Today, we were given the privilege to observe Mr. Al Jupri’s (my mentor) teaching course. He handled the Mathematics for Junior High School course together with another professor – today was the opening day for the second semester in UPI (Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia), that’s why the class started with an orientation of the course, then proceeded with the first lesson for the semester: algebra.

 

Today, I was also very much amazed when I found out about my mentor’s achievements, such as his translation of Al Kwarizmi’s books. Wow!

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I noticed he started writing from the center of the stage – he wrote at the right most upper corner of the black board. It was a new scene for me because in PNU, we were trained to start writing from the left most upper corner of the stage.

 

After starting to write from the center, he continued his lecture leftward. After completing the space for the blackboard, he proceeded writing at the white board on the rightside of the room.

 

In this class I was also able to catch new terms such as hitung, contoh, and more.

I also noticed that since this is already a tertiary level class, the questions were more tricky and difficult – but solvable. Or maybe, that’s just how Mr. Jupri does his teaching. I remembered one of my professors in PNU, he gives us tricky questions just like my mentor.

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Not only did I want to pursue my professional career more – to not stop studying after I get my bachelor’s degree, I also wanted to do better when it comes to my inquiry methods.

My mentor inspired me to ask better questions, give tasks that may look simple but is really complicated to the roots.