Presenting...

After a week's worth of hard work, sweat and tears... my room has finally come together.  When I first entered my room, it was bare, the desks were in rows, the shelves were dusty, and seemed lifeless with little color and personality. 

Before



Those of you who know me too well, know that it is hard for me to teach in a space that doesn't reflect organization, comfort and color.  After hours of printing, laminating, organization and planning, I have ended up with a classroom that welcomed my students and families for a Meet and Greet this morning.

I officially feel ready to greet my students tomorrow morning when they come into school at 8:15am!  Of course, Chad was a trooper, helping me color, organize, put out materials, etc...  I couldn't have completed it without this little munchkin.

My Handsome Helper



The Meet and Greet went really well, about 10 of my 14 families came today.  I asked my assistant Hanan to help me pronounce names because often, I couldn't really understand how the parents were pronouncing them either.  Ugh.  It is going to be a learning curve going from names like Jack, Dylan, Kate to Mahdi, Iyad, El Ghali, Nour Nejma...  I find myself practicing the pronunciation otherwise these kids our going to have English Arabic and French names.  Or, I should just start numbering them...

The parents have been very kind, given me a lot of information about their children and travels.  I have a lot of children who traveled world wide this summer and have parents from two separate countries.  One of my students speaks English, German, French and a little Arabic... I think I will dub her as my personal translator--- send her to the copy room to speak to the copy guys in Arabic so they understand what I am asking for. 

Another student greeted me with the traditional double cheek French kiss.  This was a little interesting for me because it is an accepted greeting here in Morocco and it is incredibly common to see people greet each other in that manner.  It was my first and Mathilde introduced me into that tradition today.

I mentioned the copy center above.  The idea is great, but not when most of the teachers either speak English or French and the order sheets are in English but the copy guys speak mostly Arabic with very little understanding of English and French.  I have decided to send my copies via email with Google translate into Arabic...  It has seemed to work so far, but we shall see.  I could just be the laughing stock up in the copy room when they receive my emails.

I have been completely blessed with a laid back, giving, fun teaching partner Danielle.  She has a big heart, but I absolutely love the simplicity and how open she is to new ideas.  Between the two of us, we have lesson plans for the entire year, a bank of wonderful learning activities and 14 students a piece.  We are off to a great start!

Chad starts KG3 tomorrow with Ms. Anderson and Mrs. Romans, both of which we know well from living in the apartment complex together and all being new expats to ASM.  The familiar faces will help with the transition.  I am sure I will have gobs of photos to post tomorrow of his cute little face and I will be begging his teachers for photo opportunities with them.

We are only rolling into Tuesday, but I am excited for this coming Friday which means we will have rooftop relaxation and a weekend hopefully filled with souks and some purchases I will be able to share with you. 

Annie B, Erin, Katie, Annie A, Jill, Lexie, Lexi, Amy

  Hope all of you enjoyed your long weekend.  Best wishes to all of my teacher friends at home! 

xo

Lexie