Day: September 22, 2019

Hi! Welcome back to my second week in Bayambang!

In the second week, we had many observations especially in observing our friend that conducted their team teaching with the local buddies. Deta and I conducted our team teaching with Ma’am Melissa Joy De Guzman on September 11, 2019. Before doing the team teaching; we have talked a lot about our topic that would discuss about epic poetry. We learned our own part and also watched the video that would be played in the class. In this topic of epic poetry, we made a power point and also find a video of Beowulf, the old epic poem. The SEA Teacher participants and all the buddies have a basecamp as the place for talking and doing a discussion. We called this place as ‘Quarters’. Our quarter is located on Department of Communication and Art building in front of the teacher’s office.

The day of the team teaching came. We were doing a simulation in the morning in order to reduce our nervous. Our team teaching schedule was at 1.00 p.m.-2.00 p.m. I felt so nervous but it was reduced because I saw the students that were very respectful and friendly. They looked so excited. For your information, all the secondary school guidebook here is already using a literature as their topic starting from grade 7 that learn Philippines literature, grade 8 learn about  Afro-Asian Literature, grade 9 learn about Anglo-American Literature, grade 10 learn about world literature, grade 11 and 12 learn about 21^st century literature. So, don’t be shocked if they also learn about poem elements, epic poem, etc. In this week, we just have a full observation and team teaching. Actually, we should have a trip to Baguio but, it was canceled because of the bad weather, accreditation and all the university transportations were used. Therefore, my dorm friends and I decided to go to the Bayambang market and went to Balon Bayambang. Balon bayambang is just like Alun-Alun in Indonesia. We bought many things for our needs such as vegetables, eggs, rice, etc. We usually cook and eat together. We collect our money 100 pesos for a week to buy the needs.

On September 3, The SEA Teacher participants came for the first time to the main building of Bayambang Campus to meet Ma’am Agnes as our faculty coordinator. In that day, Ma’am Agnes announced the SEA Teacher’s Supervising Instructor (SI) that will show us about how to make Philippines lesson plan format and also the one who assess us in solo demo and grand demo teaching. My supervising instructor was Ma’am Jonna Mae Belando Calambro. There were 12 SEA Teachers with English major in Bayambang campus. The six one were with Ma’am Jonna and the other six were with Ma’am Jannine. Then, We were also given a buddy that would accompany us everywhere and bring us to have a tour around campus. My buddy was Ma’am Hanna Grace Solis Tinasas. We had a tour around campus starting from the main building and also seeing each building that is existed in Bayambang Campus. All the buddies here are very friendly to us as the foreigner and very kindhearted. In that day, we had an opportunity to watch the school competition in the national language day of Philippines and we watched many performances from the students. They were dancing, playing a drama and singing. It’s great!

Then on September 5, I had an observation in Ma’am Jonna class at Grade 9 Masigasig. The students are very polite and also kind. Ma’am Jonna taught about communication in that class and using power point as the media. In the afternoon, Ma’am Jonna gave us a topic for our solo demo using Indonesian lesson plan and the topic for team teaching with our buddy. Team teaching was conducted before solo demo. In team teaching, The SEA Teacher assisted the PSU student teacher that was also our buddy. Our buddy was also a student teacher and they should make a lesson plan to get a score in their solo demo. I was paired with Ma’am Melissa Joy De Guzman and taught a topic of ‘Epic Poetry’ in grade 9 Masinop. My topic for Solo Demo was “Basic Parts of an Essay” and would teach on next Wednesday in grade 9 Masigasig. The deadline in sending a lesson plan to Ma’am Jonna was on Friday 6^th of September. At the first time I read the guidebook of grade 7-10, I was so surprised that the high school students here have learnt about literature. I was shocked because I think; it is the topic for college student in Indonesia. The secondary school system in Philippines especially PSU is 4 years in Junior High School and 2 years in Senior High School. Therefore, I was so respect to this system of education.

On September 7, we were so happy because we went to Hundred Islands, Alaminos City. But, we also felt so shocked in the night before because the information of that tour was very sudden in the middle of the night without any preparation. We should be ready at 4.00 a.m. to go to Alaminos City. We have ready at 4.00 a.m. unfortunately; the bus came late and came at 5.30 a.m. then, we went to Alaminos happily. We arrived in Alaminos at 9.30 a.m. and the weather was very bad at that day. After getting there, we took a picture for a while. The ticket to go to the Hundred Islands was only 130 pesos and we could enjoy the islands. The rain came heavily when we were going to the Hundred Islands using boat. But, it didn’t make us give up seeing how beautiful Hundred Islands is. We came to the first island. The first island was Governor’s Island. It was so beautiful and we went up to the hill to see the view from the top of the hill. It was so tiring and I felt like I want to go down again. But, I didn’t give up. Finally, I saw a very beautiful view from the top. I can say that Hundred Islands was really like Raja Ampat in Indonesia. The islands were very clean. The next trip with boat was to Quezon Island in Hundred Islands. In this island, we ate our lunch with chicken adobo. Chicken adobo is the famous food in Philippines. We had a lunch accompanied by the heavy rain till all our dresses were wet. It was very unforgettable experience in the first weekend!