Last Few Days of "School"

Well, the last few days of school were interesting to say the least.  I won't go into too much detail, but I came to the realization that in order to work here, I must follow this motto: "Pack your patience, leave your morals and standards at home".  I was asked/told to change grades for students because parents weren't satisfied with the grade their child EARNED.  Since this isn't my country, I did as I was told/asked, however made it known that it wasn't right and didn't understand why we spend the time to give grades if they don't matter.  Anyway, enough about that.  I am going to reflect on the past teaching year.  
When I first walked into my school, I was feeling a whole bunch of things; scared, nervous, excited, sad, etc.  I remember meeting my co-workers and seeing their faces, all of which looked drained and stressed.  I didn't really understand why, I mean it's just teaching, it's the same in every country right? Haha, I quickly learned that was not the case.  My co-teacher very excited to see me as she had been with the kids all day since the start of school, she wanted me to jump right into teaching, I observed the first day per my HoF's instructions as well as my own sanity.  
So many awesome things happened this school year, I was fully immersed into their culture, which was awesome!  My kids are so stinkin' cute, I can't handle it.  I have said several times that I would want to go to Cycle 1 to teach my boys again or even my girls, but I will be at my school again next year.  I am not sure if I will be teaching KG2 again or KG1, I told my co-teacher that I wanted to stay with her and go where she goes.  Speaking of my co-teacher, I didn't get to say goodbye to her, she had already left by the time we all said out goodbyes on the last day.  This actually made me really sad, I am not sure why she left without saying goodbye...  I think my favorite person I said goodbye to was our school nurse.  She is such a fun lady, from Egypt and always smiley and joking with us.  I will really miss her! I think I finally got the cheek kissing thing down too, it took me all year, but I figured out if you just take command of how many kisses, then there's nothing to worry about haha.  
I am really excited about next school year, one day this last week, I went online shopping on Lakeshore Learning's website and made myself a wish list.  There are several things I would like to buy in the states and take back for the beginning of the school year.  I'll share these items with you, if any of you are teaching KG, this list could be helpful.  Some things that aren't shown in pictures are 1)letter stamps (upper and lowercase), 2) jumbo pencils (for some reason we only use regular sized pencils here), 3) some shoe laces or yarn string for lacing letters to work on fine motor skills, 4) I may buy my own alphabet for the classroom wall, the one I had was fine, but I didn't get to choose it.
  

This is a MUST for me next year, it will teach them so much and be part of our morning routine.  It is also simple enough to where my co-teacher could do it with or without me.

This is also a MUST, such a cool way to show the kids how to make each letter, a short poem, and pictures of things that start with that letter.

These are essential for slipping worksheets into, that way I can SAVE paper!  Hey, I'm from Washington, we RECYCLE there and it seems we kill thousands of trees here printing page after page of stuff.

At my school we were told we wouldn't have Music, PE, or Art next year and that we would need to teach these with our co-teacher.  Good thing I taught PE last year to grades PreK-8!  These are just fun things to do for a brain break also, no need to buy, I could make these myself.

I think if I come back with these things, I'll be ready for the year.  Of course there are more things I would LOVE to bring back, but since I don't have my own classroom and the classrooms in my school are incredibly small especially for a KG class, it just doesn't make sense.  
Let's talk about summer plans.  Since our last day was yesterday, most people caught the Friday, 2:00AM flight out of here to either go home or explore parts unknown to them.  I am still here until the 15th.  I am currently dog sitting two wonderful dogs until I leave, but really there isn't much going on.  I looked out my window last night and was shocked to see that almost ALL the teacher cars were gone.  I immediately felt this urgent need to go home.  I wish I could go home for the summer to spend time with my family, friends and dog, however I can only be in the US for 35 days and I have almost reached that amount.  Anyway, on the 15th, I will be heading to Greece with Rebecca.  I cannot wait, I also cannot believe I will be going there.  It has been a dream of mine to go to Greece for a long time.  I cannot wait to see water so blue and buildings so white!  We have a bunch planned for this trip, hopping from Athens to Santorini to Mykonos and back to Athens.  I will come back to Abu Dhabi for a few days before heading to Bahrain for a little over a week.  After Bahrain, I will head to NewYork to meet my sister!  It has been a dream for my sister and I to see the New York Yankees play in their pinstripes and that is exactly what we will do, along with other awesome things!  We both tried to get tickets to see The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, but they were all gone by the time we came up in the virtual queue. :(  Anyway, we have some other amazing things planned for the short 4 days we are in NY.  I will be blogging each day of my vacation, not like London, which I still haven't blogged about.....
I was going to spend my time after Greece and before NY in South Africa with a co-worker of mine who is from there.  Since we haven't received our flight allowance yet, I had to cancel my trip there, but will make up for it next summer for sure.  
Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

Traditional Iftar (meal to break the fast during Ramadan), such delicious food

Special edition Ramadan Starbucks cup

And.....we all fell asleep, at work

Vinnie

Gizmo

  

That's a Wrap!

Graduation took place on June 23rd.  We had been practicing for this for the past couple of weeks.  The English teachers were in charge of teaching the kids a song in English, which took them all of one hour practicing to pick up and we were finished.  Since the kids pretty much stopped coming to school, we were only really able to practice with the ones that did.  Because of this, on the last day before graduation, we had all students in attendance for practice and the ones that had not been there at all were actually able to pick up on our song pretty quick.  Also, a few days before the kids had to try on their graduation gowns.  They were very beautiful (purple and gold which are my college colors woohoo!)  I felt an rush of sadness when they were all dressed, I honestly didn't want to see them go..... The morning of graduation consisted of a play area filled with mothers, siblings, aunts and grandmothers.  Our kids totally rocked graduation, they knew exactly what do to and were sitting so patiently during the ceremony.  When we preformed our English song, they killed it!  Our cluster manager even recorded it and shared it with his coworkers because he was so impressed.  After graduation, all the mothers piled into our tiny classroom for cake and gift giving.  Most students brought gifts for their classmates and some even brought gifts for me!  I received a tea set, coffee pot, Moroccan tea glasses, Arabic perfume, and an ABC light.  Such thoughtful gifts, and the kids were so excited to give them to me.  I was completely exhausted after graduation that when I got home, I passed out for a good 4 hours!  
Since graduation, we haven't done a whole lot at school, I've been watching at least a movie a day in the staff room.  I also venture into my classroom to see is Amani needs any help, I was able to pack all my stuff up in 45 mins and so all that's left is her stuff.  Today, I was summoned to the principals office with my co-teacher.  I was thinking it was to discuss if we would be teaching KG1 or KG2, but boy was I wrong!  There was a parent in the office who was upset that her son didn't have all A's on his report card.  First of all let me explain something, the way the big guys have set the outcomes, is pretty much impossible for our kids (receive little to no English language at home) to accomplish and the way the program calculates grades is skewed.  We are to grade students on emerging (E), Developing (D), or Mastered (M).  However on their report cards it calculates out to a letter grade.  So, I explained to the mother and the principal that if I give 2 or 3 E's, it brings their grade down, however I am required to grade them on the outcomes that are set in place.  I also explained that these outcomes especially for the third trimester are very very difficult (wanting them to read and write, Bahahahhahha).  That explanation apparently wasn't good enough because I was asked to change his grades.  Sure, I'll change them, however when he gets to university and fails out, I would love to tell everyone I told you so!  All the English teachers were talked to by the principal who insisted that the top 8 students in our class receive the same grades.  My response was, but they don't learn the same!  I give up, I can't believe I am 1) being asked to change grades and 2) being told that the top kids should all have the same grades! 
I cannot believe my first year here is almost over.  I have made some incredible friends I consider family now, I've learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of both professionally and personally and I can't wait for next year to start!  Bring it on Abu Dhabi, I'm as ready as I can possibly be for the unexpected!
We have 3 more days and I hope that in those 3 days I get my flight allowance so I can purchase my ticket to New York.  Since I haven't received it yet, I made the decision to cancel my South Africa trip :(.  I will be doing that trip hopefully next summer before I come home. No rhyme or reason as to why we didn't get it though....  
Enjoy the pictures!

I love my Busy Bee's face in this picture!

To start graduation, they paraded around in a circle to parents could take pictures

Her dress was hand beaded at the top and very heavy, she looked like a bride!

The gifts I made for my students, I had a picture with almost every student that I put on the cover....

Inside the booklet was their work from trimester 2 and 3.  

SURPRISE!

So, way back in April I decided that I was going to make a short three day trip home in June.  Let me explain the reasoning for this, when I first started teaching in the states, I, like most teachers was struggling to make ends meat and so I acquired a second job.  I have my sister to thank for finding the ad on Craigslist.  The ad was for a home care aide to a 12 year old boy with Autism.  I immediately contacted the mother of the boy and set up and interview.  When I was in college, I nannied for a 3 year old boy with Autism, so I had experience as well as a special place in my heart for children with Autism.  Long story short, I was chosen to be a part of this family and can never see myself being anything other than that.  It was never work for me, it was going to hang out with my little brother, go on awesome adventures, help him through tough social situations, and have family dinners with his parents and grand parents.  I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and they were put into my life to be an extension of my immediate family.  So, when I looked on Dylan's high school's website to see when his graduation was (such a huge accomplishment), the decision was easy.  There was nothing in the world that would have stopped me from flying home, surprising him, his mother and grandparents, and seeing him walk to receive his high school diploma.  
I recruited the help of his dad to make sure I knew where they would be on the day I flew in as well as making sure I had tickets for myself and my family to the graduation and to be added to the reservation (without Windy knowing).  I can honestly say I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without Mike's help!  So, here's how it went down.....
I left the UAE on Friday morning and arrived on Friday morning in Washington (I love flying against time..).  My first stop however was to surprise my very best friend in the world.  I cannot put into words what Justine means to me, she's been my boulder through everything since we were 12.  She has this wonderful man in her life who I'm sure literally jumped up and down at the idea of surprising her.  We even exchanged fake stories so she would be thrown off in this whole thing.  She also has said over and over that she can't be surprised, well we sure pulled off one hell of a surprise!  She was stunned and then started crying as did I.  To hug your best friend is one of the best feelings in the world!  AND, to meet the man that is making your best friend so happy, was even better.  I seriously felt like I had known him for years, he's definitely a keeper!  After having lunch with them and my friend Callie and her beautiful new baby boy, Heather drove me to Gig Harbor to pull off the big surprise.
Dylan was at a local park having a picnic for CIP (community inclusion program) and everyone was there, his parents and grandparents.  Well, I walked up and couldn't find any of the people I was looking for!  I was stopped by a family friend of theirs who pointed out that Windy was pretty much right in front of me and Dylan was in the woods with his dad.  I surprised the heck out of Windy and was able to give her the biggest hug.  Dylan must have spotted me hugging his mom and immediately started to run across the field as did I.  He gave me the biggest hug and high five I've ever received from him, and he's pretty spectacular at both of those things.  After he let go of me I told him I was here for his graduation to which I received an even bigger hug from him!  That was probably one of the best moments of my life!  Later that evening I surprised his grandparents who were also floored to see me.  I then was able to finally go to my parents house, hug my parents who I've missed terribly as well as see my Moe.  He was so excited to see me he was jumping and girl barking.  I miss him so much!  
The next two days were filled with brunch with my Visitation/Teacher Family and Dylan's graduation!  I am so damn proud of this kid, he walked out like he owned the day and received his diploma with the biggest smile on his face!  He was escorted by his aide's son who was also graduating. Dylan is so lucky to go to a school where he is supported not only by his teachers, but by his peers.  I know that just knowing that set his parent's at ease when he started school.  
It felt like I wasn't really at home, but when my parents dropped me off at the airport, seeing the look on my Moe's face broke my heart.  I can't wait to come back for good next summer.  I can honestly say I didn't want to get on that plane, but I'm no quitter!  
Coming back to school, my students that showed up to school sure did miss me.  I actually missed them as well.  And graduation is finally set in stone (haha) for Monday.  I can honestly say that as ridiculous as this school year has been, I am going to miss my students.  They really have come so far and I really wish them the best.  Here are some pictures to enjoy......

This is in Target and is for Mrs. D.M...........

Teacher/Visitation Family

I finally met Arthur!

Gretchen did not want me to leave....

Super hard to leave this face.....

They are ready!

Love this picture!

Well That's New......

Alright, it's been a really long time since I've last blogged, and for good reason, most of which I won't get into.  Let's just say when my dad says "things can only get better" that is the biggest lie I have ever heard!
I am currently watching one of my favorite episodes of FRIENDS, the one where Monica and Rachel lose their apartment.  This show totally makes me forget all the ridiculousness that happens at school each day.  
So this blog entry will not entail school stuff, instead I will list some things I thought I would never see, hear, or experience while living here:
*crosswalk signs that have an outline of a man in a Kandora
*Camels in trucks
*Camels walking along side the road
*Camel beauty contest
*Men walking along the side of the highway waiting to be picked up by someone
*Flashing your headlights to get someone to move to the other lane (I regularly do this)
*Having to get a license for everything (residency, driving, medical, alcohol, school- all separate)
*Being put in front of a HUGE line of men even though you just arrived to the line (huge plus)
*Being stared at, not just normal stares either, I'm talking take a picture and save it, it lasts longer type of staring
*Going up onto the sidewalk to avoid speed bumps
*Cash machines only dispensing 100AED and then businesses look at you all pissed off when they have to break it
*The loudest children ever, seriously when they all yell it is deafening and I'm pretty sure I have hearing loss
*Men just slowly walking across the highway with cars going in excess of 100 MPH
*Never knowing how much you love something until you don't have access to it (i.e. real Mexican food, being able to get American products)
*Hearing a prayer throughout the country 5 times a day
*Walking outside when it's 113 and saying out loud, it's not that hot
*Communication doesn't happen here
*Learning to communicate with gestures and different words

And that's about all I can think of at the moment, enjoy the pictures!

Getting better each time!!

So since they like to give these 4 & 5 year olds deflated balloons (choking hazard right?) my busy bee drew a picture of me and said "Teacher, this you!" and then laughed and laughed!

They made the mistake of telling the EMTs it was PJ Day!  

Denise and I cheering on the West's kickball team!  They won!  (yes she knows it is upside down)

What Would Happen If We Just Didn't Show Up?!?!

Well, let’s see the last time I blogged, things were going great right?  How quickly things turn in this line of work.  We were told on Monday of last week that we needed to come up with something for Cultural Day that was to be held on Thursday of the same week (that’s right 3 days later).  After several attempts to convince the translator that we shouldn’t be in charge of doing something for Cultural Day, she agreed we should not in fact do something that had to do with their culture.  She did try and convince us we could take something that we do in our culture and change it to be Arabic culture related.  Yeah, no.  I was insistent that American culture is very different than Arabic culture.  We were finally told to do two tables for Abu Dhabi Reads.  Mind you, we were not told who was coming to this special day and what it involved.  So, like we always do, we made two tables, one with arts and crafts and the other we read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to the kids and they made bookmarks gluing the characters in order.  We were told on Tuesday (keep in mind this is the day AFTER we were told this whole thing was going to happen) that we needed to stay late and set up our area.  Ummmm no, they seem to forget that we all live far away from school (an hour plus for some) and to tell us 5 minutes before we are allowed to leave is NOT ok.  We assured the translator that we would have things to put up the next day and it would get done, as it ALWAYS does.  The principal agreed that was fine (of course none of this conversation ever happened with the principal in our presence, who knows why she can’t talk to us herself with the translator there to help, but that’s another thing…).  We left the building seriously irritated.

The next day we put up our stuff as we said we would, and our display looked awesome (see the pictures below).  However, after we had finished, the translator, “VP” and art teacher were looking at our display and talking about how it needed more.  We all walked away and agreed if they had messed with it after we left, we wouldn’t do anything during cultural day.  Why ask us to decorate if you don’t like it and want to change it!  Anyway, we came in the next day and it wasn’t touched, thank goodness.  During Cultural Day, we were completely ignored by all the Arabic staff.  The only time they talked to us was to let us know we needed to go watch the kids and make sure they had their breakfast.  Again, I am a professional babysitter.  Then we were told to take the “leftover” kids into the play area and sit them at our tables and do the activities with them.  THEN, we were told to stop and wait until our cluster manager walked in and then start so he could see us doing something.  WOW, excuse me, so he could see us doing something, as opposed to us NOT doing anything, which is apparently what they think we do. 

We told our cluster manager that we had been ignored the whole day and not told anything as to what was going on what the schedule was like for the day, etc.  He apparently didn’t seem too thrilled with that information, but I’m guessing nothing happened because we weren’t told anything was said.  It’s ok; we celebrated the end of the worst week ever in our own way J. 

This week, I was in charge of lesson plans since Abu Dhabi Reads was finished and all we did during those three weeks was review (not too sure why, but ok).  Our next theme according to our yearlong plans which the EMTs all look at when doing lesson plans was Staying Healthy.  I was actually really excited about doing this theme, there are so many things you can do with it, bar graphs of veggies and fruits, etc.  So, we walk into our staff room at 7:45, 15 minutes before the bell rings for the start of the day and the translator who is also a KG2 teacher walks into the staff room to talk to us.  The words that came out of her mouth about made me have a heart attack!  She says that we aren’t going to do Staying Healthy for this week, we are going to do Animals instead because someone is coming to evaluate the principal and there are more things we can do with Animals than Staying Healthy.  I about flipped my lid; I looked at her and said “no! we aren’t changing, I’VE already done the plans for the week.  Another KG2 teacher informed her that we plan ahead and don’t do things last minute and that wasn’t going to work for us.  So after arguing back and forth for that whole 15 mins, we stood our ground and she left to go tell everyone else we weren’t changing.  The audacity of her to come and tell us on the day we are supposed to start teaching that we aren’t sticking to the plan, when she knows we plan ahead!  That pretty much told me and everyone else that they do in fact not come to school prepared!  However my co-teacher is always prepared and does a very good job, I really miss her and hope she is able to come back to school soon.  The kids were also horrible for the two days I was at school this week.  I told on every single one of them to their moms too, I don’t care if they get annoyed of hearing that their son or daughter isn’t listening; I am going to let them know.  I also let them know when they had a good day as well, not just the bad.  On Monday night, I went to the other teacher villas with Rebecca and we had ourselves a little Cinco de Mayo get together.  I met someone that was in the Happy video that was filmed here in Abu Dhabi and I freaked out and got a picture with him.  I show my kids this video all the time and they love it!  That night, my throat started to really hurt, it was very very painful for me to swallow.  I didn’t sleep that much during the night and the next morning I went to the doctor instead of going to work.  He told me I had a virus and gave me 4 medications, one of which was actually relevant to my symptoms.  I decided the meds weren’t helping me since I was in so much pain, so I took some Aleve and gargled warm salt water and it was almost instant that I felt better.  I didn’t feel 100% better, but still, I could swallow with minimal pain. 

It’s so funny to me that I complain that the kids are so difficult to handle and teach and the moment I am away from them for longer than a day, I miss them.  As naughty as they are, they all have my heart and I miss them and feel bad that I have messed up their routine we have worked so hard to establish. Anyway, I hope this was informative, entertaining and a “short” break from your day!

Enjoy the pictures!

What happens when you scream and run down the hall, EVERYONE gets a time out before playing!

And your teacher will take pictures of said punishment!

This beauty is in KG1, she's adorable!

The boys finished matching the capital to the lowercase and the picture that goes with it!  At the beginning of the year they could only match at most 5!  They aren't in order, but baby steps.....

LaQuanya and Chauntell decorating part of our corner, nice job ladies!

I love it when my kids sit like this, especially when they are in their Kandoras

I dog sat for Vinnie and Gizmo again, much needed dog time after such a stressful week!

Pepper and I, it was her first Cinco de Mayo celebration!

Rebeca and I

Meet Bradley, he was an unplanned dinner guest who quickly was returned to his natural habitat of the great outdoors! He wasn't really red, more peach and transparent, it was the filter on my camera that made min look radiantly red!