Miller and I officially started school on September 9th (although I have been going in to set up my room and for professional development since August 12th).
Miller and I on the first day of school.
It is pretty exciting to both of us that we are at the same school: Pinewood the American School of Thessaloniki. I am in the Elementary building. Miller is across the soccer field/track in the Secondary building. Miller's building is brand new and he is especially enjoying all the built in outside spaces it offers (since winter here is pretty mild). There is a bridge that connects the two secondary buildings that is open to the outside, lots of tables under awnings for their breaks, and windows everywhere. Miller is also loving that his school has air conditioning, because mine does not.
My school is pretty small, and so is my classroom. It is a pretty tight squeeze to have 18 desks, one teacher table, and the kid's cubbies in the room. I did manage to squeeze in a small carpet for us to sit at.
Despite the squished situation, my class and I had a good first week of school. I have 18 students. Ten of the students don't speak English very well/at all. My students are from a variety of countries ranging from here in Greece, to the USA, to Britain, to Ukraine, to Bulgaria, to Israel, and beyond!
Because we are such a diverse class, I decided our first social studies unit should be "Who We Are", with an emphasis on how our cultures, where we live, and our families help shape who we are/our personalities. The kids are really enjoying exploring their names, their home languages, and why their family decided to move to Greece.
My classroom.
Each day, Miller and I take the school's charter bus to school. However, the bus has both students and teachers on it, so the bus arrives only about ten minutes before the school day starts...not much time to get ready in the morning. On the first day of school, I felt I needed more time, so Miller and I took a taxi to school. The second day of school, I thought we would try taking the bus.
Both Miller and I were a bit nervous since we hadn't tried taking a charter bus to school before. We arrived at the assigned bus stop nice and early. The coach bus pulled up like we expected. It was about eight minutes earlier than we had expected. Miller and I were both super grateful that we had decided to get to the stop early. As we were riding the bus, I was confused. It didn't seem like we were stopping at the stops that were planned in the bus route. And, it seemed like we were going south, out of Thessaloniki.
All of a sudden, we stopped at the German High School. We had gotten on the wrong coach bus (all the nonpublic Greek schools use coach buses and we hadn't even considered that others would stop at the same stop we were at)! Because I was so nervous for our first day on the bus, I had forgotten to check the bus's label. The bus driver was so kind and offered to drive us to Pinewood. So, we got a bus all to ourselves that day! And now we have a crazy story to tell!
Needless to say, we are pros at riding the bus to school now. We also ride the bus home. Miller comes to my classroom at the end of each day and we take the after activities bus home, which leaves about an hour after school ends. It would be WAY too stressful to take the first bus home, as I would have to walk out of the classroom with the students.
With the first week of school under our belts, Miller and I are really looking forward to next week and settling into a routine, now that we know what to expect each day.
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