Perspectives

      So, although Mark and I work at the same school, I can tell you that our experiences are quite different. Not necessarily always, but overall our time here is a bit different, mainly when it comes to school and tutoring.  The school was in a bit of shambles until more recently, but we have new executive counsel members who have been turning it around within the past few years.  It is great to be part of this improvement movement.

     It appears as if they are trying to work their way from the bottom up on this improvement plan.  I have storage closets of random resources (not necessarily all that I need and definitely need more, so won't say that's perfect), team planning and true cooperation among teachers, ease of getting new supplies for the classroom from another storage closet (laminate sheets (miss the industrial laminator machine), dry erase markers, notebooks, pencils, sticky tack, etc), professional development tends to be a bit extensive for primary teachers (when we have true sessions), and overall organization among the staff.  Obviously, no school is perfect and the primary division of our school is far from it, but compared to secondary and what Mark's experience is, it is run quite well.  Also, my students are very different than Mark's, as mine are at the age where they still respect their teacher, love learning, and are easy to please.

     For example, we had parent night this past week.  For me, we sent out letters to parents and allowed them to schedule a specific 10 minute slot to meet with me.  There was communication sent back and forth from parents and teachers.  The parent was ask to come a few minutes early and wait outside the teacher's classroom until it was their turn.  It was from 4-7 pm and I had 15 parents sign up.  So, it was fairly organized.  Our principle and assistant principle were in our building to help burn out any "fires" if anything arose and to support us.  I had 11 of my 15 parents show up, but overall it went great.  Keep in mind, I have an absolutely amazing class and unfortunately the parents of my lowest kids didn't come.  It always seems to work like that.   I needed a translator for one of my student's parents, which I was a bit nervous about, but it went well.  It made me have a whole new appreciation for his child, who is a decent reader and writer and doesn't have support at home, only because her parents can't help her because they don't know English.  Talk about good work ethic for a child and representation of her maturity.   I also didn't have one mother who was completely covered, which was nice because I sometimes feel uncomfortable when I can't see their face and I'm talking to them.  So, all in all, it was a long night, but great to meet more parents and discuss their child's progress, behavior (all positive for the parents who came), and areas to work on.  So, from my perspective this was an organized event that went well.

~ Kristin

As for Mark's parent night I'll let him tell you about it...

        Well, where should I begin?  School communicated about the conferences by giving students letters to take home to their parents, which I must say worked surprisingly well considering what others have shared with me about the night's attendance from previous years.  Whenever papers are sent home from the school, they are sent with your registration class.  Since I do not see the same class during the same lesson throughout the week, I try to wait till I have my registration class at the end of the day which is on Tues/Wednesdays.  With Parent Night, it worked out well this time so I was pleased to find little papers scattered throughout my building (B-Block) let alone throughout the campus grounds as I left school for the day.

        The night of parent's night started off really slow.  I was seated at a small table that ideally seats no more than 6 yet somehow 10 chairs were finagled around it.  I sat next to another teacher where I was then shared how the evening will pan out for the next three hours.  While hearing the lowdown for the evening, our conversation abruptly ended as my colleague had his first parent of which you could only see two brown eyes as she wore an abaya and hijab.  I found it a little odd to sit next to a colleague's parent meeting where I was easily within earshot to hear the whole thing assuming I chose to listen in.  Fortunately I did not have to twiddle my thumbs for long as my first parent sat down.  From the moment the first parent/tutor sat down, I was constantly talking for the next 2 hours and 55 minutes (not that I took notice at my watch from time to time for a split second).  I was surprised, but I did have over 30 out of 125 parents/tutors come which was better than I thought.

        When the parent or tutor (for that matter) is a muslim woman, I'm always hesitant to introduce myself with a handshake which only happened once.  It just seems different compared to what I had been used to the last four years of teaching and having parent meetings.  Overall, I met with more woman than men, and I must say the men that I did met with did not seem all that interested or thrilled to be in attendance that evening.  Most of the men that came mentioned how they were just passing through because they were home for a week after bouncing from country to country for business.  The few men who were genuinely interested were not from gulf countries which I found to be interesting.  Another interesting thing I took away was that the student's who had interested dads that came, are doing well in my classes.  I'm obviously not a dad, but I hope to be a father who is actively interested in my kids' lives both academically and non-academically.  I can understand some of the parents' frustration with their child's grades for the term, but when I hear that they (the parents), are not home much and have tutors and nannies that raise the kids I don't feel all that sorry.  I know this is not the case with all of my students, but its just an observation that I've been processing with a good number of my students.  It seems like some families are simply trying to "buy" learning for their students and are willing to throw any amount of money at the situation which leads to Kristin's perspective on tutoring.

~Mark

        We have quite different perspectives as the male and female roles / social rules are quite different here.  Mark already shared one previous experience as to why he lost his tutoring job, because he saw the mom for a brief second and she was not covered (wearing clothes, but hair was not covered).  Women should only be fully seen by their husband or family, otherwise they are covered when they are in public.  This week, Mark picked up a new student and with that was able to help me to pick up more tutoring with a couple of the siblings.  We went yesterday for the first time.  I am temporary tutoring their Year 1 (kindergartener) who is trying to pass the admission test for our school.  He has already failed it once, but they are trying again.  So, I went yesterday to tutor this young boy and Mark and I pull up to their house, which consists of several buildings.  Some of the buildings are for different family members and one is a men's meeting building.  The boy pointed in the direction of the main house for me to go to, while him and Mark went somewhere else.

      I walked up to the front door and was greeted at the front door by the mother.  This was my first time in the main house of a Qatari, as my other student I tutor just has me tutor in the men's meeting room (separate building).  It was very nice, but only saw the very front of the house.  The mother had sent up a work station for us to work at, while she stayed and helped to translate when needed and make sure her son was following directions during our tutoring session.  It was an interesting hour, as this boy doesn't know his alphabet or numbers.  Luckily, I was able to use some of the strategies that I learned at Creekside working in their Special Education Department to help this child and felt like we made progress.  The progress was minimal, but plan on working with him for 2 days a week.  His English is extremely poor and we had a hard time communicating, but he definitely knew what "high five" and jumping meant, as we did a lot of both together. :) I'm sure it will be an interesting experience with this boy, but look forward to helping him improve in his English. I also can't complain about the extra money that we can earn with the additional tutoring jobs.

~Kristin

      I'm grateful for the opportunity to tutor again.  I need to be more careful that I don't squander this opportunity like I haphazardly did with the previous one :).  Needless to say, I'm certainly more hesitant in where I walk around the compound of houses/villas.  Luckily, the two times that I've tutored my Year 7 (6th grade) student, he has come to school with his driver to pick me up to then lead me into our tutoring venue.

      My tutoring takes place in what I have learned (almost put learnt, British English is getting to me) is the male lounge area when family/friend gatherings happen.  You walk in and it is pretty ornate with chandeliers, wall-to-wall with couches and a few tables which are littered with chocolates, candies and biscuits.   I have consumed my fair share of these treats in my mind as they have been covered and/or are in packaging.  Perhaps one of these days I'll get to see what my tastebuds think of these items.

      The student and I get along real well as he finds my tactics silly, fun and helpful at the same time.  I'm thankful for my teaching experience and vast array of previous one-on-one tutoring experiences back in USA as they are helping me now.  Yet, tutoring students over here, so far has been incredibly challenging as they are lower than any students I have worked with in tutoring (and teaching in class thinking of my students) before.  Despite the challenges, it is rewarding at the same time, as I seek to instill confidence along with learning how to find the mean, median, mode, divide fractions, etc.  So we'll see how this experience goes and how far its course will run assuming I don't screw this one up :).

~Mark