Former Expat Teacher Acclimating to the American Way!

I find myself daydreaming of America. In spite of her current situation,  there are people there who I miss and will enjoy spending time with more than I would like staying away from the craziness. Im from a town of 30,000 people. I want to go and pick fruit/vegetables with my aunt and grandmother. I want to sit on back porches enjoying wine/tea/cocktails/grilled food and music. I want to drive on streets that lack crazy drivers and beeping horns. I want to let my windows down in a car that isn't so compact that I feel like Im driving a go-cart. I want to go to any store with the confidence that what I am looking for will be there and it wont cost me triple what it is really worth. I want to feel like I would get help in public if there were some emergency that warranted stranger intervention (God forbid). I want a buffet that doesn't cost 100 dollars. I want to hear rain and participate in layering my clothes without burning up. I want to wear shorts without feeling naked. ...

I never realized how much I would love seeing new places. I mean, I had an idea and its not like this summer is my first time traveling but it was just made more evident just because of how beautiful this world is. To finally experience it. In one word-amazing. The air, the people, the atmosphere. Nothing compares. Thank God I no longer have a fear of flying. I still go to sleep if its more than a few hours but if I have to stay awake, no heart palpitations. Im going to update my list of places I want to visit because I have places to add and I have some repeats thanks to that cruise (smh). In the meantime, I will be finishing my book,  The Millionaire Teacher , and Im planning on budgeting so that I can continue to travel in some capacity.

I refreshed a couple times thinking "surely Dec 2015 isn't the last time Ive posted!". Seems that every year I seem to suck a little more at keeping track. Honestly, though, the longer you stay in a place, the less there is to write about. Unless you're willing to part ways with your dirhams I guess,lol. This year? This year was great in terms of work. Parents participated. Kids worked well and I even had a small group of readers in KG1!!!  The Arabic teachers were on board with things we have been trying to initiate for years and we got an amazing score at our school from the powers that be. It made me think about how a single person or a small group works to make change...how much does that change affect the bigger picture? I won't go into my conclusion because that will change the tone of my entire post. Let's just stick with the fact that being able to see change in our school is always a pleasure. I've already convinced myself that when I  blink ...

I've not taught long enough to be burned out. Honestly, I hope it never comes to that point. I love what I do, I am adamant on the fact that the children need to see someone who they can relate to-someone who looks like them. While we all want to sing Kumbaya and people want us to "all be the same", that really does a disservice to the children who are all unique and different. I'd be blind not to see that leaving a system so many teachers are growing to despise may have a lot to do with me not tuckering out yet. I taught for two years at home before coming here so Im 7 years in and working on year 8 now. I have days where I feel guilty for not being at home. But the truth is that I need to take care of myself so that I can take care of those little ones that I hold dear to my heart. Don't get me wrong. I hold these little ones dear to my heart as well. I keep their pictures. We laugh and play together. It's something so sweet when there are students I ca...

It's been a semester of school and I haven't come here once. Shame on me! Guess Ill do an overview of the year thus far. I'm back in KG1. The place most teachers cringe at because they come.in.CRAZY! screaming for mom, seriously believing we are there to kill them-no joke.  But this year was a bit different. The parents came in speaking more English and the children were a bit odd. And I mean that in the best way possible. Yeah, we had some cryers and others who weren't quite sure about this place mom just brought them to without explaining to them that it wasn't a death sentence,lol. They actually went to centers and used the material. I was astonished and proud and excited. It was literally a joy to watch. While other classes were still setting items out on the tables, our kids were wandering through the classroom, talking to each other, using the centers like we had taught them what to do! The only problem with that is when I would prefer for them to stay at the...

Its been forever, I know. It's a wonder I've updated for this long. Life gets monotonous and there is nothing to post aside from a few complaints or surprises.  The (not so) recent move was, at first, a minor irritant and a reason to spend money I would have preferred to keep in my pocket. It turned out to fulfill my secret wishes though and I am so happy that we were able to  had to move! Basically, we lost a room. Well, we also lost half of what was already a small kitchen but it is open so we have a bar. We were also losing storage space and I spent months mentally preparing for this  change. Funny because I toyed with, even romanticizing, the idea of having a smaller space when I was convinced we were going to move to South Korea or Shanghai. In real life, I was walking from room to room, trying to decide what wasn't going to make the cut and it was driving me CRAZY! Some things were an easy choice. Other things, not so much. It was a bit cathartic at times and n...

I finished a small group activity with some children, it was really informal. After calling some children I really wanted to work with, I began to call others and some just showed up to the party. Unless the group is just too large you can join in as you like when it's something like this. Shaykha sat down and I was sure she would breeze through, become bored, and move along to another center. It was counting out manips on a 20 grid paper because they'd been having problems adding without recounting what they already had in front of them. To my surprise, most of the children who played asked to play again and Shaykha made sure to let me know just how she felt about it when the game was over. "why-ed haloo, wheyyyyyy-ed haloo." Basically, it was very nice. I laughed and told her I was glad that she liked it and we could play it again another day. Now that I think about it, its funny how something so simple can catch their attention. Other times, I can laminate and c...