We are the World: Teaching Adventures at SMK Muhi!

Miss Sarah and the lovely ladies of English club!

So…want to know what is it like teaching English in an Indonesian high school?

If I could sum it up in a sentence, I’d say it’s different from anything I’ve ever experienced, but awesome all the same. However, we all know that I cannot sum up anything in one sentence. That’s why it takes me a month and a half to write a blog post, Mom! :)

Indonesian high schools are composed of students in Grades 10-12. While elementary and middle school education is compulsory, high school is not. There are four main types of high schools – SMA (college-prep type schools where students focus on science, social science, or language), SMK (vocational schools – each school has a different focus), madrasah (schools that emphasize religious study more than private SMAs/SMKs do), and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). I was placed at a business-focused SMK sponsored by the Islamic organization Muhammadiyah. Each week, I teach the thirteen classes in Grade 10 (about 530 students -- 35-45 students in each class).

At my school, half of the tenth graders and all of the twelfth graders go to school from 6:30-12:00 and the other half of the tenth graders and all of the eleventh graders go to school from 12:30-5:30. School is in session on Monday through Saturday (but I'm spoiled and have the good fortune of having an American work week). There are seven 45-minute periods throughout the day, but unlike high schools in the U.S., the students stay in their classroom all day and the teachers come to them. They also have the same subject for multiple periods in a row. For example, my Grade 10 Business Administration Class 3 students have English from 6:45-9:00 on Monday mornings. I teach them for the first two periods (90 minutes) and my co-teacher will take over the class for the last 45 minutes. This format has its perks and downfalls. It is great when I have my students for 90 minutes—it almost isn’t enough time on most days! Unfortunately, because the students don’t change rooms, they tend to get a little stir-crazy when their English instruction is scheduled for the last three periods of their day.

Practicing introductions!

Teaching has been exciting and challenging because each of my classes has a different personality. I not only have to adapt my lesson to the level of my students, but to the temperature of the classroom (it gets HOT in those rooms in the late-morning and early afternoon) and the orneriness of the class (it definitely varies…and generally increases proportionally with the number of males in the class). The classroom is louder than what you’d find in most Nebraskan high schools, but this is primarily because we must keep the windows and doors of our classrooms open to prevent suffocation...and the students outside of the classrooms are NOISY! One time I was writing at the board and it got so loud that I turned to shoot a reproachful glance at my kiddos…only to realize that they were all silent and listening attentively and a group of twenty students was crowded around our windows, yelling enthusiastically. Apparently everyone likes to watch the bule (Westerner) jump up and down and make a fool out of herself as she and her class enthusiastically sing "If You're Happy and You Know It." But seriously...I was just happy and I knew it!

Exchange the rice for corn and get rid of the palm trees and it'd be Nebraska!

Our campus is a beautiful place to be. There are plants everywhere and white pigeons that fly around campus. From the second level, you can look off of the balcony to see a sprawling rice paddy lined with palm trees. The people on campus have personalities as beautiful as the scenery. My students are full of energy and are always willing to try something new or act a little crazy with the American weirdo standing in front of them. The other teachers at the school have taken me under their wing and watch out for me. They are helping me improve my Bahasa Indonesia slowly, but surely. Pak Darmaji, who picks me up and takes me home from school each day, is my guru Bahasa Jawa – Javanese language teacher – and we practice every day in the car. The warung (road-side food stand) owners are always shocked when I thank them for my sate ayam (barbequed chicken with peanut sauce) by saying matur nuwun (thank-you in Javanese). Javanese is definitely increasing my coolness factor…I’d estimate that I have risen in coolness rank from “trained monkey” to “circus clown.” I like to think that’s a blog-worthy achievement.

The view behind the school--pretty nice, huh?

Someone back home recently asked me about the best and worst part about my teaching experience thus far—and they were pretty easy to identify. My favorite part about teaching English is definitely the people at my school – my students, the teachers, my headmaster, the staff, etc. The worst part of teaching English is English. How am I, a poli sci and biochem major, supposed to explain why the past tense of “make” is “made,” but the past tense of “take” is “took” and the past tense of “bake” is “baked?” My knee-jerk response is to say either, “It just sounds right, okay?” or “someone must have consumed one too many adult beverages when they made that grammatical decision.” However, I usually respond with this unsatisfying, yet completely accurate comment:

“I’m sorry…English is just crazy.”