A Tribute to My Best Pal

"We belong to Allah, and to Him we return."

Ayu, my best friend (left)

In 2010 we met for the first,

as new eleventh graders,

Under a new alma mater. 

We started to chatter.

We learned each other deeper.

We explored life further.

Time passed.

Some were full of jolly,

others were gloomy.

That’s totally okay.

In 2012 school life came to an end.

You decided to move to the capital,

To stand on your own after all.

We were separated.

Never forgot the bond we’ve created.

In 2013 you returned.

Independent and more mature than ever.

You said you wanted to level up your study here.

We enjoyed our own presence.

Life was full of twists and turns.

Time flew.

In 2017 we graduated and grew.

You chose to fly back to the capital.

That made me lonely and emotional.

Though we’ve set apart,

You never gave up pushing me forward.

2019 was my turning point.

As I decided to relocate.

To the place where you stayed.

There, you welcomed me very warmly.

You taught me how to travel quickly.

You said it’d do good when we were busy. 

Lots of ups and downs between our journey.

We embraced them and had fun in a few.

It’s 14 June 2023.

You left everyone with a smile

And a promise to be fine.

Only this time is for the better.

Our encounter is a big never.

Dear my best pal,

Please accept this farewell.

Nothing I would wish you well

but your joy wherever you dwell.

My heart is forever longing for you.

I’ll see you when I see you.❤️

What's a Narrative Poem?

A narrative poem is a poem that tells a story. Thus, it has a plot and one or more characters.

A narrative poem uses rhyming couplets. Rhyming couplets are two lines with rhyming words and the same number of beats in each line.

Rhyming words:

• dream - beam
• alone - own

Rhyming couplets 7 beats per line:

• I had a really odd dream.
• I sat under the moonbeam.

Example of Narrative Poem:

I was Late

By Gabe Siregar

I had a really odd dream.

I sat under the moonbeam.

I felt all alone,

being just on my own.

Then the ground was trembling.

I was shocked and crying.

My friend came with her meal.

She told me it wasn’t real.

I felt very pleased,

and also relieved.

I opened my eyes.

Everything looked nice.

I glanced at the clock.

It said eight o’clock.

Oh no, I was late for the class.

I had to get ready really fast!

NOUNS

  Nouns are names for people, places, things, or animals.

People	Animals	Places	Things
Plumber Doctor Mother Children Pupil	Giraffe Orca Coyote Dingo Beetle	Market Village Country Park School	Cheese Television Curtain Bus Tube

 

Example:   I took the  cat  with the red  collar  to a  vet  near my  house.       Explanation:   The word "cat" is an example of a noun for an animal.   The word "collar" is an example of a noun for a thing.   The word "vet" is an example of a noun for a person.   The word "house" is an example of a noun for a place.

Try these!

Use the nouns in the box to complete the following sentences.

Some _____ are located in the countryside. We can’t see _____, but we can feel it. Mom buys a new _____ for the upcoming summer. An alligator snapping turtle has a _____ which looks like a worm. That _____ loves to visit the library on the weekends. He sits near the _____ to keep his body warm. _____ are not whales. They are large dolphins.

fireplace woman fan tongue orcas factories air

Answer Keys: factories air fan tongue woman fireplace Orcas Get the pdf version of this lesson on: Nouns ~ en-ingles-por-favor

Descriptive Words

When writing a description, sense words tell how things look, feel, smell, sound and taste. These words make the description even more interesting.

What are some of these words?

1. Sense words related to sight indicate how something looks like. For instance: bright, shiny,dark, clear, yellowish, white, sparkling, scary, beautiful.

2. Sense words related to touch describe textures. For instance : rough, soft, smooth, bumpy, hard, fluffy.

3. Sense words related to hearing describe sounds. For instance : loud, quiet, buzzing, noisy, roar, pleasant.

4. Sense words related to taste describe the way our brain perceive the stimuli after having a bite something. For instance : bitter, sweet, sour, plain, spicy, yummy.

5. Sense words related to smell describe general quality of scent. For instance: stinky, flowery, moldy, tart, fresh.

 Below is an example of descriptive text using some sensory words.

My favourite food is strawberry pancake. It is brown  and smells very nice. Its soft texture makes it easy to cut with a spoon. I like it better with honey on it because the taste will get sweeter. It is simple to make because you don’t need a mixer to get fluffy batter. Therefore there will be no buzzing sounds in the kitchen. My dad always makes it for me whenever he is off work and I think I will help him this Saturday! 

 

What Parents Can Do to Improve Their Children Skills During Quarantine

It has been quite tough time for all of us around the world during this pandemic. We must limit ourselves to go out as well as maintaining physical distancing in order not to spread or even get infected to Covid-19 .

Schools, offices, public places, etc. have also been closed for weeks now but thank to TECHNOLOGY we can always manage to complete our work from HOME.

For parents who want to boost your children’s performance and skills while working at home, these are some key activities you can do.

     1.  Read aloud your children various books

When it comes to story time children are usually excited and curious for it.

Parents if you want your children to develop a love for reading, you can help them by reading them books aloud every day. Make sure to improvise the story to be more interesting so your children wonder how the story ends. In fact reading books aloud to children stimulates their imagination and expands their understanding about the world. Make sure you have collections of story books or e books.

I recently found a website https://www.kidsworldfun.com/ebooks.php sharing plenty of appealing free e books that your children might be interested in them. Download the pdf version from the page and start your children reading journey as soon as possible!

     2.    Make crafts

Children enjoy crafts so much especially if there are some cutting and pasting activities. Try to recycle unneeded supplies to let your children learn that we can use wasted materials for creating more useful stuff. When I was a child I enjoyed making paper chain decoration. I hung them on the window of my room and it looked beautiful when blown by the wind. Or if you still have some leftover paper plates from the previous birthday party you can use them to create bunny heads for wall decoration. Beside paper plates you will also need some other colourful paper used for the eyes and the ears. Well you can probably get them from your abandoned paper bags you keep for ages in your drawers!

      3.   Improve your children pencil gripping

As a teacher I have found a few students struggling with pencil gripping. All they need to do is simple; PRACTICE. Colouring, tracing and number connecting are nice activities that you can provide to your children in order to improve their pencil gripping. But there is a common problem that teachers and parents will face; SOME KIDS GET BORED EASILY while doing these activities. Then how do we manage? Well there are quite a lot of apps that will help us handle these problems. For me personally I usually use a magical app called QUIVER. It’s a really nice app you can download on Play Store or App store. It provides both paid and free colouring pages. Have print the pages you want and ask your children to colour, when they are done you can scan the coloured pages through the app and it will show you and your children the magic! Each character from the pages will be alive as well as moving around here and there on your phone screen. I believe your children will be amazed by this extraordinary magical experience and will ask for more pages to colour!

     4.   Develop your children letter recognition skills

Before helping children to recognise each letter from alphabet we have to ensure the children are aware with letter sounds and at least able to segment as well as blending the letter sounds. Once they reach this stage it will take no time for you parents to help them develop their letter recognition skills.

I know many parents have been so creative in helping their children boost these skills. Well I can share some that probably you have never done before. First you and your children can work together to decorate your children’s room or the whole house with letters of the alphabet. You can stick a sheet of big paper with letter on it on each thing found in your children’s room. For instance you can stick letter “d” on the “door” and “w” on the window. Children will see them many times and it will help them memorise the letters easily. Next you can set “letter hunt” time every afternoon. You can print paper with random letters on it. So their mission is to find out the letters needed as fast as they can.

 

:) :) stay safe and healthy everyone :) :) 

Journey of My Life

I’ve been really busy that I almost forget I have a blog needs to be updated! J

Well here is a little story about what I am currently doing.

In the beginning of January 2019 I left Bengkulu and decided to move to Jakarta, you know to find a better job, search more experience and definitely make more money. Even though I can’t deny my job in Bengkulu was also quite good. At least I could eat and sleep really well.

Yet you guys know who I am. I can’t just wake up and enjoy my lovely life without experiencing any challenges. I want to have a great journey and live my life in different way. I even have ever thought about being a van lifer!

I just want to know how it feels to stay in different places, to meet new people, and to see how other parts of this planet work. Luckily God is great, he gave just exactly what I wanted.

So I arrived in Jakarta on January 11^th. I stayed in my friend’s house in the first few months before moving up to my own place. She and her family were really nice to me. I couldn’t count how many times they said that they loved me as if I were part of their family.

And exactly two days after I landed in Jakarta I was invited for interview in some schools and English centres. My interview schedule was quite tight that I would have at least one school or English centre to visit each day. That was crazy!

Oh yeah I was going from one place to another place on my own. Riding trains, buses and motorcycle taxis without a company. I was grateful that nothing bad happened to me at that time. :P

Finally on 23^rd of January I signed for a year

 contract at one of English centres in Kemang South Jakarta. It’s called I Can Read which is centred in Singapore. At I Can Read our students are taught with special unique codes which make our learning system different from others.

I learn many things there especially about phonic method and how to deal with kids, for I Can Read is designed to help 2.5-15 year old kids read and develop their potential literacy acquisition. Most of our students come from international schools which means their first language is English, some of them still understand simple Bahasa anyway and nothing is wrong with that, I guess.

The first 4 months of me being one of English teachers there was hectic. I got to learn so many things like managing time and pronouncing English words in “high standard”. Can you imagine?

I had lots of trouble. I felt like I was an idiot person in that place. Well I understand that it’s fine to feel that way in order to get ourselves motivated. At the end all I can say is it all works, really works.

I am super excited that I have opportunity to work there and get exposed to English as much as I have never expected before. My colleagues are also the best. Their English is crazy and they definitely inspire me to be a better teacher. This is one of things I never found before. So I am lucky to be part of this team.

Here is a picture showing our I Can Read family. 

Not only working with Indonesians but I also work with foreigners. The senior teacher in my centre is from India. She is really nice and loves to share Indian foods with us. Yay finally I got a chance to taste paratha and pani puri!

Last but not least PLEASE don’t be afraid of trying something new which can elevate yourself. If you think you work in a place that can pay you well but you don’t feel like it is enough to develop the skills you have then change it, just change right away!

Believe me there are so many experiences you can gain out there. Get up and pursue your dreams. Don’t just stay in your comfy bed with hot choco in your hands. Our life can be brighter than the shining stars and can also be more sparkling than the alloy wheels of toy cars. Lol :P

If I can be happy with my choice then I believe you can be too. So take your steps, walk up the stairs and do believe that you are greater than you think! JJJJJ