Picking Up Speed…

So the biggest update since I last blogged (still wondering how “successful” of a blogger I am going to be)….school has started! We started school on the 6th of September and had two weeks of classes as of yesterday. The set up is quite different from the schedule I had in the States. Instead of being on a block schedule meeting ninety minutes every day for a semester, I have the students all year and we meet three times a week at varied times depending on the class and the grade.

A couple of random quotes stories:
When I was substituting for a class of eighth graders and was having them teach me Arabic:
“Miss (they call me Miss or Ms. Melissa), WE all know two languages, why should we have to teach you a second one.” I proceed to answer in German. Silence…”what was that Miss?” …”German…do you speak it?” …”No”…”Oh, okay then – you teach me Arabic and I will teach you German.” We had a blast after that. Minus a common German word being an Arabic swear word…oops! Guess that’s life.

From an eighth grader in that same class: “Miss do you know you look like a Russian supermodel…do you speak Russian?” I had no good comeback for that one, just to say no and ignore.

“Miss try my brownies….Miss PLEASE be in charge of Model UN….Miss you give us a lot of hard homework ”

Sounds like my kids from home. LOVE It

I am teaching two tenth grade world history classes from Imperialism – WWI, an eleventh grade history from WWI to current history, two senior economic classes, a college preparation for juniors and a college preparation for seniors. Classes during Ramadan are 30-35 minutes and after will be 40-45 minutes. THUS teaching life is quite different for me and I think that the schedule has been the biggest adjustment for me in the whole process. I did feel after two weeks, however, that I have a better feel for lessons look like in those time frames. We now have a week off for Eid holiday (celebration after Ramadan) which probably starts Sunday, depending on the moon. I have heard that watching the celebration is a lot of fun so I will be trying to do that as well as a lot of planning.

I have REALLY enjoyed getting back into teaching and ironically enough for those who know me well, I am having a great time with economics in spite of having determined in college that it would be the bane of my teaching existence if I had to ever teach it. Wonders will never cease and my time here has seemed to be full of things like that so I look forward to the continuing story.

The students are GREAT and meeting them has been among the favorite things that I have experienced here thus far. We had our first Iftar (daily breaking of the fast at sunset) celebration along with football (soccer) games Thursday evening and it was quite a fun event. It is relatively reminiscent of a Friday night school American football game. A lot of the moms or relatives made a plethora of amazing Arab and other dishes and after the call to prayer, we ate together (YUM!) and then I went with a couple of teachers to watch the various grades play each other in football. I had some students attempting to talk me into running/sponsoring Model UN….we’ll see. I think I might have to be careful or they will steal my heart and I would probably have to live at school for all I would be involved with .

Overall, I have really enjoyed myself and the things I am seeing and experiencing. I am told by my students that “Bahrain will be much less boring after Ramadan”….I do have to say I wasn’t bored yet but I am looking forward to seeing what life is like during the rest of the year as well.