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BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

Or maybe they have a similar Polish blog where they can express their opinions, preferences, and whatnot. If any of you would like to share where they post their comments...
I'd like to read their point of view of how their schools operate, or should operate. At the beginning of the semester, I gave my students a writing assignment about what were the things they like or dislike in their English learning experience. This helped me a lot and I gained more leverage with them.
I'd also like to know from the students, not only from the other teachers, which schools are the best. This way we can expose those that should get out of business, or leave town.

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

Good blog!
I hope some of those English learners could benefit from our forum. Seemingly they could hear all about what's happening backstage. I should preface this by admitting I'm so in defense of the students against the opinionated and colorable schools which are, ironically, teeming with good intention teachers. Bring it on!

Grrrmachine · Joined: 27 Jul 2005 Posts: 265 Location: Warsaw, Poland

Id rather not redirect students here - this is the last bastion for teachers to moan about what a lazy load of wasters some students can be; especially early morning secretarys who only signed up for the in-house classes because breakfast is provided...

BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

Sh!You are right. No curtain call on this one. I'll lay they wouldn't last for at least all of five minutes it would take them to translate some of the posts. I'd better restrain myself next time.

Pollux · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 224 Location: PL

Restraint is always a mark of an expert.

Are you a teacher or a student?
Are you in Qatar or in Poznan?
Have you been there or did someone get the T-shirt for you?
Are you a troll or a shill?
Are you experienced or naive?

So far, you've managed to lock out a thread, got students to read our rants, and have stated the obvious that some schools are bad.

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

Tumteetum · Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 144

Take it easy on newbie. Never seen such slapstick entrance.

BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

Oaw! You are curious to a fault. Shockingly, some of you must have been tickled by shake-downs, or even what my Professor used to say a crise de conscience. Perhaps you tend to sideslip from the other thread and charge me with a full battery of tests (I see some questions) first thing in the morning.
Even more colorful are the ways Kymro can�t let go, waddles, never mind surfaces for more air. Look, Kymro, I read enough about you. Though there�s much written about you in the bathroom stalls at the lyceum where you teach. So your language school experiment works? Good on you. I never would have guessed. And you didn�t like my comments on subliminal school owners? In other words, stick it or post some. (I hope this time is crystal clear for private Bilko). Of course, instances arise where your name-calling and less cavalier language can get this thread locked. I�ve chosen to be above the fray and catch show from the orchestra seats. This is a forum.
I�d like nothing more than to satisfy your unfettered desire for a nuanced vocabulary. Some of us were good enough to attend an Ivy League school back home. Others, smarter or not, preferred to read the same degree of books we perused at Princeton from their local library.

Kymro wrote:
If you wish to further improve your command of the English language, you could do so by endeavouring to ascertain the actual meaning of the words which you have so recently introduced into your lexicon.

So, pretty please, lay off the Thesaurus. Watch National Geographic. Make a list of all the countries you won�t teach. Add home to the list because maybe you didn't make the cut.

Back on the topic, did any of you have to deal with students� apathy? To the authorities in the forum, how do you deal with the students� negative attitude, excessive talking in Polish behind your back, misbehaving, "don�t like your teaching" kind of attitude, and whatnot? How do you win back their attention? What sort of speech, technique, or even trick do you lay on them?

Sgt Bilko · Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 136 Location: POLAND

BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

Thanks Bilko. I followed your post with great interest. You said things that made perfect sense since I often fail to look at myself from the student's chair. And won't that make for a refreshing change?
To reply, the problems I had were with the pre-matura students who usually are in the upper-intermediate, pre-advance range. If I was to guess a reason, I reckon it would be that they come to class tired and they are amused by passiveness and little or no interaction. Equally amusing for them is the grammar.
I could tell you stories, but more incredibly, I found that some are given a bad inventory or placement test to begin with. Daily I was amazed at some of them being no more than basal readers who weren't on the same page the rest of the students were on. I got a little froth from their assumed level.
I'll lay that you like lesson plans. But is it that hard to organize a mere 45/50 or even 90 minutes session in your head? Who is going to recycle my lesson plans? I get by simply marking the pages of the course book. Notwithstanding this isn't my favorite feeler, I treat it as a supplement. I reckon the students didn't pay to get the same old show they saw earlier in the lyceum. The owner promised them the circus and they came to see the elephants.
I realize some of my comments have slipped under the radar but I already spawned enough controversy about unqualified observations. But watching owners who sit squarely on the other side unsympathetic to the extra administrative work they make us do... With all due respect to their vertically-integrated businesslike teeth, lesson plans are just boilerplate.

gregoryfromcali · Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 2:02 am Post subject:

redsoxfan · Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 178 Location: Dystopia

Seriously. This is the one place that I wouldn't direct students to. They don't need to know the dark, inner-workings of this cutthroat business! Let them talk to their friends and choose a language school that seems good for them. How quickly they would lose respect for their teachers and the language industry in general if they hung out on Daves! Let the little buggers keep their innocence.

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

BindairDundat GotdaTshirt · Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 63 Location: DC

At the outset, I meant to connote guidance, not awareness, for the students, who might be interested in addressing some issues relevant to them, even if they feel like denouncing. Now, I stand corrected after blithely taking part of a couple of brouhahas, double entendres, hokum and pissant alike.
Off the record-I take it we've stopped being unabashedly nice to each other (is everything okay at home? No, seriously). I, for once, would like to redirect our pixilated egos and rehash without getting emotional. And just so you know, there are students reading us, and we've managed to be surprisingly discreet about each other by offering a rare window on official thinking. But not today.
I would appreciate if we could all be more facetious, and rigidly less superior. It's hard enough getting beyond a topic. How did we manage to whirl off the subject in the last thread "Best to teach in Poland"?
For the record, gregoryfromCA, redsoxfan, you two rang the bell of wisdom. Thanks a lot.