With students focused on their 16 midterm exams during the beginning of October, ETA Gordon “Peter” Bensen turned his attention to his four English clubs that he runs each week. In addition to mini games, weekly “Hokey Pokey” type song lessons, etc., Peter’s 11th graders created comic book strip stories, his 10th graders read, translated, watched, and performed the story of “Little Red Riding Hood,” and his 12th graders made joint short stories.

The highlight of all these clubs, however, was an outbound trip he went on with he and his counterpart’s Teacher’s English club. On October 13, the headmistress at MAN 1 Kota Payakumbuh organized for school to be let out early, and members of the club traveled with Peter and his counterpart to Harau valley for a retreat of sorts. The day was a huge success – food was consumed, smiles were shared, and plenty of English was both learned and used.

The most loved activities included “Simon Says,” “Heads-Up,” a 3-legged race, a running dictation game, and throwing around an American football. Although the official rule of the day – “No Bahasa Indonesia allowed!” – wasn’t strictly enforced nor followed, Peter and his counterpart were impressed with how willing and wanting the participants were to speak English. Something about being outside created a judgement free zone that allowed participants to let loose and be comfortable with making mistakes. Peter looks forward to taking lessons learned from this trip and applying them to his other clubs and classes.

Gordon “Peter” Bensen is currently teaching at  MAN 1 Payakumbuh, West Sumatra