Civic Initiative

Reren got married!

2007-01-31T08:28:00.000-08:00

Dear everybody,

Great news! Reren got married!!! This is the first marriage after completition of APD and Indonesian programs 2006 that I know of. Moreover, the story is very romantic.... and Reren is beautiful (as you can see on the picture) and happy.
Here is the story (quoting Reren's letter to me):

...There is also an interesting story which everyone might want to know. I'd like to tell you about it. I firstly met him on December 6, 2006. My Boss told me about him2 or 3 days before. He said there was someone wanted to know me more. He told me everything about him, and I thought why not. So, when he asked me to meet him i couldn't agree more.
So, my boss arranged our meeting. I had chance to see and talk about many things with him. After that Rino (my husband) often called me and visited me at home. He said he wanted to have serious relationship with me. He said I was the perfect soulmate for him. After a few days he told me that he wanted to mary me. I was very surprice and happy too I told my parents and they really liked the news since they really wanted me to get married soon.
We planned to get maried in March, 2007. But then My grandmother from Riau called me and said that according to her and my grand father calculation, January would be a great time to get married. Rino and I taught there was no excuse to refuse the offer, so we arranged simple wedding ceremony. That's why we didn't invite many people. Just relatives and closest friends...

Ceremony took place January 5, 2007 at 3pm.

I(Sasha) along with all staff of Civic Initiative congratulate Reren and Rino. We wish them happiness, long life together, and lots of love!

Democracy in Bahrain

2006-11-26T22:17:00.000-08:00

Here are two articles regarding the recent Parlimentary elections in Bahrain.

http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/11/26/ap3203747.html

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=162907&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29252

Post Elections and Thanks

2006-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the birthday wishes from everyone. The tee shirts were not authorized by me!

Thanks to James Breen for posting the interesting election article. We intend to become more active in posting articles, quotes and comments regarding civics and democracy. Please send us your sites, ideas, pictures, etc as well.

Mike

Post Election

2006-11-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article regarding the newley elected Representatives and Senators and the orientations program they are required to attend. It also discusses some issues to come up during the last few weeks of the 109th Congress.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/13/congress.returns.ap/index.html

CI team at Mike's Birthday

2006-11-02T07:12:00.000-08:00

Here is the picture of our team. Do you recognize a face on our t-shirts???

THE POWER OF NETWORKING:ETA ENGLISH TEACHER ASSOCIATION

2006-11-02T04:50:00.000-08:00

Dear CI Fellow and all alumni,

As the alumni of Summer Institute for Secondary Educators 2005, We have commitment to contribute something to our society as the result of our study in United State upon our return. So, with that spirit I gather all the English teachers in South Surabaya region and held a workshop, at the same time forming an English Teacher Association (ETA), which is meant for the private schools teachers.

This following article is written by my fellow English teacher in AL Hikmah, trying to give pictures of what it was like in the workshop. Enjoy it.

How long have you been studying English? Perhaps we have been studying English for quite many years. Probably starting when we were in secondary school. Anyway, can you speak English well?. These question still become a problem in English teaching in Indonesia. The question arise is whether English teaching in Indonesia has effective or not.

We get used to undergoing different curriculums. Each syllabus offers different methods in English teaching but sometimes the implementation in the classroom has no difference at all. It means that not all English teacher are aware on the fast changing of the curriculum, as today we are applying competence based curriculum towards KTSP ( Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan). Many teachers interpret this curriculum differently one another. Moreover, the characteristic of the national exam of this curriculum are rather different from the former one. Therefore, SMP AL Hikmah tried to make use the networking of schools in South Surabaya Region by holding a workshop under the theme “ Sukses UNAS 2006-2007, Menyongsong KBK 2006” on Saturday, September 9, 2006. The main purpose of this occasion is to build the network among schools as one of the vision of the school, which is to be able to give benefits to the school’s environment.

The place was in the library of SMP AL Hikmah Surabaya. Around fifty-five English teachers from private schools in South Surabaya region come to the workshop. With two facilitators who were the national trainers of Competence Based Curriculum, the workshop was running very well. The first facilitators, Drs. Edy Kuntjoro who is the former principle of AL Hikmah Junior high and now reside in The senior high gave a presentation to put a strong basis of the real teaching itself. And it’s all about perception.

Mr. Edy said that as teacher, we have to build a good perception to our students. And b having this thought, we hope that both teachers and students will enjoy the process of teaching and learning. “ Teaching is not always in the classroom but it can also be an outdoor activities”, he added. He also emphasize on how teachers should encourage the students to use the language they have learned into a real meaning, which is practicing. Motivate them by talking with them only in English during the classroom activities and after class. He emphasize that acquiring a language is not an instant result but coming from a long process of using it in daily life. At the end of his presentation, he tried to build a strong impression that teaching could be a fun activities no matter how serious the lesson is. “ Dead Poet Society” is the movie that told us that teachers is truly the agent of change.

Meanwhile, Slamet Setiawan, Lecture of UNESA, as the core program of the workshop present the strategy of teaching different kind of texts to students in a very interesting ways. Participants were enjoying the activity very much, with all the creativity in teaching, they tried to perform their best and present each text assigned to them perfectly. One group presented narrative text in a way of putting series of pictures about the folk story, then teacher give model on how to make a narrative text. Very interesting!!.

Mr. Slamet was also explaining about the strategy of facing the national exam itself. Listening that has never been part of the national exam previously, has become one of the competencies that students must have acquired to face UNAS. The other competencies are the linguistic and socio-cultural.

The participants are excited with all the activities. At the end of the workshop, we made an agreement to established an association namely English Teacher Association (ETA) with Ustadzah Silvia from SMP AL Hikmah elected as the chief of the association. And further, forming a small committee to organize the follow up activities which planned to be held after Aidil Fitr holiday. In conclusion, all the activities of the program was meant to share what Al Hikmah has got to others and in attempt to put in real the program of contributing to the community as the vision and mission of Al Hikmah.

Hope this is a good start and encourage other alumni to do something in their community

silvia

Kerry's own goal?

2006-11-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've never paid so much attention to this issue before but the political athmosphere prior to the Nov 7 election in the US is really getting me interested.
I said to someone the other day, although the Democrats are likely to win big time for the Congress in this election, a lot could still happen before that day.
And guess what... It turns out to be true. Kerry's statement yesterday about the American kids sent to Iraq seems to be a big advantage to the Republicans. Kerry said (well, not literally) that the kids sent to the battle in Iraq are not the smart ones. I have no idea how it is an advantage for them but a lot of media believe so.
Anyway, let's just wait and see what happens next.

Happy Birthday Mike!

2006-11-01T06:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Mike. Wish you all the best with your jobs and May God always blesses you and your family! Miss you all so much!

Hello

2006-10-31T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

First thing: Happy Birthday Mike. Wish you all the best in life.

It's so great to have this discussion forum. Sorry, a little late.
By the way, today there's a very interesting discussion on tv here in Australia about the remarks made by a muslim cleric/mufti/Islamic community leader a few days ago about the Australian women dress which he mentioned as a assault triggering and immodest.I don't know I just think that he should not have said it given he is holding a position that represents a lot of other people inside muslim community in Australia. This issue is definitely sensitive in such a diverse society here. That sort of personal reflection I think shouldn't be made public because it would definitely create instability in his own community which is already 'not very stable' along with some labels.
Anyway, the discussion about this issue is getting hotter I think, well, probably not as hot as in the US prior to the Nov 7 election. It seems to be a bit tough for Republican these days, doesn't it Jeff?
All the best for you too Jeff, and everyone.
Kismullah

HOT MUD IS DROWNING HISTORY IN PORONG!!!

2006-10-31T04:33:00.000-08:00

Dear all fellows ,

What a wonderful job you have, Sasha. This is what we were always waiting for. I think this is the best media to share with others since email is kinda limited (in certain way) to express or maybe as Sam said tell the world of what happened with us.

Sasha, I have checked alumni’s blogs, but I didn’t see yours personally . Where’s yours???. I know Mike’s!!.

Well, Since you put pictures of the beautiful new england in fall and Sam talked about Kalimantan. Now, I just wanna share about things happened in my home town which made me so sad whenever I remember how my life, in terms of place where I brought up, will be drowning in the hot mud in the next one or two years and there’s nothing I could do or anyone could about it.

Mud has drown almost 5 vilages right now. The public facilities are also in danger as this is unstoppable. Highways, railway path and other public facilities. Even the govt. predict that It wont stop till the next 20 years. Could you imagine that??. Hope This is God’s will for the best. I put pictures of what it is like. Quite satire when I see the beauty of New England in Fall. I missed Amherst.

And about me, I am now running a state govt. program to organize an alumni association for Surabaya chapter. I am so proud as well as worried. Am I good enough to carry this big thing??. I read the whole thing about organizing alumni in alumni web and this is really a challenge. There are 11,000 alumni through out the country and this is our responsibility to give back to the society. And this is something that one person could not do alone. So, help me out here. Pray for the best ( for both of them).

2006-10-31T01:37:00.000-08:00

october 31,2006
Dear all fellows,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE
wish you all the best in the world

ehmmm...the party must be great.. post the picts. please

silvia

Mike's Birthday!

2006-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Civic Initiative Alumni!
I would like to announce that Mike's Birthday will be on this Sunday, 29 November 2006!!!!! Civic Initiative staff members start to celebrate this world holiday this Friday. Please join us in this celebration!
Sasha

Hi everyone...!

2006-10-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks a lot Sasha for creating this blog for all of us to keep in touch. I hope everyone is fine and Sam, I am sorry I haven't kept my promise about our previous blog.

BALIKPAPAN ICT-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING LINGKAGE (BALIBALING)

2006-10-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Civic Initiative Staff Members, Alumni and Interested Parties,

As an Indonesian Educator and alumnus of The US Department of State Educators Exchange Program, I have always been dreaming about promoting every single aspect of life belongs to the two countries; Indonesia and America to those who have not had first-hand experience on them. I am, therefore, planning to launch a virtual forum which I refer it as BALIKPAPAN ICT-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING LINGKAGE (BALIBALING) in the near time. BALIBALING is an ICT-Based education and exchange forum where teachers and students in Balikpapan can VIRTUALLY share and exchange information about cultures, customs, politics, life stiles, arts, history, education, technology as well as teaching and learning materials with other teachers and students in Amherst, USA. In order to be able to actively participate in this forum, each member or participant has to possess good command of English and computer literacy. Thus, possessing good English communication skill is applied as one of initial requirements to be member or participant of such a forum. For this reason, I have decided to establish two supporting programs for those who are interested in joining it. The two programs are carrying out WORKSHOPS ON ICT-BASED ACTIVE LAERNING AND TEACHING (1) and conducting VIRTUAL TEACHERS & STUDENTS EXCHANGE PROGRAM (2). The establishment of BALIBALING and its two supporting programs are to be included in my collaborative post-action project which is entitled DEVELOPING AND EMPOWERING ICT-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING LINGKAGES AMONG TEACHERS-STUDENTS IN BALIKPAPAN AND TEACHERS-STUDENTS IN AMHERST, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The final goal of this project is that to help its participants have better learning & teaching skills using ICT and promote mutual understanding about Indonesia and America among them. This project will last from November 2006 until October 2007.

There will be two groups of teachers-students expected to participate in this project; teachers-students reside in Balikpapan, Indonesia and those living in Amherst, USA. Through VIRTUAL TEACHERS & STUDENTS EXCHANGE PROGRAMS (VTSEP), those two groups will interactively share and discuss about particular topics ranging from cultures, customs, politics, life styles, arts, history, education, technology as well as teaching and learning materials one to another. Besides that, they will also participate in some workshops on ICT-Based Active Learning and Teaching (IBALT). This program is compulsory especially for those who have not had adequate skills in joining the VTSEP.

To reach the final goal of this project, all primary program activities are designed in order to lead each participant to study best practices of using ICT and using them for better learning and teaching while promoting self awareness about country’s heritages belong to both sides. All program activities and time frames of the project are outlined as follows;

A. NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2006: PRELEMINARY PREPARATION
1. Proposal Finalization.
2. Making project exposures and publications.
3. Founding and declaring the foundation of BALIKPAPAN ICT-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING
LINGKAGE (BALIBALING).
4. Making preliminary contacts with teachers and students in Amherst, USA.
5. Proposing the project to the US Department of State for program financing support.

B. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007: WORKSHOPS ON ICT-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING AND
TEACHING.
1. BASIC PROGRAM: Using Word processing, Spread Sheet, Internet and Electronic Mails
[E-mails].
2. INTERMEDIATE PROGRAM: Using Power Point, Front Page, Intranet [LAN], E-mailing
Group and Weblog.
3. ADVANCED PROGRAM: Using Pinnacle, Photoshop and making simple website to design
and publish on and off-line learning and teaching materials.

C. MARCH-SEPTEMBER 2007: CONDUCTING VIRTUAL TEACHERS & STUDENTS
EXCHANGE PROGRAM (VTSEP).
1. Preliminary Activities:
· Making further contacts with American teachers and students both individually and
organizationally.
· Setting up an agreement of collaboration to establish and empower VTSEP.

2. Main Activities:
· Introduction: Sharing pictures of exchange program participants, school activities, cultural
events and interesting objects.
· Cross Culture Understanding: Exchanging Cultural values, customs and life styles of
people living in both countries; Indonesia and America.
· Discussing about American and Indonesian education systems in general.
· Discussing about schooling systems; facilities, teachers, students, curriculum, school
regulations, dressing codes, tuition fee, examinations, extracurricular activities, parents’
involvement in school funding, teachers’ salary, teachers’ associations or federations,
students’ union, etc.
· Sharing ideas about general issues commonly discussed by people in both country;
Indonesia and America, and
· Other Free-Topic Discussions.

C. OCTOBER 2007: PROJECT EVALUATION
1. Surveying project outcomes, and
2. Asking for Feedbacks from participants for project improvement.

At present I am still working on completing proposal [guidelines] of the project. If any of you find it interesting and have ideas to make it better, please feel free to write me back. Your ideas are highly appreciated. For Staff Member of Civic Initiative, would you please do me a favor to let teachers and students in Amherst and around know this project ? I’ve also made initial contacts through emails and let American teachers, students and interested parties we have worked with in the Civic Initiative program know about it.

Any ideas and comments shall be addressed to http://www.civicinitiative.blogspot.com/. If anybody has not had access or think it’s not a good idea to sent them to the link, please feel free to do so to the following email addresses; syamsul_etc@yahoo.com or szarnuji@yahoo.com. Thank you for your help and kind attention. I’m looking forward to hearing from and working with you soon !

Regards,

Syamsul Aematis Zarnuji
The 2006 US Department of State Program Alumnus.

Office : SMK Negeri 1 Balikpapan, Jl. Marsma R. Iswahyudi No. 1 Sepinggan Balikpapan, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia 76115
Telephone : +62 542 761 941
Facsimile : +62 542 761 985
E-mail : syamsul@smk1-balikpapan.com
Website : http://www.smkn1-balikpapan.com/

Home : Perum. Her Utama Mandiri, Jl. Sepinggan Baru Blok J/19 Sepinggan, Balikpapan, Kalimantan Timur-Indonesia 76115
Telephone : +62 542 877 635
Mobile : +62 811 531 471
E-mail : syamsul_etc@yahoo.com
Weblog : http://www.zarnuji.blogspot.com/

Smoke is everywhere in Kalimantan !

2006-10-17T01:24:00.000-07:00

Hi.. Sasha and CI Alumni,

What a good idea of creating this blog ! Congratulation for this terrific job ! I’m so glad to join it .You know, when we all last met in Singapore on the way back home from US a few months ago, I spoke to the 2006 CI alumni to keep contact each other. Hikmah promised to create an emailing group to link us with other alumni. Yet it still disappears. I know she must have been very busy as I have always been since we returned to Indonesia. I hope others will no longer wait it too long and find this blog more interesting to share in than just doing it in an emailing group. Wake up, buddy, pls tell something you are tuning in to the rest of the world out there !

Btw, how’s everything going on in Amherst, Sasha ? Still extremely hot or cold ? What’s the season now ? I’d really love to see and feel it again someday. We are still having a ‘real summer’ in Indonesia. We’re here in dry season now. We’ve got no rain at all during these last two months especially in Balikpapan, even in most parts of Kalimantan island. Farming lands, forests and trees are extremely dry. There have been fires on them so that smoke has polluted air everywhere. People living in the island have been suggested to wear maskers when they are outside. They’ve also got to turn on the car’s lights for safety reason when driving because of very close sight they’ve had. It’s indicated that some car accidents have happened because of the smoke disaster. Many flight schedules from and to most domestic airports in the island have also been canceled. This is really disturbing, not only for those living in the island but also our neighbor countries. That’s why it is now becoming a national issue, and I hope the government can treat it properly although this has been our serious problem for years. Any ideas to solve it ?

Fyi, I’m now very busy coordinating a program of DHARMASISWA. It’s a European educators exchange program hosted by the Education Department of the Republic of Indonesia. The program was launched two months ago and will last for a year. Participants of the program come from some countries in Europe and are supposed to study Indonesian culture and customs while teaching particular subjects in some secondary vocational schools in Indonesia. We’ve got five of them in our school and they will teach English and French to non English teachers and students until August 2007. It is, indeed, a very valuable program not only for the participants, Indonesian teachers and students in our school but also for me as a coordinator at least to keep practicing my English. As one of alumni of a similar program, my experience in joining the Indonesian Educators Exchange Program in the US a few months ago has helped me manage the program in a well organized way. Yet, there has always been something missed, I guess and in fact, it’s always challengeable [if not difficult] to make everybody satisfied all times although I’ve tried to do my best to serve them. Doesn’t any of you have an idea on how to make this such a program run smoothly, full of fun and enjoyable ?

Ups ! I’ve written too much. I wonder if you could spend a little while to read it. Please feel free to write me back if you like. I’ve got to go now. See you and take care !

Ps. My best regards to Mike, Lonce, Paul, Laurence and other staff member of CI

Sam

New England Foliage

2006-10-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

New England area is very famous with its beautiful fall season. I know that some people wanted to see it and asked me for pictures. Here are pictures of New England Foliage.

Weblog Workshop for Teachers

2006-10-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

My first collaborative work between Alumni Teachers and my institution Madania School was to conduct a one-day ICT workshop for teachers on Saturday Oct 7, 2006 at Madania campus, Parung, Bogor. On the workshop entitling "The advantanges of weblog in the learning processes", I was asked to deliver a sharing time with the participants, who were teachers and school administrators, about my experience in creating and benefitting weblog. After sharing, I trained about 50 teachers on how to create a weblog. Each participant received a tutotial book about Blogging provided by State Alumni Teachers. After the workshop, the participants now have had a weblog and they would optimize it in publishing and supporting the process of learning in their classrooms. This workshop was also a collaboration among, Madania School, Alumni Teachers, Microsoft, and Detikinet. Click http://photos.yahoo.com/jalueleven for more photos.

Hi from Jalu!

2006-10-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I would like to congratulate the Civic Initiative for its Weblog launched recently. I am very glad to have it and great job for Sasha for her initiative in the creation of this blog. I am sure that this blog will be such a great on-line resource media in which we can share our ideas, thoughts, news, activities, and events related to the institution and the Indonesian alumni. We hope that the Civic Initiative can always provide updated news going on with the programs and the Indonesian alumni can always participate by posting news and activities in their home countries. For my updated activities, please visit www.mrjalu.blogspot.com

Greetings!

2006-10-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Here is the blog for all of you!
This blog is set up for interactions and continuing communication between all of us. Anybody can post their messages, comments, thoughts and ideas here. However to avoid uneeded advertisements and spam some of us at the Civic Initiative staff will be checking your comments regulary and keep discussions going.
I am sure we all have so much to say to each other and to the world! And who knows maybe exactly here revolutinary ideas which will change the world will get born. Just think about opening perspectives! :)

You are welcome to post here what you think will bring value to our lives or just make us laugh. I will notify you later about blog technicalities since I have not read blog manual yet. If you have any problems in posting your stuff please either refer to FAQs or email Mike and in the case of utter emergency contact me:)

With my best wishes,

Sasha