Read all about it right here! The crazy goings-on at Abu Dhabi Wankers' Camp ... er, sorry - Abu Dhabi Women's College!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

No surprise there, then ...

If you were the director of a college and you had an award-winning teacher working for you, would you be prepared to just let him hand in his notice and walk out after a couple of years?

If this teacher was running six or seven world-famous websites, and had offered to make his college "a website with gazillions of lessons for Arab and Muslim learners worldwide", would you be happy to just let him walk away?

And if this teacher had a stellar reputation and wide influence amongst his fellows in the global teaching community, would you claim indifference if he had NOTHING good to say about your college?

Well, if you work for ADWC, that answer just has to be ... YES

Goodbye, Sean, author of breakingnewsenglish.com and a handful of other famous and well-loved sites for EFL teachers and students. You are far too talented and honest to ever be able to prosper at HCT!

13 comments:

Khalifa Exile said...

SB will be missed by many at ADWC when he leaves. The Claw will be missed by none. In fact, we're planning a 'leaving party' for her - to celebrate her departure!

Anonymous said...

Yes...when I, too, was humiliated by my chair and my dean because of the lil' darlin's who were worried that I'd give them a failing grade, even though they had yet to sit ONE assessment (some even going into my chair's office and TURNING ON THE WATERWORKS!!!) and was given the punishment of having to peer-observe THREE colleagues and write up self-critiques as well as experience the no-notice drop-in observations by BOTH the dean and the chair...Sean was one of my esteemed colleagues that I chose to observe. I chose him and two others who have since left...that should give folks an ideas of the type of talent that has been squandered at the ADWC.

(I might add that all the lil' darlin's passed...real surprising, eh?)

I survived that AND the experience of being called before Tubby in his very offices over the allegation of insulting Islam and a member of the ruling family...namely Sheikh Mohammed. I kept my job both times as I was able to successfully defend myself in front of my management and in front of Tubby. Hell, I even had a tribute music video made of me by my students that I proudly showed to other colleagues (who, to a person, congratulated me on the tribute save my "lead faculty" who, not unexpectedly, ignored it), but was sure to keep from my sycophant last "chair" as I didn't want to ruin his tainted image of me.

Think of the power that the Claw has in her star chamber proceedings when management from a lowly chair and dean all the way up to Tubby couldn't get rid of me!

Kinda makes ya think, don't it?

The good news is that a former colleague of mine was ABSOLUTELY correct in saying that there's a life after the HCT. I've got a job that many would envy as well as having received offers from very esteemed organizations! :)

Anonymous said...

"was given the punishment of having to peer-observe THREE colleagues and write up self-critiques as well as experience the no-notice drop-in observations by BOTH the dean and the chair"

Let me guess whose idea this was--Miss Piggy? Oh how she loves to stab people in the back and then twist the knife.

Anonymous said...

"self-critiques"

smacks of the cultural revolution in China, and we all know how that turned out.

Anonymous said...

The above illustrates just how perverse, corrupt and toxic the situation has become at ADWC, if not the whole HCT system.

World-standard teachers flee the place, while the incompetent, cruel and brown-nosing types (Miss Piggy, Dimbo, JoPro, etc) are encouraged to peddle their poison by Kamali and his management stooges.

It's become a sick place for sick specimens of humanity. God help those who choose to remain there, as 'their turn' can only be a matter of time.

Khalifa Exile said...

Oh no, it's not true at all! ADWC is "filled with faculty who are adventurers and modern thinkers, who seek both stability and new horizons". Well, that's according to their advertising ... sorry, recruitment blurb.

So, another nail is firmly placed in the coffin of the HCT lie-machine. The truth would read something like "our faculty is filled with yes-mean and brown-nosers, and there's a sizeable number of 'invisibles' who prefer to fly well under the radar for fear of being shot down for no real reason".

'Adventurers'? 'Modern thinkers'. Please, don't make me laugh! But the bit about 'new horizons' is spot on - when all the good teachers leave, as SB has demonstrated.

Anonymous said...

I cannot overemphasise the importance of this loss to HCT's reputation as a place for inspired English teachers to work. In fact, it's a disaster, but the so-called 'goons' at HCT don't even seem to realise it.

I have used SB's teaching aids, particularly his listening materials, every week for several years now. So have many thousands of teachers all over the world. Although I no longer work (thank God!) for HCT, I see SB's stuff being used at my college on a regular basis.

I guess the college's failure to appreciate the gem they had working for them is an indication of the disinterest, even contempt, that they hold for their English teaching faculty. Of course, they'd MUCH rather waste their money on flying in has-beens from academia for the quite useless 'Festival of Thinkers' circus!

Shame on them. They really are worthy only of contempt now.

Anonymous said...

NOW???

Anonymous said...

Yes, now and at any time over the past four or five years, I would say.

nigel the pilot said...

How strange that the page on the ADWC website devoted to 'Faculty and Staff' is ... totally empty!

http://www.adwc.hct.ac.ae/college/facultystaff.aspx

What could this possibly mean? All the teachers have left? Or they won't be there for much longer?!

Or maybe The Claw has sacked them all - including herself, we hope!

Poodle Pelham said...

Congrats to SB on his new position. You won't regret it at all, I'm sure!

Anonymous said...

I had four students in a level 3 writing class, autumn 2010, who never turned in a single writing assignment and they passed to the next level the following semester, 2011. ADWC management never explained this occurrence to me.

Anonymous said...

Explain?! They NEVER need to explain anything to the mere rank-and-file troops, as they see it as a waste of time. No, it's our job to merely DO, without any need for reasons or explanations.