I decided to name this post ‘Crazy Planning’ because prior to teaching the week, I go crazy thinking about what I am going to do for the week, making lots of resources, changing my mind, writing out planners, going into the classroom and actually teaching very little of what I plan! I seem to waste so much time before I start. By the end of the week, even though I am teaching the same year level, my lessons have changed dramatically!

Last week was no exception. I decided to use Kucing Pete (Pete the Cat) stories. Then I changed my mind and liked a story about going to school. I changed my mind again and decided on my 5 Focus words for the term (mau = want, pergi ke= go to, suka = likes, punya = has, ada = there is).  I also decided it was important to introduce the structures Siapa namamu? (What is your name?) and Nama saya ___. (My name is ___)

We spent the first few minutes of class marking the roll (saying ‘ada’ instead of here), explaining a bit about TPRS and the rules, and what ‘Pak’ and ‘Bu’ mean. (Mr and Mrs). I told the class my name and wrote it on the board, spelling out the letters in Indonesian. I have to consciously remind myself to do this. I told the kids it was important to listen to this spelling out because one day, at some random time, I will spell out a name. If they recognise it as theirs they will win a prize! They listened very well!

At the beginning of the week, in each class I spent about 20 minutes in Indonesian, then did an Indonesian mapping activity. I told them my name, then showed them laminated pictures of different characters and asked them ‘Nama saya SpongeBob?’ ‘Nama saya Elsa?’ and they had to gesture thumbs up or down and say ‘ya’ or ‘tidak’. They loved this activity and were very attentive. I thought the students from last year would be bored stiff but I was wrong! Then I asked about five students (one at a time) to come out and I circled with ‘Nama dia Spiderman?’ ‘Nama dia Ana?’ (Just ya and tidak answers for the young ones) They laughed each time I asked if a boy was Elsa, Ana, etc. I shook their hands and said ‘Terima kasih’ after each person helped me out. I asked them in English ‘What did I just say to them?’. For older students I used ‘Nama dia George atau SpongeBob?’ as well.

Then I introduced Kucing Pete to the class. I told them his name and asked them his colour (biru) in Indonesian. I asked personal questions about his shoes, and the colour of their shoes. I did some TPR to wake them up a bit, with ‘Berdirilah’ (stand up), ‘Duduklah’ (sit down), ‘Lari’ (run) and ‘Berjalan’ (walk). Most classes had new students to the school so I did not want to introduce too much new vocab.

With Year 2 and 3, I placed names of Indonesian islands around the room and I said Pergi ke Bali! Pergi ke Kalimantan! We mixed it up a bit with “Perempuan, pergi ke Sumatera!” “Laki-laki, pergi ke Jawa!” Lots of fun, they really had to think about perempuan and laki-laki.

After this, we sorted out books from last year and did a simple mapping activity. With some classes, I asked them to draw, colour and name ‘Kucing Pete’. They did a great job!

By the end of the week, I had taken out the worksheet part of the lesson, asked the students to sit in a semi-circle on chairs (too uncomfortable on the floor!) and added an extra TPRS activity.

I put some items in a bag. They were all cognates: apel, truk, pensil, pena, stiker, stroberi and yoyo. I told them our new word was ‘ada’ (there is). We made a gesture for it and repeated the word. I demonstrated its meaning by taking all the items out of the bag one at a time and telling the students ‘Ada apel. Ada truk. etc’

Then I said “Memori! Memori!” I placed them back in the bag, repeating ‘Ada truk’ etc.

I asked them “Ada oranghutan?” (cogates again!) “Ada televisi?” etc, including the items I had in the bag. They said (and gestured) ya or tidak.

All were attentive during this activity! It was fun! I should have then got the Year 3s to write down what they remembered was in the bag, but instead we wrote sentences about each item. Ada apel. Ada truk. etc

Overall, I was really happy with the week. I know I didn’t stay 90% Indonesian in some classes, (esp those with more challenging students!) but we did have ‘housework’ to take care of. Still the goal for this week!