Whoa, it's been a while!

So much has happened in the last week. First and foremost: THE ELEVATOR IS WORKING!!! Do you hear the angels singing??? I sure do! I'll try to include a picture soon.

The day before school started, I was asked to teach a math class. The numbers in my two robotics classes were low so one was canceled and kids moved to another teacher's class and I am now teaching a section of Algebra II in its place. It's good because I don't do any of the planning for it - the two other teachers teaching the other 4 sections will do all of it and I'll just teach and grade.

My computer classes are going well. I've got a whole 5 students in my Robotics class. It's really nice and the students are almost done with the driving base which is the basis of most of the robots. The students in the Intro to Programming class are loving Scratch, a simple programming tool that can be used as low as 4th grade. If interested in Scratch, see http://scratch.mit.edu. As for the AP Computer Science course, there are 12 students, 3 of whom are girls, and they are all geared up and have already written some basic code.

My residency permit is done! Apparently this is a major miracle. The school had to submit requests for 70 of us new teachers, more than any other year. The amazing thing is that this is the first time any of the permits have been issued in less than a month. What does having this permit mean? Most importantly, it means that I can set up a high-speed internet connection and be done with the arcane dial-up!

Ramadan begins tomorrow and lasts for a month. During this time, Muslims fast from sunup to sundown: no food and no drinks, not even water. They have huge breakfasts before sunrise and have incredible feasts for dinner after sundown. At school we have a mixed community so we have to allow for food but still be respectful to our Muslim students, faculty and staff. For non-Muslims, all food in the school can only be consumed in the cafeteria and the doors and windows are blacked out. It will be so interesting to experience Ramadan. It's been strongly recommended that we go to one of the big hotels and have dinner during the month. They have elaborate dances and shows that go along with the meal and I've been told it's amazing.

Gotta go for now, more shopping and lesson planning to do.