National Day at ENS

Yes, I am a bit late as National Day was a week ago, but better late than never.  I just hope I haven't forgotten too many details!!

So, if you've been following my blog you know that National Day is quite a big holiday here. And you also know how Ammoryiah Primary School celebrates.  Well, ENS ups that by like 1000%.  It's still chaos, but chaos multiplied by like 1000!

Leading up to National Day I was hearing stories from the other 4th grade teachers about how all the kids just run wild and you (as the teacher) just let them.  "Don't try to keep track of your kids, just let them go."  "They will run around the school and between campuses, so you can't keep track of them."  "Just stay hidden in your room and everything will be fine."  "Lock your door.  Boys from the Boys' School wander in the classrooms and use the Internet."  So, with my need to know what is going to happen, you can imagine how I took this news!  I was ready to be sick again.  Anything to avoid this day.  But, I showed up.  I guess part of me wanted to experience it as well!

The schedule for the day started with 8-9 as normal (yeah right:).  There is no such thing as "normal" on National Day; I have figured that out from years past!  I kept my students (I think I had 15) in my classroom until 9 when I was told that I could just set them free to do what they wanted.  That's what I did.  I opened the door and told them to go explore and I would do the same.  They darted out the door and I immediately locked it.  There was no way those boys from the Boys' School would be going in my room. 

I wandered around to see how ENS celebrates this extremely important holiday.  In amongst the running and screaming kids spraying snow spray, blasting horns, and exploding poppers there were Emirati men doing the National Dance, some dressed up local characters having a quiz show with prizes, henna, traditional Emirati food being prepared, falcons, and several tables selling traditional crafts. That was all inside.  Outside there was a huge slide, camel rides, pony rides, goats, birds, the police with motorcycles for the kids to sit on, and a dog show.  I figured that was enough to keep the kids occupied until 1:00 when the buses would leave. 

As I'm exploring outside, Brian, the principal, asks me where my students are.  I tell him I don't know.  He responds by telling me that I need to round them up and keep them together and inside until 11:00.  Really.  That's not what the schedule said.  I did not say that, but that's what I was thinking.  Why in the world would the schedule say that we could let the kids explore after 9:00 if I had to keep them together?  How frustrating.  Now I had to find them all and keep them with me.  Yeah right.  So I began the near impossible task of finding my students and keeping them with me.  As soon as I would find a group and turn to look for another few students several others would wander off.  It was pretty useless.  I got as many as I could and headed over to the dog show.  We watched that for a bit and then went back in the classroom.  The kids were ready for a break. 

Around 10:30 I gather up the children that I have and head to the pod to watch the show that was taking place in the theater and being simulcast to the pod.  Thing is you couldn't see or hear anything so it was kind of boring.  After about 15 minutes I gave up, told my kids (those that I could find) to have fun, and went back to my classroom with Jennifer.  We locked ourselves in and chatted and rested before going out to the cafeteria around 12:00 for lunch.  One more hour and then supposedly all the kids would be gone and I could go at 2:00. 

Happy 41st National Day
with Shamsa

We finished our lunch and I headed back to my classroom to begin the clean up.


The boys - Mohammed, Mubarak, Hamad, and Suhail

The kids had brought cakes, traditional sweets, candy, cookies, sandwiches, bracelets, and pens that were left in the classroom.  Plus there was mess from breakfast that needed to be cleaned up.  Yes, we have cleaners but I figured I should help them out since they would probably be there all night cleaning up the messes in the pods and outside.  So I gathered up the leftovers (which was nearly a whole cake plus lots of other stuff) and took them to reception.  Then I began the task of throwing away half eaten sandwiches, bags of chips, and chocolate.  It was a mess in my classroom, but after about 45 minutes I had it back to it's normal end of the day mess!  No, really it was nice and clean.  The floor just needed to be mopped.

The girls - Mariam, Maitha, Meera, Al Reem, Shaikha, and Noura

 

Our gift for National Day was that we got to leave at 1:45 instead of 2:00!  Can't complain because usually on a Thursday we can't leave until 3:00.

 

 

It's hot here tonight; 81 degrees at 7:15