Fast Times in... the Land of Friendship?

I was listening to podcast on NPR today talking about memory and time, and why time seems to move faster as we grow older. The fact is, no one knows why, but they did propose 3 different theories. One that seemed relevant to me was the idea of memory building and the exposure to new things. When we're young we are processing so many new things that it seems to take a long time. The older we are the more our brains skip over the mundane details of birthdays, holidays, the work week, marriage, and summer vacations, thus, since our minds are in a way processing and encoding less information, the time that does go by seems to go by faster and faster.

I may have mentioned this in a previous blog, but I remember thinki

ng after only 24 hours of being in Kuwait, that I'd been here a whole week! And thinking that after being here a week that I'd been here a month! Everything was so new and my brain was trying to take in so much that each day felt multiplied. Now... the sensation that the days and weeks are moving faster makes more sense to me. Of course, I'm no where near being a veteran of overseas living, but naturally, I'm more comfortable and more at home than I was during September, that month of 110 degree heat and the barrage of new people, places, and unnecessarily long free-way names. I suppose

what I'm trying to do, in a roundabout kind of way, is shoe my justification for why I haven't updated this blog in awhile: things have been moving fast! I know I don't owe anyone an explanation, but it made me feel better to do so. Now that I got that out of the way...

So...it's March and the weather is getting hotter. On the other side of the world baseball teams are making their rosters and shoe sales for cleats are going way up; it's finals week at my Alma Mater; wardrobes are making a slow transition for the changing season; and dust and pollen are making seasonal allergy sufferers suffer. Speaking of dust, we've gotten our first taste of a few mild sandstorms here in "Kuwait: The Land of Friendship". (I saw this painted on a wall at the airport and it made me laugh...then it made me a little sad.) Out came the surgical masks and in came the sand in my eyes! Where I'm from we have indoor recess because of this wet stuff that falls from the sky. Here, we have indoor recess from sand that rises from the ground...a little backward you could say. It hurts to be outside for too long, but for a short period of time in the morning the sky turned this amazing orange glow from all the sand in the air! And later in the day, looking through floating dust, the sun looked like a glowing moon, and as a friend of mine described it: a contemporary Ikea lamp.

Today it's cleared up and I was able to take a walk to the gulf, but the hours of sitting in my flat looking upon the clouds of dust and the persistent Pakistani/Indian cricket games was not without listening to some good ol' Woody Guthrie tracks about that treacherous Dust Bowl period. Different? Yes. But it was nice to feel somewhere else for at least a little bit :)

A New Decade in the Same Kuwait (and pics!)

I've never really believed in New Year's Resolutions. It always seemed to me I'd be setting myself up for failure. I suppose I casually set goals for myself throughout the year. And attempts for life improvements are such a natural decision after living gluttonously for the month of December that the first week of January seems like a good time to, I don't know, exercise, eat better, sleep regular hours, limit desserts and caffeine, and anything else that quietly hurt my body during that last month of the decade. The point...not quite sure...yeah, the year is new; Kuwait is still relatively new; but I feel oddly (well, i don't know how odd it is) comfortable here (it sounds stranger than it actually is - living in the Middle East for two years in a dry country, no car, no phone line, and no shower curtain (getting that fixed real soon, despite many bathrooms are not meant to have a shower curtain)) Some forget how Westernized Kuwait is compared to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Oman. It's not as difficult as it sounds (knock on wood) - shower curtain or not. Though, it can get boring. Kuwait's are one-third the population here, helping soften the culture shock since most everything is written in English. A majority of the restaurant and store employees are Filipino, cab drivers are often Pakistani or Bangladeshi, and most of my co-workers are Canadian or American. I have not at all needed my Arabic phrase book.

I feel like I should have more to write about. So much has happened...but lately it's been easier to take new events and happenings in stride. Hopefully this link to my flickr page will suffice for my lack of blogs :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/46021863@N06/

"The World is our Oyster!"

I’m sitting in my flat looking out my window at the apartment building’s worth of trash. I guess the entire building of Bangladeshis were evicted. They are definitely the lowest on the totem pole here in the Kuwaiti caste system. I remember driving by a group of them and my cab driving muttering, “Dirty Ali-Babas (thieves).” Anywho...it’ll be nice to get away for a couple weeks and not wake up to the trash heap that has been lingering for at least 3 weeks now.

It feels like most ASK teachers have left for the holidays. Some destinations I’ve heard are Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Kilimanjaro, Turkey, London, Spain, and the always exotic United States of America. Besides the financial savings potential of teaching in the Middle East, many love it because of its proximity to other countries. Five hours to Europe, eight-ten hours to Asia. And the conversation about travel is so...refreshingly casual. “Gonna see the pyramids of Giza...go down the Nile - no biggie.” It’s almost has the impact of planning a camping trip for Memorial Day Weekend. Talk of future trips keeps living in Kuwait much more bearable as well (not to say the living is that difficult...I haven’t felt that way quite yet, anyway.)

“What do you think of Beirut for Spring Break.”

“Sounds cool. I was thinking of ‘touring’ the Middle East in June, though. How about backpacking in Oman for Spring Break?”

“Yeah...that’s not a bad idea either.”

“We could do that and maybe Amsterdam for the Prophet’s Birthday.”

“You still thinking of Honduras for the Summer.”

“Yeah, and maybe save Southeast Asia for the end of the Summer.”

“The world is our oyster.”

That was the gist of a conversation I had with a couple friends last night over some Shisha.

Tonight it’s Istanbul...X-mas eve it’s Paris. Gots to buy me a new camera.

Sri Lanka ain't Going Anywhere

Last Wednesday I took a cab to the airport. I was getting into one of those pensive moments that can come on easily when you're riding in a car at night and looking out the window. I entered that blissful state of mind where one feels...happy. I just smiled and laughed lightly to myself, thinking, "Things are pretty damn good right now. Parent conferences are over, I'm planned (mostly) for the short week next week, Eid vacation is underway, X-mas is coming quick, and I'm headed to Sri Lanka to help break-in my brand new hiking boots. For whatever reason, I've always been the type of person that has to learn things the hard way.

First off, standing in line with Arabs is difficult enough. The too considerate and nice will never move forward. I walk in the airport with my luggage on wheels in one hand and a sleeping bag in the other. "Which airlines?" One of the employees asks me. "Qatar." I'm amidst some hub-bub, but he points backwards for me to go to the back of the line. At this point I'm too far away to really see how many people are ahead of me in line, and defintely too far to see how few check-in counters are actually being used. It's 9:05pm; my flight is at 10:35pm. At 10:05-ish I make it to the check-in counter. During that hour of waiting I lost my spot in line several times (at one point I saw how far back I'd gotten, I asked some Americans if I could cut and sneak behind them since I was right behind them earlier in the night.) The mess of people waiting to check-in was half in a line and half in a passive shoving match. Let's just say there wre several arguments and blatant disregard for the ropes that everyone is supposed to weave through. Every 20 minutes another row of ropes would get knocked over and everyone in that part of the line would lose their spot and have to fight for it back! But this wasn't even the most stressful part of the night.

When I got to the check-in, the guy sent me to another counter without giving me a straight answer. So...I have to waste a few minutes waiting in line there. The guy looks at my ticket and says, "You're flying through Doha."
"Yep." He points to one of the security guys a few yards away and tells me to talk to him. What?! Just take my freakin' luggage and let me be on my way! I can't remember if that guy gave me a straight answer either. But I walk up to the security person and he punches me in the chest...not literally, but verbally. I say, "Qatar Airlines! Where do I go?
"Qatar? Their counter is closed." Blow to the chest. He says go to the Qatar office outside. I start walking away and remember there is nothing outside. "Wait, where outside?" He tells me out side and up the stairs. (Why didn't you say that in the first place?!) Of course I go outside and I see no stairs, just people getting dropped off. By this time I'm already running around the airport, switching my luggage from one arm to the other because it's not light.

I finally found the Qatar Airlines office. And it was not easy to find...poorly labled...not customer friendly. Two, rather bored looking men, look up from their computers. I explain my situation. "Oh yeah," he says "the Qatar airlines closes one-hour before the last flight of the day." No where on my ticket was this advertised! So...I punch both of them in the chest and storm out...not really. I don't know...call me old fashioned but I'd like to have the option of checking my luggage 50 minutes before a flight and still know that the counter is open to do so. So...after some pouting, some alone time sitting cross-legged on the airport floor, and convincing myself that an impromptu trip ao another Arab country by myself is not a good idea, I took a very sad cab ride home.

It’s All Down Hill from…well, After Next Week

Feeling heavy weight…Right now I’m procrastinating from doing work. I’ve got about an hour before I’m picked up by my tutee’s driver. It really finally hit me earlier that my tutoring days are full 12 hour days…and they can hurt. And so…I’ve relearned the magic from a every teacher’s favorite drug: caffeine. It’s a terrible cycle, really: one morning you wake up tired; have a cup of coffee; feel great, so have another one after lunch to battle the body’s natural urge for a Siesta. Then…2:00 rolls around and try to keep the productivity of the day going by convincing yourself to stay late at school and have coke and a banana. Yay, you’ve had a productive day! Later, you’re in bed and starting to sweat because of all the tossing and turning you’re doing. You try to trick your brain…maybe I’ll read a book, listen to an uninteresting pod cast, or make a snack – then I’ll be sleepy! Why can’t I sleep?! you ask. The caffeine. Now the next morning sucks because your sleep did. And back at school you look at the boiling coffee and rub your eyes, wondering if they’re as red as they feel.
That has been my last couple days. And it’s probably why I’m procrastinating now. All week I’ve been thinking about parent conferences early next week – feeling the weight of that. (My team has been great with helping me prepare for that, but any extra advice would be awesome.) Today we just had a staff meeting, and our principal took the new ASK hires through the formal observation process we’ll be doing twice this year: once before X-mas and once after. Thinking of that and feeling this caffeine crash makes by body feel…heavy. I can only slouch so far. I just need to kind of focus up, back up…give myself a little pep-talk. It won’t be long before I see my desk again. I need some exercise is what I need. I can’t really justify herding 19 2nd graders all day long as exercise. I keep thinking…after parent conferences it’s all down hill.
My old supervisor asked me a couple times how am I taking care of myself outside of school. And exercise is the big one I’m not doing regularly enough here. Because well..I already got a maid! And last night I realized the amount of cooking I do plays a factor into how soon she will be back to wash my dishes. Sorry mom and dad, I know you probably don’t like that one…

Call to Prayer at Sunset

Last Thursday, on the way to see Rheumatologist, my cab driver dropped me off on the wrong street.  A friendly Arab guy gave me directions to where I needed to be, saying I was only five minutes away.  25 minutes later I reached my destination.  But along the way I was in prime location for the Call to Prayer that resounds 5 times a day everyday, being amplified from mosques all around the country.  So I took out my cell phone, and this is what I got.  I tried my best to not look like a tourist, just walking and pretending I was texting.  But I stop a couple times to catch the mosque on my right.  Enjoy!

(I believe he's singing something along the lines of "God is Great; there's is no God but God, and Mohammed is his messenger..." and so on.)

There's No Place Like Home...but I ain't Home Sick!

A friend of mine here told me last night that he’d soon be turning in his letter of resignation with the American School of kuwait. It was sad to hear the news. In the long two months I’ve been here I’ve considered him a good friend of mine. About a week ago he told me he didn’t know how much longer he would be in Kuwait, that New York/Jersey was where he belonged. I guess it was on the way home today when it kind of hit me, after another of several daily gasps in response to the ruthless Kuwait traffic, that my friend would be going home to America (which I looked at eon a world map recently and for the first time it seemed like a foreign land). And...I felt a slight home sickness come over me.
It was the comfort of home that I imagined he’d be going back to that made me feel so far from home. For my friend: no more language barriers, high-maintenance parents, blocked websites, unpredictable desert traffic (literally-on the sand with no marked lanes!), getting swindled by cab drivers claiming they can’t speak English, and no more absence of cold beer. He’ll be going home to familiarity and newspapers in English, family and trees, and hospitals that check your vitals with each appointment. He’ll have a nightlife and 24-hour diners. He’ll have the “greatest country in the world”.
I really believe in giving myself chances to “test myself”, to not always take the easy way out - not to say resigning and facing a board of admin is an easy thing to do - and to always give myself specifically chosen opportunities to improve in body and mind...hence, Kuwait. (I love to hear children practice reading because I know there is a lot of thinking going on there, a lot of essential growth and learning that’s leading them toward a fuller life. That’s how I feel living here. It’s like I’ve just learned how to read and there are all these unread words and books in front of me with the potential to sculpt my life in a very omniscient way (don’t know if I used that word correctly...I might be mixing it up with omnipotent...)). Yeah, I’ve got to take a cab or bus most everywhere I go and my alarm clock is set anywhere from 4:15 to 5:15 in the A.M. But, f*%#, I’ve got too much of a good thing going on here. I really like to reserve my use of the word “love”, but I’m not far from using it when I think about my job and the people with whom I live and work.
You know how you never realize what the best memories of your life are until a long time has passed since those events actually happened? In the first two months in Kuwait, I can feel some of these memories already scaling there way toward the upper echelon of my remembrances. Sure, the lure of home is there, but maybe I come upon some greener grasses - even if I have to sift through dunes and sandpits.

Updates: UpcomingTrips, Open House, Domestic Helpers, etc.

The weather is beginning to cool down.  Days are still pretty hot, but much more bearable.  Now that Ramadan is over traffic is much worse, malls are a lot more crowded, and the pace of an ordinary day seems faster.  The that we're getting into the "meat" of our calendar days are long but fast.  After-school activities are going to begin soon.  There's every things from Board Games to Ice Skating.  Another teacher and I plan to lead Kid Yoga.  Should be fun, long as I get my Dinar!  

There's a lot of discussion about travel plans for upcoming breaks and such.  I didn't go anywhere for the first Eid, and after hearing about others' trips, I'm itching to go somewhere for the next one.  Originally, a small group of us were to go to Bahrain for it, but changed our date to the end of October because we didn't want to come back to school...exhausted from the travel.  There's a deal for 8KD to fly to select countries in the Mid-east...and it looks like a group of us are going to try Bahrain in the in mid-November.  And for the second Eid were, there's about 5 or 6 of us planning a trip to Sri Lanka.  Finally gonna get some stamps in my passport! 

Last week we had Open House...it went fine.  Let's just say (I'm trying to watch my words...as a few of us were cautioned by the Superintendent in his office (Hi, Dr. Mitchell) to do so.  Getting an email from his secretary to meet him after school, where only my name is in the address box, put me in a...world of confusion for the last couple hours of school that day.)  A couple parents were demanding things that were done by there child's 1st grade teacher.  "That's 'so and so.  And I'm R.J." is how I replied after I could feel my frustration start to build.  I don't want to get too into it (it's been banging around in my head far too much this week), but the discussion got me to thinking of better ways to communicate with parents.  I want to create a classroom website/blog.  (Jeff U. I might be shooting an email your way soon :)  

Open House ended a 14 hour day at school.  And back home, it's usually a cold beer that hits the spot after a week like that.  Here, it's the Shisha.  Several people in the teacher buildings have recently bought a Hooka.  And there are plenty of restaurants to order shisha and have dinner. We went to one last night where we sat outside overlooking the gulf.  

I didn't think I'd get one, but it seemed to darn good to pass up (and a lot teachers get them). For 25KD/month I have a maid come in once a week to do my laundry and ironing, dishes, sweeping and mopping, my bathrooms, dustings, windows, etc.  25KD isn't the best deal, when I begin tutoring (which progress reports just came out, so that will be very soon) I'll be making minimum 15 KD/hour (roughly $50-$55).  Any debate about a maid ends after that...plus, I'll be making a little extra once the Kid Yoga starts next week!

Tomorrow is Sunday.  Right now I need to get ready for two parent conferences requested at Open House.  : )

  

Revisiting (rereading) Textbooks?!?!

I was just reading through a textbook I bought at a literacy conference three years ago (I’m much cooler than that statement might make me out to sound - FYI.)  I quickly had to ask myself: which parts are directly germane to my current classroom and which parts, although interesting, can I skip over?   

For those of you that have gone through most any traditional teacher ed program you know it’s a lot of information thrown at you in a short amount of time.  So, I ask: what have other new teachers done, if anything, to preserve what they’ve been taught in teacher ed and apply it to there current classrooms? I think it would be an interesting study  to survey new teachers and ask them how much of what they learned in teacher ed do they (conciously) apply to there current classroom, and how much of there teaching is adapted from what they learned directly from cooperating teachers and/or current teaching partners and co-workers.

(Above is a look at our class-made rules.  With

the right guidance we narrowed 14 rules into

three over-arching ones. I was very proud of 

them. Not sure where "no licking" came from.

As new teachers we leave one teaching world (Teacher Education) and enter a new one (In-service teaching).  The dream, I think, would be that the teaching practices and pedagogies, the assessments, the management strategies, the curricula, the interpretation and adaptation of curricula, the overall teaching philosophies of higher-order thinking and inquiry classrooms, all those research-backed buzz words we learned in teacher ed would be used and advocated in our current schools.  But, I can only assume that is not always the case.   

         

I guess the point I’m advocating for, or rather the dilemma I’m facing at this very moment is that I don’t want to lose that quality teaching and education I got in Teacher Ed.  I want to apply it the most effective way I can (because it’s something I believed in very much back than as an undergrad (and that’s what I remember telling myself as an undergrad.)  But at some point I have to stop and remind myself how much time I actually have.  (There’s that word again: “TIME”).  Do I have time to thumb through an old text book or xeroxed article searching for focus lessons on introducing literacy blocks?  Or should I save my self the unnecessary stress and utilize the support and knowledge of my teaching partners?  Right now, I’m hoping to find a healthy balance of both.

I come back to old textbooks, articles, handouts, and assignments because...I invested a lot of time into them at WWU; I admired and looked up to my professors, and knew they weren’t giving us some “half-assed teaching advice”.  It was the real deal. (I don’t mean this to sound like I’m sucking up to my old professors, because what would be the point?  I’m graduated!!!) And I wouldn’t feel right dismissing all the work and info I’d saved during those Woodring years just so I could adopt/inherit some teacher short-cuts that would save me time but ultimately be a detriment to, maybe not all, but some students.  And that’s just enough to get me back to an old teaching article covered in yellow hi-lighter and use it, perhaps not in an effort to replace a teaching practice but, at least as another perspective, another voice on the teaching team.

My Flat at "The Dunes"

I meant to post these a few days ago, but stealing wireless is some kind of a crime that doesn't always pay.  So...here are some pics of my flat in Mahboula.  I live in the third teacher building of three.  I don't recall how much I talked about it before, but many of us were originally supposed to live in different, newer, all-around better building.  But one nice thing is that I've had to buy very little furniture most of what you see here is new and was waiting for me when I arrived.    

My bedroom.  Notice the power strip on the floor.  It goes from my lamp to the ONLY outlet (behind my closet) in the entire room!  And the empty water bottles...they are accumulating quickly.  It makes me sad there is so little recycling going on in this country. 

The bedroom has one outlet; the bathroom doesn't have any.  But it does have a bidet (AKA the hose between the toilet and the sink.

The kitchen is at the end of the hallway in the corner of the flat, as if the builders remembered in the end, "Oh, yeah!  We need a kitchen!"  I am about two inches shy of touching opposite walls with my arms extended.  Not pictured: the door that leads into this kitchen and the faucet that sometimes runs brown water : )  

Love the panoramic shots with my cell phone camera!  Here's a look out of my living room.  On the right is the desert our bus drives across everyday and what we walk across if we want to go to Starbucks, McArabia, and other franchises.  The sunrise is pretty nice, showing up directly in the center of this shot.  

The living room.  It looks different now since I've rearranged all the furniture.  The big windows and high ceilings are nice.  And a step up from the bedroom: TWO electrical outlets!  

Here's the ground level shot of the building.  Just to the right is a bakala (a snack store/small grocery store) that is in prime location. There's usually a couple Arab guys (our security guard/super/plumber/etc.) hanging out outside.  Though there english is not very good, they're very friendly, they're very helpful with things like calling cabs, helping carry luggage, unclogging toilets, etc. 

Doogie Howser and Will Smith

Tomorrow begins the third week of school...then Thursday will begin our first (one-week) break from school.  Sounds tough, I know.  The holiday is Eid: a celebration of Ramadan's end. Usually this would be a chance to travel, but most of us new hires have yet to get our civil IDs, and so our passports are still in the custody of the ministry (I think that's right, anyway).  

Let's see...I know some of you have been wanting to see pictures of my living space, but I have purposefully been delaying it for a couple reasons.  The flat is not nearly as nice as the first pictures I showed to friends and family this summer of what I thought I would be moving into. And...well, that's pretty much the main reason.  Next time for sure I'll get some pics up.  Right now my place is littered with water bottles, white walls, and a healthy layer of dust/sand.  

This week last week of teaching wasn't nearly as crazy as the first week.  Each day I was actually able to go home before Iftar, or sunset - the breaking of the fast.  (I think that's what it's called.) As of now my official class roster is at 19.  But two kids have still not shown up and may not show up until after Eid.  So a consistent 17 so far.  Isn't that how it should be?  Here's a little break down of my class's demographics: mostly Arab (Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Egyptian, from what I know for sure), three Americans, one Ethiopian, one Arab with a British accent, one...I think, Nicaraguan (ELL), one African-American, and a couple "half-breeds".  I really like the diversity! 

Let's talk about parents.  I did communicate and chat with parents during my student teaching, but it was always very casual and...they knew I wasn't the classroom teacher, so generally my thoughts and opinions didn't affect there child as much as the actual classroom teacher.  Here, I have people to turn to for answers, but of course I want to try and avoid doing that.  I'm bringing this up because I've gotten this vibe from a few parents like I'm Doogie Howser and I'm too young and/or inexperienced (or too male in one particular case) to be teaching there children.  

I can't wait for the Open House so I can tell them directly, "Hey, it doesn't help any of us trying to knit-pick, or find flaws (or type-o's) and blowing up little things to paint my picture.  Give me the benefit of the doubt.  Pick your battles.  Going against me, or doubting me, will not help your child; it will not help me teach your child.  My teaching will be better if I have your trust, as opposed to offering up unnecessary frustrations via brash emails or condescending remarks about my format choice for the September Calendar."  Not those exact words, but somewhere along those lines (If you have some ideas or advice on the matter, I'd love to hear it.).  I bring this up because I've had a couple parents get a little...assertive with me, as if I'm doing something wrong because I'm not doing something there child's 1st grade teacher used to do. Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff may have said best back in the '80's: "Parents just don't understand!"

  

First 2 Days Down! But Where are the Kids?!

(The pictures are from the first day.  Check out the girl at recess with the surgical mask.  I guess the bottles of hand sanitizer all over the school isn't enough to keep her from getting swine flu.) 

Oh, goodness!  Where do I begin?  So...my class roster shows 18 kids (yeah, I know) but...today a Saudi parent didn't want his daughter in a class with a male teacher, so now I have 17 (yeah, I know).  17 kids!  It's inevitable I'll get more, but there have only been 13 kids show up each of the first two days!  It makes management easy, but it's frustrating when we need to...get stuff done - rules, routines, community building, etc.  Three things: parents fearful of Swine Flu (there is hand sanitizer all over the school!), Ramadan: some parents neglect taking there kids to school during this time partly because of nights are very festive and families often stay up till after midnight, and some families just might not be back from summer travels since many of our students are in ex-pat families.  Effin' ridiculous how many kids have been gone! One second grade class had nine kids come the first day! Nine!  Why would parents do that if there pretty much paying a college tuition for there son/daughter to be here?

The kids that did show up are amazing!  Most of them are Arab.  A couple from the states.  One Latino, and one sweet Arab girl with a British accent.  It's been three days in a row I've stayed at school after 7:00.  And 3 days in a row I've gotten Chinese take out.  Don't know if I'll do it again today.  My washing machine is broken and I need to find a laundry mat.  Teachers learn early on that with all the time in the world we'll still never get to where we really want to be.  But it still surprises me every time I relearn that fact.  It does so mostly because I've got an amazing IA who has done much classroom set up (bulletin boards, cubbies, name labels, consolidating student supplies, etc. And she put everything in the kids' h.w. folders everyday, so I don't have to worry about student mailboxes or anything like that!! (aside: I accidentally walked in on her praying in the workroom - oops!) And we've got two guys that do all our copying for us (not always when we need it, though.)  So yeah, those things are amazing, and I know it'll be hard to lose it once I "move on", but...I still feel behind!  I think organization has been the biggest thing for me.  So much info coming from so many different directions, combine that with "settling in" (finding maintenance for my apt., not having a car and trying my best to learn the taxi system here, finding a good doctor, etc.) and any lack in organization skills quickly comes up and slaps you in the face.  Last night I asked the cab driver if he knew where "the teacher building in Mahboula" are.  Yes, he said.  We get to Mahboula (25 minute drive) and...he asks me where to turn.  Several broken-english phrases back and forth and I made it back fine...but it was a little scary, especially when all the desert-brown buildings look the same.  Only 2KD (7 or 8 US dollars, though.)

But, yeah...organization.  In the states we have what for specialists?  P.E., Music...maybe Art once a month.  Here we have Arabic/Spanish (everyday), PE, Music, PE, Life Lab (counselor), Computer, Art, Library, Drama, and Religion for Muslim students.  That's a lot of walking around each day!!! And a lot of other teachers with whom to communicate effectively.  Especially during Ramadan, in comparison to what I'm used to, this does limit the time the time we have with the kids.  But the extra planning times leaves more time for teacher collaboration, and more opportunities to tighten learning activities so less classroom time is wasted.  Which...there are teachers I've seen out there who sadly waste a lot of class time.  

I guess I have to go back to work.  But tomorrow is Thursday! (which is actually Friday)  

   

     

No Internet!

I don't know if I talked about it before, about fifteen of us teachers have had a "bumpy" road as far as getting settled into our new flats. After that elecrticl fire in our building about a week ago, the school set us up in a really nice hotel as we waited for repairs to be comlplete and the power to come back in our Mahboula apartments (The Dunes). Last night we finally moved back to The Dunes, but it could be weeks before we get internet!! Right now I'm writing this from the school library.

Speaking of school, tomorrow we've got an hour meet-and-greet with parents and students! Unfortunately, the parents or the teachers still don't know which kids are in which class. ASK is a private school, and all students have to pass admissions testing. And for whatever reason some parents like to wait till the last minute to bring there kids in to do that. So...that number of having 17 students in my class like I said before will definitely rise until all the student testing is complete.

(It's weird...this keyboard I'm using has english and Arabic characters on it!)

Today we took our final scheduled shopping trip to one of the big malls around here. Unfortunaltely is was scheduled for the morning...which means if you didn't eat anything before you left, you wouldn't eat for awhile. We had some bus/flatbed issues so we were all stuck in the mall for an extra hour and a half - 25 teachers with full carts loitering in the mall, hungry and thristy. A few of us were sitting on the floor against the wall and one of the "mall guards" told us we had to stand up! We all looked around confused, assuming that maybe it was a Ramadan thing or something. Alright it's getting late...I need to call a cab home and practice by bargaining skills. :)

Getting Ready for Sept. 1st

Here's a couple panoramic shots of my new classroom!  Click on in it to see it full size.  It's a little small, and obviously bare at this point, but my awesome mentor was able to leave a ton of teacher supplies for me to pick and choose from.  Tomorrow I want to get some welcoming furniture for a little pseudo-reading nook.    

Today we got a chance to look at the elementary standards and performance indicators, along with UbD unit plans, and a curriculum map.  Also got a chance to sit and chat informally with the rest of the 2nd grade team - 3 newcomers and 2 ASK veterans.  I can tell we're gonna be pretty freakin' good! (that terminology works, right?) I'm the only brand new teacher, and they've been so helpful with my barrage of questions, questions concerning planning, the children, classroom set-up, 7 year-olds fasting...y'know, the usual.  

So, get this: we all share two assistants that do ALL of our copying for us, and we each get an instructional assistant to help us for about half of everyday!  The kids have specialists everyday: PE, Music, Art, Science, Arabic, and/or Religion.  That's an hour and a half to two hours of planning time everyday!  And for Ramadan the days are start later and end earlier.  After Ramadan is the first Eid and we have a week off.  Tough, I know.  (I keep feeling like I'm getting too spoiled at too young an age)

If you didn't know, the kids I'll be teaching are from affluent families (mostly Kuwaiti,American, and Canadian.  I've been told that many don't get close affection from theirparents (and probably more so from there maids), so they see school as a place to...be noticed and really encouraged and cared for.  Right now specialists are still doing admissions testing so I don't know how many kids I'll have in my class - right now I'm at 17.  There's usually a cap around 22 or so.  

Hopefully, by my next blog my classroom will be close to finished.  

 

Some Initial Impression on Kuwait

Walking outside feels literally like stepping into a sauna.  The humidity, the heat, the sun, hits hard!  From what I’ve seen briefly in passing via bus trips back and forth from the apartments (The Dunes) to school and to shopping centers, Kuwait is rather bare.  I don’t know why, but there’s a lot of trash piled up outside on the sides of buildings and such – trash and chunks of cement. 

            I heard that Kuwait is “1^st world country run my 3^rd world people.”  I don’t really know how true that is, but I do know that Kuwait is a wealthy country.  And I do know that Kuwaitis have a reputation of being somewhat lazy and doing half-assed jobs on certain projects. (There was an electrical fire in our apartment because some wires were connected incorrectly.  And for some reason there are rusted nails sticking out of the wall in my bathroom.  I could go on but I want to save my energy.) 

            There’s also a definite class system hear.  Manual labor is reserved for the bottom rung: Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians…(Another teacher said that others see me in public and probably think, “who does he doing work for?”)  So I try to take every advantage of speaking up in public so they know I’m from America.            

            It’s only been a few days, but as time goes on I’m hoping to try and get more immersed with the culture.  Since Kuwait imports so many of their products, has so many Western stores and restaurants (Starbucks, Ruby Tuesdays, Johnny Rockets, Ikea, etc.)  and since it’s quite easy to spend a majority of one’s time with other Western teachers and faculty, one can easily avoid a significant integration into the Kuwaiti culture.  But…I guess that could be good or bad.    

The First 24 Hours

Oh, goodness...where do I begin?  First off, today was the first day of Ramadan.  This means nothing can pass your throat from sunrise to sunset.  We're told to not even walk around with a water bottle in our hand, but to keep it in our pocket, purse, or murse (man purse).  Chewing gum is also considered disrespectful to the religion and culture.  Non-muslims can eat in the privacy of their own homes.  It's amazing how muslims can go so long without water in this 110 degree heat! (But I did here a lot of Kuwaitis leave the country during Ramadan.)  

We got to see the school today, too!  ASK is K-12 with about 150 full-time staff and a principal and assistant for the elem., middle, and high schools.  Me and another new 2nd grade teacher will be sharing a mentor teacher to help us throughout the year with the curriculum, planning, anything to make sure we do the best job we can do.  Most of the school's units were created using Understanding by Design  (I'll get more into the teaching day and details in a later blog).  

I'm exhausted right now!  A full day of unpacking, school tours and introductions (for a moment I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion while we were touring the outdoor facilities - what was I thinking when I got the hot coffee!?), and a 3-hour shopping trip to a grocery store/shopping mall (I bought 20 Kuwaiti Dinar worth of food and apartment stuff.) Add that to the jet lag and the minimal rushed eating in seclusion during the day.  

Going to the grocery store was an experience.  I love that there is a mix of so many different people: some muslims completely covered except for their eyes, some dressed in Western attire, expats from other countries, workers from other Arab nations.  Just talking with the new (about 40) and old staff here and hearing about other places they've taught the trips they've been on and countries they've lived in so, so exciting!  The elem librarian said she was voted "most likely to never leave Texas", and this will be her 4th year living in Kuwait!  One of the new 3rd grade teachers, this is his 8th country he'll be teaching in the middle east!  

Okay, now I'm really tired...tomorrow we've got curriculum introduction/seminar, and we were supposed to take a shopping trip to IKEA and CarreFour, but that might have changed...