DBS Indonesia has supported 100 teachers from 6 schools in Jakarta to participate in a developmental program on professional development at the SF Teacher Institute (SF TI). The Adopt A Teacher Program exposed teachers from SMPN 181, SMPN 70, SMPN 261, SMPN 273, SMPN 112 and SMPN 38 Jakarta to a different method of classroom teaching, while having the opportunity to share their experiences with other participating teachers as well as facilitating SF TI instructors. They will be able to share their knowledge as well as enhance their teaching skills.

The 1st batch of this teacher training program, which was divided into five weekly sessions, was successfully completed in the period of 26 January 2008 - 23 February 2008. The teachers gained knowledge in Paradigm Shift, Classroom Management & Student Behavior Management, Curriculum Development, Lesson Planning, Developing New Teaching Techniques, Assessment of Student Work, Developing Teaching Aids, Developing Resources for the Classroom, Project Design and Presentation.

The first session of the program started with a brief introduction of the materials that were going to be delivered over the program’s five-week run and its intended goals. These initials moments were also a good opportunity for teachers to get to know each other. Discussions, brainstorming, games, watching short videos, and case appreciation were delivered as well as a general understanding of classroom management.

In the second session, participants learned about strategies of curriculum development into a project-based lesson plan. They were actively and directly involved in activities involving identification of themes and competency, as well as formulating goals of project-based learning. Project-based learning is intended to encourage participants to design a lesson that is different than the usual, integrating several core subjects and allowing for collaboration with fellow teachers and applicable in their own school.

In the third session, participants received workshops in the subjects of assessment and presenting using presentation application as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources. Using the lesson plans that they have developed as a starting point, teachers designed assessment methods to properly assess the learning outcomes of students and their planned projects. These lesson plans and assessment schemes were then prepared into a computer presentation to be delivered in the final session.

By the fourth week, having developed their plans in the form of computer presentation, teachers were given the skills to search for online resources the use of email. From these activities, they were expected to be able to optimize their presentations of their project and to enrich their learning in the classroom with the bounty of resources available on the internet.

Also in this session, action research was delivered to encourage them to act as researchers in order to improve their learning. This topic promotes the teacher’s ability to think critically about problems around them especially in the process of learning and take further action with a research project.

On the last session, the participants were divided into seven groups based on their schools. Calling upon all that they have learned during the previous four weeks and combining that with the ICT know-how that they have been supplemented with, participants were assigned to prepare and deliver short presentations on whatever projects that had planned to implement for their project-based learning.

They also developed rubrics to assess their presentations and discussed and evaluated each school’s planned projects to see if they could each implement them in their own schools as well. Generally speaking, the group results were very good especially for a first time effort in using computer presentation software. They had the opportunity to practice and expand on the ICT skills they learned in the fourth week. Each group was assigned to evaluate one other group and provide feedback and positive comments. Each group used a rubric to asses the other group’s presentation.