I woke up quite anxious about the first day of school. I got to school for the introduction at 8:15 am, which turned out to be a bit of a waste of time as we all just sat there and stared at each other. The general meeting started at 9 am. The head master and other senior leaders introduced themselves and told all of us how wonderful we were and how great this school year was going to be. It was such a supportive, positive environment.
Once the meeting was over we all had coffee and then my Year 2 team met. We discussed expectations for the week and then were set off to work in our rooms. Because the person who taught in my classroom was no longer at the school, all of her things were left in the room. So, unfortunately, my teacher assistant and I spent most of our time the first day purging the room of things we didn’t need. My TLA (teaching and learning assistant), Carmen, put backing paper on all of my bulletin boards and started doing things that I would normally do as a teacher. It is going to take some time to get used to having someone do the mundane parts of the job, but I think I’ll manage in the end.
I hardly had time to breath after school before I went to the club for a meeting about the social events to take place for the next academic year. The kids had picked Duke up from Jane’s house earlier in the day, so that was one job we didn’t have to do.
Once I was home, Cathy, Claire, Sean, and his daughter Carly, came over and we ordered some food. Brian and Lara popped in as well. We killed many birds with one stone that evening. I was so exhausted. It was great seeing them and catching up, but I did need a good night’s sleep. The week was just going to get more hectic.
School on Monday, if it’s possible, was better than Sunday. We had necessary meetings but then were allowed to get on with our room set up. After school I picked up Jack from his friend Adam’s house. We continued to get things back to normal after our 7 weeks away. Around 4:30 we took Duke and went to the vets to visit our potential new puppy. The dogs got along and the puppy was the girl version of Duke. We decided we would bring her home for Duke to have a Duchess. The kids were so excited. We arranged to have her spayed and then we would pick her up on Tuesday.
We got home with Duke just in time to go to the club for a committee meeting. It lasted for nearly 2 hours. The kids swam most of the time and then went into the restaurant to have dinner. We joined them after the meeting.
On Tuesday we had training on the computer system at school. It’s amazing how organized Brighton College is. I was granted permission to leave early to get my exit process finished with Abu Dhabi Education Council. The entire ordeal reminded me how blessed I was to have this new job. I was going to go back to school after I ran around Al Ain trying to get all of the official documentation in order to officially be finished with ADEC, but it took way too long. So instead I went home and Stuart, Millie and I went to pick up Duchess. Jack didn’t go because he was having a sleepover at Adam’s.
Once we were home it was all too obvious that Duchess was going to be a welcomed member of the fur family. Oreo greeted her and Pumpkin wasn’t totally mean to her. Of course, Duke loves her. She adjusted well the first night. She did squat and almost pee on Cathy’s foot, but other than that she was fine. We had dinner with Cathy and Claire at our house.
Wednesday was busy at school. It seemed we would never get the room cleaned. It was overwhelming and I started to feel the pressure. My team had a meeting and we discussed way more than I could grasp. How is it that I am starting my 27th year in education and it feels like my first? There are so many things to take in.
I intended to be home by 3 pm, but wasn’t, so Stuart took the kids to get their school uniforms. They have a house system at the school and the three of us were supposed to be in Hampden house, but in one of the morning meetings it was mentioned that there wasn’t a House Mistress for Ryle house. So I told the Deputy Head of Pastoral Care that my kids and I would switch houses and then I would be happy to be the House Mistress of Ryle. It’s kind of like being head cheerleader. Ha! She said that was fine. The kids’ PE shirts will have green stripes now instead of red. Go Ryle!
I took Sean’s daughter, Carly, to the tailor to get her skirts hemmed. We then went to the club to eat dinner. Stuart had taken the kids with him and we met them there. Stuart had training so I ordered him food and left just before their training was over. Jack stayed with Stuart while Millie and I came home and had showers. I put Millie to bed just before Stuart and Jack got home. While I waited for them to return, I started watching the new season of Bachelor in Paradise. What a bunch of trash! Yahoo!
Thursday, total anxiety set in. I really didn’t think I would be prepared for Sunday. The Head of the Junior School, Mr McArthur, had really emphasized a balance of work and family life. He encouraged us to stay away from the college at the weekends, but I was sure I was going to have to go in at least one day. I did some mundane, brainless tasks in order to feel accomplished and avoid some of the real things I needed to do, like make a plan for what I was going to do on Sunday.
Before I finished my work for the day, I was alerted to the fact that I should mention to someone that I had noticed that Millie was one of two native English speaking students in her class. I had noticed it on Tuesday, but didn’t say anything because I hadn’t the time to do so. Well, I’m glad I did. It turns out that she was moved when it was brought to the attention of the senior leadership. She will now be with the class she was in when she was in pre school at Brighton. The students typically move up together and are in the same class each year, unless there are issues with specific children.
Believe it or not, I only stayed until 4:15 pm on Thursday and I had decided I could get away with not going to the college over the weekend, as long as I did some work at home.
When I got home from work, I showered and we headed to the rugby club. The staff of Brighton College were meeting there for a social gathering. The college was paying for our dinners. I didn’t go to hang out with my colleagues, but once I was there I couldn’t help it. There were so many staff members there. It was a great night for the club. Cathy and Sean came back to our house for a bit after leaving the club.
Friday morning I didn’t wake up until 9 am. We had a lot of errands to run before Sunday. For one, closed-toed shoes are not my friends. I had so many blisters from the first day of school that I had to wear sandals for most of the rest of the week. I was granted permission while we had no students, but closed-toed shoes would be in the dress code from Sunday. So off to find some sensible lesbian shoes I went. See, my problem was that I had tried to get stylish ones instead of comfortable one. So we headed to the outlet mall. I am happy to report I bought two pair of Skechers shoes that aren’t terribly flattering, but are comfortable. We were also able to get Jack and Millie some goggles and a few other items needed to start the year out right. We picked up some groceries and then headed home.
At 2 pm I took Carly to get her hair done. I dropped her off and then Sean would pick her up later and head to our house for dinner. The rest of the day was spent moving things into the guest room. We decided we would make it an office. We put the futon in there so that if we have guests we can still have a bed for them.
For dinner, Stuart burgers, brats, and chips (French fries). It was a quiet evening. I didn’t do any work all day, which had me a bit stressed. I work well under pressure, thank goodness.
Saturday morning I got up and weighed. A group of my friends are starting Fat Fighters (our version of weight watchers). I have put on a few unwanted pounds and I need to get it together. So we took a picture of our weight and sent it to each other. That was fun!
We headed out to another mall and I bought some things for my classroom. We had a store called Diaso. It’s kind of like a Dollar store. It has the most obscure things in it, that strangely enough I find myself in need of. I also got some socks that would go in my new shoes. I bought a stuffed dolphin, because that is the name of my class. We looked at patio furniture because we were making our carport into a patio. We had been given a fence for the front of the carport and Sturt had installed it earlier in the week. Since the dogs pee and poo out in the back of our house, which is small, there is no outdoor space for us to enjoy nice evenings outside. So we are going to make one. After shopping we ate lunch and took a tour around IKEA. I found a reading tent that looked like a circus tent. Our theme for this first term is The Big Top. Our entire year group will be converted into a circus. We plan on putting up a ‘big top’ tent in the corridor between our 4 classes. It should be exciting for the students, and way against any fire code out there. But no one really seems to care about that.
We got home around 4 pm. I took Jack for a haircut and looked for something for dinner. Jack wasn’t terribly impressed with his hair so I promised that once we put some gel in it, if he still didn’t like it, we would go back on Sunday and get it sorted.
Once I was back at the house I worked for a couple of hours on my lesson plans and really just figuring out what I would do on Sunday. One day at a time is all I can handle right now. Stuart made dinner and got the kids showered. He also kept the laundry going and ironed the kids’ uniforms. He really has done a ton for me this past week because I’m sure he can see how anxious I am. It’s been so sweet of him.
Dinner was pork, potatoes, corn and a salad. We sat as a family and talked about the new school year. The kids were excited, but nervous, which also described my feelings. I cleaned up dinner and then went back to the computer to finish up my stuff. Millie went to bed without a fuss. Stuart went to fill his car with petrol, while Jack watched The Lion King. He went to bed at a reasonable time as well.
I finished my work around 8:30 pm. I used all of the color ink in our printer, so that kind of stopped my work. It was fine by me. I sat in the living room for about two hours, watching The Mummy, but really just chilling out. What a week this was!!!!
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