My New School

Internationella Engelska Skolan Arsta which means International English School in Arsta (the part of Stockholm it is in) 

 This is the frount entrance.  

And below is the street view of the building.

  

You cans see the apartments which they have built over the school.  I wonder if the people in them are bothered by all the noise the students make on the play ground?

The play ground is smallish but well designed with a forested area behind it which the students can wander through.  There is a small fenced in soccer pitch and also a basketball court.  They remind me of dog runs with the high fences running around them.

 The raised are behind the swing, under the roof has a large turf area for them to play on and houses a Foosball table

The school itself is three stories and lovely inside.  All shiny and new since this is only the second school year.  My classes are on the third floor, the staff room is on the middle floor and the lunchroom is on the bottom floor..... so I am getting lots of steps each day.

They serve breakfast and lunch each day.  This is very good on the food budget.  The food is usually pretty good.  There is salad bar and then a meat dish, a fish dish and a vegetarian dish to choose from each day.  I frequently take the fish.  There is also plenty of breads, fresh fruit and beverages.  Often I take my fruit to my work area to eat mid afternoon.

What amazed me though is that with all of Sweden’s superior technology, they don’t have smart boards.  They do however have projectors in each room to cast from. And they do give all their staff a chrome book and a cell phone.  We are using G-Suite (google docs, slides etc., google drive, google classroom etc.  All of which was new to me, but I am catching on quickly and getting things done.  Staff is required to carry their phone at all times since information is posted on it.  They rarely use the PA system.... no morning announcements....everything is electronic.

The first two weeks was training which ended in the Amazing Race 2.0 (which I will tell you about in another post) followed by the students arriving August 15^th.    

I have a grade 4 home room which I co-mentor with another teacher who speaks Swedish.  About ½ to 1/3 of the grade 4’s don’t speak English… yet.  We are actually only with the mentor students two mornings per week for about 30 minutes.  

I also teach two grade 4 and two grade 5 classes math.  By myself…with no Swedish.  However I always have eager beaver who will happily help me translate to Swedish so all can learn.  Everything is going well.  The students are great for the most part.   I am loving teaching …… finally.   Some days I have to pinch myself to make sure I am awake.