Nick's Adventure in the Middle East
Monday, September 7, 2015
Happy Labour Day!
It is fitting that the video I send you today (Labour Day) is a compilation of my first five days of school with the students. Keep in mind we had one week prior to this of prep and professional development in which we sat around and did nothing. The mentality was to just relax and drink tea... we will manage once school really starts. They couldn't have been more wrong. This has been quite the adjustment as my "norm" used to be going in 2-3 weeks in advance to prepare my classroom.
It was Thursday afternoon, the last day of work before students would arrive bright and early at 7AM the following Sunday for the first day of school. I asked Mr. Lotfi, the previous years grade 7 English teacher if we should move his stuff from my room (his old room) to his new room... he responded, no need... we will do it Sunday. He will have movers come in and will try not to disrupt you too much. I thought... well its 10AM we still have lots of time to do it now... but instead, he offered we leave work early and head home. So we did, he drove me back to the hotel. On the way to the hotel, I just had to "let it go"...
So as you may now be expecting, the video takes you through a week of being unprepared, unfamiliar of what will happen, and unaware of how to teach these kids.
The second video is just a fun one that I filmed after a night of having a few drinks with friends.
Tomorrow, I will finally move out of the hotel after a month of living here and two hotels later. Literally, it was exactly one month ago that I arrived here from Ottawa. I still have some videos in the archive of my tumultuous 13 hour plane ride, and the pleasant surprise of checking into a 5 star hotel. I will send those at a later date.
Over the next few days I will be without internet, and thus unable to communicate with anybody. I still don't have a cellphone with data, and pretty much everything at work is blocked. On Thursday morning I get my internet connected, but will most likely head to Abu Dhabi for the weekend. So if you don't hear from me, don't fret! I am alive and well.
By the way, the videos and pictures shared in this newsletter are intended for your viewing only. Please do not share with anybody else. If they would like to see them, send me their email and I will add them to the list of recipients as I don't want to come off as "unprofessional" if this comes into the wrong hands. This is just stuff I would share with you if we had the opportunity to sit and chat face to face.
Now enjoy your Labour Day holiday. To my friends going back into the classroom... good luck and best wishes for a successful start to the year.
Much love,
Nico (I found out what my name means in Arabic... not good, not good at all...)
PS: People who I am emailing to OCDSB emails, can you send me your personal email addresses to use instead? Thanks!
It was Thursday afternoon, the last day of work before students would arrive bright and early at 7AM the following Sunday for the first day of school. I asked Mr. Lotfi, the previous years grade 7 English teacher if we should move his stuff from my room (his old room) to his new room... he responded, no need... we will do it Sunday. He will have movers come in and will try not to disrupt you too much. I thought... well its 10AM we still have lots of time to do it now... but instead, he offered we leave work early and head home. So we did, he drove me back to the hotel. On the way to the hotel, I just had to "let it go"...
So as you may now be expecting, the video takes you through a week of being unprepared, unfamiliar of what will happen, and unaware of how to teach these kids.
The second video is just a fun one that I filmed after a night of having a few drinks with friends.
Tomorrow, I will finally move out of the hotel after a month of living here and two hotels later. Literally, it was exactly one month ago that I arrived here from Ottawa. I still have some videos in the archive of my tumultuous 13 hour plane ride, and the pleasant surprise of checking into a 5 star hotel. I will send those at a later date.
Over the next few days I will be without internet, and thus unable to communicate with anybody. I still don't have a cellphone with data, and pretty much everything at work is blocked. On Thursday morning I get my internet connected, but will most likely head to Abu Dhabi for the weekend. So if you don't hear from me, don't fret! I am alive and well.
By the way, the videos and pictures shared in this newsletter are intended for your viewing only. Please do not share with anybody else. If they would like to see them, send me their email and I will add them to the list of recipients as I don't want to come off as "unprofessional" if this comes into the wrong hands. This is just stuff I would share with you if we had the opportunity to sit and chat face to face.
Now enjoy your Labour Day holiday. To my friends going back into the classroom... good luck and best wishes for a successful start to the year.
Much love,
Nico (I found out what my name means in Arabic... not good, not good at all...)
PS: People who I am emailing to OCDSB emails, can you send me your personal email addresses to use instead? Thanks!
My Duty Schedule
Do you see the reason why I missed it? It's like a Where's Waldo trying to find my name... it IS there, but where and when is my duty!?
Email Alert! Missing Kid!
Teacher friends... imagine this happened at home?
Kid Found!
He just got on the wrong bus...
FirstWeekOfSchool
After An Ocean Swim