October is a month filled with ups and downs and previous ETAs have considered this month to be the most challenging during their experience. ETA Kush Mansuria also found October to be a rollercoaster, but with many positive moments for himself and his school.

One of Kush’s favorite classroom lessons this month was focused on understanding and making announcements. Students were split into groups and then given “scrambled announcements” that they had to arrange in the correct order and identify the key components of the text. The activity format encouraged students to work together to understand announcements so that eventually they could prepare their own. Kush and his co-teachers went around the room and asked the group questions about the announcements to gauge the students’ progress.

Another highlight of October for Kush was his English Clubs and seeing teachers and students excited to learn English. In his Teachers English Club, Kush focused on going over common conversations such as introductions, describing yourself, and describing others. Teachers played games like “20 Questions” to practice asking questions and describing objects. During Students English Club, students played “Bananagrams” to practice their vocabulary and spelling. Students also enjoyed watching the latest Spiderman movie and holding a movie discussion. Finally, in the spirit of Halloween, Kush and his students shared different scary legends in Indonesia and the United States and competed to draw the best witch in one minute.

In the next month, Kush hopes to continue improving his Indonesian and participating in more community-based activities.

Kush Mansuria is currently teaching at SMK Raden Umar Said Kudus, Central Java.