Hear from one of our teachers, Ebony, about her typical day teaching abroad.

8:30-8:45am: During this time students begin arriving at school. The UAE National Anthem is played and students will stand and sing the anthem. I then check the student’s attendance and we begin to start our morning circle. 

8:45-9:25am: The first part of the morning is usually quite busy! We begin our morning circle by singing songs and doing a morning dance or our wake up song! We revise the days of the week, months of the year and change our weather chart and calendar. I then discuss with the students what we will be doing in each subject and any fun activities we will be completing that day. I give each student an activity to complete which usually corresponds with a lesson I will be teaching that day, for example for phonics revision the students would make a letter “Z is for Zebra” craft. This gets the students engaged and ready for their day ahead. 

9:25-9:45am: Students will have their first snack break. Due to Covid-19 restrictions students do not have access to the playground so we usually do a lot of dance and activities inside the classroom throughout the day. 

9:45-10:25am: This is my first lesson of the day where I like to start the lesson off with a challenging starter! This may be spelling revision for the students or reading and phonics in their workbooks. I find the students are best engaged with the more difficult concepts taught early in the day. 

10:25-11:05am: This is the last lesson before lunch time. Students will usually have an Arabic lesson. During this time, I usually eat lunch, have a cup of coffee and catch up on some work. 

11:05-11:20am: Lunch time! 

11:20-12:05pm: Students will have their final lesson of the day. This can be an activity or work in their books. Usually the students are tired so we always end the day with 10 minutes of dance or a fun game. 

12:05pm: Home time, everyone’s favourite time of the day! 

12:05-2:05pm: Once the face to face students go home, I begin to teach the distance learning students who are online. This is usually English/Math or Science. I repeat the same work to those students online through the use of PowerPoints and online resources. 

2:05-3:15pm: I get my preparation for the next day finished and continue planning for the following week. 

3:15pm: Home time for staff.