My Classroom

Pictures of my classroom... a work in progress.  It was mostly set up when I got there but we will be making changes as we introduce centers and more English into the curriculum.  I have added a lot of English into the classroom already in the past week and a half but there is a lot more to come.  I am waiting to bring a lot in until the parents are completely gone, because until then we do not have full control over the children.  I know that sounds crazy in the U.S. but it is totally different over here.  Today I told a nanny that she HAD to leave because the child will never be able to attend to school on her own if she is always there.  Every time the nanny is out of her sight the child cries.  I told her she just had to go and get it over with.  Then she came back halfway through the day when we eat.  For some reason the parents/ nannies think it is okay to come back during eating time.  I pointed out to her that not only did the child cry once that day, but now she cried twice because she saw her again, and that she had been doing perfectly fine once she calmed down.  It is such a different society.  There is a definite ranking here, with the Emiratis on top, so it is very difficult for us to tell them to leave.  Even though westerners come 'next' in the social ranking, we still are not Emiratis.  So my Emirati mothers did try today, but they sat in the doorway instead of the classroom.  So the kids could still see them and many tried to escape through the open door.  It is a mad house.  We are looking for support in this but it is turning out to be hard to find, so hopefully in the next few days the classroom will be truly mine and my coteacher's and we can actually get some teaching in.  I did have the kids do a great activity today where they drew a self-portrait and traced their name written in English.  It was interesting to see how they did it.  We had been doing head, shoulders, knees and toes, so when I explained it to them saying 'draw your head', they understood.  Of course, they loved my picture of me with hair, because they can't see it under my scarf!  They also are used to 'writing' right to left so that will be hard to switch back and forth.