Arriving back in Doha was hitting the pavement running! Other teachers would understand how grueling life is to get back in the classroom. I had to quickly recover from jet lag and any thing the subs did or did not do with my students. I had to quickly relearn names to my 20 5th grade students, 16 4th grade students, and 12 2nd grade students. Believe me when I say a had some difficulty! :)
Let me just tell you a little bit more about this unique school:
1. The student body is very diverse! It is very cool to have students all over the area from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and other Gulf States. This makes life interesting but also causes some tension within the kids because there are many different Arabic dialogges between all of those countries, and there are kids that insult each other based on their background. On the other hand this will allow our school an amazing opportunity to unite together!
2. The students are quite ill-manured! I have students that really have a hard time sitting, listening, and waiting their turn!!! I will her at lease ten students at one time say miss!! miss miss!!! wanting me to attend to a pressing question they have. I know that other students at any other school would go through something like this, but wow these Arab kids have no boundaries!!
3. Due to #1, #2, and the language barrier I end up yelling quite a bit! I literally get a soar throat because I have to get their attention! I would NEVER do that before! There HAS to be another option, but this culture is so used to yelling, that its what they responding to. Doing lights out, clapping hands, counting down, are really ineffective! AND obviously doing the "I am going to wait..." would just take the entire class period! (on a side note I heard that watching a movie here in the cinema includes people standing up, having conversations, talking on the cell phones while the movie is going on... no wonder I have a difficult time in my classroom!!)
4. The school day is from Sunday to Thursday from 7:30am to 1:45 pm. There really is no lunch break, but 2 smaller snack and recess breaks. Let me try to describe the death trap of the playground: equipment that would never meet code rules in the states, kids running everywhere, kids that don't know what taking turns is all about, kids that awkwardly interact, kids playing when they are more physical by nature, and all of this happening in a very small 20 x 40 foot space! I am sure you can tell that I LOVE my recess duty days :)
The other English/Literature teachers and I are still waiting for our books to come in. The classrooms got rid of the dry-erase white boards and put Smart boards in. This will be great once they all run properly! Sometimes they work in the classroom and other times they do not. There's always a new surprise when you step into the classroom! (If anyone has good Smart Board websites, certainly pass them on!!)
(some teachers and me on "Red-Day" at school)I am now entering my first full week of teaching! By some grace I will get through it!
Example A of these crazy kids. I am not sure if you can see this, but a 14 year old boy came driving past our school showing off his skills! His left wheels are definitely off the road!!
