How to be Self-disciplined and Self-motivated

I was invited by a friend teaching in Grade 5 at Global Jaya School to be a guest speaker in a student camp that they were conducting virtually. There were some topics offered that I could choose and I picked 'How to be Self-disciplined and Self-motivated.' I did some research on Google and found a lot of information about it. I read some books and articles as my reference. Interestingly, the student camp organizer expected me to not only lecture the students but also engage them in some hands-on activities during the session. Well, it was interesting and challenging at the same time. 

After collecting some information and took notes on some important points, I got some points to be shared with students in the simplest way and words. And, guess what? I got an idea of which activity to do while I was in the bathroom about to brush my teeth. Hillarious! Ideas may come at any time. Here is my lesson plan. 

Exhibiting Self-discipline and Self-motivation for Grade 5 Students

By the end of this session, students are able to:
- Describe what it means to be self-disciplined and self-motivated
- Explain why it is important to be self-disciplined and self-motivated
- Demonstrate self-discipline and self-motivation in daily life

Materials needed:

1 big (or 2 small) brown used cardboard box
2  pieces of one sided used A4 paper 
2 m of plastic ropes/ old fabric/ or anything can be used to tie
Glue, scissors, a pen, a pencil, an eraser, coloring markers/pencils/crayons, 

Opening (20 min)

Introduction (5')
Ice breaker (15')
Red light, Green light - Let students pick a move (jumping, running, flying, or swimming) and listen to the instruction. Students move on the Green light and stop on the Red light.

Then, briefly share some ideas on why there is a traffic light, what it is for, how some people may obey it or ignore it, and what consequences that may happen. Relate this analogy to the concept of self-discipline and self-motivation. 

Activitiy (60 min)

Introduction to self-discipline and self-motivation (15')

- Students are ready with a piece of paper and a pencil.
- Students follow the instructions given to draw some shapes on the paper - triangle, circle, square, rectangle. (The goal is not mentioned)
- T reviews the drawing made by the students that without knowing the purpose or the goal of what the Ss do, Ss will have no clear idea what actually Ss are doing or making. 
- Ss are ready with another piece of paper and a pencil.
- Ss follow the instructions given to draw a car by making some shapes - 2 circles, rectangle, triangle, 2 squares. (The goal is mentioned)
- T reviews the Ss' drawings and introduces the importance of the goal to be self-disciplined and self-motivated.

How to be self-disciplined and self-motivated (45')

- Draw a triangle on the cardboard with the 20 cm baseline and 10 cm height.
- Draw  4 rectangles on the cardboard. Each of them has 20 cm of length and 5 cm of width.
- Punch 2 holes on two corners of the triangle to tie the rope later on.
- Punch 2 holes on the right side and 2 holes on the left side of the rectangle. 
- Tie the rope through the holes with the triangle as the top and followed by the other four rectangles.
- Answer the following questions and write the answer on the cardboard. (an example is provided)
Triangle: GOAL (What do you want to achieve? I want to be an architect)
Rectangle 1: REASON (Why do you want it? I want to build a nice and safe place where people can enjoy staying there)
Rectangle 2: OBSTACLES (What may stop you from it? I feel lazy to study, I want to sleep more, I watch Youtube too much, I love playing games)
Rectangle 3: HABITS (What to do to make it? Study hard, go to the best university to be an architect, find out some studies about architecture, learn from books, Youtube, or anywhere)
Rectangle 4: PROGRESS (What have you done so far? I am following some famous architects on social media, I learn from architects on Youtube, I do very well in Math.)

Closing (10 min)

Summary
Q&A

Here is the slide I presented during the session. And, below is its references.

https://www.wellsanfrancisco.com/how-to-be-self-disciplined/
https://dariusforoux.com/self-discipline/
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/self-discipline.htm#:~:text=Self%2Ddiscipline%20is%20the%20ability,re%20feeling%2C%20physically%20or%20emotionally.&text=Motivation%20and%20willpower%20contribute%20to,your%20intentions%2C%20and%20hard%20work.
https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/self-discipline-for-students/

A Discussion on Thoughts of Indonesian Muslim Scholars #Day29

The following note was taken when I was teaching Islam Subject part-time at Sampoerna Academy. According to the date saved here, I put it in this blog on November 11th, 2017. And, I have never touched it since then. 

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In this term, I decided to have my Grade 12 students do a research on how Indonesian Muslim scholars view religious tolerance. The information to be collected and presented consisted of the scholars' basic information, educational background, opinion on religious tolerance, and how they call on all Muslims in Indonesia to show religion tolerance. Additionally, the students had to give their own opinion responding to the scholars' views if they agree or disagree along with their arguments. The instruction covered in the following questions.

• Who is the scholar?
• What is his/her educational background?
• What does the scholar think about tolerance?
• Do you agree with his/her opinion? Why?
• How does the scholar mostly call on Muslims in Indonesia to religious tolerance?

I searched on Google by typing "daftar tokoh Islam Indonesia". Wikipedia provided a list of names, but I picked only some and put them in my list. To choose the scholars to be discussed by the students, I considered two points, the scholars' influence  or contribution to the development of Islam in Indonesia and the availability or access to relevant information on the internet. 

• Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym)
• Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur)
• Dr. Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah (Hamka)
• Prof. Dr. Quraish Shihab
• KH Mustofa Bisri
• Habib Rizieq Shihab
• Felix Siauw
• Zainuddin MZ.

Once the list above was presented, one of the students came up with her own choice which was Ulil Abshar Abdala, so I let her go with it. One class period (around 45 minutes) was allocated for students to collect the relevant information and prepare the PowerPoint (PPt) slides. The presentation started in the following week. 

Ulil Abshar Abdalla was first presented. The student shared one of Ulil's writing Menyegarkan Kembali Pemikiran Islam. Unfortunately, I did not take some notes on it. 

After that, another student shared some information about Habib Rizieq starting from his family background to his educational background. 

Next, it was Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah (HAMKA) presented. The student presented well with a lot of information about him and his contributions to Indonesia. From the presentation, I could see that the student was excited about Hamka's excellence and intelligence especially knowing that not only did he study Islam but also western cultures. 

The next scholar was KH. Mustofa Bisri. The student mentioned that according to this scholar, the Islam religion is not a political party. This scholar had always believed to be gentle to others no matter what their religion was. 

Last, the student talked about Felix Shiauw. 

Once, I had a concern that the information collected by the students might be coming from not valid resources. On the internet, anyone can say anything. However, the point that I wanted to make through this discussion was that to introduce my students to different opinions, especially in this religious tolerance issue, among the Muslim scholars who have a lot of knowledge and experience in Islam. During the class, I did not tell the students to agree or to disagree with some specific views of the scholars. I let them decide by themselves. Everyone is entitled to her and his opinion and what we all can do is to respect one another. 

Kolaborasi #Day27

Di hari Senin yang lalu (29 Maret), teman-teman kuliah S2 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris UIN Jakarta mengadakan reuni virtual lewat Zoom. Ada beberapa yang hadir seperti Ica (penggagasnya), Anwar, Ratna, Aul, Wilda, dan Afti. Aku bisa hadir sejak awal tetapi tidak bisa mengikuti obrolan dengan jelas karena aku masih dalam perjalanan ke rumah dari Sunway Pyramid dan koneksi internet di HP sangatlah lambat. Jadi, aku baru bisa bergabung lagi setelah kira-kira 30-40 menit sampai di rumah. Aku senang sekali bisa bertemu teman-teman lagi lagi untuk bercerita tentang kabar dan berbagi pengalaman. Saat itu Aul dan Ratna sudah pamit karena perlu mengurus anak mereka.    

Setelah aku menyapa semuanya aku sempat menanyakan ke Ica apa saja agenda dalam pertemuan ini. Entah kenapa aku langsung terpikir begitu. Ada sebuah suara dalam hatiku yang mengatakan bahwa aku tidak mau pertemuan ini hanyalah sekedar haha hihi saja. Perlu ada sesuatu yang dibicarakan sehingga menjadi lebih bermakna dan bermanfaat untuk semua yang hadir. Alhasil, karena dari jawaban Ica sepertinya menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada agenda tertentu, jadi I took a step in to lead the discussion.

Dari sepanjang diskusi yang kami lakukan, ada beberapa hal yang menjadi catatanku dan juga menjadi inspirasiku untuk nanti belajar di tingkat S3.

Kedisiplinan. Anak-anak didik teman-temanku saat ini kebanyakan menunjukan kurangnya kedisiplinan, apalagi sejak kegiatan belajar mengajar berubah ke media online. Beberapa hal yang disebutkan adalah soal persentase kehadiran mereka di kelas dan juga pengumpulan tugas. Ica seringkali dianggap sebagai guru dan dosen yang galak karena dia selalu menekankan kedisiplinan ke anak muridnya. Entah apa yang merasuki anak-anak zaman sekarang. 

Budaya membaca. Ica bercerita banyak soal bagaimana anak muridnya mendapatkan informasi untuk beberapa materi presentasi di kelas ataupun tugas yang diberikan. Ternyata kemudahan akses informasi di Google merupakan sumber informasi yang melimpah untuk mereka. Sayangnya, mereka seringkali hanya serta merta menyalin informasi yang didapatkan untuk di gunakan di kelas, kopas (copy paste). 

Teknologi. Cukup menarik ketika Pak Anwar berbagi beberapa cerita tentang beberapa kegiatan dan pelatihan yang dia lakukan di sekolah dan juga di salah satu institusi pemerintahan hingga saat ini terkait penggunaan teknologi untuk mendukung proses belajar mengajar. Aku sangat mendorong teman-teman guru untuk ikut bergabung dengan Pak Anwar, apalagi ada program certified educators yang ditawarkan. Dia juga bercerita tentang grup Belajar Bicara Bahasa Inggris online dengan pertemuan rutin. Lagi-lagi, teman-temanku harus ikutan juga. 

Kurikulum. Aku kaget ketika Kak Wilda bicara soal kurikulum baru yang di terapkan. Aku kurang paham soal kurikulum tapi yang jelas dia sempat menyebutkan kalau kami ini generasi lama dan sudah ada beberapa hal baru yang diterapkan di sekolah yang bahkan mereka belum mendapatkan sosialisai ataupun pelatihannya. Ya, pastinya seiring berjalannya waktu akan selalu ada perubahan-perubahan. Perubahan itu sesuatu yang tidak bisa disangkal kan. Akan tetapi sangat disayangkan sekali kalau teman-teman tidak mendapatkan pelatihan yang memadai sebelum penerapan dilakukan. 

MGMP. Setelah mendengar sederetan cerita dari teman-teman yang kebanyakan adalah permasalahan dan keluhan selama menjadi seorang guru, terutama guru Bahasa Inggris, aku kemudian menanyakan soal program professional development untuk para guru. Ternyata memang ada, yaitu MGMP (Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran). Menariknya, aku pun baru tahu soal ini, mereka tidak ada yang mengikuti MGMP sama sekali. Kalian tahu alasannya apa? Karena MGMP biasanya dihadiri oleh guru-guru yang sudah lama dan yang mengikuti ya itu-itu saja, seperti sudah ada kelompok atau geng khusus. Eksklusif sekali ya? Senioritas nya kental ya? Padahal kalau ini terbuka untuk semuanya, mereka bisa bertukar pikiran dan saling berbagi saran untuk menyelesaikan masalah atau tantangan yang di hadapi selama proses belajar mengajar. 

Motivasi. Hal lain yang menarik perhatianku adalah soal motivasi para anak murid teman-temanku. Mereka menceritakan bagaimana anak murid mereka tidak memaknai proses belajar yang mereka lakukan. Bahkan seringkali mereka menemukan anak murid yang menyepelekan dengan kehadiran mereka di kelas dan tidak mengerjakan tugas yang diberikan. Terlebih lagi, mereka yang mengajar di sekolah swasta kadangkala mendapatkan tekanan dari pihak orang tua ketika mereka ingin melakukan beberapa upaya meningkatkan kedisiplinan anak atau mendorong motivasi mereka dalam belajar. Tampaknya cukup sulit. 

Dari sini aku melihat bahwa kami harus berkolaborasi dan bersinergi untuk bersama-sama belajar dan berbagi supaya kami masing-masing terus melakukan perbaikan dalam bidang kami masing-masing. Semoga ini bisa kami wujudkan, setidaknya aku bisa melakukan langkah-langkah kecil. Apakah itu? Akan aku ceritakan nanti di waktu lain.