My First Staff Meeting

A little over a week ago I attended my first staff meeting at the Parish Primary School. Most of the meeting was in Arabic, but thankfully one of the teachers sitting beside me quietly translated what was being said. The meeting started off with a reminder from the head teacher about time management. She has not been happy that many of the teachers show up late and stressed that they should be arriving 30 min. before school begins. Next, an hour or so was taken to go over the class schedule to make sure all subjects were being taught and to clarify who was teaching what. I did not get all of what was being discussed here because too many people were talking back and forth, but I did here many teachers say they were unable to teach certain subjects because of the lack of text books. Other topics brought up were discipline issues with specific students and end of the term exam preparation. During the meeting I was just a spectator watching how the teachers interacted and listening to whatever the neighboring teacher was willing to translate. I was encouraged because it seemed all the teachers wanted to be there and as they discussed these various topics I observed genuine concern to make decisions that would be best for the students and school.