So after a too-quick summer vacation, teachers are heading back to school for preparatory work for the wonderful and diligent students. (/end sarcasm) They made us start work on Sunday and I was shocked to enter the building since it was completely not prepared for the teachers to start their work. It was full of sand (not dust....sand) it was dirty, there were no working vending machines to provide even water, the a/c's were still not working completely and on top of that they were still finishing a "new" teacher's room.
They made us stay until the end of the day and come back the rest of this week full-time with nothing to do basically. The school was still not cleaned, the books were not ready, and the teacher's room was just finalized today. So we were basically going to work for nothing, just wasting time.
Now let me tell you about this wonderful "new" teachers room. They needed to open up new classrooms (because you know, saudi schools are all about the business side of making more money through more students) Therefore, the only place they could put the teachers was on the roof. YES we have to climb 4 floors of stairs (no elevator) to get to the ROOF then walk out onto the roof with the mid-day sun burning through our skulls and walk to the end of the roof where they have built what seems like a doghouse or shack in which our desks are placed.
That was strike 1 for me, next thing is they brought some arabic student book packages which are in boxes weight close to 30kg each. They wanted us to carry them to the classrooms on the 3rd floor. I don't think I remember being a work-woman when I signed up to be a teacher! It's not my job to carry heavy boxes up the stairs! I probably wouldn't complain if there were an elevator but up three flights is just too much.
Strike 3 comes up when they tell us that we have to come in to school on Thursday and Friday since we didn't finish our work this week. Ummm excuse me, but did you give me work to do this past week that you forced me to come to work that I didn't complete? What work can you come up with to fill our weekends? We were literally doing nothing this week since there was nothing we could possibly do (like lesson planning and pacing schedules) since the books (teachers editions and such) have not been delivered.
I am sick of being treated like this. I won't be staying there for long. They can go search for another qualified English teacher. In the end I know it will be their loss. Does anyone else think that they are crazy or is it just me?