|
MADIUN: Getting Students Used to Reading
SMPN 6 Madiun has silent reading sessions four mornings a week, where students and teachers all read for ten minutes. The students can read what they like. This includes library books, newspapers, magazines and books brought from home.
After they have finished reading, they make a reading journal by writing down their reflections on what they have read. On the below you can see Ibu Ida, an MBE facilitator for Bahasa Indonesia and teacher at SMP 6, who started this prog-ram off. She is sitting reading together with the pupils.
MADIUN: Cross-Curricular Lessons
Lessons at MI Islamiyah 03, Madiun are interesting and the students' work is of good quality. During Bahasa Indonesia lessons the children made a map of the journey to school and described the journey. They also used symbols on the map to show buildings and places - just as on a printed map.
This is an example of a cross curricular lesson. As well as learning Bahasa Indonesia, the children also learned Social Studies and Mathematics skills, while they were making the map.
|
Safinaz Ulfa, a grade 6 students together with her teacher, Ibu Emmy Rothana, showing the map of her journey to school, which is on the display board.
|
Communicative Approaches to Teaching English
Banyak guru yang telah bertanya, 'Bagaimana pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris supaya anak mampu berbahasa Inggris?'
Many teachers have asked, "How can I teach English, so that the children can actually speak English?" The answer is always the same. Lessons should concentrate on developing communications skills. Rather than learning grammar, children should get used to speaking and writing in English in a meaningful way.
Teachers should not worry too much whether the language is correct - the important thing is that the meaning can be understood! On the right is a conversation written by grade 6 students at MI Islamiyah 03, Madiun, as an example of a communicative approach.
MAGETAN: SMP Using Resource Persons
SMPN 1 Maospati, Magetan is very impressive in many ways. There is positive leadership from the school principal and strong support from the community, as well as a high level of commitment from the teachers. All this results in a quality education for the students.
This can be seen also from the rich variety of learning resources that are used to make lessons interesting and meaningful.
|
During our visit to the school resource persons were being used in three different classes.
|
Resource persons were being used in three different classes:
1. A resource person from the health clinic was explaining to the students about reproduction.
2. Another resource person was explaining about shadow puppets (wayang).
3. A policeman was showing a video about drugs.
|
MAGETAN: Children Write Their Reflections
In order to get children used to expressing their opinions and to get feedback on lessons, many teachers ask their students to write their reflections at the end of the lesson.
These reflections are often very interesting and hopefully the teachers take notice of them! Above right are some examples from grade 5 at SD Selosari 2, Magetan.
SITUBONDO: Learning With Goats! Who's afraid?
Maybe the title of this article sounds rather strange. What's this about learning with goats? But not for the students in grade 3 at SDN 2 Wringin Anom in Panarukan Subdistrict, Situbondo. They were really happy, when one morning they visited a goat pen owned by someone near the school. They didn't take any notice of the smell of dung and the stench of urine.
What did they learn?
They were learning science about "the characteristics of living creatures" and were finding these out for themselves.
|
