Job Discussion Forums

[gregd75]

I think its great that you admit you're bitter as this comes through in your postings. I am proud of being associated with Culturlingua and I strongly disagree with you when you say that you were not a valued member of the team at Los Reyes.

I say this not only as an owner, but, as I said in a previous post, I was a teacher. An employee too. Why did I feel valued? Because the academic director, who did not live here in Tlaquepaque made the effort to come and visit me, to sit in on a class and give me feedback. I submitted lesson plans via fax and she gave me feedback. I valued this. What more could you want from your director?

Reading your posts, she did the same at your school. This shows that she is prepared to spend time working with her teachers. How can I suggest that I think you are maybe not flexible? Well, read your own posts! You talk about problems and still, even to this post you fail to include yourself in the problem and the potential solutions. That demonstrates inflexibility on your part. Simple as that.

Finally, yes I DO want to learn from this, but you haven't offered any constructive feedback. You insist that I answer the points that you make- which I have done, but yet you don't bring any constructive criticism to the forum- just negativity.

My arrogance may well show up on this post. Your refusal to be constructive and sourness is even clearer.

[Aria Fani]

Dear Greg,

This discussion is going no where. No matter how many times I tell you times have changed from when you were a teacher, you will not believe me. You wouldn't come down from your owner position, and take on the teacher's hat for a moment. Our 'educational director' came down every three or four weeks, did not sit in our classes (but once in 9 weeks), did not give us feed back on our weekly plans, she isolated my students and criticized them in from of the class. My students despised being picked on. Is that not clear enough? You may have been valued, you can disagree with me all you want, but we did not feel valued. I call you arrogant because you are dismissive and tend not to listen. When a system is CLOSED, when you hear, "sorry this is how we've been working for ten years," it doesn't matter how many solutions you offer, it will be rejected. And yes, I could have stayed and fought that, I agree with you. I chose not to, we all make individual decisions and we face the consequences. Can you respect that?

The substitute teacher who joined us shared with me Cecilia's paranoia about her teachers writing these commentaries, if she's so assured of her performance, why would she be?

This job was no where near the worst job for me. I never implied that. I have so many sweet memories from my students and the town. I am appreciative of so many things mentioned in my original post. And yes, this has made me a better, more understanding teacher. Let's go on our ways, end this pointless quarell, and let the readers make their own judgements.

saludos

[gregd75]

FYI- I was a teacher at the school in 2005- not a million years ago, and times haven't changed that much. Unless expecting a business to provide tours of the town and to provide you with other employees home addresses are the changes you are talking about.

Yes, lets close this discussion as you are not bringing any constructive feedback to it. However, you keep throwing in extra points that deserve an answer;

1) You say that the system is closed and that if you offer solutions then they are rejected. Not once have you talked about any solution to the problems you talk about. What solutions did you offer? How were they rejected? (Did you offer to make an exam, did you offer a remedial plan to integrate a latecomer? Did you offer website resources that could be used by future teachers? Did you offer to chair a meeting with the other teachers to share best practices and ideas?) There was a lot that you COULD have done and I find it very, very hard to believe that any academic director would reject these ideas.

2) You mention that there was a lack of support from the director, but now you say she came every 3 or 4 weeks. Which one is true? I suspect that the reality is that we all find criticism hard to accept and also very personal, when its not meant to be. Maybe you could accept that this was possibly, maybe possibly the case? The criticism was aimed at helping you? This brings us back to flexibility on the teachers part.
Lets agree that your experience was bad, but many other teachers have enjoyed their time. Lets agree that there were failures on the part of BOTH parties.

Also, as I previously mentioned, schools often don't see their director at all. They can pass the whole semester without getting any feedback- the fact that time has been spent with you shows an investment, wouldn't you agree?

Lets not discuss the substitute teacher as this is third hand information- as you've previously posted, lets not get into 'he said, she said' (which is what you're doing). Again lets not assume that the students didn't appreciate the feedback from the director.. he said she said..

Lets not confuse arrogance with pride. I am fiercely proud of Culturlingua and I think that a lot of teachers past and future will have a great experience. Unfortunately you did not- for reasons that we have previously discussed.

I havent said that this was the worst job for you and I don't believe this is a quarrel. I am trying my best to provide balance to a 'one sided' perspective of what happened in your case.

Lets finally agree that each person makes individual decisions. I cannot respect any of you for leaving your post in such an unprofessional way but I can empathize with the way that you are trying to justify what happened. You can decide to close this thread buy not adding any more points. I believe all the previous points have been discussed and forum readers can now make a BALANCED decision- hearing both sides to the story.