So it has been a long time since my last blog post and I guess you could say life got busy. Let me see if I can summarize the last few months. The most beautiful thing I can share is the realization that I came so far from the beginning of the year with my girls to the end of the year. My girls really surprised me and I had them doing so much more than I thought possible. The writing process was taking place, students were retelling events from a story with enthusiasm, Scientific experiments were hitting home and there was a plethora of aha moments. I have to also give a few cheers for the achievement of the standardized assessment, scores accross the board were higher in English, Math and Science then in Arabic and Islamic studies...hmmm maybe this whole reform is a good idea? My girls were really motivated by my ice cream chart to learn their multiplication charts and in the end they even got excited about division. I learned a lot teaching elementary this year and even more about ESL then I thought I could through application in the classroom...it is funny to when you instinctively start doing something that you later learn in professional development is a "strategy". It was an amazing year for me. As the year came to a close with my girls we had an amazing celebration for the end of the school year and as the girls had promised they stopped coming on June 1st.
I found this interesting considering the numerous notices sent out by my employers stating that students should continue until June 23, but they didn't listen. They laughed at me when I told them three more weeks of school. So the last few weeks of school were spent getting reports finished and packing up our classrooms as our school is set for demolishing next year and we are moving into a new building with boys and girls, consolidating with two other schools. My coworkers and I drove by the new building and it is getting closer to complete but we have some doubt that it will be ready for the new school year.
There was a bit of professional development tossed in the mix by some amazing heads of faculty and I can honestly say it was some of the best professional developments I have been to. I also had the opportunity to lead some of my colleagues in a professional development that I came up with and presented on Marzano's research-based strategies. I didn't get nervous and actually felt very comfortable in the role and am thinking I wouldn't mind being a facilitator for other teachers or adults at some point. The end of the year meant buffets, making hair ties, and henna with our staff. We also had a nice secret sister present exchange which was a lot of fun but kind of lame because no one opens presents in front of anyone else...It was very sad because two of our teachers from Egypt were fired. One just returned and recovered from breast cancer and it was a very upsetting moment when she cried and told us all how much she loved and appreciated her. Our employer gave her reasoning for being fired sick leave...with no mention of the cancer. A bit cruel? Well we aren't in Kansas anymore...
Michael, my husband, had some things that he had to attend to back in the states in mid May and so we decided it was more economical for him to stay there until I returned. We figured he could spend some time with our nephews and I even thought it might be a nice break from him. Of course I decided that I could not live with out Gavin so I set out to do some single parenting UAE style. It started off nice with me wearing him out at the pool and paying a friend's nanny to watch him. But after awhile I started to feel lonely, sad, overwhelmed and the day care situation became too dramatic and I even had to find Gavin another baby sitter. Now I sit here with 31 hours before I fly home for my United States tour and I couldn't be more ready to stroll through Wal-mart, Target, Best Buy where the salesmen know what you mean when you ask about DPI, drive-ups, left turns, pumping my own gas, using my debit card for everything, family, smoothies with out ice cream, Old Navy, showing my elbows and knees and ankles off, and many many more perks that await me that I have forgotten to list here....
No matter what I will never regret this experience and will cherish all the friends I have made. I am a better teacher and person for moving here...
