I’m writing now after quite a busy and exhausting but very fun first day of school! This past week brought a lot of changes to our initial two-week plan, which I’ll get into a bit later. But today we welcomed all ~50 middle and upper school students and spent the day at a park playing games, completing a scavenger hunt, and having lunch with advisory groups. My group of five seemed to have a great day. On the walk back from the park, all of the kids were talking to each other and seemed to be bonding well already. The middle school gender divide is alive and well – I’m not sure any of the boys would talk to the girls if we paid them. Luckily, we have almost an even number of boys and girls in the middle school, so no one was left out. Tomorrow we head for our first Learning Expedition (field trip with a purpose) to the Prado Museum and El Retiro Park!
The change: the building isn’t quite ready yet! We knew this was a possibility, but mid-week last week, the previously mentioned Plan B became the operating Plan A. We set aside our curriculum and plans to have two busy days of planning for an alternative first week and a half of school. We developed a 9-school-day project with mini-lessons, multiple deliverables, and tasks to be completed in downtown Madrid for multi-grade-level teams centered around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I was spreadsheeting (new verb invented) away like never before to collect everything into one place for us to share with parents and families at Back to School night on Friday. Personally, I’m quite proud of the project we made as a faculty, and it ties quite nicely into my middle school science curriculum, which will pick up on October 1st when we are definitely in our building and ready to go.
The school made the final call on Friday morning and called each family to answer questions before the evening event. We greeted our advisees and their families, and I had a great time talking to everyone. We also got a tour of the school (hard hats, vests, and all) and I found what I’m pretty sure will be my classroom! There are a few reasons for the delays, but the main issues are city approval and limitations on construction because it is a historically protected building. The plan is to move in as soon as possible, but I think next Monday or maybe the Monday after (1-2 weeks delay) is most likely. On the positive, we’re now running our school out of the original campus, which is much closer to me! So no bus ride in the mornings, 9am starts, and a lot more to do in the area.
After such a long week, this past weekend was a very restful one. I worked on some side projects, read, and spent some time with new friends. On Saturday, I went with Paula, Claire (a 1st grade teacher and fun US friend connection/overlap), and her boyfriend David to Mercado de Motores. It’s a monthly artisan market at the Railroad Museum and was quite cool!
This week is shaping up to be both a busy and tiring one. But once we start our project on Thursday, there is some relief in sight! Tomorrow night I’m planning to try out a Krav Maga class in my neighborhood, and our staff Broadway show group has picked out some tickets for our first shows in early November!
Wishing you all well from Madrid! Some photos of the building where I’ll be working below – the windows all look onto a forest, and the building will have amazing light (we just happened to visit ~8:30pm when it was already dark). My classroom has tables with blue legs!
Abe Tolkoff 