Bruce and His English Club in UnSri

UnSri English Club - Highlight by Bruce Applebaum

Importance: To promote English to undergraduate students and foster good, ongoing relations with students and host institution.

Fellow: Bruce Applebaum

Email: applebru@hotmail.com

Country: Indonesia

Host institution: Universitas Swriwijaya Lembaga Bahasa (Language Academy), Palembang,

Project: Bimonthly English Club

Date: First meeting ,September 24, 2006

Highlights: This was the first, bimonthly, meeting of the undergraduate English club. The focus of this project is to give students the opportunity to practice their English in a casual atmosphere and allow them more in interaction with the onsite fellow. The meeting went very well.

Most of the time was spent playing games and doing communicative activities. The participants worked very hard and enjoyed the varied activities. They also were enthusiastic about having an additional opportunity to talk to and spend time with the fellow. The session went for over ninety minutes. At the end of the session there was a discussion about the focus for future club meetings. The participants wanted to continue with doing games and activities to practice and improve their English. Since they were all pre-service teachers they also wanted to have discussions about how teaching approaches and methods and how to integrate activities practiced during the club into their future teaching. This leaves open the possibility of having workshops in the future just for them to focus on ways to better prepare them for their careers as teachers.

This project will continue to the end of the fellowship session with the hope that a lecturer or lecturers from the language academy will continue the project after the fellow completes this session. There will be a self access resource center set up by the fellow to provide materials to help sustain the club and other projects.

Participants: 21 undergraduate students, 1 professor from the universities English department and English Academy

Visiting Universitas Jendral Soedirman - Purwokerto

On September 26th, Heather and Kun visited Univeristas Jendral Soedirman in Purwokerto.
It was a long and tiring trip, we had to fly to Jogjakarta then drive to Purwokerto for about 4,5 hours. the long drought made the trip more tiring. It was hot and hot along the way, and the drought made the scenery not very nice to see.

Arriving in Purwokerto at 7:30 PM, we checked in to a nice hotel, and met Pak Agus, the main contact. The next morning we visited the campus, met our contacts there and discussed about the program, then went 'house hunting' for Dr. Hien Ta, the coming fellow. we saw some but could not quite settle. so, we left things to Pak Agus. We discussed further what the University needed to prepare for the fellows arrival, the workplan, etc. Then at 12:00 midday, we drove back to Jogjakarta for another 4,5 hours.

There were interesting things we saw along the way, and we took pictures.
Soon we will upload them here.

We had dinner with Kevin and his Heather, too. See the pictures soon.

The next morning we visited UIN Yogyakarta where Kevin works. Mid-day Kun returned to Jakarta while Heather Linville continued her discussion with Kevin.

Kun Herrini

Attending the Rountable Farewel for Damon

On September 22, Bob and Heather attended the Roundtable farewel for Damon Anderson.
On that day, the topic was : Roundtable Discussion as an Alternate Collegiate Professional Development, led by Gloria Kismadi.

Since the attendees were mostly those who had attended RTD before, so it was more like the impressions and sharing from everyone. What they have learned, how RTD has influenced their teaching, etc. We videotaped the whole session and the VCD is now available at the RELO Center.

The session was closed with a potluck lunch bidding Damon a friendly farewell. Participants brought different kinds of food, all marvellous.

-pictures taken from this activities will soon be published

Bob & Kun Doing Workshop in Lampung

On September 20th Bob and Kun were in Universitas Malahayati Lampung faciltitation a workshop for 50 university and 50 Highschool students, for the whole day, 09:00 - 16:00.

The theme was: How to Learn the 4 Skills Efficiently and in Fun Ways. After one-hour get together (the Univ & HS Students in one room), then we split up into 2 different groups. Bob worked with the College students and Kun with the Highschool ones. Then we got together for the last 30 minutes to do a kind of wrapping activities.

It was full of fun. And Lampung is a small city but very clean. Except for the 2-hour delay over the 30-minute return flight, the travel and the workshop was great.

Photos will be published soon.

Kun Herrini

Orientations

Arrival Orientation

6 Fellows arrived on August 28, and Arrival Orientation was carried out on August 29th.
With 5 of them being returnees, the orientation was then more of a discussion and sharing session. Johanna, the only newcomer arrived, was the one who actually was briefed by everyone.

On August 30th, everyone left for the post, to later return to Jakarta again on September 13th to have more substantial orientation.

Program Orientation

The number had grown to 8, Denis Chang for IAIN Sumatra Utara and the Coordinator, Heather Linville, were already in the country. So, the program was mainly run by RELO Damon Anderson and ELFs Coordinator, Heather Linville.

CAO Donna Welton managed to squeeze her time and greeted the fellows shortly on the first day of the orientation, then chatted longer during the Welcoming Dinner held for the fellows.
VIPs from MONE (Ministry of NAtional Education) - the Deputy of International Planning and Cooperation - Dr. Ferry arrived to welcome and gave pointers on MONE's expectation. From MORA came Dr. Affandi Muhtar who had been involved with the UIN/IAIN Colloquium and was very eager to coordinate the next one; and Prof. Abdurrahman Mas'ud the DirGen of Islamic Higher Education. Their arrivals in the orientation showed that the program really had a place in those two Departments.

Photos of the orientation will be posted soon.

WELCOME!

I personally would like to welcome you all, 9 English Language Fellows 2006-2007:

* Heather Linville - as the Coordinator - with the University of Indonesia - Jakarta
* Christina Janney - with the State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah - UIN Jakarta
* Robert Risky - with Bandung Technology Institute - ITB
* Hien Ta - with Jendral Sudirman University - UnSoed Purwokerto
* Kevin Phillips - with Kalidjaga State Islamic University - UIN Yogyakarta
* Johanna Rosten - with State Islamic University - UIN Malang
* Bruce Applebaum - with Sriwijaya University - UnSri Palembang
* Denis Cheng - with State Islamic Institute - IAIN Sumatra Utara - Medan
* Anthony Zak - with State Islamic University - UIN Alauddin - Makassar

On behalf of Indonesia and Indonesian, I would say that we are very lucky to have all of you as the English Language Fellows for a period of 10 months. Hope you will enjoy your stay and work here, and also enjoy the diversity and beauty of our country.