Second Day of School

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The second day of school was much more laid back than yesterday, but the excitement of the students and staff was still infectious. I taught my PowerPoint presentation, again, making the necessary adjustments from yesterday's lessons. Now that I fully grasped the level of English my students understood, I spoke more slowly and clearly. I also wrote key words on the board, such as: weather, seasons, winter, spring, summer, fall, and so on. During the question and answer period, Nazar and I asked the students to describe what they think of when they hear the word "American" using one to two words. Here are some of the responses:

• beautiful

• amazing

• halloween

• Santa Claus

• The Avengers

• white teeth

• pointed noses

• snow

• cold

• Hollywood

• Taylor Swift

• freedom

One of the things I learned through our class discussions, is that much of what we teach in our high schools are taught at university, in Indonesia. Students are not studying literature in their Bahasa Indonesia classes.

I explained to the class what I teach in America, and one girl lit up when I said "poetry." During the question and answer session, she asked Nazar if I could show them a poem and model how I teach poetry to my students back home.

Thinking of my audience, I knew "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" or "Death be not proud" would be too dense for the class's level of ability. Then it came to me:

"The Red Wheel-barrow"

by William Carlos Williams

So much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

It gave me the opportunity to go through the vocabulary in a simple fashion. Then we discussed symbol and metaphor. I asked them if they noticed anything about the "stanzas." One girl noticed that there were four words in every stanza, with three on one line and one on the other. We discussed the imagery of red, white and blue. The importance of farming came up, which may have resonated with this group as it is a farming town. I even showed them how critics see the little wheel barrows in each stanza. Nazar mentioned that this may be too much for them, because they have never analyzed literature in this way, but it was a fun lesson. More importantly, the girl who asked the question seemed pleased.

At the end of class, we posed for pictures and took a hundred selfies. I also gave out gifts, like gliders, stickers, and a pin with an Indonesian and American flag joined in unison. The pins were a big hit.

When I went into the staff room, one of the young teachers said, "I saw the pins you gave the students...can I have one, Mister?" Everyone got a pin, and we took a hundred and one photos and selfies. It was like a wedding, and went on for over a half hour. It was a lot of fun!

Group picture with the staff.

That's Nazar, Bob, members of the staff (and me on the end) in front the school sign.

After school, Nazar took us to see the biggest bridge in South Kalimantan.

The view from the bridge. In the distance, you can see a tugboat bringing coal across the river. There is an empty vessel behind me going in the opposite direction.

The beautiful countryside of South Kalimantan. Rice is a popular crop farmed in this area.