Sekolahku SMA 1 Padang (My School: Sekolah Menengah Atas 1)

I have spent my whole month of teaching in Sekolah Menengah Atas 1, or more commonly called as SMA 1 Padang. The said school is considered as the best senior high school in Padang City. The vision of the school is primarily to create individuals who are science-minded, nation-character and environmentally caring (Berwawasan sains, berkarakter bangsa dan peduli lingkungan). Their vision indeed reflects the way they would conduct their formation for their students; for the teachers of SMA 1 would always aim to hone their students into globally competitive members of the society through their topics and learning experiences inside the classroom.

SMA 1 Padang also aims, as stated in their mission, to carry out improvements in quality of human resources that follow developments for the society (melaksanakan peningkatan kualitas SDM yang mengikuti perkembangan).Overall, the school would enable their students to contribute not only for their personal improvements but also for the development of their community. Given that the school is a public school, the administration and its programs are government funded; but nevertheless, the programs are very well executed because of the support of the whole community.

The SMA 1 Padang primarily makes use of the Scientific Approach curriculum, aiming to apply the most suitable strategies, methods, and techniques, learning materials, and assessment considering the developmental characteristics and individual differences of the learners. The scientific approach used for the students involve the following steps: Observing, Questioning, Associating, Experimenting, and Networking.

The school offers two curriculum for the senior high school students to choose from: namely Science track and Social Science track. This is beneficial for the students for they can choose freely for themselves on the specialization that they would want to focus on for their future professions. The teachers would also use the students' backgrounds in contextualizing the topics and learning experiences of the students.

In addition, the students also learn from various areas and materials to achieve optimum learning. For the past three weeks that I have taught, I was able to maximize varied instructional materials to assist my classes in learning. There is a readily available LCD Projector and wide screen for the use of technology in the discussion, such as powerpoint presentations, videos, photos, and advertisments. This has been very helpful because the students have learned better and faster because they could vividly visualize the topic through these materials.

Overall, I aim not only to merely teach the target topics to the students. I would want to emphasize to them the essence of learning in their everyday lives, helping them to understand the world around them better. The evaluation and assessment would indeed be part of our the learning process, such as the quizzes and recitations, but definitely I will prepare them in the real test - LIFE.

SDM yang mengikuti perkembangan).