School’s Starting
School started yesterday. Here were some of my reflections at the tail end of the school year last Spring. We’ll see what it’s like in a month after everything has settled into a routine. Right now, I’m observing teachers and students. It would have been good to know my role a week ago before I freaked out about not having a plan or a schedule for this week. Now that I know, I’m rolling with the punches a little better.
Visit your school with your counterpart/other faculty member and create a map of the school. Identify the English room(s), faculty room, zavuch’s and director’s offices, library or other resources, big hall, cafeteria, and any other rooms that you or your counterpart think are important.
Between Katie, the former teacher trainer, and my counterpart, I was able to get a good understanding of the university buildings. I was impressed to know that there is an internet lab, a classroom with computers, and a room with a projector system. We also toured the small café and the offices of the Interfaculty and English faculty staff. Since, my department teaches English to programs other than English or Theory, my counterpart and I will be traveling to other buildings as opposed to having the students come to us in Building #1. I will become familiar with those classrooms in the Fall.
I also learned while touring campus and talking to my counterpart that some department heads feel that there are too many teachers per department. Apparently there are many teachers working few hours and earning little money. Because teachers receive little compensation for their work, they tend to be less motivated to work at becoming better teachers. Some feel that if some of the teachers were fired the best teachers could continue teaching and be better paid. It seems people are reluctant to do this because then several teachers will be unemployed. There are several systems in the States that have performance based salary. It may work. Culturally, I’m not sure anyone would actually agree to fire an okay teacher to further a better teacher’s career. I know of several teachers at the university level here who work at least two jobs. My thought is that the teacher’s have many responsibilities, and it is difficult to devote enough time to any of them to perform really well. If this is true, it starts to negatively influence overall quality of life, integrity, and professionalism of those spread thin. I’ll be interested to get to know these teachers more this Fall and find out their opinion.
