Back to School

We know… it must be nice to get the summer off.  We know… we started school two weeks later than in Ontario.  But you know… we’re still pretty drained from the first week back at school.  Here we are on the very first day, still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. 

The first week of school in Egypt was fairly successful and uneventful, but we’ll share some stories anyway.  We had been warned by teachers returning to the school that the students would be very challenging.    The first day of school started with an assembly for all high school students.  When each teacher was introduced, the students all clapped.  With that, we were officially Mrs. Katie and Mr. Tom.

We were shocked at how loud the students  were while the principal was addressing them.  That being said, when we went to class, we both found our first morning class to be very quiet and respectful.  Tom’s class asked if they could call him “Mr. T.”  We’re not sure if they know who “Mr. T.”  is, but some of the students do call him that.

My first morning class was, and continues to be, a class sent from heaven.  If every class was like my first period class here, everyone would be a teacher.  Here are a couple of my students doing their first lab of the year.  They were pretty excited to get to work (a.k.a. play) with fire the first week.  Ok, so was I!
(In case you're curious, I did ask these students permission to take their picture and put it on my blog.)

Tom and I are each teaching three classes, some of which are more challenging than others.  That’s not different from any school or any group of teenagers in the world though.  On the other hand, our students can be pretty unique.  We teach at private school.  Our students (or at least their parents) are paying tuition.  During a physics lesson Tom asked his students one day whether any of their parents knew how to weld.  He got the response “Mr. Tom, none of our parents would know how to weld.  Maybe our driver would know how.”

There are also little things around the school that remind us that wearen’t in Canada anymore.
One is our office door:

Another is the sign on the fume hood in my classroom.  If you’re not sure what I mean, get your brain back into teenage mode for a moment.

All in all we’ve had a successful first week of school.  We certainly need to get back into the swing of things and spend less time prepping and more time living… and sleeping.  I’m sure we’ll get there soon.  If we get too tired, we will soon have time to unwind.  We have the Egyptian Armed Forces Day and Canadian Thanksgiving weekend coming up soon to give us a four day weekend very soon.  We know… we can’t complain!