"Teaching is a calling from the heart. It is a great experience to be able to meet, learn, and play with children. It gives me a special impression," said Maghfiroh Izza Maulani, an UNY student who had the opportunity to teach at SDN Bringin 1 Srumbung, Magelang, Central Java, through Teaching Campus Program 2022. This program is part of an effort to improve the quality of education for schools affected by COVID-19 at the Elementary School and Junior High School levels.
Izza had quite an exciting experience when she had to teach numeracy material to grade 4 students. “It is quite difficult. Seeing students who stare or do not understand a thing in the lesson makes me rack my brain," she said. Izza approaches numeracy subjects with contextual problems that usually exist in everyday life. For example, she explained a negative sign as a debt or borrowing goods.
"The challenge in elementary school is to simplify anything that feels complicated so that it can be understood by students as much as possible," she explained. In addition, Izza feels that explaining mathematics with concrete examples will make it easier for students to understand mathematical concepts. For example, the class cupboard is an excellent example of measuring block volume. Meanwhile, to teach multiplication and division, Izza used story problems they usually encountered.
Izza admitted that she learned a lot from this activity, including handling students with various characteristics and learning to control the classroom atmosphere, which sometimes did not meet expectations. In teaching and learning activities, Izza has the principle that students must get additional knowledge that day so that even if it is a little, at least there is a knowledge they can bring home.
