My partner teacher, Alejandra, and her students in Buenos Aires sent us another video asking questions about our emotions. My students were so excited to see their video and create one of our own! Over the past week, I have had the chance to get to know a wonderful group of twenty Brazilian English teachers visiting Iowa through an exchange program funded by the American Embassy in Brazil. Their visit is organized locally by CIVIC (Council for International Visitors to Iowa Cities). I first met the visitors last week at a Meet & Greet event, was able to host five of them in my home for dinner last Sunday, and just today hosted seven of the teachers at my school. The teachers were able to talk with one of my fourth grade groups, tell them a little about where they live in Brazil, and observe a lesson in my classroom and my colleague Carolyn's class. One of the visiting teachers is interested in setting up ongoing communication between our classes. This has been a great visit and I'm excited to see what future connections arise from it!
My Kindergarten ELL group recently had a chance to connect with a classroom in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through ePals, I connected with a K-1 teacher in Buenos Aires who sent us a video of her students sharing about their favorite books. My Kindergarten group was so excited to see the video, find Argentina on the world map, and make a response video! Our response is below. I'm lucky to teach in a school where our student population comes from all over the world. We have over thirty different countries represented at Weber this year. Each October, we learn about different countries and cultures during our celebration of UN Day. The morning starts with cultural presentations by parents and community members and finishes with a fashion show of traditional clothing from around the world. Here are a few pics from today!
Prior to leaving for Indonesia, our (then) third grade students each wrote a postcard to a student in Indonesia. While I was in Indonesia, I passed out the postcards and the students there wrote responses - some even sent gifts! Earlier this month, I had the chance to deliver the postcards and gifts from the Indonesian students to our (now) fourth grade students. They were so excited! A few students received Indonesian currency in their letters. Receiving the postcards and gifts led to lots of great discussions with the students about the similarities and differences between Indonesian and American schools. Here are a few photos.
After ten days in Bandar Lampung, Jennifer and I flew back to Jakarta and met the rest of our travel cohort at the hotel. I was so excited to see them, tell them about our travel, and hear all about the other locations. We spent the afternoon talking, laughing, and comparing experiences, and then went to a really nice Italian restaurant. We spent the next two days processing our time in Indonesia together through a variety of sessions and planned activities. We contributed to posters regarding each fellow's essential question and also discussed and presented on a variety of issues related to Indonesian education and culture in small groups. These sessions were really helpful and informative as I was able to compare my own experiences and thoughts with those of other people in my cohort. Our last night in Jakarta, we had a delicious meal at a restaurant where each table is in a little hut surrounding a pond. Such a beautiful setting and wonderful friends to share it with. An amazing ending to an amazing trip!
I'm home now and have finally adjusted to the Iowa time again. In case you've been left hanging about what I did during the rest of our time in Bandar Lampung - here goes! I'll write another post about the last few days in Jakarta soon. A major highlight of this portion of the trip was spending time at our host teacher's school, SMAN 4 Bandar Lampung. The high school students were excited to receive postcards from Weber's students and eagerly brought in response postcards along with gifts. The SMAN 4 students were also excited to receive the keychains the Weber Student Council students made for them last spring. A good friend of mine, Rachael, has been studying Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) in Dekalb, Illinois for the last two years. Her TA last year was visiting the US with the Fulbright Language Assistant Program. She happened to be from Bandar Lampung, was back home, and asked to meet up with us. It was so fun to meet her, hear about her experiences in Illinois, and eat dinner at a beautiful restaurant overlooking Bandar Lampung. We spent a lot of great time at Lasma's school, SMAN 4 Bandar Lampung. The students presented a program for us with a skit, songs, and games. We visited the local tourism office to learn about Lampungese coffee and tourist attractions. Our host teacher took us to a beautiful ocean overlook spot near a navy base in Lampung. We tried more coffee there and relaxed while watching the sun set. Another fun event was acting as native speaker readers for "English Audio Dictionary" a local service that records short lessons in English. We gave examples of five English idioms including "wing it" and "don't hold your breath". Our host school presented us with a very kind farewell ceremony in which they gave us a plaque and we presented certificates to the school and our host teacher. Students performed traditional music on a local instrument called a cetik. We visited our host teacher, Lasma's home and walked around her neighborhood with her. In Bandar Lampung, the neighborhoods are mixed between higher and lower income housing, rather than having separate neighborhoods of similar socioeconomic status. She lived near a cemetery and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences to American cemeteries. Lasma's husband, Irianto, is a journalist. We had the opportunity to sit down with him and some of his colleagues at Saibumi.com to discuss our travels in Indonesia and the similarities and differences in Indonesian and US education. Some of my favorite moments of the trip were the discussions about our perceptions of each other's culture as well as answering questions about the US. There were plenty of questions about our recent presidential election as well as fears expressed that Americans hated or were afraid of Muslims. I think I was able to present a different perspective on the diversity of American political thought and feelings about religion. Much like the US, dabbing is popular with kids in Indonesia. And bottle flipping and fidget spinners. :-) We had the chance to observe some master craftswomen creating tapis, a traditional fabric of Lampung. They even let us try it out ourselves! I was able to try on a tapis skirt and neck sash along with a traditional Lampungese crown. On our final day in Bandar Lampung, we visited a private garden sanctuary as the guests of our new friend, Anggia, and her husband. It was a beautiful, peaceful place and it was fun to get to know them and their two children.
Thankfully, I woke up feeling pretty much back to normal today so we started the day at SD Kartika, an elementary school for children of members of the military. It was recess time when we arrived and it was fun to see the kids running and playing in the courtyard. We were welcomed warmly by the teachers and administration and offered a drink I see often here called Teh Botol - or tea bottle. Iced tea in a bottle. I'm becoming pretty fond of it! It's nice and sweet. We sat with the administrators and talked for a while about similarities and differences in Indonesian and US education. One topic was the school day - in their school, different grade levels stay at school for different amounts of time. For example, first grade only goes to school from 7 AM - 10 AM. As they get older, the students begin to stay until noon or 2 PM. The administrator asked if we could compare teacher salaries as well. I felt uncomfortable because I knew the US salary would be quite a bit higher. He told us that Indonesian teachers make between $300-$600/month. He asked about the cost of living in the US and we talked about that for a while. Although the cost of living is clearly higher in the US, the disparity in income is enormous, particularly when purchasing something outside the local economy, like an international flight or hotel room in another country. While at the school, I had a chance to show a class the video that one of our third grade classes made about our school. The Indonesian students answered many of the questions from the Weber students - favorite school lunch? Meatballs! Favorite sports? Basketball and soccer. They said their favorite things about their school were their friends and their teachers. One student noticed that the Weber students weren't wearing uniforms and asked about that. It was fun to show them the diversity of our student body. After visiting the school, Lasma took us to a shopping area so we could buy some batik and tapis clothing. After much searching we finally found a store that carried my size, which in Indonesia is apparently an XXL! After buying the clothes, I asked the woman who sold them if I could take her picture. I got a regular picture, then she started laughing and I took this one. I love this picture! Our host teacher and her husband are in the process of having a new house built. They took us to the construction site, which was fascinating! It's going to be a beautiful house and I'm excited to see pictures when it is complete.
Today didn't go as planned. Around 7 pm last night, I could tell things weren't quite right with my stomach. Little did I know just how not right. I'll spare you the details, but I was up pretty much all night while my body rid itself of whatever was bothering it. I've spent the day resting in my hotel room and have managed to keep a few pieces of toast down. My host teacher, Lasma, and partner teacher, Jennifer, have been very helpful and gotten me supplies. Although I don't have an appetite, I think I'm on the mend. In the meantime, I've been enjoying the view from my hotel room.
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AuthorChristy is an ELL teacher at Weber Elementary in Iowa City and a 2017 fellow in the Teachers for Global Classrooms Program. She traveled to Indonesia in July of 2017. Archives
March 2018
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