School Days

I survived the first week of school. Though I do have to say that I think I had it easier than others.  The people at my school are so nice and helpful. They are willing to show me where to go, what to do, and get me the resources that I need. Most importantly, they are willing to translate when I do not understand. That is the one real downfall. When they talk amongst themselves I have no idea what they are talking about. I am not paranoid about whether they are talking about me, but it definitely reminds me where I am. It can get a bit lonely being with people that you do not understand all the time, but they are willing to work with me and translate when necessary. It is a different work environment, but a welcoming one.

One of the things that stands out is the respect for teachers. When entering the classroom the students stand. They remain standing until the teacher tells them to have a seat. It is very different from the American classroom where the students don't even bother to try and make it to class on time. I know that is not all American students, but it was my experience. the structure in general in much more relaxed. They care about being on time, but they do not feel the need to run around stressing that things are or are not getting done. The schedule for the first few weeks of school the class schedule is never the same from day to day. The teachers and students alike found out what classes to go to when they arrived on Sunday.

The culture is more traditional in the desert so I must be mostly covered at work. This isn't a problem since the head covering is not required. Plus, I have all those abayas to wear. I cannot tell if they appreciate me wearing them or not. I have had some comments on them being very nice, but not from the students or Arab teachers. They have come from the CfBT staff. I just hope that I am not insulting them by wearing one. However, I am not sure that I feel comfortable asking them if they find it insulting. Maybe one day I will be able to get up the nerve to ask, because one thing is for sure, they will never tell me. It is not in the nature of the culture to tell me that I am insulting or disrespecting them. There are others things to be concerned about though. For the first two days I did not have air conditioning in my classroom. One hundred plus heat and teaching do not go well together. You don't want to do much and the students are so hot they cannot focus. The actually went home early the first day because of the heat, but the second day we stayed the full day. By day three I had air so all was resolved. I even got my classroom by the end of the week. It needs a lot of work before I will actually want to go and teach in that room, but I am hoping that I can get at least some of it done over the next few days and start teaching in there later this week.

The curve ball thrown at me at the end of the week was the addition of another class. Since there are only six students in the 12th grade, they are giving my the 11th grade as well. Luckily, there are only 9 students in that grade. I knew that giving me six students was going to be too easy. I am glad to have more students, but I am afraid that they will feel like I was taking away their teacher. They had a teacher they knew and loved for the first week. This week it will be me . . . I am just not sure how they are going to respond. If they are anything like my 12th graders, they will be kind a welcoming, but you can never know. I am going to try and not worry about it, because it is something that I cannot control. I will just take it a day at a time and do my best. That is all I can manage. Though saying it and doing it are two different things--- we will see how things go.