Travels to Malang and Lamongan
Feb 2005 - written
by Kevin
I traveled to Malang and Lamongan
to meet with teachers and students and to present a FREE
KGRE Teacher Workshop in Simo
Sungelebak. In Malang I met with staff and students at KGCC
# 025 - Al Ya’lu English club and took part in a mini-seminar
for parents and teachers on ways to make English language classrooms interesting
for SD aged children. I also and helped with some Speech and
Drama activities presented by the club as a part of their English
language program. I also met with Australian teachers working
on the Islamic Schools English Language Project
from AusAID in East Java. Rachel joined me for the Lamongan part
of the trip where we met with Aussie teachers as
well as Indonesian teachers in Simo
Sungelebak.
February 8 - 12, 2005
KGRE has visited Malang several times in recent years.
It is an easy city to get to - a quick, 35 minute flight from Denpasar
to Surabaya and then 2 hours in a taxi (if the traffic is good). I arrived
in Malang just after dark on February 8th for a three day visit
at the invitation of the KGCC
# 025 - Al Ya’lu. Members of the club arrived at the Graha Cakra
Hotel within minutes of me booking in. We discussed the plans for the
following day and made sure arrangements were complete. A representative
of RRI called Dodo also arrived for a news story but we decided to leave
that until the next day. As it turns out Dodo is also very keen to work
together with KGRE on an interactive program for RRI Malang. That would
be terrific indeed.
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On Wednesday morning
Wahyudi Eko Riyanto picked me up from the hotel and took me to the
location of the mini-teacher seminar conducted by Al Ya’lu. Eko
was telling me I the car about his Aussie experiences which included
living in Sydney for four years, traveling extensively around Australia
and his years as a seamen working on ships traveling between Indonesia
and Australia. His English is excellent and he certainly has had
a wealth of experience as far as Australia goes. He often visits
the English club to talk about Australia and to lend them assistance
with language and culture Aussie style. |
The seminar was based on the topic of teaching English to SD aged children,
or young learners as they are often referred to. Seventy teachers attended
the seminar. I was one of the speakers along with Ibu Isnada from the
Al Ya’lu kindergarten in Malang. Ibu Isnada spoke about ‘Teaching English
to Young Learners’. I spoke on the ways to make the young learners classroom
interesting and productive. Young children from the school performed some
songs and dance activities. They were terrific. After the presentations
were delivered participants were asked to get into groups of ten.
Together they had to prepare a 5 minute teaching demonstration for all
the other participants to watch. There was just one presenter/teacher
but the other members of the group had to students for their ‘teacher’.
Ibu Isnada and I were the judges for this activity. It was great fun and
I think the teachers really enjoyed the experience. I certainly enjoyed
it as did Ibu Isnada.
Pak Witanto from Universitas Islam Negeri Malang met me later in
the day for our trip to the English Department at Universitas Islam Negeri.
It was terrific to see about 20 lecturers and even 10 or so students at
the meeting. It was a public holiday but they still were keen to find
out more about KGRE. I told them as much as I could in the short time
we had together. There were lots of questions too from both lecturers
and the students. It is hoped that we can return to Malang later this
year to present Teacher Workshops at this university for instance, and
in other locations as well. At the meeting I also met with two fellow
Aussie who in fact have been working at the university for the past 5
years. Their names are Edna and James Menzies.
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Drama performances followed and these were all excellent. The 8
minute drama was about an SMP student addicted to drugs. It was
very forceful and quite disturbing to watch. The young actors were
excellent and particularly a couple of the actors playing the role
of the drug addicted teenager. I think we may see them on television
soon. They were terrific.
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On Thursday morning it was once again back to Al Ya’lu close by
the bustling Ajosari Bus Terminal. It was time for the Drama and
Story Telling Competition organized by the club. Entrants were from
several SD and SMP schools and their performances were of a very
good standard. Story telling was first with around 15 SD students
telling their stories in front of an audience of eager and proud
parents. It was delightful to hear their wonderful pronunciation
for example although a few of the students (nervous perhaps) spoke
far too quickly. They spoke for approximately 3 minutes each. Judges
included myself along with Eko and a Ibu Rumliting – IKIP Malang.
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I also met several students from
places as far away as Medan, Aceh and Makassar. I had a very brief
tour of their ‘dormitory type’ accommodation at the university organized
by the Islamic Education Board. It is a new concept in Islamic education
and is quite a break through really.
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I left the university at around 17.30 and traveled back to Surabaya by
taxi. It was a long and slow trip which took over two and a half hours
in the rain. The tol road was ‘macet’
with holiday makers returning to Surabaya after their two days off. It
was nice to get to the Novotel Hotel and have a nice hot shower after
over 13 hours at work in a very hot Malang. I thought Malang was supposed
to be a cool city.
Rachel arrived from Denpasar late morning. I met her at the IALF Surabaya
office before we traveled to Lamongan. The taxi took about 90 minutes
to reach Lamongan and the Mahkota Hotel. Pak Khotir from UNISDA (Universitas
Islam Darul Ulum) picked us up and took us to a very busy student meeting
at the campus o the university. I estimated the number of students there
at around 100.
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After introductory speeches it was
basically question and answer time for the students. Rachel answered
a few questions as well at this, her first KGRE student activity.
The students were very keen to find out more about learning and
teaching English in ‘a fun way’ – how can English lessons be fun,
interesting and enjoyable? We gave a few examples and generally
tried to motivate and encourage the students, and lecturers, to
think about this. After all, it is our job as teachers to motivate
and encourage students to want to learn and to be successful. |
In the evening Pak Khoitir took Rachel and I out to a local night spot
for a special rice meal, traditional to Lamongan. It was an interesting
location for sure – in a car park sitting on the ground. It was a busy
place.
The Teacher Workshop on Saturday
began at 8.00am with about 150 teachers in attendance. There were also
many, many students outside the venue. We began at 9am and finished at
2pm. It was a hectic session of questions, answers, demonstrations and
activities/ The teachers were terrific and pretty interested in learning
some new ideas about teaching English.
Rachel was a very popular visitor and had her first face
to face meeting with Indonesian students at this MA.
Matholi'ul Anwar, Simo
Sungelebak, Karanggeneng Lamongan. Rachel loved
chatting to them and finding out about their lives
and their school.
| John Rollings
and Prue Price (see right) were there too. They are both Australian
teachers involved in the Islamic
Schools English Language Project from AusAID and
AVI. Prue is based in Bunga, a small town about 30 minutes from
Gresik whereas John and his wife are working in Madura. |
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In the late afternoon Julienne and Alistair Welsh and
Pauline Dunne came to visit me at my hotel. Julienne and Pauline are members
of the Islamic
Schools English Language Project from AusAID in East Java. Julienne
is based near Probbolingo and Pauline is based in Malang. We talked about
the planned formation of a language club in Julienne’s school near Probolinggo
and perhaps even at Pauline’s new work location in central Malang. It
was great to meet a group of new arrivals in Indonesia who are so enthusiastic
about their jobs in schools and their next two years in this country.
They had some wonderful stories about how friendly and helpful people
in their areas have been to them since they have arrived. I filled them
in a little more on KGRE and how KGRE is very happy to help them in which
ever ways are possible. In the evening I had dinner with members of the
Organizing Committee from Al Ya’al and with Drs. Bambang Triono, Head
of Administration for PPPGT/VEDC – Pusat Pengembangan Penataran Guru Teknologi/Vocational
Education Development Center.
We both left the venue in Simo Sungelebak
at 2.30pm for the trip back to Surabaya airport and then
straight onto a plane to Bali.
Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia
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