New School....Again!

After the drama and illegal activities at my old school, I decided to break my contract and accept a job at a private school in Sharjah. My previous employer  attempted first to cajole me into staying, and when that didn’t work they tried to bully me into staying. Anyone who knows me knows that once my mind is made up there is no going back. Trying to bully me just makes me dig my heels in more. This was still going on in September, while I was teaching in my new school with a Visa for an entirely different school and Emirate! 

One of the common occurrences here when YOU break a contract is that you get banned from employment for 6 months to a year.  Sometimes you even get banned when the school doesn’t renew as happened to a friend recently. My new school made several calls and determined that since I was on a “Free Zone” Visa, a ban did not apply outside the Free Zone so all was good. Wait a minute here…….I didn’t work in the Free Zone. WTF? Needless to say, one of their illegal actions saved my ass. 

When I hadn’t been able to reach an agreement with the other school by the beginning of October, I filed a complaint with the Free Zone Labour Office. Funny thing, my employer and I reached an agreement right after they received the email regarding my complaint! I will spare you the details of my two attempted trips and two actual trips, one unsuccessful, to the Free Zone Labour Office. Suffice it to say, nothing is easy here.  Insha’Allah my old Visa will be canceled by the end of the month and then I get to start the Visa process with the new school. I see at least one Border Run in my future. 

I am extremely glad my current school, Wesgreen International Private School, has been willing to tolerate all of this drama because I LOVE IT! My campus is only KG1, KG2, and Year 1 (3-6 years old) and has 900 students. Considering how small Sharjah is, this tells you how well respected the school is. For the first time here, and for the first time since I was involuntarily transferred out of PTHS to the middle school, I enjoy teaching! Woo-hoo! 

Unfortunately, this left me entirely without pay for the summer months and I have had to borrow money to eat. Having awesome friends has made the situation easier. The ex is even floating my share (small as it is) of Lauren’s tuition until things are settled here. Worse than having to borrow is the lack of gas and toll money that has left me STUCK IN SHARJAH more than I want to be.  Yet again, friends have saved the day! 

When I worked in Al Ain, all of the teachers were either British or South African and looked down on me as an inferior American. At Wesgreen, we have more of a mixture: South African, Greek, British, Canadian, and American. There are even classroom teachers and assistants who are Muslim (Arabic and non-Arabic), something unheard of at AAESS where I felt the Arabic teachers, who only taught Arabic and Islam, were treated rather rudely.  Needless to say, I have made friends here. There have been a couple of liquid dinner nights during our nine day Eid Al Adha Break and I didn’t feel as homesick for Abu Dhabi as I had expected. 

There have been some blips: having my assistant switched after a month and three cases of head lice in my classroom, but life is not perfect. My classroom has resources! There is a Head of Year who doesn’t just hold meetings to hear herself talk! She handles the basic lesson plans and weekly parent notes; we just decide what we are doing to implement those lessons. Instead of having to write an entire page script for each lesson, I fill in a 1” x 1” block on a spreadsheet. 

I am staying in my current housing, though the school doesn’t fully cover my rent. My flat is right on the Dubai-Sharjah border and the school is out in the industrial area meaning the housing is there also. I like living in the city and being anonymous in my 31 story tower. Well, as anonymous as I can be as the only western woman in the building! The only way out of my area to that end of Sharjah is a roundabout that clogs up with buses in the morning. As a result, I have to leave at 6:10am to get to school at 6:45 though I am not due until 7:30. If I leave any later, it is a crapshoot as to whether or not I will make it to school on time. Needless to say, this non-morning person is considering moving to the school housing when my lease is up at the end of March. 

My favorite roundabout as viewed from my flat. I think it is really more of a squareabout. This connects to the right with yet another roundabout. It wouldn't be as bad if people here knew how to DRIVE.  Buses need both lanes to take the corners, and people squeeze in to the right of them, making it impossible for either to move.

My students are great. I have a mixture of nationalities: Emirati, American, Pakistani, Iranian, Indian, Jordanian, and Egyptian. I have KG2, which is 4-5 years old. Luckily my assistants (both the first and second) are awesome with crafts and painting because I can’t stand that shit.  I give a basic idea of what I am looking for and they run with it. As a result, my classroom looks awesome for my first observation, which is next week.Wish me luck!