RELO INDONESIA 2006 News Update

Professional Development - University of Indonesia

2006-08-16T01:15:00.000-07:00

Professional Development for English Teachers in UI

On August 8, RELO Damon Anderson gave a 2-hour presentation on Professional Development for the English Subject Lecturers of the University of Indonesia. Attended by 36 lecturers, Damon reminded them the need to grow academically, technically, and socially. Damon also gave alternatives of professional development.

When going over a certain checklist, the participants found out that there are things they have not paid attention so far, that need to be done, focuses that need to be shifted.
One of the points that Damon underlined was the need to ‘share’ knowledge, through discussions, presentations, article publication, anything. By ‘sharing’ we gain knowledge, sharpen our own skills, add our credentials, and of course, grow.

If you are interested in learning more about Damon’s presentation or want the soft copy of the Powerpoint, please send an email to relojkt1@cbn.net.id

Multimedia in ELT - ICELT 4 - USD

2006-08-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

On Monday, August 7, 2006, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini went back to Jogjakarta to give a presentation at ICELTS – 4 held by Sanata Dharma University. Her presentation entitled: Multimedia in ELT: from Blink-Blink to Elegant Users. She underlined that there are 2 different groups of technology users, ie. Those who just use the technology as they like, always try new things, and those who use it elegantly: learn about it well first before using it.

In the presentation Kun used the Dale’s Cone as a reference when teachers were selecting media to use in their teaching. Kun also showed some authentic examples how some people ‘abuse’ the media rather than use it elegantly.

Questions from the audience was around the time spent for such use of media (in this case: power point) and the needs of teachers to learn about Emotional Intelligence especially to learn more about the students. Kun replied that it indeed took time to create a PPT presentation, but please note that it could easily be recycled, imported, modified, etc. As for the EI, it surely was important. Kun also underlined to prioritize the students rather than themselves, and to concentrate more on learning rather that teaching.

If you are interested to know more and/or get a copy of Kun Herrini’s presentation, please send an email to relojkt1@cbn.net.id

The First Two Workshops in Jayapura

2006-08-16T01:12:00.000-07:00

On July 29, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini went to Jayapura for the first time. The plan was to team up with Gumawang Jati from FKSU program (under DIKTI) to facilitate a 3 workshop on IT in ELT in Universitas Cendrawasih (UnCen) and 1,5 day workshop with Highschool Teachers sponsored by The Manyouri and STIE Otto Geissler on Teaching Communicatively.

A long and tiring trip, leaving Jakarta at 11 PM, transiting in Denpasar and in Timika, arriving in Jayapura at 09:30 AM, in the mids of heavy pour. The drive from the airport to the city, passing amazing Danau Sentani (Lake) on the right side and mountain range on the left side, all still in their pristine state.

I was a little more prepared then when I visited Manokwari for the first time in October 2005. Jayapura is the capital city of a province, anyway. It is a quite big city. And I was relieved when I saw the city skyline and learned that the hotel is right in front of KFC and Gelael Supermarket.

Workshop in Universitas Cendrawasih:
Teaming up with Gumawang Jati, the program of “Maximizing the Use of Technology in Teaching English” at Universitas Cendrawasih, was attended by 23 teachers, split up almost evenly between lecturers of UnCen and highschool teachers from the surrounding areas. It went for 3 days. Gumawang Jati led the workshop Kun was more assisting, especially when the two group of teachers had to split. The Lecturers were trained to use ‘hotpotatoe’, ‘nicenet.org’, and ‘blogs’, while the Highschool teachers were working only with ‘hotpotatoe’ but in details and real practice for their teaching’.

Between the sessions Kun also had the time to present about RELO profile and its services. Teachers seemed to be interested to learn more about RELO and planned on contacting RELO for different professional development activities.

Workshop in The Manyouri
On August 2nd , in the early evening, RELO Assistant Kun was invited to a welcoming dinner at STIE Otto-Geisler. Kun invited Jati and the FKSU people to join, but only Jati could come. To Kun’s surprise, the Manyouri foundation had prepared an ethnic welcoming ritual, where she was fetched by a group of traditional dancers and had to stand in a big bowl as a symbol of acceptance. An unforgettable experience. After some speeches then Kun presented the RELO profile and answered a lot of questions from the audience.

The next day, starting at 08:30 AM, the workshop was attended by 26 highschool teachers, some came from 2 or 3 mountains (their way of measuring distance) away.
The plan was to finish at 3, but they were so enthusiastic and sometimes did not want to stop an activity, so it finally ended up at 4:30. They were awfully thirsty and in bad need of such enrichment programs.

Maximizing the Use of Self Access Center

2006-08-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

July 27th, 2006: RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini finally made it to Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta. The workshop on “Maximizing the Use of Self Access Center” was planned to be held end of May, but then rescheduled due to the earthquake.

During the preparation, RELO suggested to hold the workshop at the Self Access Center. Ibu Rose, though a little hesitated, agreed. She was really not sure whether it was a good idea to do it.

Anyway, the workshop was attended by almost 40 participants, some had even to move to corners and squeezed themselves between shelves. But by doing the workshop right where the Self Access Centre was gave the participants a direct feeling and experience of the use of it. When they had to work in groups an designing pointers for their students to overcome their problems, the participants directly experienced browsing and using what were available there, the Grammar Section, Reading Section, Video, Computers, etc. Everyone learned that the SAC can be a great place to support their teaching, and that to activate the SAC, there should be a cooperation from the teachers and also with the management.

Here is what Ibu Yani, the Head of the Language Center, wrote to RELO after the workshop:

Surprised!.. Why? This year is my 15 years I work at the library of PPB UGM and also the first Workshop in the PPB library. Maybe, library is uninteresting place to hold the Workshop [or Seminar?] and the question about why the Workshop is held in the library has been asked last week. I think this program also can be model for the other institutions' library [or SALL] to hold the similar event. Thank you so much. It means a lot to me and my question to myself is am I able to follow up of the Workshop, improve the SALL, to hold the other programs in the library and the most important thing is to talk with the higher management :)I also appreciate with bu Kun's idea about room or space for discussion in the library. Yes, actually we have plan to build room for discussion with fund for SP 4 this year. Hope, it can be realized soon.

Vocational Highschool English Teachers' Visit

2006-08-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

24 Vocational Highschool English teachers from various places such as the northern part of Maluku, from East and West Nusa Tenggara, some small cities in East Java and other places were visiting the RELO Center. Not just visiting, we had a workshop on how to teach English communicatively and how to create authentic use of English in the classroom. They were actually in the middle of a training in PPPG (Vocational Teacher Training Centre). They were chaperoned by 4 of their trainers.

It was then full of fun when teachers were asked to work in groups and create manuals in processing some activities around their true life, such as ‘how to tie your shoe’, ‘how to choose a fresh fish’, ‘how to change a tyre’ etc. They did not realize how challenging those ‘simple’ activities are, especially when they had to create instructions as detail as possible. Most of them learned that they could use the things and situations around them to teach English.

The visit which was scheduled for only 2 hours went on to 3,5 hours. Teachers enjoyed all the activities and had a lot of questions to ask.

To my understanding this was the fourth group coming to the RELO Center. All from the Vocational Teacher Training Center.

Univ Pakuan PBI Students Visit

2006-07-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Also on July 230th, 20 students plus two teachers from the English Education Department, Universitas Pakuan, Bogor, visited the RELO Center. They wanted to know about the activities of RELO so far and to know about Educational System in the US.
So, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini presented RELO Profile and RELO Damon Anderson led the discussion about Educational System.

The visit was programmed for only 2 hours, but it went on animatedly for 3 hours, and yet we rushed the last minutes. The students were impressed and even planned on coming again soon, either for group or individual visit.

Workshop on Briefing Notes at the RI-2 Secretariat

2006-07-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

In the morning of July 20th, RELO Damon Anderson facilitated a workshop on Briefing Notes at the Secretariat of the Vice President Office. PAO Charles Silver also dropped by and attended part of the session.

It was great to see RELO in contact with other Departments, not only with educational institutions. It was also interesting to learn that other Departments are also doing efforts in developing their English communicative competence in various ways.

Workshops in LBPP LIA and STBA LIA

2006-07-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

On July 19, RELO Damon Anderson facilitated a hal-a-day workshop on Adapting Materials in LBPP LIA in the morning and continued with a talk on "Revisiting the Curriculum" with STBA LIA.

In both sessions, participants seemed to really 'buy' what was presented. Well, concerning English teaching, we have to keep on moving, updating our materials and curriculum if we do not want to be left behind. A lot of work, but that's how it is supposed to be.

Hopefully there will pictures sent re. these activities

UNIKOM Bandung Students Visit

2006-07-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

On July 12, 34 students plus their 3 teachers from UNIKOM Bandung visited the RELO Center. They wanted to know more about RELO and its activities. RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini teamed up in presenting the RELO Profile in an animated way. Here and there, students asked questions and gave comments.

The assignment from the teachers that students had to write reports after the visit made many of the students record the session, with video camera and tape recorders.
The day before visiting RELO they visited MetroTV and Media Indonesia, and so they got the 'style' of a journalist when in the field collecting data.

RELO Damon Anderson greeted the students

RELO Damon Anderson explained the content of the folder

Posing together with "Bruce Wilis"

UNAND Students Intern

2006-07-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

At present, up to August 25, 2006, we have 4 students from Universitas Andalas, Padang, doing their internship. They help around the RELO Center,
especially with administrative matters, such as data base for book collections, updating RELO contacts, etc.

Internship also means that they are learning things they do not learn at school, such as office procedure, office ethics, interpersonal communication, etc. At the RELO Center they also learn practical skills like hosting guests, photocopying, etc. It is a great chance for them to meet ELF Professionals and join the Roundtable Discussions, meeting students of different universities, etc.

The following pictures show some of their activities:

Briefing by Damon and Rizal
Amie is missing

Candra joining the Roundtable Discussion on Writing Poem

TEYL: Teaching Through Songs in UNIKA Semarang

2006-06-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

June 5, 2006 RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a one-day workshop on TEYL: Teaching Through Songs in Unika Soegiyapranata Semarang, attended by about 100 students, teachers and lecturers.

Teaming up with Itje Chodidjah, M.A. and accompanied with a skillful organ player, Kun started the workshop by getting the audience sing and express their feelings accordingly. No one was allowed to sit still or be a passive participants. And, good, the crowd agreed.

Teaching young learners using song is always fun, and there are always things you can do. The key word is WILLING to do things: jumping up and down, shaking to the right and to the left, stepping upwards and backwards, and all. Looking for materials is always easy.. click here and there on the internet and ….you get what you want.

Teachers are creative. Given some songs to work for, they came up with various brilliant ideas of the pre-singing, while-singing, and post-singing activities. When the clock struck 4 PM, the time to end the workshop, the audience still asked for more.

What and Why Genre Based Approach – A Practical Look

2006-06-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

June 27, it was one of the boldest thing RELO Assistant Kun Herrini did. Giving a talk to about 100 tudents of the Tarbiyah Faculty, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Bandung. Kun was lucky to be accompanied by Itje Chodidjah, MA, an prominent ELT Consultant and Resource Person. They teamed up trying to bring the hot topic for the season: Genre Based Approach – down to earth, to be accessible for the students.

Started with a survey question of what they already knew about GBA, no one answered. The lecturers (5 of them), also said they did not know what it was and that was one of the reasons why holding the seminar. The team went on, using different terms and situations and examples from around the students life.

Kun and Itje witnessed how their eyes went from blank, confused, light up, and finally twinkling, together with the breaking of wide smile on their faces. The hard work or reading so many books, the internet surfing and sleepless nights in preparing was paid.

When finally they stepped down from the stage, Ibu Emy, a Ph.D from Melbourne (her desertation was about Genre Based Approach) who happened to be a lecturer in UPI and was the next speaker, greeted us and said that she never thought GBA could be explained in such simple and humble words, very close to our life.

Preparing Teachers to Enhance Students' Comptence: YSS Bandung

2006-06-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

On June 22-24, RELO Damon Anderson and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a 3-day worskhop to 27 teachers working for Yayasan Salib Suci, Bandung. The main theme of the workshop was “Preparing the Teachers to Enhance Students Competence”.

The competence of the participants were excellent already, and so it was quite easy to get them discuss and involved in all the activities prepared. Damon and Kun tried to present all the points to consider in the forms of activities, with approaches and techniques the teachers can alsways adapt in the classroom. The underlining points of all are students as the center and lifeskills. To be able to do both, teachers need a skill of adopting, adapting and creating scaffolding for the learners.

Over the farewell lunch on the last day, some teachers mentioned how easy and yet interesting the teaching of English could be and should be. During the 3 days they grew interests in themselves towards the use of English for communication. It was a good start, because when the teachers have a positive attitude towards the subject then it will radiate in their teaching.

Adapting Materials & Enhancing Motivation in Manokwari

2006-06-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

June 13-15, 2006, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini and Laurentia Sumarni, a lecturer from Sanata Dharma Unviersity Yogyakarta, teamed up giving a 3-day workshop on Adapting Materials & Enhancing Motivation in Manokwari, Papua.

With diversed attendees: 7 highschool teachers, 6 lecturers of UNIPA Language Center, and 13 non-English lecturers who were preparing themselves to teach their subjects in English, what the team had prepared to present did not match the situation.However, with plan B and C in hands composed on site, the workshop went well.

The 1 set of Books-in-a-Box brought from RELO Center was a great complement to the Adapting Materials session. Lecturers from different departments and faculties came up with brilliant creative ideas in utilizing the collection. For example, the ones from Faculty of Forestry came up with the relationship between environment with climate, culture, lifestyle etc from Children: Just Like Me; and the group from Animal Husbandry came up with a cerative use of the Picture Dictionaries.

The Second Day was more on Motivating the Unmotivated students. The VCD of Jeremy Harmer giving presentation in RELC Conference was the main source of discussion. Then, when teachers worked in groups to have a kind of teaching simulation, the 5As principles were really applied.

The third day was more on information about TOEIC and TEOFL and what teachers should consider when teaching them. The activities we had in the efforts of increasing competence were all challenging but applicable and fun.

(Pictures are coming up)

28 Sets of Books-in-a-Box for DKI Training Center

2006-06-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

June 12, RELO Damon Anderson and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini facilitated a one-day workshop on using the Books in a Box collection, at the DKI Training Center. The workshop was attended by about 40 teachers of high school.

During the workshop the teachers were to work in groups and each group was presented with a Books-in-a-Box. They were facilitated with different ways to look at books before diciding to buy or use one. They came up with different ways, and it was amazing to see how different people see books from different angles.

The session was ended with the official handover of 28 boxes of ‘books-in-a-box’ collection to DKI Training Center from RELO Damon Anderson to the Head of the Training Center, Mr. Moch. Ichwan. The books were arranged in such a nice way it created a certain aura of Diorama. With the background slide projected from an LCD, it made the hand over impressive. Great work of Ibu Asih Nasution and the gank.

Visiting ITB; Introducing Bob Riski

2006-06-28T02:36:00.000-07:00

May 24,

RELO Damon Anderson, ELF Coordinator, ELF Bob Riski and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini went to ITB Bandung and had a meeting with Rector Djoko and Vice Rector Edwan.

On the occasion, we introduced ELF Bob Riski who starting in September 2006 will be a fellow in ITB. It was an animated meeting, full of laughters. Bob seemed to be happy to move from Medan to Bandung.

Hope this cooperation will work well.

Highschools Students from LCB Rawamangun

2006-06-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

On May 11, RELO Center held a special Roundyable Discussion for 18 Highschool Students learning at LCB Rawamangun. Topic of the discsussion was "Teenage Life After School". It was hard since the students were still shy at the beginning, but duette RELO Damon Anderson and Fellow Coordinator Mike McCoy teamed up in getting them finally talked.

Whenny and Ferra, two of our frequent Roundtablers were their teachers, and it was the two of them who arranged for the activity. It was a great effort to give the students a chance to practice what they have learned so far.

ITB Business Management School

2006-06-28T02:15:00.000-07:00

May 9th,

RELO Damon Anderson gave a talk to the students of Business Management School in ITB. It was the second talk. The first was done in the previous semester, and it was by ELF Mike McCoy.

Damon said the students competence was above average than the students from other universities he had encountered before. And they were so young and enthusiastic.

Further note on this is expected to come from Pak Jati.
Pak Jati, we are awaiting.....

Task-Based Instruction in UI Salemba

2006-06-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, Damon gave a presentation on "Developing Learners' Communicative Competence through Task-Based Instruction" for 2 hours. There were 27 pariticipants and they had a good time together.

Most participants were familiar with the term communicative teaching and also task-based instruction, but in real day-to-day teaching they still find it difficult or ackward to apply it.

So, after a short review about the underlining theory, Damon got the participants work in groups and practicing the task-based instructions. It was always fun when teachers were to play roles as students.

See the following pictures, how fun learning can be:

Attending RELC and Grantees Presentations

2006-06-03T02:06:00.000-07:00

The RELC Annual conference took place on April 24-26, 2006 in Singapore, with the theme of Teacher Education in Language Teaching. RELO Assistant Kun Herrini attended the conference along with 5 grantees from Indonesia.

Among the plenary speakers was Jeremy Harmer. Everyone seemed to be so impressed with his presentation about "Motivating the Unmotivated" which reminded us that the problems might lie on us as teachers as of involving the students. Despite the content, the presentation itself was so interesting, the ways he involved the audience and the media.

Bambang Yudi Cahyono from Universitas Negeri Malang, who co-presented with Linda Widyawatie from LB-PP LIA Cilegon, on ‘ Networkin as a Means for Teachers’ Professional Development: An Indonesian Experience

They share about their efforts in establishing teachers network called ELTI (English Language Teachers – Indonesia), holding sharing sessions for the members on English competence and teaching techniques. The organization is piloted from home and the workshops in Cilegon district is also held at home. To know more about this activities, please contact Linda at Yudic2000@yahoo.com

I Ketut Seken from IKIP Negeri Singaraja, Bali, with his presentation entitled: Practice Teaching in EFL Teacher Education: How Much Autonomy for Students Teachers?
After learning about the standard teacher competencies that a teacher should possess (theoretical knowledge, knowledge of the Subject Matter, Attitudes, Creativity, Professionalism), pre-service teachers should go through the practice teaching stage that complies with what they have learned. The practice teaching should be done integrally in real schools and pre-service teachers should complete their apprenticeship not only as teachers but also the administrative sides of a school.

From the research it was found out that ‘pre-service teachers’ were very dependent to their mentors at the ‘real’ school. They are panic and do not know to do when given autonomy. What revealed was the fact that what they learn at the teacher training institutes were not applicable in the real teaching world outside. To learn more about this interesting research, please contact Seken at Ketut_seken@yahoo.com

Christine Manara from STBA Satya Wacana, Salatiga, with her presentation on: Teachers’ Decision Making on Using L1 in EFL Classrooms in Indonesia. From her research that even though the students expect teachers to always use target language in daily teaching, slow down at first then gradually in normal speed, teachers found out that using L1 sometimes needed to ease transferring the concept.

The funny things happen when comparing the questionnaire and the interview result. From the interview it was more significant that the teachers who use L1 in explaining feel guilty in doing so. To learn more about the research and finding, please contact Christine through chrismanara@yahoo.com

Nilawati Hadisantosa from Atma Jaya University with her presentation entitled: Issues in Teacher Training in Indonesia: Solutions for Better Future. The research and presentation was prepared together with Mike McCoy.

Issues around Teacher Training, in FKIP and in the Tarbiyah Faculty in Islamic Universities, are always interesting to discuss. We can start from the low quality of intake, minimum process due to various reasons from the quality of trainers, lack of time, facilities, resources, and also lack of support from administrators and policy makers. From what we read and what we hear, we know what is actually best. But we just cannot afford. The realistic solutions were already in discussions both in the Ministry of National Education and also in the Ministry of Religious Affairs under which Islamic Universities supervision lies. Attending and listening to other presenters in RELC Conference, we envy the attention and policy other governmental leaders have given to English Teaching, and we are looking forward to having similar support in Indonesia. If you are interested in knowing more about her presentation, please feel free to contact: nilawatihs@yahoo.com

ELT Journal Writing for FKSU Members

2006-06-03T01:50:00.000-07:00

April 3-5,2006 RELO held a 3-day workshop on ELT Journal Writing. The participants were from Universitas Pattimura Ambon (2 people - sponsored by RELO), 3 from Universitas Sam Ratulangi Manado, 1 from Universitas Papua Manokwari, 3 from Universitas Cendrawasih Jayapura, 2 from Universitas Haluoleo Kendari, and 2 from Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta. The main facilitator of the workshop is Heather Philips, ELF UNAND Kevin's wife. RELO Damon Anderson helped facilitating on the second day, while RELO Assistant assisted throughout the 3 day-workshop.

ELT Journal writing, as other writing activities, is still seen as a challenging activity for most lecturers in Indonesia. Writing is just not in the culture. The fact that we have to follow certain styles that are acceptable internationally.
Hope after joining the workshop the participants are interested in writing.

Attending TESOL Conference in Tampa, Florida

2006-06-03T01:20:00.000-07:00

RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini attended TESOL Conference in Tampa, Florida, along with 11 grantees from IAIN Sumatra Utara, Universitas Andalas Padang, UIN Jakarta, UNIKA Atma Jaya Jakarta, ITB Bandung, UIN Semarang, UIN Yogyakarta, UPN Veteran Jawa Timur Surabaya, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, UIN Alaudin Makassar and Universitas Sam Ratulangi Manado. The conference was held in March 15 - 18, 2006.

It was such a long and yet interesting, exciting, unforgettable experience of being together with 11 grantees, that it deserves a special blog publication. Read more at:
http://indtesol06.blogspot.com/

Co-Presenting with Teachers from Manokwari Papua

2006-05-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

Bandung, February 21-13, 2006

As the follow up of a 3-Day Workshop on Action Research in Manokwari held in October 2005, RELO sponsored 2 teachers from Manokwari to present in ITB International Conference on Competency BAsed Curriculum. Sarah Isir was co-presenting with Itje Chodidjah on Mission Impossible: Implementing CBC in West Papua; and Kristina Awom with RELO Assistant Kun Herrini doing Poster Session on The English Teaching Saga in West Papua.

The two teachers really struck the heart of RELO Assistant from the very beginning of the Action Research workshop. They were the only Papua native teachers who were dared to join the workshop. They worked really hard to their very limited English despite of their being English teachers at the local highschools. They were so observant, attentive and so willing to actively participated in every activity. They did not have enough education and yet Sarah taught 42 hours a week in her highschool and Kristina's experience with English was 'only' as a telephone operator, but then she was the only English teacher in her school.

RELO asked the courtesy of Universitas Negeri Papua Director of Language Center, Sukristiningsih, to help communicating and preparing the data for the presentation. Also since the two teachers had never left Manokwari before, nor travel by plane, we asked Sukris to accompany them on their way to Jakarta and BAndung.

They arrived 2 days prior to the conference date to finalize the preparation with Itje and Kun at the RELO Center. It was really touching to listen to their comments about the plane ride, about staying at the hotel, their learning to flush, to stay be in an air-conditioned room, to sleep on soft matras, and many others.

All set up, we travelled to Bandung by train. It was fun to observe the changes of their face when experiencing the train ride for the first time. How nervous they were with all the new experiences.

Surprisingly, or not surprisingly?, Kristina's poster session attracted so many participants, including Simon Colledge from the British Cuncil, Geoffrey Crewes from IALF, and many others. They asked a lot of questions about ELT in Manokwari. Sukris, Sarah, Itje and Kun were helping her at hard times when there were many people around her asking for different questions re. the poster.

Sarah's presentation was also a bang. Itje and Kun were nervous, but Sarah surprisingly, was so calmed and so self confident. With her limited English, she managed to deliver the presentation well enough. Listening to all the facts she presented, the audience got emotional. So, the reactions were more to encouraging Sarah to hang on and thank her for all the work she had done.

RELO was proud to be able to bring her down to the CBC conference, so that a voice from Manokwari can be heard by the authorities, not as a report of a visitor, but more coming first hand. During a lunch farewell with RELO Damon Anderson, they mentioned how lucky they were and that they still did not believe that they would get the chance to experience all of those.
The facts that

CBC Seminar in Politeknik Negeri Pontianak

2006-05-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Pontianak, February 13-14

ELF Coordinator Michael McCoy and RELO Assistant Kun Herrini went to Pontianak to be the presenters of one-day seminar on Competency Based Curriculum. The second day Mike led a discussion with the Faculty Members about how to set up and promote cooperation between university, government and local enterprises.

The CBC conference was attended by around 80 teachers of different levels, from kindergarten teahers up to lecturers. For two hours Mike gave an overview of what was meant by CBC and the consequences for the teachers. And for another 2 hours Kun continued by giving more examples of application of the CBC involving the participants in different activities.

The second day, while Mike was busy leading the discussion on the linking program, Kun was involved in deep discussion with the staff at the Language Center re. program management and program development also how to manage self access center and materials development at the SAC.

Pontianak lies right on the equator, so it was really hot. The city was also famous of its black orchid, but we could not find any good one around the city. Where were they gone?

1st Roundtable Discussion in DKI Training Center

2006-05-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

February 9th, The English Program of Jakarta Training Center held its first Roundtable Discussion for Junior Highschool English Teachers. RELO Damon Anderson facilitated the lively discussion, after Itje Chodidjah and Ibu Asih (the Head of the English Training Program) did a warm up activity by leading them to sing and dance.

The program was a further dissemination of the RTD held biwekly at the RELO Center. Ibu Susarsih who attended the RELO RTD found the format was very effective and yet convenient for Professional Development. It motivated participants to share and especially to use their English. Those are the main reasons why she held the Roundtable Discussion for teachers around Jakarta.

The main difference with the one held by RELO was that participants were more homogeneous. When the topic was for Juniro High teachers, then the attendee will be all SMP teachers. Beside that, participatory was more ‘assigned’, either by Headmaster or other authority, while the one in RELO was really voluntary.

Anyway, this was a good beginning. DKI Training Center planned to hold it monthly trargeting at different groups of teachers and educational professionals. Good luck with the efforts, hope RELO can support and join the program accordingly.

ELF Mid-Year Conference

2006-05-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Marriott Hotel, Jakarta, January 27-29, 2006

On January 27- 29 all the English Language Fellows in Indonesia got together to have the Mid Year Conference in Jakarta. This is a chance for all fellows to share what they had achieved so far and to plan ahead to make the next half year of their service much better. Time to recharge and energize. For the venue we chose Marriot Hotel.

The conference was opened with a dinner reception attended by all the fellows and their significant others, RELO Damon Anderson, RELO Assistant Kun Herrini and RELO Center Manager, Fetrizal. Then, during the three-day conference, everyone was assigned to share and or lead a discussion on the topic of his/strength or experience.

What came up was not only the variety of expertise or successful program sharing, but how each presented / led the discussion was unique. A,azingly, no one did it in the same way. It just showed how rich the Fellow program was and how especially great this team of fellows we have in Indonesia this time.

Third Colloquium of UIN/IAIN

2006-05-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Jakarta, January 25-27, 2006

The Third UIN/IAIN Colloquium was held at State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, involving UIN Jakarta itself, UIN Yogyakarta, UIN Semarang, UIN Makassar, and IAIN Medan; while IAIN Bandung, UIN Malang and IAIN Banten came as observants. Among the VIPs who attended this colloquium were: the Director of Islamic Institution, MORA Dr. Arif Furqon, UIN Vice Rector Dr. Masykuri Abdillah, MA, Director of UIN Language Center Murni Djamal, Cultural Attache Donna Welton, RELO Damon Anderson.

As how it was with the 1st and 2nd Colloquium (scroll down if you are interested to know more), RELO supported this program by providing funding for transportation, accomodation, and administration of the event.

Result of the colloquium was presented to and consulted with Prof. Arif Furqon, the Director of Islamic Higher Education, MORA on February 2nd. In the report meeting, MORA stated the following:
1. MORA committed to providing financial support for the fourth colloquium to be hosted by IAIN Sumatera Utara Medan.
2. MORA supported the establishment of the Modern Language Teachers Association of Islamic Higher Institutions. But, target outcomes of the association should be further formulated as realistically as possible.
3. MORA would provide web space for the association particularly for Modern Languages Sharing of Best Practices at the MORA website
4. MORA asked the materials development committee to list commercial books which are needed for materials development purposes.
5. MORA would encourage Rectors to pay more attention to team building, teamwork, networking, and sharing of best practices to promote the improved quality of modern language programs at their institutions. For this purpose, the Ministry was very concerned with:
• setting the national standard and threshold for English/Arabic Proficiency to be achieved by the students of IAINs, UINs, and STAINs in both English/Arabic and non English-Arabic Departments. Any institution can set a higher level of the proficiency but not a lower one.
• developing models of standardized tests to accurately measure the attainment level of the proficiency.
• developing models of modern language programs on the institutional level to achive the proficiency. The models will certainly vary but they move towards the same direction, achieving the standard and threshold of the proficiency.
• The project will be piloted at the institution that is currently hosting a RELO Fellow or hosted the Fellow in the past.

A wonderful commitment and result of a colloquium. And with the commitment MORA had stated, RELO felt like it had accomplished something important. Not only regarding the development of language teaching in UIN/IAIN circle, but also that MORA had taken the ownership of the ELT development efforts.

For additional information:
The first Colloquium was held in UIN Yogyakarta in 2004. The initial idea came from Prof. Dr. Amin Abdullah, Rector of UIN Yogyakarta who would like to see English as one of the modern languages taught in UIN/IAIN circle get a better and stronger position academically. RELO then sponsored a colloquium involving the 4 UIN/IAIN hosting the English Language Fellows at that time, i.e. UIN Yogyakarta, IAIN Makassar, IAIN Medan and IAIN Semarang. The first was really a sharing session, where each of the UIN/IAIN shared the best practices they had so far been doing in each respective institutions.

The second colloquium was hosted by UIN Makassar, involving the same 4 UIN/IAIN plus the UIN Jakarta, and what made it special was that it was visited by one of the important figure in Islamic Education Directorate, from MORA (Ministry of Religious Affairs). One of the interesting things learned was that by then some best practices shared in the first colloquium were practiced by the other institutions. From all the discussion came up the need to have something standardized and the need to form special interest group of materials writing, assesment, and other things. These issues would be discussed further in the third colloquium.

Conference of the English Education Program Management

2006-05-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

Yogyakarta, 16-18, 2006

Dr. Bismoko and Dr. Dwijatmoko from Sanata Dharma University intiated to have all the English Edcuation Department Heads to get together. The talk was meant to get to know each others’ program, how to update it, and to discuss the issue of teachers’ certification already in the discussion of the Natioanal Education Department.

So, there were 98 representatives from teacher training institutions around Indonesia coming to the 2-days meeting. RELO was able to provide funding for the admin and proceeding of the conference and provide accomodation for participants coming from outside Yogyakarta.

As guest speakers, there was Mr. Bahrul from the Education Quality Assurance Directorate sharing about the governments strategic plan re. Teachers Certification. Dr. Sadtono and Dr. Bismoko shared about the English Education programs, Dr. Helena talked about the Competency Based Curriculum in general and Damon Anderson talked shortly about the English Education in Higher Education.

After the pleanary and brainstorming sessions, participants were divided into 3 big groups to address 3 different big topics, i.e. Teachers’ Certification, Curriculum for Profession Courses, and Standardization of the English Education Program. There was also an issue of forming another English Teaching Professional organization, but the big group could not into an agreement, with a strong consideration of not hurting the existing organization now, TEFLIN.

On January 30th, there was a follow up meeting in Universitas Negeri Semarang, with 10 representative participants designing a recommendation that would be brought to the QA Directorate as an input of the Certification processing now being further discsusses in MONE. Again, RELO played an important role by providing tranport allowance for thos soming from outside Semarang.

On February 6th, 6 representatives (Dr. Bismoko, Dr. Dwijatmoko, Prof. Sadtono, Itje Chodidjah, RELO Damon Anderson and Kun Herrini)met Dr. Bahrul Hayt at the QA Directorate, MONE.

Having Fun with Pabelan Pesantren Big Family

2006-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

January 14th, RELO Damon Anderson and Assistant Kun Herrini went to attend Microscholarship Certificate Awarding Ceremony marking the ending of the Microscholarship program in Pabelan Pesantren, about 20 kilometres north of Yogyakarta.

It was a different situation of a pesantren, where the kids can make friends more openly and there is even a freedom of wearing headdress or not for the female kids. The Kiai was a real moderate and wisely open figure, very knowledgeable and also value knowledge highly.

After a series of speech reminding the students that now the challenge was in their hands, since the course have ended, the Kids were awarded with their certificates. Then, as a token of gratitude, the kids performed a very simple but touching choir singing He Raised Me Up.

The program we had there was collaborated with the United Nations Development Program who introduced community technology and so RELO equipped them with the language. The Microsholarship program in Pabelan Pesantren reached 60 students and they studied English with two special teachers coming to Pesantren for 2 years.

The next morning the kids were taken to a picnic, but too bad, Damon and I could not join them. But we heard that they enjoyed the picnic very much, especially when they were taken to Pizza Hut. It was their first experience eating pizza, some of them even saved the small parts of theirs to be brought home to share with their parents.

Thank you to Kang Azul, the point of contact there, Itje Chodidjah, the Academic COnsultant and Teacher Trainer, and Giartina the enthusiastic and caring teacher.

Joining Next Generation TOEFL Workshop

2006-05-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

A very good jump start for the new year. After being rejected for the first two workshop for the reasons of over quota, finally we made it to join the workshop led by beautiful Diana Jahja from IIEF. The rigorous workshop was a great reunion as well as a strong networking event. So many familiar faces from Jakarta, Yogya, Bandung, and Semarang.

I learned a lot and now at least would be daring to answer questions about NG-TOEFL.
This new format of TOEFL and its new approach for me is more challenging and interesting. I believe it makes more sense now than the format before. Now we really need to master the skills of communicating and using Englsih intead of only mastering about the rules of and about English.

However, the most challenge I think was designing teacher training modules so that they can prepare the students taking TOEFL accordingly. I had a sketch already, and I planned to present it to the English Language Fellows in the Mid-Year Conference to come. Hope it would also help them especially when they were requested to talk about NGT.

Anyone interested to get the soft copy of my PPT entitled : Next Generation TOEFL : What Should Teachers Do to Help, please send email to relojkt1@cbn.net.id

RELO RESOURCE CENTER

2006-04-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

Regional English Language Office

2006-04-11T00:29:00.000-07:00