I have been in Kuwait over just a month. I am still loving it. School is very rough the students are very different then I expected so I need to learn how best to help them be better. They are talkative and don't stop talking. I am told that the people of Kuwait love to talk so it is a whole culture thing.  I have not felt healthy since I arrived in Kuwait, the last couple of days have been better I started talking Airborne twice a day, it seems to be helping. I have also not eaten a lot of foreign (to me) food. Hoping to ease my way into all the new fun stuff available to me.

I have decided for all my teacher friends (and everyone else who might be interested) I would tell you what my typical day is like, it is quiet different from the states yet other ways very similar. (The school week is Sunday through Thursday and Friday is the Sabbath.) I usually arrive at the school between 6:30 and 7:00 (normal for me) the weird thing is that I have seen students at school as early as 6:15; supervision doesn't start until 7:15. 7:15 is 1st recess.We are on a 6 day cycle. The students have Arabic classes everyday. The also have religion and PE that trade back and forth during the 6 day cycle so they get 3 days of PE and on the 6th day in the cycle I have an additional Religion class so the students have 4 Religion classes.
The students start to come in about 7:40 and we have our 1st block, 2nd block is from 8:30 to 9:15, 3rd block is 9:15 to 10:00. Twice during the 6 day cycle my students have music during 3rd block. In January that will change and they will take Art. 10:00 to 10:30 is 2nd recess. During this time the students choose they can eat if they want or just play. Many students eat part of their lunch at this time an then go play. 4th block is from 10:30 to 11:15, 5th block is from 11:15 to 12:00 and this is when my students have their Arabic class. For my grade level this is our CMT Common Meeting Time. 2 to 3 times in the 6 day cycle we have training on those days or meet as a group to discuss what we are teaching. 6th block is 12:00 to 12:45 and then 3rd recess is from 12:45 to 1:15. Most students eat the rest of their lunch and then go play. The students play soccer every recess and it amazes me (hoping to post a pictures this coming week since this week I am off for the Eid holiday)they are so good and the other things is it is HOT. They are out their playing and I am a baby and try to decide if I am hungry enough to walk in the heat to get me something from the Canteen (Where they eat and can buy food). 1:15 to 2:00 is 7th block my students have either PE or Religion. I try to take a lunch most days but the last week I didn't do so great with that. The food in the Canteen is pretty reasonable priced. I can get salad's, pizza, chicken burgers and some delicious bread that is cooked in a brick oven with cheese in the middle (I can finally pronounce what it is called but no idea how to spell it). 2:00 to 2:30 is Homeroom, we finish up and I read a story to my students. We have been reading Geronimo Stilton and they are loving it. Our first trip to the library 8 students checked out Geronimo books. I'll need to get something new next time to see if I can get them interested in other books. Monday from 3:00 to 4:00 we have New staff training. This will be finished in early November. We have weekly faculty meetings/training's on Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:00 as far as I know this is all year. We will also have PD Professionally Development days through the year. This is where the students will have school half day and then we have the rest of the day for PD.

Every Thursday morning we line up outside and get any school announcements we need and sing the National Anthem.

It has been very nice to have the built in Prep times everyday. I am not working the late hours and all weekend like I use to. It is kind of nice. Teaching here is very different, there are no text books. There are some old Teacher books that can be used as resources. Actually Kuwait studies does have a text book & Workbook. But everything else is based off of 6 units that we teach throughout the year and we are asking questions and guiding the students to find the answers. So we have a Unit of Inquiry and this is where we teach Literacy, Language arts, Social Studies (In addition to Kuwait Studies), we try to get Math in if possible. We do have a Math block and we try to ask questions and help the students find the answer. I love that the students are needing to look and find the answers. I have a hard time asking open ended questions that help guide them and help them looking. So I have been doing lots of research and trying to get better at that. I feel like this is my first year teaching again. The students are so different from what I am use to, a different grade level and a broad guidance for teaching. I do have a phenomenal support system. There are 4 teachers that were her last year and 3 of us newbies. So they other 4 teachers are great to give ideas, suggestions or actual activities. I have also started meeting with April (another newbie) and we have worked together bounce ideas of each other, sounding boards and sharing resources we find. I am definitely still trying to find my way and worry about if I am teaching my students what they need to know.

I am hoping to have my furniture put together this break and get some pictures of my apartment up. No guarantees cause my computer has been having issue after issue and I am going to try to take it somewhat easy over this break. I plan to go into the school for a day to a day and a half tops. (There is still a ton of organizing I need to do feel settled in my classroom) Then I have the same at my apartment. I got my reimbursement so I have bought some furniture. It'll take time to get everything I want and money. But I have gotten a coffee table and2 side tables and a shelf for my kitchen. I still want some shelves for my bathroom possibly a type of broom closet or something to hang them on the wall so they are out of the way. We'll see, my sister gave me an idea for a wall decoration that would be of minimal cost and it has kind of grown with a couple of other ideas I have had, you'll have to wait and see for it.

I haven't done a whole lot, but then again I am constantly busy. I had dinner with my friend April her husband and baby the other day. I went to an AWARE dinner they other day this is kind of a club for Expats to have a common get together and learn about each other and the country we live in. I am kind of interested in the Arabic classes and the cooking classes so we'll see where that goes.
My laptop..... I am so frustrating at first I couldn't download Silverlight and Flash player. Final got that fixed and got my VPN. Netflix worked once and hasn't worked again. I went and bough a portable cd/dvd drive and I can't get it to work either. Frustrating is not even a strong enough word for how I feel about it right now. It is also a pain cause I have to ask for help cause I am pretty clueless about computers. I feel bad asking cause it has been such a pain. I am also concerned about taking it in to be worked on, cause there is concern that if I get someone who is not totally honest they could put something on my computer that would allow them access to my camera and computer soooooooooo.......... what's a poor girl to do. We'll see how it all works out.

I almost forgot we had Back to School night last week. It was very interesting I only had 5 students come. I understand that that is about an average number. So Grade 4 had a bet going on that the teacher with the most students attend would buy the teacher with the least amount of students a coffee (Hot Chocolate for me) April had 14 or 15 students show and 3 of us had only 5. I actually tied to win something I never win. I am use to having more students come but hey I got some planning done.

I really do hope to get more regular at the up dates. I'll keep trying hopefully I'll get better at this.
Love you all, Take Care