Be optimisstic, when the road gets bumpy...

Things aren't always so peachy in the UAE when it comes to my job. This has been the most difficult point of my career. If I'm able to conquer this, I can truly conquer anything.

I need some time to post and reflect on the past months happenings. There have been quite a few tears shed and the ride isn't over, in fact it has just begun all over again. The school started with 6 English teachers and now we're down to 4. I plan to stick it out but it's costing me dearly in terms of my personal happiness. I need to focus my energy on what really matters, the children. I must say that I am amazed by the progress that has been made. They have turned from little monsters that made me cry to little cute monsters that make me smile every time I see them. I'm very happy that I chose to come to the UAE and don't consider going back to Miami as an option. From this point forward the world is at my fingertips. My adventure here will cease as soon as my contract ends but it will only open the doors to a new adventure that I probably never even considered before.

The Middle East is not for me. I will elaborate on this soon but for now this will be my last public post. Like everything here in Abu Dhabi, this blog is probably being watched closely. This is part of the reason I've dissapeared for a bit. I will make this an invite only blog that is accessible to the people I know in order for me to feel free to post everything and not be censored.

First Day of School!(An old post that I never got done editing)

 (In one word: chaotic.

I set my alarm and woke up at 5am, made a little breakfast, took a quick wake up shower, grabbed a bunch of teaching stuff and went downstairs to meet the teachers I ride with. I felt nervous but mostly excited. I had built up the day ahead of me so many times in my head that I was excited to finally have it and wonder no longer. Up until this point I had heard so many bad stories about the behavior of these students that I just wanted to get started instead of sitting around worried.

So when we get to the school, the first thing we saw was buses of little boys going into the school. The boys are required to wear kandoras which is the national attire of the UAE. They looked so cute. I could spot them already pushing and shoving each other off the bus, this was a nice sign of what lay ahead.

First day of school (kinda)

So yesterday was the first day of school. I went to the lobby and met with two teachers and the lead teacher to ride to school. The two teachers that live in my building are named Liz and Brette.I decided to withhold the fact that my last boyfriend was named Brett too to Brette. hehe. My lead teacher is named Yvonne. She's a really cool assertive black woman that taught in Miami-Dade County and ended on the position of staffing specialist for the region I was working in ::cue in the It's a Small World After All song:: There are three other teachers working in my school., Anika (which we call Ms. Annie in school because when she said her name the Arabic teachers started laughing and said that it sounded like penis in Arabic. lmao), Barbara and Jean.
I will be coteaching with Brette most of the day and helping Liz. My classroom will be 2nd grade and I'll be helping Liz in 1st grade. I think this arrangement will work well. I really like both girls very much. Brette is Canadian and Liz is from New Zealand. Just from speaking to them there's a high probability that after this adventure I'll be moving to Australia to do my masters. Their curriculum is a lot more hands-on and their approaches are just great. Liz, Brette and Anika are the returning teachers. Anika is working with Barbara in third grade and Jean is teaching first grade (and had different people coming throughout the day to help).

On a quick note about Anika- she's ummm difficult. On first impression she's a very stubborn person and just carries a cloud of negativity around her. Barbara is pretty quiet but seems to be a firm person and Jean just seems really sad. I need to reach out to her. Unfortunately, Jean is short on cash and does not really have a ride to school. Our car is full and her hotel is out of the way. I'll have to think up ways to help her ot. Maybe I can buy some materials for her to use for now. :(

So getting back to the first day...We came into the office and Barbara, Anika and Jean were already there. The principal did not expect more than 1 teacher and got 3 new teachers. The principal had not created the schedule yet and the classrooms were full of construction dust. Any child that showed up to school was sent home. A few boys ran around the courtyard and were dripping with sweat (at only 8:15am!). For the most part we sat around waiting for the principal to give us the created schedule. When we got it, both Jean and I weren't on the schedule. For the next couple hours we worked on the schedule. Things got heated because Anika insisted on having someone in her classroom all day. She was obviously bitter that Liz had had a smaller workload the previous year. She defintely set a horrible first impression on people that didn't know her. She was demanding, and just generally bitter. Eventually after some obvious animosity we created a schedule that seemed to please everyone. Every teacher would be in charge of her own class and receive assistance from other teachers. I hope it works out nicely.

The day ended at 12:30 and I went home and napped for three hours. I need to stop doing that because it's making it difficult for me to fall asleep.

Today I woke up at 5:30 and we headed off to school at 6:15. We discussed rules and a discipline plan as a group and then were able to set up our classrooms. I lucked out because Brette had bought so much stuff over the summer. I need to find the teacher store and buy a few things to contribute. We made the classroom a little happier by adding a word wall, some Dr. Seuss animated rules, and a circle area with a chart paper graph. It's only going to get nicer. I kept thinking about the fact that back home I'd have two weeks to set up. A one day set-up is tough.

Today Anika seemed like another person. She seemed nice. Split personality? Who knows. haha.

I came home and napped again for way too long, made some awful spaghetti (I bought tomato paste to make my own and it was bitter - I'm sticking to Ragu Sauce), and now I'm watching Nurse Betty. I love how I have free cable with great channels that always play movies. Friday is my relaxation day and teacher party at night, and Saturday planning and prepping for the real first day of school.

I better take advantage of the next few relaxing days because they might be limited from now on. :)