Good Morning, Miss Tya!

What to expect when you are super busy preparing your research paper’s oral defense and an invitation just came to your door? An invitation which you are longing for: to compete on a modern dance competition! You see, oral defense is what the 11th graders are worrying about this early semester, or do I need to mention, since last school holiday? How to present, how to answer the questions from the judges, will I succeed or will I fail, what if the judges don’t like me, and many more horrible thoughts dancing in their mind. Which actually in my opinion, they don’t have to worry much if they did it by themselves and seriously – no copy paste from the internet. This experience haunted nearly all the 11th graders, including Josephine Audrey, Olivia Tsabitah, and Dyah Laksmi, three of our Glowzy members. They are very serious students if you’re talking about KTI (research paper), but they just can’t ignore the dance competition invitation from Marsudirini senior high school. They told...

It was quite a breezy day, but it’s sunny enough despite all the heavy rain we had nearly everyday this month. I was teaching as usual at X Science 3 and when we got to the part when I’m dividing them into groups for their upcoming project, one girl shouted while her finger pointed at the window, “Look, Miss. There’s smoke outside!” I glanced from the white board to the window beside it, and found a thin grey smoke which seemed like from the class next door. I rushed to the window and tried to hide a tiny smile as best as I could. Then, suddenly a very loud bell rang. Well, it has started! The previous week, the vice principal told us we’re going to have a fire drill on Thursday, 11 January 2018. This information had to be discreet to the students, so they would not be prepare for anything and will take this drill seriously. But well, you know high school students. Whatever meant to be a secret means the whole school knows. So, when the bell rang, the students shoute...

  Unhappiness, where’s when I was young and we didn’t give a damn ‘Cause we were raised, to see life as fun and take it if we can Dolores O'Riordan (Dok. Billboard) Lantunan lagu Ode to My Family yang berlirik syahdu dan dentingan gitar melodi yang mengiringinya tak pernah begitu menusuk hingga hari ini, dua puluh empat tahun setelah lagu tersebut pertama kali ditulis oleh sang empunya, Dolores O’Riordan. Mungkin karena liriknya yang memang bertutur soal keluarga sang penyanyi, tersirat bagaimana ia merefleksikan masa kecilnya setelah merengkuh sukses. Mungkin juga karena saya memutar lagu ini setelah lama tak mendengar suara khasnya, tepat di hari kematiannya. Kematian seorang musisi atau public figure tak pernah begitu mempengaruhi saya sebelumnya. Biasanya saya hanya terkejut dan kemudian berita duka itu berlalu begitu saja. Tidak ketika dunia dihebohkan dengan kematian Chester Bennington, vokalis Linkin Park. Tidak pula ketika Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, at...

Beberapa waktu lalu, beberapa jam setelah malam pergantian tahun, saya bercuit dalam salah satu jejaring sosial yang saya miliki: Tahun telah berganti, dan di 2018 ini HARUS: 1.       Read More 2.       Write More 3.       Travel More Resolusi saya memang tidak seperti kebanyakan orang yang menulis dengan panjang lebar dan merinci dengan pasti setiap detail asa mereka di tahun yang baru ini. Saya hanya menulis tiga poin dengan masing-masing dua kata. That’s it! Read more, saya tidak mau menargetkan berapa buku yang harus baca per minggu dan total berapa buku dalam satu tahun. Saya hanya ingin membaca. Sebisa mungkin terus membaca buku, jurnal, majalah, e-book, atau teks lainnya. Jika bahan bacaan saya sudah habis, maka saya berganti dengan bahan bacaan selanjutnya. Rupanya tidak sedikit buku yang saya miliki tersebar di rumah dan di sekolah belum tuntas saya baca. Selain itu, perpustakaan...

Last month, I had an English presentation in front of my fellow teachers. Every week, we take turns to present whatever we like, or what activities we had, or anything else that we wanted to share in front of other teachers. So, this is mine. If you know me well, or at least notice my appearance, you will know that I am attached to books. In my desk at the office, for example, you can spot at least ten books, most of them are novels. Or if you bump into me in the canteen and I am eating alone, you probably will see me eating while reading - or reading while eating. Why do I love books or to read so much? Well, I have many reasons, but in this presentation, I will share ten reasons why I love books so much: 1. It Started Many Years Ago. When I was in kindergarten, I studied abroad, at a small area called Goletta, in Santa Barbara, California, USA. My teacher, Mr. John Rodriguez, had this tradition to give story books to his students during the holidays. So, imagine how many ho...