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The enjoyable learning experiences in mathematics can be seen from the displays on the wall outside the mathematics classroom at SMPN 19, Purworejo.
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“At our school, when the students learn Mathematics they have to move class,” says Daryanto, S.Pd, Principal of SMPN 19 Purworejo. He added that the school has been insipired by Eko Juli Sarwono (known as pak Eko), who has been instrumental in introducing active and enjoyable learning in Mathematics. “Soon, moving class will be used for other subjects,” added pak Daryanto.
The Mathematics classroom or laboratory is designed to bring Mathematics closer to the students. The students are surounded by mathematical objects with displays outside the class, on the door, on all the walls of the classroom and on several shelves at the back of the class.
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Pak Eko showing his mathematics classroom. All sorts of media are displayed in the classroom and the seats are arranged to support cooperative learning.
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All the displays are the student’s own work and are used to help the children with learning new comcepts. Every piece of work is complemented with a worksheet and reports on the children’s group diuscussions. The displays are arranged so that the children can access them easily. Is it expensive to make these learning media? Not at all! According to pak Eko himself, he encourages the children to use recycled materials like old CD cases and old boxes to make cones and other similar things.
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The displays are replaced with the new ones every three months. The old ones are kept in a portofolio. To finish his story about the mathematics classroom at SMP 19 Purworejo, pak Eko said that, in order to get the best results from their teaching, teachers have to be a bit ‘crazy’ in terms of being creative and innovative.
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Two students reading the instructions about how to cook instant noodles during the lesson on writing instructions.
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Learning from a Packet of Instant Noodles
Learning resources can be found everywhere outside school and are often very cheap like a pack of instant noodles. ‘A pack of noodles that we see every day became a learning resource on the language of giving instructions,’ explained Pak Arief Budi, a teacher of Bahasa Indonesia at MTsN Karangmojo.
‘Many teachers are afraid that the DBE3 program will be costly to implement. This is not the case. I’ve been able to use a noodle package, which would have been thrown away, as a learning resource.’
Simple things that we find in our environment and are not being used any more can help us to improve our lessons. The use of such a learning media help students to get a better understanding and develop more creativity in the subjects they learn.
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