The First Three Weeks..

My last posting left you all waiting for news of my class as my classroom was set up ready for the children to start on the Sunday.
I started to write this blog at the end of the first week, however, I was finding it rather difficult to find positive things to write as I really struggled. It is now the end of the third week with the children and while the journey to now has been as far from rosy as you may expect it to have been, it is getting better. So, starting from the beginning of the first week, it had been decided that the children would come in through a staggered intake. So, in theory, the first 6 children on the register would come into school on the Sunday which was the first day at school, then the next 6 children and so on until I had all of the children in my class in on the Thursday. However, I was told to expect any child and every child because they 'just turn up when they want'. I went into school on the Sunday with the rest of the staff full of anticipation, fear, excitement and I suppose, just every emotion imaginable!!
The first child to come through my door was a little girl (obviously I cant disclose names or anything on here) She came straight into the classroom without a backward glance and headed for the play dough. It quickly transpired that she spoke English pretty well, so I was rather pleased about that. The next child was a little boy who hid behind his mum and wouldn't even look at me (clearly I was making a good first impression!) I tried every trick in the book to get him to come away from his mum and come and join in, but he was having none of it. Mum stayed for a little while to get him settled and he eventually told her to go. The next two children, a girl and a boy (not related), were both screaming. Before they even got through the door. I was like.. oh, my, word!! The nanny stayed with the little girl and the mum with the boy. Here in Qatar, it is very common that in the rich families, each child has a nanny that looks after them. You very rarely see the parents and it is the nanny that you build the rapport with and feed back any concerns and messages too. I then got two more boys, and two more girls. One of the little boys came in with a very bemused expression on his face and just sort of stood in the corner for the first hour looking at everything and the other one was tearful, but not screaming like the other children had been. The two girls, one came in and settled herself in like she had always been there and the other one clung to the nanny for dear life! It was like I was about to kidnap her or something!!! Thank GOD for my TA - she was an absolute star and she speaks Arabic, so she was able to talk to the children and help me with words to talk to the children and enable me to learn some basic words so that the children could tell me things that they wanted. On the first day, I learned 'La' which means 'No' which comes in VERY handy! 'Hammam' which means toilet - we spent a lot of time in the 'hammam' in the first couple of days!! 'Kaka' which I think, needs no explanation, as 'Peepee' doesn't. I also learned 'Mama' - Mum, 'Baba' - Dad and 'Mama eji baden' which means 'Mum is coming soon!!' That was used to death in the first week too!! HAHA!!
By the end of the first week, I had met 21 children out of the 22 children that I had on my register. It had been a week of ups and downs, me learning about the children and the parents, the children and parents learning more and more about me.
The second week was extremely eventful out of the three weeks that I have spent with the children, I think that this one was the most challenging. I really struggled with the managing of the behaviour and actually keeping the children entertained with the few resources that we have (the order still hasn't come). The rest of the staff were also feeling frustrated, but me being a new teacher and being used to what I had back in the UK, it wasn't so easy. I have to admit that a lot of my evenings and after school time was spent in floods of tears and feeling sick about actually having to go back to school the next day or after the weekend. One particular day I had had such a horrendous time with the children that I actually contemplated throwing in the towel and going home. Its not easy working in an International school and if I am honest, I don't know what I expected to come to from the UK, but it wasn't what I was experiencing. I know that some people might be reading this and thinking - for God's sake, the children that you are working with are 3 and 4. But working with these children is a whole other experience. The problem is, that the children get what they want. And if they don't get what they want, the thing to do is retaliate and either hit or throw a tantrum. I've been kicked, punched, pinched, a child try to rip my bracelet from my wrist, shouted at in Arabic (by a child not a parent!)  just to name a few things. They refuse to do things, not because they don't understand, just because the culture is that if you don't want to, you don't have to.
Also, I have to say that by the end of the morning, the children are exhausted. The day for the children here is 7am to 12.30. So that is 5 and a half hours in school for the children in Foundation stage One and Two. Its a VERY long day especially when some of those 3 year olds are getting on a bus at 5.30 in the morning to come to school and then are not getting picked up for the bus until 1.40 when the Primary finish then they have the journey home. So that's 9 hours away from their family more than 10 hours that they have probably been up for... it makes you think - is it any wonder that the children are as badly behaved, tearful and distressed as they are?!
Don't get me wrong, all of the children are lovely in their own way and when you get them, you have them, if that makes sense. Some of them are so loving and after 3 weeks of having the children some of them now run to me in the morning and give me a big hug and kisses. Its so lovely. That's the side of the job that makes it worthwhile. But when you have a bad day, you know about it!!
Its now the last day of the weekend and I think I am actually looking forward to going to school tomorrow for the first time since I started, knowing that the children will be there to greet me and that we will hopefully have a really good week.