This is my first blog that I am writing now. I named it "Returning Teacher" .. Why ? Because it represents my condition at the moment. Well, you can say that I "used to be" a Teacher; an English Teacher to be more precised, ( or at least that's what I had in mind ). I use the terminology "used to be" which is a past tense, because I was an English teacher 20 years ago; I am not anymore today; and I want to be ONE again tomorrow ! So I am Returning to be an English Teacher again ! I hope that explained the background of my Blog's name.
What brings me to this "Blogging" activity all of a sudden ? I'm no blogger before ! I only read several blogs that attracted my attention once in a while in the past( one of it was my cousin's blog - an aircraft expert who used to work for Airbus Industry in France, but now migrated to Canada - He named his blog "VeroVenia", and it's all about aircraft stuffs, professionally written with close to perfect English Language ! ( totally different with this super basic blog of mine you're reading ! ). Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me.... :-)
Well it all started one day when I first saw this "Language Village" banner in front of a small ruko in Bali View, Cirendeu, Ciputat - Tangerang Selatan when I was day-dreaming in my parked car, waiting for my son attending his Saturday-morning Sakamoto Math Course class at one of the rukos near to this ruko with the above mentioned banner.
I stepped out of my car, and take a closer look at the banner, and walked to the ruko and greeted by a very friendly "bule" gentleman to whom I opened a conversation by asking what is this "Language Village" all about. After giving me explanation, this
very nice Australian gentleman then invited me to his "Mastermind Gathering" that he is arranging every fortnight, consisting of English Teachers from Jakarta and surroundings , to give the opportunity to meet, share and discuss any topic about English Teaching stuffs, which to me is very interesting - in line with my plan to become a "Returning Teacher" .
To make the story short, I did go to his first "Mastermind" gathering on 31 May 2014, where I met about 12 other teachers from various institutions and backgrounds; from elementary schools, secondary schools, private teachers as well as a lecturer at the University of Indonesia; and the second Gathering was on 14 June 2014 where I met a totally different crowd, consisting of 2 young fresh graduated teachers from UIN Jakarta, who are now teaching English at Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta - Ciputat, focussing in English Conversation - who brought their 6 students along to give them experience in speaking English outside their campus, which to me it was a good thing to do !
And the topic of the second gathering was "Teacher Bloggers", where Mr. Hugh Elliot Al Faruq ( the nice and friendly gentleman's name ) - the owner and founder of "Language Village" gave us the steps and tips to start a simple blog of our own !
So .. Voila ! As you can see .... I have my own blog now ! And hopefully I can follow what Mr. Elliot has advised us in the meeting about blogging :
- Discipline ( I usually do that at the beginning of something ,
and gradually fades away ).
- Focus on a specific theme ( I tend to mix everything I had in
mind when writing something ! )
- Make different blogs to write different themes ( After trying this
very user friendly blogging machine, I'd make more blogs for
sure ! )
Well, I think I better stop writing now for my first "episode" of my blog, so that I still have things to write for my next postings ! I promise I will be focussed and relate my writing(s) to my blog's name : "Returning Teacher". - So I will try to write only the aspects around Teaching stuffs !
Million of thanks to pak Hugh Elliot ( he always calls me pak Rilwan, so I'd better call him pak Hugh as well ) for being part of my plan to become a Returning Teacher !
See you all in my next postings ! ( Crossing my fingers ).
Salam Hangat,
Rilwan Hamzah
15 June 2014
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