School

So I typed a full post and then accidentally deleted it, so we will see if i can re-create it.

So this week was my first week of teaching here in Ankara.  I have really enjoyed it so far.  This week was not easy by any means but it was successful.

So I teach two classes.  I am the primary English teacher for the Green class.  The Green class is a pre-K class of 22 5-yr olds.  I teach them 16 blocks a week.  Each block is 40 minutes long.  The first two blocks of the day I work with the Turkish teachers to teach sports and then do stations.  Every day we do two Turkish stations and two English stations.  Then I teach 6 other English lessons a week.

I also work with another English teacher to teach the Purple class.  The Purple class is a K class of 22 6-yr olds.  I teach them 8 blocks a week.  I teach everything from sports to drama to reading to writing to math.  We have an integrated curriculum so the students learn everything in English.

This week has been full of planning and preparing for all of my classes.  So far the most challenging part is filling up a 40 min block with sports, but I know that eventually this will be easy too.  I am really looking forward to tomorrow being Friday, it is my easiest schedule of the week.  I will hopefully be able to get a lot of planning done tomorrow in order to have a more relaxing weekend.

I consider this week successful for a number of reasons but two bigs ones are that in my Pre-K class we sing this hello song everyday and it is a pretty catchy song, well while I am in the classroom sometimes I catch the kids singing it while they are playing with other toys, it brings a smile to my face.  And in my K class my students have started to call me by my name :) I'm so excited they remember me haha.  It's so nice to hear Miss. Mandy again :) Although I must admit sometimes I start to refer to myself as Teacher Mandy as apposed to Miss. Mandy (I guess thats what two years in China does)

Well sorry if this post is a little choppy I'm pretty tired, it's been a long week, and I had to type it twice.  But I did put up a few photos of one of my classes.  Hope you enjoy.  This weekend I'll try to take more pictures of the city.

Today I went for a walk...

This week has been crazy busy.  My days have been spent at school and my nights have been trying to find food and sleeping.  Then Friday evening I had my first Turkish class.  My new teacher taught us how to take a taxi, not that I really remember half of what she taught, I need to study, but I do remember how to say "How much does it cost?" I think this will come in handy :)

So now its the weekend and I am trying to get organized to teach on Monday and get some sleep and clean up my apartment, you know all those weekend activities.  Well today after an excursion to town to try to get some passport photos, I decided to take a walk near my apartment.  One of the other new foreign teachers informed me that across the street from our apartments there are some trails that you can walk on.  So I decided to go explore.

I took my camera with me and the results can be found on my flickr page...ENJOY!

I'm Alive...

I made it to Turkey! After a long two day journey I made it to Turkey on Monday around 3.  After I got into Ankara I went to go get my luggage and found I only had one :) So I went over to the Lufthansa office and filled our the necessary paperwork (I have since gotten my other suitcase, and found out that it was lost in Chicago, stop number 1) then I exchanged some money and then left the airport and found a driver that was waiting for me.  I preceded to apologize to him that it took me so long but I was missing my luggage and he told me "No English" (I'm pretty sure this is a sign of things to come)  Well this driver drove me to the school and took me to the High School Principal.  He welcomed me to the school and explained to me in English that the driver was going to take me up to my apartment and then he would pick me back up at 8:30 the next morning to take me to the Primary school.  

So the driver took me up to my apartment showed me which keys to use in which doors, and then said goodbye.  So I got to my apartment at about 5 and I unpacked and took a shower and found some food, which the school so nicely put in my fridge for me. They also had blankets on the bed, towels for me to take a shower, dishes and cookware.  Life was good!  So I did some things and then went to bed by 7. 

I was up by 4:30 the next morning :) I got ready for the day and the driver came for me at 8:30 he drove me down to the school and brought me to the primary school principal.  She met me and said oh have you been to the English office yet, and I said no so she took me there, where I met some really nice grade 1 teachers, who then took me down to my department.  I was able to meet the staff I will be working with and get right into things.  

For the last two days I have been thrown into the middle of things.  I have been attending meetings and trying to understand what it is I will be teaching, no one else really seems to know either, so I'm not that behind.  I also have been meeting staff and figuring out the new surroundings I am in.  I also found out that I am not the last one here, we are still waiting on another teacher.

Today the kids started school, but they are not there a full day yet.  Lots of tears this morning as they had to leave their parents for the first time.  I will explain more of my role in the school in a later entry.  But today all I had to do was get to know the kids and spend some time with them.  Since I don't know any Turkish and these kids don't know any English it was quite an experience.  I did remember though that love has no language barrier and so if you show love, and some fun expressions, all will work out :)

So since this is the latest I have stayed up all week 7:35pm right now, I am going to end this post and I will write more another time.  But before I sign off, some things that surprise me about Turkey...

1. I blend in!  This is a good and bad thing, everyone here looks the same you can't tell if someone is Turkish or not, this is bad because everyone expects that I speak Turkish and I just don't.

2. The Sky is BLUE! This is a GREAT thing and it makes me happy as I gaze out the windows at school trying really hard not to fall asleep.

Look for some pictures on flickr :) till next time....

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane...

I got my flight today! YEAH I am leaving Sunday at 12:30 flying to Chicago and then from Chicago to Munich and from Munich to Ankara :) I will arrive in Ankara at 3:00pm on Monday (Ankara time) I am very excited to get to Ankara and start my new job but my mind is going crazy with all the things I have to do before Sunday! I can't believe just yesterday I was sitting around doing nothing and now today I have more things to do then I can think of!

I am working on an email to send out with some more contact information, if you don't already receive my emails send me an email to mandyteachesoverseas@gmail.com and I will add you to my list.

A Visa In My Hand...

Today I finally got my visa. I'll include a picture so you can see, for more of my pictures from this summer check out my flickr account next to the post ;) I have emailed my contact in Turkey and as long as they still want me as a teacher they will be purchasing my airline ticket in the next day or two and then I will be off to Ankara, Turkey!  Stay tuned for more details...