So sorry for the recent absence but between a jam-packed Activities Week and the fact that the Internet hasn’t worked at my home in over 2 weeks, posting has been a struggle.
I promise to catch up on my photo challenges and to do my best to be better in my final 10 (yes, 10?!) days in Indonesia!
So last week was Activities Week. It consisted of three theme-driven days, one day off and a fairly worthless Friday where most of the students didn’t come to school anyways. Monday was Science Day, Tuesday was Library Day and Wednesday was International Day.
On Science Day my students shared homemade toys that they made in class. These toys were used to show their understanding of push and pull and simple machines. Everyone enjoyed sharing their toys with the junior and senior kindergarten classes and it definitely made them feel proud to be able to show the younger kids how their projects worked.
That evening the music classes hosted the Angklung Festival. All of the students played songs on the traditional Indonesian instrument called the angklung. In addition to the students playing, random members of the audience were also invited to join in the fun and given angklungs to play during the finale song. I fully admit that I got misty-eyed watching it, knowing that I’d be departing for America in a few short weeks. (I’m still upset that I forgot to bring my camera. I’m trying to procure photos of the performance from other teachers!)
Library Day’s highlight was a character costume parade. Seeing all of the students dressed up as their favorite storybook and movie characters was so much fun. Teachers had to dress up as well and since I brought along a blue dress in my suitcase I decided Alice in Wonderland was the best option for me. I even won 2nd place in the teacher’s costume competition!
During Tuesday’s evening program we were treated to performances by the music and dance-related after school activity groups. This included violin class, guitar class, ukulele class, modern dance class and the orchestra. Additionally, three students from Sekolah Luar Biasa, the handicapped school where I volunteer, gave a performance. In recognition of the volunteer work myself and the two music teachers have been doing with the handicapped school, the director of education for our regency presented us with certificates. It was a very nice gesture and I was honored to receive the award.
The week culminated with International Day, during which our students participated in language games (Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic Malay, Mandarin, French and English), gave performances honoring the 11 countries represented at our small school and enjoyed an international potluck lunch. I was employed as emcee for the event and in spite of hating public speaking, was quite honored to be as such. Everything went very well and it was cute to see my two first grade classes on stage. One class sang an Indian song and the other represented America and in their Uncle Sam hats, they sang “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” A lovely memory to have as I prepare for my departure.