The Best Staff Meeting Ever

Today our head of faculty had the best staff meeting ever. She divided us into two groups each one had an English speaking teacher. The task was for each Arabic teacher to write her name in Arabic then the other English teacher and I asked them questions about their names.We had to find out the meaning of their names, if thier name had a country of origin, why their parents chose that name and if they liked their names. Simple right? I tell you, as a newbie, this was the best thing she could have done. It allowed us to get to know each other. I learned that one teacher's name means "scent of Jasmine", that my co-teacher and I are both named after great-grandmothers, that the art teacher is hilarious and that two of the teachers' familes follow naming patterns(ie-all the girls' names started with R). We laughed and had a chance to come together as a staff.

After the meeting with everyone, the head of faculty had a meeting for just the English teachers that lasted like two seconds. It was basically a check-in and to show us the weekly schedule of events in the school that has been implemented. We let her know we had chosen standards for the following week for everyone except KG1 but that as soon as we spoke with the KG1 Arabic teachers we would let her know. Well we set out to find the ladies since we had so much time to plan. We found them alright but there would be no planning done. Everyone was gathered in the principal's office. At first we thought it was a meeting...wrong! They were just hanging out. We went there with the purpose of getting some work done but were ordered by the principal to sit down-when she orders you obey. We spent the next 45minutes eating chocolate and chit-chatting. We talked about people's diets. My co-teacher's mother-in-law who had just moved in with her and her family. It was fun. It took me a while to realize that while this gathering seemed like a waste of time, it was very important. I'm learning that being social is just as important as getting your work done well. So after a few uneasy moments I was able to push aside my workaholic inclination and relax into a most amusing conversation.