9 of 10: Thoughts about teaching High School

I never thought I'd teach high school. It was a bit too scary for me. But here, at Jakarta International School, thousands of miles away from everything familiar, I truly found a home. 

 I found a place where the students exceeded my expectations, and I was challenged and rewarded every day. 

There were moments where I found myself saying, "I can't believe I'm getting paid to teach Romeo & Juliet and have this much fun!"

Here's a picture of my "crazy" (in the best possible sense of the word) class:

 Here they are displaying their true colors:

 Sameer, James, Sean, Richard, Rohaan, Rohan, Derrick, Akash, Tanvi, Ido, Elisa, Sabeeh, Tammy, Nitya, Anna, and Indah

How I will miss them.

During our last few minutes of class, I read my favorite quotes from "Book Thief," specifically the part when Death comes for Hans whose soul is light because he had given so much of himself away during life. We had one final discussion as a class about what it means to "leave pieces of yourself" with people and places throughout your life. 

Each of these kids took a piece of my heart with them this year. And I'm pretty sure most of them left a piece of themselves with me whether in an essay, laughter, an insightful comment, an honest short story, or just a smile.

Teaching high school?

What a joyful ride it has been.