This was the most difficult week of the year for me (I think). My new job started at Wolfert Tweetalig Monday and Tuesday. For the first time in the Netherlands, I felt that my presence and my work were appreciated. The lessons with the students went well (there were even a couple girls who said they finally understood math), the colleagues were interesting and friendly, and the administration helped me to get situated.
Many things did not work as they should have: my key card wasn't working properly, rooms were inconsistent, and there were computer problems, but I always knew how to get it fixed. Hence, there was a system that was able to correct the problems. This was quite refreshing.
I teach 4 lessons per day at Tweetalig. My coach (yes, I have a coach, and we already talked!) looked at my schedule from WolfertPRO and her jaw dropped. She couldn't understand how I was given such an impossible load. In my three remaining days there I have 20 hours of teaching. That number would have been around 12 had I been full time at Tweetalig. Something is not right about this....
At PRO we finished up the balloon car project this week. That took a lot of energy. Some classes did very well with it, others were almost a complete failure. Strange how that worked out. Next week I will start some traditional book work because I was not happy with the results overall and I don't have time to develop a new project.
So many teachers are gone (we just lost another one this past week) that the kids are getting really hyper. The schedule seems to change more than it is consistent, and this is hard on everybody. My focus and energy are quickly shifting to the new school.
On Wednesday we had some friends over for dinner which was nice, but it was a slightly late night. Thursday was my three hour Dutch lesson (after teaching 8 lessons) and yesterday we went to Den Haag for a going away party. One of Naomi's friends is spending six months traveling around the world. Needless to say, I am proud that I made it through this week in one piece.
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