Kang  GURU Indonesia in the Classroom

Kang GURU Indonesia (KGI) has been assisting English-language teachers in Indonesia in many ways since 2001. With continuing support from the Education Partnership from AusAID, KGI continues to present English-language teacher workshops across Indonesia in 2013.

KGI is currently developing a comprehensive English language teacher package designed for SMP classrooms. Teachers can supplement their existing materials, including curriculum documents, with hundreds of interesting listening activities for students who want to be excited, and need to be motivated, about studying English.

The internet is full of ideas on how to use Facebook in the classroom - SEARCH and have fun finding out this information. For example place number 1 (Schedule events - teachers can easily schedule events for the entire class using Facebook) into Google and see what shows up. It is that easy!

To drill or not to drill?

Why drilling is good to do?

Drilling involves the class repeating words and phrases orally. Even if their pronunciation is not perfect, the students repeat the word or phrases with the group and don't feel exposed.

Drilling provides them with a safe environment to practice language accurately which builds up their confidence and motivates them to practice using the target language.
Students like it because it is often something they are accustomed to in their own language and it allows them to speak without being the center of attention.

Some tips on drilling

This type of exercise does not necessarily have to be strict, you can be animated and make it really enjoyable, enabling the students to remember and practice with enthusiasm.
Begin with the whole class repeating the phrase or word, then two halves, move onto individual rows, then perhaps just the boys or just the girls. After a lot of group practice you can begin to narrow it down to pairs or even individuals.

To provide some variety you could use some drama techniques for example ask them to repeat the sentences loudly or quietly, or with different feelings (bored, angry, happy, etc.). Tell your students it's fitness or a workout for their tongue muscles, and repetition does that.

But be careful: Don't overdo choral drills, endless repetition can get boring and don't let them become the only form of oral production students have.

Getting Students to Speak

This activity practices the present continuous form but could easily be adapted to practice other tenses. All you need is a board and a pen or chalk. Students will need a piece of paper and a pencil. Students like it because it allows them to practise grammar in a safe environment. By repeating the same question and answer a number of times students become more confident and make fewer and fewer errors. They also like it because the drawing adds an element of fun to the activity and allows students who might be good at drawing but less good at English, to excel.

Preparation

On the board, draw a simple background scene such as a park with some flowers, a river and a few trees. As you build up the picture, elicit the vocabulary from the students by asking a few simple questions.

What's this place? What am I drawing now?

Add a simple stick drawing (of yourself) in the scene. You should be 'doing' something (e.g. sitting under the tree eating a banana). Label the picture of yourself with your name. Point to it and say 'This is me. It's 12 o'clock and I am sitting under the tree, eating a banana.' Drill this with the students so they get the stress and rhythm.

Procedure

• tell the students to copy the picture on the board. Give them a limited time of about 4 minutes. They should include the stick drawing of the teacher.

• Tell the students to add a drawing of themselves and label it. They should be in a specific place and doing something. Explain that if necessary they can add other elements to the picture. Explain that students shouldn't show their picture to anybody.

• Write these two questions and answers on the board. If possible elicit the answers -

It's 12 o'clock in the park. Where are you? And what are you doing?|

I'm sitting by the river. I'm eating a banana.

• Explain that students should walk around the classroom speaking to their classmates. They should ask and answer the question on the board. Each time a student answers, they should draw that student in the picture, doing the action. Then they should label the student.

• The activity finishes when each student has drawn and labeled a certain number of their classmates in their picture; all doing different things in different parts of the picture.


Other versions -

Change - 'It's 12 o'clock in the park for 'Last Saturday at 12 o'clock …' and change the tense to the past continuous.

Change - It's 12 o'clock in the park' for 'Next Saturday …' and change the tense to the future continuous.

Have some fun with your students as they prepare to take exams.

Before the exam taking season begins, give them some tips so they revise well. Give them this list and ask them to choose the things they SHOULD do.

Study at the time you find you can do the most.
Don't study for more than thirty to forty minutes at a time.
Watch television for an hour a day to make you forget revising.
Take regular breaks.
Don't study late at night.
SMS or telephone your friends every hour with the latest gossip.
Relax before you sleep at night.
Watch movies till early morning to help you sleep.
Reward yourself with something nice after a day's revision.
Only revise two or three days a week and spend two or three days at the mall.
Eat healthy meals rather than snacks at your desk.
Drink lots of coffee to keep you awake.

The Answers

Here are the correct answers.

Study at the time you find you can do the most.
Don’t study for more than thirty to forty minutes at a time.
Take regular breaks
Don’t study late at night.
Relax before you sleep at night.
Reward yourself with something nice after a day’s revision.
Eat healthy meals rather than snacks at your desk.

Invite the students to add some more ideas of their own.

An active MGMP

Remember the story about Pak Khairul from Pasaruan and their very active MGMP? (SEE KGI September bulletin) Well here are a few ideas for you to increase and sustain the membership of your MGMP.

Hold regular meetings/workshops
Have a committee which is elected every six months/ one year, encourage all members to a role in the committee.
If possible make your schedule well in advance - perhaps make a bookmark with at least all the dates and if you are able to - the titles of the meetings on so teachers can refer to it regularly.
Or have a card made with each date printed on it. As the members attend each event they put a sticker/stamp on their card. At the end of the year members who have collected all the stickers/stamps can be entered into a grand draw for a prize.


More ideas -

Each meeting should have a different focus decided by the members, not just the committee. For example -

• an invited speaker,

• a problem / solution meeting,

• a curriculum /syllabus/text book meeting,

• a meeting to introduce or present some classroom research, new books or videos,

• have workshops or round-table discussions to prepare and/or evaluate teaching materials, work-plans, syllabuses, tests and examinations, curricula, educational policies,

• watch an educational video presentation – (find some on the British Council website or on Youtube).

• have a member responsible for updating members about local, national, and/or international conferences, seminars, etc. and have regular announcements/calendar of upcoming regional events of interest to members.

• organise a weekend get-together to practise using English, through language immersion (with or without the involvement of native speakers, or special guest visitors)

• set up a mentoring and peer coaching partner matching systems.

• set up Information exchanges with other MGMP across Indonesia.

Useful www Links for Teachers

Teachers, are you BORED of doing the same thing with your students? Are you STUCK for ideas? KGI's suggestion is this - you will be surprised to find out what you can search for and find online, so DO IT! There are some great websites for teachers where you can get terrific ideas for teaching grammar, vocabulary, games, etc. It's time for a change, it's time for something fresh surprise your students with some new activities - check these website links below and make sure you go to 'KGI In The Classroom' website page for more!

http://www.schoolexpress.com/

http://teachers.net/lessons/

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/

Into a Paperless/less paper world

Into a paperless/less paper world Kang Guru Indonesia is supporting 'a less paper environment' by being careful about paper use in our office, creating bulletins for the internet and by utilizing electronic publications - website, FaceBook, podcasts, etc.

Towards a paperless/less paper world -

You can read the PDF version of KGI magazines and bulletins and print them out BUT remember, only print what you need.

Follow the golden rule: Think before you print.

Use both sides of a sheet of paper. Use scrap paper if you can.

Avoid printing out single line e-mails or unnecessary copies of documents.

Use technology such as electronic mail, internet and intranets - these not only reduce paper use but also save time and money.

Be sure to check the pdf version on this website for these stories from KGI

COOL STUFF - Online English Games

Making A Toast

Quick Fix

Eye Illusion

Brain Teaser

Games - what do you see?

Do you want a simple and fun way to help your SMP students review vocabulary on a theme? Have a look at the idea on the KGI in the Classroom web page.

Picture Game 1 (pdf)
Picture Game 2 (pdf)

Find out how to make your own KGI Picture Sheet. Your students will love it!

Tongue twisters in your classroom

How fast can you say this sentence? Say it several trimes - FAST!

The sixth sheikh's sixth sheep is sick.

Using tongue twisters in class is a fun and challenging way of providing pronunciation practice. Tongue twisters don't always make sense but your students will enjoy trying to say them.

Here's just one idea on how to use tongue twisters in the classroom.

Disappearing tongue twisters

Choose a tongue twister. Practice it as a class then write up the sentence on the board, for example:

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Now rub out a couple of words and replace them with lines, for example:

She sells ____ shells by the sea _____.

Ask the class to say the complete tongue twister, then remove another word, for example:

She sells _____ _______ by the sea ______ .

Continue until there are no words left! Your learners can now practice repeating the tongue twister as quickly as possible.
You might want to remind your students that part of the fun of tongue twisters is getting them wrong so it doesn't matter if you make lots of mistakes. Just have fun!

Try one of these tongue twisters:

Six slippery snails, slid slowly seaward. 
(Repeated sounds are s and sl)

A tongue twister twists tongues.   
(Repeated sound is t)

Students say together as a class then practice in pairs. They must try and say as many as possible, quicker and quicker, without making a mistake.

Listen and speak

How fast can you say it without making a mistake?
Focus on listening and speaking before looking at the written form. Play or say the tongue twister then tell your students that they are going to repeat the sentence bit by bit after you. Start by asking your students to repeat the last part of the sentence and building up to the full tongue twister like this:

Teacher: pickled pepper   
Students: pickled pepper
Teacher: picked a peck of
Students: picked a peck of
Teacher: Peter Piper
Students: Peter Piper
Teacher Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.
Students: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.

Ask the class to repeat the whole tongue twister slowly and then more quickly. Now have students work in pairs to take turns repeating the tongue twister as fast as possible without mistakes. This isn't easy of course and you could demonstrate this to the class by trying to say it quickly and correctly yourself.

Vocabulary game: What can you see?

Do you want a simple and fun way to help your SMP students review vocabulary on a theme. Have a look at these ideas and find out how to make your own picture vocabulary sheet!                                                         

Vocabulary Game

You will need one large collection of pictures (see examples below) that shows vocabulary on a particular theme which your students have recently learnt (eg: clothes/food/hobbies etc).

Prepare one smaller copy for each group of students.

Hold up the large picture so that the students cannot see it, and start building up interest by saying, 'I wonder what's on this picture? Do you want to see it?'

Then flash the picture for just 1 second maybe even hold it upside down then ask students what they saw. They all see different things. Ask how many t shirts, etc. What colour were the shoes? etc.

Show them the picture again this time, give time to allow students to identify the items on the picture. Then hand out the small pictures one to each group.

Tell them they have two minutes to remember as many things as they can see from the picture, without writing anything down!

Once the time is up, take back the pictures and ask students to write a list of everything they can remember.

Keep the pictures after the activity and you can use them again for a different task.

1) You could add a 'grammar' component to the listing of the vocabulary items. Following a focus on 'There is/ There are', for example, students can write their lists under these two headings. Other grammar features that work well are headings for singular/plural, countable/uncountable or adjectives.
You can also use the picture for other activities.

2) How many sports - use balls/bats/need water/ play in teams/can play by yourself, etc.

3) Write a short paragraph about a sport you like/don't like, play/would like to play etc. or write the rules of a game. 

4) Clothes for males/females, clothes you wear in summer/winter, things you wear on your feet, head, etc.

5) Write a short paragraph on clothes they like/dislike, their favourite T shirt/pair of jeans etc, describe their most formal/informal clothes, what they wear at home/school etc Something they would like to wear/something they would never wear, etc.

Instructions on how to make your own picture sheets
The picture sheets are not difficult to make. Follow the instructions below.

• Go to Google (www.google.com) and choose Google images from the menu on the top left of the page.  
• Then in the search box type in (for example) football/carrot,   etc
• Choose the cartoon suggestion from the drop down menu under the seach box or clip art or line drawing from the menu on the left.
• Find a suitable picture and cut and paste to your Microsoft word document.
• Sometimes you need to resize the pictures – do this by clicking on the picture. At each corner of the picture you will see a small dot.
• Click on the bottom right hand one and drag it towards the middle of the picture. It will reduce in size. Clock and drag away for the picture and it will get bigger.
• You can then move these pictures around on the document to get the final picture you want.