My Intensive Class…..

Recently, my institution gives me a new duty as an instructor in intensive class. This class is designed to deepen some lesson i.e. English, Arabic and Math. It is not compulsory class. The participant of this program is students who have high motivation in learning those subjects. Here, I’ve a charge of teaching the students from social class. There are 19 students consist of 16 girls and 3 boys. Actually there are more than 100 students in social class but I’m out of my mind why the students are not interested in joining the class. To let you know that it is free for them to participate in this class without any money to spend. To answer the phenomenon, I’ve some assumptions to the problem why the students have low motivation in joining the class.

First, the intensive class is carried out in the afternoon. It is started on 2 pm after the main term finish. So the students feel exhausted in studying. If they join the class means that they have to sit in the class studying from 7 am up to 3.30 pm.

Second, they really have low motivation in studying. What I mean is they are not interested the three subjects offered. So they do not take it. They would rather go home and relax themselves than study in the class.

Third, some students have their own schedule in studying. They can not arrange their time because they have joined course or in house training.

Fourth, the committee of the program does not tell the students about the advantages of the intensive class and they also do not set the main goal of the program. So the students think that the program is the same with the regular class.

Based on the assumptions above, the instructor has a hard job to convince the students joining the program that they will get something new that they won’t find in the regular class. Beside that, the instructor should modify the teaching learning process so that the student will feel cozy. It can be applied by many techniques such as finding the interesting material presented in the class, managing the classroom as comfort as possible for the students.

Making the situation of the class different is the way I have ever done to my students. The following pictures show when my class is studying in the garden. It happens when we feel hot studying in the classroom. I invite them to find the chilly place to study. We study under bamboo tree. Look… they enjoy the teaching learning process, don’t they???

A teacher with his hobby

Being a teacher is a nice job for me. I’ve started my teaching 2 years after graduating from my college. Totally, in two years, I didn’t sharpen my science in teaching English instead of expanding my experience in graphic design. I knew graphic design coincidentally when I stayed in my brother’s house in Java island. He is a calendar publisher in Yogyakarta with more than hundred thousand exemplars in a year. My brother asked me to design a calendar ordered by one of an Islamic Institution in Java. By having limitation talent in operating a computer, I tried to explore my creativity. And a new hobby was found……

I frequently use two computer programs to design a certain design project. They are Corel Draw and Photoshop. Corel draw is a special program designed to create graphic, text, curve etc. it has many tools to create and combine graphic to be an artistic design. I used Corel draw 9 When I was started operating this program for the first time. And now I use Corel draw 11 although Microsoft has launched the newer version. I consider it has simple tool with sharp color and is easier to handle than the new version. The second program I used in graphic design is Photoshop. It is focused in organizing and manipulating a picture. It can combine some pictures to be one picture perfectly. In a glance, we cannot determine its manipulation. I feel amazed with this program because it can change the color, shape and size in the same time. By having no formal education, I try to use it to explore my imagination.

According to me, Graphic design is an activity to explore and sharpen the art of imagination. Imagination doesn’t appear in a certain time. It can appear automatically in the morning, in the dream or even in the middle of the night. So, I often sit in the front of my computer in the middle of the night when I find an inspiration suddenly. I can spend more that 5 hours in front of computer in a day. When I was in Java, I used to spend mostly my time in the night. I had to finish three to five projects every day. It is mostly in the form of calendar. Recently, I do it as my hobby means I rarely do that since I have other duty as teacher. I design a project if there is a request from my friend. It is not only in the form of calendar but it is also in the form of pamphlet, sticker, logo and banner. I do not force my self to do that if I have a duty in teaching.

If you are interested in the field of graphics design, you have to be creative in creating and arranging the graphic so that you will have your own style. You have to show that you have an independent way of thinking. Beside that, you must keep exploring your imagination without feeling bored. The pictures presented are some of products of my imagination in graphic design. Hopefully you can join me in this field and let share our idea each other to sharpen our mind in the art.

Show your power of imagination!!!