First Official Day

Had my first official day of school today.

Utter chaos.
Exhausting.
Confusing.
Frustrating.
Overwhelming.

Sorry, I sound super-negative right now, but I don't know how else to put it into words. Last Thursday (school week is Sunday-Thursday) as we* were leaving school, we learned that we will be getting our students only from 10:00 -11:30am today. Naturally, we all planned activities/games/lessons to cover that time... We found out today at 9am that plans have "changed" and that we will have the students from 9:30-12:30. No communication whatsoever! Only discovered this information because I went to an Arabic teacher to confirm our schedule, who was of course shocked that we did not know this information since it was clearly marked in the staff room. Yes, clearly marked, IN ARABIC!

...and umm...where are all these resources and supplies that supposedly exist in our school? Computer is not in working condition... I went out and spent $300 getting basic supplies last week (crayons, scissors, glue, paper, pencils...) Note that they had promised a classroom set of this stuff 2 weeks ago... beginning to learn that I will never get things done waiting around at their snail-pace.

hahaha and the moms!! they would sit in the classroom and chat! oh dear... in the middle of my attempted introduction to the students, a mom came up to me and started a full on conversation! "Where are you from?" "Is America nice?" "Do you like Abu Dhabi?" complete with getting her daughter out of her seat and personally introducing me to her... while the whole class was waiting...

and...i can't even describe the disorder...chaos...madness trying to get the students on the right bus afterschool.

Oh, and currently, I'm only teaching one 1st grade class... three 45-minute periods... err... so technically I'm a part-time teacher. But, I'm not complaining. :) I'm still getting paid as a full-time teacher. :P A bit worried though... don't know what they are going to dump on me for the extra 3 periods I have. Everything will work out, Insh'Allah.

On the bright side, the girls are sweethearts, and look soooo adorable in their hot pink uniforms. :) Can already spot out the attention seekers... I have 3 named Amna, 2 with the same last name... 2 named Reem, 2 named Maha.. haha. typical. (oh, and of course we didn't get an English class roster as promised. I had to ask a favor from one of my Arabic teacher friends to translate it for me...during her class! she was super helpful and understanding though.)

Regardless, I'm happy to be here and I'm learning/experiencing sooooooo much!
Hopefully my next update will be full of fun stories! :)


Love,
Hannah


*"we" refers to NEST (Native English Speaking Teachers)