Month 7 is now behind us and so many things have been in motion for ETA Catherine Krol. MAN 1 Malang hosted their local words competition in February and the students showed tremendous capacity for creativity, creating their own stories related to the future of Indonesia such as the importance of waste management, the dangers of distraction by technology, the issue of teenage marriage and the threat of hoaxes and lies on society, among others. These 10 students worked so hard and created such engaging performances in an incredibly difficult feat. Catherine looks forward to traveling to Jakarta for the National Words Competition with winner Rachel Qurrotu ‘Aini Alexandra in April.

In other news, the students of 11th grade are also venturing to create their own proposals based on an environmental initiative around their school. Three classes read up on articles addressing different environmental issues and participated in group discussions to understand the implications mentioned in each article.

Then the students participated in observation, going around the school to identify wasteful or damaging practices and are creating a formal proposal which will be voted on by all students in each participating class to choose one proposal that will be executed during Earth Week in the next two months. The students are very eager to dive into this project and the English department is excited to see what they are able to create.

Catherine Krol is currently teaching at MAN 1 Malang, East Java