Oh No... Not Another Obsession

I like to keep my obsessions to a minimum. My love for dark chocolate m&m's, my kindle, scrabble and owls are some of those very obsessions, in addition to my ever expanding blog roll. Just two weeks ago though, I discovered something that is life changing...Pinterest. Yes, I know, you may be saying "Miss Rorey, get in the game, get with it, where have you been?" but the answer is, I have been in AFRICA! So I guess that is a good enough excuse.

Pinterest allows me to do a few of my obsessions at once. These include find great educational resources, connect to other people around the world, collect photos and ideas and organize things. Pinterest allows me to do all of this. So if you have not discovered Pinterest for yourself (say you are living in Africa, or under a rock) check it out and be sure to follow me. I have a great growing page of owls, language arts activities, vegan food and inspirational posters, just to name a few.

Student Post: Maiya's Museum Visit

“Daddy look at the big skeleton of the dinosaur," I shouted. Although this was just at the front desk.

We waited in the line for the tickets to go in. When we got the tickets we walked in the big beautiful Museum. We walked up the stairs and my dad saw a gigantic tree trunk that showed some rings, every ring for a year, the tree was more than a thousand years old!

We saw a sign that said "T-REX encounter" and a door next to the big pretty thing. I tugged on my dad’s red and blue shirt and pointed at it. We walked in the large door and all of a sudden I heard a gigantic roar.

We walked around the corner and saw gigantic, I mean enormous, robot dinosaurs. Well they weren't roaming around or anything but they even had like fake skin. 

    They were so horrifying. This is the fun part. At the back of the room was SUE! The Tyrannosaurus Rex or T-Rex. Maybe you haven't heard about Sue, well she is the biggest dinosaur they've found and is the most complete. Amazing huh. THE END

IST Gives

Hello Families and welcome back from the long holiday! As many of you already know, we had extensive flooding, not only on the IST teacher housing, but throughout all of Dar es Salaam. The water damage was extensive and many people lost everything in the flood, some people even lost their lives. On Friday we had an assembly discussing the aftermath of the flood. The students saw some photos of what occurred, met some lifeguards who work at our school who teamed up and saved lives in the community to become local heroes, and got information about IST Gives.

 

The school has organized a giving drive to assist families in need. All this week we will be accepting clothing, shoes, bedding, housewares, dried or canned food and money donations to help out families in need.

Our new PYP unit is about Heroes and this is an easy way for you and your family to become heroes to someone in need. All next week, please send in items to be shared with people in need and become a local hero too!

Day In My Shoes

One blogger I follow started a fun linky party and I wanted to join along. It is called Day In My Shoes and fellow bloggers are telling all about their day so here it goes.

• 5:20 am Alarm goes off, get in swimsuit, grab a glass of water, keys and goggles.
• 5:25 Walk downstairs to meet a few fellow teachers and walk across the field to the school swimming pool. Get in the brisk water and swim laps for 30 minutes.
• 5:55 Walk back home and take a shower. Get ready for the day. Make some tea and breakfast to take along, check email, facebook and blogs, get lunch out of the fridge, pack school bag, pray I did not forget something, walk back across the field with Cody to work.
• 6:30 Check in at staff room, morning greetings to fellow co-workers in Kiswahili, check pigeon-hole and walk to class.
• 6:35 Enter room, usually with waiting students. Turn on the lights and air con units, get out computer, eat breakfast while setting up for the day. Make sure the schedule is up, the students have gotten their stickers from yesterday. Greet my teaching assistant, and every student and parent entering the room. Talk with parents and students until the morning bell rings.
• 7:10 School starts. With students set daily goals and give super stars for great team behavior the day before. Morning work and then start Language Arts block. Spelling, Daily 5 and writing.
• 9:15 Read aloud story while kids eat snack. Right now I am reading a book about animal heroes to go with our most recent PYP unit.
• 9:30 Recess bell rings. Wednesdays I head out for break duty.
• 9:50 Specials for the students and prep/team planning for me. The special schedule changes daily so the times are often slightly different.
• 11:20 Lunch for staff and students. I eat in my room and continue to get more work done, taking a small break to check my blog reader.
• 12:05 pm Math block. Currently we are studying geometry.
• 1:30 Pass out homework books and homework, pass out homework bags and wrap-up the day. If there is time, play a class game until the bell rings at 1:45.
• 1:55 Grade papers, speak with parents or colleagues and get ready for the next day. On Thursdays I help lead my Girl Scouts after school activity.
• 3:30 Head home back across the field. Get snack, check email and do various computer things. Right now I am addicted to pinterest and have been spending too much time organizing my teacher resources here.
• 4:30 Yoga, pilates, running, volleyball or football with colleagues living on campus depending on the day.
• 6:30 Start prepping dinner with Cody.
• 7:00 Dinner and a movie. We do not have TV so we typically put something on to watch. We brought a lot of DVD's to Tanzania.
• 9:00 Get ready for bed, read and lights out between 9:30 and 10:00