WOMAN: My name is Prema
and I teach Indonesian at Heathmont Secondary College,
which is located in the south-eastern part of Melbourne.
This school is comprised of about 650 students
who are largely of monocultural and monolingual backgrounds.
I put together an inter-cultural approach
called the cultural task-based design.
In this approach, students are given options on learning tasks
and also on how they wish to present their learning outcomes.
Providing choices gives them a sense of ownership of their learning.
BOY: Nama saya Lennon.
BOY 2: Nama saya James.
BOY 3: Nama saya Jayden.
PREMA: This learning design proved to be quite successful
with increasing interest, continuity and retention in the study.
(BOY SPEAKS IN BAHASA INDONESIAN)
(BOY 2 SPEAKS IN BAHASA INDONESIAN)
WOMAN: My name is Jill English.
I'm the principal at Heathmont College.
The Bridge Program
that Prema has been successful in securing the funding for our school
is absolutely a wonderful program
and we've been able to, through this project,
develop a sister school relationship
that has meant that our teachers and their teachers
have developed very close relationships,
our students are developing close relationships
with the students of our sister school,
and it really is assisting to break down those cultural barriers
and helping all our staff
to understand more about the Asian culture
and Asian languages in particular.
Ben, maybe from here with advocacy on the Malaysian tour,
just remember to Skype back from Malaysia
to your students who are here
so that the rest can also experience...
PREMA: I'm currently working on a mentoring project
with two teachers from Highview College.
They are Ben and Karissa
and they are lovely, young, passionate beginning teachers
with such energy.
It's such a privilege for me to harness this energy
and to channel them to the right ways
and how to get the best out of them and also the best for their students.
I liaise with them via emails, online chats, Wikispaces
and I try to work with them
to achieve their goals which they have set.
They have actually set very high goals.
My focus has been looking at retention rates.
We have electives for Indonesian in year 9, 10, 11 and 12
and we find that there's a big drop-off in Year 8,
especially with the boys.
So I've decided to concentrate
on engaging male learners in the language classroom.
My goals for the future, I'm looking at...
..I suppose as an overall school thing,
I'm looking personally at creating a sister school relationship
with a school in Indonesia
to try to improve, obviously, the students' contact with Indonesia
and get some real experiences there...
PREMA: When they see achievement and evidence from what they have done
this really encourages them to go on
and I have seen such great things that these two students...
..these two new teachers have done in their schools.
Ben is very excited over what he is doing for advocacy.
He has put out a lot of stuff in his school newsletter.
Such mentoring projects are really an excellent way
for both beginning teachers and also experienced teachers like us
because it takes us out of our comfort zone
to see what great things we can still go on doing for our students.
You guys will do well. I'm sure you guys will do well.
BEN: We will with your help definitely.
Hello, Barry. How are you?
I'm good. Thank you.
I've just got all the stuff that you needed
for your Indonesian day for tomorrow.
I'll bring a few students also.
I'm currently convening the Cluster School Program
involving my school and our four feeder primary schools.
All the principals have come on board
and here we are developing a continuous curriculum
across levels four and five.
This is to support transition, a seamless transition,
for students between the primary and secondary school
and teachers come together to develop curriculum, share practices,
discuss and help each other out.
The primary school students have a taste
of what secondary Indonesian is all about
and my students will have a platform
to use their learning and their expertise.
I really value the support that I get from the school leadership
because without that, it would not have been possible
to run the many various language programs
that I have been doing for my students.