So I really lucked out with the number of kids in my class, I've only got 14 and some only come 4 days a week! Most other classes have between 18 and 24. Frequently when we're walking to activities other teachers will see us, do a double take, and yell out to ask how many kids I have. I try to mumble a response about some kids being out sick and on vacation ha, I always avoid saying what our full class number really is so the word doesn't get out:). Our class nanny (every class has a teacher, assistant and a nanny; the nanny changes diapers and handles potty time and cleaning - she's awesome and makes my job so much easier!) admitted to me today that she does the same when other nannies ask her how many kids we have, we had a good laugh about it.
The mom of one of my students told me that her and her husband have been noticing at home that their son is picking up a slight American accent from me, haha, and said she can hear it when he says no. I told Elaine this and she goes "How often do you say no?" I said, "Are you kidding? All the time, all day, everyday, constantly!" No in English, no in Arabic...(most of my no's are directed to one boy in particular, he's the aforementioned friend who bit Sabilya and hit me in the head with a toy, he also likes to eat pieces of other kids' artwork off the wall, chew on books, scream hysterically, climb on tables and the list goes on...) I also move my index finger back and forth when saying no, which I didn't realize until I noticed the kids imitating it haha. When they see other classmates breaking the rules they start wagging their fingers and saying "No! La!" It's pretty hilarious. When talking to the same boy's parents (the one developing the American accent) we discovered that his mom is a biomedical engineer like Felipe and ironically they work for competing companies. The dad also lived in Dallas for 20 years so of course we had a Skins/Cowboys conversation, I acknowledged that I have Dez Bryant on both my fantasy teams and promised not to hold the fact that he's a Cowboys fan against their son:)
I'm lucky that most of my parents are pretty cool, I have a few crazies, but that's unavoidable. Crazy parents in Dubai are seriously crazy though and I also encounter many kids in the school that have a serious lack of discipline or even understanding of the word no. I think this is partially due to the fact that many are essentially being raised by nannies and I've heard in some cases nannies aren't really allowed to discipline the children. It's a strange dynamic and the end result is a big challenge for us. Some of the parents don't speak English either, which makes communicating fun ha. Essentially some are sending their kids to us expecting us to teach them English and discipline in addition to the normal things they should be learning. Most of my class is really good though, especially compared to horror stories I hear from other teachers. My kids love to come to school too! We had a one week holiday last week and the mom of twins that I have in my class said the twins talked non-stop the entire time about school, Miss Jennifer and their classmates. She said anytime she asked them if they wanted to do something, like go swimming, they said "No, go school." And when she mentioned me and called me Jennifer, she was quickly corrected with, "No, Mommy, it's MISS Jennifer" haha. My kids are quite clever too, I had a mom this morning tell me her daughter has decided she no longer wants to eat certain foods at home and as an explanation tried to blame it on me by telling her "Miss Jennifer said I'm not allowed to." We had a good laugh about that!
I'm with my class from 7:30am to 12:30pm (the regular preschool hours). For the afternoon session I join my friend Bea and her class until 3pm, which has been interesting ha. I thought some of my kids were challenging but her class is, well, I can't even find the words. She has 24 3.5 - 4 year olds. At least we're able to work together and sometimes we just have to laugh because the kids are so crazy. Bea's from Spain so it's cool that we're able to speak Spanish when we don't want others to understand what we're saying, which comes in handy if you want to share thoughts on kids or parents:) She's had kids get into legit fistfights in the sandbox, which leads to really fun conversations with parents and meetings for behavior management planning. Bea uses stickers to reward good behavior in her class and she told one of her students that he would not get a sticker unless he changed his behavior one day (remember he's not even 4). He looked at her and said, "I don't need your stickers, I have money and I can buy my own stickers." Haha, welcome to preschool in Dubai:)
The mom of one of my students told me that her and her husband have been noticing at home that their son is picking up a slight American accent from me, haha, and said she can hear it when he says no. I told Elaine this and she goes "How often do you say no?" I said, "Are you kidding? All the time, all day, everyday, constantly!" No in English, no in Arabic...(most of my no's are directed to one boy in particular, he's the aforementioned friend who bit Sabilya and hit me in the head with a toy, he also likes to eat pieces of other kids' artwork off the wall, chew on books, scream hysterically, climb on tables and the list goes on...) I also move my index finger back and forth when saying no, which I didn't realize until I noticed the kids imitating it haha. When they see other classmates breaking the rules they start wagging their fingers and saying "No! La!" It's pretty hilarious. When talking to the same boy's parents (the one developing the American accent) we discovered that his mom is a biomedical engineer like Felipe and ironically they work for competing companies. The dad also lived in Dallas for 20 years so of course we had a Skins/Cowboys conversation, I acknowledged that I have Dez Bryant on both my fantasy teams and promised not to hold the fact that he's a Cowboys fan against their son:)
I'm lucky that most of my parents are pretty cool, I have a few crazies, but that's unavoidable. Crazy parents in Dubai are seriously crazy though and I also encounter many kids in the school that have a serious lack of discipline or even understanding of the word no. I think this is partially due to the fact that many are essentially being raised by nannies and I've heard in some cases nannies aren't really allowed to discipline the children. It's a strange dynamic and the end result is a big challenge for us. Some of the parents don't speak English either, which makes communicating fun ha. Essentially some are sending their kids to us expecting us to teach them English and discipline in addition to the normal things they should be learning. Most of my class is really good though, especially compared to horror stories I hear from other teachers. My kids love to come to school too! We had a one week holiday last week and the mom of twins that I have in my class said the twins talked non-stop the entire time about school, Miss Jennifer and their classmates. She said anytime she asked them if they wanted to do something, like go swimming, they said "No, go school." And when she mentioned me and called me Jennifer, she was quickly corrected with, "No, Mommy, it's MISS Jennifer" haha. My kids are quite clever too, I had a mom this morning tell me her daughter has decided she no longer wants to eat certain foods at home and as an explanation tried to blame it on me by telling her "Miss Jennifer said I'm not allowed to." We had a good laugh about that!
I'm with my class from 7:30am to 12:30pm (the regular preschool hours). For the afternoon session I join my friend Bea and her class until 3pm, which has been interesting ha. I thought some of my kids were challenging but her class is, well, I can't even find the words. She has 24 3.5 - 4 year olds. At least we're able to work together and sometimes we just have to laugh because the kids are so crazy. Bea's from Spain so it's cool that we're able to speak Spanish when we don't want others to understand what we're saying, which comes in handy if you want to share thoughts on kids or parents:) She's had kids get into legit fistfights in the sandbox, which leads to really fun conversations with parents and meetings for behavior management planning. Bea uses stickers to reward good behavior in her class and she told one of her students that he would not get a sticker unless he changed his behavior one day (remember he's not even 4). He looked at her and said, "I don't need your stickers, I have money and I can buy my own stickers." Haha, welcome to preschool in Dubai:)
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