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September 27, 2019: It was the day for our mini-conference and post-evaluation that will tackle our practice-teaching experience in Semarang, Indonesia. The meeting started around 9 am at the main library of UNISSULA. The objectives of the mini-conference are for us to deliver a presentation of our practice-teaching experience, for our mentor and supervisor to give their feedback about our overall teaching performance and for everyone to offer their gratitude and appreciation through giving tokens and some short speeches.
The event started with a rundown of our schedule from the orientation day up to this day. Speakers from OIA (Office of International Affairs) and the College of Languages gave short speeches on the SEA-Teacher program itself. Then, Walter and I shared about the Philippines during the mini-conference as a way for us to exchange information about our culture to them. Afterward, we also enumerated and discussed our practice-teaching journey regarding the challenges that we encountered, the cultural landscape that we observed, the things that we loved about Indonesia and most importantly, the educational or pedagogical platforms and system that we found out.
After our presentation, Mr. Ibnu and Ms. Nani delivered their evaluation and feedback based on our teaching performance at SMAN 2 Semarang. I was actually happy with the feedback that I received. They told me that the way I taught the classes was clear and easy to understand. Additionally, I was also a structured speaker according to our evaluators. However, I was too formal with the students but it was okay because it is already a part of my character and personality. We were also advised to pay attention to the classroom's "blindspot" most especially for the students who are seated at the back to have better classroom management. But overall, they commended our mastery of the subject and our capability to teach a lesson to the class like we are already seasoned teachers.
After a short while, we already gave each other some tokens and expressed our appreciation to everyone. Actually, the event became less formal when we started to say our short speech after every token that we gave. My friend, Walter, even became emotional and shed a tear when he was delivering his piece. It really came from the heart and if we were only given more time to speak, we could've said more because we are extremely grateful and indebted to their generosity, kindness, and helpfulness in the entire duration of the SEA-Teacher exchange program.
Finally, the mini-conference ended with a sweet message from the event's emcee. The event ended at around 11 am. So that's it and once again, Terima Kasih!
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