Welcome to the Wolfpack

Sofia, Bulgaria

Today, the new hires of 2016–2017 stepped foot on the campus of the Anglo-American School of Sofia, home of the wolves. The campus is located on the southeast outskirts of the capital of Bulgaria. It is nestled at the foot of the Vitosha mountains.

Community Building and Icebreakers

Before any new group of educators can work towards a common mission, we have to know each other because eventually we will rely on each other. In the field of education, we are not islands. I can teach a phenomenal course within my work day, but if, vertically, my colleague doesn’t continue developing on the same skills in the next course, we haven’t done our job well. Or if horizontally, I don’t communicate with a student’s other teachers to understand his low performance in my class or what makes her excited in another class, we haven’t done our job well.

Thus to break the ice, our head of school, Jim Urquhart, modeled a community building activity to help remember each other’s names called “Appellation Alliteration”. We stood in a circle, each making an alliteration of our own first name with an alliterative adjective or phrase. In addition, we had to identify a movement that represented that phrase.

From left to right: Toe-nail painting Tim, Rolling Russ, Meandering Marianne, Marchella Makes Things Happen, A-wiggling Andy, Morbid Marina, Jumping Jim

I was going to be Jolly Josefino followed by a big hearty laugh, but before me was Laughing Leah, so I changed mine to Jammin’ Josefino, one hand on my ear, the other scratchin’ a record.

Tour of the Campus

After a few laughs, we were given a tour of our campus. Green. Manicured. Innovative. Environmentally conscious. Breath-taking.

Entranceway to campus, bench on lawn in commemoration of an ex-student that passed away from leukemia, rear view with primary playground

Second playspace with a zipline being built, multi-use pond: irrigation for garden and first source of emergency water in case of fire, compost garden with free-range chicken

Toboggan tree hill, nectarine tree, organic garden

Football field, view of Mt. Vitosha, full school amphitheater

My classroom is on a corner near Toboggan Hill with a large space to configure the class environment as needed as well as a direct exit to the outdoors, which will be well used.

Transitions and Mission Statement

With Jim Urquhart’s keen sense of empathy, our first order of business to was to acknowledge emotional patterns of the international educator. This graph broke it down into 4 stages:

• Anticipation: a combination of excitement and anxiety in preparation for the move
• Honeymoon: the euphoria of this new life
• Hurdles: the challenges — cultural and linguistic barriers and getting homesick
• Ataraxia: a robust sense of calm and serenity

Forefronting this to us was not only a reminder that the international experience dances on the edge of our emotions but also falling over the cliff was normal and doing so gracefully through communication was key.

After acknowledging our social and emotional needs, we began our intellectual journey of unpacking our mission statement, our unifying goal that we are all charged with as new members of this staff:

We engage, support, and prepare each student for today and tomorrow.

Toward that endeavor, we engaged in Placemat Activities (appropriate as the next item on the agenda was lunch). Each one of us had a paper placemat in front of us with one part of the mission statement. We were to write or draw what that phrase looked, sounded, or felt like, bringing the statement to life for only 20 seconds and then passed the placemat around the circle until returning to the original placemat.

Responses of what our mission statement looked, sounded, and felt like included “liberation”, “failure”, “multilingualism”, and “innovation.”

Then we had a typical lunch, one of the most delicious meals from a school cafeteria only slightly behind il pranzo in Rome.

Gifts: Keys, iPad, Laptop

After lunch we received keys to our classrooms as well as a MacBook Pro and an iPad that we get to keep while working at AAS. My brother that works as Apple would have been proud.

Business Department

We ended the first day with more technical but nonetheless important information from our business department including work visas, residence cards, banking and payroll, facilities on campus and in our apartments, cars and loans, pets, and much more.

All in all, the first day on campus was successful. Jim and the admin team not only prioritized the most important things on this day — community building; understanding our space, our emotional well-being, and our professional mission; as well as technology and the techical aspects of our needs — but also modeled great teaching with kinesthetic opportunities and engaging activities.

Going into my 7th year overseas and 10th year teaching, I’ve learned that first impressions do tend to leave lasting marks. And this one has left me more integrated into the wolfpack and closer to ataraxia.