This is kind of bothering me. I’m not sure if it should or not. In my classes I have somewhere between 5 and 26 kids. But I don’t have the same kids every day. I have the kids for 45 minutes to 3 hours per week. I’m not the every day teacher and I don’t have my own classroom to post things, have rules, or keep things in. While talking with the boss’s son, he brought up some things that annoy him….
Should I be able to deal with 8-20 Czech kids on my own with no help?
He seems to think that it should be no problem to teach and discipline the kids with no problem. He’s tired of all the native speaker teachers whining that they need help in the classes. I’m one of these whiners. I had a class on Tuesday afternoons that didn’t want to be there. They were age 3-5, and it was clear that they were tired, they were being pulled out of playing for English lessons, and they would run around and cause problems simply because they didn’t want to be there. It didn’t matter what I did, they wouldn’t do anything. Now. I know some Czech, but not enough to actually talk to them. And they would not learn any English. Even when I had them repeat words, they would say it wrong or make “funny” noises. Or pick up the flash cards with their mouths and try to eat them. The only time they would sit and do the lesson is when a Czech teacher was there to help with discipline. My question is should I be able to do this? Even if the kids don’t (or won’t) understand me? Even if it’s only 1 hour per week?
His idea of teaching is doing something “more exciting” to get their interest, like teaching them juggling. WTF does that have to do with English? He says we shouldn’t do flash cards because that’s boring. For kindergarten? How the eff else are we supposed to teach them words? Or get them speaking in sentences? Or understanding? Sure, they will think juggling is more fun, but where’s the English lesson? Sure, I can speak in English, but how do I know they understand? And can they tell me in English? Probably not.
He doesn’t think a “native speaker” is required. And Czech people are cheaper to hire. He wants to find a Czech teacher who has had education in teaching to teach the classes. So. How is that different from the Czech teachers in the schools? The bonus of having native English speakers, is that…..we are native English speakers.
He also thinks it’s easy to find workers who are good. He actually said to me that he only wants good teachers for next year. Clearly he has never been in the position to find out that a person can look good on paper and interview well, yet be a crappy worker. You can’t tell until they are doing the job if they will be good or not. And if they are not, coaching is required. You can’t just say, “you suck, so you’re fired.” I mean, you can, but how much turnover will you have doing that.
Lol. Ok. Rant finished. 😉
Adventures of Britney 