The real work begins (with blasts of fun at night) Part 1: My school placement

I've been on a hiatus for a couple of days. Why? I've been really busy with school orientation and random adventuring at night.

First things first, I found out my school placement. I'll be working in Baniyas in the UAE at a girl's government school. Baniyas is a semi rural town that is about 45 minutes away from Abu Dhabi City (or so I'm told). I can't comment too much about the place because I've yet to visit. When I asked a local about it, he told me that it was "desert and concrete";  from another  person I heard "it's a rural community that is very family oriented." I am going to shop around for a rental car Saturday and look around the city myself.

What I do know is that because it is a government school, it will most likely be very low on resources. I'm not going to lie, I was a little sad at first about the placement. To begin with, I've never been a commuter. Then we had a pep speech that just made me want to cry. The man kept stating "the government schools really really need you." The in between lines to me read as "you are being sent to a school in the middle of nowhere that really needs your help because they have close to nothing." There's a huge disparity in schools in the UAE. Currently there are three types of schools which are MODEL, PPP and government schools. My friend in Al Ain is in a MODEL school which has the best resources and selects it's students, a PPP school is a Private-Public partnership which also has more supplies but has another company with it's own set of rules for teachers, and then there are government schools which may have little to no help from the government. 

This is a picture from somewhere in Bani Yas. I'm sure it's not all like this but even searching the location in google has proved difficult. (I took this pic from this blog http://auhgal.blogspot.com/)

While at first this placement seemed like somewhat of a burden, I've really come around to loving the idea. Here's the thing, all my teaching career I've been catering to children that live in good communities and schools that have a lot of support monetarily. I've been spoiled with the best resources and taught some of the brightest students. Was I happy? Somewhat. I didn't enter my profession with the idea of teaching the "best" students, I entered it to have a positive influence on students that need these influences the most. I am finally getting an opportunity to really teach, to really have the creative license and freedom that I was lacking at home. I won't have the stress of FCAT or the politics of a PPP school. I will finally really teach what I feel my students really need. I'm incredibly excited about this opportunity.

Other factors that have factored (that sounds funny, heh) into a paradigm shift include teaching at an all girls school, really integrating myself into the local culture, and getting an opportunity to quicken the acquisition of my Arabic. While I'm still a little scared and nervous about my teaching adventure I'm going to embrace it open heartedly and put my everything into it. I know I'll shed a lot of tears, and have my moments of doubt, but in the end everything works out. I'm going to see such incredible growth from my group of girls and look forward to making a positive impact in their lives.

Knowledge is power and I'm starting to feel more and more powerful each day of this new world. I've already changed my view on so many things. My eyes are really seeing the world now and not everything is rosy colored. The good news is that love is universal and teachers mold the future, no matter what society you're in. I truly love my job and not a lot of people can say this, Alhamdulillah.