MaureenMacushla: Fond Farewell, Fabulous Future

Hello again, loved ones! Another year has passed without much written, and yet again I am promising myself that I will be more diligent in my postings. What a year it has been! Part of why I've neglected my blog is because I've chosen to channel most of my energy into my work. This year I had an opportunity to teach with Frankfurt International School (FIS), an excellent institution for concept driven learning. It is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, and I was on the Wiesbaden Campus (FISW) which offers the Primary Years Program (PYP). This is a model of student centered teaching; the entire program, from pre-primary to 5th grade, teaches 6 Transdisciplinary Theme Units. The teachers plan together before each unit to incorporate math, science, social studies, language (both in English and German), PE, music, art, library and technology into the theme and lesson plans. It's a wonderful program that I am so grateful I was selected to learn, but took much time and effort. Check out the animation I made to help explain some of the PYP: http://goanimate.com/videos/0HjZq1Dz6h20
At first it was daunting - so much was new and I had to pick it up fairly quickly. I was lucky to have 16 amazing students and many fantastic colleagues to help me along. The year was far from perfect, one of the MOST challenging of my career, but I learned SO much! I still have room to grow, and I've decided to stay with the PYP because I think it rocks. Sadly, my campus is small, and there is usually only one class per grade level. That's actually why I received this opportunity - they happened to have a double 5th grade this year and needed an extra teacher, so I signed on for the year. Because it IS such a wonderful school, no one ever really wants to leave! The ones that do generally go on parental leave or retire. It has to be a pretty irresistible offer to convince people to move on...
So at the end of this year there were no open 5th grade positions, and next year's 5th grade has only one class, with the irreplaceable Mrs. AB, who was my co-teacher this year. What to do? Apply to other IB PYP schools, of course! After much deliberation, I have chosen to accept an offer from American International School of Abu Dhabi (AISA for short), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I'm excited for my ne w adventure! I will be on a team of FIVE 5th teachers - I intend to learn as much as I can from my new colleagues, as I did at FISW. I start at my new school August 17th. Wish me luck!!!
My year in pictures (since my last post):
September