A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: Is it Thursday Yet?

Monday 10/28
Today as an amazing day of teaching. I can't exactly remember why, as I didn't write down what happened, but I can take a guess. I am sure my lessons went well, and the students were engaged and listening. Oh, I do remember that only 13 of my students showed up, the smaller numbers make it really nice to teach them. I also gave them a worksheet for homework which they were so excited about. I wanted them to practice writing the number 6 since that was our number for the week. I walked out of my room at one point while the kids were at recess(they call it brake here which is strange to me) and saw my HoF and said "I just taught some awesome lessons, they were engaged, listening, they understood, etc. She was very encouraging and explained that days like today make being here worth while.
Tuesday 10/29
It was a conspiracy, I am convinced! These kids had it out for myself and my Arabic co-teacher today. My lessons went horribly, the students were not engaged, not listening, they thought everything was funny, ugh! This day is kind of a blur, the only thing that made it worth while was the fact that Rebecca invited me over for TACOS! You are probably going to think that I am crazy, but I desperately miss Mexican food! She also invited Cormack over to try his FIRST taco! He was really excited about it and Rebecca even recorded the first bite and his reaction. He brought over some of these AMAZING homemade no bake cookies that he always makes back home in Ireland. They were to die for, and super easy to make, I will be attempting them here before I make them when I'm home in July. He is the sweetest man, Rebecca and I both really enjoy his company. He is so full of information and wonderful stories about Ireland, etc., I can't wait to visit! I was explaining to him about my Roku and how when I set it up, it ended up registering that I was in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and so I can't put Hulu or Netflix on it, which is the whole point of me having the darn thing. He said he would love to take a look at it, he spent probably 2 hours looking at it and my router, found my router came with an old version of software on it (really unhappy about that, Rebecca's did as well), updated it and said he would research how to make the Roku work that night and hopefully fix it this weekend. I am so thankful, dinner will definitely be at my place next time for him in thanks for all of his help!
Wednesday 10/30
So here in the UAE, they don't celebrate/believe in Halloween, so normally in the states I would chalk up their behavior today as they are excited Halloween is tomorrow, oh no, no excuse here! This morning I was told, how everything is communicated here, LAST MINUTE, that I would be teaching English first thing in the morning as well as either Math or Science. The Arabic teachers were going to go into their HoF's classroom and watch a model lesson and be back after that, so in time for breakfast. So my morning lesson actually went ok, they are much more teachable in the morning than after they have had breakfast (sugar). So breakfast rolls around, the teachers are nowhere to be found, I ask my HoF if they are coming back to teach Islamic and Arabic after breakfast because I have already done my lessons for the day. She informed me they were "supposed" to come back. It turns out, that some people from ADEC were at our school, watched the lesson and wanted to talk with them about it, so they were in a meeting from 9:30-11!! My students were absolutely the worst I have experienced them. I had 4 kids sitting out and away from the carpet at one point (I wanted to sit the whole class out, minus 5 of them, but that wasn't going to happen) because they weren't listening. I found my HoF coming out of my neighbor's classroom and asked her if she would take a child that was COMPLETELY disruptive to my class, she said of course, no problem, I then asked her if she would take another one as well who was equally as disruptive, she said yes. She gave me a great idea to open the door to outside and have them play on the patio until break time and she would sit in the classroom with the two students who weren't listening so they could watch everyone have fun. BOY, did they look SAD when she did that, that made be chuckle haha. My co-teacher finally came back by the time break was over (11 o'clock) and very kindly told me to go take a break. She is such a kind woman, she tried to be very fair when it comes to breaks, always making sure I get one. I know the meeting wasn't her fault, but when I saw her, I was relieved. I tried to come back after 30 minutes because that is how long our break is supposed to be and she shooed me out of the room saying in very broken English that I had them all morning, no problem, go rest. Let me tell you something, after that day, ALL the EMT's (English Medium Teachers) at my school didn't want to come back the next day. It was just really hard to attempt to do our jobs properly.
During our PD (professional development) that afternoon, I was visibly pissed off, I didn't want to be there, I was annoyed with the lack of communication, etc at the school, it wasn't a good feeling. I was quickly amused at this meeting though. So, we were talking about what we are going to do in preparation for National Day (their version of the 4th of July) which is December 2nd, but we get two days off for it. So as they were talking about what to do and our translator was translating (she is awesome and funny and so kind), since they kept saying celebrate so much, I quietly (or so I thought) started singing "Celebrate good times, come on". Well, Amani our translator heard me and said "Miss Colleen, maybe you want to sing and dance for the students at the assembly?" I looked at her with a dumbfounded face and said absolutely not, and she told me she could hear me singing and maybe the students would like that (she said this with a smile on her face, trying to hold back laughter). I told her she wasn't supposed to hear that! That started to bring my spirits up, then came the thing that brought me to tears, I was laughing so hard. Amani, our translator was going back and forth translating things for us that the Arabic staff was saying. She was doing a good job, however all the talking from almost all the Arabic teachers at once must have gotten to her, because she turned to my HoF to translate and started speaking straight Arabic to her. My HoF was like I have no clue what you are saying! Amani slapped her forehead with her hand and started laughing, which got all of us laughing, and me tearing up from laughing so hard. It was the perfect end to such a difficult day!
Thursday 10/31
Today was Halloween right? Well, here it didn't seem like it at all. The kids were again behaving horribly, even my co-teacher had a difficult time with them. I decided that for math since we were doing patterns, we would scrap the centers for the day and I would have students help me out by being the teacher. In my classroom there are these ball things that stack on top of each other and there are all different colors. I had them stack them in simple patterns and tell me what color was next (working on colors and patterns, woohoo!). They loved getting to be the teacher and helping me, but as soon as my co-teacher walked out of the classroom, they stopped listening. At one point I sat a student outside my door, I've heard from other teachers that they have done that, not too sure if it is accepted here, but if you are being so disruptive to the class that you are preventing me from doing my job and the other kids from learning, there shouldn't be an issue with it, I would think. After work, we presented out cleaning ladies with gift bags, full of toiletries, scarves, hair things, etc just as a thank you to them for all that they do. They were totally moved and shocked. I guess last year the English staff did the same thing for them as well.
After school, I headed to Abu Dhabi to stay with my friend Melissa for the weekend. I drove another teacher at my school to the mall right by Melissa's house and we walked around the mall for a bit before we parted ways. It was so nice to sit and get to know her a little more. It was also very nice to be in a MALL where there are lots of people and not everyone is staring at you. I headed to Melissa's place which is awesome, where she was having a get together for Halloween. It was fun getting to meet some more veteran teachers and friends of hers.
Friday 11/1
Yikes when did November get here?!?! Melissa and I went downstairs in her building to another teacher's apartment that was hosting brunch. This was SUCH a good brunch! Cindy is from Texas, so it was Tex-Mex style breakfast food, and the best part, there was real bacon! Melissa wasn't feeling her 100% self, so she went back to her place to rest a bit to try and fell better. I stayed at Cindy's with a few other people and just chatted. They were filled with so much information (they are all veteran teachers here) and it was nice to be around vets here that were feeling the same way I was about the whole situation. Cindy has an 8 week old kitten, so I got my kitten fix, and she also has a medium to large sized dog! I took Buddy(the dog) for a walk outside before I headed back up to Melissa's apartment, I haven't walked a bigger dog in 2 months! He is very well behaved and super cute! Melissa and I decided to go to dinner at a place that has become my favorite restaurant in the city, Jones the Grocer. It is an Australian restaurant, I went there with Cindy the first day I was here, and with Melissa a few days later. The food is so fresh and presented in the coolest way, square plates, they spread the ketchup on the in a line instead of putting it in a dish. They also sell kitchen supplies, food, cheese, and bread! It is like a deli/grocery store/bakery. I invited Casey to come to dinner with us, and she was dying to eat there! We then went to Carefour which is like LuLu's and did a bit of shopping, headed to Starbucks (which happens to be right behind Melissa's building, very jealous) and headed back to her place. I was able to finish lesson planning for the week and found some fun things to do with the kids which you'll have to stay tuned for the details on next week. I forgot to mention Melissa's cat, Bugsy. He is such a cute cat, super friendly, and very talkative! He comes and snuggles with me in the mornings after meowing to wake me up haha. Anyway, here are a few pics, enjoy!