Day 2

I survived my second day! I even had 1st graders again this morning. It was a hectic morning that started out bad because the taxi driver that Susan and I had arranged didn’t show up. That’s the last time we’ll be using him. It’s ok for him to be late or not show up when we just need to go out, but it is definitely not ok for him to make us late to work by not showing up. Well, I wasn’t late because I don’t have to be there until 8:00 but Susan was late and I felt really bad for her. So this whole taxi thing may not work out. I can’t worry about not getting to school on time because someone doesn’t come and get me when he said that he would. It may be time to seriously look for a car; although I’m not too thrilled about the idea of driving in this country.


When I got to school I found my way to the office. I am sure I went the long way around, but I found it. I signed in on the computer this morning!! That means I will get paid. If I don’t sign in, I don’t get paid. I must make sure to do that every morning. It shouldn’t be that difficult since I had to at Balfour. I don’t have to sign out though.

After I greeted a few teachers, not many were there because it was still early; I went to my first grade classroom. I had asked Susan for ideas last night, so I thought that this morning would be better than yesterday afternoon. Plus it was in the morning and kids are always better in the morning. Even though I was early there were still some students sitting quietly in the classroom. I will have to say that was about the only time that the class was quiet Very loud, chatty, and not listening. Today they thought it was funny when one girl sat on the top of the desk. I told her to sit in her seat while I pointed to her seat and said “yes” and “no” to where she was sitting. She looked at me and laughed. The rest of the girls thought this was hysterical so they joined in. How to stop this? I tried to ignore, but then 4 other girls thought it was funny as well so they got on their desks. I decided that I would give coloring sheets to the ones that were sitting at their desks. That seemed to do the trick, because the girls wanted to color but I wouldn’t give them anything until they sat in their chair. I had again had girls that wanted to leave the classroom. They didn’t get very far, but they left. Keeping the door shut worked for a long time, but eventually one girl decided to open it. That was the end of that. I would have tried a lot of other rules and routines, but I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my class and I really didn’t want to confuse the girls. Although, thinking about it now, one day wouldn’t have mattered. I should have come armed with stickers and pencils and treats. I think that would have done the trick. Lesson learned.

I did songs, stories, letter games, counting games, active games, coloring, and drawing today. I thought I had a lot more ideas, but again each activity only lasted 5 minutes. I read “Going on a Bear Hunt” and tried to get the girls to do the motions and move with me, but they didn’t want to. They thought I was funny and they really were paying attention and watching, but they didn’t participate; even when I asked them to and helped them to do the motions. They liked the 5 little monkeys song, especially the part when the alligator snaps. Some even started to do it with me. Those were probably the 2 best activities of the day.

I survived the 3 periods of 1st grade and when I saw Andrea, the faculty head, I told her that I really didn’t want to do 1st grade. I would if I had to, but I really didn’t want to. She took my request to the principal. I then tried to have lunch since I didn’t have a break until the end of the day, but I ended up in Andrea’s room talking about the curriculum. Good conversation, but I wanted to get something to eat before I tackled 3rd grade.

My afternoon was fabulous!! I love the 3rd grade girls. I only had 3 this afternoon so it was quite different, but we had a good time. We did some math (patterns, adding, and subtracting), spelling, and writing. They were really good with the patterns and I found out they could even count by 2s starting at 3. I was really impressed with that! Adding and subtracting went ok, but they relied on their fingers so I could only go to 10. I made a note to buy beans for counting when I went shopping. Spelling was ok. I really just focused on letter and sound ID along with some simple words. Two could ID all the letters, and one couldn’t ID any. I had them spelling words like cat, dog, fish, and cake. They were also reading different easy words. Writing turned out to be copying. I am going to have to really work on writing, starting with pictures and writing about the picture. I will have to have them tell me about their picture first and then I would write it. That’s a start. Great afternoon! No one running out of the classroom! Granted I only had 3 students, but it was fun. The girls were talking to me and looking at my pictures on my camera. We were playing games and having fun.

My break was supposed to be after 6th period, but the Arabic teacher didn’t come in so I just stayed with the girls. The Arabic teachers just leave the kids alone, but I couldn’t do that. One of the Arabic teachers saw that I only had 3 girls and she took them to her class next door so I could have my break. That was very nice of her. I’m not sure if she was supposed to have them or not. So I did get a little break this afternoon.

I went into the teachers’ room and sat with a few other teachers. I made sure I said hi to them and sat near them instead of on the other side of the table like yesterday. I really didn’t do much talking, but I enjoyed watching them. They are so animated. It is funny to listen to them argue with each other. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I could definitely tell that they were arguing. They weren’t mad at each other, just disagreeing about something.

At school all the Arabic teachers take off their abayahs, sheylahs, and face coverings but they put them back on at the end of the day. Under their abayahs they had on long house dress type things. It was really interesting to watch them get redressed this afternoon, so they would be appropriate if a man entered the school grounds. They constantly were rearranging their sheylahs and face coverings.

At the end of the day I found out that I will be teaching 3rd grade! I will have 2 groups of 3rd graders! I will even have my own classroom! It is upstairs, but it will be my classroom! Thank God that I do not have to work with 1st graders next week. I am not sure how long I would have lasted.

So now I get to plan the first week of school! Rules, routines, English, math, and science. I am looking forward to it!!