Job Discussion Forums

[dagi]

"and the children here in the private schools are spoiled and insolent. I have spent a lot of break time in the toilet crying my eyes out. Students are not beyond throwing things at you in the classroom, swearing at you in Turkish (they think foreigners are incapable of learning the local language), spitting on you, etc. And i'm not talking only about the teenagers. "

That is funny, or maybe my private school is just different? I taught in Holland before and find the Turkish kids way easier to teach than the Dutch ones!!

[mongrelcat]

[yaramaz]

There may also be the fact that Dagi teaches German, not English, which means it is an elective (I think) so the kids might actually be interested. English is usually forced on them with no choice given. And her school is trying for international school status so is probably taking discipline and quality control a bit more seriously than your average kolej.

Having spent two years in a kolej and a year in a private uni, I don't ever want to go back. There were good kids, of course, and I loved teaching them, but I found the complete lack of support from management to be immeasurably frustrating. The kids knew they could get away with murder. They were right. There really was nothing a teacher could do or say to convince the kids otherwise- send them to the headmaster and they got a vague warning; call the parents and the parents blame you and defend the kid; discipline the kid directly and they laugh it off, refuse to cooperate or complain about you to the directors. Suspension or expulsion were never even options.

I think for me it wasn't so much the rudeness and horrible behavior, but rather my feeling of complete powerlessness to change it. If the people in management or the parents deny there is a problem and there are zero repercussions for crappy behavior and kids who do no work get passed from grade to grade for no reason other than the fact that their parents fork over the money for tuition, then the teacher is stuck with kids who know that they hold the upper hand.


Adults are lovely to teach. I teach 28 hours a week now, crammed into 4 days (doing overtime to make up for the tons of unpaid time off I've been taking to travel) and feel less tired than I have in years, even though I'm doing an extra 10-12 hours a week.

[dagi]

"There may also be the fact that Dagi teaches German, not English, which means it is an elective (I think) so the kids might actually be interested. English is usually forced on them with no choice given. And her school is trying for international school status so is probably taking discipline and quality control a bit more seriously than your average kolej."

Teaching German (or French) is not an advantage at all. The Ministry of Education has decided to take those grades off the carne and I tell you that my grade 8 now cares sh*** about German. It's not important to them at all and their main goal is to relax and have fun with their friends.
The fact that my school wants to be accredited by the CIS had no affects on discipline at all. There is no discipline.

Still I find most of my kids quite nice. They are just kids and try to get away with everything. But I find them less agressive and nasty.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Where in the world is spitting at and throwing objects at a teacher considered an acceptable part of behaviour that children will simply grow out of?

[justme]

Here, apparently.

Discipline seems to be accepted as a cruel mean thing that no one should do. Last weekend, 10 visitors showed up at my house, plus a 2 year old. In 2 hours, he'd dumped a few cups of tea, smeared chocolate all over the sofa (guess they just didn't give him enough), spit gum on the floor (yeah, they gave a 2 year old gum), and scribbled on the wall (somehow a toddler running with a pencil escaped the notice of 10 adults). Whenever he did something bad, they'd all just go 'Aww, he's jealous of the baby,' thus justifying his behavior.

Which of course was BS because as soon as they showed up I bailed into my room with the baby under the pretense of nursing him, and didn't come out til they'd left, so this kid never really saw the baby, nor did he ever lose the spotlight because of the baby.

So after the kid's been filled with sugar and starts climbing the walls, they all go 'Awww, he �ok yaramaz,' as though this is a good quality (no offense, Yaramaz! and I find this kind of thing from adults doesn't change even well into the university years...

[Golightly]

yep, always did hate those evil, sugar-filled, tombik tombik fat feckers...they're nasty little things, over-indulged by their idiot parents, who go on to be unable to put their arms through their jacket sleeves, believe they are unstoppable love machines (more like unstoppable cake machines) and die of a cardiac by the age of 45.

[mongrelcat]

[dagi]

"Where in the world is spitting at and throwing objects at a teacher considered an acceptable part of behaviour that children will simply grow out of?"

The Netherlands, too.

[dmb]

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

[dagi]

Sheikh, I wasn't talking about kindergarten and pubs, either.
Ok, never been spat on but the students do throw things at teachers. One of my colleagues once forbid her class to go outside and play in the snow (during the lesson). After the break they simply brought the snowballs into the classroom and bombarded her.

Kids beating the shit out of each other, calling you a bitch, throwing chairs through the classroom or smashing windows....it all happens.
And friendly ask a student to get you some chalk from the room next door will be answered with an aggressive "But why me? No, I won't go and get it. Get it yourself!"

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

So you weren't spat on ... and have had nothing thrown at you ... but such behaviour is considered by the school and parents to be acceptable ...

[billybuzz]

İts true that the kids at most private kolegis and unis are out of control or they have control completely and you are just along for the ride .As long as you can just get your head around that fact and focus on the paycheck at the end of the month then its not too bad .
Its also true that "packages" at this places are becoming less and less and even those long summer holidays are a thing of the past ,but there is even less to get excited about working at a "language school" .

[batukhan]

Teaching in kolejis is absolutely toxic. If you are suicidal it would really be a rewarding experience for you. I fondly remember my experiences of teaching at kolejis. Students displaying the most disgusting behaviour imaginable and then discussing this with the administration, whose helpful response was that you must love the children. If a child acted in this manner ın many other countries the response would be to ship the child and let a team of psychiatric professionals deal with the little darling.
Instead of recieving support, guidance or tıps, the general response is to blame the teacher. It ıs their poor classroom management skills that have caused this. They have not mastered the Turkish language in 6 months consequently the children are entirely justified in acting like psychotic maniacs. If the teacher knew turkish then the students would not behave in such a manner.
The child is never responsible or accountable for their unacceptable behaviour. When a concerned lol parent comes ınto discuss the child then it becomes obvious that it again ıs the teachers fault. Little Ahmet never acts this way at home. He is a perfect angel.Parent response I wıll talk to other parents. Okay my son ıs acting like a psycho and your son ıs also acting lıke a psycho. Lets band together and talk to the admın and have the teacher fired. Yes I agree this will solve all our problems.