At 4:30 each morning, I wake to prepare for the ride to Al Wagan (Wagon). Conveniently, loud speakers begin to play the first call to prayer for Muslims at this precise time. There are 5 times during the day when music will begin to play on loud speakers in the streets, in malls, and on tv. This is a 15 minute reminder that they have to pray. There are prayer rooms in malls and schools for men and separate rooms for women.
At 5:40, my bus pulls up and I climb on. The morning ride is either filled with laughter or silence. We either sleep or talk about our evening or funny things that happened at school. We have several stops along the way and arrived at school @7:00. My school is a co-ed. Boys on one side and girls on the other. Only Kindergarten classes have mixed boys and girls. At 7:15, the boys have an assembly and some of the teachers on my bus teach boys, so we have to be at school early. When I arrive, there are already nannies sitting outside my door with children....school doesn't start until 8:20. Children are running up and down the halls and it is very loud. I'm wondering how did these people get down this hall?????? There are 4 full time security guards at the school at all times and there is one who stays there at night. My Head of Faculty (Academic Coach) locks the side doors to a courtyard that the nannies used to get in...security guard unlocked it for the day. She tells me to put a sign on my door that says 8:20 (numbers are the same in any language,,,Most nannies are from other countries and speak broken English.)
At 8:20, I open the door and the children enter. Practice putting bookbags/backpacks at the back of the room and attempt to tell nannies they can go. About half of the nannies leave and go home. The others sit outside in the hall and watch us through the glass walls. Most of the mothers leave within the first 15 minutes, but they sit outside in the hall and watch. The rooms echo like open classrooms and they can hear every word I say and I can hear my neighbor too! Give smiley face stickers to those who come in, put bookbags up, go to seat, and get started on activity at table. Without any words, they quickly figure out that they can earn stickers for doing what I ask....GOOD!!!! Then we practice cleaning up and coming to the rug for circle time. Review rules and talk about how well they did coming in. Introduced the calendar and showed them a picture of my family and talked about them. Hanaa (my Arabic teacher) and I are really getting in a groove with the translating. I say a sentence in English and then she says it in Arabic. Really working on having them look at me when I'm talking and listening to me in English. (Imagine someone is speaking French in a room and an English person is translating for you....naturally, you would wait and look at the English person waiting on her to translate.)
Around 9:30, we stop for breakfast. There is no lunchroom lady here. The children bring a packed breakfast from home each day. I ask the children to return to their chairs and by tables I ask them to go and get their breakfast. Once I start calling the tables and the audience of mothers and nannies see we are eating breakfast, the flood gates open and they come in wanting to help children unpack their breakfasts. In my nicest voice, I told them....we got this! Asked them to wait outside...Hanaa is translating for me. These children are used to someone waiting on them hand and foot. They sit there waiting on someone to unpack their food. Well, there are 23 of them and 2 of us, so we will teach them some survival skills....Told them to unpack food and put on tables. We eat bagels, poptarts, scrambled eggs, fruit, and yogurt....not here. There are chips, chocolate (very big here), sandwiches with fruit inside and something that looks like nutella or cheese sandwiches (very big here), flavored milk, and fruit juice. None of the children know how to open the straws for juice boxes or milk because nannies do this for them....we taught them how today. When we finished eating, it looked like a war zone.....They are not used to cleaning up behind themselves...again, we taught them how today.
Then, we prepare for dismissal at 10:00 (for the first two weeks). The children did better than yesterday and are learning the dismissal procedures. After the students leave, we have KG meeting discussing numbers. Each class has between 21 and 28. One of the Arabic teachers took 2 students without them enrolling in the office....then she complained because she had too many children. She knows the family and thought it was okay. Parents want cousins, brothers, second cousins removed....to all be together and will tell the teachers anything to get them in a class. Our Head of Faculty explained to Arabic teachers that this was not okay. American teachers knew better. Maximum class size is supposed to be 23. We will probably get a new teacher from ADEC. After a 2 hour meeting, I finally get to go back to my room and clean up, decorate some, put up my class list, and prepare for tomorrow. Oh...and American teachers, I don't have a stapler, tape dispenser, construction paper, writing paper, or scissors. I must buy my own. There are very little materials here. What I wouldn't give to go to the supplies closet and go shopping!!!!
At 1:30, the rest of the school is dismissed for the day. We have another faculty meeting until 2:45 and then the long ride home. I drag my weary body from the bus around 4:00 and collapse onto my bed! Took a 30 minute nap! Had a turkey sandwich for supper(still no stove) and headed to bed at 8:00. Know I'm on schedule because the 5th call to prayer is playing in the background. It was a long, tiring day, but I felt good about my accomplishments.
At 5:40, my bus pulls up and I climb on. The morning ride is either filled with laughter or silence. We either sleep or talk about our evening or funny things that happened at school. We have several stops along the way and arrived at school @7:00. My school is a co-ed. Boys on one side and girls on the other. Only Kindergarten classes have mixed boys and girls. At 7:15, the boys have an assembly and some of the teachers on my bus teach boys, so we have to be at school early. When I arrive, there are already nannies sitting outside my door with children....school doesn't start until 8:20. Children are running up and down the halls and it is very loud. I'm wondering how did these people get down this hall?????? There are 4 full time security guards at the school at all times and there is one who stays there at night. My Head of Faculty (Academic Coach) locks the side doors to a courtyard that the nannies used to get in...security guard unlocked it for the day. She tells me to put a sign on my door that says 8:20 (numbers are the same in any language,,,Most nannies are from other countries and speak broken English.)
At 8:20, I open the door and the children enter. Practice putting bookbags/backpacks at the back of the room and attempt to tell nannies they can go. About half of the nannies leave and go home. The others sit outside in the hall and watch us through the glass walls. Most of the mothers leave within the first 15 minutes, but they sit outside in the hall and watch. The rooms echo like open classrooms and they can hear every word I say and I can hear my neighbor too! Give smiley face stickers to those who come in, put bookbags up, go to seat, and get started on activity at table. Without any words, they quickly figure out that they can earn stickers for doing what I ask....GOOD!!!! Then we practice cleaning up and coming to the rug for circle time. Review rules and talk about how well they did coming in. Introduced the calendar and showed them a picture of my family and talked about them. Hanaa (my Arabic teacher) and I are really getting in a groove with the translating. I say a sentence in English and then she says it in Arabic. Really working on having them look at me when I'm talking and listening to me in English. (Imagine someone is speaking French in a room and an English person is translating for you....naturally, you would wait and look at the English person waiting on her to translate.)
Around 9:30, we stop for breakfast. There is no lunchroom lady here. The children bring a packed breakfast from home each day. I ask the children to return to their chairs and by tables I ask them to go and get their breakfast. Once I start calling the tables and the audience of mothers and nannies see we are eating breakfast, the flood gates open and they come in wanting to help children unpack their breakfasts. In my nicest voice, I told them....we got this! Asked them to wait outside...Hanaa is translating for me. These children are used to someone waiting on them hand and foot. They sit there waiting on someone to unpack their food. Well, there are 23 of them and 2 of us, so we will teach them some survival skills....Told them to unpack food and put on tables. We eat bagels, poptarts, scrambled eggs, fruit, and yogurt....not here. There are chips, chocolate (very big here), sandwiches with fruit inside and something that looks like nutella or cheese sandwiches (very big here), flavored milk, and fruit juice. None of the children know how to open the straws for juice boxes or milk because nannies do this for them....we taught them how today. When we finished eating, it looked like a war zone.....They are not used to cleaning up behind themselves...again, we taught them how today.
Then, we prepare for dismissal at 10:00 (for the first two weeks). The children did better than yesterday and are learning the dismissal procedures. After the students leave, we have KG meeting discussing numbers. Each class has between 21 and 28. One of the Arabic teachers took 2 students without them enrolling in the office....then she complained because she had too many children. She knows the family and thought it was okay. Parents want cousins, brothers, second cousins removed....to all be together and will tell the teachers anything to get them in a class. Our Head of Faculty explained to Arabic teachers that this was not okay. American teachers knew better. Maximum class size is supposed to be 23. We will probably get a new teacher from ADEC. After a 2 hour meeting, I finally get to go back to my room and clean up, decorate some, put up my class list, and prepare for tomorrow. Oh...and American teachers, I don't have a stapler, tape dispenser, construction paper, writing paper, or scissors. I must buy my own. There are very little materials here. What I wouldn't give to go to the supplies closet and go shopping!!!!
At 1:30, the rest of the school is dismissed for the day. We have another faculty meeting until 2:45 and then the long ride home. I drag my weary body from the bus around 4:00 and collapse onto my bed! Took a 30 minute nap! Had a turkey sandwich for supper(still no stove) and headed to bed at 8:00. Know I'm on schedule because the 5th call to prayer is playing in the background. It was a long, tiring day, but I felt good about my accomplishments.
Wow! This is an eye-opener for me. I enjoy learning/reading about the education process in other cultures. So glad I can experience it through you. Sounds like you are doing fabulous! Of course, I knew you would. You're an awesome teacher. Those children are very fortunate. Miss you and your contagious laugh. Glad that you are safe.
ReplyDelete