1st Reflection of PETA

Geby Devtiana Maryono

2011120001

“How to be an effective teacher?”

            Effective teacher. The first time I heard this words, I did not really understand what effective teacher is. I just thought the effective teacher is the teacher who can manage the class well, but then when I read the article from Jack C. Richards, I got some ideas about an effective teacher. Based on the article from Jack C. Richards, an effective teacher is defined as the teachers whose the students can perform better on standarized achievement tests. From that explanation, there must be more explanation of what effective teacher is. That is what I want to know from PETA course, because I am sure, to be an effective teacher, there must be many theories about it. Besides learning from theories, being an effective teacher also about practice.

            In the first meeting, my friends and I started the lesson by telling the story about the inspiring and uninspiring teacher that we had when we were in school. That session was interesting, because I could hear the story from some of my friends, and I can reflect to myself, what kind of teacher do I want  to be someday. There were also some of my friends told about the uninspiring teacher. That was a bit annoying for me, because I also had the uninspiring teacher, and I did not want to be like that.

            From my observation, most of my friends think the inspiring teacher is the teacher who can give motivation to the students and always make the learning and teaching process interesting. It is interesting, because I could get another characteristic of the effective teacher.

            After that session, my friends and I had the session to guess what effective teacher is. We wrote the characteristic of effective teachers. From some groups, there were similarities from our point. We agreed that the effective teacher must have the good attitude and can be the good motivation for their students. Ms Ine also agreed about thet point, but Ms Ine also gave an admittion, Ms Ine said that being an effetive teacher is not only about the good attitude, but also about the knowledge that the teacher had. The teacher must have the knowledge and be expert in the course that they teach.

            I think, being an effective teacher is not a simple think that can be achieved only in one day. That is why I need to learn a lot, not only from PETA course, but also from other course, because from the class that I had in the first week of school, I think that effective teacher is not only discussed in PETA, but also being discussed in LTM and UET. That is why I need to learn and practice lot.