KEGIGIHAN

Pemuda identik dengan kuat, penuh energi dan keberanian, kreatif serta kaya imajinasi. Cinta, harapan, dan perjuangan besar berada di pundak pemuda. Pada masa ini pemuda dihadapkan pada kebebasan untuk memilih jalan sukses atau jalan kegagalan. Di mana setiap pilihan memiliki konsekuensi yang sama-sama berat.
Orang sukses bukan tidak pernah gagal, melainkan mereka tidak pernah menyerah. Sikap tersebut memerlukan mentalitas yang gigih. Kegigihan adalah salah satu unsur kehidupan yang sangat penting bagi kita. Sebagian besar orang-orang yang sukses memiliki mental seperti itu. Contoh, Laksamana Peary baru berhasil mencapai Kutub Utara setelah berupaya 8 kali. Sementara Thomas Alfa Edison melakukan eksperimen 1.000 kali sebelum berhasil menemukan bola lampu dan 1.000 paten terbanyak sepanjang masa. John Creasey ditolak 743 kali oleh penerbitnya, sebelum berhasil menerbitkan 560 judul buku, yang telah terjual lebih dari 60 juta kopi. Begitupun yang terjadi pada Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, dan lain sebagainya. Mereka tidak memiliki kelebihan khusus kecuali kegigihan.
Ketika kita memutuskan untuk tetap melanjutkan upaya hingga tercapai tujuan, itulah kegigihan. Meskipun tidak mudah memilikinya, tetapi kehidupan ini sendiri sebenarnya dapat membentuk kegigihan kita. Sehingga tak menutup kemungkinan kitapun memiliki sikap mental yang gigih dan menjadi salah satu dari orang-orang sukses di dunia.
Langkah yang dapat kita tempuh untuk membangkitkan mentalitas kegigihan kita adalah membaca dan mendengar kisah tentang bagaimana orang-orang sukses di dunia mengatasi berbagai rintangan sampai akhirnya mereka berhasil menjadi pemenang. Bila kita mengorek informasi lebih jauh tentang perjuangan mereka, kita akan mendapati bahwa mereka tak jauh berbeda dengan kita. Jika kita memiliki kualitas kegigihan seperti mereka, berarti kitapun mampu melakukan sesuatu yang luar biasa.
Memiliki target yang jelas dan terukur juga dapat membangkitkan kegigihan. Ketika segalanya berjalan sulit atau tantangan semakin besar, sebaiknya fokuskan pada target yang ingin kita capai. Orang yang sukses pasti memiliki kreatifitas untuk menciptakan alternatif-alternatif mengatasi kesulitan di tengah proses pencapaian tujuan. Target yang jelas merupakan sumber kreativitas, keberanian, dan energi untuk tetap gigih berupaya.
Kita harus mengetahui tujuan dan daya juang demi kehidupan yang lebih baik sekarang dan di masa mendatang.

Anna Indarwati (Head of School Stella Maris School)

BEING AN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

What do you have in mind when you hear the word International School? You may imagine that the building is huge and luxurious. Students come from many nationalities. Everyone speaks English. Regulation is free. No uniform. Curriculum is done in many ways but no homework.

If we study the criteria of an international school such as from The Council of International Schools, we will easily see that there are 7 areas to be observed closely:

1. Philosophy and Objectives: written, known and understood procedures and promoting international and intercultural experiences.

2. Governance and Management: Directions, relations with governing body, strategic plan, legal, ethical principle with the school community, policy manual, using the school’s financial standard.

3. Curriculum : It reflects the school’s philosophy, objectives and policies, documented comprehensively, articulated vertically and horizontally, serve students’ varied needs using range of approaches in teaching strategies, use appropriate support and resources, regular checking of the effectiveness of teaching and learning, use student’s end result to revise the curriculum and methodology.

4. Teacher and Staff : Have sufficient qualifications and competences to carry out the school’s programs, professional in carrying out all duties, have effective systems for performance appraisals, do professional development and training and all the school’s policies and practices are available and properly documented.

5. Resources : Building must meet safety and comfort standards, appropriate school grounds, the installation and furnishing support the school’s operation, ICT support the operations, library and media centre is accessible, sufficient, and serve student’s and teacher’s needs.

6. Student Support Service : Serve learning needs of students, do remedial needs, special needs, serve special talents, give guidance and services, provide English language support, provide adequate health care and work cooperatively with parents

7. Student and Community Life : Practice mutual respect and fairness values, make sure students and parents are well-informed, effective processes on getting inputs before making important decisions, promote intercultural and international awareness, extra curricular serves broad needs and interests students and the school community.

The above general criteria, give us insight of where the direction of our school is going. It is the expected bench mark on how international our school is.

We still have a long way to go. Although our school is already accredited as an international school by the Indonesian government, surely and humbly we need to work hand in hand to really make our school become truly international. COME, TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE IT!

By. Arta P Sinamo (Head of School, Stella Maris International School)

The International Baccalaureate Corner

This IS happening in the IB Division.

The IB Division, students and teachers, have been actively engaged in a number of academic pursuits since the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

FIRST major and crucial development:
a. administration of the TOEFL Test to teachers and students
b. grouping of teachers and students according to ability
c. after school support classes for teachers and students – all year round and year after year
Purpose:
a. to allow our teachers to achieve maximum score in the test and perfect control of the language
b. to facilitate the learning process of our students by allowing them to master the language and dominate the subjects they have chosen to study

Nota Bene: starting in September support classes will also be given to students experiencing difficulties in a particular area of learning e.g. Maths or Science, after school, by their own teacher, throughout the school year.

The International Environment Committee has started operating this month. It is composed of all P-12 English teachers and all Expatriate teachers. Its aims and objectives can be summarized very simply: making the school a true international school, with English as the lingua franca and students able to see beyond their immediate environment and preparing for the world we live in. Parents will soon receive an invitation to join the Committee which will also include student representatives.

Additional classroom management training will be dispensed to all teachers on a long term basis to ensure that the teachers we have are not just good teachers but great educators who can inspire our students.

More developments in the fields of:
a. meditation before classes start, both for teachers and students to help with calming the mind as well as focusing on the essential at the beginning of the day.
b. Discovering mind mapping techniques to help with efficient ways of learning
c. Speed reading to help manage study time more effectively
d. Individualized counseling for students in need of additional help with their studies inn terms of motivation and study habits.

What all the above means in that we are developing a programme and an approach which will bring tangible and visible results, both with our students and teachers and that, by doing so we are getting everyday closer to our Vision to be the Best School.

By. Joel Marcel Carre (English Teacher of IB Diploma)