Meet the Teacher

before shots of classroom

I live 6, 759 miles(10,878km) miles from home.  When I accepted this teaching position, I felt as though I had found a place that was special.  I really do feel that God lead me to the right place.  The motto at this school is simple: “A Better Choice”.  The motto is modeled for its staff by the owners and director who provide us with beautiful accommodations for living and daily travel to and from work. I knew that this would be a nice school, but the pictures don’t do it justice.  Come visit me in Kuwait and I’ll give you a tour. Pack your walking shoes. The campus is pretty large.  I can’t seem to ever fit the whole building in one shot.  We spent a full week last week participating in staff development.  Now, this week myself and my coworkers spent hours preparing our classrooms for the first stay of school.  We have staggered start days with Middle School beginning Wednesday, 1^st-5^th grades beginning Thursday, and kindergarten and preschool beginning on Sunday.  (The work week in Kuwait is Sunday through Thursday.

The main elementary playground.  There are additional smaller playgrounds outside of some classrooms.

small playground outside of my room.

Funny story- There are 2 yellow school busses in this country.  My school had them shipped here from the states so that it would be like a true American school.  It seems that Kuwaiti narrow streets and traffic patterns do not mix well with large American busses.  They decided not to use them to pick up the students at our school.  However, the transportation department at the school did deem them appropriate for teachers. Ha Ha! That’s right.  I ride to school now on a big yellow bus full of my adult coworkers.  That might be the least cool “perk” of this job. But hey, a free ride is a free ride!  We did spend the first couple of weeks traveling about in lovely 26 passenger busses with cushioned seating and air conditioning.  Those are now used for the students! Go figure.

our loft with play or learning areas above and below

Today I met my students. What are kindergarten students like in Kuwait?  Well, they are children!  Some walked right in and checked out the room with enthusiasm.  A couple were shy and held on to their parents.  All of the kindergarten classrooms at my school have lovely lofts.  The lofts were a big hit with my new students.

I was a bit nervous about names.  When I saw my class list, the names didn’t exactly roll off of my tongue.  During Meet the Teacher,  my goal was to repeat student’s names and have parents tell me the correct way to pronounce it.  I took a picture of each child holding their nameplate.  I would like to learn my parent’s names down the road, but that is a tall order that can wait for the moment.  Both parents and students were friendly today.  Many welcomed me to Kuwait and shared their connections about the US. Some have lived there while others travel there on a regular basis.  I should mention that I am teaching at a private school and many of our students would be referred to as “privileged” in the USA.   It is not uncommon for our students to be international travelers.

This is a view of the room from the loft.  You can see that their is a room through the circular opening for art activities. There are restrooms to the right and a kitchen to the left. 

What?  Is that a kitchen?  Yes Sir. Yes Ma’am.  Every kindergarten classroom has a full kitchen. What will we make in there?  The sky is the limit.  I’ll have to incorporate some great recipes into learning this year.  I got a little lazy about that last year, but now the kitchen is a part of the room.

school library

Today was a lovely day.  It was great to meet the students and families.  I have a total of 16 children on my class list.  This means I have a 1:8 ratio because I also have a lovely co-teacher who is an experienced teacher from the Philippines.  We have two more days to prepare for our young learners before they start school on Sunday.  Say prayers for us!