Simple Simplicity

  Yesterday, I joined three webinars from British Council. So guys, if you are English teachers, or you are interested in teaching, I do suggest you to join this “club”. Open the link teachingenglish.org.uk then register. It’s free, you can look for thousands of lesson plan and fun activities there, and once you’ve been registered, you can access its monthly newsletter (it’s sent through email) and join its free webinars just like I did! The seminars were “Setting up Activities and Tasks Efficiently in 5 Steps” by Ela Moyle, “Gentle Discipline in Classroom Management” by Zahra Zuhair, and “Creating Your Own Learning Materials – Six Easy Steps” by Desislava Duridanova. For me personally, the webinar from Zahra from Bahrain was the greatest one. Zahra is an ESL teacher (with a DELTA qualification) with the British Council since 2014 and a graduate of International Relations (MA) from the University of Leicester. She is also a researcher on various subjects related to teaching. On...

Monday Extensive Speaking 3 Monday Extensive Speaking (MES) is one of newest programs launched by Yayasan Pendidikan Raudlatul Ulum (YPRU) besides Tahfidz, Multimedia Activities, Special Class, and others. Its presence is as a proof that YPRU always keeps improving, in a line with its motto, “One steap ahed in both ‘ ilmu amaly and amal ilmy .” MES is a program delivered by Syaikh Ahmad Ragab Abdela Dessouki from Egypt in every two weeks, and it talked about Islamic things in English            . There are two sessions in every MES meeting; the material delivery and the Q&A session. Monday, October 10 th 2022 was the third meeting of MES, and Syaikh took “The Secret of Tajwid Rules” as the topic. The secret here meant the reasons of the rule. Syaikh asked students in the beginning, “You learn all tajwid rules and you know them, right? But do you know why? Why is idzhar pronounced clearly, while ikhfa’ is not? Anyone knows?”...

    Today was the second meeting of Raudlatul Ulum’s new program called Monday Extensive Speaking (MES) with Syaikh Ahmad Ragab Abdela Dessouki from Egypt. I find this second meeting much more interesting than the first one. Syaikh told us not only about tajwid, but also about the history of Al-Qur’an, the process of its journey into us today. In its first coming, Al-Qur’an was delivered by Jibril to Prophet Muhammad verbally, then our Prophet memorized it. The way to recite Al-Qur’an just the way it was. There were no idgham , ikhfa , and others like what we know today. For the next generations, especially those who live outside Arab, it is hard to know how to recite Al-Qur’an the same like what The Prophet did then. That is why, tajwid exists. “ Tajwid ” is actually derived from an Arabic word “ jayyid ” which means improvement. It was made to help us to recite Al-Qur’an the way Rasulullah Muhammad SAW did. Why should we do? Because Al-Qur’an is special; It is the words ...

Dear, Bapak- Ibu guru dan orangtua di rumah... Apakah Bapak dan Ibu masih sering merasa frustrasi ketika anak- anak mendapatkan nilai jelek? Atau malah menghukumnya?   Perkenalkan, saya adalah seorang ibu sekaligus guru. Di rumah, saya memiliki 2 anak laki- laki dan di sekolah, saya memiliki ratusan murid. Selama ini, saya selalu berharap mereka semua mendapatkan nilai- nilai yang baik. Sebenarnya ini bukan sebuah kesalahan, ini normal. Tapi, ini juga tidak sepenuhnya sebuah kebenaran.  Jika Bapak/ Ibu saat ini berusia sekitar 30 tahun (atau bahkan lebih), maka mungkin Bapak/ Ibu adalah  millenials . Sebagai informasi, generasi milenial adalah mereka yang lahir pada rentang tahun 1980- 1995.  Dalam era belajar kita dahulu, bisa dibilang bahwa nilai adalah segalanya. Jika kita menjadi 5 besar di kelas, maka orang akan menganggap kita siswa yang pintar. Pada era kita juga, Ujian Nasional (UN) adalah segalanya. Tidak peduli seberapa pintar atau rajin seseorang, jika...

Who doesn’t know him? Hell yeaahh, Denny Caknan! The number-one Javanese artist right now! Denny Caknan was born on December 10, 1993. The guy who ever became a street sweeper before becoming this popular, is a proud singer of his (East) Javanese language. In most of his songs, he uses Javanese. Isn’t is such a real deed to preserve Javanese language? In his very young age, he has made up greatly in Indonesian music industry. Started with “Kartonyono Medhot Janji” which was released on May 5, 2019, he has repeatedly made booming songs such as Sugeng Dalu, Los Dol , etc. Fyi, Kartonyono Medhot Janji has got 209 million views on youtube. It’s such a record in Indonesian music history. Some awards like Lagu Patah Hati Terbaik (The Best Brokenhearted Song), Lagu Patah Hati Favorit (The Favorite Brokenhearted Song) and Penyanyi Terambyar Pria Terbaik (The Most Ambyar* Male Singer) were also already achieved by him. Denny Caknan obviously makes some breakthroughs in his creation...

  Assalamualaikum , Pak Cik . Terimakasih telah menulis novel macam Guru Aini tu .     “Teachers who make Physics boring are criminals.” (Walter Lewin) Pak Cik pasti lebih tahu siapa itu Pak Lewin. Yang jelas, “quote” beliau indah sekali. Saya seorang guru, Pak Cik . Seorang guru Bahasa Inggris. Membaca novel Guru Aini membuat saya tergelak sekaligus terharu. Saya bisa dengan tepat merasakan menjadi Aini, seorang anak yang sama sekali tak becus dalam urusan matematika. Karena saya dulupun sama sepertinya. Tidak mengerti dan tak kunjung mengerti matematika, lalu menjadi bebal dan putus asa mempertanyakan dimana letak keindahannya. Belum lagi ditambah trauma dengan para guru matematika yang selalu terkenal dengan ke-“horor”-annya. Saya juga sangat bisa dengan tepat merasakan kegelisahan ibu guru Desi Istiqomah, Pak Cik . Banyak sekali kesamaan di antara kami ni , meskipun mungkin saya tak sehebat beliau. Pening kepala ni Pak Cik, mengajar sudah menggebu- g...

  Indonesia memiliki kurang lebih 652 bahasa daerah. Dengan begitu dapat dianggap bahwa di negeri ini, bahasa daerah adalah bahasa pertama, Bahasa Indonesia adalah bahasa kedua, dan bahasa asing adalah bahasa ketiga (bila diajarkan). Meskipun begitu, tentu saja kita tidak bisa meng- general -isasikan bahwa semua seperti itu. Selalu ada pengecualian dalam hampir setiap kasus, bukan? Di kota besar seperti Jakarta, mungkin bahasa Indonesia adalah bahasa pertama, bukan kedua. Saat ini pula, banyak orang tua—terutama kalangan “atas”—yang menyekolahkan anaknya di sekolah- sekolah internasional. Di sekolah semacam itu, kita tahu bahwa bahasa keseharian yang digunakan adalah Bahasa Inggris. Bahkan terkadang beberapa dari anak- anak itu tidak terlalu fasih berbicara Bahasa Indonesia. Mereka lebih lancar berbahasa asing, Bahasa Inggris. Sebaliknya, di daerah- daerah yang masih kuat muatan nilai- nilai lokalnya, bahasa daerah masih menjadi dewa. Mereka yang mengajarkan anaknya Bahasa Indo...