My homeroom class was so excited about today’s date that they requested to stay an extra minute after class ended to watch the clock count down to the time noted. We all started cheering and applauding when the time hit 11:11, and eleven seconds later the crowd really went wild. I guess you could say we turned it up to 11, right?

High fives all around, and lots of big smiles on the way out.

I love teaching middle school!

Our school is moving towards a technology-rich environment, and many of our kids own the latest in digital tools. The pace of modern change, however, is such that there is no way any one person (or group of people) will be able to keep up with all the latest trends.

One of our fellow teachers had an enlightening moment earlier this week. He walked into the library to find a group of students excitedly poking and prodding at something on one of the desks. When he headed over to where they were, he could hear the chatter as they tried to figure out how it worked. They couldn’t believe that something as cool as this new device existed.

Once they actually got the thing running, there even was a little bit of pushing and shoving to be the “next in line” to give it a go. He snapped a few pictures of the kids “fighting” over the privilege of using the machine, and shared them with us. I am always reminded of how lucky we are to live in days of such modern convenience, and how quickly the world changes around us.

(and of course the photos are used with the photographer’s permission, and kids’ faced blurred because they are, well, kids)

Not much going on in Jakarta, other than a middle school social, but WOW!! Did Breck ever go all out as an Orc Zombie:

Here we go again!!

Not too much to post, just the yearly picture of Alea and Breck heading off to their first day of school at JIS.

We’ve planted a morning glory in our front yard, and Susan’s big plan is to take a picture of it each year – let’s see how it grows!

And as always, our previous school photos can be seen over on the webpage…

Setting things up for the classroom the other day, my principal stopped by with a high school teacher (known here as “Speck”). He has been at JIS for many years, and was the driving force in getting the MS science building (at which I am teaching) all revamped and remodeled.

When I introduced myself, he paused for a minute and then responded, “I taught some kids named ‘Stutz’ a few years ago at my last school before JIS. Their names were Karla and Rob.” It turns out that he had been my sister and brother’s teacher, in Amman, Jordan, twenty-three years ago. He’s been here in Jakarta since, and he still remembered them by name!

When we got the schedules last night, guess who was listed as Alea’s science teacher this year…