Big Plans

“None of us are as smart as all of us” Chinese Proverb

So I am going to be label the next few days according to the names of the orientation schedules. Today was a pretty good day with everything that was learned and the start of the school orientation. I started the day great getting to talk to my mom, which is always a nice surprise, I headed to breakfast and then to my first meeting. I was early to my meeting by about an hour (so me) and was able to talk to ADEC for a few minutes. They were every open and welcoming to me, which makes it a lot easier. The orientation was full of a lot of great information, a few of the things I learn was that in the Abu Dhabi schools there are 11, 000 staff members, 445 LT (Licensed Teachers) from last year, 940 LT coming in for this year, and 260 Emirates Staff. They also filled us in on the main idea of this reform, “to modernize, not to westernize.”

The second topic was about Ramadan which I found to be interesting since I was immerged into the middle of it. Ramadan I learned is always the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is actually 11-12 days short then our calendar. This is why Ramadan moves every year. I also learned that Ramadan means “Dryness/heat”, which includes why they fast, a day fasting can last up 17 hours depending on where you are in the world. They then showed us a movie about the big plan for this educational reform. It showed how in ten years the plans where to have students able to get into the university here in Abu Dhabi. We were also should a movie about the vision of 2030, which showed what the plan for Abu Dhabi’s development is for the next 20 years.

After this we head to Al Mawaheb, a model school here in Abu Dhabi.
Here we started our Arabic lessons. It was neat to sit there and hear our teacher explain how sounds should sound. It was even more fun to listen to the people in our class try and say them. We finished the day with a reflection group about everything we learn. However one of the best parts of the day was sitting on the bus ride home and having a fellow teacher turn to me and point out that the beach boys where playing. Then a few songs later whip it, oh what a bus ride. Well I am off to finish eating my Rice Krispies.