i never thought of myself as an organized person... more of an absentminded professor... but compared to "these people" (sigh, when did i start using that phrase?) i've become a Type A. i used to think the language barrier was the reason for me always being in the dark about plans, but actually, my co-teacher often doesn't know what's going to happen either, until moments before. everything like days off, exams and staff trips seem to be depend on the whims of some dude in the office, who likes to wait until the day before to alert everyone... via the office messenger, which is in a language i cannot understand, thus i am often unprepared. in response to my surprise, they ask, "didn't you know...?" which is infuriating. i have no idea how they deal with the slim time frame this type of on the fly sheduling leaves you to prepare for classes. i suspect not much preparation actually goes into their classes, since they seem to rely heavily on text books, and the older teachers spend most of their in between class time sleeping at their desks, watching tv shows and eating snacks.
I've been asking all month about january's schedule, so i can use the free time i had during this month (when the student's had final exams) to plan my lessons and prepare the necessary materials. simple stuff like which students will i teach (new ones? or the same ones, in which case i should make new lessons?), their grade level, how often i will see them (so i know how many lessons to prepare) and how large the classes will be, etc. "It is not yet decided," they explained. Finally, today they finalized the schedule which will begin next month. I had put together a few powerpoints and lessons based on the vague information I was given. Now i find out i will be in a classroom without a computer or tv. And, I will have no co-teacher at all. I will also see one group everyday, which means I need to double the amount of lessons I have. So as usual, this must be done in a last minute scramble, days before the actual class.
it's like they go out of their way to make sure i do a bad job.
5 years ago
2 comments:
I realize that life is last-minute, and it's futile to try and plan much ahead in many respects. "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," I think it goes. But Christ, the past week or two has given me a permanent headache, and has been a prime example of why trying to plan anything here is a waste of time. School festival time, and it's like people forgot that winter comes every year the way they're running around the week before trying to make plans. My school decided last minute to do an English-theme room and, long story short, a lot of those plans were squashed when the day after deciding it my coteacher told me that "actually we can't use the English room because it will be demolished and renovated." I'm convinced as you are that everything here is according to the whims of whomever is in charge, and nothing more.
Yeah, at first I thought that it was mostly the language barrier, but the longer I am here, the more I realize that nobody else has any idea what is going on either. I don't get it.
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