Job Discussion Forums

[Jetgirly]

As I have mentioned before, I am now teaching at a private, Catholic prepa in Guadalajara. My prior teaching experience is two years of ESL in Italy (mainly to adults), one summer of ESL to Korean university students at a community college in Canada and one and a half years of student teaching in junior highs and high schools in Canada (ESL and English Language Arts). If I combined ALL of my worst teaching experiences from all of those jobs, it wouldn't even compare to fifteen minutes in my current prepa. I am dead serious.

I feel that I have been a major hardliner for our first week, but the behaviour that the students are exhibiting is still beyond atrocious. I have about thirty-six students in every class. Some wonderful examples of my students' behaviour:
- non-stop monkey noises (well, stopped only by the occasional bird or dog noise)
- standing up in the middle of class and walking across the room to randomly high-five a classmate
- crumpling up balls of paper and tossing them at eachother
- borrowing pens from people on the opposite side of the room by shouting to them
- asking permission to leave in the middle of class to go to the bookstore to buy the books for our class
- finding a broken guitar in the garbage can and waving it around like a lasso
- having full-volume conversations over my brief instructions and examples (I am by NO means a lecturer!)
- demanding the assistance of three classmates in removing a sweater that a girl apparently can't remove herself

I refuse to talk over the students so I ask them once to be quiet and then stand there waiting... and it could easily take THREE MINUTES (honestly) for them to be quiet. Three minutes versus three seconds in a Canadian high school. I have adopted a seating plan but still have to move offending students to more isolated areas of the classroom, where they just continue to cause disruptions from afar. I noticed that when the director of the school came and talked to the students during my class, they were just as poorly behaved and he just talked over them, not seeming to care that nobody was paying attention. I'm guessing that for the last ten years their teachers have just shouted over them... but my throat won't be able to handle it. I know that it's not just me, because my housemate is in the same program and she is having a worse time than me (it's actually taking a physical toll on her). We heard from the director of the prepa that the Canadian teachers who came two years ago cried at least once a week, which caused the exchange to be cancelled last year.

All of this is compounded by the fact that we aren't allowed to make photocopies for our classes and there doesn't seem to be any sort of curriculum or set objectives for what we are expected to teach. There are periods at the end of every term after we submit our marks in which we are supposed to "change our marks"... I can only assume this means finding a way for failing students to pass (coloring sheets, perhaps? Or bingo?). The whole school seems like a big joke, but I could ignore the crappiness of the administration and its disorganization IF the students displayed any degree of civility or maturity.

Is it possible I'm teaching at Mexico's worst school? Keeping in mind the fact that administration didn't seem to object to this kind of behaviour, do you seriously think there is any hope of learning occuring? If so, how? If not, how should I be filling these twelve hours per week?

[dixie]

[TheLongWayHome]

Wow, and I thought I'd had some bad classes but they were nothing in comparison to yours. I truly sympathise.

The immaturity of Mexican students in general continues to amaze me. I've had horrible uni classes still suffering from the 'prepa effect'. They don't seem to grow up until the 5th semester at least.

[ls650]

I taught at a university in Oaxaca for three years, and my students were very respectful. On the other hand, I knew a couple of teachers who worked in private prepas and their experiences were apparently similar to the first poster's.

[Jetgirly]

Yeah, this is a private school. I am teaching Grade 10 Reading and Writing (four one-hour classes per week to two groups) and Grade 11 Listening and Speaking (one two-hour class per week to two groups). I know I'm only a student teacher (however, I am one with a full-time contract in the public school system starting in September!) and haven't had THAT much classroom experience, but what I'm experiencing in EVERY classroom here is worse than what I experienced in one of my practicum classrooms where EVERY SINGLE STUDENT was coded with a severe behavioural disability, most were also coded with learning disabilities, and fewer than five were living with their families (the rest were in group homes or were homeless). The friend who I am here with taught English during her practicum at our Canadian city's "worst" vocational high school and says that Calgary's worst high school seems like heaven compared to our current prepa.

I'm just really wondering if I've been hired as an English babysitter, or if there is ANY hope of these kids actually learning...

I guess another question would be if there is supposed to be some kind of national or state curriculum for English at the prepa level... that would be interesting to know!

[dixie]

Sounds like the school is more interested in keeping students, and their income in the building, rather than educating the students once they are in the building. I�ve had that experience before, and it�s not fun.

I highly suggest realizing that there is little that is going to change, b*tch to your roomie (and vice versa) about the day so that you can have some release from the stress, and count your lucky starts that you�re going back home to a job! Sorry, I know it�s not very helpful, but you�re not likely going to change much while there, and by trying to do so, you might burn-out twice as fast. Without support from the admin (and if the kids are behaving just as bad in front of him/her) you will have trouble changing the students.

I would aslo suggest asking if you can observe other classes. Use the pretense of wanting to learn more (which is why I love being able to do observations), but it will also give you a better idea of how the kids behave in other classes, and perhaps give you ideas on how to better handle them (viewing Spanish classes is best for this, I have always found that students behave better for their Spanish teacher, although "better" doesn�t always mean great).

Finally, when you get back to Canada, tell your university that this is NOT a school that they should be doing business with. Explain to them what happened to you, and if they refused to send people there last year, tell them nothing has changed, and nothing likely will (at least not for awhile).

Another suggestion for your reading/writing group is to have them working in groups. I used lit circles last year with my kids, and the even the worst class that I had behaved much better. I simply had sheets that they were responsible for, every child had a role (it changed each class) and I walked around observing, note taking and keeping the kids on task. Perhaps a variation of this might work for you.

[Jetgirly]

Dixie - I would love to do Lit Circles, as I've done them in many Language Arts classes... BUT any idea how to get around the fact that their only textbook is actually a writing style guide (so there are no reading passages) and I'm not allowed to make photocopies? My resources are appallingly limited.

[MELEE]

[dixie]

[thecrit840]

I taught middle school kids at a bi-lingual school for a while (I had been long-term subbing because the full-time teacher quit suddenly)--I'd expand the poster's list with: painting fingernails, listening to the radio, and throwing basketballs & kicking soccer balls in the middle of health class.

The school's "solution" was to show the kids videos of The Simpsons and have me create discussion questions to try and tie them into health issues. The kids whined about how they were being forced to watch the DVDs in English when the language setting could have easily been switched to Spanish.

[MO39]

[Jetgirly]

Things are a bit better with one of my Reading and Writing classes, but the other class is still hopeless. Our textbook isn't a textbook at all, but rather a writing guide ("Write Ahead"). Using one of the examples in the book as a model, I had the students write personal narratives about important moments in their lives. Wouldn't you know, three kids wrote about being kicked out of other schools and two wrote about being held back a grade. Another wrote about being fired from his job. It's like they take pride in being little terrors.

Listening and Speaking is a joke. It takes place outside the school timetable, after all the other kids leave, so you can imagine the level of enthusiasim. Last week, the school cancelled the hour of classes before salida so that "teachers could use the time for spiritual matters relating to Lent". All the other students got to go home, but the L&S students were told to wait outside the building for an hour and then come back inside after salida. I wasn't too surprised when nobody showed up for one of the classes and only three students (not coincidentally, the children of school employees) showed up for the other. Oh, and nobody told me that those pre-salida classes were cancelled, so of course I showed up on Monday ready to teach a lesson and found an empty classroom.

I want to go home!

[thecrit840]

Oh, Sister, I soooooooooooooooooooo feel your pain! Added to all the frustration of having to put up with this garbage is the feeling that no one else around you seems to be disturbed by how appalling it is! I relate to your experience more than I wish I did!

Are you at least able to get out on your free time to enjoy Guad' a little (it is a very cool city)?

Maybe go to Tlaquepaque on a Saturday and relax a bit? I hope you can find a way to salvage your Mexican experience even a little.

[Jetgirly]

Mon, Tues and Thurs I'm too exhausted to even think about exploring the city, but I did get a gym membership (we live across from a Gold's Gym) so that I wouldn't come home, sit on my butt and feel sorry for myself. Wednesdays I work... wait for it... from 7:00 to 7:50 am, and after that I usually hit the gym and then run errands and do my online coursework for my Canadian university. I am lucky to have a three-day weekend (luck being relative, as most of the other participants in this program went to other countries and had their work week condensed into two days) and have seen a few of the sights so far: the Tonala market, the Zapopan basilica, etc... and last weekend we went to Bucerias. I don't hate Mexico at all, but I can honestly say that I absolutely, 100% hate teaching at this school. I bumped my return flight forward to the day after I finish and I just can't wait for this whole experience to be over. It's really sad that it's ended up like this. I was overworked and under-supported when I taught in Italy, but the students more than made up for it. They were truly a pleasure to teach. In Canada, I feel like it's the education that's important, not the bottom line, and I feel like my work as a teacher is valued and respected. In terms of the teaching I am doing in Mexico, there is not one single redeeming quality that makes me feel like anything I'm doing is making a difference or is respected.

[thecrit840]

I really do understand. If it's any consolation, probably every other job in your life, even on the worst days, will seem easy by comparison.

Do you have to stay until June?