I find myself slowly realizing that I have no idea how to teach 1st graders with limited english ability. And I'm freaking out about it, but i must keep my cool and act like I know what I'm doing, because that is what all the other teachers are doing. But....back to the school....
The staff is composed of people from many different backgrounds. Many of the directors and teacher are Turkish, and some are also Albanian. The students are composed likewise: mostly Turkish, and then a few from Albania and Italy and the rest from other places. Unfortunately 2 of the teachers from America backed out at the last minute, so Mr. Jeff (the primary principal) has to teach 3rd grade as well as performing his duties as a principal. But I love Jeff! He is so helpful, and understanding.
I was told they have limited resources, and holy mama....limited resources. I was given a small stack of books to use for my grade level, an active board (which didn't work until 2 days after school started,) 14 desks and chairs, one cabinet, and 5 small bulletin boards. I quickly made my way to the Kancellari and purchased some markers, tape, glue, scissors, and tag board. so much tag board. I also made a trip to Carrfur and found CRAYONS! so I bought some for each student. Originally we had one very slow copier, but now we are renting one that works wonderfully!
The first day was a bit chaotic mostly because the new teachers not understand what was happening, and there were so many new teachers. I spent most of my day just playing games and going over rules and procedures with the kids. The second half of the day was fantastic! and my second day was even better! I love my kids and as long as I constantly change the activity they are good to go! I have to keep yelling at them to speak in English. I told them Miss Tiara is very happy when you speak english in her classroom. Today (second day) we started practicing basic conversational skills and I got them to all say hello, what is your name, and my name is.... They did a fantastic job, so tomorrow we are going to practice asking "How are You?"
We technically don't have a morning meeting time, but I'm just going to make the first 20 minutes of my first English class a meeting/calendar time, because the students need to learn these social skills as much as they need to learn how to read. Also, we don't have a general school set of rules or behavior system, so I've partially adopted responsive classroom, but I don't even know how a student would react if I told them to take a break. I showed them the take a break area today, but I feel like they don't really understand it with their limited english. Sigh, thank god I have such a good behaving class.
I find that I'm exhausted by the time I leave at 4:15ish. But I expected to be. I've been forcing myself to get there at like 7:30 even though we technically don't have to be there until 8. How can teachers work those minimal hours??? Though I haven't yet had a prep period, because we are still waiting for a 5th grade teacher to show up, so the music teacher is currently teaching them. Yes, the school is quite chaotic. Also, I haven't had coffee in over a week because of my stomach issues. Miss Tiara loves and needs her coffee!
That is all for now folks, but below you will find some pictures of my classroom!!! :D
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| We filled out our rules together on day 2. This is my rules board. |
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| all done, materials needed, alphabet and numbers |
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| Calendar area |
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| Students desk, my desk, and now working smart board! Also notice the tape on the ground. This is me making a circle for my students because they do not know how...yet |
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