Kosovo: Chapter 5, Scene 2 Back in the Rhythm of Teaching and Learning

I am enjoying my life in Kosovo. I love teaching fourth grade at Prishtina High School. I was surprised to discover as school started back after the winter break, I was as happy as my students for the start of our second semester.

Not that my break was bad. Several of us got together for meals and games. I went to the mall with friends to watch three movies over the break: Wonder, Jumanji, and The Greatest Showman. The movies are released here the same time they are released in the states.

Another plus was the weather. We had a dusting of snow one morning, but most of the time the weather was great. In fact, one of our math problems on the first day back was to find the average temperature for Prishtina during December. Actually, from December 5-31. We’re tracking Kosovo’s meteorological winter (December 5 through March 5). These are supposed to be the ninety coldest days of winter. Our average in December? Forty-two degrees Fahrenheit.  I kid you not. I’ve been told this weather is not typical.

Time for long division...

I worked a bit on projects for school as well. Of course that was by choice. The school is accessible anytime so I went to the building a couple of times. I mean, really…we were out December 22 until January 9. It was a decent break no matter how you count it.

But now it is time to get back into the rhythm of teaching and learning. It’s time to take all those fun experiences we had over the break and turn them into stories. It’s time to prepare for the science fair and get our reports on the history of Kosovo ready to share with our friends in the UK. (We’re teaching a class in the UK about Kosovo and they’re going to teach us about the UK.) It’s time for my students to learn how to do long division.

Sure, there will be days when the snow clouds form and inside recess makes us all a little crazy, but even those will pass quickly. In the meantime, I am enjoying my life in Kosovo and I love teaching fourth grade at Prishtina High School.

Join me in Kosova (the Albanian pronunciation for Kosovo) in Southeastern Europe. Each week I share my experiences. Leave your comments and questions below. I’ll try to address each as best I can. And if you don't want to miss a post, simply add your email address in the box on the right where it says "Follow by email."