Life at school

I have now been the teacher of  Year 2 Gold for over 4 weeks.

My classroom is up the stairs on the left. I have nearly fallen down those steps so many times  when the monkeys decide to jump from the trees to the roof over the top of my head!

My first task was to transform a fairly bare room into an exciting and stimulating classroom. It has taken time because resources are quite scarce and you have to know where to find them. I have now discovered where some of the things are hidden so my classroom is now looking more like a Miss Durrant classroom should.

It has amazed me how children are the same where ever you are in the world. The children are not the sit and listen attentive African children that you may imagine. My class is full of characters some more chatty than others! My job would be dull if they weren’t a bit of a challenge sometimes though!  I don’t have a thinking chair anymore but a tower that they move down  and if they reach the bottom  where the dragon lives they have to go and see the dragon (my head of department!).

Yr 2 Gold before the Emma treatment!

Now it's getting there!

 I have actually been thankful to the call to prayer that acts as a great alarm clock when I have to get up at 5.45 as school starts at 7.50. It still doesn’t seem quite right that I start work at a time with a 7 in it but it is lovely finishing at 2pm in the afternoon.  I have a short walk along a dusty road normally in the sunshine but we have had 2 mornings when it has decided to thunder and lightening just as we have left the flats. We arrived at school looking like drowned rats as the rain wasn’t just a drizzle but a torrential down pour.  The good thing is that the rain has only lasted for about 45 minutes at a time so far and when the sun comes out you dry out pretty quickly. 

The playground.......sorry I'm not allowed to put pictures of the kids on.

The Jungle Gym! but actually the children use the trees as a climbing frame most of the time.

My extra class member!

My lessons have had to be more exciting than monkeys sitting at the window and tightrope walking along the wires just outside my classroom, torrential rain (baring in mind my classroom is on the top floor and has a tin roof) and  cockroaches  running across the floor but I think they have listened some of the time! I am really loving teaching here and enjoying the challenge of delivering lessons in more imaginative ways to get round the lack of resources. It has made me realise how much I used my interactive whiteboard in England. My artistic skills are definitely coming in handy.

I hope that gives you a bit of an idea what it is like in school. But it's not all work work work.............. ( I thought there should be at least one picture of me to prove that I am actually here!)

Our evening hand out........ with mojito!

Our local transport!