Magister
- 2012-08-01
oh, oh indeed
Are you still in China?
The lesson here is don't leave a school without first getting your release letter. The release letter should be given to you, it doesn't need to go to the government straight away, all it is a letter from your employer that says you no longer work for that school and which is stamped with the official stamp of the institute in question. Processing time should be no longer than it takes to type out a couple of lines to that effect, print it out and stamp it. You'll then be able to hand the release letter to your new employer and they'll include this with the various other documents needed in order to process a new RP & expert certificate.
There are plenty of other recruiters, public schools & universities (it's just coming to the end of peak recruitment season for them) and private schools to look at, obviously the usual rules of being cautious when talking to these people apply. I'm sure you'll have no problems finding a new job, you're not the first and you won't be the last teacher to be screwed over in this way. If you get a job offer or a contract then by all means post it on this board and others will be happy to give you some advice on the content and possible questions to ask.
I have to say you're being very generous by not giving the names of these schools and individuals responsible. It seems school A has deliberately sabotaged your move and school B has hung you out to try by not returning your emails.
Good luck
I have gotten myself into a corner and am not sure what to do. My first year of teaching esl I worked the school year of 2011-2012 for a (middle school w/55 students to a class) school in China - lets say school A. During my year there I saw four other teachers come and go. I was the only one who fulfilled the contract. My lead teacher for some unknown reason took to creating distance between myself and the other chinese teachers. Midway thru one student in class told me the reason no one would work with me was the their teacher (the lead teacher) had told them they did not have to work with the esl teacher and to just work on whatever else they wanted. A. getting partners to work together was crippled. B. classroom management had been undermined especially when I didn't have any support for any of the students acting out in class. Of course there were many things throughout the year he would do and ultimately the coordinator and headmasters would end up talking to him, after which he would backstab again in another way. At the end of the year I found out he had been telling me not to come to class due to test preparations and then he would tell the other teachers I wasn't coming and it was my attitude. All in all, the coordinator and headmaster wanted to me stay a second year and I could teach at the high school (80 students to a class). I enjoyed the town and actually considered this offer. I also received an offer from a international school - call it school B, in a better location with much smaller class sizes. I let the school A know that I would like to teach in the North for a while to see other parts of China, and come back later. All paperwork by school B was completed, contact and all. They asked me to write a resignation letter to the school A even though my work permit was expired. Later they reported that the school A would not send a release letter to the government so that their province could be issued my work permit. They hoped this would be done by 7/22. When I emailed to inquire on the status of the paperwork school A would not respond to me; and school B had blacklisted me on their email inbox. I contacted a recruiter I knew last year who was going to try to figure things out. She was one for constant contact before and now has also turned away. SO the math is easy to see.......QUESTION IS how do I get beyond this when interviewing with other locations? It was year one and who is going to believe I am actually a good teacher and cooperative person?