Week 9: Out of the Ordinary

Halo from Indo! (Halo is hello, Indo is Indonesia--you get the point.)

Just like that, my first week of student teaching in Indonesia is done! Part of me feels like I just got here yesterday, and another part of me feels like I've already been here for much longer. Time is a weird thing! Speaking of time, I am thirteen, now twelve, hours ahead over here, and am just about over some major jet lag. There is so much I could say about my first week especially as I am in both a new classroom and a new country.

To sum it up, this week was a bit (okay, A LOT) out of the ordinary.

On Sunday, my taxi picked me up from the airport and weaved through the infamous Jakarta traffic to the southern side of the city where it dropped me off in front of my apartment. No wait, it dropped me off in front of a mall. Wait, no it was the school.

Actually, it is all three of those things. I live in an apartment that is beneath the school that is connected to the mall all in one huge high-rise building. Not so ordinary, right? Here is the view from my apartment:

The coming week was also sure to be out of the ordinary as three of the five days were dress up days, one was a holiday (day off), and one was a professional development day, all of which I was informed of upon my arrival. Monday was the start of book week, so the students could either wear their uniform, or dress up like a book character. Tuesday was Dr. Seuss day, so the students could dress up like any Dr. Seuss character. Wednesday was dress like an author day (which I still do not understand what that means). Below is a picture of my class on Dr. Seuss day. About 3/4 of the school was either Thing 1 or Thing 2, hence all the red shirts. I attempted (very last minute might I add) to dress as Horton from Horton Hears a Who.

Before this placement, I had been in the same 6th grade classroom since August, so the students, the teacher, and the way things were run had become ordinary. Coming to a new placement, with new students, and a new cooperating teacher, things are far from my previous standard of ordinary.

It became ordinary for my students to be quiet, not really enjoying school. You could say my students are out of the ordinary as they are a pretty energetic and talkative bunch.

It became ordinary for my cooperating teacher to be pretty strict. You could say my new CT is out of the ordinary under that standard.

It became ordinary for there to be a closely followed behavior management system in place. Again, that would be a bit out of the ordinary here, or at least in this classroom.

To flesh out some of these out-of-the-ordinary qualities, I'll explain what I mean. When telling other people that I am a student teacher in this particular class, they cringe a bit and say "good luck." This particular class is notorious for being full of energy, noisy, and with as much craziness for it to still be a good thing. Apparently their last student teacher had to use a whistle. They are unlike any other class in the school, or so I've heard. For some reason, they just have an extra dose of energy than other classes, and they always have. As for the way my cooperating teacher handles this, I was surprised off the bat. During class while my CT is teaching, the students often walk around and talk during the lesson. I am still trying to figure out how much "withitness" my CT has that this is all going on. Through my own observing, I was able to see a lot of what went on behind the scenes, which was a lot. As I mentioned, there is not much of a classroom management system in place. In fact there is not one. This is a huge change of pace from my last placement because whenever students would talk there, they would immediately be punished. Here, they just talk all the time. I am seeing both extremes, so it will be interesting navigating this way of managing a classroom once I start teaching.

When I first observed this rambunctiousness during class, I thought there was no way that the students are actually learning, but when I checked their work, they knew exactly what they are doing. These students are smart. I mean this as nicely as possible, but this is a huge change from my first placement. Those students were very low, especially in math. My 5th graders here do great with math as well as other subjects. On Dr. Seuss Day, my CT had a spur of the moment idea in reading to have them write their own Dr. Seuss stories. This is going to be interesting. So that's what they did. The students paired up or worked on their own and spent 20 minutes or so working on writing a Dr. Seuss style story. As I walked around, looking and listening in on their conversations and work, I was surprised by what I saw. These students were writing stories that were way above the level of what I would expect from 5th graders, incorporating creative writing styles and original ideas. Their writing was extraordinary compared to my 6th graders in my last placement, which is a refreshing change of pace.

Do you know what else is out of the ordinary, in fact, it's extraordinary? This is a Christian school! I have never been in a placement at a Christian school during my time at Trinity. I am discovering how much of a gift it is to be able to talk about Jesus with your students freely and openly. Wednesday is Chapel day, so after lunch we all gathered as 4th-6th grade classes on the very top floor for Chapel. Some of the students from my class led worship, which was so cool to watch, and then one of the PE teachers gave a message.

Another out-of-the-ordinary thing that I have enjoyed is squeezing the entire 5th grade class on one elevator at the end of the day to go 5 floors down to street level. Oh, and did I mention that there are 13 floors in this building and that during the school day, we only use the stairs?

There are a lot of ways that life here in Indonesia is out of the ordinary to me. The traffic, the language, the temperature, the food, etc.--All of these things make life out of the ordinary right now, but over time, I am sure some of these things will become more ordinary to me as I adjust.