Training at the Hotel

Since the internet and toilets at the College are still not up and running yet, the next two days of training will be held at the Double Tree Hotel so that we can learn how to use the online attendance and grade system. Its a nice change. The professional development we had at the University of Dammam had been in a freezing room on the mens side of the campus, and we were lucky if there was water around to drink.

Waterfall display in the Lobby of the Double Tree Hotel

When we arrived we were ushered up to the top floor by very friendly hotel employees. Since it was only six stories, and because there was a huge line for the elevators, I asked if he could show me to the stairs. He seemed surprised and told me again it was on the sixth floor. I told him I knew that and he just shook his head but led the way. Once we reached the stairs I expected him to carry on with his duty, but instead he insisted on going up with me to make sure I would find it. I thought that was a bit strange since in my experience stairs only went in one direction and didn't offer many opportunities for getting lost while climbing them, but I figured it was just really excellent hospitality. As it turns out, he was right. There is no hallway connecting the rooms on the sixth floor to the conference area on the sixth floor, so you actually have to leave the stairs on the fifth floor, walk around to the middle of the hotel and then take the elevator up one flight of stairs to the sixth floor. Now I felt kind of bad for making him climb all those stairs. Who knows though, maybe he needed the exercise as much as I did.

If I didn't need it before, I certainly needed it after I got to the room. They had provided us with an amazing spread of coffee, tea, fruit juice, and a smorgasbord of delicious breakfast desserts. It was incredible. I had a cheesecake and a croissant and I would have had more if I could have gotten up from the training table without anyone noticing what a pig I was. We started the session by getting in groups to come up with three things we thought the company had done well so far and three things that hadn't gone so well. We had kind of a variety of experiences in our group. One girl, who like me was coming to the Khobar Female College (KFC) from her old company had sent a lot of emails and called many times to find out where she would be staying when she finally arrived in Khobar, but never got any response and no one met her at the airport. Just when she was deciding maybe she should stick with her old employer, she got a phone call and was sent to the right place, but still, it was a nerve-wracking experience and one that worried me, because it was just the kind of thing my old company would have done, in fact, did do to me. The other woman had the opposite experience. They met her coming off the plain in Bahrain, got her all set up in the hotel, worked out all the visa stuff and then brought her into Saudi without a single problem. The one thing we could all agree on was that there were too many teaching hours and not enough planning time and that the curriculum should have been developed prior to our arrival, and that having no internet after we had been told there would be was kind of a skunk move. We also all agreed that the accommodation was wonderful and that our IT lady, Fozia, was amazing and really knew her stuff, and that what KFC was trying to do with raising the standards for women's education was admirable.  Most groups had similar complaints, but we didn't get all the way around the table when the general manager arrived.

He wanted to just give a quick hello, and a background on the company, which is a British organization that focuses on job training programs and welfare to work systems in the UK.  They are apparently very successful there and are hoping the model will work equally well in Saudi.  He explained that the underlying motivation for the Saudization project is ultimately economical, but that there are social interests here too.  He also said that the company is not non-profit, and they are paid based on student outcomes, which, unfortunately are measured 90% by attendance and only 10% by student outcomes.  He kept it up beat, and focused on the difference we would be making in the lives of the women we would teach, and the future generations they would raise.  Underneath it though, it was clear the focus was ultimately on attendance.  I was starting to get the sinking feeling that at the end of the day, all the rhetoric about engaging students and dynamic teaching was a secondary hopeful outcome, and that attendance was really all they cared about.  We were being hired to be glorified babysitters, and if some learning happened to happen in the meantime?  Great.

After the general manager spoke, we heard from the quality manager.  She talked about the quarterly observations we would have, the random "learning walk" observations that would be drop in for 5 minutes or so, and the annual institutional review.  I was actually quiet happy about the observations.  I have not been officially observed in a long time, and I would personally welcome the feedback.  Most of the other teachers weren't happy about it, and I can see how it would be scary and unfair if the observations led to teacher dismissal.  The process she outlined for us was that if there were areas for improvement you would be asked to do professional development and make a plan for improvement and re-observed after a month.  I think if they stick to this plan, and give you both the time and resources to improve, the observations can only be a good thing.  I wondered though if these observations were like our lesson planning time.... something they wanted to do and do well, but that they hadn't sufficiently planned for.  There were 32 teachers, and one person doing the observations who also happens to be the vice principal and head of student affairs, and we were all supposed to be observed once a month.  I'm not sure when she is going to fit this all in.

After this we had lunch.  It was a buffet set up on the first floor of the hotel and it was amazing.  There was so much food and it was all so good.  I stuffed myself, and probably would have eaten more If there had been more time.  The waiters even came around with warm chocolate chip cookies. The service was definitely outstanding.  I found myself wishing we could just remain perpetually in training at this hotel.  I could get used to fast internet, snacks, buffet lunches and friendly staff.  I didn't even mind sitting through the session when there was tea and coffee available.

We ended the day by trying out the online system for attendance.  I was anxious to work with this database and find out what it was capable of doing.  It turns out, it really just captures attendance and weekly test scores and that is about it.  It didn't seem particularly user friendly.  I was hoping I could use this system for everything, and that the students would be able to check their own grades and attendance through this system, but they will not be able to access it.  It looks like I will need to use a free online learning portal for my classroom purposes after all.  Which is actually ok because I had already started to make one for my University of Dammam classes, so it is already partially done anyway, and I can just re-use it.

Too soon, the day was over and we all pilled back onto the bus.  It wasn't so hard to do knowing we would be back at the hotel tomorrow for more training... I was really looking forward to some more hot chocolate chip cookies.