Thursday, August 28, 2008We have come to the end of our first, partial, week of school here at Schutz American School, and it feels good to have the weekend upon us. For 29 years I have looked forward to the first weekend of the school year. Why, you ask? Well, let me explain.........the first few days of school, and actually the last few days of the school year for that matter, are quite intense. At the beginning of the school year cycle, we teachers are trying to put faces to names. At the same time we begin to discover the people behind the names and get to know them. While all that is going on, we must also initiate elementary "boot camp" and help the students adapt to a different grade and a different way of doing things. For Kris and me, the intensity level has been increased this year as we find ourselves in a new country and operating under a new system.
Thus we are happy to have a chance to stop, breathe in the fresh, weekend air, and relax a bit. Of course, at least part of the weekend will be spent back in the classroom preparing the first REAL lesson plans of the year. Sunday will mark the beginning of the first five-day week. We will blow the dust off all the teacher manuals on Friday and Saturday and make some serious planning decisions.
It's been great getting to know the 18 Grade 5 students who are members of the "Desert Moose" family. Those of you who are members of my St. Vincent's family might be interested to know that Marty Moose has come along on the journey to Egypt; however, he has become a DESERT MOOSE. That Marty travels all over the world, even to one of the most arid spots on earth. On one of the walls of my classroom, I have the class list posted under the banner "The Desert Moose".
All of my students are from the general region of the Middle East. Most of them are either 100% Egyptian or have one parent from this country. I have children with family ties to Greece, Lebanon, Syria, U.S. There are two or three children from India and one from Pakistan. One little girl is a new student from Korea, and I have another new student from Egypt. For the most part my class has been together since Kindergarten; put it this way, I would say that at least 8-10 of them have been here for 6 years. So they know each other very well. This is a different experience for Kris and me. In both Bulgaria and Poland the turnover rate was much higher. With very few exceptions students would leave the schools there after three or four years.
The weather.......Hot, it has been....a steamy hot. Temps not all that high, perhaps in the upper 80's to around 90, but the humidity is a killer. When I go out on my daily lunch time recess duty I stay under the protection of a porch roof, cause when you walk directly out onto the playground grass you enter the steaming jungle country. When the kids come in from recess, the boys and girls who have been playing soccer are drenched in sweat.....Lots of water gets sucked up from the water fountains in the hallways.
Each room is air-conditioned, thank goodness, but when you walk in the hallways or outside the heat grabs you around the neck and makes you wish for a nice, frosty, -20 below zero day. I've got my room A/C set at North Pole temps, and some of my girls ask if they can put on their sweaters....That's o.k. with me,,,,,I just need to keep my Minnesota hide cool!!!
That's all for today....TGIF, or as I should say over here, THIT (thank goodness it's Thursday)
Oh, and by the way, Ramadan begins this weekend.....therefore, or at least coinciding with, we turn our clocks back one hour tonight....so I'll be looking forward to that extra hour of sleep.
More on Ramadan in the very near future...This will be an interesting experience for Kris and me....Ramadan in a school made up of mostly students who practice the Islamic faith.
