Induction conference, teaching assignment and more jokes (for you Cole Maclean)

The first two days of the Induction conference were great. I’ve made some new friends and gotten closer to some colleagues from Queen’s Teacher’s College. I’ve learned a lot about the school’s history, and some about the culture and country. If I had to describe Indonesians in 5 words I would choose friendly, patient, easy-going, smiley and fascinated by white people or “bule”s (pronounced boo lay, and is the Indonesian term for white person (I think its not offensive, or at least that is what I will continue to believe)).

We are provided with breakfast, snacks, coffee, water and lunch at the conference. Sometimes its interesting eating fried noodles at 8am, and it must be some sort of cruel practical joke that the first choice in utensil to give us to eat said early morning noodles is a spoon, and I’ve never had so many snack foods that have a jello-y texture; but overall I’ve enjoyed every meal I’ve had so far here. All the food they serve us at the conference comes in little boxes so every meal feels like a combination of opening a kinder surprise and eating a lunchable, but who doesn’t love happy childhood memories (right Katie Wilson?). The only problem is I never know what the food is called, and when I do look at a menu I can’t pronounce what my food is called. Therefore I have yet to have the same thing twice. My mealtime game has become a form of “darts” where I point to a picture or a word and hope for the best. When I am unlucky in darts there is always lots of hot chili sauce to add for flavour!

Two days ago at lunchtime after finishing my lunchable I asked for a second box. They were more than happy to oblige and I thought that that was the last of that completely normal interaction. The next day as I was grabbing my box for lunch one of the staff said “Mr. Trevor take two!” and I said “maybe after” and all of the staff members thought it was the funniest thing in the world. Finally when the laughter subsided the one staff member who didn’t hear our interaction then said “Oh, Mr. Trevor take two!” and the laughter erupted again. Thanks guys, way to give me a complex.

At this point, and until July 5^th I am still living in Jakarta. It is the nation’s capital and is home to 11.5 million people.  To be honest, despite how friendly the people are, it is too hot, too busy, too polluted and too many people for me to ever be able to call it home. I am very happy that I will be living and working at the Bandung campus. I have heard nothing but positive things. First of all it is in the mountains so not only will the view from my apartment be beautiful, but also it is much cooler than Jakarta ranging from 19-22 Celsius most days of the year. My campus has only 30 teachers and 350 students. I am the only senior biology teacher, which I guess makes me the boss? I am excited about this because I will be able to plan lessons and run classes in a way that I feel plays to my strengths as a teacher, and that I’ve judged will help my students learn best. But at the same time I will be able to collaborate and swap lesson plans and materials with teachers at the other campuses. I have very small class sizes (grade 9 – 20 students, grade 10 – 16 students, grade 11 – 14 students and grade 12 – 7 students) which is very ideal.
Also this hilarious video helps ease any stress about teaching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSDPhhfEY5A

The staff at the school has already accepted me (so far I’ve met 3 Pilipino teachers and 2 Indian teachers) because of the fact I play basketball. The teachers play basketball once a week after school with the students and even organize games against our rival school. Apparently last year they lost by 16 points but if I understand correctly it was only a loss because of bad officiating. The height of the teachers here ranges from very short to reasonably short so I feel I will be able to make an immediate impact in the friendly games against the other school.

I have also been given the position of basketball coach, which I was very excited for until I was informed of our campus’s 66-0 and 88-1 losses last season. But hey, I grew up a Toronto Raptors, Maple leafs and Blue Jays fan, I’ve seen worse losses. At least I’m not coaching the Senators! (Sarah Fortune ;) )

In addition the teachers are very musical and frequently like to have jam sessions. Hopefully with their help my guitar playing can take the leap from “says he want to learn guitar” to “beginner”.

But what I was most excited to learn about my teaching assignment is that I will be teaching a grade 7 life skills class for one period a week. More than anything I was hoping this meant I would get to sit in front of the class and dish out life lessons and life advice. I asked my principal what that course involves and he basically confirmed my first instinct. He said it is a course that is not for marks and I will teach them things like how to healthily deal with anger, and how to budget your money. Teaching students about life skills is one of the reasons I became a teacher. By the end of this year those students will be so equipped for life. I will teach them everything they’ll ever need to know about life. I will teach the boys how to be smooth and talk to girls. I will teach the girls how to be smart and stay away from boys despite their smooth talking.

And I will teach them the importance of friends and family, so that one day they might embark on their own adventure and feel the support of all the friends and family who read their blogs.

As promised I have a photo. Hoping to get out to explore Jakarta today and will post pictures later

Friday June 28, 2013 4:30am (Thursday June 27, 2013 5:30pm EST)

I am definitely feeling the effects of jetlag. I’ve woken up at 2:30am, and now 4:30 and don’t think I will be able to fall back asleep. It would work out well if I had Internet access right now because everyone back home has just begun their evening and I am eager to Skype people back home. I am temporarily living in a hotel in Jakarta, with about 10 other new teachers, and more are still flying in. Teachers have been arriving from Canada, the US, India, Singapore and yesterday my current temporary roommate from the Philippines. Bina Bangsa School has 5 different campuses, over 400 staff members and over 3500 students. The induction or welcome conference for new teachers begins in about 4 hours and runs through to July 3^rd. On the final day all 400+ staff members will be present.

My teaching assignment will be at the Bandung campus, about 2.5 hours from the nation’s capital, Jakarta. I met my principal, Mr. Jon Jason, at the airport when I arrived and I liked him right from the start. Basically he told me I will be the coach of the basketball team, and he laughed at all my jokes (which we all know is very important to me).  When I travel to Bandung after the induction conference I will be able to settle into my more permanent living arrangement, set up internet and begin to get to know the city and my fellow staff much better. So far I have met many nice people, but all but one of which will be stationed at a different campus than me. The only other person I’ve met from Bandung campus is my current roommate, Lanwell (I believe, I met him late last night and may have misheard his name), is a returning teacher from the Philippines who has taught primary school math for 5 years. He had many positive things to say about the school and my campus in particular.

So far I’ve enjoyed Indonesia, although I haven’t had much of an opportunity to explore yet. The people have been incredibly friendly! Everyone greats you with a smile, goes out of their way to hold the door, and is overly apologetic if they think they have inconvenienced you in any way. The people are also generally fascinated with white people. I’ve been asked if people could take my picture, have had the gentleman who picked us up at the airport point out to everyone how tall I am, but all done with a smile on their face and in a very friendly manor. I’m excited to learn more about the beauty this country has to offer, and to get out there and explore.

I promise that my next post will be spiced up with some photos or a video for all the visual learners