Welcome to the October edition of Monthly Highlights for the 2018-19 cohort of Fulbright ETAs in Indonesia! In the stories submitted this month, you’ll read about ETAs engaging with their schools and host communities in various ways. Throughout the month, ETAs stayed busy by helping prepare students for competitions, connecting on a more personal level with students and teachers alike, and making the effort to give back with a #Pray4Palu initiative. Alongside these stories, the bulk of this month’s highlights are about Halloween celebrations. Celebrating holidays is a great way for ETAs to share aspects of their culture. Inside and outside of the classroom, ETAs held parties, carved pumpkins (and watermelon) to make jack-o-lanterns, and encouraged students to design their own spooky costumes. Click through the stories to read more!
Be sure to get next month’s newsletter!
AMINEF American Program and Communications Teams
We’d love to get your feedback.
Please share with us your favorite stories: which stories struck you as interesting, which teaching method is most fun or you’d like to apply, or which activity you’d like to hear more. Email us at: socmedia@aminef.or.id and we’ll post your feedback in the next newsletter and you may win a special thank-you gift from us.
Halloween Celebrations
Like all good festivities, ETA Amanda Cahn’s Halloween was a multi-day celebration. On October 28th, Amanda taught her counterpart Ibu Desy Angriani and Ibu Desy’s family how to carve pumpkins. It was a dark, rainy night as the family gathered around the dining room table and successfully carved three jack-o’-lanterns. Freshly armed with the skills.. Read More.
Watermelons Make Great Pumpkins (and Happy Halloween!)
On October 30th, ETA Anna Misenti hosted a watermelon carving session for her 10th grade English club to celebrate Halloween. The fun started when Anna went to the local market with a teacher from her school to try and find pumpkins, but instead ended up improvising by bargaining for many large watermelons. With these melons.. Read More.
Trick or Treat!
The morning of October 31st in the Teachers Room, Bapak Suntono (SMAN 1 Demak’s headmaster) announced a holiday he called “Pumpkin Day.” Though no pumpkins made an appearance, the students and teachers at SMAN 1 Demak still enjoyed a Halloween full of candy and surprises. ETA Sarah Wozniak introduced teachers and students to Halloween and.. Read More.
Oh My Gourd!
As the leaves on the trees at home changed colors and her friends reunited at their alma mater to celebrate homecoming, ETA Sophia Lopresti felt like the month of October was unfamiliar this year. She wanted to share some of her favorite things about fall with her English club at school. After receiving many old.. Read More.
Ideas are Meant to be Heard!
On the last Thursday of October, the students and faculty of MAN2 were invited to attend a unique full-day conference full of presentations, game-show games, and school-spirit exercises. Inspired by the conversations ETA Alexander Lopez-Perez had with students during his office hours, the MAN2 Speaker Series (or MAN2Talks, for short) is a program held once.. Read More.
The Power of the Outdoors
With students focused on their 16 midterm exams during the beginning of October, ETA Gordon “Peter” Bensen turned his attention to his four English clubs that he runs each week. In addition to mini games, weekly “Hokey Pokey” type song lessons, etc., Peter’s 11th graders created comic book strip stories, his 10th graders read, translated,.. Read More.
Letters and Stories
ETA Anisha Tyagi’s highlight this month was finally getting a reason to communicate with her students one-on-one. Prone to pulang (go home) right after school ending, her students didn’t feel very accessible to Anisha. That was until she started her community engagement projects! Her first is a letter exchange with SMKN 3 Pangkalpinang, another ETA.. Read More.
First Month of Community English Club
Throughout the month of October, ETA Brian Miner met with community members of Sangatta Utara for weekly English club sessions. These two hour long meetings were held outdoors in Sangatta Utara’s beautiful parks and at SMKN 1 Sangatta Utara. Open to all with an interest in reading, discussing, and debating in English about a variety.. Read More.
TED Talks and Tears
This October, ETA Neelam Vohra began a Study club with the university students who co-taught at SMKN 3 these past few months. Despite having gotten to know them a bit in school, the space Study club allowed, definitely brought a new level of closeness. During the first meeting, they all watched a TED Talks given.. Read More.
Take a Hike? Gladly!
One of the most meaningful parts of ETA Elizabeth “Liz” Wallace’s three months in Indonesia so far has been connecting with her students outside of class. She is always excited to be invited to a student’s home for dinner or to accompany them to various events around Gresik. When Floretta, one of the students in.. Read More.
