This December, ETA Elizabeth “Liz” Wallace enjoyed wrapping up her extracurricular clubs. During this past semester, Liz has spent every Wednesday afternoon with her faithful English Club. For their final meeting, Liz had the students vote on what American foods they would like to cook together. The students chose pancakes with maple syrup, grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas with guacamole, and edible cookie dough (safely made without raw eggs).

The students used English recipes to concoct each dish and loved feasting on the wide variety of foods they had selected. While Liz handled the portable camping stove one of the teachers had donated, the students worked on the meal prep: chopping onions and avocados for the guacamole and whipping up the batter for the pancakes and cookie dough. The students loved the hands on work and were eager to help, even volunteering to stay after and help clean everything up. Pancakes with maple syrup were a sure favorite amongst most students. Hardly anyone would believe Liz when she told the students that maple syrup actually comes from trees!

Liz also leads an English club for children aged four to ten. For their final meeting, Liz had a sing-along with her students where the children sang through all of their favorite English songs including “The Wheels on the Bus,” “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” The students also played English games like “Simon Says” and wrote acrostic poems.

Elizabeth “Liz” Wallace is currently teaching at SMA Nahdlatul Ulama 1 Gresik, East Java