Esteemed Experiences from UM’s “Asistensi Mengajar” Program at SMPN 11 Malang

Universitas Negeri Malang (UM)’s Asistensi Mengajar (AM) Program at SMPN 11 Malang is the actual implementation of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) policy. This program aims to develop students’ competencies and support the enhancement of educational quality in the associated school. For approximately 17 weeks in total, I have had the opportunity to participate in this program and gained a wealth of valuable experiences that enrich my knowledge, skills, and insights as a future teacher.

During the program, I actively engaged in the school’s teaching and learning activities, especially for the 8G class, and accompanied some other classes to assist other teachers. Doing individual classroom management, compiling instructional materials, and developing weekly lesson plans both digital and printed, have become a set of big challenges as well as chances to make innovations and improve myself for the better. I have learned to apply and adjust various effective and adaptive learning methods that align with the student’s characteristics to create a more interactive and fun classroom environment. Furthermore, I have successfully made several learning materials and media and shared them to assist other teachers’ learning sections. I also have a role in the assessment and evaluation process of the learning activities. These things helped me practice my abilities to assess students’ learning improvements objectively and give constructive feedback. Through direct interactions with the students, I gained a better understanding of how important the humanist pedagogical approach is, as well as the implementation of character and moral values in the educational process.

Not only focusing on the academic aspects, I was also involved in many non-academic and administrative activities in SMPN 11 Malang. Involvement in the daily and weekly duties, P5 activities, special day commemoration events, and monitoring activities gave me new experiences in organizing and cooperating with various school parties. Administrative tasks such as attempting to compile Program Tahunan (ProTa) and Program Semester (ProSem), school’s library archives digitization and data collection, secretariat activities in filling fellow AM participants’ attendances lists, as well as compiling daily journal and logbook in SIAKAD, opened my mind about the demands of administrative activities that must be carried out by teachers. These activities broaden my insights about the school life dynamics, as well as polished social and leadership skills.

The Asistensi Mengajar Program gave lots of benefits to each of me as a participating student, the associated school, as well as UM itself. Personally, this program has become the medium for valuable teaching practice, widening my insights about the educational fields, as well as practicing my pedagogical, professional, social, and personal competence. I also felt self-satisfaction to be able to contribute to educational quality equalization, especially in SMPN 11 Malang which is famous for being a model school with countless accomplishments. From the school’s side, the presence of participating students has become the collaborative partners in developing academic and non-academic activities, as well as bringing sustainable learning innovations that can be adopted sustainably. Whilst for the campus or UM, this program has become a development medium of “Tri Dharma Perguruan Tinggi” and building association with other educational institutions.

All in all, the experience of participating in the Asistensi Mengajar Program at SMPN 11 Malang was very positive and memorable. Not only did I gain new knowledge and competencies, but I also learned about the importance of collaboration, innovation, and dedication in the educational sector. This experience became my valuable provision to become a professional, perceptive, and good educator, as well as being ready to face future educational challenges.