I can't believe I've already been back in class for two weeks. That is as long as the break we just had. It definitely took some time getting back into the swing of teaching. Especially since we came back to all sorts of changes. We have new classes and thankfully we've changed things enough that the work load is slightly easier. I do have to say though I was fairly stressed when we started again because for some reason they decided to put me, the first year teacher, teaching the advanced kids. We say advanced, but that is just compared to those students who know very very little. There are some positives and negatives to this new change. My students can understand almost everything I say so we can have some great conversations about life in Saudi Arabia and many other things. On the other hand, they can tell if and when I have no idea what I'm doing or am less prepared. Not that it happens a lot, but as a first year I do have moments where I wonder what in the world I'm doing and how I got here. I do tend to stress way more than everyone else.
Another change that we've had recently is the loss of 5 teachers at my school, and 3 or 4 at the other school here in Riyadh. Apparently they are having a hard time finding teachers at the other schools in Jeddah and Dammam and needed to take some of ours. This occured one week in from our break, and so yet again, another change. I have a hard time knowing if I hate it more or the students do. They can't stand all the class changes and frankly neither can I. Luckily this has not affected my classes at all because I have the upper level kids. However, many of my former students come to tell me of their frustrations. We have hired temporary teachers from the area until my company manages to hire some others (I have some doubts they will find people to do that though). I wonder what would happen if these temp teachers decided to just stop one day.....I think it could be a disaster for the program here. It is much quieter on the ride to school now with those 5 teachers missing. They were some of our more lively teachers.
I have to say I really love my new students. They tell me many things, like why music is bad, about the Djinns, and about life here in Saudi. They constantly surprise me with new words that seem above their current level. We laugh a lot which is nice. They can have some pretty decent conversations but still need a lot of work with their writing. However, even then they show some promise. They make a lot of grammatical errors, but the words they use makes me think that they are so close to getting it. I'm grateful that my partner teacher is a great writing instructor. I focus more on conversation and vocabulary and he focuses on the writing skills. We recently had a test where the students had to write a paragraph about why or why not a factory would be good in their hometown, and here is what one of them wrote (just so you can see what they are doing)
My student "S" wrote (with his mistakes included):
Building a factory in our hometown is a bad idea. Because of the water pollution.
For example some factories make the water dirty when the dump a wates of products into the water and the waster destroy the water and kill the fish. The other form of water pollution when the smoking of making disposition on the roofs of water.
Our hometown is so beautiful and has a lot nice lakes and rivers, but when we accept building factories there we will be regret for that after short time. Because the factories burn many subjects to make its products. Then, dump the wastes into the water. Water contaminates with toxic substances from the wastes of factories. After that, people will resort to eating food imported and set up water purification projects, and they will cost a lot. Do you want that??
Haha, I love the rhetorical question at the end. So this definitely has a lot of work but I have to say I think this is pretty good for where they are at. Plus he used the word "contaminates"! Thats what I mean when I say my students surprise me often. It all brings back a lot of memories of when I was in French classes and discovering all the grammar mistakes I would make. Second language acquisition is extremely difficult.
So things are going pretty well here, but I often feel like this company is on thin ice. I don't know what will happen. Other than that there isn't much to report. I mostly just read a lot during the weeks when school is going on. I can say that for the first time yesterday I was not allowed into a mall because I was single. On the weekends only families can go into the malls. It sounds funny but I think their attitude is that the single men would go and make trouble whatever that means. Usually, because we are from the U.S. they don't mess with us at all and I've been to a mall almost every weekend here in the KSA. But I have been told, and it was true yesterday, that if you get the wrong security guard they may feel like denying you. I was slightly annoyed, but now I can say I've had that experience. We just went to some other better places to spend our day.
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