First Day of School

Sept. 4, 2009

My long awaited return to the classroom happened today in a brand new school building, in a country far from home, the day after a tropical storm dumped four inches of rain on the campus.  I awoke early and was one of the first teachers at the school to finish up last minute preparations. Printing documents from my laptop and making copies is a bit of a challenge compared to where I came from so more time is needed. The building weathered the storm well although runoff from the hill behind the school swept a film of bright orange clay/mud over walkways, and the playing surface. Students could not help but get a generous coating over their uniforms during recess despite all of our warnings.  The class is made up of a variety of students. Half of them are Antiguan nationals mixed with Syrian, Italian, Canadian and English expatriates.    The school day progressed well as we learned each other’s names and the-oh-so-important rules/expectations that will lay the foundation for establishing a cohesive learning community.  One of the highlights for my class was the tour of the campus. This is the first time in the history of the school that primary and secondary students are together on one campus and the mix of students from K-12 has caused concern for some parents. My students, however, did not seem intimidated by the presence of the upper classes and, in fact, secondary students offered guidance to the younger students at recess and transition times. The day soon came to a close and the usual chaos in the parking lot at dismissal time was made more challenging by the slick clay mud on the dirt access road. I returned to my empty classroom to pick up and plan for next week with a smile on my face, again, feeling that I made the right choice to be here!