Sunday to Thursday

Exhausted is what I am!! I also realized an error in my previous blog. Sorry about that. As a teacher I cannot stand errors in my writing.  Today was actually not a bad day. I received a half dozen roses from a student.  Wow was about all that came to mind. It was so very sweet and I am very thankful that some students actually like me.  These girls are not the easiest. I have 2 fifth grade classes ( my first time teaching fifth grade also).  One class has 27 and the other has 26. This only changes when another teacher in my grade level is absent, then I have about 13 more. This happened this week actually.  Not very easy to have class with that many girls. My girls cannot stand that I make them sit where I want them to. I also move the desks around every week-hehe. One girl actually cried when she found she wasn't sitting by her best friend. I tell them to get over it b/c it's only for three class periods in a row. The girls love to roll their eyes at me as well. I just laugh and say I can do that to, you wanna see. They laugh and we move on. I explain my directions in English and have my highest student (she is awesome) translate in Arabic so that everyone understands. I now know why we make good money here though. We work our butts off every day. The culture here is so very different and it's not unusual for the students to be rude (a lot). They will literally talk right over you. I have learned to make them leave the class and allow them to enter when I am ready for them to. I love them, but they need structure. I think they are learning I love them b/c their previous teacher called them by number instead of their names-what the hell? No way, I told the girls I would learn them and I knew all names within the first 2 weeks!! Not that hard when you care. I have many girls named Hamda and Mouza. Most of my students are beautiful, but they say the same of me. They all want to brush and touch my hair. A sign they really like me is when they sacrifice a piece of candy and share with me. These kids LOVE candy. I now use it as bribery-sad I know, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. We teach from 7-3 on Sundays and Wednesdays and 8-2 the other three days.  Remembering school begins on a Sunday still throws me off. We have standardized testing here also. Can you believe that? I guess I thought if I left the states I would not have that as we do, but it's very similar to the CRCT. It's called EMSA. We are doing prep for it. Makes me wanna scream b/c it's very difficult! The more things change here, the more that stays the same. - Jamie