Frustration

I've been a little bit disappointed by the school so far. The administration likes to tell me things on a need-to-know basis, assuming that I only need-to-know about 5 minutes in advance. Here are four examples I can think of at the top of my head.

1) I arrived Sunday afternoon - they told me to take the week off and I would begin teaching next Monday. On Thursday afternoon, they gave us our schedules and told us that we would begin teaching immediately. Laura, the other teacher, had a class 5 minutes after they gave us the schedule. Of course we were completely unprepared, we had no lessons whatsoever. We asked to observe a class and were shrugged off. Laura did not know how to react, but the teachers saw that we were frustrated and told us that we could teach on Friday.

2) Saturday morning, Owen, the president of Buckland (the recruiting agency that I am working for) came to visit. I knew he was coming, not because the school informed me but because Jake and Alyssa, two teachers who are teaching on the other side of the city, told me. I was given a call at about 11:15 saying "Come down stairs, Owen is here." We ended up talking with the principal, who I met at the meeting (even though I had been here for a week). Then, they took us out for a lunch, which was a great honor and very nice of them. However, they did not tell us we were going out to lunch so Laura ended up going to a very fancy dinner....in shorts.

3) This morning, at about 8:15, I was naked, literally about to walk into the shower. I get a phone call from one of the teachers. "Corey, we need to have a meeting. Come to the English office at once. We are waiting for you there." She hung up before I had a chance to tell her I was 5 seconds away from showering. Oh well, I put on some clothes, walked out, met with Laura and gave her the "Yep, this is happening" look. We get there and end up waiting 5 minutes for the rest of the teachers to show up. They tell us that we are switching classes; I am doing grades 3-6 and Laura is doing 1-3. Laura spent about 8 hours over the weekend prepping for the lessons. She asks when they decided to switch, and they respond, "Saturday morning."

4) At 2:30 in the afternoon I get a knock on my door saying that I need to have a meeting with the FAO (foreign affairs officer). We have a 20 minute meeting, going over things that I have already been told.

Living and working in China means you have to be flexible. Things like this are normal, and many other teachers are experiencing the same difficulties that I am. This is not a unique situation, unfortunately. It is one of the major differences between Chinese and American culture.

Anyway, my first classes were on Friday, and I definitely over-estimated how much English they knew. However, I also got conflicting reports from different teachers on what is expected from me. Buckland has told me that because I am an oral teacher, it is my primary responsibility to encourage the kids to talk and work on their pronounciation. One of the teachers told me simply to write things on the board and have them repeat it. One teacher said I needed more vocab and that I should work on their sentences. Another teacher told me that I needed less and that they did not understand sentences yet.

At first I was frustrated because I knew that no matter what position I took, I was going to fail, lose face, and look like a terrible teacher in at least one person's eyes. But as I thought about it I realized that I honestly don't care what they think. I only care if I fail the kids. I want to be a great teacher for the kids, to show them the importance of English and hopefully instill some sort of seed that will help them in the future.

Anyway, my first two classes were 2nd grade and I did pretty badly in both of them. The next 2 classes were third grade, and inbetween my second and third classes they told me just to go from the books (The books are terrible, by the way). Because of that I scrapped my third grade lesson plans and taught from the books. The classes were better, but I still knew that I needed to improve.

I don't know why they switched us so early. They said that I would be better with the older kids, but I honestly think that Laura will do better with the older kids and that we would be about the same with the younger kids. I can't even imagine how to teach first graders when they don't understand basic commands such as sit down, be quiet, stand up, raise your hand, etc, but that's something that I need to fumble through until I pick it up. To switch us after one class period seems very pre-emptive.

Tuesday and Wednesday I am supposed to be observing the teachers to get ideas on how to improve my lessons. That's great and all, but I'm supposed to be *different* from the Chinese teachers. They have given me no structure or information about what my role is. Are the Chinese teachers teaching the same lessons as I am, so I am just doubling up? Am I supposed to be teaching something different, or am I supplementing what the students know? What are the particular English goals for each grade? (What should a competent 5th grader know about English when he is finished for the year?) My answer for all of these questions: I have no idea.

So yes, it's frustrating, being thrown to the wolves like this. It's not a matter of competency, but rather it simply takes time to get used to the classes, the structure, the culture of Chinese teaching, and the many other aspects that I did not think I would have to get used to.

At the end of my last class on Friday, a couple little 3rd grade girls came up to me and introduced themselves in textbook English style "Hello how are you? "I am fine, thank you very much, and you?" "My name is ___ What is your name?"

After we got through that, we smiled at each other and I gave them high fives. Immediately 5 other kids jumped towards me to give me high-fives, and I spent the next 5 minutes laughing and high fiving them. It brightened my day and helped put everything in perspective.

When it comes to the kids, I will give them everything I got. When it comes to the administration, I plan on giving them about as much time and energy as they give me, and at the moment, that's not a lot.

I do hope that things will change, but from what I have heard from previous teachers working here, that looks unlikely.

I haven't even gotten into the ridiculous rules and regulations they have given me so far (9pm curfew on weeknights? Yeah, right).