My Dream Classroom

Starting off with a reminder: I'm a writing teacher at a school in the Middle East. I teach writing full time, to about 200 students. (But only 20 at a time).

There's been some changes at my school recently. I could bore you with all the set up of what our (K-12) school is like, but I don't want to be boring :)

Some of our classrooms are becoming empty for next year-actually, almost a whole floor is emptying out. And I've been offered the chance to move into a new classroom. My current classroom is nice. I like it, but it is small.  Actually, it's too small to have my grade 7s in it because they take up too much space.

So I was offered a new room.

Not just any new room. The best room. I'm pretty sure it's the biggest room in the entire school. It has a Smart Board, a projector, and basically enough space for me to put all my students in one area, and still have another area to do something else with (I have no idea what though!)

I've also been told to order anything I want for the room.

I get to plan my dream classroom.

And that's where my problem starts.

Day One!

Happy NaNo!

It's November 1st, which means fingers are now busy around the world.


This is what my classroom door looked like as of this morning:

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tomorrow it begins!

My favourite time of the year is finally here.  It's time for soccer!

I've been coaching soccer in Kuwait for the past five years. It takes over my life, but only because I love it so much.  I love teaching my kids all the things that all of my soccer coaches have taught me over the 15 years that I played (unfortunately, I haven't been able to join soccer in Kuwait and had to retire when I moved here six years ago).

It's an amazing feeling.  And I think I'm pretty good at it.  I've been lucky with the girls I've coached since I've been here.  They've all been amazing (even the ones I have to kick out of practice every once in a while).  I haven't been able to forget a single one.

I've had other coaches ask me why my girls work so hard for me.  Honestly, I have no idea.  I really don't.  I have high expectations and push them hard.  I make them run, I make them do push ups, I make them pass the ball until their feet fall off.  But they come back.

And I love them for it.

This is my favourite time of the year.  It's also the most stressful. It's not easy being a coach and feeling the pressure.  Each year it feels like there's a little bit more--part of it I put on myself, the rest comes from others.

But my girls are amazing. They are worth the stress and the early mornings and late nights and the weekends I give up.  So my writing might suffer for the next few weeks, my grading might not get done as fast.  But I don't care.  It's worth making sacrifices for my girls.

So that's my ramble about how excited I am for tryouts tomorrow (who knows who I'll get!)  Are any of you coaches?

Happy Weekend!

It's the weekend!  At least it is over here, in Kuwait. (We have a Friday/Saturday weekend).

And here are some of my favourite things from the past week.  All involve my students and no students were harmed in the making of these quotes--but sometimes just barely ;)


From a student's assignment:

I ran fast like there were monkeys shooting at me.

A conversation with a student:
On a Thursday: 
Student: Miss, your story about the witch.  Is it finished yet?
Me: Yes, but I'm revising.
Student: Ok, but let me read it when it's done.

On a Sunday
Student: Miss, are you done revising yet?  Can I read your story?
Me: Nope, still working on it.
Student: What?  How long does it take?
Me: Months.
Student: But I couldn't even wait a weekend!


Brainstorming with a Student

Student: Miss, I can't come up with something to write about.
Me: Well, you could try some realistic fiction.  Like what if the school burned down or...
Student: Yes!  Furiously types away.

And talking about a kid's story

Student: Miss, I have a character named Kelly in my story.
Me: Really?
Student: Yup, and she's poor. (and then she stuck her tongue out at me).


I love my job.

Small Space, Big Memory

Whenever I come back to Canada, my old room waits for me.  It's not the room I grew up in, since my family moved around a few times, but it's the room where I spent my last year and half of high school, and all of university.

It's also the place most of my stuff ended up.

I think to really get a picture of what this is like, I need to describe my room.  My room is tiny.  Right now, I'm currently sitting on the floor next to my bed.  My feet are almost touching the other wall.  This is the furthest point from me.

In other words, my room is the size of some walk in closets.

But it's my room and my mom (being ever creative) found a way to make it work.  It involved a custom made bed (that I juuuuuusssst fit on) with drawers underneath, shelves above and extra shelving in the closet.

Today I decided it was time to clean out all my stuff (seeing as my suitcase is parked in the living room because there's no room for my stuff).  And I have a lot of stuff.  And even more memories.

I've come across a ton of stuff that I'd forgotten I'd had and I wanted to write about some of them.

Some of the things I've found include my Irish dancing shoes from that time I took Irish dancing for just a few months, my large collection of Disney VHS tapes, pictures of anime characters--from when I was obsessed with all things animes, friendship necklaces (that are only half a necklace and I can't even remember who has the other half), I've got soccer equipment, track equipment, things from Egypt and there is so much more.

But the best thing I discovered while I was digging through my bedroom was something I must have done when I was in grade 3.

And I'll need to back up to explain that a bit.

When I was in grade 3, my sister, who has Spina Bifida, was in the hospital for basically the whole year.  I don't really remember why, but it was obviously related to having Spina Bifida.  Well apparently, while that was going on I got a bunch of my friends to draw her pictures and sent her a whole folder of stuff.  It included a letter which went exactly like this:

To nicole from Kelly-Anne (this was when I was obsessed with using my whole first name)

I hope you get well soon
I miss you relly much (apparently I didn't miss her relly much)
roses are red
villtits are Blue
sugar is sweet
so are you.
I hope you come home soon. When they's noting to do I thank of you and wonder how you are.  I hope I see you soon. Love Kelly-Anne

I can't believe I still have this, I don't even know how it showed up in my room.  But it's nice to be able to look back.

I also found my journals from when I was in grade one.  I can barely decipher the things I wrote.  Maybe I'll share them some other time.  But I have to give credit to those primary teachers, who can somehow decipher even the worst kid's writing. 


Question for you guys: ever come across something about yourself that just made you go awwww?