Kids Like These

I realized as I was talking with my mom the other day about a few of my silly students and tried to show her photos of them via my blog, that I don't actually have many photos of my precious little ones... so I decided to pull together some photos of them.  These are from the best of times, the moments when I can pause and take a picture without worrying that they will start distracting each other.  Overall, the days are good.  More often than not, even the days that I get frustrated with their chattiness, I am more overwhelmed with how adorable they are, and how eager they are to learn and have fun.  So... even on those rough days, I am content. 

But here are some photos of the days when I am amazed at how wonderful my class is.  At how I don't want to trade in any of my students or teach anywhere else. 

The month of September is called Bulan Bahasa.  (Bulan: month, Bahasa: Indonesia's national language) It's to celebrate national history and culture and remember how Bahasa brought together 17.000 islands and 360 languages.  There was a carnival for a few days, and the kids got to listen to traditional music, make batik, and eat lots of traditional food.  It's so fun to see the school in party mode... with tons of food and kids roaming around with their friends.

This is from a month and a half ago.  It was the first day that I had the whole class together.  So... it needed a photo!  Everyone was back from holiday.  No one was sick.  And everyone was willing to try to smile... not that they had a choice.  As I look back, they've already grown so much.  And I've gotten to know them so much better, and fallen in love with them in ways I couldn't have imagined.  Some of the photos are kind of rough.  There's no such thing as a "serious" photo with this group.  Which, I'm okay with.  They're a lively bunch, so why shouldn't a photo show off their personality!?

With routines in place, these next photos happen pretty regularly.  After coming in from break, the students find a book, or get out their quiet work.  But as you see, even their quiet work usually involves another student... that's okay though.  They're still so engrossed in their literature sharing! 

Making math fun.  Learning about things we want and things we need.  Here, we practice making a bar graph of all the things we want.  And the bar for everything related to technology stretched to the ceiling...

This is the middle of lesson time.  Miss Rachel pulled out her camera to illustrate how a Luke was very accurate as he wrote his account of Jesus's life, accurate since they didn't have cameras to take pictures of all the things that happened.  And where there's a camera, there are silly faces.  If only you could hear the laughter and see the personalities that go along with each smile.

Grades three and four share chapel time every Friday morning.  Each class takes a turn at leading.  I try to give the kids as much of a say in what we teach, what songs we have, and how we do the whole process.  This chapel was inspired by a group of my girls who made up a skit during their break times.  When Ida and I watched their performance about why to not steal, we knew that we had found inspiration for chapel.  

They tweaked their skit a little to make it "enthusiastic but not over the top" (our favorite phrase in class 3C), I found another skit to go along with the theme we discussed, they picked songs that supported the theme and made up motions, they came up with Bible passages that emphasized the main points, and then we spent a little time every day practicing.  By the time Friday rolled around, they put on an awesome performance.  And God was there.  Unknowingly, the theme lined up perfectly with some issues that grade four was dealing with.  And our skits really helped them to see how to follow God's way, instead of giving into temptation.  Even with a group of 22 crazy third graders, God gets all the glory for making it truly meaningful.

I love them.  And am so excited to see them bright and early each morning!

Indonesia Raya

Indonesia Raya! Merdeka Merdeka!

Freedom!  Victory!  Independence!  

This year was Indonesia's 69th year of independence.  The country is spread over thousands of islands, which has made it hard to unify.  But the people, together, have a beautiful spirit and support for their young country.  The older generations are able to remember when the country was under foreign rule.  And there are still so many remnants of Dutch influence throughout the city of Jakarta.  But the people are proud to share about their country and excited to celebrate.  

It's also a hopeful time as Indonesians look towards the future.  A new president was recently elected.  The turnout for the election was fabulous, as people are still thrilled about being able to participate in the governmental process, whereas not too long ago, they had no say.  The hope is, that President Jokowi will bring Indonesia into a new era, with better care taken of the poor, better management of resources, and less corruption, everywhere.  I hope as well, that God uses this newly elected president to bring much-needed changes to some aspects of Indonesia.

We spent the actual Independence Day (August 17) going to church, singing the few lines from the two Indonesian patriotic songs we know as we rode in the taxi (we totally made that driver's day), playing frisbee while listening to the kampung on the other side of the wall give celebratory speeches over the loud speaker all day.... It was fun!

Then, on Monday, we got to celebrate at school!  No classes!  Lots of games!  Lots of Indonesian food!  

Now, those of you who have followed my blog since last year, you've seen Independence Day photos before.  But these kids are just so cute, so I have to share some photos again.  

A bunch of kids from my class last year

Grade 6 students leading the ceremony

So, one of the traditional games we played was this krupuk game.  Where the new staff has to go make a fool of themselves eating krupuk (fishy puffs as I call them) off of a string.  The krupuk is nasty.  I hate it. Like, I would rather go hungry than eat it.  So, I was thrilled when I could just watch some of my new friends do it and take lots of photos and laugh.

It was adorable, because Becca, the girl with the short blond hair on the right, was a student teacher last spring.  She student taught in grade two, where she is now a regular teacher.  Well, all the grade two students from last year know her and love her.  And all the grade two students from this year know her and love her.  So, she had about 90 little children screaming "Miss Becca" the whole time she was eating.  Adorable.

Miss Becca! Miss Becca!  Miss Becca!

Some teachers may find these days frustrating, because of the complete lack of instructional time and the chaos that it brings.  I, however, love these days.  They're fun times for me to interact with the kids on a different level.  And to help them learn about team work and patriotism or school spirit.  And after all the sweat and cheers and bumps and bruises, we get to lounge around the room and have quite reading or read aloud time.  Always a highlight for me :)