Just a quick post about my boring, yet productive, start of the weekend.
I had planned a weekend in Abu Dhabi to visit Kisha, but that had to be postponed due to the amount of work that I needed to get done. I am now planning on going the last weekend in October, which will be much better because the weather will be cooler and we shouldn't be nearly as busy. So with Abu Dhabi being rescheduled I had planned to go to Dubai for church and then come home. But after thinking about that, I changed my mind. I usually don't get anything done after I go to Dubai, even if I come home after church, so I decided to stay here. I went to the Anglican Church in Al Ain so I could get as much done as possible on Friday. The Anglican Church is very different from Redeemer, and I could not do it every week, but it is very Christ centered so it can be an option if necessary. After church I did my grocery shopping and was home by 12:45. Amazing! Then I spent the rest of the day finding resources for my non-readers, lesson planning, and figuring out the online component of Reading Street, since that's what everyone wants to know how to use. I got my class set up and assigned some lessons and sent an email with instructions so the teachers that want to do that can. That was my Friday. I managed to get most of my work done so I can relax today. I'll get some cleaning done and then go to the gym/pool. I haven't been there since I've been back and with the cooler temperatures it'll be nice to sit outside. I may also work on finalizing my Christmas plans.
So with three posts in September, I should be all clear for October!!! Just kidding:) I'll have to post about my Eid holiday, whatever I end up doing. Just 2 more weeks!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Changes
After a pretty slow and normal start to the school year the changes have begun. I will start off by saying that this could happen at any school, no matter where it is located, and that management did a fantastic job ensuring that no one will lose their job despite the many changes taking place.
This all started due to lower than expected enrollment. No one knows for sure what caused the decline; it could be that Brighton College (a prestigious UK private boarding school) opened, it could be because parents just don't want to pay the extremely high school fees, or it could simply be because parents are dissatisfied with the education their children are receiving. Whatever the cause, enrollment has dropped and when that happens there are small (in management's eyes) class sizes and things need to be done. So with lower than expected enrollment in Al Ain and higher than expected enrollment in Abu Dhabi City (ADC) and Madinet Bin Zayed (MBZ; on the way to Abu Dhabi) something needed to be done. So here is a list of all the changes that will take effect on Sunday.
93 degrees at 11:30 am. It is getting cooler as it's only supposed to get to a high of 100 today!!
This all started due to lower than expected enrollment. No one knows for sure what caused the decline; it could be that Brighton College (a prestigious UK private boarding school) opened, it could be because parents just don't want to pay the extremely high school fees, or it could simply be because parents are dissatisfied with the education their children are receiving. Whatever the cause, enrollment has dropped and when that happens there are small (in management's eyes) class sizes and things need to be done. So with lower than expected enrollment in Al Ain and higher than expected enrollment in Abu Dhabi City (ADC) and Madinet Bin Zayed (MBZ; on the way to Abu Dhabi) something needed to be done. So here is a list of all the changes that will take effect on Sunday.
- Two kindergarten classes have been lost. These teachers will not be replaced and the students were moved to other classes. This is because they had 18 students, which in my mind is perfect for KG, but according to management that's too small. So now the classes have about 23 students. The two teachers are now becoming system wide subs. Fortunately they will get the same pay. One of them is taking the library position because she is out on maternity leave while the other is helping with 3rd grade.
- A first grade teacher is being moved to third grade and the students in her class are being moved to the other classes.
- A second grade teacher was promoted to PYP coordinator and her position is not being replaced so her students are being moved to the other classes.
- Two third grade teachers have been lost. One due to a medical emergency (she fell and is still in ICU at Al Ain Hospital) and the other to cover an eleventh grade English position at the Boys School in MBZ. She was chosen because she had expressed interest in moving at the end of the year. She no longer wants to make the move and is very upset about this decision. Her class will be replaced by the first grade teacher and the other students have already been moved to other classes. The thing is the teacher coming to third grade is black and these people are very racist. They do not want their children taught by a black person. They think Sudanese and for some reason they don't like Sudanese. So once they find out she's black, it doesn't matter that she's American, they will probably want their child taken out of her class and more changes will need to be made to the other classes.
- Vemal is leaving fourth grade and going to fifth grade. His position will not be filled his students are being divided amongst the remaining 5 of us. According to the list that Pete generated on Thursday I should only be getting 3 more students, which would put me at 25, not too bad. Then there's the case of Kevin's problem child who is most likely going to be moved to my class. If that happens I'll be at 26 with one of the most challenging students in the grade. Needless to say that my current class dynamics will change.
- A fifth grade teacher is going to be the new counselor at the Boys' School. Vemal is taking his place so there aren't really any major changes there.
- An Arabic teacher is going to ADC to teach at the Boys' School. His position will not be filled so all the other Arabic teachers will have to take extra sections to cover his classes.
- The IT teacher is going to MBZ to teach at the Boys' School. His position will not be filled so now we all have to teach our own IT. Yeah, like that is going to happen! Just being honest here. I'll most likely use that time to teach reading or math or catch up on the little UOI that I currently teach. The only IT that I'll be teaching is using the Internet to find information.
93 degrees at 11:30 am. It is getting cooler as it's only supposed to get to a high of 100 today!!
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Back to Reality
Well I've been back in Al Ain for about 4 weeks now and back at school for 2 1/2. It's been a transition, but I'm doing good. The toughest part has been getting back in the routine of waking up early and going to work, but other than that it's been fine! I was sick my first week back at school with the terrible cough that I had last year, but thankfully it only lasted a week and I'm feeling better now. I was hoping that it wouldn't drag on like it did last year and leave me with pharyngitis and bronchitis. Praise God it was nothing serious, just allergies as I adjusted to being back in the desert.
School has started of quite well. Currently I have 22 students (I say currently because I may be getting one of Kevin's due to the disruption that he's causing in his class); 16 boys and 6 girls! Very different dynamics than last year, but so far so good. By God's grace I seem to have a really good class. They work had and follow directions (mostly:). We're still working on the raising your hand and one person talking at a time, but other than that they're good. I'm enjoying them; even the boys! So far! I pray that it continues and that I am able to show them God's grace and patience as I am patient with them. I'm really trying to learn from my mistakes from last year and not spend so much time shouting and getting angry. Yes, there are times when I will fail, but I know that God will forgive me and I can hope that the students will as well. My schedule is also a bit better than it was last year; my full days are at the beginning of the week instead of the end of the week as they were last year. I also have more 2 period blocks so I can focus on literacy and math, not sure how much science and social studies I'll get in but the focus this year for the school is reading and math. We'll see.
I have a new position. The literacy coordinator left at the beginning of the year so that position was available. I applied for it, somewhat hesitantly, but with lots of encouragement from the principal and the grade 4 team. I didn't want to apply because I don't agree with the program that we have to use and I honestly don't think I'm that good of a leader (although I've been told by many people that I have 'quiet' leadership skills, whatever those are). Well I got the job! As of right now I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but I've been told by the principal that we could discuss how to "creatively" use the program that we are being forced to use. I had my first tasks as the new literacy coordinator on Thursday of last week. Melanie was having issues logging in to the online system and she wanted to know what to do. Now I must say that I am the literacy coordinator, not the technology coordinator so I didn't think that would be part of my job description, but I offered my help anyway. I sent an email to the tech support at Pearson, which she could have done herself, and gave her some ideas that I saw online and we'll go from there. Now the other task is more geared towards literacy and what I want to do. Alexandra's PGP (personal goal something) is to improve her reading instruction and she has asked for my help. We're going to meet on Wednesday to draft a plan and come up with ways I can help her. I mentioned model lessons, suggestions, observations and just discussing what's going on and what she's doing. That's what I want to do; help others improve their reading so the students benefit. I just want to make myself available to others who want/need assistance with reading and writing instruction. I'd love to work only with small groups doing reading instruction, but unfortunately that's not the way the school is going. We shall see and I am looking forward to helping.
I've been to Dubai for church every weekend and it's been great to see friends there. Last weekend I went to The Cheesecake Factory with Vanny, her sister, and Jane. Funny that I couldn't go to the one that opened in MI and I had to wait to get back to Dubai to eat there. Now that the mafia men have left it's easy to get a table! It was really good spending time with them and catching up. I do miss Kristie, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had feared that Vanny, Jane, and I wouldn't have anything to talk about since it was typically Kristie who was leading the conversations but that didn't happen at all. Our trip to the Philippines in April is still on so I'm excited about that!
I'm thinking about heading to the UK for Christmas. Deborah is going home for Christmas and she invited me and I'm seriously thinking about it. If I do decide to go I won't be able to go anywhere for Eid as it would be quite expensive, but it would be worth it since I've never been. She lives about 20 minutes from Scotland so we could go there as well. I've just got to check prices and stuff. This will probably be my last year of international travel for a while so I better do all I can now!!
109 degrees at 1:40
School has started of quite well. Currently I have 22 students (I say currently because I may be getting one of Kevin's due to the disruption that he's causing in his class); 16 boys and 6 girls! Very different dynamics than last year, but so far so good. By God's grace I seem to have a really good class. They work had and follow directions (mostly:). We're still working on the raising your hand and one person talking at a time, but other than that they're good. I'm enjoying them; even the boys! So far! I pray that it continues and that I am able to show them God's grace and patience as I am patient with them. I'm really trying to learn from my mistakes from last year and not spend so much time shouting and getting angry. Yes, there are times when I will fail, but I know that God will forgive me and I can hope that the students will as well. My schedule is also a bit better than it was last year; my full days are at the beginning of the week instead of the end of the week as they were last year. I also have more 2 period blocks so I can focus on literacy and math, not sure how much science and social studies I'll get in but the focus this year for the school is reading and math. We'll see.
I have a new position. The literacy coordinator left at the beginning of the year so that position was available. I applied for it, somewhat hesitantly, but with lots of encouragement from the principal and the grade 4 team. I didn't want to apply because I don't agree with the program that we have to use and I honestly don't think I'm that good of a leader (although I've been told by many people that I have 'quiet' leadership skills, whatever those are). Well I got the job! As of right now I'm not exactly sure what it entails, but I've been told by the principal that we could discuss how to "creatively" use the program that we are being forced to use. I had my first tasks as the new literacy coordinator on Thursday of last week. Melanie was having issues logging in to the online system and she wanted to know what to do. Now I must say that I am the literacy coordinator, not the technology coordinator so I didn't think that would be part of my job description, but I offered my help anyway. I sent an email to the tech support at Pearson, which she could have done herself, and gave her some ideas that I saw online and we'll go from there. Now the other task is more geared towards literacy and what I want to do. Alexandra's PGP (personal goal something) is to improve her reading instruction and she has asked for my help. We're going to meet on Wednesday to draft a plan and come up with ways I can help her. I mentioned model lessons, suggestions, observations and just discussing what's going on and what she's doing. That's what I want to do; help others improve their reading so the students benefit. I just want to make myself available to others who want/need assistance with reading and writing instruction. I'd love to work only with small groups doing reading instruction, but unfortunately that's not the way the school is going. We shall see and I am looking forward to helping.
I've been to Dubai for church every weekend and it's been great to see friends there. Last weekend I went to The Cheesecake Factory with Vanny, her sister, and Jane. Funny that I couldn't go to the one that opened in MI and I had to wait to get back to Dubai to eat there. Now that the mafia men have left it's easy to get a table! It was really good spending time with them and catching up. I do miss Kristie, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had feared that Vanny, Jane, and I wouldn't have anything to talk about since it was typically Kristie who was leading the conversations but that didn't happen at all. Our trip to the Philippines in April is still on so I'm excited about that!
I'm thinking about heading to the UK for Christmas. Deborah is going home for Christmas and she invited me and I'm seriously thinking about it. If I do decide to go I won't be able to go anywhere for Eid as it would be quite expensive, but it would be worth it since I've never been. She lives about 20 minutes from Scotland so we could go there as well. I've just got to check prices and stuff. This will probably be my last year of international travel for a while so I better do all I can now!!
109 degrees at 1:40
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Details
I was so busy describing the classroom that I forgot to mention a few details about being back home. Either that or I'm just getting old!
I walked into my oven of an apartment and was greeted by a line of ants in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Disgusting, but not as bad as I had imagined. I was hoping that I wouldn't find roaches or stinky dried out drain pipes. So I was happy with just the ants. I know weird! I turned the AC on and got out my handy dandy can of Raid (I keep one on hand at all times) and began spraying. Only after ensuring that the ones that I could see were dead did I begin unpacking. In addition to the ants crawling all over the place, most of the surfaces were covered in sand. We had some pretty bad sand storms while I was gone, and even if we hadn't the insulation isn't great here, so everything by the windows, and the bath tub, had a fine layer of sand on them; it reminded me of my years at Ammoryiah. I wanted to take care of that problem, but I was so tired so once the place cooled off I went to bed knowing that I would have to deal with ants and sand in the morning. The following morning I did some basic cleaning but I didn't really do any heavy duty cleaning. I saved that until this past weekend. Now that it's all nice and clean and guess what blew through last night? Yep, you guessed it, another sandstorm!!! Oh the joys of living in the desert!
I walked into my oven of an apartment and was greeted by a line of ants in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Disgusting, but not as bad as I had imagined. I was hoping that I wouldn't find roaches or stinky dried out drain pipes. So I was happy with just the ants. I know weird! I turned the AC on and got out my handy dandy can of Raid (I keep one on hand at all times) and began spraying. Only after ensuring that the ones that I could see were dead did I begin unpacking. In addition to the ants crawling all over the place, most of the surfaces were covered in sand. We had some pretty bad sand storms while I was gone, and even if we hadn't the insulation isn't great here, so everything by the windows, and the bath tub, had a fine layer of sand on them; it reminded me of my years at Ammoryiah. I wanted to take care of that problem, but I was so tired so once the place cooled off I went to bed knowing that I would have to deal with ants and sand in the morning. The following morning I did some basic cleaning but I didn't really do any heavy duty cleaning. I saved that until this past weekend. Now that it's all nice and clean and guess what blew through last night? Yep, you guessed it, another sandstorm!!! Oh the joys of living in the desert!
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