Adventures in Room 1

 

I got to school this Monday morning and realized – I will be teaching my LAST LESSON of the school year today!!! For the rest of this week, we’ll be doing chapter tests and exam review, and then finals are Monday and Tuesday of next week, then graduation comes on Thursday. TEN DAYS FROM TODAY, PEOPLE. This has probably been the toughest school year so far, but it has definitely had a TON of highlights too! Here are some of my favorites.

I love the last few days right before the school year starts. The classroom is so quiet and neat and clean and organized, and the air is full of anticipation of seeing students again and making awesome lesson plans and teaching exciting things to eager, young minds.

In those final, peaceful hours, it’s easy to forget that being a teacher often feels like being the mother of 87 teenagers with raging hormones, authority issues, and sharp teeth for 10 hours every day and that they will make you cry at least once during the coming school year.

My saving grace has been my two teaching assistants. They grade almost all of the homework, make all of the photocopies, do some in class one-on-one tutoring and do too many other things to count so that I can be focused on lesson planning and teaching. I love them both to pieces, and while I know I could live without them, I REALLY don’t ever want to try. I have one picture of me with Joyce, my sweet, level headed TA who works diligently without ever being asked to.

And I have about a million and one pictures of my second TA, Kohl, who is so much like me that his mother refers to us as siblings. He is a brat and I love him so so so much. He is always doing ridiculous things, and I am always taking pictures of him.

Exhibit A – perusing my lesson plan book to see what needs photocopied while posing “seductively” (his words, not mine) on my desk.

Exhibit B – Decorating my homework assignment calendar chalkboard for Christmas.

Exhibit C – He is REALLY into Christmas.

 

Exhibit D – Unlike Joyce, I often catch Kohl like this during work hours.

OK, OK, that’s enough of Kohl. I also have pictures of the stray cat he put in my desk, the 50 paper snowflakes he cut out during weeks of Chem class and hung in my classroom, the two of us bawling together at last year’s graduation, piles of his clothing left in my classroom, after school music blasting parties, and many, many more.

Speaking of TAs, my VERY FIRST TA EVER, Glory, came back for his FIRST EVER VISIT this year!! I haven’t seen this kid since I was in Korea in 2010!!

He was such a blessing to me my first year here, and we still keep in touch! Which reminds me, I owe him an email…

My 9th graders are my angel babies. I love them dearly. But sometimes they just do the weirdest things. And since I always have a camera in my bag, I always take their pictures!

 

Since they are angel babies, they also do a lot of really nice things. Like give me massages and buy me Valentine’s Day flowers and give me birthday presents and even teach each other voluntarily while I put my feet up and watch. And take pictures, of course!

 

They also have a bizarre fascination with doing each others’ hair.

I have so much fun with this class. They are so comfortable with and among themselves. I can’t wait to see them as seniors! Incidentally, this angelic class is the only class that managed to make me cry this year. But not in front of them, thank goodness.

I feel like I’ve really gotten close with our national staff this year. I have literally spent HOURS that probably add up to DAYS sitting at the jaga posts, just talking about life and stuff with them. I’ve gotten to know our drivers, and I’ve had lots of good chats with several of the cleaning staff. Pretty much the only people I don’t know well are the grounds/facilities guys because they are always so busy all over campus that I don’t run into them regularly at all. I was super excited to be invited to Pak Jono’s retirement party this year. And even though it definitely was the OPPOSITE of a highlight, it was a good bonding experience for me to be able to grieve with the national staff at Pak Gono’s funeral.

After just mentioning retirement and death, this next statement might seem a little contradictory – but one of the reasons I’m really thankful I can have relationships with the national staff is because they sometimes seem like the only thing that is constant in this community. Teachers, students, and friends come and go. But it seems like a lot of the national staff have been here forever!

Randomly, I still just love my bulletin board that Melanie helped me make before school started. And since it’s not seasonal or anything, I haven’t had to change or re-do it all year. Gosh, I love not being an elementary teacher. So there’s 2 more highlights.

Retreat is always a highlight as well. We play lots of games, have lots of worship time, and camp together for a weekend.

We also apparently carry around small children and generally ignore the 7th graders being awkward in the background.

 

Some people are happier about retreat than others. I think the games were the high point of this retreat. I have NEVER ever seen this group of boys be SO AGGRESSIVE in my life. Not even on the court! There were crazy levels of testosterone, and it was pretty amusing to watch!

You can tell it’s serious when the shirts come off. That is his discarded shirt flying through the air in the top left corner of the photo. And look how red and beat up his body was ALREADY! Crazy boys… They were all SO SORE the next day. But I have to say, it was fun to watch! And I’m sure they all learned a valuable lesson about teamwork… or… something.

Field day was another fun day of teamwork and games! For field day, we join up with the elementary school, and every team consists of students from K – 12 playing and working together. This was my team.

We didn’t actually win any prizes, but try telling that to little Sammy who kept screaming, “I AM WEENER!!!!” while pumping his little fists in the air all day long.

Tenth graders will turn my hair gray faster than any other class. But I love them too, in spite of it all. They are a crazy bunch of Asians. Well, almost all of them. In this class of 20, there is exactly one American and one Canadian. Oh, and 3 that are half Asian - half European. So I guess that makes 3.5 white people? Teaching this class is definitely a cultural experience in and of itself!

 

That second picture above is the day that Gary farted so much during class that I made him stand outside the window and watch the lesson until he promised that he was finished. They were foul and audible farts and I was concerned for the health of the rest of the class.

The following pictures are from the day we learned about three dimensional solids, and I had them create free standing shapes using nothing but cardstock. It was quite the adventure. It was also the day I discovered my camera was soaking wet and I don’t know why or for how long! So it took some really weird pictures. It’s all better now though, don’t you worry your pretty little head.

 

These 2 just gave up and made flowers.

 

Tenth grade is also my most artistic class. I find random notes on tests and homeworks (yes, I say homeworks, because I’m practically Asian now). Sometimes they make me laugh-snort so hard that I don’t even take points off. This is the only one that I could find a picture of.

I thought my whiteboard eraser growing mold over a long weekend during rainy season was pretty amusing. First time that’s ever happened!

We lost part of our beloved courtyard tree during a thunderstorm earlier this year. It wasn’t really a highlight, but it was amusing for me to see how attached our community was to this tree. Kids were DEVASTATED! Especially when, in an effort to save the tree, they had to cut off several of the remaining branches in order to balance out the weight. We are so used to change that I think we just subconsciously hold on to the constants. Apparently that also includes plants. And good news – the tree survived and is doing just fine!

Senior banquet was fun, fun, fun! I enjoy the dinner and dancing every year. Here are some of the only pictures in which I’m not making weird faces (seriously, I am the least photogenic person I know). The first ones are me with my date/neighbor, Kari. She’s leaving in ONE MONTH and I’m going to be so sad.

 

And to end with, here are some of my favorite photos of seniors sleeping. This is just a very small selection of the collection I have gathered this year. It’s my new best hobby.

 

Teaching is such an exhausting job, and most days it feels like the work never ends. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything! I love these kids…

Words

One of my favorite parts of Indonesian is literally translating words and phrases back into English. Some of them, I find quite humorous. Here are a few of my favorites.

English - Indonesian - literal translation
parent - orang tua - old person
be careful - hati hati - liver liver
I don't feel good - badanku ga enak - my body is not delicious
thank you - terima kasih - receive love
you're welcome - sama sama - same same
hospital - rumah sakit - sick house
restaurant - rumah makan - eating house
durian - durian - thorn
(Let me interject here that I staunchly believe that if a fruit is named "thorn", it shouldn't be eaten.)
bathroom - kamar kecil - little room
bed - tempat tidur - sleep place
sock - kaos kaki - foot shirt
toe - jari kaki - foot finger
eyelash - bulu mata - eye hair
how are you? - gimana kabarmu? - how is your news?
i'm well - baik baik saja - just fine fine
biological child - anak kandung - womb child
millipede - seribu kaki - one thousand feet
train - kereta api - fire wagon
no problem - tidak apa apa - no what what
to pee - buang air kecil - dump small water
to poop - buang air besar - dump big water
drinking water - air putih - white water

One of the most amusing things to do with friends who know both English and Indonesian is to have conversations using literal translations. Maybe this makes us nerds, but it is always funny.

Panda Express

Today was senior chapel, where each senior got to come to the stage and be "interviewed" by one of the teachers. They were asked the following questions:

1. What was your favorite school year and why?
2. Do you have an embarrassing moment or funny story to share?
3. What is the biggest rule you've broken at school?
4. What will you miss the most when you leave?
5. What advice would you give to the younger students?

One senior, when asked what he would miss the most, answered that he will miss Asian food. He described it perfectly when he said, "If you've lived in America before, you know that Panda Express can only do so much for you".

I think that made me laugh harder than any other answer. It is so true. And dear American friends, you really don't know what you're missing out on. So just enjoy Panda Express for as long as you can.

My favorite answer was when another senior, when asked the same question, said (to the best of my memory), "I'm going to miss this town as a whole. I'm going to miss the simplicity of this town. I'm going to miss the people in this town. I've had so many adventures here, I've grown so much here, and I have so many memories here."

I'm thankful that it's not my turn to leave. Because my answer would be exactly the same. Except that I would probably cry a lot while saying it.

The Horse Show

I spent a large portion of last weekend out at the local horse farm. They were hosting a huge national level dressage and jumping competition Friday – Sunday. Stables from as far away as Jakarta sent horses, riders, trainers, and grooms! I love competition and I love horses and I love weekends and I love excuses to be outdoors. So basically, it was a great weekend! I could pretty much care less about dressage, but I really enjoy watching jumping, because let’s face it – someone could fall and break their face, and that makes it that much more exciting. I took a lot of pictures. A lot of random pictures. Of horse parts. And people. And scenery. But only on Sunday when they did the small jumps (20 – 70 cm). I didn’t bring my camera on Saturday when they were doing the big, impressive jumps (up to 120 cm). Sorry. So anyways, here they are. Enjoy!

                

That last shot is my personal favorite. The horse’s expression cracks me up every time. He looks like he’s about to die going over this 50 cm jump!

On another interesting note, I found out that since we’re still at the tail end of rainy season, the stable hired what’s called a pawang hujan to keep it from raining during the 3 day competition. Just to be safe, you know. Apparently this man has the power to know which clouds have rain, and then to move those clouds to a different part of the sky. It rained every day leading up to the competition, but there was not a drop of rain over the weekend! The pawang hujan said to watch out though, because Monday, there would be a HUGE rainstorm. Since he’d held back the rain for so long, of course. Unfortunately for his credibility, it didn’t rain again until yesterday (9 days after he predicted it would rain), so I’m skeptical. I was talking to Hotjaga about this though, and he told me a story of how one time he was playing soccer (he’s a locally famous goalie) and it was raining so hard. A pawang hujan happened to be in the crowd, and he made it stop raining on the field. It was still raining on all four sides of the soccer field, but not ON the field. CRAZY! Anyways, here is a picture of the pawang hujan the stable hired for the weekend. It’s the only picture I got of him before he stalked off, inevitably to check for rain clouds to the south.

And speaking of clouds, here is the last picture I took of the last day of the contest, right before heading home.

Home Life

I feel like working in the environment I do, I've been very sheltered from many of the things public school teachers in the States have to deal with. Almost none of my students come from broken homes. None are in foster care or wards of the state. Yeah, we have the occasional student who thinks it's cool to smoke or have a drink. Kids are kids. But I've never had a student come to school drunk. I've never caught a student smoking on campus. None of my students have a drug dependency. I've been here five years, and in that time, we have not had a single teen pregnancy. None of my students work, and so they get to focus on school and extra-curriculars, and for the most part, they all maintain above average grades. Last year, we had 4 valedictorians, because all four of them maintained a 4.0 every quarter for all 4 years of high school. Over half of high school students take AP courses. An overwhelming majority play at least one sport and at least one musical instrument. Nearly all of them are at least bilingual - some speak up to 4 languages fluently.

Sounds like I died and went to teacher heaven, right?

I felt very sheltered. Up until this year. I don't know what is different about this year, but so many things have happened recently that I've never had to deal with before. I see so many struggling families in our community and so many hurting students. This week has been especially rough. One particular student was very ill in my class on Monday, and as I questioned him about what was going on - because I could tell something was not right - he started to open up to me.

The things he has been facing at home these past two months are things that I would be legally obligated to report to CPS if I were teaching in America. The police would probably be involved as well.

When I talked to this student Monday, I learned that the reason he was sick was because he hadn't slept for three days or eaten for almost 24 hours. His parents, in a drunken rage, had kicked him out of the house on Friday, and he'd been wandering the streets since. He didn't know where to go or who to trust for help. He had a little money, and because of that, he was afraid to sleep anywhere for fear a beggar would steal it. He had made the money last until Sunday before it ran out. He hadn't showered or changed clothes for three days. He is 15.

In this country, we don't have any kind of organization for protecting children. There is nobody that we can report this to. Protecting children is the job of the family first, and then of the community. And we may be foreigners in this country, but we still have community. Oh, do we have community...

I found a place for him to stay Monday night. And it was EASY. The people I work with are so loving, so caring, and so willing to give of what they have. It took less than 5 minutes to find a family willing to give him a home cooked dinner and a place to shower and sleep - without knowing a single detail of why he wasn't staying at his own home. They provided breakfast, lunch, and a change of clothes for him on Tuesday and brought him to school. And they told him he could stay for as long as he liked.

Every day this week, he's come to my room after school to talk. He's been telling me more and more details about his home life, about a past I never knew he had.

As I listen, all I can think is that God is writing such an amazing story in his life. I told him that yesterday, and he laughed at me and said, "This doesn't feel amazing."

And  I told him, "God isn't finished writing the story yet".

I really believe this is true. Already, I see so many things working together for good in this young man's life. And I believe that so much more good can come from this story. I hate that he's in this place, where no 15 year old should ever be. But I'm so excited to know how the story ends.

World Maps and Racial Slurs

Student: (looking at the world map hanging on my wall) Isn't N-I-G-E-R a bad word?
Me: Hmmm?
Student: N-I-G-E-R. It's a bad word, right?
Me: Oh, are you looking at Niger, the country?
Student: Is that how you say it?
Me: Right. It's a country.
Student: I thought it was a bad word.
Me: If you add another G, then it is.
Student: Oh. So two Gs is a bad word. What is this country then? I thought it was supposed to be Nigeria.
Me: Look to the south. We have Niger AND Nigeria. Two different countries.
Student: Ooooooooh.... I get it now.

Drinks With Jagas

Me: The jaga just shared his drink with me. It was in an old water bottle and it looked like mud. But it tasted really good. He said he made it himself, but when I asked him what was in it, he said, "secret".
Yo: Definitely a love potion.
Me: Oh, no...