WORDS 2010

AMINEF hosts an annual English competition for the ETAs' schools named WORDS. Each school will send one student to Jakarta with their ETA for a 3 day event in April. Winners in Jakarta receive scholarships to help pay their tuition next year. This is a big deal. Most of the kids at my school have never been on an airplane. School is expensive and winning a scholarship could have a big impact on a student's life.
The topic of WORDS 2010 was The Changing World Outside My Window: Where am I from? Where am I going? In hindsight, not the best prompt. It wasn't specific enough for our students and really intimidated them. I'm not even sure that I could easily compose a great answer. When the due date for submissions arrived at my school I had 0 participants. Great. I started encouraging, begging, pleading, coercing, cajoling, prodding, stalking...everything short of forcing the students to do it. By the end of the next week I had 10 submissions.
I am incredibly proud of every student that participated. It was difficult and they demonstrated both creativity and determination in their work. With the help of ETAs Lolly and Anna, we selected the top 5 participants. These 5 students gave an oral presentation of their work. From their presentations we were able to select first 3 finalists and ultimately the winner who will accompany me to Jakarta in April.
I have videos of the top 5 participants that I'd like to share with you. I'll upload them one at a time. First, I'll give you some quotes from the other submissions:

"Humans is the most perfect living creature that God ever create." -Mukharoron

"Each of us must have private talent and skill, so we can show our differences. It can motivate us to change the world." -Mukharoron

"I just a boy in usual who dreamt to change the world." -Mukharoron

"No one understand you/No one hears you're screaming/You need some help/No matter if you're slow" -Dwi Cahyoko

"Don't be afraid/Just be brave to say 'changing the world'" -Dwi Cahyoko

"Many people have dreams/Me too.../Like rocket that fly in galaxy/Like airs that fill the earth/Like flowers that blooming this morning/Like Bandung Bandawsa made one thousand temple for Roro Jongrang..." -Whitny

"Changing the world with my version of windows." -Yani

"Reforestation can be done in the way we use the system 'died a thousand plants'" -Yani

I think they have some excellent, interesting, and creative ideas, don't you?