Transfering Knowledge, Realizing Experience

Teacher is a profession with unique challenges, not only transferring knowledge to students, but also creating a 'learning space' so that students can 'experience' the material they learn. Especially as a Christian Education teacher, the spiritual aspects of students are also a concern in the education process. The education process is a synergistic collaboration between teacher, students, educational institution, family and community, which requires the participation of each side to develop quality human resources.

The situation above becomes my challenge, Sukaningtyas, a Christian Education teacher at SMK 3 Wonosari, Gunungkidul regency, Special Region of Yogyakarta. In addition to teach Christian Education and Characters subjects, I also responsible as homeroom of Mechatronics class with 35 students from various family and religion backgrounds. There is an 'image' in society that vocational students are more difficult to deal with than high school students, and this is what I face especially as most of them are boys. Fighting, playing truant, having friendship problems, economics and family problems are common cases I’ve faced when accompanying them. Honestly, it was not easy because I was involved more in education of children not teenagers, but additional skills I got from training, sharing experiences, and having various interaction that I had from Stube-HEMAT helped me to assist my students as subject teacher and homeroom teacher.

My experiences in the programs of Alternative Education, Gender, Multicultural and field exposure training by visiting and discussing directly with education practitioners, and Interfaith open perspectives, change my paradigm of education and inspire me that students are not just objects. They have uniqueness in their personalities. As a teacher, I play role as facilitators placing myself as 'learning partners' in the learning process and encourage them to ask questions actively, to find and to express their thoughts. It is actually inspired by an old Confucius saying 'I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand' also 'I find myself I master it.

Family participation and personal approach.

The success of education process requires the role of parents and community so that it encouraged me to visit every student's home to get to know their family, family conditions and environment that is certainly very influential in their daily lives and personalities. This activity is very challenging, because they are spread in seven districts in Gunungkidul regency with various geographical areas from flat to hilly, and various road conditions from tarmac road to rocky path. This also revealed their struggle to attend school as well as their family background, parents' work, daily life and economic conditions. These findings helped me get to know them and find the right personal approach.

Experiences of Religion Diversity

In teaching Christian Education specifically topic on Diversity, I encouraged students to find problems that occur around diversity and alternative solutions to overcome these problems. For this reason, I accompanied them to visit places of worship of other religions and engage in dialogue with other religious leaders to broaden their views and foster inclusive attitudes. One of the visits was to Buddhist Temple 'Jina Dharma Sada' in Siraman village, Gunungkidul regency to discuss with Banthe Bandrasugato about various matters relating to Buddhism, including the core of Buddhist teachings, instruments and forms of worship, symbols and their meanings.

Inspiration of Gender Equality

I also opened up opportunities for students to observe the roles of men and women by inviting them to do 'role projects'. First, they find problems around gender issues, then study what the Bible verses say about gender and then arrange actions. Started from the majority of students who are men, I invited them to carry out activities that they considered to be ‘women's duties’, such as washing, cleaning the house, cooking at their homes. This really changed their paradigm.

Awareness of social reality.

In line with the vision of Stube-HEMAT of having awareness of the surrounding problems that occur, students were trained to map out problems and find solutions. In this case I apply problem-based learning, by asking them to observe the problems around them, what the Bible verses say and discuss them to find solutions. This method is able to bring them closer to the reality of life, to foster awareness of the problems around and to be motivated to make small changes that are useful. As an example of the drought problem in Gunungkidul, they carried out tree planting campaign around their homes and hand washing behavior as form of clean and healthy lifestyle facing Covid-19.

My teaching experience is still on its way, so the dynamics of learning will continue to occur, for me and the students. I hope this article may enrich the insight of Stube-HEMAT friends in various regions through out this country, especially for those who work as teachers. Please continue to sow goodness and virtues. (Sukaningtyas).