Teaching Campus Program in SDN Karangbendo 01

Departmen Sastra Inggris

 Khaidar Zulkarnaen Firdaus

 5 September 2021

 Pembelajaran dan Aktivitas Mahasiswa 

 SDG 4, SDG 17

In early 2021, the Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem Makariem launched a program called Merdeka Belajar: Kampus Merdeka (MBKM). This program consists of many subprograms, and one of which is called Kampus Mengajar. At first, I actually do not have any intention to join this program because it can affect my college schedule. However, after learning the advantages of this program, I change my mind. I even go to Malang just to find my organization certificate. Yet, I still do not feel confident because I do not have a certificate in joining teaching activities. Also, there are over 30.000 students who wanted to participate in this program. Luckily, I passed the selection and officially joined this program for about three months.

I was sent to Sekolah Dasar Negeri Karangbendo 01, Lumajang Regency, East Java with 5 other colleagues. One day before I went to the school, me and other participants visited the educational department first because we were ordered by the committee. There, we received a letter to be given to the Principal of the school. The next day, I was heading to the school accompanied by the field supervisor, a lecturer from STKIP PGRI Lumajang. He helped us to explain about what Kampus Mengajar is to the teachers there. 

Picture 1:The first meeting with the teachers

We did brainstorming activities immediately to know what the school’s needs were and what to improve. From this, we knew that the students and some of the teachers lacked technology, no English subject, the learning activity was divided into two groups (group 1 and 2). It made us propose some programs that can be used to solve the problems there, for example teaching TIK. However, before applying to this program we were asked by the principal to teach the sixth graders about the Kisi-Kisi of Ujian Sekolah because they will face it next week. Without any experience in teaching, it made me very nervous but I did my best to help them understand the materials. This has also enlightened me to make young learners engage with us. We must become their friends and not let them think we are their teacher. It was successful. To make it run smoothly, I also communicate with them using Javanese outside the learning activity and also talking about their favorite video games.

Picture 2:Teaching Science to sixth graders

Once we have done teaching in sixth graders, the principles divided us to help three classes. I was selected to help third graders with my colleague. Actually, we do not teach students directly. Instead, we just help the homeroom teacher inside the class like providing the lesson plan, producing media and others. If the teacher cannot attend the class, at that moment we can teach the students as a substitute. Luckily, I got an opportunity to teach the third graders directly. It was amazing and terrible at the same time. The good side from teaching the third graders is I can truly feel about being a real teacher. There is one boy in third graders who still have a difficulty in reading. I help him with my best to make his reading skill fluent. On the other side, teaching lower class needs extra power because they still count as a kid who likes to play. There will be always a troublemaker inside the class. The boy always disturbs his friends in the middle of learning activity that causes noise, but I have the solution. I got this from Classroom Management subject in last semester. It said if there is a troublemaker, we can arrange his or her seating near the teacher so she or he cannot disturb anymore. In this case, I chose to sit next to him that made him to stop disturbing the others. 

Picture 3: Teaching Math to third graders

So far joining this program, I feel different about myself. First, I like to do something passively. Now, I want to do it actively without waiting for the others. The best moment for me in joining Kampus Mengajar was when I was asked to accompany sixth graders in a practical exam. The homeroom texted me before that she could not join the exam because of something. So, she relied on us for the exam. It was a science practical exam and the students needed to breed a plant by cangkok. 

Picture 4: Accompany sixth graders in practical exam

This activity reminded me about the same activity I did when I was at the same age as the students. I was asked to be an observer toward student’s activities because they use something dangerous like a knife for example. If they had problems, I would help them to solve them. At the end of this activity, we cleaned the mess and cleaned the yard  together.