Back to School!!

Did you read the last September post -- be sure not to miss it!!

Started back to school after the glorious break on Sunday September 27. What did this mean exactly? Wake up at 5:30 a.m. -- yes this is not a typo. 5:30 a.m. every morning nearly kills me. This means I am in bed by 9:30 most nights just simply exhausted. After I awake at 5:30 I must be ready and in the lobby for my 6:35 a.m. bus pick-up for all the teachers from various buildings. We arrive to school around 6:55 a.m. and I have a little time to organize things and get a few tasks completed. Children start trickling into the classroom around 7:30 ish to drop off their backpacks and lunches. The bell rings at 7:45 a.m. and the kids are in school until 2:45 p.m. -- this is an extremely long day!! Since we are back on regular post-Ramadan scheduling, we are finally into the groove of what a normal day looks like. This first week was so tiring. Keeping the kids on task is the hardest part followed by trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing!!

For those teachers out there who are reading this blog you may relate. We follow a new math program called "Investigations" which no one has had any training with so everyone is winging it. We follow a language arts program called "4 Blocks" which includes: SSR (self-selected reading), GR (guided reading), www (working with words) and writing. I have had no training with this method so, you guessed it, winging it. Because we are an IB school (International Baccalaureatte) we follow the PYP program (Primary Years Program) and there are transdisciplinary themes which we must cover, e.g. -- How We Organize Ourselves" -- this is my current unit and it deals with "How authority and rules effect people and the environment". These units are to create young thinkers who have a global perspective on the world and their place in it. Some training has been provided here, but I am definitely in the learning curve. Every classroom has its own Smartboard and there has been no training as of yet, but I a told it is coming. When do I make the time to teach myself the smartboard? I have 4 children who have learning difficulties or language deficiencies who have tutors right in my classroom. I have 2 girls who daydream and do no work and I have one very bright boy who is a total behavioural handful. Other than the 7 children I just mentioned, the rest of the class are quite good behaviourally and within the average to highly-skilled range academically. You can see why I am whipped at the end of the day.

There are two school buses that take teachers back to their apartments at the end of the day. One leaves at 3:15 and the other at 4:15 -- I am always on the late bus because I try to get extra work done at the end of the day. So my day begins with be waking up at 5:30 a.m. and I get home from school about 4:40p.m. I often have marking in the evenings and hope my energy increases so I can do more work at home at night to stay on top of things. It is currently Friday, October 4 (my Saturday) and I will have the day free to shop, maybe get a massage, try to buy some new black sandals and get some facial hair threading done. Tomorrow I will go to school to try to spend 4-5 hours setting up my weekly plan and trying to get some level of sanity in my head. My desk is piled high with tons of stuff that I need to go through and sort. I have so much reading material my head could explode. That is in essence the training -- "here's a link, read it".

I will survive, but as mentioned to many of you in conversations of past, I HATE being in the learning curve -- it sucks the life out of you!! Anyway, all is not lost, last night I went to a beautiful hotel that has an open grassy/garden area which people called the "beer garden". It was a colleagues birthday and there was a huge turnout. There was live music -- kind of BeeGees Barry Gibb mixed with Jewel. It was rather mellow music and everyone was hoping for dance music -- needless to say, the dance floor was empty all night long. There were large tables and comfortable chairs set all over this huge grassy area with a large air-conditioned tent and a buffet or modest pizza/burger menu to order food. I enjoyed myself and even broke down and had 1 shot of sambuca and 2 cigs!! Usually I stick to my "Coke Light".