PYP and Batik

Dear Friend,

How was your weekend? Mine was wonderful.

My weekend sort of started on Friday. Instead of going to school, I had to go to an all day PYP induction. PYP stands for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program. It was an all day event with all the new primary grade teachers within the Sekolah Pelita Harapan (SPH) system. In case you don't know, Sekolah Pelita Harapan means School of Light and Hope. I work at the SPH in Lippo Cikarang, and the induction was at another SPH a couple hours away. So my journey started at 5:30 am.

Thankfully there were two other teachers going to the same school, one for the same PYP induction, and the other for an IT meeting; both of these teachers were Indonesian. I'm sure you already know it, but I am a morning person, so even though it was 5:30 am, I ended up receiving a Bahasa Indonesian lesson during our car ride. I now know the days of the week in Bahasa Indonesia. As a result of this initial lesson, I might receive more lessons in return for English lessons. I think that is a fair trade, don't you?

The PYP induction was reaffirming in what I was taught at Covenant College. Even though we use different words, the ideas are the same. The biggest thing that got me was the idea of a thematic unit. I learned a lot about thematic units at Covenant College. However, during this session, I found others to view thematic units as very shallow. They thought it was a topic title, such as dinosours, with which you teach everything in an artificial way, such as using dinosaur figures for math because that is our 'theme'. Instead of thematic units, PYP aspires to use a transdisciplinary method where everything is taught under one idea or concept with no distinct lines between disciplines. The concept behind transdisciplinary method is very similar to the sort of thematic units that Covenant taught me to use. To me, a thematic unit is not just a shallow topic used to teach each discipline, it is a substantial core idea that guides the unit planning, weaving together the different disciplines. My view of a thematic unit is much deeper than the view that others had at this induction. I found that very interesting. I would almost equalize my idea of a thematic unit with the PYP idea of a transdisciplinary unit, almost.

Anyways, sorry for all that education talk, if it made no sense what so ever, that's fine.

That afternoon, rather than going home, I went to the SPH in Sentul to meet some other teachers my age. In fact, I spent the weekend there. It rains a lot more in Sentul than it does in Lippo Cikarang! I'm talking torrential downpours every day! No joke! Thankfully I was always in a car or a house when it was coming down hard!

On Saturday we ventured out into the busy streets to find a fabric store. The streets were so busy, there may be two lanes painted but at least three being used with motorbikes weaving through also! As we drove by the palace gates I surprisingly saw deer. Not just a couple, but the whole area within the gates are filled with does and deers. What a random sight! We did find a fabric store I bought a lovely green and gold batik fabric. Batik is a special designed fabric made in Indonesia. With this fabric I plan to make a cover for the big water dispenser in the dining room. The tap water here is not drinkable so I buy big jugs of water that you attach to a water dispenser. In addition to that, I want to make a small purse and a tube holder for plastic bags. I do not have a sewing machine, so I might try to sew by hand because that would be quite a fun project. I will pretend I am back in the days of Jane Austen!

The fabric and the deers were probably the highlight of my weekend. During this weekend I also went to church, had quality conversations with new friends and planned all my lessons for this week. It is going to be a fun week! The third graders are going to write scripts for common folk tales and then they will act them out. In second grade we are going to listen to the orchestra music of Peter and the Wolf while David Bowie narrates the story along with the orchestra. I am very excited for this lesson and I hope it does not flop!

I hope your upcoming week is exciting too!
Let me know!

Your Friend,
res

P.S. Please pray for the third grade teacher at my school. She has been in the hospital since Thursday. She is pregnant and they found out that she has a large gallbladder stone. I'm not sure yet what they will do since she is pregnant and all. Please pray that she feels comfort and that this will go away without an operation. Thanks!