I Now Understand.

I teach 5th grade at the same school my kids attend Kindergarten. I take the school bus (not the American idea of a school bus!) with my kids in the morning. Most afternoons, I take the school bus home with them too. This is very different than my 10-11 hour days as an assistant principal! We leave the house at 8:45 am - so nice after years of leaving the house by 6:45 am!

Teachers are hoarders. People joke, but real teachers see an item and ponder how they could use it in their classrooms. "Oh, you are not going to throw out that piece of lint, are you? I could use that to teach about the phases of the moon!"


I now understand why we get that rap.


I find myself saving everything, hoarding, and re-using constantly. For instance, the little yarn that another teacher lent me so I could prop my window open during the hot days of August is now the same yarn that is binding a book that one of my students wrote. Not sure what I will do when it is hot again--I guess I can steal one of Emet's shoe laces to hold open my window. When you don't have much, you use what you have. I imagine this is what it used to be like way back when. I guess, sadly, it is still like this in America in many school districts. I worked in such school districts most of my career, however, I could just run to Target to get what I needed for my classroom. The difference here...there is no Target (gasp!).

Here are a few shots of my classroom. I wish I had taken "before" pictures. Most of what is in my classroom, I brought from my attic. I brought over a 1000 books. I am excited to donate them to the school when we leave Georgia.

Every day, from 10:45 - 11:-00 the school stops for a break and a snack. Teachers and kids can come to this cafe to buy cakes, teas, and other delicacies.

At 12:30 every day, the entire English department and some of the Georgian department come together in this canteen to eat lunch. All students are given a hot homemade meal each day. The teachers eat lunch with their classes.

Flags from around the world are at the entrance of our school.



A view of the city from our school grounds.





There is a fish pond and a grassy area where kids can play at break time and at recess. It is beautiful!