As is the aim of the implementation of this program, overall this program meets my needs. I explain more details below.
1) The aim for enabling the student teachers to develop their teaching skills and pedagogy, I can feel the implementation of this goal. My teaching skills including content, pedagogy, and technology develop from planning lessons, implementing lessons, and evaluating lessons.
2) The aim to encourage the student teachers to practice their English skills. Language barriers mean we can only communicate in English. This brought great development in my speaking skills, while in Indonesia I rarely used English.
3) The aim to allow the student teachers to gain a broader regional and world view. I can also feel the implementation of this goal because I am far from my place of origin in Indonesia, with a different culture, especially in religion where I, as a Muslim, am a minority in a country where the majority is Christian and this requires adjustments in my daily life. I also learned a lot about tolerance.
4) The aim to expose future teachers to diverse teaching and learning situations and opportunities, and the value of flexibility. Taking this opportunity means allowing me to have responsibilities as a teacher, in a school that uses a different curriculum than in Indonesia, the habits are also different, and of course this all requires adaptation which is not easy.
Procedures of Practicum
The procedures in practicum always start with planning and planning consultation with the cooperating teacher, implementation which is also monitored by the cooperating teacher, and evaluation.
Outcomes of Practicum
The results obtained from this practicum are very numerous and important, especially in implementing the knowledge that I have studied at university. Of course this was not easy, plus I also had to adjust to a new environment.
The Challenges of Practicum
The challenges I have to face include the schedule which causes learning planning to change due to events being held. Making learning plans themselves also requires adaptation because the references used are different from those in Indonesia. I need to communicate with cooperating teachers and supervisors so that learning goals are achieved.
In implementing the lesson, I also learned how to manage the class, actively involve students, and provide content that can be understood so I have to make it as simple as possible. I learned a lot from this practicum.
Overall Impression
"Not easy, but not impossible" might be one sentence that represents my experience while participating in the SEA-Teacher program. There are many ups and downs from adapting, from testing my abilities, from building relationships with related parties: fellow participants, students, teachers, and buddies (friends who accompany us in our daily lives). This program succeeded in making me develop a lot in various aspects.
Suggestion for Future Improvement
Overall, the implementation of this activity was good. In my opinion, for recipient schools, improvement is needed in preparing plans by considering possible delays by reflecting on the academic calendar. For SEAMEO it is possible to provide more detailed explanations to participants either before or after planning, it can also bring together all parties including SEAMEO, sending universities, receiving universities, along with SEA-Teacher Participants in one meeting so that it is more effective.
I hope that in the future, this program can facilitate future educators to become superior, adaptive, and bring the good name of ASEAN and their respective countries to the world stage in the field of education.