One of the biggest challenges ETA Kush Mansuria had in February was commuting to school and remaining dry. Kush’s city, Kudus, had severe downpours, often causing floods and swelling of the many rivers that run through the town. However, Kush managed to adapt to the frequent hujan deras (downpours) and had a very successful February.

This month Kush and his co-teachers taught about narrative texts. His co-teacher Ibu Ristina wanted to try a station-based activity for the lesson, a strategy that she learned about during the January Mid-Year Enrichment Conference. The activity had four stations focusing on the Legend of Rawa Pening. Activities included fill-in-the-blank sentences, identifying the key parts of the story like the exposition and climax, and drawing a scene from the story. This lesson was a success because it was able to engage students of all English language levels.

Another big event during February was Kush’s local WORDS competition. WORDS is an English storytelling and storybook competition and students at SMK Raden Umar Said participated in the event on 21 February 2020. Students worked with Kush for four weeks, attending writing and storybook workshops to create a diverse selection of stories. ETA Madison Mele, ETA Tessa Sontheimer, and former Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (Fulbright FLTA) Nailil Muna helped judge the competition. Animation student Khansa Ransivania won the school competition and will proceed to the national competition.

Finally, Kush helped teacher trainer Yuta Otake present about how to be a creative teacher at Institut Agama Islam Negeri Kudus. The audience consisted of school teachers, faculty, and students hoping to be English teachers in the future. Kush enjoyed helping Yuta lead the seminar and collaborating with his cohort, co-teachers, and community members.

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