October was a very busy month for MAN 1 Malang. In addition to celebrating Hari Santri, which involved dressing up and parading around Gondanglegi with music, students also prepared for 3-5 days for a student-favorite event, Bulan Bahasa at the end of October. The event celebrates cultures of Indonesia with a variety of activities, traditional dances, flash mobs and drama performances. The event was almost entirely student-led and the detail with which each performance was constructed was amazing.

During the event, ETA Catherine Krol and her counterpart, Ibu Vivi conducted a Spelling Bee competition, inviting two students from each class at MAN 1 Malang to send their best to duel in the contest. The students worked very hard to memorize very difficult spellings such as ‘accommodate’ and ‘carnivorous’ and the top three-ranked students won prizes.

In the classroom, Catherine and her co-teachers have been experimenting more with creative projects for the students. Writing poems, making stories and drawing have all become frequent activities and have resulted in very wonderful results. The students of English club have also been able to test out their pumpkin carving skills with an after-school activity of making jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween. During this event, Catherine explained the significance of Halloween and offered a scary story to set the mood before carving out some frightful pumpkins.
Catherine Krol is currently teaching at MAN 1 Malang, East Java