Arabic

Another crazy/busy week at ACA! If any of my boys were shy and reserved before, they are completely comfortable now and wide-open! Classroom management is key on the boys campus, and is something we reflect on everyday. It is nice having all boys, because I can remind them to be gentlemen-they have to sit like gentlemen, walk in line like gentlemen, etc. Every morning we meet in a circle and greet each other by shaking hands and saying, "Good morning (name)" and the other boy replies back, "Good Morning (name)." It goes around the circle until everyone has been greeted by their neighbor. I like to remind them to shake hands like men, look them in the eye and use a strong voice! I also make them shake hands when they are apologizing to one another. On the girl's campus, I hear they have "Calendar Princess" in the morning, so I guess both have their perks!

I've learned a few Arabic words since I've been here.
Shukran means thank you and al'afw is you're welcome
hello: as-salām 'alaykum
and response: wa 'alaykum as-salām
yes: n'am
no: la, with our boys it's usually la la la la! (no no no no!)
yella: let's go (I hear that a lot with the boys too!)
Insh'Allah: God willing "Michael will be working soon insh'Allah."
Humdullah: Praise be to God. "How are you?-Fine, humdullah, humdullah"

And unfortunately I learned what "haram" means: sinful or something that displeases God.

Before we started math Tuesday morning, I noticed lots of trash on the floor. We eat snack and lunch in the room, so you can imagine what the floor looks like. Also, most of the boys don't really have to pick up after themselves at home, so I'm constantly reminding them. This Tuesday morning, I found an Arabic worksheet on the floor. It had a picture of a boy dressed as a policeman with questions on the back.

"Boys, who's paper is this?" ..nothing.. "Who's Arabic work is this?"....nothing..."When did you do this worksheet?" "Sunday"...."Why is it on the floor?".....nothing..."Fine, I'm throwing it away!" and just as I start on a rant about keeping our classroom nice and neat, four boys shout "Miss, Miss, Haram! Haram!" Thank goodness my teacher assistant was there! She came over and explained that the story included "Allah" or God, and I threw it away....I threw away God. Whoops! I explained to the boys that I had no idea, that I did not do it on purpose, and I put it in the recycling basket. From now on, I will put all Islam and Arabic work in the recycling basket! I learned it's also "haram" to waste food, so we usually give left over, uneaten food to the maids. Another sensitive subject is music-no music special, no music clubs and we're really not supposed to have music in the classroom. I sometimes sing songs for instruction-last week we sang a doubles addition song. Yesterday I played classical while they worked but I asked my TA first. Of course yesterday was an exception-it was last period on a Thursday...no matter what age or gender, our kids go bonkers last period on Thursday!


As you know, Arabic has different characters for writing so everything is spelled phonetically. There are a few different spellings for the Arabic words I wrote. It's also the reason English words are spelled so funny here such as "Hair Saloon."

Money talk and other random stories!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I slept in two hours yesterday! Yep woke up at 7AM. 

We went to church Friday-The Lighthouse Church. The service was a welcome service for all of the new teachers in Kuwait. The preacher, who's from Danville, VA, talked about how it was started for ex-pats, therefore everyone has a different denominational background and that we should be flexible with our worship. We might hear things we're not used to, but it's just part of attending an international church. 

On a side note...We also discussed the violence and protests that have been occurring at US Embassies in the Middle East. For starters, don't be worried! We are safe! If there are any security threats to Americans, they will put us on the first flight out of here! Secondly, keep in mind that those few extremists do not represent all Muslims and the culture we are living in. And lastly, what we discussed in church-we all just need to love one another-Arabs, Americans, Christians and Muslims : ) Less ignorance and more education would go a long way!

Anyway, Friday night was movie night/lesson planning party!

Two first year teachers' exciting Friday night! 

Once I get used to my schedule at school, I'll be able to do all of my planning during my breaks and not bring my work home! 

 Ready for a money lesson?? Here are two photos of Kuwaiti Dinar or KD. The notes are 20, 10, 5, 1, 1/2, and 1/4. For change, 1 KD is equal to 1,000 fills (cents). The coins are for 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 fills. So the 1/2 note is 500 fills and the 1/4 note is 250 fills.

English side

Arabic side

One KD is equal to 3.5671 US Dollars. I try not to convert prices to US Dollars, because some things are so expensive. I bought as maxi skirt  cardigan for 20KD...I wish there was a Target here! Groceries are about the same as in the US. We usually spend 15KD a week. Some take-out places are really cheap like the local shwarma place (Lebanese take-out) and Indian take-out. Both are under 2 KD for a two people and a lot of food! Also everything delivers here! Check out this website: http://www.6alabat.com/kw/en/home It's where everyone orders food from. 

Now for the hot water story...It's not our proudest moment! 

So we have had cold and hot water since we've been here. The hot water wasn't what we were used to, but we still took showers and did the dishes. My 5AM showers were not quite as hot as I would have liked, but nothing to really complain about. Then we discovered this: 

The one that's lit up is our hot water heater switch!! We had it off the whole time! It's amazing how hot the water was without the heater! The other switches are light switches and the last one is for the washing machine. 

Since it's difficult to comment on my posts, feel free to write on Facebook! Again, I love all of the feedback! 

Boys will be boys

Tomorrow you might here a girl yelling TGIT across the Atlantic! Thank goodness it's Thursday!! This week was tough-mainly trial and error and lot's of pre-assessing. Sunday I had a few great lessons planned, tried them and realized it was way too much for the kids. I didn't take enough time to teach writing the date, writing their name, how to read directions etc. I'm also learning that I have to talk very slow and use visuals. So I have slowed down the pace and am taking time with each step of an activity. Modeling and guided practice x100!

And of course boys will be boys. Twenty-four in a room makes for a lot of noise. Today we worked on keeping our bottom in the chair! Of course lots of noise usually means lots of talking and I love how social they are! 

This is how I feel by the end of the day!

I'm hoping we will get used to our routines and procedures. My favorite is giving the American sign language letter for "B" to ask to use the bathroom and "W" for water. They are doing a great job at looking to see if the hall pass is available and asking silently! 

We have three rules: The Golden Rule ("Treat others the way you want to be treated"), "Only talk when you have been called on" and "Only get up when you have permission." It's very common to speak to the teacher by getting out of your seat and yelling Miss Miss! Unfortunately, when it's happening all day long with 24 boys. the teacher can get irritated hence the 2nd and 3rd rule : )

So I mentioned all of the planning time I have each week, which is wonderful! Here is what the boys are doing:
Every week they have five Arabic classes, two Islam classes and two Lifeskills classes. The Arabic of course is just like English Language Arts. Lifeskills is a great course-today they talked about why they are special which fits right in with my social curriculum! The teacher for Islam has a beautiful voice-I love to hear him teach the prayers and of course listening to my class sing in their sweet 7 year old voices is lovely! He is also an amazing storyteller....I find myself just sitting and listening for 10 minutes at a time, even though I don't know what he's saying!

Prayer request: Michael's looking for a job! 

We went on the yacht last weekend and swam in the Gulf! It was extremely salty and the current was so strong we resorted to hanging on a rope while the others jet-skied. 

I had great pictures of Michael and I swimming at sunset and I accidentally hit "Delete all"!! boo

Well I'm going to go enjoy a cup of green tea and look over my lesson plans for next week! If I haven't mentioned before it's common to drink tea and coffee after every meal. 

Next post you'll learn all about fills and KD and the few Arabic words!

What Not to Wear

I survived my first week of school! It has definitely been challenging! Most of my boys' English is rusty, so it took a lot of patience. I also had to be very stern, because the boys are rowdy! Lots of talking, pushing, yelling out. Walking in a line was difficult because they constantly put their arms around each other, hold hands and run! Looks like we'll be working on procedures for the next few weeks! 

We did a fun activity the second day! I made a puzzle that spelled out TEAM. Each student colored a puzzle piece and then we put the puzzle together! When we were putting it together, they had T, E and A. As they were guessing, one boy yelled, "Teet! It spells teet!" Of course, everyone joined in...25 boys shouting out teet hahah But it was a great team building activity! 

The dress code here is very different than what we're used to in the states. At home, teachers are more focused on dressing professionally (no jeans, no tennis shoes). In Kuwait we need to dress very modest. 

Our arms need to be covered at least halfway between our shoulder and elbow.
That's why we wear cardigans in 120 degree weather!

I also wear log sleeve and 3/4 shirts underneath.

Shirts need to be loose fitting.
No belts to make it more fitted and no tucking in! 

We need to cover our chest-no low cut shirts!
Scarves are great for covering-I got this one at the Souk for 1 KD.

Pants have to be paired with a long shirt to cover our hips.
This is about as low cut as shirts can get! 

Again, this is for our school dresscode! In public we can wear jeans and t-shirts. The shirts still need to be loose, but I brought two pairs of skinny jeans and have worn them with a modest shirt. No one would ever say anything about what you're wearing, but it's definitely more stylish to be modest! And I would never go out wearing shorts, a sundress or tank tops!!

Also to be respectful, when Michael and I are together in public, we do not show affection. No one told us not to, but we noticed when we were walking around the malls that men and women don't walk with their arms around each other or holding hands. When we went to take a picture together at the souk, we weren't sure how to stand!

To everyone who has been reading my blog THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate the feedback, and I LOVE seeing the number of pageviews! We hit 1,100 yesterday! Just one more way technology make us feel closer to the ones we love back home : )

First Day of School!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!! I loved FaceTiming with my family! And Sissy emailed me a video of Reece in her walker! Can't wait to see her walk!

Today, I had my very first day of school as a full time homeroom teacher! It was amazing!! I thought I would be nervous, but instead I was excited! Here are my classroom photos : )

In case you forgot, here is a before..

And here's the "after."

This is my classroom library, ALL of the books were left in the class from past teachers. 

My welcome bulletin board. (class theme-2A All-Stars!)

A closer look

Content vocabulary word wall

The boys were great today. They have A LOT of energy, but when I sat them in a circle and asked them to say their name for everyone, they barely whispered it! The biggest challenge today was listening. This may be because the kids did not speak a lot of English at home all summer. It may also have to do with their behavior expectations at home. Apparently the children here are very privileged and the boys can basically do and have anything they want. I'm not sure if this is true, but I guess we'll see!

Also, the orientation, dropping off the students and picking them up has been a family event! Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and maids all come, but they tell me usually only the maid comes in to pick them up after the first week. And the maids wear uniforms which looks bizarre to me.

Today during one of our icebreakers I learned that all of the students in my class had at least 2 siblings, most had 4 or 5!

Get ready..next post will be my Kuwait fashion post!

Ending the first work week!

This past week has been very busy! My workday is 6:45AM to 2:45AM. The bus picks us up from Hawally 5 (our apt. building) at 6:15AM and drops us off at 3:30pm. It's nice to have the transportation provided. Tomorrow is orientation for the parents! Just a few last minute things to do today and then I'll put up classroom pictures! Michael has been a huge help! 

He even sorted through all of the unifix cubes! He's having fun, can't you tell? 

My first weekend after working at school all week was amazing! Thursday we had a pool party and bbq, and Friday we cleaned the apartment, worked out, went to the pool and had a movie night with friends!

Our pool at the apartment.

Here's a few random photos!

Almost everything has an Arabic and English label, either on the front and back or both on the front.
It makes grocery shopping a lot easier! 

This one did not have any English descriptions, just "fabric care."
It's for abayas, so it should take care of black cardigans right?
And yes, I have to wear cardigans in 120 degree heat.

I put up some photos of our apt. when we first arrived, but here is our bedroom now, 

and our rearranged living room.

Again, I should have classroom photos up by Monday. I'm also taking outfit photos this week so you can see how we work with the strict dress code!