During one of our pre-service training sessions at Fawzia Sultan when introducing ourselves we had to answer the question, “Six months from now I hope…” my answer was that I hope to not be so afraid to cross the street. It could be that I have never lived in a city or maybe that traffic laws and common courtesies between drivers doesn’t exist.. regardless, traffic here is something else.
It may seem strange to dedicate an entire post to traffic but unless you have lived or visited in one of the Gulf countries you have no idea what the traffic is like. There is one highway here in Kuwait, called 30, I’m not sure if that stands for a route number or is just the highway name, but it has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most fatalities. Many people here say that if you don’t see an accident at least once a day, you’re not in Kuwait. Many wrecks are left on the side of the road for a few days or however long it takes to finish the paperwork. So far I have only seen a few wreckages and alhamdullilah have not been involved in any sort of accident.
Even though car accidents occur frequently and Kuwait is well known for their fatality rate, people don’t wear seat belts or put their children in car seats. It is a habit for me to buckle up, whether I am in the front of back. Because of this I have gained several peoples’ attention, having them turn around and say “you really wear that”? One of my friends wears the seat belt in her car but only because she and her husband haven’t been able to disable the alarm that goes off when you drive without it on.
I have seen a few Student Driver signs and cannot imagine the anxiety or experience of learning to drive here in Kuwait. Not everyone needs driver training; if you are from one of the wealthy families in Kuwait you automatically get your license, without or without practice or the need for a driving test.
Normal rush hour traffic back home (I am thinking of Hartford traffic on 84) goes from 5-7 PM give or take. Here I have noticed two times throughout the day where traffic builds up - in the afternoon around 2 or 3 when schools are getting out and students are getting picked up by their drivers and then at night around 10:30-11 when people are heading out to the malls to shop.
The intention behind this post was not to complain or worry anyone. Traffic here is really just very different from back home and I wanted to share. I feel fortunate to have bus transportation to and from school and plan on doing as much walking as possible once the weather cools off a bit.
I have only two days of teaching this week and then have a nice five day holiday for Eid, the Muslim holiday and celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. I have plans to spend some of the time with friends from school, however, I am also really looking forward to some down time in my apartment. I feel like I am starting to get into the swing of things. I have been able to finally access the school server and read the Science and Social Studies curriculums and will be doing some lesson planning over my break as well. I will be writing soon, inshAllah to talk about the last few days of Ramadan and the Eid holiday.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Success in the classroom!
I know I was a little defeated in my last post but alhamdulillah I have finished a wonderful week with my students and am now enjoying the last day of my weekend. In the beginning of the year I told my students that they could work as a whole class for something fun. They decided on time to play outside and this week started coming close to filling their charts. I was able to use that as an incentive for them to do their work and remember to raise their hands just by announcing, "if everyone keeps on being safe, responsible, respectful, good learners we may be able to spend the last part of Thursday doing something special". Maybe it was the reinforcer or maybe I have finally settled in and am getting use to teaching. I hadn't realized that I am on the only teacher at the school with less than 10 years of teaching experience... It is nice to know that I have tons of resources and people with ideas to help me out.
Tuesday night was Open House where I got to meet half of my students' parents. The timing was difficult for both students and staff. We are now breaking our fast a few minutes before 6:00 which means that the night prayers begin at the mosques around 7:30 and Open House was scheduled from 7-9:30. Luckily I was able to eat quickly and get to school and have enough time to set up my room. The parents who came were all very friendly and told me that their children are quite happy. I allowed my students to give their families a tour around the room and asked them to explain our classroom rules so I could see if I had done a good enough job teaching them.
Wednesday was my third day of teaching and trying to get through one of the scripted math lessons from Saxon Math. Although it took us longer to get through every single student in my class was able to identify the addends and the sum by name and complete adding 0, adding 1, and doubles facts when asked! That little success made a huge difference and really helped me start to feel better about things.
During the week we also had a short one hour session with the Professional Development Coordinator on Culture Shock. Let me tell you, that talk came at the perfect time. She went through some of the symptoms and explained how the process is different for everyone. It was nice to hear that I wasn't the only one feeling a little down or overwhelmed.
Anticipating that my students would fill their behavior charts on Thursday I brought my sneakers in from home. When the time came I told them how proud I was and that they had earned their 15 minutes of free time and took them outside to our roof top playground. I think I looked incredibly silly in my professional dress clothes and Nike sneakers but the boys didn't seem to notice. Most of them requested to race me which was interesting considering it was at least 105 degrees, I was fasting, competing against 9 year olds and haven't had much physical exercise. Despite all of those factors against me I swear I tied the fastest boy in my class, Khaled, but he disagrees. I was told we need a rematch but I have about 3 weeks before they fill their charts again to preapre. After racing we played soccer. I scored a goal and got high fives from the boys on my team who seemed really impressed. My assistant Rana even joined in which made it even more fun.
I am getting picked up by one of my friends from school so that I may spend the afternoon and evening with her family fairly soon which means that I need to get going on my lesson planning and get ready. InshAllah I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the pictures from Girgian. I will do my best to post again soon.
Tuesday night was Open House where I got to meet half of my students' parents. The timing was difficult for both students and staff. We are now breaking our fast a few minutes before 6:00 which means that the night prayers begin at the mosques around 7:30 and Open House was scheduled from 7-9:30. Luckily I was able to eat quickly and get to school and have enough time to set up my room. The parents who came were all very friendly and told me that their children are quite happy. I allowed my students to give their families a tour around the room and asked them to explain our classroom rules so I could see if I had done a good enough job teaching them.
Wednesday was my third day of teaching and trying to get through one of the scripted math lessons from Saxon Math. Although it took us longer to get through every single student in my class was able to identify the addends and the sum by name and complete adding 0, adding 1, and doubles facts when asked! That little success made a huge difference and really helped me start to feel better about things.
During the week we also had a short one hour session with the Professional Development Coordinator on Culture Shock. Let me tell you, that talk came at the perfect time. She went through some of the symptoms and explained how the process is different for everyone. It was nice to hear that I wasn't the only one feeling a little down or overwhelmed.
Anticipating that my students would fill their behavior charts on Thursday I brought my sneakers in from home. When the time came I told them how proud I was and that they had earned their 15 minutes of free time and took them outside to our roof top playground. I think I looked incredibly silly in my professional dress clothes and Nike sneakers but the boys didn't seem to notice. Most of them requested to race me which was interesting considering it was at least 105 degrees, I was fasting, competing against 9 year olds and haven't had much physical exercise. Despite all of those factors against me I swear I tied the fastest boy in my class, Khaled, but he disagrees. I was told we need a rematch but I have about 3 weeks before they fill their charts again to preapre. After racing we played soccer. I scored a goal and got high fives from the boys on my team who seemed really impressed. My assistant Rana even joined in which made it even more fun.
I am getting picked up by one of my friends from school so that I may spend the afternoon and evening with her family fairly soon which means that I need to get going on my lesson planning and get ready. InshAllah I hope you are all doing well and enjoyed the pictures from Girgian. I will do my best to post again soon.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Busy busy
These past two weeks have been a blur of fasting, teaching, praying, iftars (meals after you break your fast), behavior problems, reading Quran, lesson planning, attending taravee prayers and (a little bit of) sleep. Let me first start off by apologizing for not updating this more regularly but as you can see things have just been a little hectic over here in Hawally.
Alhamdullilah I am having a wonderful Ramadan. Several of the teachers from Fawzia Sultan have invited me over to spend time and have iftar with their families. There was a period of 9 days where I did not eat in my apartment... I would wake up, go to school, come home for a couple hours, get picked up by a co-worker, eat and pray at their mosque and then get dropped off to sleep and do it all over again. MashAllah many of these women are amazing cooks and I have had the opportunity to try many different types of food. Two of the families that I have spent some time with are Syrian so I have tried at least 6 different kinds of kibay (no idea if that is spelled correctly) along with many other delicious meals. I've had Egyptian, Syrian, Arabic and even some Mexican and Chinese dishes throughout the last two weeks of being invited over to people's homes for iftar. It has been really nice having the support and friendship of these teachers and being around their families has helped me not feel quite so lonely.
I think I underestimated how stressful your first year of teaching can be. Add on to that living and teaching in a new country, being away from all of my family and friends, fasting and being given a challenging class to start off with. So far most of my students have been well behaved. We had a nice honeymoon period of one week and then my eighth student came back who completely changed the classroom dynamic. My students are very loud and like to instigate one another. I find myself constantly trying to shhh them and trying to juggle allowing them to share the stories that they so desperately need to tell and moving on to get through our lessons. I've gone through a few days of feeling like a failure and not seeing any progress and wanting to come home. Luckily I have made friends with the school psychologist who has been really supportive and I was pulled into a meeting with the school principal this afternoon to hear that she has been really impressed with my teaching and classroom and wanted me to know that. InshAllah (God willing) things will get easier.
Today we had our Girgian celebration which was really fun. Girgian is similar to Halloween in that children dress up and go around and collect candy. Instead of costumes they wear traditional Kuwaiti dress and sing an Arabic song instead of saying trick or treat. All of the elementary students were given the opportunity to go around and sing and collect candy from the high school students. Students and staff were asked to dress up for the celebration. I have posted pictures so please take a look.. my boys looked so handsome in their dishdashas. Tomorrow night is Open House where I am looking forward to meeting my students' parents. This coming Sunday we are having a school wide iftar at a local resort on the beach. It is a potluck and we are expecting 80-100 people to attend. I am part of the Social Committee at school and am responsible for helping organize and set up for the event. I will do my best to bring my camera to that event as well.
Like I said these past two weeks have been a blur. I feel like I have been on an emotional roller coaster, some days really enjoying it here and others wanting to buy a plane ticket home. I feel very fortunate to have met some wonderful people here in Kuwait who have been kind enough to invite me over and make me feel like I am a part of their families. I am enjoying the food and being less than 2 minutes walking distance away from a mosque and (for the most part) my students :) It is hard to believe that Ramadan is almost half way over. InshAllah I will post again soon.
Alhamdullilah I am having a wonderful Ramadan. Several of the teachers from Fawzia Sultan have invited me over to spend time and have iftar with their families. There was a period of 9 days where I did not eat in my apartment... I would wake up, go to school, come home for a couple hours, get picked up by a co-worker, eat and pray at their mosque and then get dropped off to sleep and do it all over again. MashAllah many of these women are amazing cooks and I have had the opportunity to try many different types of food. Two of the families that I have spent some time with are Syrian so I have tried at least 6 different kinds of kibay (no idea if that is spelled correctly) along with many other delicious meals. I've had Egyptian, Syrian, Arabic and even some Mexican and Chinese dishes throughout the last two weeks of being invited over to people's homes for iftar. It has been really nice having the support and friendship of these teachers and being around their families has helped me not feel quite so lonely.
I think I underestimated how stressful your first year of teaching can be. Add on to that living and teaching in a new country, being away from all of my family and friends, fasting and being given a challenging class to start off with. So far most of my students have been well behaved. We had a nice honeymoon period of one week and then my eighth student came back who completely changed the classroom dynamic. My students are very loud and like to instigate one another. I find myself constantly trying to shhh them and trying to juggle allowing them to share the stories that they so desperately need to tell and moving on to get through our lessons. I've gone through a few days of feeling like a failure and not seeing any progress and wanting to come home. Luckily I have made friends with the school psychologist who has been really supportive and I was pulled into a meeting with the school principal this afternoon to hear that she has been really impressed with my teaching and classroom and wanted me to know that. InshAllah (God willing) things will get easier.
Today we had our Girgian celebration which was really fun. Girgian is similar to Halloween in that children dress up and go around and collect candy. Instead of costumes they wear traditional Kuwaiti dress and sing an Arabic song instead of saying trick or treat. All of the elementary students were given the opportunity to go around and sing and collect candy from the high school students. Students and staff were asked to dress up for the celebration. I have posted pictures so please take a look.. my boys looked so handsome in their dishdashas. Tomorrow night is Open House where I am looking forward to meeting my students' parents. This coming Sunday we are having a school wide iftar at a local resort on the beach. It is a potluck and we are expecting 80-100 people to attend. I am part of the Social Committee at school and am responsible for helping organize and set up for the event. I will do my best to bring my camera to that event as well.
Like I said these past two weeks have been a blur. I feel like I have been on an emotional roller coaster, some days really enjoying it here and others wanting to buy a plane ticket home. I feel very fortunate to have met some wonderful people here in Kuwait who have been kind enough to invite me over and make me feel like I am a part of their families. I am enjoying the food and being less than 2 minutes walking distance away from a mosque and (for the most part) my students :) It is hard to believe that Ramadan is almost half way over. InshAllah I will post again soon.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Time is flying by...
Asalaam alaikum - peace and blessings be with you. I can barely believe it but my first week of teaching is almost over. Here in Kuwait, my work week is from Sunday to Thursday which means that after tomorrow I will have finished my first week of teaching. During Ramadan, student and teacher hours are shortened to help support those who are fasting. Believe it or not, some of my 4th graders are fasting with me. The fact that they are fasting doesn't stop them from running around playing soccer in the 110 degree heat.
I had mentioned earlier that most of the staff had warned me about my class, in fact they had painted a picture in my mind of these kids who were uncontrollable and would be so difficult to teach. Alhamdulillah (all praise belongs to Allah), I think my students are incredible and so far we have had a wonderful three days together! Every day we have gone over my four classroom expectations - Be Safe, Responsible, Respectful and Good Learners. I took these expectations and lesson plans from Natchaug Elementary School where I did my Positive Behavior Support internship last year. So far all seven of them (one has yet to show up) can name the expectations and tell me specific behaviors that they can engage in to demonstrate that they know and understand what Ms. Rebecca wants to see.
The school director, principal and school psychologist have come around to see how things are going and I've been told by my assistant that they have witnessed impressed looks and head nods in approval - so far so good :) Each and every student has their own unique personality which has started to show through. I have two students who like to remind me that "they are good boys" and "love school and their teacher". I have another one who after hearing that I was not married gave me a look of shock and told me "oh Ms. Rebecca you should get married and have a family" - I also believe that this eight year old gave a little shake of his head in disapproval! I've told my class that for now they are my children which made them all laugh. They enjoy talking, a quality I believe most elementary school students share and they love telling stories about what they did at home or during their holidays. Most of them traveled - trips to Switzerland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dubai and Egypt. I believe only two of them stayed in the country over the summer and they too had stories to tell about their PSP games.
I have found that I tend to plan too much academic or behavioral teaching for each period which has set my lesson plans back a few days. Luckily I have been told that especially with my class, my teaching can be flexible and that working on teaching, modeling and practicing classroom behavior expectations is the most important. Today they made posters for my classroom that I will inshAllah (God willing) take pictures of and post as soon as possible. Tomorrow we are playing a Jeopardy game so they can review and have fun with their new rules and expectations. Lesson plans are not due until Sunday morning which means that I have the weekends to work on them.
At least twice a week my students receive speech and occupational services. Yesterday I accompanied them to OT. The classroom is incredible. They have ladders and ropes that they can climb as well as balance beams, a huge spinning top that they sit in and a hoppity hop (it is a toy that you step on and hop - I just love the name). The OT teacher is wonderful - knows my students and has worked with them in the past and is just so creative and effective at engaging my kids in her lesson.
I am having a great time. I really am enjoying my students, one boy who gets to school early greets me every morning with "Hello Ms. Rebecca" as I walk by after taking the staff bus from my apartment to school. The teaching staff has been very supportive. I've been getting emails and notes in my mailbox inviting me to spend iftars with their family and so far I have taken two up on their offer. Monday night I broke my fast with one of the teachers and her family. When the call to prayer for maghrib (sunset) prayer sounded we ate dates and drank water which is sunnah (the way) of prophet Muhammad (salallaho alayahi wasalaam - peace and blessings be upon him). We then prayed our maghrib prayer in her home before having the iftar or dinner meal. The food was delicious. It was a mix of Egpytian and Syrian. Once we finished dinner we then went to the mosque near her home to pray isha (night prayers) and taravee (where a portion of the Quran is recited each night during Ramadan). Men and women pray in separate areas of each mosque. In the womens section there was about 120-150 women. Although I was not able to understand the Arabic that was being spoken it was an incredible experience being with so many people in one area praying at the same time.
Last night I held my own iftar for two teachers that live in my apartment building. One women from New Zealand has decided to fast with her students. Again, we broke our fast with dates and water and then after I prayed maghrib we had a nice meal. Who knew that I would actually get use out of my dining room table? Tonight I am off to my assistant Rana's house to have dinner with her family.
InshAllah (God willing) I hope you are all doing well. I will do my best to continue sharing with you things about my class and what it is like living in a Muslim country during Ramadan. Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going with all of you.
I had mentioned earlier that most of the staff had warned me about my class, in fact they had painted a picture in my mind of these kids who were uncontrollable and would be so difficult to teach. Alhamdulillah (all praise belongs to Allah), I think my students are incredible and so far we have had a wonderful three days together! Every day we have gone over my four classroom expectations - Be Safe, Responsible, Respectful and Good Learners. I took these expectations and lesson plans from Natchaug Elementary School where I did my Positive Behavior Support internship last year. So far all seven of them (one has yet to show up) can name the expectations and tell me specific behaviors that they can engage in to demonstrate that they know and understand what Ms. Rebecca wants to see.
The school director, principal and school psychologist have come around to see how things are going and I've been told by my assistant that they have witnessed impressed looks and head nods in approval - so far so good :) Each and every student has their own unique personality which has started to show through. I have two students who like to remind me that "they are good boys" and "love school and their teacher". I have another one who after hearing that I was not married gave me a look of shock and told me "oh Ms. Rebecca you should get married and have a family" - I also believe that this eight year old gave a little shake of his head in disapproval! I've told my class that for now they are my children which made them all laugh. They enjoy talking, a quality I believe most elementary school students share and they love telling stories about what they did at home or during their holidays. Most of them traveled - trips to Switzerland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Dubai and Egypt. I believe only two of them stayed in the country over the summer and they too had stories to tell about their PSP games.
I have found that I tend to plan too much academic or behavioral teaching for each period which has set my lesson plans back a few days. Luckily I have been told that especially with my class, my teaching can be flexible and that working on teaching, modeling and practicing classroom behavior expectations is the most important. Today they made posters for my classroom that I will inshAllah (God willing) take pictures of and post as soon as possible. Tomorrow we are playing a Jeopardy game so they can review and have fun with their new rules and expectations. Lesson plans are not due until Sunday morning which means that I have the weekends to work on them.
At least twice a week my students receive speech and occupational services. Yesterday I accompanied them to OT. The classroom is incredible. They have ladders and ropes that they can climb as well as balance beams, a huge spinning top that they sit in and a hoppity hop (it is a toy that you step on and hop - I just love the name). The OT teacher is wonderful - knows my students and has worked with them in the past and is just so creative and effective at engaging my kids in her lesson.
I am having a great time. I really am enjoying my students, one boy who gets to school early greets me every morning with "Hello Ms. Rebecca" as I walk by after taking the staff bus from my apartment to school. The teaching staff has been very supportive. I've been getting emails and notes in my mailbox inviting me to spend iftars with their family and so far I have taken two up on their offer. Monday night I broke my fast with one of the teachers and her family. When the call to prayer for maghrib (sunset) prayer sounded we ate dates and drank water which is sunnah (the way) of prophet Muhammad (salallaho alayahi wasalaam - peace and blessings be upon him). We then prayed our maghrib prayer in her home before having the iftar or dinner meal. The food was delicious. It was a mix of Egpytian and Syrian. Once we finished dinner we then went to the mosque near her home to pray isha (night prayers) and taravee (where a portion of the Quran is recited each night during Ramadan). Men and women pray in separate areas of each mosque. In the womens section there was about 120-150 women. Although I was not able to understand the Arabic that was being spoken it was an incredible experience being with so many people in one area praying at the same time.
Last night I held my own iftar for two teachers that live in my apartment building. One women from New Zealand has decided to fast with her students. Again, we broke our fast with dates and water and then after I prayed maghrib we had a nice meal. Who knew that I would actually get use out of my dining room table? Tonight I am off to my assistant Rana's house to have dinner with her family.
InshAllah (God willing) I hope you are all doing well. I will do my best to continue sharing with you things about my class and what it is like living in a Muslim country during Ramadan. Please keep in touch and let me know how things are going with all of you.
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