My Classroom

Here are a few pictures from my classroom.  It is small, but I am making it work. 

 

 Below is the gym.  It was too hot to walk out to the pool.  Carter begins his first P.E. session in the pool next week.  All kids have PE at least twice a week and they do 4 week pool sessions.  There will be three adults in the pool.

 This hallway leads to my classroom.  It is always shiny!  They mop it at least once a day.  Our walls will be decorated soon. 

 I made a tree in my classroom to remind me of home.  I am going to change the leaves as the seasons at home change.  Most of these children do not know about seasons.

 

Things that are different from my school at home:

• I only have 15 students in my classroom.  None of my students are from the U.S.  I have 2 from Canada, 8 from Saudi Arabia, 1 from Lebanon, 1 from India, 1 from Phillipines, 1 from France, and 1 from many countries (his mom is US. and his dad is from Columbia and they have lived everywhere!). 
• Each grade level has a housekeeper.  They clean everything!  They wipe down all desktops and door knobs each day.  They clean the floors, counters, garbage, and recycle bins.  I left a mess in my room and was planning on cleaning it up the next morning, but when I arrived my classroom was already clean and organized!  I feel like the garbage has a sensor because each time something is placed in it Florenda empties it.  Amazing!  I plan on buying this lady a huge gift!
• Classes have 8 specialists. Some specialist they see more than once a week.  Our specialist are: Arabic, Islamic Cultures, PE, Art, and Performing Arts.  I take them to library.  The library is wonderful!  I will take a picture soon!
• Each grade level has a learning support and language support teacher. 
• Each teacher has multiple observations and will be evaluated through out the year.  A bonus will be given for different performance levels.
• Most of my teaching is not stand alone subjects.  We try to integrate as much as possible.
• Collaboration is key to success around here.  The majority of planning must be done with a team and the lesson plans are uploaded to a website. 
• I have duty a few times a week.  Recess, after school and one afternoon recess. 
• Many kids pray at 1:45 in the prayer room.
• It is more exhausting to teach here.  I am not sure what it is, but I am beat at the end of each day.  I know my conditions sound ideal, but expectations are really high.  It is a lot of thinking and learning all new curriculum.  I started Daily 5 so things can feel a little normal. 

Teaching overseas is a wonderful experience!  

First Day of School

 Today was the big day!  We have been building up to this day since March!  I can't believe how well the three of us slept last night considering all of the unknowns for our first day.  (It was tough getting a good picture of the two of them together.

 They caught the bus just a few houses down from us at 7:20!  There are 21 school buses and each bus has an assistant.  Our boys were the only ones on the bus today.  I think most parents brought their kids.  Bryan met the boys at school (by bike) and helped them get to their class.  However, Carter had already made it to his class, so Bryan had to help other kids.  It was a little crazy getting off the bus for many of the kids.

 Our precious kindergartner!  I didn't have time to cry today thinking of everything I had to accomplish.  I am crying now thinking of how much he will grow this coming school year.  He was so excited about his day!
Carter's Point of View: My favorite part was writing.  I drew a slide but never wrote the word slide.  The teacher never told me to write slide but I like writing.  All my friends speak English! 

 I think I felt pretty good when this picture was taken, but about 2 hours later I was almost in tears.  Things should be easy since I only have 14 kids, but the routines and procedures here are so different.  I think about how I used to spend a few hours in a staff meeting going over a handbook of procedures.  I was never given a handbook here, just a bunch of emails and I am expected to have a grasp on everything.  At 9:30 we have Morning Tea, which doesn't involve tea!  It is snack and recess.  The 4 new teachers (me included) went out to the wrong recess area.  The rest of the school were on the fields.  We had know idea about this plan and figured we were to be at the place with playground equipment.  Oops!  We are expected to be glued to our email during the day.  Messages come all the time of things that need to be done.  This is not normal for me!  I never check my email  unless the kids are out of the room.  I had to spend 15 minutes looking up everyone's bus number on an excel sheet.  There is no one for me to call for this help.  I had to let my students draw while I did this task.  Hopefully I can train my assistant to help me with these tasks.  Also, I can only pronounce a few of the names in my room.  It was my first day and I felt a little blue after school, but tomorrow is a new day!  I think I am blue each year on the first day.  It is my least favorite day of the year.  Tomorrow I am going to introduce some familiar routines in the classroom and implement my reading style (Daily 5).  Hopefully that will feel normal!

 Cameron is two doors down from my classroom.  He loves his teacher and thinks she would make a great friend for me! She is also new this year and comes from Billings, Montana.
Cameron's Point of View: My favorite part was having lunch with my mom.  I also like recess but it was short. 

Carter's Classroom

 

Too Cute!

Mrs. Malik is Carter's teacher.  She is also new and has been to all the trainings with me.  I was delighted when he was placed in her class.  She has been International for most of her teaching career and raised her kids in International Schools.   Her children are called Third Culture Kids because they grew up in the International system.  I will talk more about that later.  Carter loves her!  I am so excited for his great school year!

Typical Johnson look!  They get this from their dad!

Day two tomorrow!  I will try and take pictures of my classroom!  Oh, and I will tell you about the third grade room cleaner.  She cleans everything all day long in our rooms and hallway!  Amazing!  I am getting really lazy living here.

Global Citizen

Rebecca's Point of View: I want you to meet some of my new friends. They may look American, but their accents will give them away.

This is my new teaching partner. :)  We are neighbors and will be working closely together.  She is Canadian but has been teaching in China and Korea for about 8 years. There are 6 of us teaching third grade.  We also have an English As Second Language Teacher and a Learning Support Teaching.  We also have 3 teacher assistants that float from room to room. (Lots of grade level support)

 This is my friend that is from the U.K. She has been teaching in Oman for the past few years. 

 These two ladies are lots of fun.  One if from the U.K. the other is from New Zealand.

 Here is most of the new teachers.  We had a party celebrating that we are no longer newbies!  There were over 33 new hires representing 13 nationalities.  Many of us were hired for new positions because the school is growing at a tremendous rate.

We have lots of fun!  Great group of people.

Good Humor!

Being a Global Citizen is part of our mission statement.  We are expected to respect other cultures, religions, and lifestyles.  The teaching staff has over 25 nationalities represented and our community has at least 85.  It is amazing to meet so many people from around the world.  In fact, I am not sure if there is another place that has so many different nationalities coexisting peacefully in one place.  Everyone that lives here has come to learn about the world, so disrespecting other cultures is not a problem.  So far becoming a Global Citizen has been the most rewarding part of living here.  I can't wait to meet my students in 3 days.  I am sure there will be much diversity. 

My New Mode of Transportation

My new wheels!  This is how I will be commuting to work each day.  Notice I am wearing a skirt with leggings!  I take the leggings off when I arrive to school, and then put them on for the trip home.  (The boys are also enjoying my new wheels!) Beep, Beep!

Camel Riding!

Cameron's Point of View: Today we went to the beach.  We went on the water trampoline. There was a camel and pony ride.  There were two ponies and one camel.  Carter and I rode the camel.  The camel was growling.  It had a net around its mouth.  It was a bumpy ride.  Carter and I rode two ponies at the same time.  Carter got the wild pony because his pony liked to run.  The first time I went on the pony without Carter I got the wild one.  The camel had fancy stuff around him.  A lot of people can fit on the camel.  

 This is the grumpy, growling camel!  Do you like his hat?

 Carter's Point of View: I rode the pony 2 times.  I rode the camel 4 times.  I like the camel riding best. 

 We also played on kyaks and paddle boards today.  It was great fun!

Rebecca's Point of View:  Tomorrow will be my first day back to work after a 12 day vacation.  We have had a fantastic week of acclimating to our new community.  We have left twice on the bus to go to IKEA and then the next day we went to the mall.  The mall had many of the stores that I am used to seeing at home: H&M, Bath & Body, Esprit, Jusitce, and Krispy Kreme Donuts!  We were so excited about the donuts!  The malls in Saudi Arabia are quite interesting.  Only men seem to work in the stores.  It was quite cute to see these tall men in the Bath & Body aprons.  Also, there are no fitting rooms in the stores.  You have to buy your clothes and take them home to see if they fit.  The reasoning is that they do not ever want women to be put in a situation where they are unclothed in public.  The malls are also quite large.  They have ice rinks, roller coasters, and water slides. We arrived too early to play on these things, and learned that they stay open late and families usually come at night.  Prayer time happened about 12:30.  We were inside a store and everyone left and the doors were closed.  We were able to get out, but unable to purchase the items we wanted to buy.  The entire mall closed down for about 40 minutes.  Our bus left at 1:00, so we never did get to make the purchase.

I have spent the rest of my vacation next to the pool.  I love the pool!  It has to be one of my favorite places, and I just discovered a path that leads from my school to the pool!  I will be doing this after school most days of the week!

Life here is quite nice.  However, I woke up last night feeling a little sad because I miss my friends, family, and pets.  I especially miss my cat!  He was already to travel, but Saudi Arabia is having a cat food shortage.  All cat food has been pulled because it contains pork products.  Hopefully this issue can be resolved and then he can make the journey.  For now he is living with Steve, Alexa, Hayes, and Noah (Bryan's Brother's Family).  It seems he is having a grand time exploring their gigantic house!  We miss you Sylvester! 

Stay tuned for Bryan's update on playing golf!

A Visitor

Cameron's Point of View: When we came home from Discovery Square we were going to Skype our grandpa and grandma, and then we saw the tiniest gecko we have ever seen! It was trying to Skype our Grandma and Grandpa.  It scared us at first because we thought it was a spider.  We almost slapped it.  I held it.  We let it go on our palm tree in our front yard.  It didn't want to leave.  It stayed on me.  Geckos are really fast and hard to catch.  We have almost caught one before.  Some blend into the outside walls.  They are not dangerous.  They are very nice. Once in Mexico, at the waterslides, I held a baby gecko. They are cute!

Trip Outside of the Walls!

Rebecca's Point of View:  Last night was a restless sleep because of the nerves I was having about my first outing to Jeddah.  I guess I kept thinking about how everyone at home keeps telling me to be careful or just stay behind the walls, but it wasn't that bad! Everyone was friendly and I didn't feel like anyone was staring at me.   I am so proud of myself and I am now ready for the next adventure.  Below is a picture of me leaving the house! (I wore my pajamas underneath! I also wore my Chaco sandals to give it a northwest look!)

 The bus left from our grocery store parking lot at 8 a.m.  It took about 60 minutes and was a really comfortable ride.  The freeway is quite smooth, and Cameron was so happy to see camels on the side of the freeway.  He yelled, "They are one humpers dad!" 
The bus dropped us right in front of Ikea.

 This Ikea felt like I was at home.  All the same items, all the same prices, and all the crazy fun.  The only difference was all the women were wearing black Abayas and the men were wearing whatever they please!  Grrrrr.  We bought some basic items to make our home feel like ours.  It came with many items, but having white linens is just not a good idea for a family with boys. 

I am told that public restrooms for women are only found in the city.  Outside of the city you will only find restrooms for men.  I am not sure what women are supposed to do, maybe squat behind some tumbleweed in an abaya!  That should be interesting.  However, I haven't been in a public restroom that is equipped with toilet paper.  There is a little hose next to each toilet with a kitchen sprayer on the end.  I guess I am supposed to spray myself clean with it!  How am I supposed to dry?  I am unsure of the procedure, so I am now carrying my own toilet paper when we go out in public. It seems the men have toilet paper. 

Safety was a big part of our adventure.  We had to go thru 2 safety checks when coming back to our community.  Everyone's ID was checked and underneath the bus was also checked.  Security is taken very seriously here.  We didn't mind waiting while this was done.  It is nice to know we live in a very safe place. 

Settling In

 Cameron's Point of View: We have been going to the beach.  We also go gecko hunting at night.  Gecko's are really fast and I haven't been able to catch one yet.  We go bowling.  I won bowling at summer camp.  My score was 123.  It was the highest score.  We also go to the pool.  There was a big slide at the pool.  My favorite thing so far has been the slide.  I also want to tell you about my flight.  In Dubai we were really tired and went to sleep on the floor.  I slept with my brother and my mommy.  Our flight was 16 hours long.  My friends are from New Zealand.  There names are Sam, Max, and Zoe. 

 Carter's Point of View: I like going to the beach and playing on the water trampoline.  I also like the green slide.  My team at summer camp was called the Enchanted Wolves.  At camp we built igloos with paper, balls, and balloons.  I got 2nd place in the bowling tournament.  My brother was first. 

Rebecca's Point of View: This week is a holiday so not much is happening with work.  We have been home trying to be lazy and enjoy a slow life at the moment.  Yesterday two men came and cleaned our house.  They scrubbed it from top to bottom, and only charge $8 an hour!  It looks great.  The workers that do house keeping, yard maintenance, and other janitorial services are from Pakistan or the Phillipines.  I am sure other countries are also represented, but it is important to note that they are not from Saudi.  Life is a little easier now that Ramadan is over.  We can drink water in public!  It was really hard not being able to drink in this unbearable heat!  One day I felt so dizzy that I went into the restroom and drank an entire water bottle.  I think it is really dangerous not to be hydrated, especially when you are new to this climate.

Below is a picture of my walking partner. We walk most evenings for an hour, which is about 3 1/2 miles.  Her name is Rebecca and she is from New Zealand.  We have really bonded with this family and they seem to be a good personality match for us.  Rebecca will be teaching grade 1 in the building next to me.  Our school is divided into two buildings with a swimming pool that separates us. It has been quite fun learning about life in New Zealand. 

We have felt we are such boring Americans without an accent!  Everyone has an accent except for us!  However, we are learning that we indeed do have an accent and others enjoy listening to us talk!  Ha! 

Tomorrow is the big day of venturing out into the city.  I will be wearing my Abaya and probably a head scarf.  I am sure it will make me a sweaty mess!   The head scarf is optional, but it seems that most wear one.  We are headed to Ikea and then possibly the mall.  We have a list of items we need.  Our container full of our things is still sitting on the West Coast of the U.S!  They will not release it until I receive my permanent work VISA, which is still a few weeks away!  Hopefully it will all come before November! 

Bryan's Point of View: Have been trying to live up to the house husband role by running in the morning, playing squash at 9am with other house husbands, working out, then spending a few hours in the pool.  Get up the next day and do it all again.  OK, I do make the bed, fold laundry, and sometimes cook meals, but I could get used to this lifestyle!!

Meeting lots of great new families from around the world and enjoy hearing their stories of prior teaching, reason's for leaving their home country, etc.  Like Rebecca said, we don't think we have an accent, but everyone says we do.  Planning on playing golf under the lights tomorrow night, which should be a great time.  This place has an amazing PGA course, but maybe I will warn them that I will be taking out lots of their grass.  Have a fun group of dads that will be playing with me, but like me, are all very sad there is no beer cart - best we can do is a water cart!

Been searching high and low for some city bikes as taking the bus is a bit time consuming.  Shipping to Saudi is VERY expensive and it will cost us just as much to ship bikes as it will to buy the bikes - dang me for not purchasing them while we were back in WA.  Bikes are also pretty expensive here and you can buy a motorcycle for almost the same price.  We will see what I can come up with.  Our shipment won't be here for a while so we need some wheels in the meantime.

Temps are quite high and I start sweating as soon as I walk out the door (no surprise with my sweating issue), but we have heard that the later months are quite pleasant.  We will go to the beach a bit more when it cools down as right now the Red Sea is too warm and not refreshing when it is 106 degrees outside!  We are getting used to it a bit though and everything here is air conditioned, so it is not too big of a deal.  It will be hard to get ourselves out of vacation-mode and actually send the boys to school, send Rebecca to school, and me start my Master's Degree. 

Overall, this place is absolutely amazing and I think that we have hit a "home run" for our first time into international teaching.  The ease and simplicity, and the fact that everything is free, has made it a fairly easy transition for us.  I am looking forward to learning more about this place and also the great people we are here with.

Lessons Learned

Rebecca's Point of View: We have been here a week now and these are a few things I find interesting.
1. We have 3 garbage cans outside. Food scraps, recycle, and garbage. The garbage can is the smallest. Garbage is picked up everyday.
2. Saudi Arabia likes street lights. The entire freeway has lighs about every 20 feet and so does our community. Star gazing is hard to do.
3. Have you ever stuck your arm into a hot oven? That is what it feels like at 2:00 everday around here.
4. The grocery store delivers.
5. We have great medical insurance.
6. The red sea is too warm in the summer.  It is also VERY salty.
7. The sports club is free.
8. All the people I have met from Saudi are nice.
9. All traffic tickets are linked to your bank account. They withdraw the money if you get a ticket. You cannot fight this. All of Saudi have this rule. There are video cameras at most intersections.We are thinking we don't need a car.
10. So far, things are great.

Exploring our Surrondings!

Rebecca's Point of View: We had a great day at the beach on Saturday.  It was a very hot day (107), and the water was too warm but we still had fun.  I guess it is better to enjoy the beach during the winter months.  The sand near the shore was imported from Spain.  I guess they wanted softer sand! The beach has several things to do our in the water. There is a giant iceberg to climb and slide down, several trampolines, and teeter totters. 

Cameron's Point of View: This is Sam.  He is our friend from New Zealand.  He is 9 years old.  We have lots of fun together.

Rebecca's Point of View:  Our grocery store is linked with Safeway.  It is great and has much of the items needed.  I can get creative if I can't find something.  So far I have made tacos, spaghetti, and french toast.  Our main meal is cereal, which is nothing different for us.  I know I am going to miss produce.  They have it here, but it is nothing like the local farms are producing this time of year in Washington.  

Rebecca's Point of  View: Yesterday we set out for the beach, but on our way the bus driver informed us it was a girl's only day.  The first Friday of each month has this rule, so we turned around and went to the pool instead. There was already a group meeting at the pool for lunch and swimming, but I am trying to turn over a new leaf and not participate in every invite we receive, but I am glad we participated in this event!  We spent 5 hours enjoying ourselves in the pool that is free for us to use.  I think we will be spending a lot of time here.  The pool is cooled instead of heated.  It felt so good to be there!  Today we are going to try the beach.  Our weekend is Friday and Saturday.  Friday is the Muslim Holy Day. The reason for the beach rule is to allow Muslim Women the opportunity to swim and uncover. 

I wanted to let you know that I do not have to wear an Abaya in our community.  For the most part I get to dress how I would at home.  I need to be aware of the length of my shorts and have sleeves on my shirts.  I can wear tank tops when at home, but I need to change before I leave.  Not everyone has to respect that rule, but since I am a professional worker of the community I need to dress professionally when I am in public.  I am a little nervous for some of my work clothes.  I think I will have to wear some of the short sleeve sweaters I bought because some of my tops have capped sleeves.  At the pool I can wear any type of swimsuit, but at the beach I should make sure it is a one piece. 

Bryan's Point of View:  2 nights ago I had the chance to jump in a car with a few people who have been here for a while and go to Jeddah to pick up a few things from Saco, the hardware store here in Saudi.  There was 4 of us who went along and it was a great trip.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there on the main highway along the Red Sea coast and the roads are very nice.  We got there at 9:15pm and it was still closed due to Ramadan, so we headed over to the Red Sea Mall.  This place was crazy huge (3 stories of shops) and all of the stores were very nice.  I am not a mall person at all and had shopping leg after 5 minutes, but the couple I was with needed to get a few clothes.  While they were picking up clothes, I walked around and looked at some of the sports stores, which were really nice.

At about 10:45 we headed out of the crazy mall, and now traffic and the community was starting to pick up.  During Ramadan, things don't really start rolling until 10-11pm.  We made our way back over to Saco which was a great store with lots of good things.  Reminded me of a Home Depot/Wal Mart combination, without the grocery part.  They have all the big name brands and you can find almost anything you might need to make life easier.  Managed to pick up a ton of good stuff for the house and spent way to much money. 

Headed back at about midnight and had a safe journey back to the confines of our community.  Was a great trip and I look forward to doing it on our own next time.

Rebecca's Point of View: Hello from Saudi Arabia!  Our family safely arrived after 26 hours of travel and about 5 hours of sleep.  We flew directly to Dubai (14.5 hours), which is the fanciest airport we have ever seen!  There is so much money in Dubai, so they didn't hold back when designing the airport.  We then flew direct to Jeddah.  I was wondering when I should put on my Abaya, but once I realized we were the only Americans I felt the need to go change.  I felt so much more comfortable blending in with everyone else.  .

 I would suggest flying Emrites Airlines if you ever get a chance.  Especially if you have kids.  They gave the boys stuffed travel monsters, blankets, activity books, and special kid meals.  They also spoiled the adults with blankets, socks, a menu of food choices, pizza at midnight, and a constant check to see if everyone was comfortable.  I have never traveled for that length of time and would wear compression socks if I were to do it again.  My feet were so swollen that it hurt!  I should have tried to get up every hour and walk, but that was hard since Carter wanted to sleep on me.  We also had a selection of 1500 movies!  All 4 of us were content watching our own movie. 

We arrived at the Jeddah airport and were met by a government representative.  He was great!  He took us to the front of the line (which made many unhappy).  We had to get finger printed and then the custom's worker made us eat dates.  Dates are a common snack and three dates are consumed before the Ramadan fast begins each day at sunrise.  It was an odd experience, but I was doing whatever needed to get out of the airport.  No one was managing the luggage area, so we took our stuff and left the airport without further security.  None of our luggage was inspected, which was surprising! 

I have spent the last few days meeting all the new people that will be working in the school.  The school here is growing at a fast rate.  4 years ago there were 250 kids k-12 and now there are 1200!  Many new teachers have been hired to fill all of these classrooms.  Many of these teachers have come from other International schools and have heard great things about working for this school.  My eyes were watery when I entered the school.  It is everything a school should be!  It is so kid friendly.  The library was amazing!  There is an 8 lane pool that separates the k-2 building from the 3-5 building.  The students get 3 different water units during the school year.  The gym was wonderful and it had a stage for the drama class!  Music and drama are built together.  The teacher for this class is from South Africa and he has a background in Opera!  My name is already on my classroom door!  There are 6 third grade teachers and 4 of us our new!  All of our classrooms are together.  My room is only 4 years old and they were painting it!  It looks beautiful, but very small.  It is about 1/2 the size of the classroom back at home, but I will also have 1/2 the students.  Right next to my classroom is a large room that is shared by all third grade teachers.  I can't wait to get in there andnest!

Our home is quite large.  We have a lot of open space and my calves are tired from the stairs.  We have been doing a lot of walking around the house while we unpack.  I am trying to get the energy to mop because the floors are a little dusty.  I think I might call a maid service because it will take me a few hours. 

It is Ramadan here for another week.  This is a holiday that is celebrated by Muslims all over the world.  This country is the only country that is 100% Muslim and it is also the place where other Muslims must pilgrimage too once in a lifetime.  Mecca is a religious city that is closed to non-Muslims.  It is about 3 hours away and is the place where many Muslims are praying during Ramadan.  During Ramadan Muslims do not eat, drink, smoke, or chew gum from sun up to sun down. Once the sun goes down they party (eat) until about 3 in the morning.  Most stores are closed during the day during Ramadan, but open at sundown. 

The best part of being here is meeting so many people from around the world.  I already feel like we have made some lifelong friends.  Our section of the neighborhood is brand new, so everyone next to us is brand new.  Most of the house are still empty, but right next to us is a couple from Scotland.  A few houses down is a couple from New Zealand.  They have 3 children, so our boys have made friends already.  I love learning about where they have lived and what has brought them to international teaching.  Most have taught in several International schools all around the world.  

Today will be our first beach day.  We are waiting for Bryan and Cameron to wake up.  We all seem to be in a different place on this 10 hour time difference.  I will try to get pictures and post them soon. 

 
Carter's Point of View: My favorite thing is the Sport's Club because there is a bowling alley, climbing wall and a swimming pool.  I also like our house and my bedroom is my favorite place. 

Our New HOme

I am having troubles posting to the blog.  So this is another check to see if it will happen. Here are pictures of our new home.