Inside the American International School of Abuja

The road to the American School of Abuja is dusty and hot, but inside is is very cool.  The teachers, the kids, the parents.  We arrived a half-day late due to the misconnection in Lagos and went straight from the airport to write with sixth graders in the library, eating Thai food in the car.  Take out from the school.  Unless you are an international teacher, it may be hard to imagine a school with Thai (or Indian, or Lebanese, yes all on the same day) take out.  But, well, there you have it.  International palettes are all served, right along with hot dogs and chips (those would be fries).

Michael connected with the upper school and I rotated between elementary classrooms for the following two days.  We wrote about rhinos, elephants, recess, and goodness.

We held up our eye cameras in Kindergarten, because poetry is a snapshot!  It is not a whole movie.

Love this from the first grade.  Read this aloud like we did.   Go ahead.  Read it again; draw out that last line...Yum.

Good is a stack of presents

A crowd cheering

Chocolate ice cream with sprinkles

Swimming on a hot day

Fried chicken

On Friday afternoon (Friday afternoon?) we did a 2 hour PD session with teachers.  What troopers (FRIDAY AFTERNOON!)  One teacher went back and adapted one of our lessons to make the following poem with her pre-schoolers, most of which are new English language learners.  This is the greatest compliment a presenter can get, teachers actually putting a suggested lesson to good use.  For a link to more information about the school, check out the weekly newsletter compiled by the tireless and creative Rita Moltzan: http://www.aisabuja.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Chronicle.Issue9_.Vol_.4.pdf

          Snappy Shapes

Cookie, donut, orange, pizza

Round round round

Ball, button, plate,

Round round round

Round table, round clock

Circles, circles all around.

By Preschool Red, AISA

It was a fabulous visit.  Many many thanks to all the teachers, the receptive, creative kids, the vibrant Head of School, Amy Lizoewulu, Principals Lyle Moltzan and Deanna Emond, thanks to Teri Campbell for the pictures and of course thanks to Rita who really knows how to make a library the heart of a school.