Monday, July 6, 2009

First Full Staff Meeting

We had our first full staff meeting today and met most of the teaching staff. They are definitely an eclectic group from all over the globe with about 70% of them being from Ontario. Tomorrow the students arrive in our classrooms. My first class is at 10:30 (yippee kai yah) so I have time for a morning coffee and prep. The van picks us up at 7:15 and 3 are at school by 7:30 so I have a full 3 hours before the first class. Ditto for Shelley and Amy. Unfortunately Michel has an 8 am class.

My class sizes are 23, 18, and 16 so that is pretty good. My lab has all brand new computers with LCD monitors. I have a 9 am meeting with the head IT guy to get Flexbuilder and Coldfusion installed. Today I put a powerpoint together to welcome the students and talk about expectations.

We met 2 outgoing teachers today who were heading back to Ontario as they had used up their 2 year leave of absence. They were both adamant that they would be staying on if they could. We now have our official ID badges (pictures included) and can come and go as we please. We had lunch at the hawker's stalls and then had a mini tour of the immediate area by one of the veterans (Steve). We were shown a great place to buy wine at reasonable prices (60 ringgits for a bottle of Mouton cadet (usually about $16 at LCBO).

I am feeling quite comfortable at this moment so it is all good to go. Shelley is still coming to grips with her assignment as it is all new to her. She has also come down with a cold :-( A Starbucks grande is 6.5 ringgits which is about 25 cents more than in Canada. However, lunch was $1.50 for rice, beef stew, and some veggies. I have been bad and eaten at McDonalds twice but a Big mac Meal is only 8 ringgits or $2.75 CDN. You gotta love this place for food.

TTYL,

Jim

No comments:

Post a Comment