Sunday, August 17, 2008

First day of my Second Week

Hey goreous infertile ladies, and all others- oh how I have missed you! I am so sorry haven't been visiting you nor posting here. As I said before, its hard for me to get back into "the swing" of things...hopefully this week will be better.

So first week of school, last week was cool. No kids yet, they will not come until early October, can you believe it? I will have PLENTY of time to prepare my room, lesson plans, etc. which is AWESOME!

The Ministry of Education has said that all schools will start late due to Ramadan starting on approx. Sept 1st. So most kids in higher grades will start second week of September and the Kindergartens will start early October. All schools MUST have 180 school days.

The Kindergarteners starting late, they did this as teachers and students will get three days off before the end of Ramadan and then another few days after Ramadan is finished. I assume the thinking is Kindergarten age kids would be better suited to start fresh after the Eid Al Fitr holiday and not come in for just a few weeks then have a vacation, make sense?

So I want to answer a few questions I have got about teaching here...

1. The main language spoken in Egypt is Arabic
2. The school I teach in is an American Curriculum school, all instruction is done in English and based on a state in the USA
3. My class will be less than 20 students and I will have a co-teacher
4. Pay is not very good comparing salary in the USA,  but very good for Egypt
5. Our technology for both teachers and students is FAR from what is available in US schools, but I will make do
6. Teacher resources are non-existent here, the internet is your best friend (printing, info, etc.)
7. There are no stores to buy decorations, ready made charts, etc. for your room, again the internet is a life saver! I heard there are a few, but NOTHING like back home....
8. I have to become very creative and crafty as I have to make all my decorations, charts etc. Boy am I ready to do this too. I have soooo much info from online, will print out, cut and paste and make my room rock!
9. All in all the teachers and staff seem to be very nice. But get a bunch of ladies together anywhere and you have an unavoidable water cooler environment, (although we have no water coolor, LOL). It's been awhile for me, so I mostly stay quiet saying hello and not getting into any clicks, I so hate them!
10. Our work week is Sunday - Thursday, Friday and Saturday being our weekend.
11. We will get most American holidays off, woo hoo!

So that's it for now, today was the start of my second week, I like it so far and am excited and anxious at the same time.

I will try to post a few times a week, but maybe only one, we'll see.

I love you all and hope all is good in your world... xoxoxoxoxoxo

9 comments:

  1. Interesting...and challenging. What did we do before we had the internet??? Good luck!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my gosh - you won't have students until October?! Madness!
    At least you'll have lots of time to put together your room.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good luck, girl! I know you will do great!

    What I learned from this post...thank God for the internet! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey. Thanks for dropping by! I love the movie too! I'm feeling Ok. Apart feom my pharyngitis. Euch x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds great! Hope it continues to go well. Sounds like you have a lot of hard work ahead of you. I"m glad you are excited.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am so excited for you! It sounds awesome. What is even better is that you have sooo long to prep for students!
    I have another question for you - even though pay may be lower than what we'd get here, how does it compare tax wise? I've heard in some places in the middle east, you don't have to pay any tax on your income?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, sounds interesting.

    Have fun with the brats, oops, I mean lovable and adorable kids. :)

    ((((hugs)))

    ReplyDelete
  8. Cool..cool...cool! I love arts and crafts. It sounds like you're going to have a blast.

    Can't wait to hear all the great stories.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! This is so exciting...I can only imagine how challenging it must be..but that just makes it all the more rewarding. What are some things you might need that you don't have access to?

    I am sure you are going to be an awesome teacher & your room will be very "cozy" and fun!

    ReplyDelete

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE comments! To me its like getting a present from a mystery person, ok well some of you are not such a mystery... but u feel me. You can subscribe to my updates via email or in your feeder of choice. Thanks so much for stopping by!