Kemaren teman-teman pada berdebat masalah "bakat". Intinya sich mereka memperdebatkan pentingnya bakat dalam memilih profesi. Kata yang satu "Kalau waang ebat nyanyi, yo jadi panyanyi jo la. Jangan jadi pemain bola ang!". Nah kata yang satu lagi "halaah yang penting cari karojo tu yang enak, banyak piti, ndak punya bakat ndak masala do. yang penting awak nyaman". nah lho...!!
Dalam keseharian, saya sering mendengar kisah orang-orang yang sukses dikarenakan bakatnya dan akhirnya kadang-kadang saya memang berpikir bahwa “Wah memang si Ari Lasso, Agnes Monica, dll bakatnya di Nyanyi, si Lukman Sardi,Dedi Mizwar,dll bakatnya jadi aktor film" dan lain sebagainya sehingga pada akhitnya saya memang mikir bakatlah yang membuat mereka sukses. So mereka memang ditakdirkan untuk sukses karena sudah diberi "bakat" olehNya.
Bakat adalah anugrah dari yang maha kuasa yang diberikan kepada tiap-tiap individu di dunia ini. Setiap orang adalah individu yang unik, dan masing-masing individu tersebut memiliki bakat atau kelebihan yang berbeda satu sama lainnya. Dengan bakat seseorang akan lebih mudah memahami dan menguasai suatu bidang sehingga dia dapat sukses di dalam bidang tersebut. Ibaratnya seekor ikan dapat berenang dengan mudah didalam air, atau burung yang dapat terbang tanpa kesulitan di udara.
Namun saya pikir Bakat bukanlah segalanya untuk mencapai suatu kesuksesan. Usaha yang gigih dan tidak pantang menyerah juga merupakan salah satu kunci sukses. Seperti kata sebuah semboyan ”Asal ada Kemauan Di Sertai Usaha Insyaallah Kamu Bisa”. Intinya, hanya dengan usaha dan izin dari Allah SWT kita bisa mencapai suatu keberhasilan.
Bagi mereka yang memiliki bakat sekalipun, jika mereka tidak megembangkan bakat yang mereka miliki maka bakat itu akan menjadi sia-sia. Seperti yang dikatakan oleh Andrea Hirata “Bakat tersebut tidak datang dengan sendirinya, dia haruslah dicari oleh pemiliknya”. Seorang Agnes Monica maupun ari Lasso tidak akan mampu bernyanyi dengan baik jika mereka tidak berlatih vokal. Intinya bakat adalah anugrah dari Allah SWT yang akan kita miliki HANYA jika kita melatihnya
Ini adalah tulisan saya sewaktu masih mengikuti kelas ibu Eliwarti di Subject Writing IV. waktu itu bu Eliwarti menugaskan untuk membuat essay dengan topik bebas. Topik "becoming a good teacher" saya ambil karena sebagai mahasiswa FKIP saya kemungkinan akan menjadi guru, dan tentu saja saya ingin menjadi guru yang baik, simple reason ya!!!
BECOMING A GOOD TEACHER
Teacher is the people who transfer his/her knowledge to other people; we call them students. But nowadays the definition of teacher is broader. Teacher does teaching, and it is not like other profession. A teacher is not only teach the student to read, write, or do math, but also be a communicator, a disciplinarian, a conveyor of information, an evaluator, a classroom manager, a counselor, a decision-marker and a role-model of your student. According to unknown writer in the article “Teachers—Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary,” teachers has a vital part in students’ intellectual and social development. The education which they give will lead the students to a bright future. The teacher also acts like facilitators that make their student become a responsible adult (1). Actually becoming a teacher is not an easy job.
From paragraph 1 we know that teaching is not an easy job, but why do people want to be a teacher? There are some reasons why people like to be a teacher. First, being a teacher is their idea. Some people, from the time they are in the first grade, know they want to be a teacher. They maybe admire their teacher and expect to be a teacher. Second is good salary. In our country the teachers’ salary is higher; about two million Rupiah every month. Third, teacher is job security. Teachers is a seldom jobs in some district especially in developed district. It is easy to find an occupation as a teacher (2). Fourth, some teachers like living around the kids. Living around the student will remain them in their childhood, and it makes them happy. Fifth is becoming a teacher helps them learn a subject. They will master a subject if they teach it to other people. Moreover, students’ questions make them master the subject deeper (3). So some factors such as; their idea, good salary, job security, happiness living near the kids, and desire learn more about a subject make some people like become a teacher although it is not an easy job.
So what is the characteristic of a good teacher? In my opinion a good teacher is one who is able to interact with his/her students all the time, helping them to acquire the knowledge and the skills, by means of materials such as books or using technology as a key support for increasing their motivation and interest in the subject. A good teacher also encourages learners to speak in class without feeling afraid of his/her correction. A good teacher must love the students as the first issue and then teach. There are some qualifications which a good teacher must have. The first, a good teacher is good at explaining things. If teacher explains something to students, they will understand easily. The second, a good teacher is humorous. Teacher uses humor as a skill to make their class attractive. The third, a good teacher like people especially children. Teacher should ready teaching in every level of school (include; elementary education, junior education, senior education, and special education). Do not study in educational faculty if teacher do not like teach children. The fourth, a good teacher is a good decision maker. A good teacher can take a right choice although in an emergency situation. The sixth, a good teacher is disciplinarian. Teacher must use the time effectively, because time is very valuable (4). All of those qualities define some of the characteristics of good teachers. If you want to be a good teacher, you will consider those qualifications as a skill that you must has.
The most successful teachers share some common characteristics. Melissa Kelly have done the research, in “Top 6 keys to being a Successful Teacher” she inform us six tips become a good teacher. The first is Sense of humor. It can make the classroom condition become fresh and make students enjoy. It also can help you take students attention. Moreover, it make teacher enjoy going through his/her career. The second is a positive attitude. It is an important asset in life. We can clear up the problem with the right way only if we have appositive attitude. The third is high expectations. Teacher should expect the students will get the best and believe the student can do that. High expectation will lead the learning process become effective. The fourth is consistency. Teacher must consistent about the rule that teacher made. If the teacher is consistent, it will lead the student to success in teacher’s subject. Oppositely, if the teacher is inconsistent, the student will dislike the teacher’s subject. The fifth is fairness. Fairness means teacher do not treat students differently in the same condition. The last is flexibility. Sometimes some problems come and disturb the class. So, a teacher’s flexible attitude is necessary not only for teacher’s stress level but also for students who expect teacher can cope with any problem(5).
In short, teaching is not like another profession. It is not an easy job and it needs many skills and qualifications. But, recently many people want to be a teacher because of a variety reasons. Some people think that it is a good occupation, and the others admire to this job. Even, they say that “a teacher is a hero without appreciation”
Smoking is a practice of burning a substance, most commonly tobacco in order to get smoke taste or inhaled. Many people state that smoking is one of the worst things people can do to their bodies. Unknown writer in his entitled article “What are the real advantages of smoking” (from http: / / answers. yahoo. com / question / index? Qid = 200607 301 61102AA6Titf) states that smoking can cause cancer, emphysema, and heart disease; it can make your life shorten by 10 years or more. Smoking also can cost a smoker a million Rupiah or more in a year, it is too expensive! The most dangerous cause of smoking is addiction. In smoking, you burn a cigarette that is made by tobacco. Tobacco contains nicotine which is highly addictive. It is similar with heroin or other addictive drug, the body and mind quickly become so used to it so that a smoker needs to have it only to feel normal. But the writer thinks smoking not only gives bad effects but also some good effects especially in term of social life. So in this essay the writer is going to argue some advantages of smoking specifically in smokers’ social life and healthy.
Some smokers say that smoking can make them feel really calm, enjoy, happy and pleasure. Smokers will feel enjoy when they are smoking. It is because cigarette contains nicotine which make the smokers feel enjoys and pleasure. As the writer said before, nicotine has the same effect with other addictive drugs that can make the smokers forgetting their problem. I have a friend who is a smoker (but he is not an addicted smoker). He says that he feel really relaxed when he smoke. Actually he know that everyone says it is so bad for him, but he only does it when he is extremely stress, frustrated, or boring. When he was in senior high school, he would suck two packs a day when he felt under pressure or had many problems. After smoking he became calm and he could use his logical to solve the problems. Smoking also can kill the time when you feel boring. It is a well known fact. I sometimes smoke in order to kill the time when I am boring. When I wait for someone in certain places such as park, bus terminal, or campus, I smoke to fill spare time. People who are smoker also smoke for breaking a half any occupation time. As I see in many government offices, many staff especially men smoke in the work time. They smoke because they do not have much work. So they choose to smoke in order to avoid boring and feeling frustrated. In short, those facts reveal that smoking can make the smokers fell really relaxed; even it can reduce or avoid stress and frustrated.
Also smoking is important for social life. The first argument comes from the teenagers. Teenagers state that smoking helps them to have friends. In this case I do not suggest that they must be a smoker if the want many friends. But I am talking about the fact. In certain case they will be easy mix with their friends if they are smoker. I have experience about this situation; when I was in senior high school some of my friends are smokers. They often smoked together and formed social subgroups. During smoke-time, they often had most interesting discussion that non-smokers did not seem to have. I was very interest with their discussion. So I had to be smoker if I joined with them. Most teenagers also say that smoking is a cool action. They are proud of smoking action. I think this opinion comes from teenagers’ habit which likes the idea of doing something dangerous. Others might think a lot of people are smoke and they want to act or look like an adult. They think they look grown up when they are smoking. Whatever the reasons, the fact is teenagers’ self confidence increase when they are smoking. Another argument of the importance of smoking in social life is a smoker helps the humanity. This is an economical factor. The people, who are smoker, economically protect other people loosing their jobs. Can you imagine there are many people depends on a smoker; tobacco farmers and millions of people employed at Cigarette Factories (such as Sampoerna Tbk, Gudang Garam, Djarum etc) - and it does not including doctors, medical sisters, the firemen, serving dry-cleaners, pharmacists, cigarette shops etc - . In addition the government makes billion of Rupiah every year in taxes from cigarette industry. So if all smokers stop smoking, a majority of society will suffer because they lose their jobs and the government will lose its potential income. In short, having many friends, increasing self confidence, and protecting majority society’s jobs are some smokers’ role in social life.
Many people claim that smoking only gives bad effects for healthy, but I find some surprising facts about the good effects of smoking in terms of smokers’ healthy. I notice that smoking is a great activity to retreat into your attention and focus inward, or in other word it can increase mental focus and acuity. I want to tell you my experience; my uncle is an addicted smoker. He often smokes when he types his work in computer. Firstly I wonder why he likes smoke during his work. He states that smoking can help him focus on his work. I think it happens because of nicotine effects. Nicotine helps him calm and he will get energy for much focused task. If you look around you, you also will find another smokers smoke during their work. Another fact is smoking can reduce stress or frustration. It can be a powerful anti-depressant. It can calm you down or give you energy as you desire (by adjusting the dose). Even a doctor use smoking for a stressed patient. He/she is suggested to smoke in order to get nice effects of a drug. He/she will be calm and enjoy without impairing his/her performance like the way other addictive drug; alcohol, marijuana or ecstasy do. So, smoking can be an alternative remedy for stressed people. So if you are a smoker, you can debate any people who state that smoking only gives bad effect for your body.
Basically many people believe that smoking is a dangerous habit. They think that smoker or addicted smoker is a dull person. They think that smoker only does a useless thing; spend the money for harming smoker’s healthy. But those people must look from other perspectives or point of view. God creates something in this world with both good sides and bad sides. So smoking not only has bad sides but also good sides. Smoking gives good effects in term of social life and healthy. I do believe that smoking still has another good effect in term of another aspect.
