teaching: week 1

Tomorrow will mark one week since the school year began. I can already tell that time is going to fly, and in about two seconds I'll be saying, "Have a good October Break!"

[Yeah, that's right fellow Canadians ... we get a week off in October and a Spring Break -- keep in mind school started on August 15!]

My first week as a real teacher ... In the calm before the storm, I carefully tried to decorate my classroom and organize myself. Greeting parents and students, introducing myself as "Mrs. Shelley," on that first day felt very strange. Almost an out-of-body experience. A part of me felt like I could better relate to the nervous, skinny middle school student in the desk than to the seasoned teachers in the staff room.

Since then, I've allowed the whirlwind that is made up of three middle school grades rip through my carefully set up classroom. In only a week, they've broken it in and made it feel like a proper classroom -- a mixture of organization and chaos.

I teach the following four classes: grade 6 Language Arts, grade 7 Language Arts, grade 8 Language Arts and grade 7 World Geography. I also have the grade 7 class for morning devotions and advisory (a study hall period at the end of the day). They are the group I spend the most time with; they are fun, they are loud, they are antsy and there are more boys than girls. I'm already rearranging lessons and units to make them more hands-on! (Salt dough maps, here we come!)

So, who are the students that sit in front me every day?

I am amazed at how truly international this school is. During teacher orientation I was already impressed: my colleagues come from the States (Alaska to Florida!), Canada, the Netherlands, Congo, Uganda, Sudan, and the UK. I have students from literally all over the world -- the Philippines, India, Korea, Canada, America, Europe, Australia, Ethiopia, South Africa, Colombia, South Sudan, and Nigeria.

My students speak French, Spanish, Danish, Arabic, Korean, Luganda, Swahili and a host of African languages I had not even heard of. (When I asked the question: "What languages do you speak or understand?" some of them had to stop and count on their hands to keep track!)

Besides where they are from, my students have been all over the world. I asked them to write down the places they've lived, not just visited, and I couldn't believe how many countries some of them have experienced at such a young age. Their social backgrounds and reasons for being here are very different. Some are here for the Christian foundation, others are here for the academics. Many come from missionary families, while others are from prominent Ugandan families.

Some of my students' parents work for NGOs, while others work for international companies. In one class two boys (who had some of the longest lists of "places lived" -- including hotspots like Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia) shared that both of their fathers work for the UN.

[Yay -- I get to teach them World Geography!]

My students also come from different academic backgrounds. Many of the missionary kids have been at least partially homeschooled, and the children from around the world all come from different academic systems. I've had one student tell me he read Macbeth in grade 7, while other students -- refugees from neighbouring African countries -- have had little formal schooling.

Wherever they are from, all of my students are, above all, middle schoolers. They are awkward, funny, emotional and goofy. They are stressed about their homework and obsessed with what their peers think. They are pressured by parents, pushed around by older siblings, and have power over younger siblings. When asked to anonymously write down topics or questions they would like addressed in devotions, the boys snicker and giggle and hint at a "certain three-letter topic."

...They also stink after gym class.

Yup, at the end of the day they're all just middle schoolers.