Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

just curious. interested in knowing who of you have ever been elevated to dos but given it up to return to full-time teaching.
for what reasons ? do you regret it at all ?
rgrds
basil

[dmb]

I did. My reason was that I was missing time in the classroom. Also getting hassle from teachers, complaints from students and doing 60-70 hour weeks and not getting paid for it. No regrets about it and will probably have a DOS position in the future(If anybody will have me)

[dreadnought]

I was a DoS, then went back to being a teacher/teacher trainer. Like dmb, just got fed up with all the hassles, the general ingratitude and the sneaky feeling that I was nothing more than a glorified message boy, shuttling back and forth between management and staff trying (and normally failing) to appease both sides.

[ls650]

I'm halfway through a 1 year contract. The previous DOS was canned (deservedly so), and I was asked to act as DOS temporarily.
I teach about 15 hours per week while spending 10 hours per week doing various DOS-type tasks.
I really enjoy teaching, especially teens and adults (I find younger children can be a bit of a handful sometimes). Frankly the DOS duties are a headache, and I'd much rather be teaching full-time (24 hours a week).

The worst aspect about being the DOS is having to deal with the other teachers' attitudes. Everytime I make a decision I know I'll have to deal with a lot of backtalk and second-guessing from them.

The school is supposed to be placing a "real DOS" within the next month or so. I will be happy to hand-off the duties and go back to teaching full-time again. I feel sorry for the poor b*st*ard!!

[Gordon]

I was a DOS for a group of two schools and it was good/bad. The salary was terrible, when you account for the number of hours worked. I was in charge more in the business end, than the teaching side. My biggest challenge was trying to mediate between owners and teachers. Both groups were antagonistic towards each other. The owners also did things behind my back because they knew I would disagree with them. That's what basically led me to quit. On the good side, I enjoyed the freedom to run the schools the way I wanted and brought a lot of respect to the school that was lacking before I arrived. I learned how not to run a school if i ever start my own in the future. For teachers out there, running a school is a lot harder than it looks. I am tired of it when teachers complain about the salary they make and say the owners are raking it in (sometimes they are right, but not always). They don't account for the materials, rent, prep time, training, admin. staff, advertising, supplies, etc... All of which costs money, but doesn't bring in any income.

[johnslat]

I guess I was a "DOS", although we called it a "co-ordinator". The directors, of course, were Saudis, so, in effect, the "co-ordinator" ran the English Language Center. Did it for five years. There were upsides and downsides. The downsides:
1. not getting paid for all the extra hours that had to be put in (and not being able to make any overtime - or, as it was called there, overload - pay; I was teaching as well as coordinating, usually from about 15 to 18 hours a week in the classroom).
2. I much preferred being IN the classroom all the time.
The upsides:
1. developing (through sheer necessity) "people skills" in dealing with the other teachers, the students with complaints/problems and in being the "conduit" between the upper administration and the rest of the staff.
It also did wonders for my patience.
2. as Gordon said - being able pretty much to "shape" the program and head off (or try to - usually successfully) "bright ideas" from the upper administration that would have been disasterous.
3. the pleasure of seeing the center running smoothly and efficiently.
However, teaching, rather than administration, gives me more job satisfaction.
Regards,
John

[donfan]

I haven't actually resigned from being a DOS to return to teaching fulltime but I have a couple of times declined an offer to be DOS because I preferred to stay in the classroom. One day I might give it a shot but not yet.

[FGT]

Me too. Same reasons as above.

[Snoopy]

Been there. Produced a fair, well-balanced timetable and teaching programme, much appreciated by my departmental colleagues. However, one got the inevitable buckets of manure from on high. Suddenly required to put on extra classes, all at the same time, I did all the combined groups (65 or so in the lecture theatre), only to be challenged by an irate Dean of College to explain why there were times of the day when there were squares on my neatly printed schedule marked NTA (no teacher available). Trying to explain that five staff cannot be in eight places was not easy. I would have offered him the use of a calculator, but that would have stretched his abilities somewhat. The best solution was to bombard the man and his superiors at the Ministry with my weekly reports to the College Council about departmental meetings. Never read, never understood. In my capacity as advisor on curriculum development at the Ministry, I was asked why with some classes I was using that ABC book, known to many as English for Basic Arabs. Well, Dr Fahad, it is because they do not know their ABC.
After five years in that post, I collected some riyals and rediscovered real teaching.
Happy Christmas to all my readers!

[Snoopy]

. . . and I'd just like to add that I feel sorry for the students who were trying against the odds to learn something in the desert.