Sanguine
- 2010-09-26
Or, few readers are/have been teachers.
No English Gibson, I think no one gives a damn.
englishgibson
- 2010-09-26
Riverina, it's nice to see you back on, even though you aren't addressing the issues. You're most likely making all the teachers feel better as it's not so quiet in this meeting and as there is some evidence you may have been a teacher before. Also, you may be keeping others from any confrontation on, which provides us all with some time to think.
Now,
Imagine what the teachers feel like after this comment. We "obviously" are all "bottom of the barrel", aren't we?Obviously, msny motivated FT's will avoid that kind of employer, leaving only the bottom of the barrel or those who are unqualified age-wise or certificate-wise to apply for teaching jobs there.
It seems you want to pass on the issues to the new generation of foreign teachers coming in after your employment contract expires. Not that it is selfish but some others in the school depend on you a bit. Does it take a motivation to provide any views on the issues creating us difficulties?and they're the ones who will get those jobs, and then most of them will make sure they do the minimum there.Not all teachers need to be motivated.
So, what does it make us here?Hell, teaching is just like other jobs, teachers vary from incompetent to competent, lazy to diligent.
Or, few readers are/have been teachers.Maybe the lack of response to your nightmare scenario means few readers give a damn about it!
I see now why you think MANY teachers on mainland are lazy. You have generalized in such a way about foreign teachers on mainland in your first post on, haven't you?Personally, I'm only in this game for a job with lots of free time for me, and a more than fair salary for what little I do.
After your contribution here, what would the meeting look like?
Cheers and beers to the Teachers Board Meeting
Riverina
- 2010-09-26
The kind of employers I've been working for in China are generally those who have had negative reports posted about them online, just like the lousy scenario you've described in your make-believe situ.
Obviously, msny motivated FT's will avoid that kind of employer, leaving only the bottom of the barrel or those who are unqualified age-wise or certificate-wise to apply for teaching jobs there. and they're the ones who will get those jobs, and then most of them will make sure they do the minimum there. Not all teachers need to be motivated. Hell, teaching is just like other jobs, teachers vary from incompetent to competent, lazy to diligent. That's nothing new! Maybe the lack of response to your nightmare scenario means few readers give a damn about it!
Personally, I'm only in this game for a job with lots of free time for me, and a more than fair salary for what little I do. And I prefer lsid-back backwaters. I hope that satisfies your curiosity.
englishgibson
- 2010-09-25
Riverina, not that you have to be an established board member, but I don't recall you posting on mainland issues and you have painted MANY FTs with one color. Newbies come not only on boards but also to those teachers' meetings to analyze experienced teachers. I agree with you to a certain degree, however, your generalization may be a bit farfetched. Also, from my experience, there are lately quite a few oldtimers on mainland that suck it up a way too much (for their own personal reasons), which helps some employers to use those rotten foreigners as "examples" to the ones that demand better working environment and some respect. For the sake of the Teachers Board Meeting, would you be kind enough to offer some feedback on the issues outlined?
For the whole board, it seems that everyone currently busy with other topics is not so interested to open up. I assume the posters out on certain topics, that are up on the board, are shy or thinking this is a "catch 22".
Don't worry gents! You won't lose your jobs. :)
Cheers and beers
Riverina
- 2010-09-24
Let's suppose we all are working together and having a meeting in one school on mainland China. On the table, there are a few issues to discuss. Here below they are described one by one.
So many FT's in China are self-serving and lazy. They do not wish to co-operate with one another. They wouldn't even want to discuss the issues on the table you have brought up. They'd rather lie low and sweep all the problems you mention under the carpet. Their sole aim is to complete the contract, and then move on, hopefully to a better school. The newbies are the most likely not to rock the boat. They'll either stick it out or pull runners. A bottom-of-the-barrel employer here, lie the one you describe, will get more than his fair share of bottom-of-the- barrel foreign weasels who know how to survive in a lousy workplace environment. They earn good money for doing little real teaching. At the end of each month, they'll still have plenty of money left if they are somewhat economical with their finances during the month. That's something they could never achieve back home. That scenario is still a lot better than being a waiter in the west. Even as teachers back there, they'd be working at least twice as hard, but would not be able to save any significant sums of money month by month. And I'm talking about the public sector, not about training centres nor private schools!
Let's suppose we all are working together and having a meeting in one school on mainland China. On the table, there are a few issues to discuss. Here below they are described one by one.
We have found out that our employment agreements are somewhat different, even though our background/experiences, qualifications and roles/duties are similar. Some of us get paid more than others, some of our end of contract agreements with respect to bonuses aren't the same, and some of our benefits such as insurance, housing allowance etc vary too. How do we approach each other and/or the employer?
Our students' capabilities in the language, or subjects we teach, vary greatly in the classrooms, and the students' placement is done by the local teacher/supervisor/recruiter. Our attempts to provide the assistance in this placement testing has been ignored. Many of our students have underperformed and they as well as our employer have began pointing fingers at some of us. How do we approach the issue?
Our accademic product calls for a lot of prep in a sense of suplementary material that we don't have and there is quite a limited access to the (slow) internet which about 30% of the time does not work at all, and then printer as well as copy machine are sometimes down or unavailable. Note that all of us were told previously that the suplementary material, services and facilities were available and if disfunctional or insufficient, we'd get them upon request. These difficiencies seemingly have affacted our work and classrooms. What should we do now?
Students' feedback (on teachers) has been completed and teachers that demand better academic effort from their students seem to have got more complaints against than the teachers that have friendlier classroom approach. How do we approach each other and the issue in this teachers' meeting?
Cheers and beers (after the meeting) :)