ETA Sophia Lopresti incorporated songs into other lessons throughout the semester, like “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars to discuss conditionals and “Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett to introduce her English club to Halloween. Popular culture like music and television helped her to learn more vocabulary and natural speaking flow when she was studying Spanish, so she encourages her students to use those resources.

The final unit in all of ETA Sophia’s classes this semester, as recommended by the government curriculum, was music and songs! Students practiced listening skills by filling in the blanks in some song lyrics, tried their dancing abilities with the Cha Cha Slide, and analyzed song lyrics too. The best part of the class was all of the students singing “You Are the Reason” by Calum Scott together, like karaoke with the whole class. As ETA Sophia watched groups take turns performing, she could only think about how lucky she was to find such enthusiastic students. It has been a beautiful year together at SMAN 11 Padang.

Sophia Lopresti is currently teaching at SMAN 11 Padang, West Sumatra