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