I'm sitting in my classroom listening to Save Me San Francisco by Train. It's the last minutes of school before the Winter Break. There's an excitement and sadness in the noise in the hallways. It's mostly good stuff. Kids are excited that they're going on vacation (either staying here in Almaty and don't have to go to school or they're going to cool places like the Swiss Alps to ski or just hang out with their wherever they're from). Other kids are saying good-byes to their classmates whose families are moving on to another city and another international school. We had one student who is leaving the 12s after several years here. The kids were sad to see their classmate leaving and they expressed it so maturely -- I was impressed. They appreciated their classmate's qualities that they'll miss and expressed their emotions about their friend leaving. So often I've seen kids leave and it's a flat good-bye, like they're just going home at the end of the day. It's hard to explain, but if you've experienced it, you probably know what I mean. Maybe it was perceived in my other schools that saying good-bye and genuinely expressing your love of your classmates would show a weakness? Maybe there just wasn't such a sense of teamwork and community? Maybe they just didn't know how to do it or my international school students are such pros are saying good-bye to their friends. It's probably some combination thereof. Anyway, what I saw today was wholly appropriate for a good friend and classmate who was leaving our school.
We had a great morning together. We had a team-building activity in our homerooms to build a torch for the Asian Winter Games which will be held here in Almaty in February. It was so cool to see the kids working together to make a design and to decorate the classroom. We had an assembly and each of the classes got to take a lap of the gym to show off their creations. Of all the secondary homerooms, ours won! The kids were so proud of themselves and I was proud of them for their teamwork.
We're off in a few days to spend our Winter Break in Poland and Belgium and very excited about that.
We had a great morning together. We had a team-building activity in our homerooms to build a torch for the Asian Winter Games which will be held here in Almaty in February. It was so cool to see the kids working together to make a design and to decorate the classroom. We had an assembly and each of the classes got to take a lap of the gym to show off their creations. Of all the secondary homerooms, ours won! The kids were so proud of themselves and I was proud of them for their teamwork.
We're off in a few days to spend our Winter Break in Poland and Belgium and very excited about that.
