Posts

Culture Shock Living Abroad (Part 2)

Living abroad will definitely be different from living in our original country. When I started living here in Liverpool, I needed to adjust myself to the system and customs here. So, now I will tell you about things I found differently as I live here in Liverpool, the United Kingdom. First, people here tend to 'mind your own business'. For example, everywhere you go you will see many people with their headset or earbud and walk without paying attention to other people. It will be considered a rude thing to do if you stare at someone for a long time, for example, you walk through some people and see someone with a 'strange' outfit (in your opinion) and then you stare at that person. You know, like looking from head to toe, it will be a nuisance for people and probably they can be angry with you. Or you saw a drunk person and you stared at that person, that's not allowed! Or when something happens, you can't just jump into the scene and get involved. There was one...

Culture Shock Living Abroad (part 1)

If you have a plan to come and stay in the UK, of course you need to prepare for everything, right? So, here I am going to talk about the culture shock that I found as I am living here, in Liverpool as part of the UK. First, the weather! As an Indonesian, all of my life, I lived in a tropical area, and I got used to the hot and warm weather. The temperature in my city is around 27 - 31 degrees Celsius. Even if it is a rainy season in our city, it never reaches below 20 degrees. So, when I came here, my first week was awful! The weather was always around 11 or 12 degrees Celsius. If you ever went to Mount Bromo, then you know the feeling. I was freezing all the time! Yes, all the time! Going outside was a challenge for me. I couldn't handle the weather and the bad thinking sometimes played in my mind, like 'What if I got hypothermia?'. That kind of thinking played around my mind every time I went out of my room, especially if I had to stay for a long time outside. There was ...

The journey of me getting the scholarship

Going to the UK and getting a master's degree has been one of my dreams for a long time, most of my old friends from my previous workplace know that I dream of going abroad to continue my higher education. I can say for a long time that dream was only in 'sleeping mode' which means I did not do anything to achieve that, I have been busy with my teaching career, and I was in a comfort zone doing the same activities each day.  My desire to learn and to improve myself started when there was a new program from the government, I took the activated teachers as the first batch in my city for nine months. That is the trigger that made me realize that I could do that, I mean I learned for nine months, and I got it, a master's degree is only one year in the UK, right? So, I said to myself; you can do it! Then, I got another chance that I qualified as the assessor for the pre-service teacher training. As an assessor, I learned more about teachers' struggles all around Indonesi...

Another Goodness I Found from Liverpool

Good people create a ripple effect of positivity wherever they go. You reap what you sow. We ever heard those wise words in our daily lives and when you meet those kinds of acts, you will be amazed. So, this is my second day in Liverpool and the first thing that I had to do in the morning was to go to my university and report to the international student office that I already arrived in Liverpool. So, I checked my Google Maps to guide me to my university and I had to use the bus. Everything here is by bus, unless you have your own car, no 'angkot' here lol. So, when I waited at the bus stop and still had no idea that everything here was cashless, there was also a girl waiting there and she noticed that I always looked at my phone, she approached by asking where I wanted to go and luckily, she wanted to go to the same university as I am. When the bus arrived, I paid with my 20 pounds and the bus driver didn't want to take it. Again! That girl (later I know she is from India,...

First Journey to Liverpool

I never imagined that one day my dream would come true. It is going to the United Kingdom to pursue my master's degree in education. So, here is my journey from my city, Bandar Lampung to Liverpool, United Kingdom. My flight was on Sunday afternoon, 22nd September 2024 from Soekarno-Hatta airport and when I wanted to check in, I had over baggage and sadly I had to pay for it. I tried to unpack and move some items into my handy bag, but it would cause over baggage for my handy bag. For me, the service from the airport was really bad since the officer at the check in counter was not nice, she even didn't smile! When I moved to another counter she even approached and said to the other officer 'She had over baggage and checked her handy bag also' and I was like 'What!?' I wanted to cry at that time, since I was alone in the airport. My sister and my mom were already on their flight back to our city.  Finally, I was on the plane, and I would have 2 transits in Singap...

Demontrasi Kontekstual -Pengambilan Keputusan sebagai pemimpin pembelajaran

  Memasuki modul 3, topik yang saya pelajari adalah pengambilan keputusan sebagai pemimpin pembelajaran, sebagai seorang guru tentu saja saya sering diperhadapkan pada situasi – situasi yang menuntut saya sebagai guru harus mengambil keputusan yang sebaik – baiknya yang mungkin berhubungan dengan siswa atau kehidupan sekolah. Misalnya salah satu siswa saya tidak mencapai nilai KKM dalam mata pelajaran saya dan orangtuanya menemui saya untuk meminta bantuan supaya nilainya dibuat tuntas atau mencapai KKM, meski sudah menolak dengan cara halus namun si orang tua tetap memaksa dan meninggalkan amplop di meja saya. Sebagai seorang pemimpin pembelajaran, bila dihadapkan situasi seperti itu, tindakan dan keputusan apakah yang akan saya ambil? Situasi seperti itu tentu menimbulkan dilema etika atau delima bujukan. Dalam pembelajaran modul ini saya belajar memahami 4 paradigma yang berkaitan dengan dilema etika, yaitu: 1.        Individu lawan masyarakat (...

Pembelajaran yang berpusat pada Murid

 Pembelajaran Berdiferensiasi Sebagai seorang guru atau pendidik hal yang perlu dipahami adalah setiap siswa adalah unik dan memiliki karakternya sendiri, yang satu berbeda dengan yang lain dan guru tidak dapat menyamaratakan semua siswa. Menjadi hal yang penting bagi guru untuk bisa memahami perbedaan para murid ini. Coba bayangkan suasana kelas anda, apakah anda menemukan ada beberapa siswa yang suka bekerja sendirian? ada juga siswa yang lebih suka bergerak kesana kemari ketika dalam pembelajaran di kelas? atau ada siswa yang selalu ingin menjadi pusat perhatian. Sebagai seorang guru, tentu kita akan terus diperhadapkan suasana kelas yang demikian karena setiap siswa adalah unik. Untuk memahami hal tersebut guru perlu melakukan pembelajaran yang berdiferensiasi, artinya pembelajaran yang bisa mencakup gaya belajar siswa secara umum.  Disini kita akan membahas secara singkat apa yang dimaksud pembelajaran berdiferensiasi itu.  Pembelajaran berdiferensiasi adalah serangk...