Tuesday, March 30, 2021

1. Led morning meeting: Al Fatihah, Asmaul Husna, An Nas, Al Falaq, Al Ikhlas, Al Insyiqaq, prayer before studying

2. Sent Ms. Indira Grade 3 Term 4 Overview draft

3. Hosted English: reading parts of different books (about Art) and 'is' and 'are' language feature/grammar

4. Finished writing Market Day 2021 article for the website and sent Ms. Novita this for uploading

5. Hosted Art: making a 3D paper cactus

6. Hosted IT: inserting a hyperlink

7. Held additional literacy class of Bahasa Indonesia text with Gform: Keira, Dika, Savana, Elvan, Alisha (Dika 4 false, Savana 3 false, Keira 4 false, Alisha 2 false, and Elvan 5 false)

8. Moved students' submitted work from Gmail to Gdrive.

9. Organized the submitted work on Gdrive by putting them in the term 3 and term 4 work

10. Printed Civic Education Termly Plan 4 of last academic year

Highlights:

• I had an opportunity to talk with Ms. Amy about the thoughts that have been disturbing me these last two weeks. She explained that not ideas may apply to all classes. There are always conditions that influence teachers' and schools' actions.
• She said that in the US, students also take an exam to go to a certain level of education, but it is not as important as her in Indonesia. In a school or university application, grades are submitted, but it is not the only consideration that guarantees a student will get admitted. There are some other things to consider like students' extracurricular activities, interviews, and written essays.
• Differentiated learning is needed to make sure that students of all levels of cognition are accommodated. Fast learners may explore based on their capacity, while the slow ones may have an opportunity to master the fundamentals more deeply. The practical example is that by providing a class with two different worksheets-the LOTS one and the HOTS one. She explained that in this case, she will spend a short time explaining the concepts to the high achievers and a long time working with the slower ones, to make sure that their fundamentals are fulfilled. 
• She said that the quality of US lower education is medium, while the higher one is at the top of the world. Some US universities rank in the top 100 globally. Then, there is a gap between those levels of education. She explained that only high achievers can go to those high-ranked universities. The others would go to state universities. Then, the high-ranked universities attract students from all over the world to fill the seats provided. India is an example of a country whose smart students choose to go to US high-ranked universities and after graduating, they will live in the US. In this case, India has experienced BRAIN DRAIN.
• When I told her that in my opinion, US students are a lot more confident than Indonesians and that they are able to explain something in detail, she said that it has something to do with the culture that MAKING MISTAKES IS OK. Therefore, they are not afraid of being wrong, because being wrong is normal. What is more important is to find ways how to make it better next time. 
• She would love to share with all teachers here what it is like to conduct differentiated learning. Hopefully, soon we can apply it in our classes. Aamiin.