Sand of time running thin... and I keep stackin' them lil grains!

Just six more days until I can read the work of my students for the WORDS competition about What does it mean to be Indonesian? woooowee I'm stoked!

In helping them get the ball rolling on what to write, I did a group brainstorming lesson plan about what does it mean to be American. It is pretty challenging to fit the meaning of American into 500 words! I mean just finding what approach or piece of the American you want to discuss. Ah, well many myths were dispelled or at least doubted about Americans, and then they worked on their own to brainstorm "What does it mean to be Indonesian?" In the beginning many of the students struggled, but once they understood that it's more about their opinions of Indonesians, they had a lot to say with a lot of emotion.

It looks like a live stream is not a feasible option for the final competition, but we will be working on a DVD and we have foundations willing to publish finalists' work. Whether we are able to work with them depends on our higher ups - AMINEF (American Indonesian Exchange Foundation) admins. Ah, bureaucracy, how I loathe thee.

Before my head aches from thinking too much about that, I shall move on to happy thoughts. My kids! Oh man, I'm feeling time running thin and.... right happy thoughts, so my kids rocked at a debate competition that we had been preparing for, for about 2 months. Really just one month intensely practicing. It was beautiful getting to know them and watching them really develop their critical skills - realizing that there are numerous sides of an issue, and arguing those points in English! Their English skills are still a bit shaky, but we still ended up going home with 3 wins out of 6 debates with some of the top-ranked schools in the city - we beat schools ranked higher than our school. Yay!

Imagine being in high school and debating why supermarkets should pay farmers more money in a foreign language. Ok so for some of you it may be easy, but still ideas of supply and demand, benefits/drawbacks of domestic goods, etc. are tough! especially in another language. (I kind of look like a high schooler in that pic eh?)

Soooo since ya'll get to see lovely pics of my students, I thought it was only fair that they see pics of you! haha. So I made a few lesson plans revolving around pictures of ya'll and another set of pics from USA. teehee! They wrote some funny stories about you guys. I should have copied them all, but there have been like 200 I've read so far. I'll try to pick the best ones and email yas. So here are your pictures on the board. They were guessing which were the three that were not U.S. citizens.

I know I haven't been the best at keeping in touch, but I just got internet at my house so I should be better about it. Although I also just started a capoeira class, salsa class, and words workshop in addition to students Eng club, teachers Eng club, and English tutoring...and bowling and friends' wedding - performing capoeira :P


Miss yas. Paz e amor.