The Twilight Zone

 My weekend was consumed with working on my teacher portfolio.  In the UAE, there are three parts to you yearly evaluation as a teacher.  Two formal evaluations and a teacher portfolio.  You have to keep evidence from the year to prove you've met the necessary standards in the area of professionalism, curriculum,  classroom, and community.  If there isn't evidence, it didn't happen.  Throughout the year, I took thousands of pictures of activities, field trips, parent visits, professional development meetings, collaborative planning meetings, and just about anything that would stand still.  There were many moments that went undocumented because I was too busy teaching.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Our First Day

We made kites for K.  Hamad wanted me to write the English word for his pictures :)

Lion for L.  They cut the circles out themselves.  Nader was proud of his.  

Things that come from a Farm

We learned to sort with Skittles and M & M's and they learned to make bar graphs. 

On Monday, I went in for a meeting with the Head of Faculty and Vice Principal to discuss my portfolio.  I'm an overachiever, so my notebook was huge.  Even though I was never a Girl Scout, I'm always prepared :)  The meeting went very well and left the room with a spring in my step :)

My Portfolio

 This week we are studying about one of my favorite topics...plants.  Sunday, we started several experiments to prove that plants need water, light, and soil to live. On Monday, we planted lima bean seeds in clear plastic cups so the children could see the roots when they start to grow.  They'd never seen large lima beans (butter beans).  Most people here eat small dry lima beans.  I bought the biggest ones I could find so they could see the baby plant inside.  On Tuesday, we pulled apart lima beans that had soaked overnight and found the seed covering, baby plant, and "food".   On Wednesday, we were supposed to talk about seeds that we eat, but something interesting happened....

What started out as a pretty "normal" week has ended very strangely. The weather has been really weird this week.  The skies are dark, cloudy, and ominous looking.  It has rained some every day this week and the temperature is cool compared to last week. The amount of rain here has surprised me.  On Tuesday night, I was awakened to thundering and rain hitting my window @ 1 am.  Something that happens very rarely.  When going out to wait on the bus on next morning, the pavement was wet and there were puddles.  Again, something you don't see here very much.  Usually a rain is a few sprinkles and it's over.  As we drove out in the desert toward Al Wagan, began to notice that the sides of the road had large puddles.

There are no "ditches" here and no drainage systems.  Water has nowhere to go.  You would think its so dry that it would soak in, but it puddles.  As we drove into the town of Al Wagan, which is about the size of Unadilla, there were larger puddles.  Thatch fences which line the road close to my school were blown over.  These fences are in sand, but took some wind to blow it over.  The road to the school was filled with large puddles on each side.

People here are not used to rain and act like Georgians do when it snows.  We don't know how to drive in it.  When there's bad weather, the students will stay home.  As we entered the school, the cleaners (custodians) were mopping furiously.  There were "Wet Floor" signs down the KG hall.  Around every corner, there were puddles of water in the halls.  As I entered my classroom, the door to my back porch was open and there was a half inch of water from the door all the way to my Art Center (quite a distance).  One spot on the ceiling was wet and had leaked on the floor and there was a puddle under an air conditioning vent.  Some of our materials were ruined due to water blowing in when the back door slung open.

I went to get a cleaner, but soon found that I wasn't the only flooded room.  In varying degrees, there was water in every KG room.  Ms Lynette had wet ceiling tiles all over her floor and her entire rug was soaked.  The children would not be able to stay in this room for today.  Ms. Whitney had leakage in some of the same areas a me and her rug was soaked.  This school is only two years old, but roofs here are all flat and not really intended to withstand much water.  According to those that have been here for years, this weather is very strange for this time of the year. 

When looking outside the window, this is what I saw:

These are large covers over our outdoor areas which shield us from the heat.  This is before the storm. 

This is after the storm.  Several were blown down.  Must've been some strong wind in the storm.  

Ms. Hiba Mohammed, one of my friends from work, showed me a picture of "hail" that was in Al Wagan last night.  She blew me away.  I had no idea that there was hail in the desert.  It was the size of ice cubes.  I will post picture later. 

I went back to my room and out on the back porch.  My lima beans were in the cups outside.  Had no idea there would be a storm to come along.  Well, let's just say that my clear solo cups were filled to the top with water and think we are going to have to replant.  There was trash and art projects that were taped to my door all over the back porch.  The wind had clearly thrown the door open.

This is the covering over my back porch.  If you look closely can see the water pooling and seeping through the bottom. 

Roof damage caused by the storm at left corner. 

The engineer, which is the person responsible for all maintenance to the building, came in to inspect all the rooms and made a list of repairs.  The courtyard, where we meet our students each morning, is littered with plant parts and is very wet.  Students came and we muddled through until our regular dismissal time.  I only had 7 to come today.  Everyone stayed home and I bet their homes had water damage too because they have the same type of roof.

The children were fascinated with rain like I am with snow.  First flake and I want to run outside and try to catch a snowflake.  The children wanted to go outside and play in the rain and feel it on their faces. We walked across the courtyard on our way back from the auditorium and there was a soft rain falling. I couldn't help but smile as I watched their faces.  Big smiles and sheer joy!  

Tomorrow is Thursday, the last day of our school week.  Very interested to see if students come back tomorrow.  Cloudy and chance of rain over the next few days.  Should be very interesting.  Until we meet again!  :)