I must say that I shed a few tears when they put gave me a parting gift. I’ve gotten to know these kids over the last two semesters pretty well and it’s going to be hard to leave Aceh.

For now, I’ll be busy grading and packing up. Then a few days in Jakarta before traveling to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, starting 1 July. After that, back to Jakarta to pick up my bountiful luggage and hitch a ride back to the US. It’s going to be the icing on some really good cake.

Monday Haiku #37 – 19.05.08

Submersed in the night,
naked stars sing the gospel
while holding you fast.

The first semester always seems to start in the beginning of September and goes for 16 weeks. This is really a ‘recommended’ number of weeks as most universities only requires lecturers to meet 12 times for a once-a-week class, or 75% of scheduled class meetings. On top of the that, the nationwide attendance regulations require 75% attendance of those class meetings in order to take the final. So, in order to complete the class, a teacher only has to come to class 12 times (two of which would be midterm and final) and students only need to attend eight of the 12 meetings.

This week I had three students come to me pleading to remain in class. One had dengue fever for the first three weeks and the other two just didn’t come to class. They had upwards of 10 absences over the first 16 meetings. I gave the one with dengue a chewing out and told him not to miss anymore classes. Unfortunately, I had to scratch the other two off the class roster. The Indonesian instructors who listened to my conversations were mildly sympathetic in that they have the same students and the students have the same attendance record. Of course, content classes and language classes are two different things in my book. Yes, you can just show up for the exams in content classes if you know your stuff. Language classes require one to show up to practice the language. It’s never a good feeling to boot someone from class, but they also have to set priorities if they want to study.

Thursday is a holiday here, so I’m off to Yogyakarta for some sight seeing. I haven’t been there in three years and seeing the sights, possibly even Borobudur, will be a pleasant respite.

I’m off to Bandung, West Java tomorrow for a conference: Teacher’s Competencies & Qualifications for ELT in Indonesia. The coordinating university is well-regarded here in Indonesia and I’m looking forward to see how various institutions around the archipelago are dealing with the certification of teachers now required by the central government.

However, I just want to point out a website that I searched and found while doing some research into EFL Literature Circles (there are others, but I used the role handouts presented in this one). I had only heard the name of this and hadn’t done any reading into it. Of course, I did this after the boredom set in on my Literature classes and eyes were glazing over. After spending the whole class session last week distributing and explaining the roles and procedures of Literature Circles, the students jumped right in. And what a change it was. Everyone was talking. The students were connecting the short stories to their own lives and keeping the exchanges going. My first literature class this week was superb, the second one has a marginally lower level of English so they needed a little help with extra questions. All in all, the students were very excited with literature circles, and I get to listen more than I talk.

On the brighter side, I took the first ride on my new bicycle. In less than 15 minutes, I met the end of the asphalt and found the mud. This was not unwelcome. I saw some monkeys jumping around the trees; I saw a lot of rice paddies; I saw some guys breaking rocks (and they weren’t in leg irons); I saw the mesmerizing cylindrical rain clouds that seems to happen round here. The only spoiler was a guy on a motorcycle driving right at me, turning at the last minute and trying to kick me in the process. Jerk. I’ll be taking my camera out with me for a longer ride in the coming weeks. I’ll see what kind of beauty I can capture here with my refrigerator-sized digital camera.

What’s next? I just sent off a FedEx cache for a job in Illinois. It almost cost 50USD. This has me wondering why organizations are still requiring hard copies of materials. Furthermore, there are job postings that require multiple letters of recommendations, sealed and signed, submitted with an application. This effectively gives me nil chance to apply since getting a letter from China and two from Jakarta within the two week period is impossible. Ha!

I need to get back to preparing for tomorrow and finally get some sleep tonight!