Strong-willed Song

Smalane suci dalam pikiran
Smalane benar jika berkata
Smalane tepat dalam tindakan
Smalane dapat dipercaya

When I was a freshmen, joining orientation moments called PeNA (Pekan Pengenalan Almamater), every morning & afternoon I marched through the hall way, sang that song over and over. The song echoed in my heart, forced me to ask myself :
Do I have a pure mind (& heart)?
Do I tell the truth?
Do I do the right thing?
Can I be trusted?
Have I met the qualities they mentioned?
Am I good enough to be a smalane?

That idealist song is like a self-reflection, self-appraisal, muhasabah for me. Until today, everytime I sing that song, I will repeat the same question like in those days, “Do I have the qualities & qualifications to be regard as Smalane?”

I love that feeling. ‘Smalane’ always reminds me that I need to be a better person. Salute for the one(s) who wrote the song.

Smalabaya

Don’t Plan!

“I have a tendency to surprise myself”

John Grogan.Marley & Me.

That words stung me. It’s amazing to have yourself surprising you. It means you improve! You innovate. You don’t hold back in doing your things. You use all your potential and keep improving. Isn’t that great?

running in the baseball field

That’s how the movie got my attention. I watched Marley and Me while I was having my dinner. It is a story – well, I can say – about an ordinary life yet meaningful. The man is a reporter – and then turn to be – columnist, and his wife is also a feature reporter. It’s a story about their life, their family, and their hyperactive dog – Marley.

Jen, the wife, loves to plan everything whether John, prefers to let things happen then be surprise. But they get along well. They live their life smoothly, well a bit fight can’t be avoided. In the earlier stage of life, they live in a middle-class neighborhood, both of them work in different newspaper. Every morning they read each other’s articles and give comments.

Then after having a baby, they move to a better and safer neighborhood which also costs more -but it’s fine, they can afford it. Every week, John writes 2 – 3 columns, one of them talks about his life and Marley. But in his forty, after having 3 children and live happily, he starts to lose challenges and passions for his work. Jen realizes it and encourages him to move to Philadelpia, where John gets an offer of a position for reporter.

In Philadelphia, when they already have a better living standard, they choose to settle in suburb, give some more space for the kids. Hahahahaaa, I was laughing when I saw that. What an american lifestyle! Many times in the class, the lecturers said that high-class people tend to buy a house in suburb to have a peaceful and space to relax. Ah! Sou da ne. Now I really got what my lecturers mean. (Well, people in Indonesia usually don’t do that kind of thing, they tend to get close to the CBD).

Well, yep, but the most important thing is now I learn that having a plan for your life is good, but prepare to be surprised of what life might bring is better. And I wanna surprise myself! for good things of course.

For all this time, I’m a planner type of person. Well, I planned since I was child. I had my first life-map when I was 9 years old. I planned myself to be the best in my elementary, to attend SMP 1, SMA 5, IPB to have my agronomy degree, and go abroad to pursue MSc & PhD majoring agronomy, and also to go Haji. Ah, but at that time I forgot to mention ‘getting married‘. Hehee. (Well, most of them became reality, except the majoring, I took urban & regional planning  instead. And the higher degree things, I hope I can also make it come true in the future). Yup, I plan everything and when things don’t go my way, I got frustrated and then giving up on my plans. Ugh, bad habit.

My friends once said, Life is unpredictable and full of surprise. Yeah, it’s more important to prepare yourself to be surprised than stick to your plan and get frustrated. We, human, can only do our best in the present and Allah will decide the best destiny for us. And most of the time, the best destiny doesn’t match our earlier plan. But I’m sure Allah knows the best. As long as we keep improving, I think it’s fine.

So, it’s free for us to have dreams. It’s important for us to have a plan, but just don’t forget that life will always surprise us in every way. So be prepared. Anyway, that’s what makes life fun-dynamic-challenging-and not boring, isn’t it?

The Way We Think

— a fun phsycological fact

It’s interesting to find out that people have many ways to hook themselves to the knowledge. Some people think objectively, concretely, creatively, and even emotionally. So, what about you?

Harga Diri & Kepentingan

– Kepentingan siapa yang abadi? Harga diri siapa yang harus dipertahankan?

Hari selasa kemarin koran-koran ramai membahas arah koalisi Golkar. Apakah akan ke Blok M (Megawati) ataukah Blok S (SBY). Sampai saat inipun, sepanjang pemberitaan di koran, Golkar belum menentukan sikap. Dengan perolehan suara terbesar ke-3 dan track record sebagai partai pemenang pemilu 2004 dan partai tertua, tak heran jika Golkar disorot.

How to Teach Writing Class in Course (2)

This is the second day. it’s time to talk more specific about writing in english.

1. Greet everyone in class (plus teacher do the absent). Do NOT let the students fill the absent by themselves! C’mon, this is not a lecture class!
2. Review about their writings previous meeting. Hand them their works.
3. Ask what writing experience they have.
4. Ask their opinion about what writing is.
5. Give them the theories.. brief introduction about writing. bla bla blaaa… Lalalaaa,, the curriculum depends on the ability of the students, not only following what is given by ur upper admission.
6. Before the class is ended, remind the students that writing has a strong bond with reading. The more u read, the better u write. That’s why.. Give them a weekly task to read and review one article each week. Any articles depends on their interest. The review contains title, topic, writer, the goals of the articles, a short sinopsys, organization of the sentences & paragraph, the vocabularies and dictions student learns from it, etc.

~ Then each week spare some 30 minutes to discuss 2 – 3 articles that students bring.

~ Alternative task : blogging in english

Well, after all, the most important things are :

Just keep the class interactive and active so that the students won’t get bored.

Be prepared, don’t let urself looked ridiculous in front of ur students. It’s a sin and the students won’t respect u anymore.

Menuju Pemakmuran Perdesaan

—- The better one. We were asked to write an essay and we did it well. Otsukaresamadeshita, gals!

credits by Khairunnisa, Syifaa Tresnaningrum, & me (still the same formation, hehee)

Dibalik segala romantisme yang ditawarkan perdesaan, tersimpan banyak persoalan yang meliputinya. Persoalan-persoalan tersebut kemudian terakumulasi dan menimbulkan dua permasalahan utama, yaitu kemiskinan dan ketidakmerataan. Penting bagi perencana untuk memahami persoalan sebelum bisa menelurkan solusi yang tepat. Karena itu, esai ini akan diawali dengan memberi gambaran mengenai beberapa persoalan yang ada di Indonesia, lalu beranjak membahas mengapa persoalan-persoalan tersebut timbul. Setelah mendapat gambaran mengenai persoalan perdesaan, kita akan bergeser untuk mengetahui apa saja terobosan yang telah ditempuh untuk menyelesaikan persoalan perdesaan tersebut. Kemudian esai akan diakhiri dengan memberikan review atas solusi-solusi yang telah dijalankan.

Membangun Desa, Membangun Indonesia

— this one supposed to be a critical review, but we wrote it like an essay. Hahahahaa, this results bad grades. But it’s still worth reading since the idea is good. *hahaha, pembenaran*

credits by Khairunnisa, Syifaa Tresnaningrum, & me.

Desa bukanlah istilah yang tepat untuk menggambarkan kompleksitas perencanaan wilayah. Desa hanyalah suatu unit kecil dalam perdesaan. Namun unit kecil inilah yang menyusun Indonesia menjadi sebuah negara yang begini luas & besar. Dan memang tak bisa dipungkiri, desa yang kita miliki lebih banyak ketimbang kota. Atas dasar inilah desa menjadi suatu yang tak bisa dikesampingkan dalam perencanaan & pengembangan regional bahkan nasional.

How to Teach Writing Class (in course)

The ideal size of english class is around 10 – 15 persons. More than those numbers, it’s pretty difficult to make sure that each person understand the materials well. 

First impression is important, eventhough it doesn’t show everything

First day is introduction time and it’s a big chance for the teacher to make a good impression. On the first day, the teacher must :

1. be ready in the class before the students come and welcome the students.
2. introduce him/herself ; share a bit of ur thought about english & ur experience in learning english.
3. ask students to introduce themselves ; give them a little comment or story so that they feel appreciated & understood. *semoga ga lebay dh gw*
4. ask them one by one why they choose writing class
5. ask them what they expect to get from this class ; e.g A wants to be able to write an essay well, B wants to be able to write a thesis, C wants to have a better understanding in arranging paragraph.
6. what problems they usually encounter when writing in english; e.g lack of vocabulary, difficulty in developing the topic, used to write in indonesia, nervous. don’t forget to give a conclusion/review after each question, then keep those review in mind (or u can note them)
7. Few minutes before the class is dismissed, ask them to write their opinions or experiences in learning english.
8. While they write, teacher must stay in the class and take the time to recognize & memorize names and few descriptions of the students. Teacher is allowed to have a little chit chat.

Other things to be  concern :
~ Don’t forget to read those passages that students wrote. Still, don’t forget to take some notes to conclude & review. Make a few comments in each of their writing so that they feel their works are not in vain.

~ Oia! English teacher in courses MUST use english. Do not speak Indonesian (few words are fine, -remember, ‘words’ not ’sentences’). Believe me it is silly and sinful to do that in english course class. Teaching course is obviously different from teaching highschool and so on.

~ Put urself among the students. Have the students sit in a circle, the teacher is in the center. Do NOT sit too much. Teacher’s gestures must be flexible.

~ Always open up urself to questions.

—– based on experience. Next, the second-day-teaching tips will come soon!