Gratitude is one of the most medicinal emotions we can feel. It elevates our moods and fills us with joy.

Ramadan Mubarak! It has been officially announced that today is the first day of Ramadan and fasting has begun. I learned that the fasting starts not at sunrise but actually from the fajr prayer, (first prayer of the day) which is an hour and a half before sunrise. This means that depending on where they live, some Muslims are fasting for 18 hours! I have a great deal of respect for Muslims celebrating Ramadan, especially this year experiencing the desert heat myself!

Here's to my first Ramadan in Qatar. Best wishes to my Muslim friends!

More facts about Ramadan that Google taught me:
-It's better to be a Muslim in Australia than in Iceland! The amount of daytime in Australia is much less than Iceland
-The fast is traditionally broken by eating dates and drinking water
-The end of Ramadan is on July 5 this year and is celebrated by a holiday called Eid al-Fitr, which is a day of feasting
-The meal eaten before the sun rises is called suhoor and the meal that breaks the fast is called iftar
-Qatari law states that you can face up to 3 months in jail and fined up to 3000 QAR (about $825) for eating or drinking in public. Hibernation it is!

I love this lantern. Such an awesome gift from one of my Muslim families!

 This past weekend I treated myself to a little getaway and went to Dubai for the first time! It did not disappoint. I think the entire cab ride from the airport to our hotel my jaw was dropped as I gaped at the buildings and roads all around us. Doha has a lot of catching up to do and I am not sure if they will ever reach what Dubai has to offer. I just could not believe how much stuff there was! Roads, overpasses, the metro, buildings everywhere- there were times where I forgot I was in the desert. Looking on the sides of the road and seeing buildings and things were so much more developed- not just mounds of sand on the side of the road!

When you go from this view outside your window... (BIG shoutout to the drills for waking me up promptly at 5:30 every morning!)

To this view from your hotel in Dubai! It was a nice treat for a few days. All that green...

Dubai is like a very advanced version of West Bay in Doha. Basically it is a westernized Middle East. In fact it just really doesn't seem fair to even compare the two. It kind of blew my mind at first to see people walking around in short shorts... and tank tops! You just don't really see many knees or bare shoulders when you are out in public in Doha. I think I know where I will be spending my next Thanksgiving!

Is this real life?

Found in the grocery store. Bacon!!

View of some of the buildings by the fountains.

This is The Address hotel which was the hotel back in the news months ago that was on fire.

 Two of the main sights that I saw in Dubai were the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa. I spent around 7 hours in that mall and there are still parts of it that I did not get to. My feet were definitely hurting and rightfully so after my Fitbit informed me we did around 35,000 steps, or a half marathon (we did nearly 14 miles!). We admired the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. It is 829.8 meters/2722 feet tall! At first when you see it in the distance you're like eh it doesn't seem that big. Then you start to look at it and compare it to the size of the buildings surrounding it and you're like wow that is massive. And then the challenge of fitting the whole thing in one picture. Of course we went to the top, as high as you can go, which was up to the 148th floor. It took two elevator rides to get there. The first elevator ride was one minute and they do a little projection on the walls comparing it to the size of other buildings in the world. The second elevator ride was 25 seconds. The view from the top was pretty impressive. In front of the Burj is the fountains and actually the way it was timed we got to see one of the fountain shows from up top. It looked pretty cool because we went up around sunset and they light up the fountains as they go off. We also saw the fountain show on the ground before we went up. They do one every half hour. Personally I thought the ones at the Bellagio in Vegas were better. You can't have everything Dubai! It was a great getaway and I cannot wait to come back.

Every mall needs aquarium right? We got to see them feed the fishies!

And a dinosaur to pose with. You can never be bored in the Dubai Mall.

A little different compared to the souq in Qatar! This one is inside and was mainly jewelry.

Burj Khalifa

Just a little tall. As if I didn't feel short enough!

Hanging out on the 148th floor.

 School wise we are in the final countdown! 13 days to go. Unreal. It truly is amazing to see the growth these kids have made in kindergarten. I've heard you don't really see that amount of progression in any other grade level. Which makes sense because some of these kids start with just sounding out each letter when I show them a sight word list to being able to read words up to a grade 3 level. And then I award myself a little dance party because all my hard work has paid off. 

So true! For the rest of the year for centers my teacup humans can switch on their own! Still working on lowering the amount of chatter during the transitions.

Next year is exciting because I will have some of the same kids again. I don't think I announced it on here but next year I am moving up to grade one! I love my teacup humans to pieces and absolutely love kindergarten, but there is still a part of me that wants to give it a try in other grades to compare and see what it is like. It's funny how much I fell in love with teaching kindergarten though. I remember how upset I was that I got kindergarten for my student teaching. But then fate was kind to me and gave me the best mentor I could ask for. Melissa is an incredible teacher and I don't know where I'd be without her guidance. Cherry Hill you don't know how lucky you are to have her! I have used so many of her ideas in my own classroom. And it blows my mind that she does it all on her own. No TA. And on top of it all she's an awesome mom that juggles all her kids' extracurricular activities. A big shout out to all the teachers that are moms. You rock! Meanwhile I am spoiled over here with my TA Ms. Iolinda who I think is secretly a mind-reader and I am going to be so unbelievably lost without her in grade one. I know whoever I get next year will be great, but no one will be anywhere as good as her. We make such a great team. Big shoes to fill!

My TA is very sneaky because she schemed with the parents and one of the other kindergarten teachers and they threw me a surprise party! She said she told the parents that we never celebrated my birthday back in September and that we should celebrate it now and a bunch of them were all for it and got it organized. It was a huge surprise and I loved it!

Cheers to one of the most thoughtful gifts. Teacup humans even made the cut! They were excited to search for their names in the collage. 

 Things are really starting to wrap up here. We had our last field trip where the teacup humans got to build creations with Legos a few weeks ago, music concert was last week, school pictures are coming out this week, parents are telling me when their child's last day is coming up- it is all finally coming together. It has been a wild and crazy year. One more year here and then we will see where life takes me. Just this year alone I have traveled to five different countries and it will be six before I come home in July. Germany I'm looking at you! Cannot wait to explore Munich and Berlin before coming home. This one is going to be a solo adventure. Everyone should travel somewhere on their own at least once in their life right? That's the philosophy I'm taking anyway. 23 days until I fly to Munich, 13 teaching days left and 36 days until I fly home. It's the final countdown!

This might need to be rewatched during Ramadan.

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

It is exactly 2 months until I touch down on American soil woo hoo! It has already reached temperatures up to 106 here in Doha and I am afraid of what it will be like in July. Hello pool and beach days! I will definitely be working on my tan before I come home for the summer. Now if you are wondering why I am coming back in practically the middle of July, it is to avoid all the nonsense with taxes. There is a rule that if you have only been in the US for 35 days out of the year, then you are exempt from taxes! Although I did not owe anything this past year, I would rather just avoid it altogether to make life easier. As of now I will be home for 42 days, but it will be 35 days once I make a trip up north to Canada for a week!

Truth. My kids have started coming in from recess drenched in sweat.
I kindly remind them to drink lots of water because we live in the desert.
At least they aren't smelly teens that are still getting used to the concept of deodorant.

42 days until my last day of teaching and 61 days until I fly home! When it comes to the workplace I just keep chugging right along. This past week for some reason I was ridiculously exhausted. I have been living up to my grandma status and the majority of the days this week I passed out before 9. It is time to start thinking about that 'A' word that all teachers are not a fan of... assessments. Ugh they are so draining and since it is the end of the year, it is a lot. Particularly math. The assessment for each child to complete is about 5 pages long. The key for me has been to break it up into pieces. Assess the teacup humans in counting one day, adding/subtracting another day, etc. There is just no way I could have a 5 or 6 year old sit down and go through every single thing in one day. We would both be absolutely miserable by the end of it. This week actually went by pretty fast. I think because the universe knows I have a lot of assessing I need to get through.

Keep calm and carry on friends!

Next month, June 5 to be exact, Ramadan begins. My happy place AKA the QDC where you can buy booze and bacon will be closed, which means it is time to start stocking up! The QDC actually sent out a text message letting everyone know when they close and open again. When you get a license to go to the QDC, you get a monthly allowance for how much you can buy. Since they are closed during June, they tripled the monthly allowance. I can only imagine how much business they get in May. Our new school schedule becomes 8:30-1:30. Some of the kids will be fasting during this time and the school adjusts to accommodate  their needs. The cafeteria is closed and no eating/drinking is allowed in the hallways or classrooms. My teacup humans will not be fasting during Ramadan. It seems like they start around third or fourth grade. Hence the short days because the kids will already be miserable enough trying to pay attention and ignoring their hunger pangs.

School wise things have been good. I have been keeping the teacup humans busy and getting them all ready for grade one. Last Sunday was Mother's Day (in the US) so I had my kids do a little craft for all the moms. We did a little flower craft and also made a class book "Something Only a Mom Knows" and what they come up with is absolutely adorable. Things like "how to kiss me goodnight, how to make a cake, how to read me a story, how to grow flowers, how to make pancakes" were just a few of them. Actually a lot of them said make a cake or pancakes. I guess cooking is a big requirement for being a mom to these kids! I am a big fan of class books because it is funny to see what they come up with. Plus they love to take the books from our class library and read what all their friends wrote.

I love my mom because... she plays with me.
My mom always gets me chocolate. My mom always
gives me a hug. Too cute! 

I love my mom because... she gives me pancakes
and hugs. Sounds like a pretty good combo to me!

Every Thursday they get extra time with me because that is our day where we have no specials. I am always hunting around on Pinterest for craft ideas to fill that time gap. The other week they made shape foxes and we sang along and listened to What Does the Fox Say while we worked. This week it was number bond kites! They turned out so good I even updated my bulletin board one last time. What they had to do was make a kite. On the kite it said "The Story of" and I told them to pick any number between 10-20. A lot of them picked 10 because they were familiar with it and others picked 12 because that is the number I modeled with them and they love to copy me. Then on the tail part of the kite they write the number sentences that equal that number. So for example if they did "The Story of 10" then they would write 5 + 5 and 4 + 6 and so on. I told them they were writing math sentences. I explained that just like in writing when we write stories we have to have capital letters, periods, and finger spaces, our math sentences have to have a + or - and an = sign. They really liked it and they turned out great!

Let's go fly a kite! Anyone else want to watch Mary Poppins now? Ah ok just me. 

Not school wise in the near future I think I am doing the desert camping and dune bashing again that I did way back in September! I am excited for an overnight camping trip and to do something fun to break up the long school weeks before our summer break. I stayed home all last weekend due to feeling pretty cruddy and I do not plan on doing much this weekend except meet up with our book club group. We are reading The Glass Castle which I have read before, but I read it again to keep it fresh in my head and hopefully have something useful to contribute to the discussion. It is a great book by the way that apparently is being adapted into a movie. I have already started compiling a list for books that I want to read over the summer. Big shocker that a lot of them are Middle Eastern themed like Girls of Riyadh, The Bamboo Stalk, The Arch and the Butterfly... along with my usual end of the world/dystopian novels.

Besides Canada I plan to be spending my break at home. Personally I feel that summer break is home/family time. It will be nice to spend more than 11 days at home. As for the breaks I get throughout the school year? Anything goes! Stay tuned for further stories and updates as I continue to somehow survive through the remaining weeks of my first year teaching!

What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't happened yet.

Happy Earth Day! I continue to make my way through the final stretch of this year with May just around the corner. If I have been counting correctly then I have 48 teaching days left this year? There were definitely days earlier in the school year that I did not think I would ever make it to this point! Ramadan starts in June. We have half days and teaching is from 8:30-1:30. I doubt any of my kids will be fasting because the second after they eat snack they ask me when it is time for lunch because they are hungry. However I have heard that attendance does go down during Ramadan for those that do fast during this time.

2 more days until Game of Thrones is back! 

School wise we just had our second field trip of the year. We went to Al Wakra Park for Earth Day and the teacup humans were required to bring egg shells, egg boxes, and water bottles. April has been nice and all because I have seen more rain this month than I thought I would during these 2 years but it has started to heat up again. Imagine that, the desert getting hot again. Our field trip yesterday was no exception. The kids were great in the beginning and I am glad I got a class photo in the beginning because by the end of it some of them were absolutely miserable and just wanted to go back onto the air conditioned bus. Some tears were shed and I gained some upper body strength from carrying a child around. I can't blame them because I was not the happiest camper either. That park needs more trees and more shade! Some of their favorite parts may have been sitting on the bus singing Alice the Camel.

See there is some green in Qatar! But mostly there is tan. 

School wise things are good. Each week I try to do some kind of craft with them. Here are some pictures of things we have worked on. The main things we have worked on are number pairs/number bonds that equal up to 10. I had them trace and cut out their hands. This is always amusing to watch because some of their hands when they finish tracing look like baseball mitts. And they always want me to cut them out for them and I have told them nope. Do it yourself. Time to get ready for grade 1. They manage to get through it and they turned out pretty cute!

Underneath their hands they had to write the different number pairs that equal 10. I saw another KG2 teacher had this
as her bulletin board so of course I had to steal the idea. Teachers are kleptos! 

Leading up to the field trip all week we talked about Earth Day and how we can reduce, reuse, and recycle. Sadly you do not see much recycling in Qatar. I have yet to see a single recycling bin here. But we talked all week about turning the lights off when you are not in the room, using less water, and other things like that.

How adorable are their Earth faces? I know we aren't supposed to put stuff on the walls... I've kind of given up on that at this point. They wrote down their promises for how they would care for the Earth. 

Weather wise April has been pretty awesome. We have had some rain and some intense thunderstorms the other weekend. My friend messaged me and told me to go outside and enjoy the light show and Doha did not disappoint.

The light show! Truth be told I did not see this particular lightning strike.. thank you internet! 

Middle Eastern sunrises and sunsets are some of the most beautiful ones I have seen in the world. You truly do get to see that red sunset or sunrise out here in the desert and it is amazing. Nothing compares. 

I bought my ticket to come home for the summer! I had to do some calculations when planning because in order to be exempt from taxes I can only be in the US for 35 days. July 12 is the magical day! Technically I will be home for 42 days... so I am planning to hang out in Canada for a week. What the exact dates will be I am still figuring out. I am hoping to travel somewhere in the beginning of July before I come home. Only time will tell! Since I will be spending my 35 days home in the summer, this means I will not be coming home for Christmas. This bums me out a little but if everything works out with what I am planning for, it will probably be one of the most memorable and incredible Christmases of my life, even if it is away from home.

Not only have the students been learning and had a lot of growth but apparently I have too! I was feeling guilty thinking it made me a bad person or bad teacher because this month I have not been bringing my work home with me as much as I have in the past. Well that is because I have learned to adapt. Typically in the beginning the year, mainly before winter break, during my prep breaks I was not doing lesson planning. Usually I was completely and utterly exhausted and would stare at my laptop dumbfounded wondering what I should be preparing and where I was supposed to find energy to prep for lesson plans. Now it seems I have learned and found the energy during this time. One of the other KG2 teachers once told me "You will be amazed what you can get done in 20 minutes" and it is so true. Yay for adapting and not having to always bring work home with me! Now I have become one of those teachers that brings their work bag and laptop home with them... and it sits in my bag untouched while I pass out in bed early like a grandma. Less than 50 days to go... we are nearly there! Now for some teacher memes to make you smile:

November is a rough month teachers. Get through that and you are a superhero!

This is been me for the past week... and I venture this is what it will be like in
May-June. The kids are starting to get ready for summer to get here!

My teacup humans have yet to understand this concept and probably never will.
No matter how many times I tell them we are all going to the same place... they still
fight over those first few spots in line! 

You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.

I am back from my spring break vacation with the family spent in London and Dublin! I have been meaning to update after school one of these days, but my body had the nerve to be exhausted after an eventful and semi-stressful vacation (my fault completely).

My adventure to Europe started off with me being a genius who left her phone on the airplane. I thought that I had placed my phone in my purse- spoiler alert I didn't! Things like this kept happening to me a few times over the vacation. So I relied on my mom and sisters for all the Kodak moments. It was so good to see all of them and spend time with them! We also met up with friends in London and spent a few days with friends in Worcester. By the way, everything in England and Ireland is not pronounced the way it is spelled. The sooner you accept this the better. And be prepared if you go to London it is very expensive! Especially to get around on the Tube. And eating food. And just everything in general. It is amazing how much the prices drop once you are outside the city.

London calling! 

First stop was London! All throughout my time in London I became very familiar with the Underground. It actually is an incredible setup and much easier to understand, especially compared to what they have in Dublin. I forced myself to get familiar with it because when I first got there, I met my family at the hotel. I was originally going to be charged for a cab ride at the lovely price of 97£ AKA $137. So train it was for under 20£! My mom and I are huge Harry Potter fans so of course we had to do all the Harry Potter nerdy stuff. Unfortunately we were not able to do the Warner Bros tour because apparently they fill up really fast. We did however end up doing Muggle Tours which I highly recommend! Our tour guide was Tom Riddle and having him as a guide who was just as passionate about the series as us made it awesome.

We were late getting to the tour... we did some wandering around for a bit and
thanks to my sister's GPS we met up with our tour group! We spotted a guy in
a Gryffindor colored scarf and a Harry Potter bag and it was our tour guide! 

We saw all of the major sites like Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Tower of London, and Buckingham Palace. Oh and if you value your life at all please stay to the right on escalators! People in London are constantly in a hurry and do not have time for you to stand on the left side of the escalators which is purposely kept clear so that people can walk/run/sprint up and down them. Haven't the people of London heard our family motto before: there's no hurry!

Gonna go way out, way out! For all you Flintstones fans... 

Why hello there Benjamin.. it really was surreal seeing huge
landmarks in real life that you are used to only seeing in pictures

Of course we stopped by Kings Cross station! We did debate for a little while
of not waiting in line to get our picture taken. Perfect opportunity for a family photo!

No there's no place like London. We visited Trafalgar Square.. passed through Baker Street and Fleet Street... the amount
of history in London is incredible. We also went into the National Art Gallery where I got scolded for taking a picture of
my sister with the flash on by Van Gogh's sunflowers. Well we knew we weren't supposed to but we were being rebels. 

We did a lot of walking around London. I kid you not my Fitbit said
we did 20k steps one day and 32k another day. 13 miles in one day!
And then my Fitbit died and I have no idea how many steps I did in Ireland.

Next stop was Worcester. Don't ask me to say it because I will definitely say it wrong. We visited friends and stayed with them for a few days and got to see Stonehenge! It was ridiculously windy and pretty rainy but again another cool part of history to see.

Why yes we did go through 4 hours of total driving to see some wet rocks!
 

Walking through Worcester! We went inside that cathedral in the distance and it was beautiful. 

See it wasn't all rain and clouds in England! Occasionally we got some rays. 

Next stop Dublin! But it would not be complete without me being a complete and utter idiot by leaving my bag with my passport and my sister's iPad... at the train station. We were on our way to Paddington Station to then go to the London City Airport to fly to Dublin. I went back myself to take a train back and meet them at the airport later on. Fortunately my bag was still there and I made it back to Paddington. My family took a cab while I made my way through the fantastic train system. And then I followed the pirate's code of 'fall behind, left behind' and arrived at the airport and went through security. I got some food and calmly waited with my Kindle for my mom and sisters. Did I mention that I do not have my phone and the Wifi was not working so I could not even use the iPad to communicate with my mom where I was? Turns out they were downstairs waiting for me and growing more panicky by the minute as each time a train opened up and I was not on it. Whoops! I can only imagine the wild scenarios that were swirling around my mom's poor head. I pinkie swear I will be more organized and not such a forgetful dunderhead on my next vacation! But yeah really I was just upstairs eating my little salad and reading All the Light We Cannot See. Which was a fantastic book by the way that received the well deserved Pulitzer prize last year.

Fortunately we all made it to Dublin in one piece! Our time in Dublin seemed to zoom by way too fast. For 2 of the days we did rail tours where we got to see all different parts of Ireland. Those rail tours leave promptly at 7am and last for a minimum of 10 hours. Our tour guide Bob was very friendly and informative. The first rail tour we visited Cork, Blarney Castle, and Cobh. One of the train stops we passed through was Thurles, which apparently is where the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded. Shout out to all the Gaelic football ladies! We each kissed the Blarney Stone and walked through the poisonous garden. It contained different plants like Lily of the Valley and ricin which of course made me think of Breaking Bad. In Cobh we visited St. Colman's Cathedral and also went through a Titanic exhibit since Cobh was the final port for the Titanic.

Blarney Castle :-* 

Our second day we spent exploring Dublin. We visited Grafton Street and did a lot of walking that day, but probably not as much as our 13 mile day! It was just so nice waking up each day and being with my family. It was definitely a well needed trip for me. I missed them much more than I realized and as always at the airport it was hard to say goodbye.

Ireland is pretty. 

Coolest glass ever. And Orchard Thieves is a delicious cider. An apple
a day keeps the doctor away right? 

Love my peeps. Cannot wait to see them in the summer. 

Our second rail tour was even longer than the first! We visited Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, and Galway. We could not have asked for better weather! The skies were sunny and shining when we got to the Cliffs of Moher. And at Bunratty Castle we also made a stop at Durty Nelly's, an old pub that was established in 1620!

Durty Nelly's! I got a t-shirt and everything!

All that green <3

Cliffs of Moher. Don't look down! What a view though. 

The hills are aliiiiiive... seriously look at this shot. You almost expect Julie Andrews to come waltzing through and singing.

And now it is back to reality. It was a tough transition this week. It has gotten better as the week has gone along. My flight left on Saturday and it was delayed and I ended up getting back home around 3:30 AM... and then leaving for school at 6:30 AM! Fortunately I slept a little on the plane and got a little nap when I got back home. And happy news I did get my phone back! But now it is April. The last trimester of my first year. Hard to believe it. From having my kids pee in the dark from September-December because I did not realize that my bathroom light was supposed to work. You mean the kids can have more light than just the sun shining through the tiny top part of the door? That was a nice treat for them to come back to in January! Lumos! Let there be light! How far they have come since September. And now we make the final push until June. Less than 60 teaching days left I can do this!

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

Whew we are in the middle of March, report cards have been turned in, and parent teacher conferences are next week! 6 teaching days until spring break- not that I am counting or anything. I might be missing my family and absolutely unbelievably ridiculously excited to see them again! If only the cats could come along too.

Today I had an interesting start of my day. I was going through my morning routine with the kids talking about the calendar and counting the days of school. Then suddenly there was a loud bang and one of the windows shattered. I grabbed my kids that were sitting near the window that was crackling... it seriously sounded like Pop Rocks or Rice Krispies when you add the milk... and then got security. Some maintenance guys came out and broke off the window. Needless to say not much teaching was done because the kids were watching with fascination. When the sun shined on the broken pieces of glass it shined spots onto the ceiling, which the teacup humans found to be super cool. Fortunately it was a double pane window so it was just the outer layer of glass. I guess I just cross my fingers and hope the next layer of glass does not shatter next!

Snap crackle pop! This is what happens when one of your windows is
constantly hit by the balls kids play with at recess all day! 

Last week was pretty eventful. I still laugh when I think about one of the first expats I met who told me "Yeah it will probably rain 2 times the entire time you are here." Yeah we got plenty of rain this past week, thunderstorms, and some more flooding! It was even hailing at one point on our bus ride to school. Then one morning someone's pet tiger was loose on the expressway! Because why bother having a cat or a dog when you can have an exotic pet like a tiger right? No worries it was eventually captured again.

Check out these clouds right before it started pouring! 

I don't think Rajah makes the best pet... as Chuckie Finster
would say "Guys I don't think this is such a good idea!"

I have been getting more "artsy" in class and making more charts to hang up in the room for the teacup humans. As the kids always tell me "You're not a very good drawer Miss Kellie." but I try my best! I got some ideas off Pinterest. Pinterest seriously should count towards professional development. I spend way too much time on there searching for tips and ideas for lessons. And Teachers Pay Teachers. Seriously what did teachers do before these websites? Before the internet!?

They were able to recognize what the little 3D shape drawings were! A
step up from my laughable stick figures. 

Apparently Gus the Plus is another popular name teachers use. Maybe I will
try that next year! They crack me up though. "Linus the Minus is SO mean.
He is always taking away." 

Last week we had another spirit day and the theme was to dress up as your favorite character. I decided to go with a kid's classic and dressed up as Arthur the aardvark! I got all into it with ears and the shirt like the big dork that I am... and the kids thought I was a brown bunny. And I thought reading an Arthur book the day before would help them recognize me... nope! I ended up playing an episode of Arthur for them at the end of the day and they kind of got it. As for their costumes I had Darth Vader, 2 Spiderman (both were very muscular!), Batman, lots of princesses, a police officer, and Thor!

A-a-r-d-v-a-r-k! AKA nerd alert! 

It really is hard to believe that we are wrapping up the second trimester and moving into the final term. Sometimes it seems like so long ago that it was the end of August/beginning of September when I was setting up my classroom and then other days it feels like it was just yesterday I was just starting to get to know my teacup humans and what they were interested in. Now I sit here beaming with pride at them. But still giving them plenty reminders to not roll around on the rug, wrestle each other, and stop kicking and pushing each other at recess! I love my crazy energetic teacup humans. They teach me just as much as I teach them!

And now to end the entry with a beautiful sunset. Middle eastern sunrises and sunsets are seriously some of the most
beautiful ones I have ever seen. 

Stay tuned for England and Ireland pictures in the next post!