What a roller coaster this week was! I hadn't found my school beforehand, and since Abu Dhabi doesn't have an address system in place (suppose to by 2015), my directions to my school were: "Tell the taxi driver it's near the Bangladesh Embassy and next to the mosque with the four tall pillars." Ok. Perfect. What in the world?! I bumped into someone in the lobby who was waiting for a taxi who was also headed to Al Afaq, so we shared. We got a bit turned around, but managed to find the school within 15-20 minutes (a mere slice of time in comparison to some of our colleagues who were having to carpool or taxi more than an hour from the hotel one way).
(Dress code at my school is skirts down to the ankles, shirts down to wrists - or at least past elbows - and collarbone preferably covered. Dress pants are also acceptable, but paired with a long tunic that covers your bum!)
(Al Afaq School -- all girls, grades 1-6)
Upon arrival, we saw a table full of welcome back boxes for us and Turkish tea. Inside the boxes was a few pieces of chocolate.
(Lobby)
(Box of chocolates :))
We were caught off guard by all the welcoming, there were a lot of AMT's and EMT's greeting, hugging and cheek kissing down the hall by the principal's office. The cheek kissing is new to me. Sometimes they kiss one side of your cheek one time, sometimes more, and same for the other side. You don't know how many you're in for, so you just let them lead.
Then, we were told that the school had been overstaffed. Reality hit us quickly. What did this mean? What was going to happen? I was instructed to pair up with the third grade team for the day and soak things in from them. I did not have a classroom, nor a guaranteed position within the school. For the remaining days that week, I floated around the school, feeling very unproductive, hearing that more teachers had been transferred in this week and that teachers who had been at our school the year before were transferred out. Finally, on Wednesday around noon (we left at one each day this week), we were given confirmation of our positions (third grade sections E & F) and the go ahead to start setting up our rooms.
(Luckily, there were a few things left in my room by the previous occupant, and I noticed right away that my walls were green and yellow!)
(The center pod area for second/third grade - my classroom is the teal door in the back left corner)
(A little collaboration time with a vet second grade teacher on Thursday -- trying to squish everything in on this last day before the weekend!)
By the time one o'clock on Thursday rolled around, I was panicking! My room was not what I wanted it to be, I didn't have the supplies I needed and I had not wrapped my head around the lesson plans and my rules/regulations/procedures I wanted to present on Sunday yet. I walked out knowing that I'd be stopping back in Saturday morning with a few other new EMT's to finish setting up/organizing my plans and my mind.
The weekend came and went far too quickly and soon enough I found myself snoozing my alarm on Saturday morning. A colleague and I took a taxi to a few teacher supply shops in the city picking up posters, border, paper to cover bulletin boards and punch-out letters and numbers and made our way to school, where I proceeded to fall off a student chair while trying to hang border, bruising my left ankle and our sweet HOF (Head of Faculty) called us down to her office for homemade scones and chai tea made from scratch.
Then. It was Sunday morning. D-day.
(That might be a fake smile, due to the early hour)
(Who can find the spelling errors?!)
I didn't sleep the greatest Saturday night as my mind was swerving and spinning at lightning pace, thinking about how the first day would go. How many students would show up? When would they get there? Would they look small or big to me? What would their English level be? Would they be kind to me and each other? Would I meet parents? Would they be able to speak to me/understand me? How was I going to fill my day? What if I forgot everything I had planned? What if I ran out of activities? What if I just plain forgot how to teach? Oh God.
I arrived shortly before 7 to find a student and her mother already in my classroom (the doors aren't locked) immediately. I was hoping I would have a few minutes to myself before meeting students and parents, but I rolled with it. Introduced myself and gave the student a task of cutting some numbered locker tags out for me, while the mother filled out some paperwork. I managed to make a few notes to myself during this time, got my head (sort of) right, and took a deep breath.
This was really happening. The thing I had talked about doing for so long was about to go down. Teaching abroad. Amazing. How did I get here?? The other girls streamed in a few at a time throughout the morning up until 10:30. I only had one crier! I attempted to go over rules/procedures/routines with the girls who were there, but was very distracting when every five minutes a new mother-father/daughter pair came in. The girls had a task on their desk of making a name tag for their desks and drawing/writing a few pictures of their summer holiday that I instructed them to continue on whenever new people came into the room.
By the end of the morning, I had collected 13, 14 girls out of 24 and that was as high as we got today. We went to the "cantina" (cafeteria) for breakfast around 9:30, then down to the gym for an hour-long assembly/national anthem/school dance/PE games. My girls did a great job on staying criss-cross applesauce, hands in lap, facing forward, not talking while all of this was going on. A few slipped and I had to play regulator and lay down the law with expectations, as I know I will be thankful I did later in the year.
Following the assembly, we started walking back to the classroom, but a few were talking in line, so I explained that this was not how Ms. Kaitlin's class would be walking in the hallways this year, and that we would turn around and try walking out again. This time, they came out with bubbles in their mouths and hands clasped in front of them as we practiced. Whew, because the early afternoon heat/humidity was creeping in and I was getting hot waiting for them ;)
We discussed teamwork through throwing a ball of yarn around to everyone in a circle; took a few polls about favorite colors and number of brothers and sisters; made a rule poster of my jobs and their jobs in the classroom; I told them a little about myself and showed them on a globe where my family and friends were. "Miss! That is so far!" We ended our afternoon with a big book called Kackadu Jack on the carpet.
Dismissal was chaos. Lol. We're going to have to work on that. That's all I can say about that. Much more discussion of rules and practice with procedures and routines on the to-do list for tomorrow, but had a wonderful first day with my girls. And best of all? The nervousness paired with the first day of school had passed. I have my work cut out for me in a lot of areas, but I jumped the first, and perhaps, biggest hurdle today. And I feel like I could climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! I have accomplished a goal that I have had for many years today. I did it. I am doing it. I will continue to do it. And do it well. Let's go!
No comments:
Post a Comment