Create Something Every Day

The world is full of consumers. We consume constantly. We buy food, supplies, and pretty sparkly things that have no use. We get on Facebook and consume other people's lives. We spend hours on Pinterest adding pins to an all-purple dream house or collect images of the Scottish vistas we long to visit (or is that just me?).

But when do we create? When do I set aside the time to make things and not just take them?

As a teacher, I am nearly forced to be creative on a daily basis. My lessons as a middle school teacher are half content half theater. I am looking at new ways to engage and inspire.

And it is exhausting.

When I get home after a day of creating for others and fixing issues on the turn of a dime, I don't want to be creative for myself. I want to sit on my couch and watch Brooklyn 99 whilst eating chocolate. I want to consume content the way I consume food.

But recently, I have been challenged by the idea of creating. I encourage my students to create constantly, and yet I rarely do it for myself.

Because creating his hard. Creating is risky. Creating takes effort and forethought. Creating means putting your work out there and other people could *gasp* not like it. Creating means you are willing to be criticized by others. Others who, may I point out, are often not being creative themselves.

Because it is so easy to criticize. It is so easy to say this or that isn't done right. To say something could be of better quality or stronger or prettier or (fill in the blank). It is easy to sit back and consume what others have made, judge, and then move on to consume more. It is so easy most have made it into an art form. Consuming and judging to the point where we get upset when others interrupt our consuming time. And yet at the end, unless the consuming has a goal, what are we left with? Knowledge? Information?

I know what you are thinking. "But Rachael! I have to consume to learn things!" And while that is true, if you watch a thousand videos on boat making but never actually make a boat, what good is that knowledge? If you don't share your insights with others and the world, why bother learning it at all? Consuming or learning information should lead to creating in most cases, yet too often in my own life, I find myself just consuming and then moving on.

Because I forget the benefits of creating. Creating might be hard, but I often learn about myself and master skills while creating. Creating may be risky, but it can yield high rewards if you succeed and a valuable lesson if you fail. Creating may take effort, but it is the kind that makes you proud in the end. Creating may expose you to the criticism of others, but this will only help you learn to be less critical yourself.

So here is the challenge, to myself and anybody reading this: create. Put those hours binge-watching YouTube videos on how to cook to use and go cook something! And if you don't know how to do something, go learn! That is one of the coolest parts of having the internet at my fingertips daily: if there is something I don't know how to do, there is probably a video of someone trying to do that thing already.

So here's to creating. Here's to those who dare to make and not just take. Here is to those who do not count the day complete until they have made something, until they have given back to the world.

In the spirit of inspiring creativity, I have a list of upcoming projects I am in the process of planning:

1) A Merida dress from the movie Brave (because the two princess dresses I have are not enough for me apparently)
2) Youtube video explaining how I do my hair (tentatively titled "4 bobby pins or less" because I don't have time for more than 4 in the early mornings)
3) Second drafting a science fiction novel I have been writing for two years (finally)

Indonesian words:

Membuat: To create (normal use)

Mencipatalcan: To create (higher-order use, for great accomplishments)

Menarusukan: to go forward

-Rachael

Motorbike Rides and Living Life In Translation

Living off campus this year means I need to find a way to complete 20 minute walk from my apartment to the school each morning. The cheapest and fastest way is by motorbike so each morning I order one with my Grab app (Indonesia’s version of Uber). They come in less than five minutes and I wrap my hair in a scarf to protect it from the wind and hop on the back for the two minute ride down the boulevard. Which costs me all of eighty cents.

I enjoy these little rides immensely. 5:50 a.m. is the coolest part of the day, normally around 74 degrees. This is also around sunrise and so I look up through the trees and see the rosy colored sky.
It is moments like this, hanging on to the back bar of a motorbike as we whizz through the morning air, that I am struck by how different life is now. How I never would have guessed that I would find myself in my second year teaching halfway around the world in a country that many people don’t remember where it is. Sometimes I just laugh at the absurdity of it all when I go to buy a towel and the clerk weighs it on a scale before placing on the price sticker. Because apparently some towels are sold by weight here.

I am also easing into living life in translation. When I go to a 

Professional Development seminar, led by a man from Scotland, we have a translator for my Indonesian coworkers. When I go to the store, I speak a broken mix of English and Indonesian with the cashier (mostly I try to see how far I can get without them knowing how little Indonesian I know). When I got to Bible study, we are split into groups according to language preference. 

I get the privilege of teaching an ELA class this year ( for English Language Learners). And while English is the second language for most of my students (for some it is their third) some students need just a little extra help. So they end up in ELA. I attended a conference (pictured above) with all the ELA teachers from our five campuses. It was so good to learn and see what was being done across the schools and gave me a new appreciation for what some of my students are struggling with. 

Some of these kids are crazy smart but the are just struggling with language acquisition. As someone who is struggling to learn a new language myself I can tell you how hard it feels. The conference reminded me that sometimes they ask for directions to be repeated, not because they weren’t listening, but because they are sometimes still struggling to understand and process. That sometimes they turn in projects half finished because they didn’t understand the directions and were too shy to ask. 

I need to be more patient with these brave souls who take on an education in a secondary language. They are living in translation. 

Indonesian words:

Pergi ke: to go

Pasar: market

Bahasa: language 

-Rachael

Year Two

I am officially a second year teacher! I can not explain how awesome it is to be returning to a job I have already been practicing for a year. 

I am teaching the same grades again, 7,8, and 9. Two classes of 7, two classes of 8, and a class of 9. Teaching three consecutive year groups has its perks including day 1 I already knew about half my students! I am back in the same classroom (pictured above) and have fully embraced classroom design. Our theme this year is “children of the light” and so each of my students decorated a light bulb with their name and this week I finally found a spare hour to put them all up. 

While I am a big fan of year two teaching so far, I am also taking on addition responsibilities. I have two extra classes this year and one is a small class of 5 students who just need a little extra help with English in grade 8. It is a bit like an advanced ELL class where we just give them some extra time and attention in grade 8. I am pleased to be splitting this class with my mentor teacher, meaning she gets them for 4 periods a week and I get them for 4 periods a week: twice the amount the regular English classes meet. 

All together that means I teach six different classes and I have over 100 students. Some days with meetings I get little to no prep time between 7 am and 3 pm. The other teachers in my pod have similar loads and we often don’t start going home until at least 5 each night. And I am usually in my classroom by 6 a.m. each morning. I am not complaining; I am doing the job I love. 

And I do love it. I love the crazy things my 7th grade boys say to me. I love that my 8th graders, when asked to depict points of view with images, chose examples from the video game Minecraft (they are so creative!). I love when my 9th graders write honesty in their journals about their feelings and what they are learning. I love teaching students about the proper use of the semicolon (even when they roll their eyes when I stress that this is my favorite punctuation mark). I love seeing them borrow books from my classroom on Friday and return them Monday fully read. I love spending hours extra after school ends to develop a lesson plan that I know they will get excited about. I love collaborating with other teachers to develop a format chart that is now in every grade 7 and 8 English and Humanities classroom. 

They were right: teaching is the hardest job you will ever love. 

And oh do I love it. 

-Rachael

Indonesian words:

Permisi: excuse me

Berapa banyak ini: How much is this?

Nomor ponsel: phone number 

Together We Fly

These wings have been up in my room from about week 3 of the school year back in August. During the first few days of school, I gave each of my students a feather. They were to write their name and decorate it as they saw fit. When they had finished, I then took them all together and created this pair of wings.

Our school's theme this year was "Better Together." I wanted to represent this visually for my students so I created this pair of wings. It is hard to see in the photo, but above it reads "Alone we fall; together we fly." The idea that feathers, on their own, are rather useless and can do very little. But put them together and we have a set of wings.

As with most lessons I try to impart to my students, this one I also embraced myself this year. I was blessed beyond all measure to be surrounded by helpful, strong teachers who carried me along my first year teaching. I went to them for answers, for laughs for comfort, for understanding, and I never walked away empty. 

Teaching is not something one does alone. Those worksheets my students used to learn about character development? Created by a previous teacher. That anchor chart inspiration? From an English meeting discussion about what students are struggling with. That confidence to lead the class through a difficult topic? A teacher friend gave me a pep talk when I went to her with my concerns. 

And it isn't just the teachers in my school (although they deserve the most credit). I am on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers for hours each week discovering new and better ways to explore learning in my classroom. 

And now here I am, at the end of the year. Staring at those pair of wings I put up what feels like years ago. Back when I didn't know just how much I would need the amazing teachers around me to carry me through my first year as a teacher. I am a little glad I didn't know at the start how much help I would need. How many afternoons I would put my head down on my desk and cry because of some perceived failure. How it would hurt my soul and drain me. 

I might not have agreed to this at all if I had known. But then, I would have missed out on all the growth and learning that came along with the struggle. I would have missed out on the friendships I built with the amazing teachers around me. 

As needy as I felt this year, I was pleased to learn from some that I gave a little too. That I didn't always ride on the help of others. That as a teacher, I brought something to my profession even as I struggled to learn just want it means to be a teacher. I am so very grateful for those who came beside me this year. For alone we fall.

But together we fly.

Basah words:

Masuk: Enter

Keluar: Exit

Sini: Here

Apa: What

Pagi: Morning

-Rachael

Experience is the Best Teacher

Each year from grade 8 and upward, homeroom teachers guide their students on a trip to experience culture and serve others. Because I have a 8th graders in my homeroom, I went with several other teachers and the entire 8th grade (50 students) to Yogyakarta in Central Java (the island that I live on).

We took the train there, which was a long ride across flat rice fields for nearly 8 hours. The flat land and endless crops reminded me of the Illinois plains that I grew up surround by. When people drive through my home state they joke that it all looks the same: cornfield after endless cornfield. 

I must disagree. When each thing is the same you learn to spot the little differences. And it is the little things that cultivate your sense of home.

There in the endless, muddy rice fields, I felt more at home than I have in a long time. 

Even after 8 hours I felt it much too soon that we passed into the city and mountainy areas again. Once a country girl, always a country girl. But the city has its own charms, I must admit. 

The next day we left the hotel to go spend time with a school that we had partnered with. Part of the trip is learning how others live and these students did not come from the wealthy background that most of our students have. The students taught each other cultural games and they did crafts together. Then we taught them some English words, played more games, and worshiped together. 

One of the hardest things for our students we realizing their school did not have air conditioning. It barely had electricity to power some fans and lights. We were all pretty sweaty by the end of the day. 

Day two was about Javanese culture. We visited Borobudur temple (picture above). Which, I must admit, was even cooler than I expected. 

I felt like a movie star for just a bit as I was asked over a dozen times to have my picture taken with them. Some more nicely asked then others. I say no because if I say yes 12 more people want a photo with you and I was there to get my own photos and take in the amazing view. 

At the top, looking across at the mountains, I couldn't help but smile realizing this was my job. I get to experience the world with my students. I get to learn about different cultures and traditions and learn along side my middle schoolers. I have a pretty cool job.

Later that day, we attended a traditional Javanese dance with our partner school and the students learned how to cook traditional foods and make crafts. 

As a side note, you know you are a minority when the dancer in the scary mask asks for a picture with you. 

You can't tell but that day we also sweated a lot spending the whole day outside climbing temples and dancing. 

Mind you this is all during the school week. We took off class Tuesday through Friday to take our students on this trip. 

My job is pretty cool.

When others ask why did I decide to teach in Indonesia, beyond knowing I was called, I tell them it is about this. It is about getting to explore the world with my students in real and exciting ways. It is about tossing aside worries and actually living out my dreams (don't worry Mom, I haven't thrown all caution to the wind). There is just something very liberating about moving to the other side of the world that suddenly makes all of my other dreams seem more than just dreams.

I don't dream of exploring the world any more.

I plan on it. 

(Last week I finally learned how to count to five, so here you go!) Bahasa words:

One: satu

Two: dua

Three: tiga

Four: empat

Five: lima

-Rachael

Semester 1: That's a wrap!

So much has happened to me since July that I almost can't process it all. I knew moving to another country, to another culture, and to a new profession would be a huge change for me. I would like to say I took it all in stride, confidently meeting the challenges that befell me.

But that would be a lie.

Instead, I feel incredibly humbled as being a first-year teacher in a new place means facing failure on a daily bases. From remembering the names of all 83 of my students to remembering parts of the lesson plan that I crafted so carefully the week before, I never go a day without thinking "Oh shoot! I forgot..." or at least "I could have directed that lesson so much better if..."

The first year of teaching is always the hardest and is rather difficult to explain to someone who has not gone through it. As my 7th graders are learning about figurative language this week, I will give you a metaphor on what first year teaching is like.

The first year of teaching can be compared using a stapler. Imagine, you are someone who has never used a stapler. You have seen staples holding papers together and have theorized on how they got there but you have never seen or used a stapler. Then one day, someone asks you to go into their desk drawer, find their stapler, and replace the staples.

As someone who knows what a stapler is, and how to use it, I can say I struggle enough trying to replace staples in a new stapler because each can be a little different. Now imagine having no concept of a stapler.

That is a lot what first year teaching is like. You see the end product, the stapled paper (the information the students must learn), but you are rather unsure how it got there. And to make things more complicated, there is only one way to load a stapler, but there are many ways to teach a lesson. What is right for one teacher may be wrong for another. I can not simply follow another's lesson plan or even copy another teacher. I must find what works for me and my class.

Each class is also different, with different personalities and abilities. Different grade levels demand different strategies and I teach three grades.

I don't mean to complain, or in any way say my job is too hard or unfair. It is a challenge, one I knew I was signing up for when I decided to become a teacher. It tests me each day to see just how far I can stretch myself. A common joke we have at the end of the day is that we "have no more words" as if to say we have thought too hard, made too many decisions, and now we can't produce more ideas. It is quite funny if I go out with some of my teacher friends on a work day because we have trouble picking a restaurant as none of us want to make any more decisions. They say teachers make more minute by minute decisions than brain surgeons. My job is constantly testing me.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Boredom is no longer a word in my vocabulary and for that I am grateful. I am nearly never idle. Even at home, while cleaning or cooking I am thinking about how to rearrange my classroom so certain students won't talk to each other. I am thinking about the next day's lesson and how I might present it better or if I need more visual aids. I question the decisions I made that day and how I might do it better next year. To rest is a treat and I saver my holidays like fine chocolate.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I find I thrive on challenge. It gives me a real sense of accomplishment to know that each day I am doing something I have never done before. Each day is a surprise, a question mark that by the end will often be an exclamation mark.

I may be the teacher, yet I often feel I am the one doing the most learning. I have to be the most creative one, the one with all the answers, the one who can solve all the problems. I fall short, of course, nearly every day. Yet I walk home knowing I can try again tomorrow.

And try I shall because I won't have it any other way.

Bahasa words:

Try: Berusaha

Teach: Mengajar

Tea: Teh

-Rachael