Job Discussion Forums

[uaeobserver]

For the newcomers ----

Okay - so you spent August figuring out what kind of housing you weren't going to have ----- buying way too much furniture ---- and negotiating the complexities of driving and drinking licenses.

You spent September getting to know your students who no doubt were dead tired, due to the Ramadan festivities.

Now - you're taking a breath (hopefully).

How did it go --- and how do you like it?

Glad you came?

[colt]

drinking licenses???

I haven't needed one of those in 10 years. In AD, if you're of European origin, they don't ask for it anymore.

[redsoxman]

It's great living here - lots of sun, sand, surf, activities. If you like the great outdoors this is the place to be (for 8 months of the year anyway). Most teachers don't hang around here in the summer when the temperatures climb but the cool season is great. There is so much to do. Nonstop entertainment in Dubai and lots of places for a weekend getaway. Highly recommended but be careful whose job offer you accept. Bad employers give bad housing and few benefits. Stick with the known institutions and read the forum to get a clear idea of what's what in the various schools and colleges here.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

[eha]

Look, we all like LIVING in the Gulf. So far, we've heard about the sun, the beaches, the non-stop entertainment, the housing / health benefits.

But the man said: how do you like TEACHING in the Gulf--- the price we pay for these comforts. So c'mon; tell us. HOW IS THE TEACHING? Stimulating? Fulfilling? Challenging? Meaningful? Is it easy to get good student evaluations--- which as we all know by now, or should know, have little to do with your TEACHING? Are you working with / for people who are clued-in professionally, or are they just another bunch of brown-noses who teach subjects like 'Critical Thinking' but annihilate anyone who actually DOES any?

C'mon. Focus on the classroom; the staffroom. The 'Teaching'.

[redeyes]

[veiledsentiments]

I'd say it depends on the teacher. Personally, I enjoyed every moment in the classroom with my students in the UAE (and Oman, Egypt, and Kuwait). I found that most of my fellow faculty were highly professional and I still communicate with some of them. Personally I found it the best part of the living in the UAE (and the Middle East).

To me the biggest negative was the organization of the management, but at least I was fortunate that none of the individual managers at my branch were the vindictive sorts.

VS

[colt]

I agree with VS, the best part of the job is the students.

The worst part is all the BS bureaucracy, paperwork, goals and objectives, PEPs which is a total waste of time and resources. Also, all the stupid conferences with Nobel laureates etc., which is shameless self promotion for the college and country, has nothing to do with improving education, and again wastes money and resources to get 15 minutes of fame for the UAE, which is really a 3rd world country with a thin veneer of marble, glass and stainless steel.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Not to mention a system that places an over-emphasis on PD, yet is such a chronic under-employer that many teachers do overtime hours that, however lucrative, doesn't allow staff the time to exploit what they've newly been exposed to...resulting in an utter waste of time and nothing much more than window-dressing and the enhancing of CVs.

I like working for the system, I just wish that I was allowed the time to truly expand on what I've been exposed to in PD instead of just "looking good" and decorating my PEP. Sigh, any system could use a bit of "tweaking" now and again!

NCTBA

[Iamherebecause]

[tmac-100]

[colt]

I don't see any complaints about PD in my post. I rather enjoy the occasional PD sessions that our own team has. They deal with the every day problems and challenges that we face.

[tmac-100]

Conference attendance = PD IMHO.

[colt]

I'm not a Nobel laureate, (yet), so I didn't get to attend those.

[tmac-100]