Our CAC Pre-K parent community is supportive, visible and very interested in developing the ways in which their children approach learning. Many of the children in my current class have older siblings at CAC and the families are somewhat aware of how play-based learning looks and feels. They are receptive to what they are reading in our blog and provide us with feedback that is positive and affirming. To further strengthen these important home-school connections, our KG and Pre-K teams decided to hold a series of Community Meetings to delve a bit deeper into some of our approaches to learning. Our administrators were extremely supportive of our decision to hold the Community Meetings at two different times on the same school day, to ensure that there was a chance of one hundred percent attendance. They offered to provide cover for the morning session so the children could be interacting outside while we hosted their parents in our indoor learning spaces.
I wanted to share with the families some of my beliefs around the notion of the environment as the third teacher and setting up intentional learning spaces to provoke inquiry. The parents were very interested in knowing more about this. I ended the session with a tour of our room and spoke briefly about the documentation panels we create to showcase student learning and we looked carefully at how and why provocations are set up and in what ways the children choose to inhabit these spaces.
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Pre-K Community Meeting
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Another highlight at work was my first time ever to witness Santa visiting school on a real-life camel. It doesn't get any better than this!  |
| Yes, this really happened at the CAC Winter Holiday event! |
Professionally, it was so lovely to work with our Arabic teaching team to plan a field trip to a working farm. The children gained so much firsthand knowledge about animals and plants that are indigenous to Egypt. Living in a largely urban environment, unfortunately, doesn't provide many opportunities for the children to witness plant growth and to observe wildlife, so we relished the chance to get up close and personal with nature.
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| Our field trip to an organic farm |
Recently I have been taking advantage of the cooler weather to get out and explore some more parts of Cairo and its surrounding areas. When my family visited from Australia in December they spent a week visiting sites while I was working. Their first foray into Egyptian history and culture was truly incredible. My family learned much about the way of life in Egypt and together we spent 5 days on a dahabiya, sailing from Luxor to Aswan. Our 100-year-old sailboat was truly beautiful and the crew of 10 were such wonderful ambassadors of this incredible country. We took fascinating day excursions to villages, museums, tombs and markets. We received the best possible introduction into how people live and work along the majestic Nile. It was honestly the trip of a lifetime.
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| Superb travelling opportunities with team Australia! |
Our encounters with Egyptian people and history have opened up our eyes to what we had only ever read in history books or seen in movies. There is a vast amount of opportunities to expand your knowledge when you visit Egypt and doing all of this has immensely enhanced my teacher renewal experience.
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| Finally made it to Abu Simbel - it was truly amazing. |
Close friends who’ve worked with me in both Zurich and Jakarta come to stay in the lead up to Christmas. Having old friends visit is just so good for the soul! Then my winter break took me further afield to Hurghada to meet up with an old friend from my Munich days. We joined an 8-day liveaboard diving trip. The Red Sea is spectacular and we saw many beautiful reefs and did some extremely interesting wreck dives. I travelled overland to Luxor to meet a friend from CAC and we cruised down to Luxor on a dahabiya. Again, it was a constant reminder of how vast and deep the culture and history of Egypt really is.
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ZIS and JIS friends - photographer: me!
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| It is truly wonderful to be here and I look forward to continuing on at work and at play, in the fashion to which I am already accustomed. |
~ Samantha
