All the 7th and 8th graders took online Stanford Achievement Tests last week. The teachers got the class results today. Here are the results for the 8th graders that I teach.
The highest percentiles of all are in math! And the median grade equivalent was at a post high school level for EVERY area of the math test!!!
Also, from a 10th grade boy: “THERE IS NOBODY PRETTIER THAN YOU!” *long pause* “EXCEPT FOR KIM KARDASHIAN!!”
Thank you for that also.
Call me archaic, but I would choose a chalkboard over a whiteboard any day. Luckily for me, I have one of each in my classroom, side by side. Not so lucky for me is the fact that the chalkboard is approximately 23487 years old and made of some sort of material that is incredibly difficult to erase and just about any chalk I use on it squeaks something fierce. So I mostly just end up using the whiteboard.
But after 3 periods straight of teaching with the whiteboard, my hands look remarkably similar to how they did at the end of the day when I worked in a machine shop back in college, minus the millions of tiny shards of metal embedded in my skin. And look, I actually found a picture from like 5 summers ago to illustrate this – not of the hands specifically, but the overall affect… You get the idea.
I don't remember this ever being a problem in the States, but for some reason here, whiteboard marker dust gets all over EVERYTHING. As I'm writing, little bits of whiteboard ink get on my hands. It's even worse when I erase the board. It sends little particles flying everywhere. Every day, my hands are almost immediately coated in a layer of whiteboard marker grime. Almost all of my teacher's edition textbooks have black fingerprints in the corners of all the pages. The lectern that I teach from has to have a vigorous scrubbing at least once a week. I end up cleaning the covers of my textbooks about once a month or whenever I can't tell what color they originally were anymore, whichever comes first. I cannot wear white shirts or light colored pants to school if I want to look professional for longer than the first five minutes of first period. It even gets on the floor, which means I walk in it and track it all over the classroom.
I've started buying large packs of baby wipes and keeping them in my desk so that I can wash off my hands between classes without having to make a mad dash for the bathroom every hour. (Tangent - I sometimes also wipe down my students and/or things they try to hand me immediately after I have just watched them put said thing in their mouth. That happens probably more than you would think, especially with calculators students borrow from me. My observations tell me that calculators must be delicious.)
The biggest problem with the whole whiteboard marker thing is that I have mold in my classroom. Which means I have allergies in my classroom. Which means I have a really itchy nose, I sneeze repeatedly, and I rub my eyes a lot in my classroom. With my black hands. I always try to pick the cleanest part of my hand to use, but by fourth period, when I have my first break of the day and I go to the bathroom to wash up, I generally have black streaks all over my face.
Basically, this:
After 4 years of this, I have come to terms with the fact that I progressively begin to look more and more like a coal miner as the day wears on. I’m just praying I don’t get black lung.
One of my good friends here in town has some out of town visitors this month! Her mom and one of her best friends were able to come spend some time with her on this side of the world. I love it when guests come, whether they’re mine or not, because it gives us a good excuse for lots of awesome adventures!
Take this weekend for example. We traveled an hour away to visit some ancient temples that I’ve always heard about but never actually been to. They are called Gedong Songo. They are all on one complex, but there are 9 separate small temples that make up the entire thing. Sadly, only 7 of the temples remain. Our friend who drove us there said that the temples were discovered in 1742, but nobody really knows when they were built or who built them. They are built with a very Hindu style, and the way they are laid out is said to represent the various levels of Hindu spirituality, with the last one being nirvana. (I didn't research any of that, so I don't know if it is fact or local legend.) All of the buildings are at various altitudes, and it’s quite a hike to see all 7! In fact, due to time constraints, we only saw temples 1, 2, 3, and 5, but 5 is the one at the highest altitude, so I feel pretty good about myself for making it that far! Here are some pictures from that day.
My friend’s sweet baby, Amadea!
The view of temple 2
Gedong Songo sits in a horseshoe shaped curve of mountains facing out over a vast valley and the mountains on the far side of it. Here is some of the view.
Temple 2 again. It was hard to get nice pictures, because people were crawling all over the temples!
View of Temple 2 from afar.
Temple 2 close up. It is believed that the original builders used sharpened stones to cut these stones which were taken from the mountain. No mortar is used – all of the stones fit together like an elaborate puzzle!
People still use the inside of each temple as a place to pray and leave offerings.
Temple 5 – the highest temple.
There are both hot and cold springs located on the temple complex.
The view of Temple 5 (left) and Temple 4 (right) from Temple 3.
You can rent horses to ride!!
Temple 3 is comprised of 3 separate structures.
The view of Temple 3 (left) and Temple 2 (right) from Temple 5.
The view of Temple 3 from Temple 5.
We were worried that it would start pouring down rain on us! But the weather held out, thank goodness!
On Sunday, we went the opposite direction – almost all the way to the south coast of Java – to go spelunking! Did you watch the Amazing Race last season? Did you see the cave that the contestants had to rappel down into while they were in Jogjakarta? Well, I didn’t go into that one. But the one we went in was part of the same cave system! It is called Goa Cerme (Cerme Cave), and it is about a 3 kilometer long underground river. So basically, we were walking through a cave in waist deep water for 2 hours. It was more fun that it might sound. We encountered lots of bats and bugs I’ve never seen. We were told we would encounter eels, but that never happened, no complaints from me… It was awesome to see another aspect of creation – underground! Unfortunately, because I knew we would be wading and swimming the entire time, I didn’t take my camera with me - for its own good. However, when we came out the other end and hiked back to the car, we found a place where we could shower for 10 cents. So while I showered, the two guys wanted to explore, so I sent them with my camera. Most of the pictures below were taken by Yohanes or Paul, just for the record.
The six of us back at the car – hot, muddy, and wet.
We all went out the day before the trip and bought the cheapest shoes we could find since we knew they would probably get ruined. These were Valerie’s by the end of the trip! Mine held up a little better. Definitely worth the six dollars I paid for them!
We showered in that little cement cube. It had no roof, so anyone higher up on the mountain could see down in! Yikes!
Paul, one of my students, and outdoor adventure guide extraordinaire!! This was his fourth time to this particular cave, and he helped us get equipment and navigate.
Bad, bad picture, but you can see where we descended into the mouth of the cave and then the river flowing at the bottom.
The river is fed by a natural spring located at the other mouth of the cave, which was where we came out. It is considerably higher up the mountain than where we started, which made the hike back to the car nice and downhill. At this end of the cave, lots of local farmers from down the mountain have irrigation lines run.
The view from our starting point.
The mouth of the cave.
I definitely got my fill of exercise this weekend. I’m so thankful to live in such a beautiful place with so many wonders of nature and so much history. Even after 4 years, it amazes me!
I’ve been meaning to create this post for a few weeks now. Remember the very bizarre poem in the wedding invitation? Well, if not, you can click HERE to read it. Questionable usage of the English language aside, I ended up going to the wedding with a group of friends. I’ve been to traditional weddings before, but I usually go by myself or with mutual white friends, not with a group of Javanese friends. This time I had the benefit of having all the steps and what they symbolize explained to me. I took copious notes. Here is my rough translation of what went down.
(I apologize in advance for poor picture quality. There were a million people crammed in there, so no matter what angle I took a picture from, it seemed that there was ALWAYS someone standing in between me and the shot I wanted. Also, it was dark inside, so some pictures are blurry and/or grainy.)
1. First of all, the wedding was in a HUGE community building. Lots of chairs lined a central aisle, all facing the aisle. At one end of the aisle was a heavily decorated stage stretching across the length of the room. The first thing that happened was that the bride came from somewhere behind the stage and just stood in front of the stage for a few minutes. Then after awhile, the groom came in from the outside – the opposite end of the aisle. They walked towards each other and met in the middle. She threw some kind of liquid at his legs, and then someone handed him an egg, which he smashed with his feet. Then the bride knelt down and cleaned everything off his legs and feet. This symbolizes the submission of the wife.
2. Once he was all cleaned up, a woman came behind them (maybe a relative?) and wrapped a blanket around both of their shoulders and walked them together to the stage at the end of the aisle.
As they did this, all the guests were served their first course – some kind of sweet bread.
3. Once they were settled in at the front, the groom hand fed some rice to his wife to symbolize that he is now her provider. They they both gave the other a drink of tea to show their willingness to serve each other.
At about this point, the wedding singers came out. And oh, let me tell you, if that wedding singer had been 40 years younger, I might not have been able to control myself…
I mean, the metallic yellow jacket practically made me fall in love with him anyways, but the mullet… oh, the mullet… I really regret not getting his number that night. Good thing I had my next course to focus on – soup! And that nasty neopolitan spam looking stuff in the middle was actually REALLY tasty!
4. Next, the bride and groom went to each set of parents to ask their blessing upon them and their marriage. Each set of parents was sitting on the stage as well, so they didn’t have to go too far. Before approaching the parents, they had to remove their shoes as a sign of respect for their elders.
After they finished that, we ate our main course. Yellow rice = party time!!
5. Then everyone got to go get their picture taken with the bride and groom. It took just about forever. Good thing we had ice cream and rose shaped jellies to keep us occupied while we waited our turn!
It was a delicious wedding, but a LONG one. The whole process took about 3 hours. And while I appreciate all the symbolism – right down to each of the bride’s hair ornaments, I really don’t look good in yellow, so no Javanese wedding for me! : )
Pi day is a math holiday celebrated on March 14th (3-14). I began celebrating it in my college nerd days, and I brought it to Indonesia with me. Since pi day occurs next week and we have spring break next week, we celebrated it today instead. Students memorized the digits of pi (record for the day – an 8th grader recited to 123 decimal places from memory), wrote songs about pi (I might try to load some of the videos later if the internet is behaving… HILARIOUS stuff), and ate lots and lots of pi! I mean… PIE!
Yesterday, the three math teachers made the nerdiest, silliest pi shirts we could think of out of some old shirts and sharpies we found.
And then I couldn’t resist trying on the crown intended for the winner of the pi memorization contest. So here is me web-camming myself (and a clearer shot of my shirt – anybody know what it means??? Only a few students could figure it out!).
Happy Pi Day a few days early!!
Am I the only person alive who can’t understand the stupid internet security thingies that I have to type in order to post stuff on the internet?
I always get them wrong multiple times, and then I feel dumb, and then I just don’t want to post anything anymore.
The alternative is the audio captcha, where you can listen to words equally as jumbled up as the examples above and try to type what you hear. You should try one of those once, just for fun, even if you aren’t blind.
I AM NOT A MACHINE!
