GPS class and "water day"

We're down to the last few days of school.  Books had to be turned in over a week ago.  Kids have all turned in textbooks.  The classrooms need to be totally packed up so classrooms can be reassigned next year.  

Finding a clue hidden in a tree

Finding a clue hidden under a swing

Units had to be completed over a week ago so that "outcome cards," an ancient system we use here to keep report students' grades, can be turned in and centrally entered into the system.  So what to teach?  At Life Academy and Oakland International, our schools in Oakland we used to teach at, we did postsession for the final three weeks.  What a grand idea -- and kids get credits for the classes that they take all day with us!  I don't think this system is ready for that, but we did have a mini-version of it this week.

For two days I taught a geography class using GPS technology.  Students had to find geocaches that my co-teacher Dave and I had set up around campus and the neighboring community.  So, for example, students had to answer the question like "Amorgós, an island in the Aegean Sea, is part of which group of islands?" or "Which country does not border the Red Sea: Jordan, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, or Eritrea?" and then go to the teacher listed on the clue to see if they had the right answer.  If they did, they got a clue, Amazing Race style.  The clue then might send them to 43.20935°N, 76.81440°E or 43.20966°N, 76.81827°E where, if they look "up, down, in, under, through, beneath, an any other preposition you can think of" they would receive another geography question to answer.  It was lots of fun for all and Dave was kind enough to bring cold drinks and ice cream for students to enjoy when they finished running around under the sun.  It was good for all.
On Thursday, we had field day, which should probably be called "water day".  I volunteered to do the water bottle fight station and was absolutely soaked for hours by the multiple groups of students who passed through this area.  Many of them were my students who, I think, were feeling like they were getting revenge for a year's worth of essay-intensive curricula.  Others I didn't know at all, yet they still attacked with ferocity.  I have to so I had a bit of my own revenge.

I love edible presents!

Today one of my students came to class early -- with a present!  I was excited.  It was an edible present.  She said that there was a Russian candy bar that she liked and wanted to share one with me.  Cool.  No obvious tampering the the wrapper and it was intact.  I thought it was like a granola bar because the label said "с миндальным орехом" (with almonds) and it had the texture of a granola bar. She said that it was more like fudge.

As she was about to leave she told me that it was prescribed to her by a pharmacist who thought she had anemia.  "Why?" I questioned.

"It's made with cow's blood."

Right.  I'm pretty open-minded about food.  (I'll try anything multiple times in hopes my taste buds have changed and I like it again.)  I didn't feel disgusted at the thought at all.  I was more surprised that this sanguine snack food was wrapped up like a candy bar was readily available and some of my other students liked it and ate it fairly regularly -- and didn't even know it was made with cow's blood!

I haven't tried mine yet, but I will and will let you know what I think.  In case you're interested in importing it to your local convenience store, it's called Гематоген (Gematogen or Hemotogen) -- which the Wikipedia article on this snack bar informs me is Greek for "blood-maker."

Saint Patrick's Day, and Mr. Wolf's birthday!

Today was, as stated, Saint Patrick's Day, and Mr. Wolf's birthday!

Mr. Wolf is my class mascot.  He's a felt hand-puppet from some fairy tale set of characters, though I can't tell you how old he is or where he's from.  Michael rescued him from an abandoned box of supplies, and for four years, he brightened Michael's office.  Now that I teach elementary, Michael thought it best that Mr. Wolf came to my classroom to help me.  He's great!  He sits on my whiteboard, greeting students, reminding them of special projects, telling them how many days until Spring Break... the kids ask questions about him and gleefully play along.  We write stories about him.  I often show them sample work by Mr. Wolf -- posters about habitats or narratives about his travels.  He really is a part of our class. 


So, I decided that he should have a birthday party, just like everyone else! To my surprise, several students brought presents for Mr. Wolf.  One girl (she's so adorable) made tiny paintings of the tundra/forest and Mr. Wolf in different places "for Mr. Wolf's desk, so that he can remember his habitat and places he's been".  She then made him a leprechaun hat, a birthday hat (and matching red bow-tie), and a third outfit "for the last day of school!" (a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a suitcase).

 Other kids made cards or brought special treats for Mr. Wolf "to eat when he's hungry".  They asked how old he was and what he wanted for his birthday.  We made rainbow murals with pots of gold hanging off of them.  I brought in cookies and frosting (I made the night before), then dyed the frosting all the colors of the rainbow -- right in front of them, like magic!  Then we decorated them.  The kids sat there, eating the cookies and smiling.
"This is the best birthday party ever!" "Well, at school anyway..."  "Yeah, at school!" 


Yeah!  Best birthday party at school.  Yay me.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolf!  Maybe we'll celebrate on February 29th next year, just for fun. :)

"NAURYZ, NAURYZ!", and other classic songs about the Kazakh spring festival

We just had a school-wide celebration for our Kazakh spring festival, Nauryz ("nar-eeze").  The Kazakh kids (with Kazakh passports, who are learning Kazakh language and history as part of the mandated requirements for a Kazakh diploma) dressed up in all kinds of beautiful and intricately-patterned national dress, performed songs, dances and plays about the spring festival and traditional life on the steppe.  The ending finale had all the students singing together... it was some singing that only a mother, or teacher, could love -- but boy, did they sing with passion!  The only part I could hear was the chorus, which was, as you may have guessed "NAU-RYZ, NAU-RYYYYYYZ!"  I loved it!  I wish this kind of stuff could happen more often, so that I could feel the old culture of this big city and not just the exhaust and detachment of productivity and modernization.

Elephant and Piggie! Hooray!

 This month is literacy month at AIS.  We have read-a-thons (in PJ's and everything!), we have parades where we dress up as main characters in our favorite books. And we dress up our doors as book covers for a book we love.  But what book to choose?  Do you know how many WONDERFUL books there are out there?  I had a feeling, but I didn't really realize it until I started teaching elementary. I think I've read more than 100 books with my students so far, and not one of them has been bad. So, what book to choose? We listed a few of our favorites -- Amelia Bedelia, Elephant and Piggie, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Cowboy and Octopus, Henry and Mudge... the list went on.  We narrowed it down to three.  Then the kids had to each decide on what they wanted, and then draw a mock-up of what they thought the door should look like.


Elephant and Piggie got the most votes, and their designs were pretty creative!  They each made their own Elephant or Piggie and we stuck them on the door.  My co-operating teacher drew big versions of the two characters, and then we stuck it all on the door.  It looks great!  And the school looks great, too -- so many awesome books coming to life.  My next-door-neighbor-classroom did the Magic School Bus.  Sara, the teacher, took pictures of each of the kids and then they put their heads into the windows of a school bus, flying into a giant eyeball.  Michael's class did The Outsiders, with brooding silhouettes and bloody switchblades (granted -- much less cheery, but it shows a real understanding of the theme!).  Isn't reading fun?

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Photos by Brooke,
book cover image sourced from the internet

First week in school, and it's a whole new world

Michael and I just got through our first five days of long school meetings, and our first three days of teaching.  It's been such a change!   Don't get me wrong, I love my teenagers and my wonderful co-workers at my lovely Life Academy in Oakland (I have to give a special shout out to them because I really took for granted how together and organized they are there!) -- but there is something truly joyous about teaching a group of kids who are even more enthusiastic about learning, and just about as in love with reading as I am!   I'm so used to introducing an 'assignment' and bracing for impact, waiting for the "awe, maaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!" which inevitably flows from the mouths of teenagers being asked to write down, say, the date on their paper.

Today, I said that we were going to do some math and the kids ... cheered!   We moved on to Writing, and I was even more shocked by their eagerness to expand their knowledge.  "Can I write five sentences instead of two?"   Then Reading:  "Can you help me choose some more challenging books? I like to challenge myself!"  "Reading!?  Yay!  I love books!  I! Love! Books!"  And so began the chant, raising in volume as my twelve little 7-year-olds sat in a circle on my "Reading Zone" rug.   I pulled out two books, Blueberries for Sal and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, to applause and excitement.  "I love those books!"  "I have that one at home!"  "She follows a bear!"  "Maybe we should let him drive the bus this time?"  "Noooo!"  Giggles, and then, "Shhhhh!  She's going to read!"....  Ah yes, a whole new world for me.

On the other side of the school, Michael opened a poetry unit today.  He announced this first unit somewhat hesitantly, ready to convince and cajole his 12-year-old students into reading and writing poems -- only to be met with enthusiastic readiness:  "Will we get to read Edgar Allen Poe?!", "Can I write a poem and set it to music?!", "Will we get to share what we read?!", and the winner:  "Poetry is so cool!"

I continue to be shocked by the seeming randomness of the kids' love for learning.  I'll be cleaning up something in the room, during a transition from one activity to the next, when K, a Kazakh boy, runs up so close to me that I'm sure he can smell the laundry detergent in my sleeve.  "Will we have some math today?  I love math!"  Me (shocked):  "Uh, yeah.  We'll do math today."  K: "Yaaaaaaayyyy!  I hope we do some super challenge math!" (my phrase for math I think should be 'hard' for them, but usually isn't) and he runs back to his table to reassure his friends that math is indeed on the agenda.

I'm also shocked at the depth and breadth of their knowledge.  These seven-year-olds have had the benefit of true and literal investment in their education.  Tuition to this school is half my annual salary.   Most of the kids have their tuition paid for by their parents' company (as part of their compensation package), but if the kid is from Kazakhstan, that means that their parent is most likely paying from their own pocket.   They get to read a LOT at school and at home, have tutors and intensive instruction in several languages, and have visited almost as many places in the world as we have -- and that's saying something!  I put up my travel photos today and every one of the kids identified at least two of the locations (without looking at my captions), exclaiming something like, "Oooh!  Paris!  I loved Paris!"  To which someone else says, "Me too!  Did you go to the Eiffel Tower?"  ... response:  "Of course!"   Third kid:  "I liked the Taj Mahal better."  Fourth kid:  "The pyramids are cool, too!"  Collective agreement.  They turn to me:  "Have you been to the Eiffel Tower, Miss Friz-zizzle?"  (They haven't learned to say my name quite yet, but we'll get there!)  Me (stunned again):  "Yes.  These are my pictures."  Collective awe. "Coooooool."  Fifth kid:  "What's your favorite airline?  I like Turkish Airline, Boeing 737-800!"   First kid:  "Yeah, Turkish Airline has video games!"  Other kids shout out names of airlines, and describe seats and fun little perks that I associate with First Class.  Ah yes, this is a different place indeed.

On the flip side, we're also having to "make do" a bit here.  Our annual shipment of workbooks and supplies didn't arrive from the USA.  Technology isn't working properly because of some issues with upgrades, compatibility and lack of specific know-how.  Electives teachers "aren't ready yet", which means that my kids are with me most of the day instead of going out for all of their extra classes.  So, even though I'm in a much more 'privileged' school, my old-style public-school background of pulling solutions out of thin air has helped me a lot here!  Skills are priceless, my friends!  I learned mine in public schools. : )

What's your favorite airline?

Bazaar Day

Today we got a little tour of the city, out on an excursion with the new teachers at our school.  We went to Almaty’s ‘famous’ Zeloni (Green) Bazaar, which is impressively large and has more stuff than you can possibly see in one trip.  We also went to the city’s main park, which is where the beautiful Russian Orthodox Church is located (a very old wooden church, with onion domes and golden crosses, made without any nails – only dowels, dove-tails and gravity!), along with a few war memorials and statues of influential people.  We ate shaslik, the Kazakh dish of skewered meat (usually lamb), grilled over a wooden-coal fire with plenty of steam and yummy spices.  Yum!

It was nice to get a chance to talk to some of the people we’ll be working with.  One of the directors stated that there are more than 100 staff members at the school (for 430 students) – a huge number, especially considering that my last school in Oakland ran on about 30 staff members (for 260 students).  One of the new teachers is going to be teaching 2nd grade.  This was actually the role I requested, since I’ve never taught at lower-elementary and I was told that this would be a good place to start.  I was offered first grade, which makes me both nervous and excited because that is such an important year for building foundational knowledge.  It turns out that this new teacher is actually a first-grade teacher, and she wanted to teach first grade, not second!  So, we were both nodding at each other and wondering, “wanna trade?”   We’ll see… we’re both going to think about it this weekend and then get back to the director, who thinks it would be fine to make that arrangement if it’s what we’d like to do.  On one hand, 2nd grade is what I wanted to teach and I feel less intimidated by it:  I’d be building on knowledge rather than setting the foundation.  On the other hand, I’ve been preparing myself to teach 1st grade since January, and it would mean that both the new teacher and I would get a chance to try something new and expand our experiences.  Either way, I’ll be enthusiastic and willing to dive in. 

We bought a map today and found out where our neighborhood bazaar is, so we’re going to go back tomorrow and see what’s on.  On the map, we also spotted the mosque we can hear so clearly at night.  I’d like to see what it looks like so I can picture the imam in his minarets when I hear him singing his beautiful song of praise.

First day in Almaty!

So, we’re just had our first 24 hours in our new home of Almaty, Kazakhstan!  It’s amazing to finally be here, after so much planning and more than a day in transit. 

The ladies at the United counter in Las Vegas were SOOOO helpful and sweet!  We got all 10 packages on the flight and they took care of us the whole way (we paid $200 per bag for 6 of those bags, since the first four were free).   We had our 8 bags plus our two bikes (foldable Dahon bikes that we rode around Ireland last summer).  (There's a photo of a very full truck-bed on the way to the airport.) After we checked everything in, we had this mini anxiety-moment when we thought “what if it doesn’t get there” and then “are we bringing way too much?”  All you can do in that situation is just take a deep breath and hope for the best.

We flew from Las Vegas to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to Almaty.  On the last flight, we spotted a family that we recognized from reading their blog about living in Kazakhstan.   We also met another couple of teachers for QSI at the baggage claim, since they also had ActionPackers coming down the conveyor belt!

Two of the school directors were there to meet us at the airport, along with four drivers with big vans to carry all the luggage.  It was so nice to have friendly faces to greet us at 2am in a new land!  Another employee from the school went shopping and picked up some basic kitchen supplies for us – milk, eggs, ham, yogurt, soap and a few other things to make sure we could make breakfast in the morning.  It’s nice to know that the school is well organized and has thought about the little things that help new teachers feel settled in a place where so many things are so new.   They helped us carry all of our stuff into our new place, deciding that it was indeed a nice apartment and we were well situated in the city. 

Even though we were quite tired from the trip, we took some time to unpack a few things (the quickest move-in ever!), when, at about 4am, we heard the call to prayer coming from a mosque in the distance.  We stopped what we were doing and went to the open window, listening to the song coming across the breeze and admiring our view of the city at night.  At daybreak, we crawled into bed.

We then got up only a few hours later, finishing our unpacking, doing some cleaning, and moving furniture to look more modern and less ‘ex-soviet’ :D.  (All of the couches were pushed against the wall in this huge room, and the window treatments covered the entire wall – even though the window was just average-sized – white sheer fabric with a pink valance-type fabric ‘accenting’ the top.  Add to that the blue ambient lights in the ceiling, and you’ve got a prom-photo backdrop in a room set up for a rave.)  "Before" and "After" shots are included above.   After we moved a few sofas, took down the curtains and gave everything a dusting, we were very happy with our place.  So much storage!  So many windows!  Such a great breeze!  What a modern kitchen!  And we have all new appliances and a brand-new flat-screen TV (which hooks up to our laptops with an HDMI cable, making it easy to display videos from the Internet on the television screen).

We then took a 6-hour walk around the neighborhood, seeing what food was around and what shops we had, getting a feel for prices (not too bad), the architecture (ex-Soviet, with some modern stuff popping up here and there), the driving culture (a little cray-zay!) and the fashions (mostly up-to-date and stylish for people our age).   We don’t immediately stand out as foreigners here, but, once people get a little closer to us, they might smile and say “hello!”  People walk at night, kids were playing outside at 9 pm, and grandmas were outside talking and sharing fruit.  We’re also hearing the calls to prayer more than 5 times a day, since its Ramadan (Holy Month).

Today, (Friday the 13th) we visited the school and saw the campus.  It’s beautiful: green grass, a rose garden, athletic field, new projectors and equipment, big windows, modern floors and plenty of supplies.  People were getting ready for the school year in the same ways we’re used to:  enrolling kids, having meetings, re-stocking books, patching holes in the walls, and generally getting excited about meeting new teachers and starting the school year.  I’m looking forward to it.

Kazakhstan is cool!  Even though we’re still a little melancholy when we think of how much we miss the Bay Area, we’re certainly not regretting the decision to come.

Start spreading the news...

We’re leaving for Kazakhstan in the morning and we are way too tired to be enthusiastic!  Actually, it’s past midnight, which technically means we’re leaving today… eeep!

We spent the last two days packing everything we think we’ll need in order to ‘survive’ for two years.  Have you ever really thought about how many of your possessions you could live without?  It’s really hard to decide which things are ‘vital to my day-to-day life’ and which are ‘nice to have, but could do without’.  Everything we’re going to bring has to fit into the 8 bags we have between us:  Kazakhstan is a land-locked country, which means that shipping things there is neither easy or cheap – we’ll need to fly in everything we want as accompanying baggage.

Four of those ‘bags’ are actually large Rubbermade containers, called “ActionPackers”, which are about the size of a large suitcase and have lock-able lids.   Michael read about them somewhere and decided that they sounded like the right thing to move our stuff in, but no-where in Vegas seemed to them.  (We’ve been visiting Michael’s mom there.)  While we were on our 8,000-mile Road Trip across the USA and Canada, Michael found an ACE Hardware in Denver who carried them.  We already had a full car, but I found a way to fit them in the back seat by playing Tetris with our stuff.

And now we’re back in Vegas, trying to fit everything into our bags.  We’ve got kitchen things, clothes, bathroom supplies (cold medicines, etc.), and a few classroom/teaching supplies (this was the hardest thing to decide on – which books are “best” when you use more than 20 on a regular basis?).   Plus, every bag has to weigh fewer than 50 pounds, which also limits what we pack.  Every bag over the first four (we’re allowed two free bags each) will cost us (actually the school as part of our shipping allowance) $200 each – so we’d better really want whatever it is we’re packing!  Everything else is staying in the storage unit we rented in Vegas, for us to decide on again later (when we move wherever we’re going next).  Also in the storage unit is our car.  Michael's mom is helping to take care of things while we're gone and will go and take it for a spin every month or so.  We got a 10x25-foot bin, which gave us room to put a bunch of boxes in the back.

We did a midnight run to Walmart (yes, there’s a 24-hour store here) to pick up luggage locks for the ActionPackers… only to find that the locks are very small and don’t hold the lid on!  Ha ha… So, we had to put on two locks to keep the lid on… which means we now don’t have enough locks and will need to go back to Walmart on the way to the airport tomorrow.  Sigh.
I love the adventure, but I hate moving.

All done, California

After four years of teaching in California, we're packing up our things for another international move.  Michael and I are moving to Kazakhstan!  We're sad to be leaving California, our friends and our students.  But, at the same time, we're very excited to be moving on to a new adventure.   We'll be working for Quality Schools International, a network of international schools providing an American-style education in over 35 locations around the world.  We'll be teaching in Kazakhstan, at Almaty International School.   Michael will be teaching Social Studies and English to 12- and 13-year-olds, while I'll be teaching 1st grade!   It will be a huge change from high school, but I'm really looking forward to it. 

So, last Friday was the last day of school for us here in California, and it was hard to say goodbye to the people that I have come to love.  At the same time, I'm happy to think that my world of friends is about to expand.  Kids I don't even know now will be "my kids" by the end of the year.   And a city I've never seen before will be "home".  It's not the first time we've moved internationally.  I know there is a lot of work to do between now and then, a lot of surprises will come up and a whole bunch of new situations will be thrown at us.  But we'll also get to grow as professionals, learn a new culture, and see new places and meet new people.  Best of all, we get to go together!

So, all done California!  We've loved living here.  We've loved teaching here.  We've loved the landscapes, the people, the schools where we've worked.  We promise to come back and visit.