I completed my TESOL about a year ago and was really excited when last year I was offered a really fantastic position with International House, Valladolid in Spain.

One member of management explained to me in the interview that every Friday we would be having workshops, that we would have continuous training and that she would always be there if we had any questions. I was so excited to start. That feeling lasted all of a month. There wasn't one workshop done, the only training we had was an online course that wasn't really training at all. It would have been great for me as a first year teacher to have had some feedback.

I've just finished working for international House Valladolid and I can tell you that I've never worked in such an awful place.

One member of management is the most awful person I've ever met. She's rude, aggressive, socially inept and just generally a bully (She even went through another teachers E-mails and facebook messages when he forgot to sign out). She not only bullies the other teachers in the school but also swears in front of the students and calls them insulting names behind their backs (although, I know they have heard her on quite a few occasions). She has obvious favorites within the team of teachers and if youre not one of them then your time at the school is not enjoyable. When she did give feedback she reduced a couple of the teachers to tears. She had no problem giving negative feedback about classes but didnt offer much in the way of development or pointers in the direction of development in order for us to become better teachers.

When a few teachers wanted to leave in the middle of the year it was insinuated that they would have to pay back the course we all had to do (That was all the training we had, and that was online), along with bad references, their next salary not being paid and that she knew quite a few DOS's in other academies (We all knew what was meant).

I'm writing all this because I hope other people who are offered a position with IH Valladolid really think twice about it.
There are other teachers who feel the same as me but are too scared to complain or to post something on a forum like this because of where they are now working.

[Edited by Administrator (admin) Thu, 30 Jun 2011, 12:46 AM]