Sumatran Pendidikan - an Indonish blended phrase - loosely translates as Sumatran Education, the heart of my 2011 summer. This blog tracks my Sumatran Pendidikan: learning about educational systems and programs and sharing ideas through a teaching exchange...while also exploring and discovering new things about myself and the world through untethered travel, treks and urban walk-abouts. My gratitude to the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program and staff and my generous host teacher Siti Zulfah Sulaiman and her colleagues in Medan for making this Sumatran Pendidikan possible.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

SMA Negeri 3 Medan

Teachers and students at the Opening Ceremony

10th grade (year 1) students waiting for their new school year to begin

Paskibra (marching, flag-hoisting platoon) at SMA Negeri 3 Medan

Presenting the Indonesian flag
School started on Monday, July 11th and it was absolutely wonderful to be here for the opening ceremony and the scheduling chaos.  I guess that it is a world-wide problem: that class/student scheduling business!  Interestingly it was a rather calm and controlled chaos - a sort of wait and see attitude was adopted by the teachers and so we spent the day chatting in the teacher's lounge.  It was really nice for me to meet everyone, actually, and I was so impressed by the way everyone used their English skills to the best of their ability to make me feel comfortable and to share something about themselves and their country.  It was interesting that most teachers wanted to talk about food (of course!) and their ethnic backgrounds and hometowns (Batak Toba, Batak Koro, Malay, Javanese, etc.).   I had little direct interaction with students on the first day, but very much enjoyed watching their performance in a flag raising ceremony and listening to their beautiful voices as they sang the national anthem.  These kids are really talented and clearly motivated!
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