ETA Blake Lapin spent the first few weeks watching and learning about the teaching styles of his co-teachers. After determining that his activities and ideas would ease students into participating and trying to speak English relevant to the subject material, he began incorporating them into the classroom.

During a lesson of “Intention,” Blake and his co-teachers started with a game of the “Telephone.” Students formed four parallel lines and were each given different sentences. The student closest to the back of the classroom was whispered a sentence until she remembered it. She then whispered it to the student in front until the last student to hear the sentence wrote it on the board. The team who had the most correct sentence, and finished the fastest, won. The class played four rounds, each with sentences progressively more difficult.

After the “Telephone,” pairs of students (sitting next to each other at their desks) were given half of a complete sentence. The pairs then needed to travel the room searching for the group with the other half of their sentence. After all the correct matches were found, the new groups of four shared their sentences, and those became the groups for the next activity.

The lesson plan created at the beginning of the week was totally different from the smooth and innovative lesson completed by the end of the week. It provided a refreshing reminder that a combination of the co-teachers’ knowledge of English, the students, and the school, and the ETA’s assortment of activities and native speaking ability, beget compelling lesson plans; they don’t come all at once but through many iterations.

Blake Lapin is currently teaching at SMKN 1 Turen near Malang, East Java.