“Digital Literacies for English Language Learning: What, Why, and How” in Demak, Central Java”
What are digital literacies and why do they matter to Indonesian high schoolers and high school students? How has technology changed English teaching in Indonesia? Well, English teachers in Demak had a unique opportunity to learn about this with and from a US English teacher and researcher. On January 17, 2020, a workshop was held.. Read More.
Strong Winds in Sulawesi
ETA Michael Walsh focused on Narrative Text with his 10th-graders. Students learned about storytelling adverbs and worked in groups to analyze a story called “Strong Wind” in English. The group had to then depict their portion of this fantasy story and summarize it to their classmates in Indonesian. The classes had to work collectively to.. Read More.
Californian Pen Pals!
January comprised of a Temanggung Madrasah 5K, a trip with the hilarious Pak Husni to Jakarta for the AMINEF Mid-Year Conference, and lessons about climate change, MLK Day, and a recount text about a bule eating durian for ETA Lucy Faust. The highlight, for ETA Lucy Faust, her counterpart Bu Atik, and 86 students, was.. Read More.
The Year of the Rat
On the weekend of January 24-26, ETA Shannon Pinzon partook in Chinese New Year festivities with her Indonesian family. Malang has a large Chinese-Indonesian population and it was fascinating to see huge parts of the city brightly decorated with beautiful red ornaments and paper lanterns. Shannon even learned a few phrases like gōng xǐ fā.. Read More.
Cultural Exchange, Across Three Cultures!
In Salatiga, ETA Michelle Nguyen’s site placement, there is a large population of ex-pats and foreigners from all over the world. In an effort to not only produce cultural exchange between Indonesia and the United States, Michelle invited a Japanese exchange teacher, Maki, who is teaching at another high school in Salatiga to visit SMK.. Read More.
Morning Motivasi
It’s hard to believe that we’re already one full month into 2020, where is the time going? Perhaps the 12th-graders at SMAN 1 Seluma think the time is moving just a little too quickly, much as ETA Conor Jackman does. With National Exams just two months away many seniors, as we would call them in.. Read More.
Learning How To Make Bika
On January 22, ETA Jillian Castoro had the opportunity to learn about the process of making Bika from scratch. Bika is a type of coconut dessert that is very popular in West Sumatra. Traditionally, there are two types of bika. One is made solely with coconut, while the other includes coconut and banana. When driving.. Read More.
Dancing for Change
During the month of January, MAN 2 Kota Malang not only ushered in the New Year but also welcomed a big change in the classroom. The school had decided that the classrooms were no longer going to be separated by gender. This brought along a series of mixed responses from students, who had grown accustomed.. Read More.
Chinese New Year House Hopping
This month ETA Said Haji placed in South Kalimantan Banjarmasin decided to celebrate Chinese New Year with his students. Said was initially invited to one of his 12th-grade students home, but what was supposed to be a morning event ended up turning into an entire day of house hopping. After completing at his first student’s.. Read More.
Circle Learning
This semester started off with ETA Madison “Maddy” Mele and her co-teachers at SMAN 1 Demak teaching simple past tense to the 10th-grade classes. Maddy led activities to help students practice recognizing, speak and write a text that is in the simple past tense. The first activity was a game called chair swap. The students.. Read More.
