Teachers make studying fun with creative lessons
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As students become more and more burdened with schoolwork, teachers face the challenge of coming up with lesson plans that make school fun by encouraging the students to be active and creative learners.
A teacher at State Senior High School 32 (SMUN 32), A. Fatkhurrohman, for example, has come up with a lesson called Pelangi Sepanjang Hari (A rainbow every day) to introduce his students to multiculturalism.
"In this program, two students from different ethnic or cultural backgrounds are paired together, then each week they are to spend a night at each other's house, just to see and learn about each other's family background," Fatkhurrohman, a history and sociology teacher, said on Wednesday.
The idea, he said, is to open his students' eyes and minds to different cultures, races and ethnic groups, to teach them how to live together in harmony.
"With this program, students get to learn about different cultures and history in a more active and fun way than in the classroom," he said.
Esti Nurhidayat, a teacher at YPPI Surabaya High School, said that by coming up with creative teaching methods that encouraged students to play active roles, learning could be an easy and fun process.
She has created a program called Permainan Cash Flow Quadrant (Cash flow quadrant game), which is a kind of board game in which students learn to buy bonds and stocks. The game is played entirely in English.
"The purpose of the game is to encourage students to learn English and economics in a more fun and creative way," said Esti.
Fatkhurrohman and Esti's ideas drew the attention of Citibank Peka, which selected on Wednesday 133 teachers -- including Fatkhurrohman and Esti -- and will give them the opportunity to implement their programs.
Through its CitiSuccess Fund 2004 program, the U.S.-based banking group awarded Rp 665 million (US$72,282) to the 133 teachers from Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya.
Each teacher will receive Rp 5 million, which is to be used to cover the operational costs for implementing their lessons.
The process of selecting the 133 teachers began with the submission of proposals. Eight jurors, including education experts, journalists and representatives of Citibank and the Hope Indonesia Foundation, then selected the best proposals.
Dewi Dewo, one of the jurors, said the 133 teachers were selected because their proposals were deemed feasible, fun, creative, clear, unique, enriching, connected to the country's curriculum and student-oriented.
The teachers are expected to implement their programs, in collaboration with a Citibank Peka volunteer, for 35 students each.
Ten of the teachers will then be selected in February 2005 and awarded Rp 5 million each by Citibank Peka for their efforts. In addition, Citibank will donate Rp 10 million to the teachers' schools.