Marie and the Spelling Bee

This title is the perfect for someone looking for a book title. Kudos to myself :)

Anyway, today was the day of the spelling bee semi-finals for each grade level. The kids have been anticipating this for weeks and suffice it to say, their nerves got the best of them.

For Grade 3, I was a judge that wrote down words to ensure that they spelled them correctly. The first few rounds they flew through, but then the harder words hit like a punch in the face. My kids started to make silly mistakes or forget to ask for a definition (especially for homonyms). They pressed through as best as they could until something surprising happened. Two of my mid-level spellers surpassed even my best ones.

There were a few times my jaw dropped because of some of the words they spelled. After and hour of grueling competition between these two spellers, Jonathan took the lead and respelled a misspelled word that his competitor got wrong. One word left, and if he spelled it right, he would be the winner. He did it! I was so proud of him!

We were given an hour break before Grade 6 was scheduled for their semi-final round. For this round, I was the reader who gave the words, vocalized definitions, and gave context clues in sentences. I have a group of excellent spellers and they pushed themselves into the high rounds before they started falling off the wagon.

The first girl out was stumped on a trick word (challet) - even though it probably didn't belong in that category. She was furious but was a good sport and kept from displaying a negative attitude.

I made a few mistakes as the reader. There was some chatting in the audience and I lost my focus. Instead of conferring with one of the judges, I said they were correct when they were wrong. The spellers didn't appreciate being pulled off the stage moments later because of my mistake. Thank goodness they are forgiving.

The spelling bee semi-finals proved to be successful in more ways than one. With the finals just around the corner, I will be practicing my listening skills and the kids their spelling skills. Good luck to all!

Until next time.

Doubts

I was delivered 24 - 10 page papers to edit for Grade 6 exhibition today. As overwhelming as that may seem, I quite enjoy editing papers, so the assignment did not intimidate me. Those were my feelings up until I actually started reading the papers.

These past months, I have devoted much of my classroom to solid grammar study and essay writing (in preparation for these papers). To ensure enjoyment of learning, I created multiple activities that were interactive and fun. The kids excelled in these activities and I had little doubt that their papers would be anything less than amazing. Boy, was I wrong!

Fragments, misspelled words, mind boggling sentence insertations, and overall poor grammar consume each of these papers. It's as if I'm having a nightmare and yet, there's no getting out of it because it's reality. The deeper I read into these papers, I begin to doubt my skills as a teacher. Questions surge my brain: Did I not spend enough time on things? Did I miss drastic mistakes on a regular basis? Are these kids cheating with the help of their parents or friend?

So far, I don't have an answer to these questions, although my intuition says no to all of them. After sharing my frustration and concern to my fellow Grade 6 teacher, she spoke of her recognition of this problem. Rosma is genuine and level-headed enough to tell me the truth. She assured me that this had nothing to do with my teaching, instead she helped me realize that this is their first HUGE writing project and it is intimidating and terrifying to most.

After she told me this, I tried to think back to when I first had to write an extensive essay of that magnitude. I probed my brain for quite a while before realizing that I hadn't done something like this until I arrived at college. My goodness, I can see how they are fearful and straying from their learned lessons. I'd probably cry if I had to do something similar to this in Grade 6.

There is still some traces of doubt in my mind, but I trying to replace it with positive thinking and encouragement to my students. I truly hope that they begin to apply their skills back into their next draft.

Book Week

My apologies for not updating my blog, time has seemed to escape me in recent weeks. Exhaustion has become a daily thing, and I realize that teaching tends to do that to everyone. However, I wouldn't trade my teaching for anything in this world (okay, maybe the repayment of my student loans).

This week has been fantastic and yet so frustrating that I do not know whether to laugh or cry. Book week is upon us. This entire week is dedicated to promote regular reading to our students and celebrate the adventures we can take through books.

Monday was quite comical, at least from the children's perspective. All the teachers had to dress up as book characters and dance to "I like to move it, move it" (a famous song from the movie Madagascar). However instead of "I like to move it, move it" we altered the words to "I like to read it, read it". Being the teachers that we are, Budi and I naturally forgot about this until five minutes prior. Thankfully I have an abyss of drama costumes in my closet. We managed to find costumes that are of likeliness to characters in Harry Potter. Success!

Monday was also the day of Grade 3's movie theater company. In our UOI, we have studied organization between departments and groups. For the past few weeks, the kids have developed a movie theater company in which they all had different roles. When everything fell into place (mainly on Monday), the kids sold tickets to a showing of "Despicable Me" to the PYP. It went smoothly, but proved to be very tiring.

Tuesday was pajama day. This was by far one of my favorite days in past weeks. It was also a blessing in disguise as I overslept and rolled right out of bed before heading directly to school. Seeing the kids in pajamas was pretty much the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. Even Budi donned traditional Indonesian bed clothes (t-shirt and sarong).

In trying to find a tie-in to reading and pajama day, we played "Bedtime Stories" and read books with our stuffed animals for the better part of the day. The kids were thrilled, and what they didn't realize was that the teachers were probably even more thrilled. It was a relaxing day in a serene atmosphere and provided us with the ability to catch up from the day before.

To be honest, I'm not sure what today should have entailed in regards to book week. As I think back of the day's events, I am pretty confident that neither Budi nor I tied anything to this themed week. Oh well, we'll make up for it tomorrow when we have a four hour activity with Grade 6.

Thus far, I'd say it has been a successful week for promoting reading. The kids are really getting into it, and it's suffice to say that the teachers are as well. Looking forward for the days to come...

The Longest Week

Coming back to school was a big refresher. To see familiar faces and do the thing I love most: teach. Everything was fantastic until about Monday afternoon. I began to feel faint and feverish just past noon. It wasn't much longer until I went home sick for the day.

I was sick with high fevers the next day and ended up at the doctor's office. It turns out that I got sun poisoning. Despite the fact of putting sun screen on nearly every hour, the fact of being almost directly on the equator with exposure of ample amount of UV rays put me at a larger risk of getting it. In all honesty, it didn't matter if I took a bath in sunscreen, apparently it was inevitable. I guess the next time will have to be taken with extraordinary measures to prevent it.

So, what did I do all week? Well I was restricted to my bed and the couch. As much as I enjoy just hanging out, four straight days of it is bound to drive a person crazy. My neighbor courteously gave me all the seasons of Alias and I averaged about a season a day plus a few naps in between. Although that seems like a waste of a day, it's the best I could do to preoccupy myself instead of all the itching and pain of the sunburn.

The only real downside is that I'm missing out on socializing. I feel like I've had zero exposure to humanity (minus the doctor visits) since Monday afternoon. It's more difficult that you could imagine. I've managed to make due, talking to myself, talking to my cat, etc. Yes, it's lame, but I got to the point where I just needed to talk.

It's been an eye opening experience being confined to my house. It makes me realize that I'm not invincible or irreplaceable. So in a way, this was a good situation to push me on my butt and give me perspective.

Holiday in Bali

Chinese New Year is something that we just don't celebrate in the States. Well, I've come to appreciate the holiday because it gives us a couple of days off of school. During these days, I traveled to Bali, one of the famous Indonesian islands, with my friend Putri.

We left at seven in the morning on Thursday via the damri (airport bus) and slept most of the way to the airport. The night before we stayed up far too late because we were too excited to sleep. You know you are splashing with excitement before a family vacation or a field trip - well that's how we felt. Too happy to sleep, too anxious to sleep.

We got to the airport in record timing, thanks to minimal traffic and spent the next two hours at a donut shop. We were revved up to go that we could barely sit and wait until our flight boarded. Another nap in the plane got me immediately to Bali.

The sun was shining, the breeze was hot and heavy when we stepped off the plane onto the runway, but I was too busy looking around at everything around me. Because Putri and I only had carry on luggage, we were able to get out of the airport quickly and catch a cab to our hotel in Legian (leg-ee-on). There are two touristy towns in Bali that are overwhelming with shops, people, trash, and motor bikes. Legian is one of them and the other is Kuta (coo-tah). The reason we stayed here and did not travel north to the more quiet towns was that we wanted to go dancing at night. So we traded in the serene atmosphere for a more roaring frat town - definitely not my style, but we made it work.

We got to our hotel and checked in. We each had our own room. It was quite small, but honestly I didn't need much more than the basic entities because the sole purpose of the room was to sleep.

Wasting no time, Putri and I walked the town to get lunch and start shopping. Bartering there is a must, but it is tricky, especially in our scenario. The vendors are willing to go much lower with an Indonesian, but with a bule (white person) they tend to be obscenely high. Putri was an excellent buffer and managed to get numerous things at dirt cheap prices.

I've realized over the past few months here that Indonesians tend to think that white people are made of money. It's like they think that we have a money forest in our back yard and we can just pick some off a tree or two whenever we need it. Some people get really annoyed with that, as did I at first. However, now that I've been here for so long, it's just a way of thinking that can't be changed.

Our shopping trip was successful and by five o'clock in the evening we had made our way to the beach (which was about a quarter of a mile from our hotel) to watch the sun set beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean. The day had turned cloudy and overcast halfway through so there weren't many colors painted in the sky, but it was beautiful.

After getting some dinner, the two of us decided to rest. You would be surprised how an all day shopping excursion could make you literally want to fall to the floor and wither in exhaustion! Our original plan was to take a short nap and go dancing that night - but we overslept and the taxi service was closed, not to mention that is was literally pouring buckets of rain. So instead of dancing we went to bed and planned for an early morning.

Breakfast was at a little joint just outside of the hotel. I had freshly made apple juice and a raisin danish. It was delicious and just enough to get me going for the day. We rented a motorbike from the hotel and headed northbound to a famous island temple called Tanah Lot. It was about an hour drive and I was the designated driver on the way there. Driving is a lot more difficult in Bali because there is a lot more traffic. There are two forms of surviving the streets on a motorbike: take traffic head on the on the opposite side of the road or driving on the shoulders and sidewalk. My heart was racing like a horse almost the entire drive up. Being so close to cars was out of my comfort zone.

We got to Tanah Lot late morning. After maneuvering through market streets, we arrived at the beach where the famous Hindu temple erected out of the ocean. It was originally a huge jagged boulder that ended up being carved into a beautiful temple. There was, of course, lots of picture taking. After we got our fill of that, we walked the seaside to numerous cliffs where many random temples stood over the water.

It was interesting to be immersed in a new and foreign religion. Living in Java has made me keenly aware of Muslim culture and religious traditions. However, Hinduism is a religion that dominates this island. Not only with the countless temples, but on the streets of the island. There are offerings of flowers, plants, food, and incense in front of driveways and stores. These offerings supposedly "honor the dead, offer homage to the island gods, and bid request for safekeeping."

It's difficult to come face to face with Hindi traditions (let alone Islamic tradition in Java) as a Christian. I find myself overwhelmed sometimes. How do Christians respond to this? How should I respond to this. Some say the best way is to ignore it...I just can't seem to ignore it. Some say to witness to them until they're blue in the face...but here that's beyond offensive. But then I realize that I am called to do something special here - I am being a Christ-like example and teaching Christ to a new generation in my school. That is my calling, and even though I wish I could be superwoman and change the whole world, I recognize the importance of focus. In the meantime I will strive to walk in Christ's footsteps and show His love and compassion everywhere I go.

After my visit to Tanah Lot, we drove down to Kuta, the neighboring town of Legian. We drove past the Bali bombing memorial site which remembers the victims of the heinous terrorist bombing in 2002. Although we didn't have time to stop and look closer, I was able to get a picture while riding passenger on a motorbike.

We purchased refreshing fruit smoothies before hitting the famous Kuta Beach. The beach here was a lot cleaner but full of market sellers that sold a range of merchandise and services from pedicures, sarongs, surfboards, dresses, massages, and much more. We found a patch of shade and indulged in a relaxing nap before heading to the clothing market about a kilometer away from the beachfront.

Near dinner time we headed home to take an extended nap before heading out to go dancing. The rain delayed us several times, but we made it home as soon as we could. When we woke up, we were so incredibly sunburned that we cancelled our dancing night once again and stayed in bed.

Saturday, our last morning in Bali, we woke up the the rain. We had plans of going to a quiet town about an hour north of Legian, but the rain has it's effects on travelling as well. Instead we enjoyed a lengthy breakfast at a cafe and waited for the rain to subside. Putri told me in her Javanese culture (which is a specific Indonesian ethic group) they throw a pair of underwear on the roof and the rain will stop. Since both of us were on our last pair, that option was out. We instead made due with the rain.

We bopped around the town, doing some sporadic shopping before getting lunch at an Australian restaurant. It was nice to have some western food. I enjoy Indonesian food, but I crave western food a lot, and this was a nice fill.

The rain finally stopped and we walked to the beach. We found a little restaurant on the beach and enjoyed a drink before heading back to the airport. Our taxi ride was a little nerve wracking, but I've learned to entrust your life to your taxi driver (no matter if he is the star student of the BMV or the world's worst driver) or you will never get where you are going.

Our flight was twice delayed but we kept ourselves occupied. When we finally took off, I fell into a deep sleep and woke up again in Jakarta. Quick flight, or so it seemed.

It was a great holiday and I am particularly glad we chose to leave on Saturday so that I have a day to recuperate before heading off to school. Another week ahead before the next holiday, which happens to fall on Valentines. It's a busy week, but it will be nice to get back to a temporary norm. I find that no matter how much I wish for the next school holiday, I tend to miss being at school even more.

Hope this Bali trip brought a little warmth back home in the snow-stricken states. Until next time...