Thursday, July 26: We've Got Good Chemistry

Because of the late night the evening before, we started a little later in the morning for school.  I had the opportunity to teach my second chemistry class, and this time it was juniors whose teacher was a young man in his late 20s.  The class immediately walked in and put on their lab coats without any prompting, so I think they were more used to actually doing lab work than the class before.  We had a good discussion about characteristics of acids/bases and pH and what that scale meant.  They seemed to answer questions more readily than the last class, and when it came time to explore on their own, they very enthusiastically took up the challenge of neutralizing the acid.  In fact, most groups asked for more materials and wanted to do the reaction over and over.  One group of girls was especially pleased when they got the purple color that indicated a neutral solution.  When we discussed the practical applications of this lab, and I said that many colors could be produced through such interactions with indicators, one boy asked if he could make a blue shirt at home.  I think I might have seen the birth of an organic chemist! 

The chemistry teacher who accompanied the class had brought a camera and was taking photos of his students doing this lab.  At first very serious, he seemed to get into the swing of things and enjoy seeing the students so eager to work on their own.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with this class and appreciated their enthusiasm.

I thought we were going to present to one more class, but Novi instead had a special tour for us: Dibya (the young girl who sang ‘It’s Now or Never’ at the Hari Anak celebration) took us to the music room and explained what all the traditional instruments were.  She even let us try to play some of them!  After this, we were returning to the office, when we saw the junior high students preparing  for prayers at the mosque that was under construction [pics here]  I was taking some photos, when the English teacher came up and asked who we were and what we were doing.  We explained and then he was very friendly and explained how they had an exchange program with a school in Australia.  We might have talked more, but we were on a schedule and needed to go meet the music teacher.

Novi had asked if we had an ‘American cultural performance’ that we could do at the closing ceremonies on Friday, and when we said no, she asked the music teacher if he had something we could sing.  Turns out he did.  Mr. Tommy not only spent time telling us about the various kinds of traditional music, he had several karaoke songs downloaded on his keyboard.  When we saw that he had The Carpenters, we agreed to sing ‘Top of the World’ and had an impromptu practice in the teachers’ workroom (with lots of interested lookers-on).  Novi seemed satisfied with the way things were going and then said we were done at the school for the day and would leave for batik shopping but first we swung by a special Sundanese (W. Java) restaurant. 

Because it was Ramadhan, they were only serving take-out, so we got boxes to go for the textile museum.  There was a surprising variety of foods but most contained meat, so Novi steered me clear of those.  Jeanne toyed with the idea of eating one of the specialities: lung!  In the end, she decided to forego the experience.  Even brave women have their limits.

Only part of the textile museum was open, but we were able to see some lovely older pieces.  We also saw the batik-making process and it is a painstakingly­-slow one (which is what makes hand-made batik so expensive).  Hot paraffin is melted and placed in something that looks a bit like a pipe, but with a small opening in the bottom of the pipe.  Wherever the wax touches, the cloth won’t be dyed.  As we walked around the gallery, the signs by the individual pieces noted whether the dyes were synthetic (kimia, chemical) or natural (alam, which was a word I had just learned from Wiharti when doing the indicator lab).

The school vehicle had left earlier with the other teachers, so Novi got us a taxi (not always an easy thing to do) and when the driver attempted to merge from the museum driveway into the ever-flowing traffic, a man I thought worked for the museum stepped out into traffic and held up his hand so we could ease in.  I later learned that he was just a random guy on the street and the taxi driver had tipped him the equivalent of 50 cents to do this.

Before we returned to the hotel, Novi had one last surprise for us: an upscale department store that had a batik boutique (say that 5 times quickly!).  There were so many beautiful items and we spent quite a lot of time searching for souvenirs.  Because I hope some of you who will be receiving souvenirs are reading this blog, I’m not going to describe them.  Just expect some pleasant surprises.  With our special purchases, we headed back to the hotel and prepared for our final day at MAN 4.

Tuesday in the Lab

We left at our usual time (6:00 AM) for MAN 4, and once we arrived we went to the principal’s office where we were served tea (this was our morning ritual).  I was then escorted to the chemistry lab, where I spent the next hour preparing the red cabbage indicator solution.  Jeanne was taken to a math classroom, where she taught a lesson on logarithmic functions (I’m not sure in which class this occurred, but during one of her presentations, the students were a little frustrated because they didn’t have a formula.  But that was the point of the lesson; they were to develop it themselves.  Their teachers commented more than once, “I think they need the formula to solve the problem.”  I think the teachers were concerned that their students might not appear to be as bright as they really were and were pleasantly surprised that the students, in fact, did NOT need the formula).

While I was preparing the cabbage, Wiharti (she was the chemistry lab teacher) helped me assemble the other chemicals I needed.  I finished about 15 minutes before students arrived, so Wiharti took this opportunity to show me the tins of sodium they had (and they had several).  She didn’t speak English, but because she understood what I was trying to do with the lesson, she thought I might want to do a whiz-bang sodium-exploding-in-water demonstration.  She must have understood that I thought that wasn’t a good idea, but she got out some sodium any way and I recorded the reaction.

Once the students arrived (and they were sophomores), I went through the lesson about indicators and pH.  The boys were a bit talkative and sat in a small group on one of the rows of lab benches.  The girls were answering my questions about background knowledge of the subject but the boys weren’t, so I started a small competition by keeping score of which gender correctly answered the questions.  This seemed to get the boys more engaged and arouse their competitive spirit.

After the demonstration, the students got an opportunity to try a neutralization reaction (they had indicator in the acid, so it was hot pink and they tried to adjust the pH by adding sodium hydroxide until they achieved a purple color).  The first group to do this seemed quite happy.  The students had told me earlier that they had never been to the lab; since this is the beginning of their school year, I wasn’t sure if they meant just this year or ever.  But maybe it was the latter since they didn’t seem to be very sure of handling the equipment.  Students in the lab.

When the lesson was over, we (by this time, Jeanne had finished her lesson and sat in on mine) asked how much time we had left and were told 10 minutes.  It actually turned out to be 45 minutes, and this turned out to be a fortunate event as it gave us a chance to talk with the students.  Jeanne asked them what they wanted to do later in life and what made them happy.  Some students responded with, “I want to be an engineer” or “I want to be a scientist.”  One very bright girl (she spoke English well and had been answering most of the questions) said that religion was the most important thing; it took precedence over all other interests. 

Jeanne also asked the students about a song we had heard the night before at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.  The students told us it was the national anthem and sang it for us.  At first reluctant, the boys finally joined in with gusto and it was very impressive to hear the combined voices of the students.

Novi came back to escort us to the principal’s office, and after a brief collecting of our belongings and thoughts, we headed out to our next lesson.  This time, I wasn’t in the lab, so I just did our new PowerPoint presentation.  When I was finished, I still had time, so I showed the students some recordings of MY students in the lab.  They laughed, because my students were dressed so differently.  So, I asked if I could record them and they laughed even more and seemed very eager to be recorded.  Once I had recorded them, I played back the video and they were really giggling.  Some even stayed after the bell rang becausethey wanted to see themselves.  Kids are kids no matter where they’re from!

After this lesson, Novi took us out for lunch at the same mall where we had eaten Monday, but today we ate at a Chinese restaurant.  There were curtained barriers between the food court and the rest of the mall so that people who were eating wouldn’t be seen by the people who were fasting.  But Novi sat and watched us eat; I felt bad but at least she bought some food to take home for dinner.

After stopping by the grocery part of the Carrefour store, we spied a durian ice cream vendor.  Novi asked if we wanted to taste a little, so we did.  It kind of tasted like vanilla custard but as it hit the back of the tongue, the sewer gas aroma of the fruit itself made itself known.  Novi took pictures of our faces and laughed at the contortions we made when we got the full effect of the durian. 

After this, we headed back to the hotel and crashed.  Delayed effects of jet lag?  Staying up too late the night before?  It had been a long and interesting day.

At The Ministry

Jeanne, Novi and I arrived at a very elegant office building near the center of Jakarta.  Novi told us this was the building for the Ministry of Religious Affairs and it had a very large foyer, where tables were being set up with decorations and serving dishes.  At one end of the building was a large reception area with a separate serving line and a multitude of tables.  At the other end of the foyer was a large auditorium with a stage.  The seating was temporary, with many row of chairs swaddled in white Spandex-type material.  I thought that was very practical, since the covers could easily be taken off and washed and the chair remained clean.  We had arrived around 3:00 and were taken to a corner area of the foyer while all the preparations took place.  It was obviously an area for over-flow seating, and I thought this was where we were going to sit for the performance.  I could not have been further from the truth.

At 4:00, we were ushered in to the auditorium and escorted to very comfortable leather club chairs that had been arranged in the front two rows.  We sat there through the final rehearsals and while camera and sound checks were done.  Three lovely young ladies dressed in kebaya (a traditional Indonesian dress) from MAN 4 sang “It’s Now or Never” and other young people practiced how they would pass out gifts to a group of orphans (the minister would later do this for real).

Now it was show time!  Cameras rolled and the VIPs began to stroll down the aisle to take their place in the front two rows of leather chairs.  A young girl in a red kebaya served as master of ceremonies (her father had been doing this during the rehearsal) and she had such clear, elegant diction!  She announced all the various performances, but first two young men came on stage and sang an opening prayer.  Next, a group of young women sang the national anthem.  With the exception of two speeches (one by the minister), all of the performances and announcing were done by youth, because after all, this was the National Day of the Child.  Drumming performance by MAN 4.

The performance part of the evening ended with the minister presenting gifts of clothes and books to the orphan children and then a group of drummers from MAN 4 performing and one young man with a beautiful voice singing the closing prayer.  We thought we were leaving after this, but Novi escorted us to the reception area where we broke-fast with everyone.  The first food eaten kind of reminded me of candied sweet potatoes: it was a cup of a syrup that looked as if it were made with brown sugar and had small, round orange dumplings and pieces of a translucent fruit.  The table was laden with rice, meat, fruit, salad (gado-gado) and desserts.  The table where we sat already had two dishes of different desserts and a plate of dates.  It was a very festive occasion.

After dinner, Novi excused herself to go pray in a small room.  Afterwards, we headed to the street to find a taxi and found ourselves crossing a road where traffic never stops; you just put your hand out with the palm facing drivers and step out on faith.  Cars do stop and you just kind of weave your way through several lanes.  Once we safely were in the taxi, we relaxed for our trip back to the hotel.

First In-Class Presentation

Our first classroom visit was to one of the ‘international’ classes.  These classes are supposed to be taught in English, and there was a visiting professor from a nearby university who came to lecture.  For the convenience of the lecturer, they lectured in their subject for two block periods for one day.  For example, Monday was dedicated to biology, so students had biology for four hours that morning.  Tuesday was for math (calculus), Wednesday was physics and Thursday was a chemistry lecture.  We were told all math and science classes were taught in English, but the biology lecturer was speaking Bahasa Indonese and only the vocabulary she wrote on the whiteboard was in English.  After about 20 minutes, she walked over to where Jeanne and I sat and talked to us about the difficulties of maintaining students’ attention during such a long block.  She also spoke about students’ misconceptions in distinguishing monocots from dicots.  She said they seemed to think that any slender plant was a monocot, and she told them that the papaya is a very slender plant but nonetheless a dicot.  We discussed how this misconception can best be addressed.  She talked to us for several minutes and I think both she and the students were grateful for the break.  At the end of the period, she took attendance and then left.  It’s the students who remain in the classroom, not the teacher. 

Novi then came and whisked me and Jeanne away to separate classrooms, where we showed our presentation about Oklahoma.  In the classroom where I was, like the first class, it was predominantly female (70%) and Jeanne later said the same thing.  There is no computer in the room because each teacher has his/her own laptop and there’s just a video cable available so the teacher can plug the laptop into the projector.  The teacher who had just been in the class left her laptop and I just plugged in my flash drive.  The students in the class were the ones in charge of technology; they connected the computer, stood on a desk to turn on the projector, and brought a power supply when the laptop gave a low-battery warning.

The students were polite during the presentation, but when I got to the slide about the type of food we eat, they started oohing and aahing and I felt guilty for flashing images of food in front of them while fasting.  Little things that you don’t think of when you’re creating such a presentation!  I had barely finished and asked for questions when Novi returned and escorted me back to the principal’s office.

While there, she had a discussion with us about the impossibility of eating on campus since the cafeteria did not provide any food during Ramadhan.  She asked if it would be all right to go off campus, so we went to a nearby mall.  While we were discussing this, the principal’s phone rang and I was quite startled to hear that her ring tone was ‘Dixie’!  How's THAT for globalization?

Most restaurants in the mall’s food court were open but had temporary curtained barriers up so that people who were eating would not be seen by people who were fasting.  Probably a good idea!  After lunch, we stopped by a Carrefour store (kind of like a super Walmart) and picked up some red cabbage (for my chemistry lesson the next day) and some disposable cups (for Jeanne’s lesson with pennies about logarithmic decay).  After this, we thought we were heading back to school or the hotel but instead we drove almost to the center of Jakarta for a very special event: Hari Anak Nasional Tahun 2012 (the national day of the child).  I’ll write more of this later.

First Day at MAN 4

Days begin very early here; Novi (our host teacher) told us that a few years ago the government made a decision to start school at 6:30 AM in hopes of relieving traffic jams.  But traffic is still so intense, I wonder what it would have been like without that decision?

Novi picked us up at the hotel lobby at 5:45 but patiently waited while Jeanne and I ate some breakfast (usually, the breakfast buffet doesn’t open until 6 AM, which means we always would have missed breakfast, but since this is Ramadhan, it opens at 5:30 so fasting people can eat before daybreak).

It only took us about 25 minutes to drive to the school because we were on a highway most of the time.  But I could see traffic in the other direction was very heavy.  Novi explained that those were all the people going to work in the center of the city.  At that point, it reminded me of the BA Expressway; morning traffic is heavy going east but not west.

When we arrived at the school, the first thing we noticed was that all of the schools (there is a primary, middle and high school here, plus boarding facilities) were surrounded by an orange steel fence on top of a cinder-block and mortar wall. On the wall closest to the entrance was a large banner welcoming us.  Not only was there a banner at the front gate, there was also one hung from the third floor balcony in the courtyard.  And there was a third one (smaller, vertical one on a retractable screen) in the waiting area for the principal’s (headmaster’s) office.  Novi carted this to every class we visited and took photos of us with the banner.  I got the definite impression they were glad we were here!

Next, we were ushered in to the principal’s office that had a huge conference table and a smaller sitting area complete with sofa, coffee table and chairs in the corner.  It was here we were given steaming, sweet tea and introduced to the principal and assistant principals.  We chatted about the exchange program, and the principal seemed overcome with joy when Jeanne presented a letter of intent to become a sister school with MAN 4.  We then discussed logistics of teleconferencing when separated by a twelve hour time difference.

Before we left for our first classroom observation, we were told this would be our ‘home base’ and planning area and that we should feel free to come in and use the private restroom that was in a corner and directly accessible from both the principal’s inner office and the conference room.  After that, we were off to the classrooms.  I’ll write more about that later, but it’s almost time to go and I don’t want to be late! 

Friday, part two

After furiously typing for an hour, I discovered when I tried to publish my last entry that I had lost my internet connection and about ¾ of the post was lost.  Sigh.  I’m quite sure I wrote something brilliant and no one can say differently.  ;)

One of the things I was surprised by at SMP 49 was the easy camaraderie between the students and the teachers.  They were laughing, joking and completely at ease, which I thought was wonderful.  I mentioned before that the students remain in one room while the teachers travel.  We did not get a chance to ask the students (away from their teachers) how they felt about that arrangement.  I’m trying to imagine middle school students in the US remaining in the same class all day long.  I’d hate to be the last teacher of the day!

After meeting with the students, we came back to the media center for an impromptu professional development about global education.  The very fact that most of the conversation was in English tells me that Indonesia has been wrestling with global education far longer than we.  As I heard at an education seminar Saturday afternoon, a new addition to the Indonesian curriculum is character education.  This is deemed necessary because of the very effective globalization of American and European cultures and not through the usual routes of movies and television but with new social media that allows students to truly be a part of non-Indonesian lives.  I think exposure to other cultures, beliefs and thoughts challenges our own and this can be of great concern to the older generation.  The minister of education, with whom we met Saturday, said Indonesians were very concerned about the younger generation not knowing or valuing their own culture.  And that this was why character education was now being taught across the curriculum.  Funny how new ideas and technologies excite the young and force the old into conservative action.  As for the outcome of the meeting, I think teachers from both countries agreed that the core tenets of global education (investigate the world, recognize other perspectives, communicate effectively, and take action/solve a problem) make learning more relevant and meaningful to students.  I think the greatest challenge comes from the ‘recognizing perspectives’ and ‘communicating effectively’  strands.

After the meeting with all teachers, we divided into subject area groups again.  The science teachers’ biggest concern was all the material they had to cover.  They kept mentioning they had ‘lots of materials’ and at first I assumed they were talking about supplies for labs (at which thought I was quite envious!) but it turns out they had lots of materials (topics) to cover during the course of the school year.  And that every subject had an end-of-year comprehensive exam, so they were very stressed about doing a good job.  They also had what we would call PLC (professional learning community) meetings and vertical team meetings (subject area only, with district and city-wide groups).  With school starting by 6:30 AM and not ending until 4:00 PM and weekly meetings (which did occur during the school day), their plates seemed very full!  I’m sure the students felt they were overworked, too!

After taking our leave of this welcoming group, we headed over to the Carrefour Mall, where we ate at a little restaurant called Bumbu Desa.  The food (ribs, quail, two types of fish, white rice, red rice, mango and peppers, assorted vegetables and spinach) was all delicious, although I’m taking my colleagues’ words for the meat dishes (they smelled enticing enough for me to consider taking a vegetarian vacation).

Our last stop on Friday was in the heart of Jakarta, which is beautiful, modern and with lots of lush landscaping around buildings.  Our destination was AMINEF (American Indonesian Exchange Foundation).  It’s actually the Fulbright exchange program, but Indonesian law prohibits any exclusively foreign foundation, hence the combined effort of US and Indonesian parties.  Mike McCoy, the director, explained the foundation’s work, they covered the logistics of the Fulbright scholars and helped Indonesian students who wanted to study in the US.  He made the comment that Fulbright scholarships in the STEM areas just went begging, and that if we knew anyone who wanted to apply for a 10 month program they were all but assured of being accepted.  Good to know.  He also told us that the Indonesian government was currently devoting 20% of its budget to education!  That was an eye-opening figure and makes me wonder what we’re dedicating to education.

After our meeting, we were given gifts of hand-made coffee mugs celebrating 60 years of the Fulbright program in Indonesia, which was a very nice gesture.  On our way back to the hotel we encountered something quite startling: a small monkey (perhaps a macaque?) on a leash that had a DOLL face mask on with blond hair pulled up into a pony tail!  The man holding the end of the leash was lounging in the middle of the median and was accepting coins tossed his way.  Traffic was slow but unfortunately sped up just as we caught sight of this monkey so I didn’t have a chance to get photographic evidence (but one of the other teachers had a telephoto lens, so he got a picture that I’ll try to snag).

This entry is really too long, especially without pictures, so I’m going to turn the tap off for now.

School's Out For The Summer

But not for the students of 49 Junior High.  Yesterday was supposed to be a holiday for them, but it was the day we arrived to experience their school.  So many students volunteered to be there for the half the day to meet with American teachers.  I'm wondering how many of my students would have shown up on the morning of Thanksgiving for such a visit, although I'm sure some would have.

The school was about a 30 minute bus ride away, and the students were all lined up along the balcony of the third floor to greet us.  The teachers and principal were in the courtyard and seemed very happy and excited to meet us.  We were led upstairs (past both their trophy case filled with gleaming metal and another case filled with artwork made from recycled material) and led into the media room, where the principal and our IREX guide, Susanna Miller, gave brief speeches.  The principal opened with a prayer and blessings for our efforts and Susanna thanked our gracious hosts.  We were divided up into subject area groups and went up another flight of stairs to the classroom, where the students awaited.

As we entered the classroom, our host teacher, Aziza, asked the students to greet us.  One student, obviously designated the class leader, stood at attention and commanded the other students to rise and greet us.  And they did.  Just like back home.  We introduced ourselves and then they had an opportunity to ask questions.  At first a bit shy, they then eventually felt comfortable enough to ask such questions as, "Do you believe in love at first sight?" and "What about ghosts?  Do you think there are ghosts?"  Fourteen year old students seem to have similar concerns the world over!

The students were all dressed in navy blue slacks or skirts, white shirt or blouse and navy blue ties and black Converse shoes.  We thanked them for coming in on a holiday and asked what they would usually be doing (sleeping, playing video games, eating, hanging out with their family).  It seems this group was the students' family at school, as they never left their classroom, but the teachers were the ones who travelled.  There were posters that were up all over the wall (Give Peace to the World, Experience Is the Best Teacher, No Racism: We're All Family) and I asked the students if they had put them there.  They said yes, because their teacher wanted them to.  Honest bunch.

Well, after typing all of the above and then some more (about an hour's worth), I lost my internet connection but didn't know it until I tried to publish this post.  So, I'm coming back to it briefly, just to post and I'll write more later.  But, on the bright side, you didn't have to wade through my ramblings.  Now I'll have more time to reflect and condense.  What's that old saw?  "I would have written a shorter note, but I didn't have time."  :)