Entering Students’ Work in a Class Portfolio Competition

STUDENTS’ work that is collected from each lesson is well used at SMPN I Makassar. All students’ work is put together to make students’ learning portfolios and to be used as a learning resource. These class portfolios look really good. Everything is neat and tidy and includes administrative documents and displays of students’ works. Kasafuddin, the School Principal, made the class portfolio a model of classroom management. Sounds interesting? Of course! What’s more, this class portfolio is jointly managed by the students and teachers. The result is a well organized classroom.

The Class Portfolio Competition was held for 10 days (from 14-26 December 2009). 1,080 class VII to IX students participated in the competition. The aims of the competition were
1) raising students’ awareness about classroom work that can support active learning,
2) improving the performance of teachers,
3) increasing students’ and teachers’ responsibility for maintaining classroom equipment and resources, especially in keeping displays of students’ work up-to-date.

During the 10 day competition, a team of evaluators assessed each classroom. This team consisted of: the Principal, Vice Principal, 2 teachers, and one student (head of the student organization - OSIS). Four aspects of the classrooms were assessed: the aesthetic aspect (0-15), cleanliness (0-15), students’ work (0-40), and classroom administration (0-30).

The latter includes items such as classroom arrangement, attendance book, timetable, class organizational structure, schedule of classroom cleaning, and fixed classroom features like the “Pancasila” poster and photographs of The President and Vice President. Ten classes were rewarded with attractive prizes, including a prize of Rp. 300.000 for Class VIII-5 which secured first place in the competition.