The next few days were about the same when I went to school. We would wake up on time and take a taxi together, getting to school a few minutes early. I kept to myself the awful experience I had with my teacher because I didn't want to complain to the others. I sucked up my thoughts and reassured myself that I am better than that and should know how to handle Saghriah. Upon entering the school for the rest of the week we noticed the same amount of traffic circulated the school. The cleaning ladies were busy keeping the school cleaning, barely any males were present in the school. The only men that came in were the students fathers. They always wore their Kandoras with dark shades and blue tooth earpieces or apple headphones.Since Saghriah is always messing with her sheila one of the Emirati fathers caught her off guard. She was so frantic looking for her sheila. She actually asked me to get it for her once she spotted it next to me. I just ignored her and pretended like I didn't know what she was talking about. She had to cover her face with her arm sleeve so the man wouldn't see her face. In my opinion, it was so ridiculous to have to go through that hassle. This happened on several occasions. One time, there was some Pakistani carpenters who needed to come in and add locks to the doors and would randomly come in and fix things. She got so aggravated at times with them that she told them to leave and come back after school. I would watch her put it on then off. Toss it to the side then wrap it around her neck. She was doing the equivalent of some women who have really long hair that play with it all the time by twirling it in their fingers or constantly pushing their hair to the back.
Things with my teacher wasn't getting better. She would repeatedly ask me to grab her purse or throw away garbage or take a student to the bathroom and I had to deal with Salem. She treated me like a cleaner or maid more than a colleague. Salem too was still giving me trouble. I was determined to have him be happy and like being in school. His will was so strong! Every time his mother left, it was a battle fest. Sometimes she'd stay outside and peek to check on him. Man oh man was that a bad idea. The minute he caught a glimpse of her he'd start crying again and head straight for the door.The guys weren't able to change the lock so I was on my own with Salem. I eventually asked Saghriah to tell his mother not to stay because it tortured him so much. I tried singing with him, giving him toys but he'd just throw them in my direction. After the first day of him spitting at me, I raised my voice firmly and gave him the mommy don't you ever do that again look so he stopped trying to hit me. I struggled with him because by the end of the week he started to get more comfortable so he'd climb the shelving and tried to hit the other kids. He refused to listen to Saghriah or myself. I kept him next to me at all times. I learned how to say Halas (stop/enough) and La (no) really quickly. The four hour school days couldn't go by fast enough. I also had to deal with Saghriah being very rude and uncooperative. I went to the library to get some books for the classroom since we had no text books. She felt it was too early to start teaching and the students still were not coming to class so i thought books could help pass the time. I met the wonderful librarian pictured above. I can't remember her name but she was very helpful. She helped me choose some large books and borrow some puppets to use. The library was also still a work in progress. The books were on shelves but there was no real check out system. I just wrote down on a sheet of paper what I took. I tried reading the story five little ducks one day to the class. I pointed to the pictures and read it over once. The second time I sang it with a duck puppet. I was already used to Saghriah walking out of the room at any time without telling me. She would leave for twenty minutes at a time and not tell me where she's going or what to do. I realized that it was a problem that us expat teachers were having with the Emirati teachers. I wasn't the only one, some teachers had it harder than others. It's like they were punishing us and they didn't want us around. They felt like we were gonna take over if we let them but they weren't seeing the overall vision is for the children to learn English and their way wasn't working. So while I was singing the song to the students she walked in and sat down next to me. She pulled out of her pockets some balloons. The students started paying attention to her and not listening to me. She got up and grabbed a pump and started blowing up balloons for the students. At that time, the students were not paying any attention to me at all and moved over to her side. I just put my book away and let her finish what she wanted to do. A whole week passed by and the students didn't get to learn a thing. I felt like each day counts and we were not off to a good start.
The next few days were about the same when I went to school. We would wake up on time and take a taxi together, getting to school a few minutes early. I kept to myself the awful experience I had with my teacher because I didn't want to complain to the others. I sucked up my thoughts and reassured myself that I am better than that and should know how to handle Saghriah. Upon entering the school for the rest of the week we noticed the same amount of traffic circulated the school. The cleaning ladies were busy keeping the school cleaning, barely any males were present in the school. The only men that came in were the students fathers. They always wore their Kandoras with dark shades and blue tooth earpieces or apple headphones.Since Saghriah is always messing with her sheila one of the Emirati fathers caught her off guard. She was so frantic looking for her sheila. She actually asked me to get it for her once she spotted it next to me. I just ignored her and pretended like I didn't know what she was talking about. She had to cover her face with her arm sleeve so the man wouldn't see her face. In my opinion, it was so ridiculous to have to go through that hassle. This happened on several occasions. One time, there was some Pakistani carpenters who needed to come in and add locks to the doors and would randomly come in and fix things. She got so aggravated at times with them that she told them to leave and come back after school. I would watch her put it on then off. Toss it to the side then wrap it around her neck. She was doing the equivalent of some women who have really long hair that play with it all the time by twirling it in their fingers or constantly pushing their hair to the back.
Things with my teacher wasn't getting better. She would repeatedly ask me to grab her purse or throw away garbage or take a student to the bathroom and I had to deal with Salem. She treated me like a cleaner or maid more than a colleague. Salem too was still giving me trouble. I was determined to have him be happy and like being in school. His will was so strong! Every time his mother left, it was a battle fest. Sometimes she'd stay outside and peek to check on him. Man oh man was that a bad idea. The minute he caught a glimpse of her he'd start crying again and head straight for the door.The guys weren't able to change the lock so I was on my own with Salem. I eventually asked Saghriah to tell his mother not to stay because it tortured him so much. I tried singing with him, giving him toys but he'd just throw them in my direction. After the first day of him spitting at me, I raised my voice firmly and gave him the mommy don't you ever do that again look so he stopped trying to hit me. I struggled with him because by the end of the week he started to get more comfortable so he'd climb the shelving and tried to hit the other kids. He refused to listen to Saghriah or myself. I kept him next to me at all times. I learned how to say Halas (stop/enough) and La (no) really quickly. The four hour school days couldn't go by fast enough. I also had to deal with Saghriah being very rude and uncooperative. I went to the library to get some books for the classroom since we had no text books. She felt it was too early to start teaching and the students still were not coming to class so i thought books could help pass the time. I met the wonderful librarian pictured above. I can't remember her name but she was very helpful. She helped me choose some large books and borrow some puppets to use. The library was also still a work in progress. The books were on shelves but there was no real check out system. I just wrote down on a sheet of paper what I took. I tried reading the story five little ducks one day to the class. I pointed to the pictures and read it over once. The second time I sang it with a duck puppet. I was already used to Saghriah walking out of the room at any time without telling me. She would leave for twenty minutes at a time and not tell me where she's going or what to do. I realized that it was a problem that us expat teachers were having with the Emirati teachers. I wasn't the only one, some teachers had it harder than others. It's like they were punishing us and they didn't want us around. They felt like we were gonna take over if we let them but they weren't seeing the overall vision is for the children to learn English and their way wasn't working. So while I was singing the song to the students she walked in and sat down next to me. She pulled out of her pockets some balloons. The students started paying attention to her and not listening to me. She got up and grabbed a pump and started blowing up balloons for the students. At that time, the students were not paying any attention to me at all and moved over to her side. I just put my book away and let her finish what she wanted to do. A whole week passed by and the students didn't get to learn a thing. I felt like each day counts and we were not off to a good start.
1 comment:
Amazing. You would this they would be grateful for expat teachers. But deep down they obviously weren't because they treated you that way.
Post a Comment