A Ginger Teacher in Abu Dhabi: Here We Go Again!

Well, this past week was interesting to say the least. Nothing too exciting happened at school with the exception of one day, and I’m not completely sure which day it was exactly, I think it was Wednesday. I could tell that my coteacher wasn’t feeling well on Tuesday, however she is so dedicated that she never misses school unless she is deathly ill. Since I could tell she didn’t feel well, I prepared myself on Wednesday and came with some new fun things to do with my kids. I did have the luxury of having the art teacher teach my kids Arabic so I could at least have a break during the day. I finished taking money for breakfast and then left her with the kids. When I came back, we went over the number 14 which we had been learning this week for math. I had brought my box of Cheerios with me to use either as an incentive to listen and behave or use as some sort of art project. Well, I had them glue 14 Cheerios on their paper and the copy from the board (didn’t really translate well) “This is 14”. I couldn’t help but laugh when they write this sentence completely backwards on their paper and some of them just kept on gluing the Cheerios. This is a prime example of why a coteacher is needed, this was a very simple task and the directions were lost in translation. I did have some students who made the number 15 out of Cheerios which I thought was cool. They loved doing this, so much so that the next day when my coteacher returned, they all ran to their cubbies and grabbed the papers to show her what they had done.

The weekend brought relaxation (recovering from the week) and trying new recipes. I made a banana bread pudding breakfast thing. I saw Chef Simon make it on an episode of The Chew and had to try it, however it calls for croissants and those are hard to find in MZ without cheese or Zatar in them, so I had to use a type of dinner roll instead. It was ok, but I think using croissants would be better. I also made some pretty tasty nachos as well, ground beef with bell peppers, mushrooms and onions and of course Windy’s Saucy Taco Seasoning. Check out her website for some amazing spice blends and rubs for meats. http://fortheloveofspice.com/

This past week I also decided to try a recipe that my sister told me about, two bananas, a cup (I think) of oats and 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, mix it together and put it in the oven for 20 mins at 350. I also made my Oreo truffles. They were delicious, even more so than when I make them in the states. I think it’s because the cream cheese here that I used was a tad sweeter than Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I brought them to school for the EMT’s so I wouldn’t eat all of them.

This week started normal, Sunday was a normal day of teaching, my students listened and worked well with each other. Monday brought a meeting with our cluster manager whom we talked to for about an hour. We talked to him about our frustrations with the lack of communication and how we find things out last minute, which prevents us from making the most of our teaching time. He complimented us on the fact that all the concerns we had concerned the students and their learning time. My students were also well behaved today, which makes the teaching very easy and enjoyable. Today brought a meeting in the morning while the kids were in the hall playing. Our meeting lasted for about an hour and fifteen minutes. The meeting was to discuss what the cluster manager talked with us about. There was quite the fuss from some of the Arabic staff (mainly the ones who are never in the room to translate) about having to be in the room to translate everything. I made sure to compliment my coteacher for always being in the room and translating what I need her to translate. When I am teaching, if she can tell the students might not know what something is, she will translate it to them, but they are mainly listening to me when I talk. She also translates directions at centers for me as well which helps. Some of the other teachers are never in the room after they teach their lessons, which leave the English teachers on their own for the whole day. Boy were their words been thrown around about that! We expressed our concerns and at least our principal listened to us, hopefully she makes sure that it will actually be put into play, but who knows. Yesterday I also exposed them to Sesame Street! I found this wonderful video of Usher singing the ABC’s with some of the characters. There are movements for each letter. I have been practicing the dance so I could do it with my kids. So I told my students that I had something fun for them to do if they could be good listeners, well the ones that understand the most English knew exactly what I said and came right into the classroom for English and sat down nice and quietly on the carpet ready to go. I played the video for them twice and they loved it, they giggled at the characters dancing and were yelling out the letters they knew. The third time I played it I had them get up and do the dance with me, my girls were totally into it, some but not all of my boys were too. They were all just amazed I was dancing and so had their eyes glued on me. I played it again and they danced more, this will be a treat for them if they are good listeners during English.

I received my other package from my parents with my Ellen sweatshirt and my iPod stereo, now I can play music while they are working. Oh, how I have missed this! Back home, I always had music playing while my students were working and they actually worked better with it on, some would stand and dance while working, which I didn’t mind as long as they were working. Today I put the music on for the kids and they were relatively quiet and working. It’s amazing how music can change the mood of a room. I always have to have music playing, I am not sure why, but I have always been that way.

Ok, here’s the most important part of this blog post. After almost 6 months of me being here, the Starbucks in my town has finally OPENED! It opened Saturday, minus the AC, but Rebecca and I sat outside and just watched people. I have been there everyday since just sitting and watching people. It’s a two-story building, so we found that sitting upstairs provides the best view to see everyone come in as well as being quieter than downstairs. The baristas already know my name and my drink (that’s a good thing right….?). I couldn’t be happier to have a nice coffee shop to sit at and work or just talk to people. It also has a drive thru which is amazing and wonderful, but I won’t be stopping every morning, I’ve gotten used to my home brewed coffee in the mornings and it’s also cheaper!

Please enjoy the pictures!