Undecided

I couldn't quite decide what to call this post, but I think that "Undecided" might just be a good title anyway. I can't quite decide if this is going to be a great year, or a horriffic year. So far, I love my kids. I have a class with lots of personality, and they are pretty well behaved as far as kids here go. Johani said that if she were going to pick any of the current grade two classes as her favorite, it would be the kids that I got. I think I agree with her. It's kind of a nice feeling too that two parents have already requested that their children be transfered to me, and the parents of the one boy who was transfered out are absolutely throwing a fit about it--they want him in my class. It makes me smile.

Unfortunately, while my kids are really doing quite well, as am I this time--I'm going into this with a much better approach and idea of what I'm getting myself into--the rest of the school is falling to pieces. And I mean that quite literally. Johani has two large holes in her ceiling where water just comes through on occassion. The current solution is just to stick a bucket under it--nevermind the fact that it's coming down in chunks. We're still seven teachers short in the Junior section, which is only grades 1-4. A few of the new teachers don't look like they're going to last much more than a month if things continue the way that they are. No one really knows when more teachers are getting here. I have never seen an entire staff look so crushed and defeated after only four full days of school. Our new secretary is certainly not helping any--she really isn't cut out to work here, and she's driving everyone nuts. The poor nannies just hide now whenever possible, and look like they are just at their wits end. We're all sneaking around and doing things on the sly. Today I was such a rebel; I made a photocopy by myself while the secretary was out of the office! Gasp! And I went into the supply room without an escort--I know where they keep the key now! :o) The poor nanny, Jucy, and I were whispering to each other in case she came back, and Jucy quickly showed me what drawer the key is in so I can get it when I need it. It really is ridiculous. We're supposed to submit supply requests two days in advance now. You need staples? Fill out a form and you'll get them in two days. Yep. That's my school.

As an update on a previous post, I recently had a job prospect at Birch Grove Community School in Tofte, MN. If I could have a dream job, I think that would be it. The position was for a multi-level second and third grade classroom. Really nice school, excellent team of educators, amazing community involvement, emphasis on the outdoors and every child reaching his/her potential, and 16 kids in the class! On top of that, it's five minutes from Neal's (an my future) apartment. Basically, I had a chance to go home. And I didn't take it. I look around me right now, and I see absolute chaos--even the staff who have been there forever say things have never been this bad before. So, I had a choice: to run away, or to stick it out. I chose to stay. I refuse to let happen to my current group of kids what happened to the last group I had. We're already short of teachers, and for me to leave would mean another 27 kids without a teacher for at least a month. On top of that, there are only two other returning teachers in grade two. If I had left, that would have meant four new teachers; miserable. It may not be the easier thing to do, but why are we surprised when we suffer for doing good? In the end, I know that staying is the right thing.

On a completely different note, my computer is giving up the ghost. The mouse has had it--it's just not working so much anymore. On top of that, it takes forever to start up, or sometimes a couple of tries; it freezes a lot, windows has to restart all the time, and you can't really ask it to do more than one thing at a time. Sad day for a computer that's been with me for many years. BUT! The fantastic news is that I'm typing this post on my brand new computer!!! I just got it out of the box about half an hour ago, and I'm really loving it. I didn't think I would get anything fancy whenever it came time to get something new, but Johani just got an HP Touchsmart and fell in love with it, which meant that I did too. She liked my old HP, so she started doing her research on them. Since she was pretty thorough and loved hers after she got it, I did a little research of my own and decided just to follow suit. I was a little nervous about buying something overseas, but after checking out prices and packages and seeing what Johani got, and especially after how my old computer has been over the past week, I'm happy I made the leap. Let us all hope the joy continues for many many days to come.

That's it for now. I'm going to explore the many features of my new toy.
Have a good one,
~Nikki

Gym, Sauna, Swim, Repeat

Or, Let The Chaos Begin

Johani and I are about three days strong on our mission to work out everyday. And we've gotten into this fantastic routine of gymming (as she calls working out), then we hit up the sauna for ten minutes or so, followed by a soak in the pool. It's marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. And I would think it can be nothing but good for us, especially considering that school started today. Ooooh yes. The children are back. Well, sort of anyway.

I walked in to school today to find that my class list was finally in my pigeon hole... in Arabic. Yes, that's right. All 25 of my students names were written solely in Arabic. However, I was able to figure out the names of five of my children. When you see five "names" in a row that all look exactly the same (nevermind the fact that I have no concept of Arabic letters--I could just tell that the shape was the same), I knew instantly that I must have five Mohammads. Yep. That's right. Five. Exciting, huh? When you have doubles (or quintuplets, I suppose), they pretty much just go by their father's name, which is their second name (they sometimes have up to eight names). I only had one Mohammad today though. Matter of fact, at any given time I only had about eight children. One was a clingy screamer-crier who wouldn't leave his mother for the morning, and by the time he came around and joined the class, another girl went home sick. Swine flu is a pretty darn big concern right now. Lots of parents are keeping their kids home for a while--some saying until December. Anyway, that means that the kids have to have their temperatures taken every morning, and the girl who went home sick was running about 100*, so she had to go. The poor nannies and workers all have to walk around with masks on. It's an intersting place to be. I'm staying well stocked in hand sanitizer, disinfecting spray, vitamins, and rooibos tea.

Life goes on.

A Room and a Request

Apparently I like alliteration... Anyway, my classroom is officially ready for kids! It looks so good--I love it. I can't say what a massive blessing that is. There are still a few little details to get sorted out, but kids could walk in and we could have class. And it's bright and colorful and I actually got to purchase and put up some really nice resources. I wanted to take pictures today to share, but unfortunately I didn't have time. You wouldn't think that setting up a classroom would take that long, but you would be wrong. Especially when you suddenly have lots of bulletin boards to put paper and borders on, and then decorate, which means making materials relevant to what you're teaching (which requires working computers, printers, printers with ink, photocopying, and sometimes laminating, all of which can be very tricky to come by here). And then there is the rule that we're not supposed to put stuff on the walls, except for our alphabet and number line. Only, the really crappy double sided tape that they have here, which is the only thing that will actually stick to the walls, completely ruins whatever you use it on, so you don't want to use it and ruin your really nice, new alphabet. Which means you have to bring in your few precious 3M command hooks and put those way up high on the wall above your boards so that you can run some yarn between them, and then stand on a desk (which you have to move every two minutes) and use clothespins to hang the whole alphabet and your 0-30 number line. Yep, setting up a classroom can really take a while. But when you can stand back and look at it afterward and feel really great about it, then it's worth it.

Interestingly enough, I'm not sure how long I'll be in that classroom. I got an curious message today which might change some things for me. So, I'd really appreciate any pry'rs on my behalf.

As always,
~Nikki

Musings on the Moon

Week two an school is nearly finished, which is both good and bad. Allow me to explain. We still don't know what day the kids are coming back to school. It will either be next Wednesday, the 23rd, or it will be the following Sunday, the 27th. It all depends on when the moon is sighted, signaling the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. It should be sighted on Sunday. However, it might be cloudy, which would make the sighting on Monday. If it is sighted on Sunday, the kids come back Wednesday. If the moon isn't sighted until Monday, they come back the following Sunday. We've heard rumors of official declarations by the Ministry (a government agency), but no official word at school. Nevermind the fact that there are still classrooms in the KG section that are less than half constructed, or that rooms in our section aren't finished being converted to needed classrooms, or that we are still missing teachers. No no, none of that matters--the show must go on. *sigh* If you know what TIA means, then you can understand TID. There's no better way to put it.

As for other news... well, there isn't much really. Johani and I are still getting along quite well. We have a nice mix of doing things together, like making meals or renting movies, and yet still giving each other space. Fortunately we both like it good and cold when we're sleeping, which is fantastic, and we seem to like similar enough foods, though she is helping me add spice to my life. I now add small doses of cayene pepper to lots of random foods just for the sake of it. I also find it interesting to learn what different words mean to different people. For example, I ask, "So, do you want to have spaghetti for dinner tonight?" She replies," Sounds good. Want to have it with the pesto sauce again?" At this point, I'm a little confused. Spaghetti is obviously pasta with red tomato sauce, and here she is suggesting that we also make it with pesto sauce. It then occurs to me that when I say spaghetti to her, she thinks of long, thin noodles with sauce. Spaghetti is just the pasta, not the whole meal. Learning little things like that has been fun and enlightening for me.

Give me a few more days and I'll try and get some pictures of my classroom posted, and perhaps my apartment as well.

Oh, and I now have a phone number in case anyone feels like calling me. (218) 206-2678 is a phone number for Duluth, MN, however it calls my skype account. So, for the price of calling Duluth, you can call my computer. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Thanks,
~Nikki

The Weekend

My first weekend is here--hurray. :o) The week at school ended pretty well. We have three new classroom teachers (of the six needed), and so far I like them. One is Palestinian, one Irish, and the other Canadian. I'll still have the same Arabic teacher from last year, which is both good and bad, but I suppose there are worse things in life. Gd knows what he's doing. So, I've been getting my classroom arranged, boxes unpacked, and I'm starting to get my bulletin boards ready to go. And tomorrow, I get to pick up the rest of my things from Sharjah. That makes me happy.

Not much else worth mentioning. I just finished a new book, which I'll write more about later, and I'm still loving my new flat, as well as my new flatmate. In that I have definitely been blessed. I had a great person to live with last year, and this year looks to be just as good. Speaking of which, I think she and I are off to do a little exploring of the area, and to pick up a few things for the apartment.

Have a good one,
~Nikki

Another Day

Last night and this morning have been better than yesterday was. Transportation to and from school is getting sorted out, Johani and I rearranged the living room then went shopping and made dinner in the apartment for the first time, and I have nearly everything unpacked and put away in my bedroom--I just need to get my desk from Sharjah to finish. One foot in front of the other, breathing in and out. "Normalcy", or as close as it gets in a place like this, will get here eventually.

Back in Dubai

It seems that I find myself once again on the other side of the world. Coming back has been both good, and immensely difficult. Settling in to my new apartment felt good, and walking around the streets last night in the 95 and humid weather made it feel like I had never left. Yet coming back to school today made me want to hyperventilate. I know that right now I'm being overly pessimistic, and that I'm looking at everything that could go wrong (the people I have been around have not helped that at all). But I feel like a tsunami wave is about to crash over me, and I don't relish the thought of drowning. There are so many teachers that didn't come back, it's ridiculous. I'm praying that they fill all of the spots before school begins. But we still have three weeks to find out. Today, we're required to be at school, but that's it. There is nothing for us to do. And I mean that literally. Even the Head of Department doesn't know what's going on. We don't even know if we're going to be in the same classrooms as last year, or where we'll be getting moved to. They needed to create extra classrooms because of all the new students we'll be taking in, and that hasn't happened yet; they're still doing major construction over in the KG section, too. So, we'll show up every day for the next two weeks, have a little time off, then start back on the... 27th maybe? Who knows.

*Sigh* I promise to work on being more optimistic for my next post. I know that the will of Gd will never take me where His grace cannot keep me. But I'm lonely. And I'm nervous. And I just wish that someone, somewhere knew was going on, and had some idea of how to run a school.

Ok. Enough for now.
~N