hard as I could.
If I try to sum up
this whole experience into a phrase, it would be that NOTHING IS PERFECT.
Before I go on
further, there's one more thing I haven't yet mentioned and I need to get it
off my chest.
When we had the
second meeting of EFT on December 2nd, the idea of how teacher must understand
the students, know what their thinking and everything, it was all being brought
up. I might be over-sensitive, I mean to most of you that was actually
considered a general idea, wasn't it? The common term for that is STUDENTS
CENTERED I believe. It honestly could be for anyone. It wasn't brought up to
offend any particular individual at all. You are all teachers so the message
could be perceived and implemented by any of you. But, I couldn't help that I
felt like I was being guilt, again, added to the fact and IT WAS ALSO BEING
BROUGHT UP by the end of the meeting.
There were a
decreasing number of participants on 2nd meeting compared to 1st meeting. That
is a fact. On 1st meeting we managed to get around 78 participants, meanwhile
on the 2nd meeting it was around 58 participants. The team, advisor, and some
participants stuck around and held an evaluation on the same zoom room right
after the class was finished. It felt like another hit for me. They just
simply correlated the decreasing number of participants as a result of lack in
promotion AND the way the appointed speaker taught the material.
Upon that case,
here's what I've got to say.
The idea of comparison
I believe before we
compare anything, we should set some parameters first. We can never say one
thing is better than the other without clear grounded strong parameters. After
that we could explore both sides, be it subjectively or objectively. The
comparison will come up later after we find all the data that we need.
I'm going to give an
example, a feasible example. The EFT teams could have prepared and discuss
everything they needed before having the zoom meetings. So, it didn't just
about discussing who would take this week meeting and who will be speaker for
next meeting. But, a deeper discussion was needed to make sure that everyone on
team was on the same page.
Make the parameters
of each meeting, work on the materials together, do brainstorming, give each
other suggestion, find all the data necessary, ensure that the upcoming meeting
would be better prepared from all aspects, then finally do the analysis, have
the meeting, and then the evaluation. If we do that, there wouldn't be any
confusion. Not to mention, that every single thing would be done
objectively for the sake of the learning itself, not about personal or
individual preferences.
It could help in
clearing out the air and making each member of team bounded with one another.
Each member could get to know the other better. The working environment could
be more conducive.
I get it though.
Working together with other people is not easy, working together with other
people you meet every day is not easy, then imagine working with other people
REMOTELY with people you had never met before or even known before. That would
be even more difficult.
I can’t speak for
everyone else nor can I tell everyone what they’re supposed to do. I can only
do those to myself. For me, I WILL SAVOR EVERY MOMENT. I’ll just take
everything I can; the goods, the bad, and all in between; they are all LIFE
LESSONS. Life lessons are invaluable and they stay with me for as long as I
live. They make me grow and develop more. Finally, growing and developing are
ways so that I CAN BE BETTER.
Wow! That's all. I'm
finished with this series.
Thanks for those who
have stumbled in my page and stuck around.
PS: Please don't be a
silent reader. Any of your comments will be highly appreciated. Thank
you.
💖Vina
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