First Day of School

Just behind this billboard that says something about land mines in Albanian, you can see my school :)  The American school has only been on this premise for maybe two years it seems and there's quite a bit that still needs to be sorted out.  But the location is pretty central and right next to it is the NEWBORN mall.  It's a mall behind the iconic yellow newborn artwork that was made to celebrate Kosova's independence in 2008.

My first day of classes was today.  I don't really know what to say.  The classroom was an absolute disaster area.  Whatever resources and books that were left were literally just shoved into any shelf or cabinet.  The walls are bare and gum, pencils and other junk littered the floor.  And the students' attitudes matched the pathetic scene.  I guess the kids have had a rather tough time with their previous teacher.  For whatever reason, no sense talking about a past I have no knowledge about.  I guess it was just not a good situation. This just means I'll be climbing uphill for possibly the entire semester.  Lots of behavior problems already apparent.

I will however, have pretty much free reign to set my curriculum and syllabus within the classes.  Which is great but of course, will mean lots and lots of planning over the next couple weeks.

Here are some "before" pictures of my classroom...
  

And here are some after pictures...

Thanks Charlotte for coming after school to help me clean everything out and set up my new classroom!  

I teach 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 11th grade.  A combination of social studies, geography and history ranging from ancient, to global, to American.  School starts at 7:30 AM and I teach two classes (6th, 11th) then a break for breakfast, then one more class (5th), then a break for lunch and then my final two classes (7th, 8th).  Five classes a day and each class is around 45 mins long.  Everything is all done by 3 PM.  This is my schedule five days a week.  So now I just need to get down to creating all my plans and lessons.   Which has me signing off to get planning!

P.S. Charlotte came in today and met with the principal.  We're hoping something might pan out at the school.    The principal wants her to come in tomorrow, get to know the school and see what she might be able to help out with.  Fingers crossed!