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veiledsentiments

Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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Kally Wally wrote: |
Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, I dunno but I'm one of the few on here who is actually working in the HCT system and who is quite happy to stay in it. |
Well, It's Scary has left the HCT system and certainly has a legitimate reason to dislike them strongly. I have found that the farther one is from Abu Dhabi, the more likely one is coping. And I found over my years in the Gulf, that there are people who really are able to ignore all the sturm and drang that often occurs in these jobs. I did envy them...
VS |
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Kally Wally
Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 49
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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It's Scary, why don't you tell your story here?
I am in no way saying HCT is a perfect place to work, far from it, where is?
I am in no way saying that some people such as your good self have got burned in the past.
BUT people like me, and many others that I know in the system are able to keep on trucking for years.
Heck, I take my pay check, do my thing, have no interest in any kind of supervisory post sit at the back of meetings and PDs nod my head at the right moments.............I'm a worker bee man, a drone, nothing more nothing less and no pretentions otherwise.
Give us the skinny Scary.
No need to name names. |
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Middle East Beast

Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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Kally Wally wrote: |
Heck, I take my pay check, do my thing, have no interest in any kind of supervisory post sit at the back of meetings and PDs nod my head at the right moments.............I'm a worker bee man, a drone, nothing more nothing less and no pretentions otherwise.
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Ever seen the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
MEB  |
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Kally Wally
Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 49
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: |
Ever seen the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers? |
So that's what they mean by pods at HCT  |
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veiledsentiments

Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:01 am Post subject: |
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Just wanted to say that It's Scary's story has been covered here in some of the past threads that any new applicant should read. I'm assuming that he prefers to stay incognito for the time being.
VS |
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It's Scary!

Joined: 17 Apr 2011 Posts: 823
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:06 am Post subject: |
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Ameen. Only somebody with their head in a hole in the ground would've missed it.
It's Scary |
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Citizenkane
Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 234 Location: Xanadu
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:57 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
Heck, I take my pay check, do my thing, have no interest in any kind of supervisory post sit at the back of meetings and PDs nod my head at the right moments.............I'm a worker bee man, a drone, nothing more nothing less and no pretentions otherwise. |
Congratulations! You have, in one sentence, just described the perfect strategy for surviving in the weird world of Gulf ESL! Keep your head done, don't ever express an opinion on anything (other than to say 'Great idea boss!') and keep well clear of office politics. Break these rules, and you could find yourself in trouble, no matter how great a teacher you are, or how fond the students might be of you.
In other words, the way to survive in the Gulf is to be a mediocrity - or at least give a good impression of being one. |
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Kally Wally
Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 49
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:25 am Post subject: |
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I really don�t understand why being happy to remain an anonymous plodder raises such ire.
And how can you judge someone as a mediocre teacher just because he/she has managed to survive at HCT?................that�s making huge assumptions
IMHO, it�s the ones who think they are teaching at Yale, MIT, Oxford etc, the ones who have pretentions above their station, the ones living in Loolooland who are shown the door. These are the ones who don�t know where they are and who they are dealing with.
Working in the ME/UAE/KSA etc takes a certain kind of alligator skinned individual. If you�re not one of those then you�re better off going somewhere were your highly honed teaching skills are appreciated, somewhere where you can rise above and lord it over the mediocrity like me.
At the end of the day, it�s their country, it�s their education system, you either shut up, put up or ship out........end of |
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Kally Wally
Joined: 29 May 2011 Posts: 49
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:27 am Post subject: |
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Curious V.S were are these Scary threads? |
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Middle East Beast

Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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Kally Wally wrote: |
I really don�t understand why being happy to remain an anonymous plodder raises such ire.
And how can you judge someone as a mediocre teacher just because he/she has managed to survive at HCT?................that�s making huge assumptions
IMHO, it�s the ones who think they are teaching at Yale, MIT, Oxford etc, the ones who have pretentions above their station, the ones living in Loolooland who are shown the door. These are the ones who don�t know where they are and who they are dealing with.
Working in the ME/UAE/KSA etc takes a certain kind of alligator skinned individual. If you�re not one of those then you�re better off going somewhere were your highly honed teaching skills are appreciated, somewhere where you can rise above and lord it over the mediocrity like me.
At the end of the day, it�s their country, it�s their education system, you either shut up, put up or ship out........end of |
It's not about general principles for survival in the Gulf states. HCT is simply the worst of the worst...end of
MEB |
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veiledsentiments

Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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Kally Wally
I don't think MEB meant that you had to be a mediocre teacher, but perhaps someone who is focused on ONLY the teaching. It is the ambitious ones... those with a goal of getting into management or who are really into PD and committees and such. Heads above the parapet often fall afoul of others who consider them "competition" perhaps. Some would consider a person with no ambition for bigger and better things as being mediocre. They don't understand that many of us are (or were, in my case) in the field because we enjoy teaching. I have to say that I loved my classroom time at HCT. I had great fun with the young women and I learned so much from my fellow teachers. It was just the non-contact hours that eventually push one to resign.
Definitely agree about the alligator skin.
If you read the threads of the last year on HCT, you will find It's Scary's experience - as it was shared out among quite a significant batch of teachers. You just won't find his screen name there.
VS |
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Middle East Beast

Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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I appreciate the defense, VS, but I think Kally Wally was referring to CitizenKane's use of "mediocrity."
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a reference to what HCT does to their teachers.
But Kally Wally, c'mon... you know in your heart that HCT sucks. Do what you must to survive there yet another year. May God be with you.
MEB  |
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Middle East Beast

Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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VS, you had great fun with the young women? It must have been a different world when you were there.
At FWC the girls (not women, most were undeserving of a grownup title) were intolerable, with a few exceptions. My final semester teachers were walking out of their classes. I walked out of one of mine twice. After the second time, I refused to go back to them. My supervisor had to babysit them. HCT allows their behavior because they are interested in increasing the student population to gain more revenue from the government. All they do is counsel, counsel, counsel.
At the men's college one teacher was pushed over the edge by his students' behavior to the point that he had to leave the college and seek counseling back home.
I could go on and on with the stories of abhorrent behavior by students at FWC and the college's response.
Overall, at FWC the students' behavior was disgusting beyond description.
MEB  |
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It's Scary!

Joined: 17 Apr 2011 Posts: 823
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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Kally Wally wrote: |
Curious V.S were are these Scary threads? |
What's with this fixation on me? It seems that MEB has been more in your face that I ever wish to be. I know your kind and don't wish to spar with you as it is beneath my station and I have a trace of dignity unlike the actual one you know.
I think that your not letting on all that you know.
Wish to lock up this thread as well?
It's Scary! |
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Middle East Beast

Joined: 05 Mar 2008 Posts: 836 Location: Up a tree
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:55 pm Post subject: |
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It's Scary,
I'm tryin' my best to take the heat off ya!
MEB  |
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