The School.

The school, or as we like to call it the learning palace, located about 20 minutes away from us headed out of town.  We first made it out there about a week after we arrived.  As the taxi pulled up, both of us started laughing and then fell silent in disbelief.  The stark contrast between the school and its surroundings is alternately hilarious and offensive.  We had seen photos of it online, but had, of course, assumed they were computer generated lies to attract both students and teachers.  Not once did we predict it would be as advertised.  And, in a way, we were right.

Despite it's pristine exterior, the school is still very much under construction.  We've got our money on it staying that way through the bulk of the school year.  All through orientation, we've been dodging scaffolding, yelling over the sound of hammers and drills and praying that at least the noise abates before kiddos arrive tomorrow.

Our classrooms...don't exist.  We're trying this thing called forced collaboration cooperative work spaces where teachers share an office and rotate classrooms.  Our principal rolled out this gem to the high school staff Wednesday.  It wasn't such a blow for us.  We had had dinner with him a week or two before so knew this was coming.  For some of the older guys though...ooof.  It's a fantastic idea, but less ideal when you have a semi-hostile (confused?) staff of guys who have never had to collaborate (possibly in their lives) and the three days you have to implement this huge change are also filled with lesson planning and meetings that last for hours.  The result so far is that there has been a lot of mutual grumbling and very little productive action around how we will make this work. (again, old men who have never collaborated).   Another part of what has made the collaboration difficult is we still don't have room assignments (!) so we're not really sure who we should be talking to.  I mentioned school starts tomorrow, yes?  No classrooms, no idea about what kind of technology we'll have access to, and as of Sunday morning, no access to copy machines for backup plans in case technology fails (which it will because this is how all lesson plans that incorporate technology work). 

Chandelier in our foyer

You can't tell the size of these bouquet from the picture but that arrangement is at least 3-4 feet tall

 We're taking all this in stride through a combination of denial, hard exercise, and hyper management of the details that we do have control over.  We have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow in any of our classes, and, aside from having about 12 hours worth of games and getting to know you activities, we're kind of doubting the utility of planning. There are just too many unknowns.  But really, what's the start of a school year if not chaos?

The tone of this post may read a bit darker than others, but it's just soooo easy to be sarcastic about this stuff.  There are definitely some great things about the school and we (despite everything you have just read) still feel like we made a fantastic choice in coming here.  It's a growing school, which was what we wanted to be a part of.  The admin is receptive to our ideas and eager for everyone to be involved.  The teachers are wonderful - experienced, deliberate, and caring.  Working with such an seasoned staff, we will have lots of chances to learn and grow as teachers - and we'll make some good friends in the process. We have (we're pretty sure) total freedom with our curricular choices, and people keep telling us we have some of the best students possible. Many of our colleagues have been in the international school scene for 10+ years, so we're inclined to believe them.

While we're feeling a bit out of our element right now, we've never been a part of a school that runs smoothly (these don't exist), and in the next couple of months, we'll get the hang of it.

Also, our cat continues to be wonderful. So we've got that going for us.

 

Update:  We wrote the above the night before we began teaching and are only just now putting it up.  The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of wonderful experiences, crazed lesson planing and confusion.  It's been great and difficult and we're still glad we're here.