In order to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day, and in hopes of teaching SMA 10 students about MLK himself, ETA Riley Heist and her co-teachers organized a lesson that would hopefully teach and inspire the 10th and 11th graders at her school.

Students started class by using their phones to answer Riley’s question about why schools were closed in the United States on January 21. Once students figured it out, she asked them to write as many things as they could find about MLK on the board. After students had some background knowledge, students watched five minutes of MLK’s speech and discussed what his dream was for the world that he was living in.

Students were inspired by his words and created their own dreams for their school, their country, and their world. Class ended with the students talking about what they could do every day to work towards achieving those dreams. Riley took photos of all of the dreams that her classes wrote on the board. Reflecting on it later, Riley was overwhelmed by the similarities of the dreams of her students in Indonesia and the dreams that her students in the US had talked about in the past. She is excited to incorporate the photos of her students’ dreams in Indonesia into her lesson plans back in the States.

Riley Heist is currently teaching at SMAN 10 Samarinda, East Kalimantan