Grade 2

Today I modeled a lesson for my primary teacher. I started by reading an alphabetical story as we are creating an alphabet book ..... in ENGLISH. I got down on the carpet and read the boys a story. I don't actually think these students have been read too a great deal, or my reading of the story was fantastic. I think the former. They were spell bound, well most as you can see were spell bound. There are always one or two whose little heads are else where, literally and physically
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The differences and the similarities.
The classes are small in the primary schools that I work across, almost all under 20. Grade 2.b has 15 students.
All the rooms have tiles on the floor, to help keep the place cool.
Al though the temperature is about 24, the boys are cold and wear jackets to school. We are coming out of a cold winter.... the temperature got down to 19 at its lowest point! That for the UAE is real COLD
All the boys wear kandoras, in varying colours, however most are white or yellow.
They wear the headscarf when they enter Grade 8
They NEVER wear their sandals on the carpet, but they do wear them in and around the classroom. They walk around the carpet if they have their sandals on.
All teachers except ICT go to the students classes. So the students stay in their home room all day and the teachers move. Therefore no one takes particular ownership for the room. There are very seldom displays of student work, or text around the room, or books, or activities.
Lots of teachers teach from behind their desks, many lecture, and the students copy down endless notes from the board.
Periods are 40 -45 minutes long. The first 3 are 45, then the remainder 40.
School begins at 7:15 in the boys school and ends for primary at 12:30.
Teachers usually teach one period on, one off.
Although the teachers are supposed to stay to 12:30 if they are in primary or middle school and 2:20 if they are in the secondary part ( Grade 10 -12) most go home when their classes are finished.
We have 4 periods then a break, then 3 more, and a break and 2 more if you are in the secondary school. Male teachers get a block of 3 periods off a week to go early to attend to their business eg banking paying bills etc.
They have staff meetings 1x a month at my schools, and the students leave early so the staff attend during school hours. Faculty meetings are timetabled during the "off"/ non contact periods, like wise PD, of which they are quite casual about attending.
Teachers very seldom have to discipline their students. Most students are compliant, they may be bored but they will sit (and sleep)
We, as providers, have to be at school 15 mins before the teaching staff and stay 30 mins after the end of the school day.
Schools must have at least 30% (I think) Emirati staffing. So the expat teachers from around the gulf countries who are here, are mindful of their jobs. They can be replaced by being transferred out, if an Emirati teacher wants a job in that particular school. Some expat teachers also are mindful of the boss, as he can have them transferred out. In some boys schools the expat teachers have a higher teaching load than Emirati. Can't comment on mine as I believe it's pretty fair.
Emirati teachers get approx double the salary of an expat. Teachers teaching in the Emiarte of Abu Dhabi which is where I am, get an additional 6000 AED a month more than other Emirates. Our Sheik pays well.
Some of my teachers drive for anything up to 2 hrs each way to come to school and work in the Abu Dhabi Emirate becausof the money. Mind you driving a Prada, or a Lexus or a Land cruiser on our roads at 140 + an hour when fuel is NZ 50 a litre is a real hardship don't you think!

It's really funny the things that we do so naturally in NZ in our teaching paradigm that we may have taken so much for granted, that are not in the teaching pedagogy over here. Reading to the students, having a carpet as a teaching space, and getting down on the floor and amongst the students etc. So NZ teachers celebrate your points of difference and the great job you are doing by working the way you do with the students.