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.