I had a wonderful first day of teaching 2nd grade in Morocco!!! My kids are adorable and everything went pretty well!
Things I noticed today:
That parents (or nannies or drivers.....no sure who all of them were) come and take first day photos of their little ones just like we do in the states!! :)
That I panicked a bit when I couldn't get the attendance program on the computer to work right away!! (First time taking attendance that way!) But... another teacher came and helped me out!!
That my class thought it quite funny how I tried to pronounce their names!! I just laughed with them and did my best! :) Names are not like Bob and Sue....they are more like:
Yasmine, Nour Elhouda, Salaheddine, Mehdi, Yahia, Ghita, Fahd!!! :)
That walking in the "hall" is different than in the states.....we don't really have a hall in the whole building! The rooms all open to a covered walkway that is outside. When we turn to go around the side of the building we catch a wonderful breeze from the ocean!!
That they have wonderful lunches for the kids and teachers OR the teachers can order other things (pizza, hamburger, salads, fajitas......) The kids lunch today was roast beef, peas, bread, a cup of raw, shredded carrots, and apple and a bottle of water!! US schools....take notes....pretty healthy!!
That my class of 2nd graders was fine with me eating with them, but that another couple of teachers (4th and 7th graders) I talked with had students that asked a lot of questions about not eating/eating, fasting for Ramadan.... The rule is that children do not fast for Ramadan. Teenagers are encouraged to fast, but not made to do so. Girls having their periods are not expected to fast at that time, but to make up that time later....?? Tough thing for kids of any age to do and still go to school and stay awake to learn something!!
That the end of the day/pick up time is CRAZY!! They need a little work in this area.... They put the classes and teachers in this corral of sorts. Then the adults (some parents, mostly "drivers" or "chauffeurs") come to pick up some of them. Then some of them take a bus. When they get to the bus, the driver will tell them if they are to ride or not to ride.....then they come back and wait some more.....all a little crazy!
The end of the day COULD be a realllllly bad thing for me. The cafeteria people have cold sodas and huge home made goodies for sale every day at the end of the day. (BIG cookies, brownies and the like!!) If I would have had the money with me, I probably would have given in today....but....I had to walk up my two flight of steps to get money. By the time I got to my room I remembered Marcia and I walking the steps of our villa last night in place of a beach walk and thought to myself...."No, you don't need this goodie right now."!! :)
So, instead, I headed home and we went for a really long walk on the beach and we made a wonderful dinner of fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, mozzarella cheese, some oils and a pastry from the shop across the street AND a glass of red wine for dinner ( we bought this last night....QUITE a feat!! It's Ramadan, so that part of the grocery store is locked up. One has to ask them to unlock it, you give them your pass port, they take you into this dark room and you pick out what you want. Then they lock it up again and people give you funny looks all the way through the store! Marcia did all of this while I was trying to purchase some sharp knives for our kitchen!!.....bless her little heart! ) It tasted wonderful with our meal!!
NOW....I must go to bed. I'm EXHAUSTED!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment