Month: July 2023
Kartini and National Education Day Celebration
In commemoration of our national education hero, Ki Hajar Dewantara, and heroine, Raden Ajeng Kartini, BINUS SCHOOL Simprug organized an assembly, involving early years and elementary students last May 3. We organized the event titled, “Kartini and National Education Day Assembly”. This event was coordinated by our Primary Years Programme Indonesian Language department.
The National Education Day Assembly highlighted the life history of Raden Ajeng Kartini. Grade 4 students performed a short drama about the life of Raden Ajeng Kartini. Meanwhile, our students in the Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme celebrated National Education Day by organizing a flag raising ceremony, guest speaker show, and general knowledge quiz.
Aside from the role play, we also had a dance performance featuring Papua Island. The “Sajojo” dance represents a social folk dance. It is considered a welcome dance and highlights happy music with energetic dance moves and bright vibes. This traditional dance performance was performed by our grade 3 students.
We also had poetry and singing performances related to Raden Ajeng Kartini’s learning spirit and impacts on education. The poetry was presented by grade 2 students while the singing was performed by grade 1 and grade 2 students. Students recited the poems “Ibu R.A Kartini” and “Bersahabatlah dengan Ilmu” and sang “Kicir-Kicir” and “Setinggi Langit”.
In this celebration, we show our highest respect and pay tribute to our national hero and heroine. Both Ki Hajar Dewantara and Raden Ajeng Kartini had inspiring and significant impacts on our lives. Their impacts include highlighting the important role of education and women emancipation.
By: Ratuu Harida
Head of PYP Indonesian Language Department
BINUS SCHOOL Simprug
rfitria@binus.edu
Koi in the Pond
As teachers, we must always improve our skills. As an art teacher, we need to develop our imagination and creativity for our lessons. I love to be an art teacher. Challenging oneself with new tools and resources has resulted in me demonstrating all the 10 attributes of the IB learner profile – thinker, risk-taker, inquirer, communicator, knowledgeable, caring, reflective, open-minded, principled, and balanced.
Class 2025 created the “Koi in the Pond” using crayons, water colours, and Manila paper. As a class project, each student had a different pattern or Koi fish. They coloured the pattern with crayons, cut it, and pasted it into the shape of a koi. I connected six pieces of Manila paper for the pond, and students painted them with water colour.
Their artworks were showcased during their PYP Exhibition. They were displayed in front of the lift areas and near the entrance to the teacher’s lounge. This project has received numerous positive comments.
The most difficult part was having to remove this art endeavor after the completion of the PYP exhibition. As I used masking tape to stick the ponds together, many of the paper edges ripped. Unfortunately, I will not be able to keep those artworks for as long as I had hoped.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I was excited to create another “Koi in the Pond” project but with different materials. I wanted this project to be longer, stronger, and for people to appreciate it more over a longer period of time. At first, I was considering applying plaster of paris on canvas. Since plastic of paris is heavy, it is not feasible, and it may fall easily from the canvas. I was working hard to discover an acceptable resource that could be represented on the canvas. I found it once, but I did not remember the name of the resource. As a result, I shared my concept with a friend, who is an art teacher at another school and asked her what the substance was called. She referred to it as resin.
I have never worked with resin before for an art project. As a result, I inquired about it with my colleague, a laboratory assistant at BINUS SCHOOL Simprug. She explained how to accomplish it and was giving me her time to teach me how to work with resin.
I brought the resin to her lab, and she showed me how to do it. I was wondering if the students could do it on their own. Unfortunately, students were unable to do so on their own. We need to scale the cattails water because the scent is too strong. As a result, I performed all of the resin at home.
Grade 5 students from class of 2030 were ecstatic when they learned that they would be working on a large canvas for a class project. The large canvas was made using repurposed materials. As a result, each class received two canvases and 12 koi fish (large and little). I divided the class into two groups. Students in each group concentrated on Koi painting and background. When the students first saw the Koi resin, many of them chose to paint the Koi. I asked students to choose a token to make it fair. I created two distinct tokens. There is one token colour for the Koi and another token colour for the backdrop. Students cannot modify their token once they have chosen it. Those who were concentrating on the background should combine the colours, blue-yellow and blue. After they finished the Koi and background, they used paper to create water lilies.
When we finished the project, we thought of showcasing our students’ creativity and workmanship with members of our school executive committee. When we communicated that notion, the students agreed and were pleased. During the opening of our PYP Exhibition last May 25, we presented the “Koi in the Pond” artworks to BINUS SCHOOL Simprug executive committee.
Students had a great time producing their artwork. This experience required students to use different approaches to learning such as critical thinking, social, and communication skills. The students admired their paintings and appreciated their hard work and creativity.
Koi represents many positive values such as strength, courage, patience, and success through perseverance. I hope the Koi paintings will continue to remind us about these values.
By: Irma Dwi Savitri
Visual Arts Teacher
BINUS SCHOOL Simprug
irma@binus.edu
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