molding young minds

I figured I would get a post on here about my very first, first day and week of my teaching career. Our school week here goes from Sunday- Thursday. This takes a little bit to get used to. On Thursday, we kept saying, "I'm so glad it's Friday.. I mean.. Thursday!" We also have a schedule that goes on a 6 day rotation. So, we really need to pay attention what day we are on. We had our first day on September 4th which was a Tuesday. I was so nervous and excited all at the same time to start and meet the kids.

There's a lot of factors that go in to play with all these "firsts."

• This is my first time living in a new country
• This is my first time teaching my own class
• This is definitely my first time learning how to say so many Arabic names
• This is my first time having a TA
• This is my first time teaching under an IB program 

Let's see, living in a new country is pretty exciting, most of the time. There are still a lot of things I haven't seen or done here yet so I still feel like I'm traveling and being a tourist. At the same time, I know it's not just a "trip." Also, I am living in another "temporary" building. It's a building that is owned by the Hyatt and is just down the street from it, and it has a fridge, microwave, tv, internet, etc. I get to live with my friend Chantel too, which is pretty awesome. I am still yearning for that settling in feeling, though. 

My first day of school was... well it's over haha. I will be honest with you, I came to school not fully knowing every thing that I was going to teach that day. I spent many nights before school started waking up in the middle of the night still trying to dream up how I was going to set up my expectations and what to do with the kids. It's very stressful. It doesn't help that everything is goes by the meaning of en shallah here. For example, they switched our email, so for a while there we were getting important emails on both the new email and the old email. It also takes time getting to know where things are at and how to use them. All goes with the nature of being a newbee .

Just a little side note about my class... I got here and I had no idea what resources, what materials, etc. were in my classroom. So, in order for me to function here.. I had to get organized and get a slight feel for what I have available to me. I have very little experience with IB teaching, but I understand the general outline of it. It's inquiry... just always think inquiry and you've got it! It doesn't mean that you can't direct teach, but we have the freedom to decide what we teach and how we will teach it. This way we can figure out what the students are interested in, and decide what lessons we want to teach during what times and how we will teach them. It was overwhelming realizing this. There is a plethora of resources and lesson ideas, but it's all us. We also decide when to teach the subjects during the day. It sure feels like a lot right now, but I know it will get better. 

Luckily, my TA has been here in Kuwait and at AIS for a long time. She helped me practice some of the names before they got here. Like Jana I thought would sound just like it looks.. Jana, but it's actually said like Jenna. Lot's of little things to remember. 

All in all, my first day and first week went pretty well. I was surprised how much better the second day was than the first. Of course, the first day there were a few kids who were so nervous (even more than I was) and they cried for a bit. Things like that, you just got to deal with as it comes. So, I am hoping that it continues to get better and better each day. Next week, we have a full week... ahhh. Five days of teaching in a row!

Wish me luck! 

mas salamma