We had two weeks of staff orientation.
As overwhelming as those weeks can be, and they certainly have their moments, there was also an emphasis on doing what we needed to do to feel good about life here. The director of the school is Incredible and she has cancelled several meetings or plans to provide us more time to prepare, work in smaller groups, attend to life-things instead of school-things, and even just to relax. She built several 'fun' activities into the schedule and forced us to leave the school early on several occasions. (Before school begins, the classroom is really not the place teachers want to be, and yet when you're setting up the classroom for the first time it's also tough to get us out! So much to do!)
One activity was a trip to the beach town, Jurmala the school is in between Riga and Jurmala. All the new hires were taken by school bus and left there, forced to take the train back into Riga so we wouldn't go back to the school. We enjoyed some great pizza, and so did a swarm of wasps. Then walked down to the water. We were actually in the Gulf of Riga, and not the Baltic Sea... I wouldn't normally claim a difference, except that the water was flat. I've seen bigger waves in a bathtub! The water was surprisingly cold since it was in the 80s and had been hot for a the past few days. I went in up to mid-calf and by that point I couldn't really feel my toes anymore. It felt kind of good in a refreshing way!
A week later, all the returning staff was back and the week seemed to have more stressful moments and a stronger sense of urgency. So, on Friday, with school starting first thing Monday, everyone was told to leave the school no later than 3:30 and a trip on one of Riga's boat cruises was booked.
Although most of us were completely exhausted and the weather was threatening rain, we had a great time on the boat cruise! The rain held off and we even had sun for a bit.
It was a great way to wrap up orientation and get ready to GO on Monday!
In two weeks we were introduced to a new city, culture, home, school, language, food, traditions, positions, expectations, lots of people, a few students, .... two weeks. No big deal, right.
There were multiple meetings where I looked at other new hires only to see the same 'deer-in-headlights' look upon their face. Sometimes, I saw that look on the returning staff faces. That always made me feel a lot better!
As overwhelming as those weeks can be, and they certainly have their moments, there was also an emphasis on doing what we needed to do to feel good about life here. The director of the school is Incredible and she has cancelled several meetings or plans to provide us more time to prepare, work in smaller groups, attend to life-things instead of school-things, and even just to relax. She built several 'fun' activities into the schedule and forced us to leave the school early on several occasions. (Before school begins, the classroom is really not the place teachers want to be, and yet when you're setting up the classroom for the first time it's also tough to get us out! So much to do!) One activity was a trip to the beach town, Jurmala the school is in between Riga and Jurmala. All the new hires were taken by school bus and left there, forced to take the train back into Riga so we wouldn't go back to the school. We enjoyed some great pizza, and so did a swarm of wasps. Then walked down to the water. We were actually in the Gulf of Riga, and not the Baltic Sea... I wouldn't normally claim a difference, except that the water was flat. I've seen bigger waves in a bathtub! The water was surprisingly cold since it was in the 80s and had been hot for a the past few days. I went in up to mid-calf and by that point I couldn't really feel my toes anymore. It felt kind of good in a refreshing way! A week later, all the returning staff was back and the week seemed to have more stressful moments and a stronger sense of urgency. So, on Friday, with school starting first thing Monday, everyone was told to leave the school no later than 3:30 and a trip on one of Riga's boat cruises was booked. Although most of us were completely exhausted and the weather was threatening rain, we had a great time on the boat cruise! The rain held off and we even had sun for a bit.
It was a great way to wrap up orientation and get ready to GO on Monday!
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