Energy Transformation Made Fun Using 'Othok-Othok'

WHEN we were young, we might be familiar with 'othok-othok'. It is a toy made from bamboo, has a stick and when pushed, it makes a sound 'thok-othok-othok-othok....' While reminiscing about the old days, Mujiati, S.Pd, a IPA teacher at MTs NU Hasyim Asyari used that traditional toy as a medium to help students learn about forms of energy and energy transformation. Bu Mujiati, as she is known to her pupils, began the lesson by showing a toy car to the students, pushed it forward, and then asked the students 'what happened to the car?'.

She asked that question to explore the student's knowledge about the energy transformation that happened when the toy car was moved. Students expressed their opinions, although some were not as expected. To understand more about the concept of energy transformation, Bu Mujiati asked students to build 'othok-othok' and observe the energy transformation that would happen. After dividing the students into groups and distributing a worksheet, the teacher showed the materials that had been brought in by students, such as: bamboo, tin cans, used cardboard, rubber bands, used slippers, scraps of metal, hammers, scissors, knives and markers.

All the materials were waste and could be easily found in the neighborhood. Using the worksheet as a guide, students built the othok-othok with the available materials. Then they observe the energy transformation that happened when this toy was being moved. During the discussion, teacher went around the class, helping the students to complete their task. Teacher then helped students to draw conclusions, based on their presentations. It was then concluded that one of the energy transformations that happened was from motion energy into sound energy. At the end of the lesson, Bu Mujiati gave a short lecture on energy transformation. The students were pleased with their work. One student said "Wow, you can use toys as fun learning media!"

Reflective Journal = A Ticket to Being a Professional Teacher

AT FIRST I thought the most important thing was teaching preparation, especially when I had to teach several classes, so that I could do the same thing in all the classes. In reality, what happened in each class was not always as expected. And, of course, a teacher would not want the same thing to happen in the other classes. That was how I come to realize the importance of writing a reflective journal at the end of each lesson.

Writing a reflective journal allows teachers to document and discuss the learning process, to express their feelings and thoughts, to evaluate the hits and misses and in the end to improve the quality of future lessons planning. An example came from a Bahasa Indonesia lesson, in which the basic competencies to be taught were "Identifying themes, background and characters in short stories in an anthology". When I first taught it in class, there were a few things that did not go according to plan, such as inadequate time management.

Reflecting on that experience, the teacher can address the problems that might occur in the other classes. Therefore, it can be said that a reflective journal helps improve teaching and learning quality in class. Not only the teacher's reflection, student's reflections on what they have learned and how they felt about it also help teachers in designing future lessons. However, teachers need to pay attention how to encourage students to write honestly, not merely writing to please their teachers. Other teachers are also in the midst of writing a classroom action research plan.

Sometimes we have difficulties to determine the theme. A reflective journal can be used to help in designing classroom action research. This can be done by reading and reviewing the reflective journal, and identifying the problems that we found during the teaching and learning processes. The reflective journal also brought a blessing to me. I came second in Teachers Creativity Contest in Boyolali District, through tale telling using wayang puppets in my Bahasa Indonesia classes. And this is because I reflected on that lesson and wrote it down in my reflective journal.

Dra. Eda Sukawati,
Bahasa Indonesia Teacher's
SMPN 2 Musuk