Keeping TAAB (Tiffany, Asa, Anais, Brian): Week 1 and DONE!

I've actually been in school for 3 weeks, but this is the first week with students. All new teachers started school the week before returning teachers came. I was presently surprised to see that I was 1 of 2 African American teachers hired this year. There are about 20 new teachers (not too unusual for an international school), but only 2 blacks? The other teacher is from Houston, Texas. I swear I think people only recruit from Atlanta and Houston. lol. We had almost no time to work in our classrooms as we were in training just about every day. The school I teach at is an IB (International Baccalaureate) School and they just received full accreditation for their DP (diploma program- grades 11 and 12). This year they will focus on MYP (middle years program- grades 6-10) and I have the honor of teaching both 8th grade science and 10th grade biology. The school is divided into 4 buildings on one campus. The campus is HUGE. There is a KG school, primary years school, boys school, and girls school. The KG school and PYP (primary years program) are both mixed gender, so both boys and girls are in the same class, but once students reach grade 5 they are separated (this is a cultural thing here). Once girls reach a certain age (around 5th grade) they need to be separated. Fifth grade is still considered elementary (PYP) and still fall under PYP guidelines, but they are just "housed" in the other building and have their own "wing" to keep them separate from the older kids.

There are several administrators at my school and as someone has said, it's a bit top heavy, that at times you're not sure who to go to or who to listen to, but I'm sure I'll figure it out in time. Unlike my classes in the US, I have to teach several subjects and in both the boys and girls school, so at times I find myself driving (did I say my campus is HUGE) from one building to the next to catch my class before it starts (none of the buildings are connected). My son goes to the primary school and my daughter goes to KG school so I literally find myself in all 4 buildings almost on a daily basis.

Teaching in the UAE is definitely something to get use to. Because the school has a newly accredited diploma program there has been several schedule changes, almost daily, to accommodate the new requirements for graduation. I thought this was crazy, but apparently this is nothing new here. Most of my classes have been easy to adjust to, but one class (my my my) is extremely difficult (please pray for my students). They haven't realized that I can be that cray crazy black girl from America who refuses to let her students get away with foolishness, but as Kevin Hart has said, "They gone learn today!".

On another note, (yes I digress). You may know that I decided to go the private school route since my work visa had not gotten processed, but if you didn't, now you do. Why is it that on the 7th day of my first official week of school I get an email from my recruiter stating that i have cleared security and that if I still want to teach in the government school I should be able to report next week. REALLY? I have already registered my children for school, paid fees, purchased uniforms, decorated my classroom (well, ok, the nannies helped too) and now you tell me that I can come work with you. Honestly, after thinking about my most difficult class I seriously thought about calling them, but I'm not quitter (at least not behind a difficult class). So... I'll give it a couple more weeks and see how things go.

Below is our week one dress attire. Because I work in the boys school most of the time I have to have long skirts or pants, shirts that pass my elbow and my neck line should be covered. Those of you that know me know that I am NOT a skirt/dress person, but with the heat here a skirt is much cooler than pants.