Thanking the Almighty through Poetry

THERE are many ways to express our feelings. Some say it verbally and some say it in writing. One of the ways to express our feelings is through thoughtfully composed words of poetry. A Bahasa Indonesia teacher at MTsN Pohjentrek Pasuruan, Nur Lailatul Inayah, tried to introduce just that to the students in her class. Even though the school is located far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, students and teachers are really motivated to implement quality teaching and learning. In one of the lessons, students were encouraged to appreciate the beauty of nature and to write it down in the form of poetry.

The teacher used calendars which had beautiful nature pictures as a learning resource. This was done to help students explore their ideas and create works of art. Students were given freedom to work on that task. Students were allowed to work on it inside or outside the classroom. Students enthusiastically worked on this task. Words came out and were put together as students wrote on their paper. "We like today's lesson because we can express our gratitude to the Almighty through poetry," said one of the students.

Learning English Using Paper Wayang Puppets

INDONESIA is a great nation with a diverse culture. Sadly, the young generation does not seem to show interest in its own culture. They tend to prefer imported products and culture. Supriyanto, an English teacher at SMP Muhammadiyah 5 Tulangan, Sidoarjo realized this fact. To encourage his students to love their culture more, he combined traditional art into his teaching. Students in his class were introduced to wayang puppets which would be used to make a play in English. The basic competencies to be taught in the lesson were reading and writing functional text. The lesson began with the teacher distributing text to students.

After the students had read the text, they did role play using the paper wayang puppets. There is a reason why Supriyanto used wayang as learning media. As well as to encourage students to love Indonesian culture, he also used the wayang and the lesson to communicate a message. So what was actually written in the text? The text discussed conservation of Indonesian culture, a culture that is ironically being claimed by other nations.