KangGURU Travels to Malang

Ogi traveled to Malang on May to join with ISELP teacher trainer, Jules Lumber, at the opening of her English language Centre at pondok pesantren Al Maarif. Here is Ogi's Report for KGRE on this wonderful AusAID in Indonesia supported activity.

Jules Lumber, an ISELP teacher trainer at Al Maarif school in Singosari near Malang, initiated the set up of an English Language Centre at Al Maarif. In late April she sent an invitation to KGRE to take part in the official opening of the center. Capt. KGRE was busy traveling to Jakarta and Manado and so he asked me if I would like to come. I thought that would be good opportunity to promote KGRE to hundreds of students at Al Maarif.

And so on April 28th at about 7pm I arrived safely in Malang. Soon I called Jules and we had dinner with Mila, a friend of Jules. Mila was a former English teacher at Al Maarif and now she is an English lecturer at Surabaya University. Mila is volunteering her time every Friday afternoon to do English activities with members of English club at Al Maarif. She said she also enjoyed KGRE material and used it with her students.

The opening day was held on Saturday, 29 April 2006. And when I arrived at the school, Jules immediately took me to the center. The English Language Centre is a small room and yet very attractive. The walls are painted in bright colours – red, yellow, blue. There is one book shelves with many books on learning English and games. The center is dedicated to all English teachers and students at the schools. It is open every day. Students can come there and listening to English songs or Kang Guru radio program. Teachers can borrow books or bring their students there to do some games in English.

The day’s activities was centred at the school’s basket ball court. It was set up like a fair where hundreds of students could enjoy and participated in several different activities. Some students watched the small workshop on Aussie Rules football. Some other students joined learning Aussie songs. Many SD students followed the dots painting session. Many students also enjoyed information about KGRE and joined quizzes and won prizes. More and more students asking for more quizzes when they saw their friends got fabulous prizes from KGRE. And so I did many quizzes and gave away lots of prizes. Although it was a hot day, students didn’t lose interest and Jules run some games which made students running around the courtyard. It was very crowded but I managed to talk to some of the English teachers there. They said they were enjoying KGRE program and some used activities from KGRE magazine. I also met some ISELP teachers such as Pauline Dunne who works at MAN Malang. I also chatted with Dean and Louise who came from Pasuruan with some of their students. Jules also invited some Aussie students who were joining ACICIS program and were doing studies at Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. They helped run some activities. The day ended just before noon and I was sure that hundreds of Al Maarif students got home very happy participating in the event. It was also end of my trip in Malang and I rushed back to Surabaya to catch my flight back to Bali that afternoon.

Return to Past Travels of KGRE in Indonesia

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