Journal 1

The school I am attending for my 7th Teaching Practice (TP) is Al Darari Kindergarten, it is a

government school run by a local principal; Fatima Al Nuaimi. The school curriculum is given

by the ministry of education (MOE), whom are also at the top of the hierarchy in the school.

The school has 12 classrooms, 6 KG-1 and 6 KG-2, I was observing the KG2-2 classroom

taught by Miss Manal. The teacher student ratio is 15:282, 12 classroom teachers (in Arabic)

and 3 English teachers, the classroom sizes differed, the ranking in the school is in the hierarchy

system.

My Mentoring School Teacher (MST) was a substitute teacher that was placed in the

classroom for only 1 term, I felt that she was very uncomfortable with me being there so I tried

to be as friendly as I can be and helped around, her first lesson was very engaging she used

puppets and the students liked it a lot. I took pictures of the classroom and familiarized myself

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with the learning environment and staff. I explained to my MST my reason for being here and

tried to understand her personality she was very strict and the more I spoke to her during the

week the more I felt her understand my position. I took note of the strategies and ways she

taught and informed her that I in fact loved her lessons and she was very friendly after that. I

was planning on teaching my first week but my MST cancelled.