A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for.

Eid Mubarak! 12 days of school down and now we are on our week break for Eid. It is has been incredible so far. Yesterday we did dune bashing in the desert at the Sealine Resort and camped out on the beach. First let me just say that dune bashing was a blast! We were divided into groups of 6 for the cars and then we also shared a tent at the camp site. Our driver Mohammad was awesome. At first we got in the wrong car (there were 2 Mohammads) but it was ok because we are all going to the same place, and he teased us that we were going to miss out on the best music and jokes. Well we ended up switching and got in his car and I think we did get some of the best music! It started off with the Rocky Theme and ranged from Bruno Mars, One Direction, Justin Bieber, The Macarena and other ones that I am probably forgetting. Mohammad was hilarious and was cracking us up the entire ride there, which distracted us every now and then on the drive getting TO the dune bashing. I think we all had a white knuckle grip onto our seats because instead of following the speed limit signs that read 80 kph... Mohammad preferred going 160 kph. Needless to say cars were practically jumping into the right lane to get out of our way!

Highly recommended!

Me and my squad in the car... getting excited to bash some dunes in!

Before we went out to the dunes they had to deflate the tires. This way the SUVs were ready for some off-roading. While that was happening we got to spend quality time with the camels! I was so excited about this because we also got to take turns riding them too- another thing I was determined to do at some point while I was here. One camel seemed to be designated for people to take selfies with and then there were 5 other camels for us to ride on.

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the sassiest camel of them all? 

This sign was actually came up later near the
entrance to our camp but I felt it belonged
in the camel section of the blog.

My buddy and I spending some quality time in the desert heat. There was a breeze though! 

View from riding on my camel

The ones we rode on wore these over their faces. All I could think of was Aladdin. "Riding your very own camel- watch out they spit." They sat on the ground for you to get on their backs and then the man leading the camels would tug on the leash to get them upright... some of them were not fond of the idea of getting up again and again! 

After we all had our turns on the camels it was time to go! We had music to listen to.. dunes to bash.. pictures and videos to take! Caution. Side effect of dune bashing- your face will hurt for the duration of the time and some time afterwards from laughing and smiling the entire time. It was so much fun!! There was lots of laughing and screaming when we went down those first few dunes. One of them we even went down in reverse. I have pictures to share but I feel that video is the best way to accurately convey what dune bashing is all about.

One of the cars behind us. The way it is coming down the dune with the sand on the side it looks like a car commercial!

Cruising through the sand. In our group I think
there were 5 cars total.

All throughout the dune bashing we took some breaks on top of the dunes where we could take pictures. It was so amazing taking it all in. And windy. Yay for the wind! The videos are mainly from the beginning. Those are my favorites anyway because it is our initial reactions. I kind of ran out of space on my phone between all the pictures and videos. Otherwise the video clips would've been longer- sorry!

What a good looking group of ladies! 

It really was a lot of fun driving around on that SUV. I love adventurous things like this. I've been ziplining and parasailing... I believe it's best to just throw yourself into the moment. Opportunities like this do not present themselves to everyone- why let them just pass you by? These next 2 years I want to continue stepping outside of my comfort zone. Life is what you make it and I want to give my all!

Group shot with the man of the hour, the amazing Mohammad! He is an expert at dune bash driving and picking music
that best fit the mood. Although I don't remember hearing any of the jokes he promised! 

The land just beyond the water is Saudi Arabia! 

Taking a selfie with Mohammad 

Borrowing part of Mohammad's thobe and rocking it like a boss.
The Ghutra is the white sheet fabric that covers the men's heads.
The black Qatari Igal is the circular rope that frames the head
and keeps the Ghutra in place.

Once we got to the camp I was starving! They picked us up around 2 and I ate around 1. Dinner was served around 7:30 and I devoured it. But not before watching a beautiful sunset and making the promise to myself that I would get up to watch the sunrise over the Persian Gulf. We did some swimming in the Persian Gulf. I dipped my head in once and my contacts were not happy with that decision. My eyeballs were on fire and hating me for getting the salty water in them. The water was so unbelievably warm it felt like bath water. It was so refreshing stepping out of the water because it was kind of breezy. It took a while for my bathing suit to air dry! I am a genius that forgot to bring a towel.

Highly recommended!

Entrance to the camp site

The Persian Gulf

Tables for eating and relaxing. At one point we
played a game of Uno that would not end!  

Entrance/exit lit up at night

Mmm food! I was so hungry I was willing to try anything. I even tasted lamb for the first time and liked it! Although it will never replace my first love- steak. 

A view inside our tents (with AC!) Nope there were not any blankets. I did discover in the morning though that
there were sleeping bags! Some people slept outside in lounge chairs or on the top of the sand dune.  

Me taking a snapshot of the sunrise in the morning. Shannon
is so sneaky I love it! 

 I was feeling a little iffy about the camping part of this adventure since I am like Jim Gaffigan and am not too big a fan of it. But this is definitely not what I expected. Our tents were awesome. There was a volleyball court set up. It was such a nice surprise! They set up a bonfire after dinner ended and we were sitting around it later listening to some of the Irish boys play some acoustic guitar. I even dune boarded with one of the girls down the sand dune. I almost made it all the way down without falling, but then towards the bottom I picked up a lot of speed and wiped out. I only did it once because it was so exhausting climbing up the sand dune. It's not easy!

I cannot express enough how grateful I am for this opportunity in Qatar. I had always hoped to travel and see more of the world and now here I am! I am taking everything in and learning a lot along the way. Speaking of learning, here are some fun facts I have learned. One thing is about driving. Although the drivers can be pretty reckless at times and it is terrifying being on the road, there are some things I like. Before the lights are about to change, the green light blinks three times before it changes to yellow and then of course red. Plus unlike at home, people here obey the traffic lights. Once that green light starts blinking, usually they slow down. Or sometimes they speed up before it turns yellow! But I do like that the green light blinks first to give you that warning. The reason why people usually slow down when the green light starts blinking is because there are cameras everywhere. And no one wants to pay the hefty fine for running a traffic light. Any idea as to how much the fine is? 6000 riyals. This is equivalent to about $1500! Pretty steep! But if it keeps people safer on the roads then I say go for it. Another thing: license plates are a huge deal. The richer you are, the less digits you have on your license plates. The majority of them have 6 digits, but if they have 4 then it was not cheap for them to come by that license plates. I have only seen a few but one 4 digit license plate was on a Lexus. The majority of the ones I have seen are on some of the cabs because they are government cars. They have even had auctions for license plates (and cell phone numbers). The ones that sell high are repeating digits. People will even remove their license plate and switch it to different cars that they have. Because that's what matters in life right? Your license plate number.

One of my coworkers posted this on her Facebook and I have found it very helpful! It helps me recognize which country some of the men are from.

Know your thobe! And I don't mean for this to come across as silly or offensive. I do appreciate this guide to better understand the differences between the different countries and the style of their thobes.

Another week has come and gone. School starts again on Tuesday. I am appreciative of the break because it gives me time to explore Qatar  (and eventually other countries on my other breaks!) and continue to get acclimated. There are times when I want to talk to my family but then I remember that it's four in the morning and I am pretty sure they would not like that wake up call. I am excited to get back to my teacup humans on Tuesday. I miss them! They are so cheerful and eager to learn. I can't wait to hear all about how their break went. Some of them traveled to different places like South Africa, Australia, and India are 3 that I remember but I know that more were traveling. For now I will continue to enjoy the rest of my break! Tomorrow a big group of us are having brunch at the Marriott. We have a few staff birthdays to celebrate. Stay tuned for more next week!

A police officer came to my house and asked me where I was between 5 and 6. I replied: "Kindergarten."

Another week has gone by I cannot believe it!! I have been teaching for 2 full weeks now. The rest of September- it gets a little tricky. Eid Al Adha begins next Tuesday, which means we only have a 2 day week of school. Then school is closed for the Eid holiday and we come back on the 29th. I am crossing my fingers that I am not starting completely from scratch when they come back from that week break and they haven't forgotten all of the routines we have started!! It is very tough in the beginning of the year. They are still adjusting from the summer time and their attention and memory span is small to borderline nonexistent. It is kind of like having a bunch of Dories in my class. I correct one of the students to sit in their square on the rug, remind them to keep their hands and feet to themselves, and not even a minute later their friend next to them is doing the same thing! I teach my students that good friends have to be patient and wait their turns. However I also have to remind myself to be patient because we are only in September and they are just kids being kids.



It runs in my family. At least I think it does...

This week has mainly involved me continuing to get adjusted. There are a million and one questions floating around in my head. Am I pacing this ok? Is this too fast for some of the kids? Are my higher level kids still being challenged enough or are they bored? How much of the curriculum should I be starting? What should I focus on for my morning work? How far along in Handwriting Without Tears should I cover this week? What do I want to focus on in math? Am I giving my TA enough work? I think you get the idea. The kids and I continue to get used to each other and I am working on maintaining that healthy work/life balance. Someone posted this bulletin board on Facebook and I absolutely love it. It really is all about keeping a positive attitude and mindset. Negativity can be incredibly toxic. Anyone who knows me knows that I am unbelievably hard on myself and am my own worst critic. This is something I am always working on and definitely have improved on greatly the past few years.

The power of words!

Sometimes throughout the week I noticed that some of my best lessons were ones that I made up on the spot when another lesson I planned a lot for ended up going super fast. Kindergarten keeps me on my toes! I overplanned so much and my written lesson plan that I made at the beginning of this week is very different from what actually happened in my classroom this week. I thought I would have gotten through more Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) and Everyday Mathematics. Once you sit down and teach the lessons to your kids, you have to adjust accordingly. Simplicity is key in kindergarten and I realized I needed to break down the content even further. We have been talking about pattern blocks/shapes all week. I did not think it would take that long! But it is the beginning of the year and we are getting everything set up for the year and I want to make sure I am adequately explaining the different manipulatives that we will be using in math. Plus teaching kids the different shape names like trapezoid and rhombus- it takes them some time to remember those math names! We focused this week on how we can make patterns with the shapes and then took turns on the rug having our friends make patterns and talk about what shapes they used. We also focused on a different number each day. Today was the number 4. I had them all practice writing them number, we would count out the cubes, and modeling with the wooden blocks how to write the number 4. I also made it interactive by calling on different kids to jump up and down 4 times or do 4 jumping jacks and the rest of the class would count as they jumped. Making it interactive was definitely a must since we were at the end of their week. I constantly had them asking me "Miss Kellie when is lunch?" "Miss Kellie is it time to eat?" No boys and girls, we just ate snack. Honestly you'd think I never fed them or something!

Some of the patterns I've found thanks to Pinterest. The students also love to be creative and design their own patterns and bigger shapes/pictures.

 I also did not realize how much focus needs to be put on pencil grip with their fine motor skills. Play Doh has been my BFF this week. I have been looking online this week and am amazed at how many different activities help with fine motor skills! While they play with the Play Doh sometimes I direct them with what to do. I have them hold out their thumb, index, and middle finger (tripod grip) and roll and squish the Play Doh with those fingers. Then I just challenge them to do different things like making a snake bigger than mine, making the Play Doh super flat and poking holes in it with their pencil... one thing they really loved was when I gave them each a bingo chip and they would take a little piece of Play Doh and hide it. They absolutely loved acting like little magicians by hiding the chips inside the Play Doh and pulling it out over and over. It all helps those little muscles!

One of the projects I worked on today with the kids involved fine motor skills. They practiced tearing/ripping paper, and then glued those papers to make the first letter of their name. I wrote the first letter of their names with a sharpie on a regular sized paper, and then I told them after they tore up their square of construction paper they had to take all those tiny pieces and cover up the black sharpie. Then I had them practice cutting with scissors. We practiced on the rug as a whole group after I modeled it how we hold scissors (chanting open and shut as they opened and closed the scissors one by one) and how to safely hand scissors to a friend. First I had them cut out these papers that look like fringe. After that I made funky zig zag lines on the sides of the papers with the first letters of their names to give them more opportunities to practice cutting with scissors and work those muscles. I think it will make more sense if you see some pictures!

The finished products!



It worked out great for even my fast finishers. They would come up to me with their paper bragging that they were done and I'd send them back "Ooh no I still see some black marker you need to cover that up! Glue some more green on there!"

 I celebrated one of my students' birthdays for the first time this week! It was on Tuesday and it was quite the party. I expected them to bring cupcakes, we would sing, and that would be the end of it. Nope! They went all out and the kids were in awe when they came back from Gym. The timing worked out perfectly. The parents came in to set everything up while the kids were at gym. Then I went to pick them up from gym and we celebrated during snack time. When they finished it was time for recess and I helped the parents clean everything up and they left. It went incredibly smooth considering we are only in the second week of school. I kid you not about them going all out for the birthday. We party hard in KG2D! There was a big chocolate cake, trays of snacks like Oreos, chips, and mini cupcakes. The parents had goodie bags for all the kids and juice boxes that they covered in paper to spell out Happy Birthday and even had Batman masks for the boys and crowns for the girls to wear. We basically had a quick birthday bash in the middle of the day. The parents took pictures all throughout and we even snapped a couple of group shots before I sent them outside to burn off some of that sugar. It was incredible. One of the parents of another student even gave a gift. The families here are incredibly kind and welcoming. It is so nice to work with such generous and caring people.

The cake! Complete with candles that were lit up by me while Dad took pictures.

The goodie bags, plates, and decorations! See the Batman mask and princess crown? Inside of those papers spelling out Happy Birthday is apple juice for the kids.

 I am hoping to explore more of Qatar some more either this weekend and for the Eid holiday (or both!) Exciting news- I got my residency permit!!! I am a legal resident of Qatar now and am able to travel! I decided not to travel during Eid because only some people have their residency permits so far. I want to wait for more people to have them so I can have some traveling buddies to go on adventures with! There has been talk of doing some dune bashing and camping in the desert during the Eid break, which I am so down for. I am all for trying different things and seeing other places besides my apartment and the school every single day- with a trip to the mall occasionally thrown in the mix. It will be nice to have some time off and get to know the area some more. We live in Barwa Commercial Avenue which is in the industrial area of Doha. It does not look anything like the pictures you see online. We live near where all the exciting construction happens! The majority of Doha is a huge construction site. Eventually it will look beautiful outside my apartment... it'll just take some time!

I'm legal now!

The view outside my window. Like I said, industrial area!

Some pictures along the drive to and from school. They're big fans of the color tan here.

More tan buildings! It's what they have to do since it is the desert after all. The majority of the cars here are white as well because of the sand. It's very rare to see a black car and even if you did have one why would you want it in this heat?!

In Qatar you have to get used to the color tan. Everywhere. The color of the day is tan and the letter of the day is T for traffic here! I would be awful at giving driving directions to anyone because I have no idea what the names of any of the streets are and there aren't really any landmarks. You make a left at the tan building, then make a right at the next tan building... after the roundabout/circle make a left... yeah I would definitely get them lost. When I take cabs to go anywhere I just tell them the name of the mall or store I want to go and hope they know where it is. The cab drivers are pretty good here. The ones that I have been using lately are the same drivers that we use for the buses to school. One of them helped me find this small bookstore called Abu Karbal. It was where I got birthday things for my classroom (birthday crowns, stickers, and pencils). It is a fantastic store that I recommend to all my Qatar teacher friends who need posters or anything for their classrooms! The first floor is all kinds of books and the second floor is filled with posters hanging around that you might use to decorate your classroom and it was exactly the kinds of things I was looking for.

This is what traffic is like right when we leave the apartment complex around 6:30ish. Going from here to one of the left lanes to make a left at the first light is always fun.

I did take my roomie to one of the hotels in the main part of Doha with all the gorgeous buildings. We went to The W hotel where you could get a daily pass to use the gym, pool, and spa. It was very swanky and fancy there it was great. The pool was cool and refreshing. She is awesome and ended up taking me out to PF Chang's for my birthday dinner and it was fantastic! Yay for crispy honey shrimp.

Pool with an awesome view while you swim.

 

The lobby of The W. See? Fancy.

View from The W.

One of the places that is easiest to get to is the Villagio. This is the mall that has the gondala ride in it as well as a small indoor amusement park with a ferris wheel, swinging pirate ship ride, small roller coaster, and I believe there are go karts as well! And of course the ice skating rink in the middle of the food court.

This is a hotel called The Torch and is right outside of the Villagio Mall. The very top part is a restaurant called 360 because it spins around. You have to make a reservation because it is very popular and from what I hear kind of pricy. I definitely want to eat there at least once- I bet the view of Doha from there is amazing.

The architecture and design in this part of the Villagio is incredible to look at. You can't help but stop and stare.

This part of the mall has all the name brands. Prada, Gucci, Fendi, you name it- they've got it. It's almost intimidating walking down this section because it is so fancy.

 It was very fun celebrating my birthday in the Qatar. A little weird being away from my family for it, but my GEMS family helped make it awesome. The coolest part (literally!) was on 9/11, my last day of being 25, we got rain and thunder! I was sitting in my apartment and I kept hearing this rumbling and assumed it was construction. But my roommate Nicole said she thought it sounded like thunder too. Sure enough it was and raining too!! The weather was nice and cool that day. Then I went out with Shannon my fellow Jersey girl to celebrate my last night of being a quarter of a century to The Admiral's in The Ritz Carlton. It had an indoor area with live music as well as an outdoor terrace that was literally right on the water. You could see all the boats docked and everything. I tried to take some pictures but unfortunately they did not come out because it was so dark and you couldn't see anything. Right at midnight Shannon came out holding a sparkler and had everyone sing happy birthday to me. Thank goodness it was dark because I am sure my face was bright red! The best part was that the majority of people were hanging outside voluntarily because it was so nice out thanks to the rain. Best birthday present ever, thanks Qatar!

Here's what The Admiral's Club looks like according to a picture on google.

All in all I'd say my first 10 days teaching at GEMS AAQ have been pretty great so far! Like any new adventure it has its ups and downs but all I can do is embrace it and take it one day at a time. And if I'm feeling down I remember one of my favorite signs by Ansar...

It's the truth!

Not all superheroes have capes, some have teaching degrees.

I made it through my first week of teaching and I am still standing! Just kidding I am laying down after another exhausting day. Keeping up with kindergarten definitely takes its toll on you physically and mentally. The best you can do is stay positive and keep chugging along!

Iolinda and I after working hard all week! She helps me keep my head on straight =)

Iolinda my TA is from Mozambique. She gave me this awesome fabric as a welcome gift! I am planning on finding someone who can make it into some type of blouse or skirt. How often can you say you are wearing something from Mozambique?!

At the moment I have 15 students in my class and according to my roster will have a total of 19 students. There are so many little things that never would have crossed my mind until I experienced them firsthand. For example, snack and lunch time. Of course I expected to help my students with opening snacks and water bottles. However, you also need to take into consideration other factors like transition time to get ready for snack/lunch, transition time for cleaning up snack/lunch, making sure your kids are actually eating, making sure they are eating at a reasonable pace so that they have time to play outside since recess is right after. There is no time for sitting around in kindergarten as the teacher! I like to play music on the ActivBoard while the kids are eating and usually have to call out reminders to certain students to take another bite or keep eating. During student teaching we always played this Alphabet Sounds song by Barbara Milne during snack time. It is perfect because it goes through the alphabet naming different words that start with each letter and the sound they make. I highly recommend it for the little ones because they sing along and it helps them remember their letters and sounds more!

The kids like to play with the toy camels. Once they learned they could connect them together, I started to receive necklaces!

The boys accurately portray morning traffic in Qatar.

It looks like Thursday (the Friday of my school week) will be one of my tough days. Sunday-Wednesday the kids have a special (PE, music, art, library) but they do not have one on Thursdays. Fortunately the kids will start Arabic next week, and that will be nice because that is part of my prep time. I did not have many breaks today but it was a good learning experience for me because it helped me think on my feet of ways to keep my students engaged and focused. I like to throw in music whenever possible to give them brain breaks and plenty of opportunities to burn off the endless amount of energy they have. My Activboard has become my best friend and I love to incorporate it in lessons wherever possible- hooray for technology!

Some of their self portraits! You have to admire the details. Watch out for those teeth though. 

This wins the award for best on scale self portrait! And the coolest looking house ever. 

Some of us see ourselves as princesses..

And some of us need reminders that it is not a race and to always try our best!

Another thing I have learned- kindergarteners are unbelievably talented at finding any crumbs, string, or any tiny particles laying around on the rug at circle time. By the end of the day I have a nice little pile of string, play doh, and other various paraphernalia on my desk. I think I need to rewatch Kindergarten Cop in the near future. I keep thinking of that one line (besides it's not a tumor) "Kindergarten is like the ocean. You don't want to turn your back on it." Professor Mad Eye Moody is right. You need to have constant vigilance!

Fortunately none of my students has a parent that is a gynecologist or tried to give the class a bio lesson =)

I couldn't resist throwing in a Harry Potter reference.

Next week I start delving more into the curriculum. I am starting off with beginning Everyday Math and Handwriting Without Tears. I think it is best to start as soon as possible to keep my students engaged, and it also helps them adjust into your classroom routine. It's funny how things like making a line and walking down the hallway sound so simple- until you try to do it with a kindergarten class in September. Parts of circle time take time to develop. They are still learning each other's names and when I have them go around to shake hands and greet each other. You even have to do basic things like teach them how to do a handshake. It is best to break concepts down as simply as possible, step by step.

Mat Man is part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. He helps students with body awareness, which will cause some changes in their self portraits as the year progresses. Students start to add more detail to their pictures. It also gives them some preparation and readiness for drawing and prewriting. You can also start building some of the different letters of the alphabet from parts of Mat Man. 

Model, model, model! Once my students see how Miss Kellie does it, it helps them grasp the idea. The toy cars are very popular amongst the boys and we have some issues with sharing. We talk on the rug about why it is important to be a caring friend. I also like to mix it up sometimes and show them what not to do. When I pretended to play with the cars and told one of the students to grab the cars from me while I played with them- the incredulous look on his face was priceless! One time I greeted one of my students by staring off in the opposite direction to emphasize why we have to make eye contact when we talk to our friends. Another time when one student was talking I started talking over them and then acted dumbfounded by saying "What? Did I do something wrong?" They giggle and correct me. I think they are more likely to remember it when one of their fellow peers gives an explanation.

One thing I know for sure is that teaching is never boring. There are constantly new challenges I face. All you can do is dive in because experience is the best way to learn. I am always looking for ways to step outside my comfort zone and grow as a person. It is so exciting and thrilling living in an entirely different country and culture. I don't know if this opportunity in Qatar will ever completely hit me. I still have moments here and there where I think to myself "Is this really happening?" I have students in my class from Egypt, Turkey, Poland, Germany, Indonesia, El Salvador- all over. I love all the diversity! The beauty of an international school.

Some words of encouragement from our Early Childhood Coordinator

There will be plenty more to come about my adventures here in the desert! I am ready for the weather to start cooling down- the humidity is no joke!