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
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