Page 21 -

TE KUAKA ISSUE 1 2014 21
When Belinda Blick arrived at school in
Abu Dhabi for her first day of teaching there
were no children in sight.
“They staggered in throughout the week. Everything was so
disorganised, we didn’t even know what classrooms we were in,”
Belinda says. She quickly learned it was just the way of the Middle
Eastern education system.
Belinda, a graduate of the Auckland College of Education, had
been teaching in London and New Zealand schools for 10 years
when she went in search of a different experience, new challenges
and a bigger pay cheque. “Going to Abu Dhabi was a good
opportunity to earn more money while renting out my new house in
New Zealand to reduce my mortgage,” Belinda says.
In 2010, she signed up with a recruitment agency and secured
a teaching position in Al Noor School – an all-girls’ primary school
based in Bani Yas, an old Bedouin village about 45 minutes drive
from Abu Dhabi City.
“The Abu Dhabi Education Council had an initiative to educate
every Emirate child in English, science and mathematics, in the
English language. Thousands of English-speaking teachers were
hired to go into schools.”
Belinda was part of a 800-strong group of teachers who had
come from all over the world with the majority being American,
Australian and New Zealanders. Belinda says the 50-degree heat
and 100 per cent humidity was her first challenge followed by
arriving in the middle of Ramadan – the Islamic ritual of fasting
from dawn until sunset.
In the days leading up to being in the classroom, Belinda
underwent medical tests, had her finger prints recorded and was
briefed on cultural practices and expectations. She says it took
a week for all of her students to come back to school after their
holiday. But once they did, the challenges thickened.
Each day Belinda, who was known by her students as ‘Miss
Belinda’, would attempt to teach a class of non-English speaking
children, aged 8-9 years old, three different subjects: mathematics,
science and English. “I had to come up with creative ways of
teaching. Fortunately, I had a couple of kids who could translate, so
they would stand up and tell the children what to do on my behalf.”
Belinda says she also had to keep the students awake and
disciplined.
“The kids would be at the mall until midnight and fall asleep in
class. They didn’t have healthy lunches. Students would bring along
bags of chips and they’d open them and put them all together to
share. That is why their concentration levels were so low.”
Throughout the week, Belinda would attend staff meetings
and assemblies that were spoken entirely in Arabic. “We were very
much in the dark. You always had to think ‘what is coming next?’
and just laugh.”
With a positive attitude - and the help of a $6,500 pay cheque
each month - Belinda made the most of her time by travelling
overseas during the school holidays.
Sadly, her time in Abu Dhabi was cut short when her mother
died suddenly in September 2011. “I got on a plane the night I
received the phone call from my sister, so I had to leave the school
straight away.”
Belinda decided not to return to teaching in Abu Dhabi after
the agency asked for a death certificate as confirmation of her
departure just days after leaving.
However, she went back to the school to tie up loose ends and
say goodbye to her students who had not had a teacher for three
weeks. “They had been doing nothing for three weeks and just
ran riot. My partner teacher had given them a bit of work but not
much.”
After working as a relief teacher back in New Zealand for
a couple of years, Belinda went on to do postgraduate study in
literacy education at the Faculty of Education.
This year, she has embarked on a new challenge as a
professional development literacy facilitator at Team Solutions.
She is also considering doing masters research based on teacher
content knowledge and how important it is for teachers to
understand literacy in order to teach it well.
She says the transition into facilitating came from a desire to
reach more students with high quality literacy teaching.
“I’m passionate about teaching writing and I felt my knowledge
was limited to the children in my classroom. I’ve developed a new
writing programme that I want to trial with teachers,” she says.
During the past 14 years as a teacher and senior leader, she
says she has become disheartened at the ability of many teachers’
writing.
“This is a great opportunity to make a wider change. I felt like
a lone wolf who was making a difference to some students, but this
way I can upskill teachers to reach a lot more children. I can make
more of a difference this way.”
Teaching
beyond
borders