Am I A Good Teacher?

The past few weeks have been not been the greatest weeks for me as a teacher.  And although this has not been the first time I have questioned my teaching ability, it surly has made me pay more attention to that deep little voice inside that asks… “Am I a good teacher?”

With each new adventurist situation, like the grade 9 students throwing chips from their window to the grade 1 – 3 students during recess and telling them to eat it as if they are monkeys in a zoo; that once almost inaudible voice gets stronger and more prominent.  It is a real disappointing scene when I am in the front of my grade 9 boy’s class attempting to teach the lesson when the whole class is not giving me the slightest amount of attention.  I have some student’s sleeping, others calling each other names in Arabic, and a few fighting in the corner.  Of course there has been improvement since September, but it is still a challenge to get order in a school with little administration support, students who don’t care about detention, homework or their marks, and the inability to communicate with parents because of language barrier.  If I can only use Arabic and quotes from the Qur’an like the Arabic teachers do to get through to the students.  Unfortunately all I have at my disposal is making them feel ashamed, which has to be done with broken-up English so they can understand me.  If I use too many ‘big’ words, like responsibility, agenda, unique or literacy, I lose them.  And when they tell me I am the only teacher that they somewhat behave for, I feel like I am making progress.

However, with days like today when a student sandwiches himself between the bathroom door and wall to lock himself in to avoid going to class, I feel like its one step forward, two steps back.

Bryan the Camel says…

            You need a ‘Please Don’t Feed the Animals’ sign outside the grade 9 window.

What Do I Say to That?

Things here have been interesting the last few weeks.  And really, at times just too much that I haven’t been in the mood to write any new posts. 

This past week has been just one of those weeks were the monkeys in the zoo of a school have just been wild.  Maybe it has to do with the full moon we had at the start of week, or that all other schools are getting ready for their spring break except for us, or that the dreaded summer with its painfully scorching 40 degrees Celsius plus weather has returned.  Whatever the reason for their behavior, I just know that I am thankful it’s the weekend; time to unwind and relax.

To get a glimpse on the past week I had, here are a few of the situations I was faced with that really left me thinking… ‘What do I say to that?’

-       When the nephew of the owner of the school says, “Turn off the A/C my uncle is paying for that”.

-       Student calls another kid the ‘N-word’, and when you take him to the office, administration does absolutely nothing about it except take the students word over yours when he says he never said that.

-       Grade 9 Student kicks another kid in the stomach and he drops to the floor.  When the discipline coordinator comes in the classroom the whole class tells him he fell off the desk, no one did anything to him; including the kid who got kicked.

-       Homeroom class students pull everything off the walls; posters, classroom rules, seating plan and calendar and write ‘hahaha no my calendar Mr. Sir’ where the calendar use to be.

I know that I am still fresh out of teachers college, but I can certainly guarantee that during Methods class we never discuses scenarios like that. 

Bryan The Camel says…

      You need to go for a camel ride… 

Who is Bryan The Camel?

I know many people have wondered ‘Who is Bryan The Camel?’  And why would I name my blog that.

Well it actually all started about a year ago, when I was still in teachers college applying anywhere and everywhere for a teaching job.  I knew that a job in Ontario would not be so easily to come by with the surplus of teachers going on and the lack of expected interview numbers projected for the up coming school year.  That was when I decided that I should also think about applying overseas for a teaching job.  I looked up the different recruitment organizations and came across teachanywhere.com.

Teachanwhere.com put me in contact with the recruitment officer of Canada and his name was Bryan.  Bryan was very helpful in not only finding me a job, but also in helping me make the decision for taking the job and to get mentally prepared for the move half-way across the world.  He also provided a lot of good information about living in the UAE.  In the emails sent, there was a constant joke about me getting a camel when I arrived in Al Ain to be used as a means of transportation.

So when I decided to start a blog to help keep in touch with people back home and to use as an outlet to express the journey I was going through, the first step was to think of a name.  I didn’t want to use my full name and I wanted the name of the blog to reflect my situation some how and give the blog a theme.  Thus the name ‘Bryan the Camel’ came to me and I thought it was a perfect fit.

Bran the Camel says…

            Thanks for coming along for the ride!