So so busy!

Hi all, first of all I have to apologise to all of you who have emailed me and I have not replied to, and also for being a bit slack on the blog this week. I am not sure I have been this busy for a while...well at least since the wedding! It is 5pm and I have only just walked in from work, and it was later last night. Having not set up a Primary classroom before, and especially in the IB way, I am finding this somewhat of a challenge. Add to this the fact that my Chinese partner, Tina, is also Assistant Head and so is extremely busy with other stuff, plus she has no resources from last year as she was off school ill the last 2 weeks of summer term. The training course we had finished on Wednesday and we all found it totally amazing. There are still some teachers who have not turned up yet, mainly due to visa issues, but I really feel for them as I don't know how I could teach the IB PYP without it!

Yesterday morning I was missing Tina until lunchtime, so I basically put backing paper up and started trying to create signs for my boards and so on. Sadly, this school is so much a work in progress that resources are really scarce. It took me an hour to procure myself a desk that was usable and then another 15mins to get a chair. I now have some cupboards too, and even 27 desks for all the kids in my class. (At this point I have to make a random admission that Ian will tease me about I am sure....but I am working with so many American and Canadian people I am starting to speak differently. Also, with so many Chinese etc I am talking more slowly than normal and even has been teasing me for talking too slowly!) Anyway, William joined me for the afternoon as Ian and Sophie went to the hospital. The good news is she doesn't have to have any more IV antibiotics, but is taking pills (yes, whole!) and has to wear the patch until she goes back for a chek on Tuesday.

Sophie had her first day (well, morning) at school and loved it. She was the star of the class and had taken 'Dora goes to school' to read in front of the class. She also did 'Show and Tell' with her class photo from her old school and was a great helper to her teachers Miss Sarah and Miss Catherine (Chinese teacher). She met some new kids but she told me today that she knows a couple of names now. I think she has found what I have when I met my new students today, that even if the kids are officially 'American' or 'Australian', this actually just means that their passport says that, but their English is poor. For example, I have a girl who lived in Droitwich of all places for 4 years, but has lived in Shanghai for 5 years and her English is not great but her passport is British. She is one of 3 new kids in my class, all girls.My other 2 new kids are a girl from the Philipines whose mum works at the Filipino Consulate and a girl who is from South Africa and has been going to a Chinese school here for 6 years but now her English needs improving ready for Senior School. So really she is my only real Western kid.

Sorry for dotting about with information, but I have a few days to catch up on here! Anyway, Sophie loved her second morning as a 'Cool Kangaroo' this morning while Ian, William and I went and applied for our Residency Permits. This afternoon Ian, Sophie and William went to meet William's new teachers at Kindergarten while my new students came to meet me. This evening we have a few teacher friends coming over for G&T's which will be nice. Our other big news is that Ian nearly has a job. I mean nearly as we are basically waiting on a contract and to negotiate benefits. On Tuesday, I had an urgent call from our Secondary School campus asking if Ian would be interested in teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) there. So, the upshot is that we went out for dinner with the head of ESL last night and he offered Ian the job. He will be (probably) teaching small groups of kids with poor English, to support their subject learning. I say probably as the model for ESL teaching is very "organic" at the moment, mainly due to the fact that several of their teachers who were hired for this have not turned up this year. I will leave Ian to update you when he has it all confirmed.

Also, we had an 'ayi' start yesterday. Ayi literally means Auntie and everyone here has one. She is a cleaner in essence and also can look after the children. She was our Landlady's ayi but as she is having her baby she has to get a new baby specialist ayi so we are having her old one. She is coming again tomorrow morning to discuss her hours, but she speaks no English so Lisa has to come to translate. This will help us all leanr Chinese but is a little difficult at first!

Well, Ian has just gone to get his haircut and the children are eating tea so I have to go now.......we have a jam packed weekend ahead, including going into work sadly......will try and write again soon with photos of my new classroom!

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