And So It Begins. Or Ends?

The last few weeks have marked the end of my first year at ENS and my third year as a teacher in the UAE. The end of the school year at ENS is no different than at Ammoryiah.  The kids stop coming and I am left bored because I finish things too early.  There really should be some sort of reward, oh like you know leaving early, for those of us that get tasks done in the required amount of time, if not early.  But alas that is not the case and I am here until 4:30 pm with absolutely nothing to do.  Grades are done, papers taken off the walls, lockers and desks cleaned out, and most of my stuff stored for next year.  So with all this free time I decided I would update my blog.

Last week was the grade 4 concert.  I am so glad that it's over.  The practices were insane; too many in my opinion.  They practiced everyday for the entire week.  The thing with all the practices  was all the downtime, not to mention the fact that I didn't get anything accomplished.  All the students sat out in the quad waiting for their turn on stage.  I suppose I should rephrase that - all the students should have sat out in the quad waiting for their turn on stage.  In reality what happened was that most of the kids were walking around (if not running), playing, and yelling.  Unfortunately, it was pretty much left up to me to monitor their behavior because the other teachers weren't.  That's something that I can't tolerate.  Actually that's 2 things that I can't tolerate: students running around and not following directions, and the other teachers not trying to control them.  Ugh!  That's what made it frustrating.  My class was generally well behaved; honestly, I'm not just saying that.  The thing is they know what I expect out of them and for the most part they do it.  Now if all the others would just follow.  OK enough about the practices.

The actual concert went over very well, or so I heard.  I actually didn't get to see it as I was out directing the students back stage and trying to control some behavior.  Surprisingly many parents were there and they really seemed to enjoy the show.  They had good things to say afterwards so I take that as a sign that all the students' hard work paid off.  I did see the finale (all grade 4 singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") and it was amazing!  They were all moving in the right direction (something we worked really hard on during practices) and they were actually singing.  My class sang a song called "Ha La La" which is a song about friendship.  They sang it in both Arabic and English.  I was very impressed with their performance during one of their dress rehearsals as they all were singing and Shamsa even said her line slowly and clearly enough for me to understand.  Who knows how well they did during the actual concert, but I'm sure they did their best!

So with the concert over I was hoping to get science taught, but that never happened.  The concert was on Tuesday and Thursday was a holiday so I only had 12 students on Wednesday.  Typical.  So there was no teaching on Wednesday; just some review.  This week has been slim pickins as well.  Sunday started I started of with 19, but by the end of lunch I only had 6.  Monday I had 12 but that went down to 4 and today (Tuesday) I only had 4 and that went down to 1.  Why do they even bother?  I mean why would they get up early only to leave around 10 or 11?  Doesn't make sense to me.  I wonder how many I'll have tomorrow.  I did tell them that we could have a party if they show up so we'll see.  I suppose I'll buy some treats of some sort, but I really don't expect too many.  I'll have to start bringing a book to read so I can keep myself busy.

On Sunday I went to Ammoryiah for the grade 5 graduation. I can't believe my first group of students in the UAE have graduated.  They have really come far.  I remember my first days with them.  Teaching them all about how to "do" school: how to be responsible, organized, take turns talking, raising their hands, not run out of the classroom, basic English (my first lessons were how to introduce yourself correctly "Hi, my name is", how to count by 2s, and draw a labeled picture of your family that wasn't copied off of me).  How far they have come!  They are reading and writing and "doing" school correctly.  Model citizens!  See that just shows you that they can be taught and that they can meet expectations, if only all of the teachers here would set some. I am so thankful that I was able to attend the graduation.  I loved seeing my girls again and getting their hugs. I do miss them.  After all the struggles with them they really were a good group of girls that were just learning how to "do" school.  Thinking back what could I have expected out of them; they had no rules or structure before so why should I have expected them to behave and do everything like I wanted them to.  They required lots of training, but it has paid off and they are ready to go to cycle 2.

It was also wonderful to be greeted by many of the teachers with cheek kisses!  I'm so glad I went and got to see Moza and Ousha, as well as the other teachers, again.  What a great way to start the last week of school!

Just 11 more work days until I'm done and 12 more till I board a plane headed to Toronto.  I'm not sure what the next 2 weeks hold, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm ready!  Hopefully there won't be too many all day meetings and that they'll reduce the hours.  I'm hoping that they'll let us leave at 3, earlier would be better but that may just be too much to hope for.

Well that only took 1/2 an hour.  I still have 2 1/2 to go!