Job Discussion Forums

[mattjd43]

Having not yet taught in KSA, I can only go by what I have read on this board about the student apathy that appears rampant.

I am curious to hear about any tactics that you experienced KSA teachers have used successfully to maintain order in the classroom and served as motivation to your students.

Anybody have anything insightful to offer?

Thanks.


--M

FYI, The job I am considering is in Al Hada Hospital, Taif, per my other post.

[scot47]

I am not sure that I want to ! Leave that to those of an .........."alternative orientation" !

[spiral78]

I have to say I had the same thought....
sorry - not useful~

In my experience with Saudi adult male students, no problem with maintaining order in the classroom, though, so perhaps that's good news....so long as your definition of 'order' doesn't include attentiveness, participation, or actual effort involved. They're not disorderly in general, though.

My experience has been with Saudi students outside their home environs, though, so perhaps not typical.

[billings]

Agreed!! 10% can be disruptive, 5% may want to participate and learn and the huge majority just want to sleep, play on mobile phones, chat, go to the bathroom or just be bone-idle!! Generally speaking, it's baby-sitting!!! It all depends on your tolerance for accepting the minimum!!!

[scot47]

40-plus years after first coming here I am beginning to see that this is a thankless task, teaching these young men in Saudi. On June 2011 I will bid the Majical Kingdom "Adieu". At last.

[trapezius]

It took you 40 years to realize that...? Most people take 40 days

[sheikher]

Yes, 40 years of hard labour at a Saudi Arabian chalkface would inadvertently cause anyone's grammatical precision to deteriorate!

Some people, Dr trap, take 40 minutes! To quote a Deputy Minister, "Go to Allah for compassion."

[WhatTimeFinish?]

Matt; grow a beard, convert to Islam, learn to speak Arabic, never mention women, alcohol, drugs, religion, war, politics, anything bad about Saudi Arabia or Saudi Arabians, anything good about other countries or their nationalities, tribes/tribal names, pork, sisters, mothers or daughters. That's all haram.

Also get married, have some children, hate joos, learn to write Arabic, change your nationality to one in the ME (ideally the KSA but that's not allowed) and become a Premiership footballer.

It would definitely help if you're at least 7 feet tall, with long blond hair, an outgoing nature, bubbly personality, a head that swivels 360 degrees (for crossing roads), extra-long eyelashes (sand storms), a massive bladder (everything's closed when you need a wee), no sense of smell, no sense of taste, no sense of taste (the other one), 2 passports (one for your sponsor), no food or airborne particle allergies, a fondness for sitting and doing sweet FA for months, a fondness for bad soap operas and multiple repeats of terrible movies from the 90s, a fierce hatred of toilet paper, a love of cheap perfume/petrol (that stings the nostrils), skin thicker than a rhino's (especially between the shoulders), webbed fingers, a love of all things of farce (farcically-natured and relating to ludicrousnesses and ridiculousnesses), a desire to live on camel meat/chicken and fried rice, no expectations of getting paid on time, loath speaking to women, have a short attention span, non-existent long-term memory, double joints, a willingness to bend over backwards for your employer and students, like country walks and meals by the fire.

If you can complete most of the above you will be pleasantly surprised, according to many of the posts on this board (pro tip; there's a search function).

And good luck!

[sheikher]

To successfully maintain order in the classroom and motivate medical students, refer as often as possible to eslcafe for thrilling exemplars of discussion topic hijack techniques and for alternatives to those gosh-darn pesky standards of punctuation you learned prior to your First Form.

Quick brown foxes do, after all, jump over lazy dogs.

By all means, be receptive toward their strict distinction between haram and haraam.

This, incidentally, is uber-haram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWzJXUAQQEE

Gaul-darnit , where is the diacritic function?

[Al-Mansoor]

[sheikher]

Everything! You can look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haraam

[Al-Mansoor]

Oh yes, I see. Haram as in Masjid Al-Haram.

Expats seem to pick up quite a bit of knowledge regarding their surroundings. Well done. Gives me much encouragement.

Another thing that would give me encouragement is to know if universities are hiring for the new semester. Any info anyone?

Thanks.

Ps. How many posts do I need in order to get an avatar?

[veiledsentiments]

[sheikher]

You can look it up. http://www.eslcafe.com/joblist/

[Al-Mansoor]

Thank you sheikher