Information on Leysin American School (click here)

Life as a teacher here at LAS:   I teach five class periods a day. They include three Geometry classes with a variety of students from all over the world, and two IB Computer Science classes.  Each class period is 45 minutes a day and the classes alternate each day so I don't see the same class at the same time on any two given days of the week.

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GEOMETRY CLASS - PERIOD A              GEOMETRY CLASS - PERIOD C
GEOMETRY CLASS - PERIOD F             COMPUTER CLASS - PERIOD B
COMPUTER CLASS - PERIOD E

Life as a dorm supervisor here at LAS
I am on duty once a week in the dorms and once every five weekends. Duty begins at 7:00 pm (sharp) and continues through the evening until 11:15ish on weekday duty. My weekday duty is on Wednesday night.   Duty during the week consists of monitoring study hall, which means the students have to be at their desks working from 7:15 till 8:30 with a 15 minute break and then again from 8:45 until 9:45. Then the students have until 10:30 to get ready for bed, chat with their friends, whatever they need to do in the dorm until 10:30.  At that point it is in bed and lights out unless students have requested to work later in which they can remain at their desks working until 11:00. Then it is lights out for everyone.  I find dorm duty during the week pretty managable although often I am exhasuted. It is also a great chance to catch up with the girls during the breaks and chat or help them with homework. 
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BEAU SITE DORMATORY                      FIRST FLOOR BEAU SITE GIRLS
SECOND FLOOR BEAU SITE GIRLS               THIRD FLOOR BEAU SITE GILRS

My social life at LAS

My new faculty is like a new family to me here at LAS.  We work together, eat together, travel together, work out together, everyone is just always there for you. I am so impressed with my new community and friends.

Myself,

Amy Park (English teacher), Mary Katharine Grady (my roomate), and Tracy Sons (Music Teacher)
at the LAS Welcome Dinner Banquet, Friday September 8, 2000

VERMONT BUDDIES
Ian Cornell (friend from Manchester, VT) and Myself
at the Red Frog (student lounge)
Welcome Banquet, Friday, September 8, 2000

Being busy is not a once in a while occurrence here at LAS, it is a lifestyle.  For those of you that know me better, you know that I create my own business because I thrive in that environment. Here though, I don't need to go looking for new and different things to make myself busy, the schedule does it for me.
Monday through Friday I get up around 7:00 AM to be showered and out my bedroom door by 7:55.  I have a 50 foot walk, uphill to the dormitory where my classroom is. Unfortunately my classroom faces the hill so I don't have the fabulous view but I can walk across the hall for my daily "view breaks."
Throughout the day I teach three sections of Geometry and two sections of IB (International Baccalaureate) Computer Science using C++ language. The classes are 45 minutes long with 10 minute breaks in between.  The reason for the long breaks in between classes is because the other building with classrooms is down the hill from the Savoy (the dormitory where my classroom is), so we need to give students time to walk back and forth, especially when the snow comes. 
The classes begin at 8:00, except on Wednesday when faculty meeting is from 8:00 to 9:00 so the students can sleep in. The school day ends at 3:25, and everyone has twenty minutes to get their things together and change for activities that start at 3:45.  I have had a really hard time not being late with these twenty minutes because I have to sort out my desk, then run back to my apartment, go to the bathroom, change and be out the door again.  I am doing more activities than most teachers because they needed help with aerobics.  Most teachers are required to run two activities a week (and some only have to do one).  I am the girls soccer coach which means that I have practices twice a week but the girls wanted to have an extra practice so we actually meet three days a week (with games on the weekends), but then they needed an aerobics instructor because the one that they hired backed out on them. So I teach aerobics on my fourth day a week.   It is a lot but I am sure it will all balance out in the long run.