Wednesday Sharing Session is an activity organized by LIA Sub directorate of Teacher Training and Development. This biweekly program is held at the Seminar Room of the LIA Pramuka Branch. It usually starts at 9.00 am and ends at 11.00 am. The presenters range from part time teachers to senior trainers with the topics covering — among others — techniques in ELT, tips on handling outside classes, the use of multimedia in teaching, CLIL, World Englishes, and many others.
Creative WritingJakarta, 30 November 2011
In this sharing session Ms. Devina Mariskova shared her knowledge about creative writing per se fiction writing. There are three aspects to be considered in writing the fiction stories; they are characters, conflict and premise. The first aspect is characters. The readers will find a story interesting when the characters are different from the ordinary people. They should be either exceptionally good or bad. They should be able to solve all the problems no matter how difficult the situation is. In short, they should be the hero or the story. The writers should be able to completely describe the characters from appearance (physiological dimension), the social status (sociological dimension) and personality traits (psychological dimension). The second aspect is conflict. The conflict occurs when the main character has a main goal where in the middle of the way he or she faces opposition. There is also a constant adversary between the protagonist and the antagonist. The depiction of the story should create a bonding between the two different characters. Finally, the premise — it is the statement of what happens to the characters as the result of the conflict.
Convergent and Divergent ThinkingJakarta, October 26, 2011
The Sharing Session started with Pak Sonny with his presentation titled “Convergent and Divergent Thinking”. The aim of convergent and divergent thinking is to make students to be able to solve problems, think creatively and critically, make decisions, generate new ideas, analyze information and plan for the future. Basically, whether one has either convergent or divergent thinking usually depends on their brain dominance inventory–right brain thinking or left brain thinking. Convergent thinking manifests itself in the questions which require students to answer questions by putting facts together and constructing an answer; divergent thinking takes the form as the questions which are thought-provoking and require more than one acceptable answer. Divergent questions might create new problem situations and require students synthesize ideas and construct a meaningful solution.
Drawing Tips for Classroom Use
For the second session, Ibu Yudi presented a sharing titled “Drawing Tips for Classroom Use”. As an expert in teaching English for young learners, Ibu Yudi shared her knowledge and skills to make illustration by using simple scribbles and squiggles. As simple as they might get, they could depict emotions,ideas and meanings clearly. The key to success in drawing is exercise, so we spent the whole sessions learning how to practice making straight lines, curls, curves and circles correctly. The outcome was awesome that from combining those scribbles we could make drawings that can convey emotions.
P.S.: We had to interrupt this session because TTD tried to make a good use of this opportunity to give out our farewell gifts to the two presenters, as they are retiring.
Using Windows Movie Maker and Videos as Teaching AidsJakarta, February 2 2011
Audio visuals or videos have always been interesting to be used as teaching aids in classes. Therefore, Ghitta Hayati from LIA Kalimalang presented how to create videos using the simple video software, Windows Movie Maker. The reasons why Ghitta chose Windows Movie Maker because of its availability in everyone’s computer and its user friendliness.
Ghitta started the presentation by showing the samples of videos she had worked on. Then she went on with the workshop creating the video clips with the twenty participants at the computer laboratory of LIA Pramuka. Not only creating videos, Ghitta also taught participants how to upload the videos to Youtube and how to burn the videos into DVD format to be available for used by means of DVD player. The video Ghitta has uploaded at Youtube can be seen by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFjcnHVpMto
Drilling Techniques for EC Classes.Jakarta, November 10 2010
In this Wednesday Sharing Session, Ms. Pranawangsih Yuniarti, a.k.a. Wawa presented what she had attended from the previous Pearson Day. The sharing session covered the reading techniques for children classes. In this session Wawa focused the drilling techniques for vocabulary, grammar, functions and others.
There were some interesting features that she presented regarding teaching English for Children. Firstly, teaching English for children should be fun since it is the first time children encounter the language. Therefore the enjoyment that they get will determine their attitudes in learning English in the future. Secondly, teaching English to children means teaching them language components for future uses, not for immediate uses. Thirdly, drilling plays an important role in the children’s longer retention of the language components. Next, Wawa demonstrated some fun ways of drilling techniques for vocabulary, such as Pass the Flashcards, Touch the Balloon, Sweep It away, The Journey of a Tissue Paper, Ping pong and Mysterious Envelope. Then, Wawa also demonstrated other fun ways of drilling techniques for grammar, functions and others, such as Give Me Five, Dancing Crazy, First Come-First Served, Active Reading and Kungfu Moves.
All in all the presentation was interesting and the activities were a lot of fun for the participants. It is always fun to join WSS.
Webquest: The PrequelJakarta, October 27 2010
Following the materials covered in the “In-Service Training”, Selestin Zaenuddin presented a prequel of how to create on line lessons using Webquest. WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites.
Using Webquest not only a teacher can apply the four skills, but also implement other cognitive aspects, namely Bloom’s Taxonomy, Cooperative Learning, Multiple Intelligences and Real Life Activities.
The Basics of Blogging Using BloggerJakarta, August 25 2010
The August 25′s Wednesday Sharing Session featured Ms. Sitha Damayanti for her presentation the basics of blogging using blogger. The two hour session was held in the computer laboratory of the 5th floor of LBPP LIA Pramuka. Here the Ms. Sitha Damayanti shared with the participants how to create a screen name, a blog title and and a blog address.
The sharing session was fun and and interesting since the participants can apply the steps of creating the blogs directly by using the computers in the lab.
Songs: The Magic Tonic of Teaching EFLJakarta, August 11 2010
People love songs, and they can be used as a tonic for teaching EFL. Therefore, Mr. Toto Endroyono shared his ideas on how to incorporate songs into the class activities. In this session we were exposed to kinds of songs and which songs suitable to which lessons. There were interesting activities ranging from singing together, filling in the blank lyrics and sequencing pictures to match the song lyrics.
Not only having fun singing together, the participants could also get the idea of incorporating songs into the lessons. The songs and activities are suitable for students from children classes to adult classes. Participants could also see the list of songs with details to match the lessons.
Teaching Language Skills to Young Learners Through Cooperative LearningJakarta, July 28, 2010
This Wednesday Sharing Session featured a presentation from Ms. Maria Florentine Palar, a teacher from LIA Bogor Pakuan. The two-hour session discussed the implementation of Cooperative Learning activities in EC classes. Cooperative Learning is a set of instructional methods in which students work in a small mixed-ability learning teams. In the presentation, it was stated that Cooperative Learning was very beneficial both for high achievers and low achievers since the former could enhance their sense of belonging, acceptance and caring while the latter would have a chance to receive more help, observe the process of the high achievers go about learning, feel more motivated to try and boost their self esteem.
Some of the activities presented were Round Robin, Numbered Heads, Jigsaw Reading, Think Pair Share, Autobio Poem, Card Game and Scrap book. We had a lot of fun and we enjoyed the session very much.
WSS on World EnglishesJakarta, December 2 2009.
In relation to the upcoming LIA International Conference , Teacher Training and Development sub Directorate of LBPP LIA conducted a sharing program on World Englishes. The Sharing Program featured four presenters carrying out the topics related to world Englishes. The featured presenters were Jusnidar Rahman, Endang Gultom, Sonny Soentanto, and Gloria Kismadi. They represented the well-known experts of World Englishes such as Andy Kirkpatric, David Crystal, Jennifer Jenkinsz, Larry Smith, and Yamuna Kachru. The topics discussed were:
English as a Global Language (David Crystal), presented by Jusnidar Rachman
World Englishes (Andy Kirkpatrick), presented by Endang Gultom
World English vs. World Englishes (Jennifer Jenkinsz), presented by Sonny Soentanto
Cultures, Contexts, and World Englishes (Yamuna Kachru and Larry Smith), presented by Gloria Kismadi