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[askiptochina]

This is more of a rant than seeking help. I am curious if anyone else is teaching in high school or middle school. How does your school schedule things? Do they do random stuff like add 2 or 3 classes out of the blue without rhyme or reason (when there are 36 different classes to teach to begin with)?

I came to my current school in April. My schedule was wonderful until July. Some weeks students had a holiday, exams, or school activities. The school would just cancel my classes. I teach usually 10th and 11th grade classes at a public school. The person running things at this time had common sense and scheduled things wisely.

Then, the summer came, and the language school I am hired through had me teach summer classes. Even before they began, I could see things would be much different. They scheduled more classes than what was noted in my contract and continued to try to dictate how classes would be run. Completely different environment, parents would sit in the classes. Some parents would be enjoying the class while others voiced their dissent. One concerned parent even came to class instead of her son, because basically he did nothing to learn or even do work the Chinese teachers were giving him. All this didn't bother me so much as the fact they mismatched books for the kids, giving them considerably harder material than they were able to relate to and understand. With that parent, I saw some hope she could explain how ridiculous the curriculum was that they had. However, it was only for the summer, so I just did the classes and lived with it.

Then, in August they played games with the scheduling, telling me I would have vacation earlier if I finished earlier. Sounds great, so I agreed to teach on 1 Saturday instead of waiting until the following week. This ended up with them asking me to come another Saturday, and then the day before the program ended, they told me the school owner wanted me to do "extra" classes with a new program. I came in on the next day, the last day and also my pay day, and the manager of the language school left for her holiday. So I asked about my pay to my co-teacher and she helped talk with the manager to get my pay. This ended up in me getting unpaid vacation time in exchange for not teaching any of the extra classes. Ok, note taken, don't accept extra work from this school. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

I started the new school year, and the 10th graders I taught are now 11th graders, and we have a new group of 10th graders. Also, there is a new faculty for these 10th graders. The 11th grade teachers have their room in one building, and the 10th grade teachers have their room in another building. The 11th grade teachers have their act together, they gave one schedule and have stuck to it. No games have been played. When I offer ideas, they at least listen.

Somebody in the 10th grade group though decided to add 2 classes to the schedule, one before lunch, and then one after lunch (which is 2 hours). This means that I would have lost about 30 minutes each way (almost 2 hours just for transportation), 2 hours of lunch time, and taught the 2 forty minute classes. That's over 5 hours invested for only 2 classes.

In addition, these 2 classes I already taught. Each grade has 18 classes. It makes very little sense to double on only 1/9 of the classes. Maybe it is to do with me fulfilling the class load I agreed to in the contract. However, it's still lower than what I agreed to. So, if they were really trying to get me to teach more to fulfill my obligations, they could have scheduled more.

After we discussed it, they agreed to not schedule those classes. Last week was national holiday, and they decided to give me the week off. However, the principal wanted to meet me and take me to the mountains. I thought this would be a good time to go over ideas I had, one would be having an AP class formed at a convenient time for all. I would even be willing to come on my days off or during lunch breaks or other breaks. If students wanted to meet then, I would make the time to teach them at those times. The 11th grade teachers understand and have no problem with that. More on that later.

So, this means I couldn't go anywhere (travel and such) last week because of this scheduled outing with the principal. The principal did meet me, but only for 10 minutes. Then, either his brother or good friend drove me, his wife, and 3 students to the mountains. He left, and I was in the mountains with the students and the wife. It was nice, but it wasn't what I had envisioned.

I went back home, and then on Saturday they told me 10th grade students would be taking a test Tuesday (10/11). They wanted me to teach Tuesday students on Sunday instead (10/9). I agreed after telling them it wasn't in my contract to work weekends, but since I got the week off before I felt it was best not to complain.

Yesterday (10/10), I was told the 10th grade students aren't taking tests today and that they wanted me to teach them again. This is the same as the 2 class issue before. This time it is 4 classes. I refused and we (the language school and myself) went to the school today to talk with the school about it.

I don't know why, but the language school wanted to talk with the 11th grade head English teacher first. So, I spilled the beans to her. I told her that I had problems with the language school in August and the 10th grade schedule is being changed in an illogical manner. I told her that I went on Sunday to teach morning classes and that they now want me to teach the same classes today. She seemed to agree that didn't make much sense. There are 36 classes and I only teach 4 of them a second time, why? I repeated the idea about an advanced class being formed if I need to teach more classes to fulfill my contract duties. We left it at that, and they gave me a proposed new schedule starting next week.

Then, we went to the 10th grade English department, and they didn't really want to discuss it. The language school was more concerned about getting the new schedule than discussing me repeating the classes I taught on Sunday. So, we go out in the hallway, and then the manager of the language school goes to another room to try to get the schedule. It was then just me and the head English teacher for 10th grade. He tried to explain that because we had vacation we need to do make up classes.

I could have challenged him on that and asked, "Why isn't the 11th grade department doing the same thing then?" During all this time, the language school is telling me, "The school is deciding it, not the 11th or 10th grade teachers". However, the 11th grade teachers in May, April, and June (10th grade at the time), and up until now have not been playing games with my schedule.

I am curious if anyone else is teaching in high school or middle school. How does your school schedule things? Do they do random stuff like add 2 or 3 classes out of the blue without rhyme or reason?

[choudoufu]

[askiptochina]

I wish I had known this before, because then I would have asked to meet the principal at a different time. I would have liked to have gone somewhere. Instead I stayed at home. For me it's no fun rushing from city to city with only 3 or 4 days before I have to come back.

However, that is a separate issue.

The main reason why I posted was about scheduling, not vacation make up time. The school is just arbitrarily picking 4 out of 36 total classes for me to teach again. It's not really a make up classes missed because then I would have to make up all classes essentially if I had the week off.

[tomhume89]

36 classes?! That's a hell of a lot.

I never, ever get added extra stuff on. I teach all of grade 8 (junior school- so I assume things will have parallels with yours) which means 20 classes a week. Sometimes I'm in from 8-5 doing only 4 lessons spread across the whole day, but I have the viewpoint that this is my job, so 8-5 is usual. Anything less than that is a bonus.

Sometimes they'll ask if I can do English corner, judge in the English competition or do an introduction class for the grade below (about once a term), but it's purely voluntary- I think! I've never turned it down.

I have a very good relationship with my school- they don't take the piss and nor do I. Sometimes I feel very lucky...

However the make up classes on that weekend are nationwide- it's not just your place messing you around.

[big_big_bang_theory_fan]

Why are you not willing to standup for yourself and defend your contractual obligation? It seems to me that you are in agreement they are in violation of your agreement as it were. True? You are willingly letting them strong-arm you and it's kind of sad really. It sound like you are letting them walk all over you. Besides 36 whatever hours and changes and language programs and this and that, it really sounds more like your dug yourself into this hole.

Why not defend yourself and protect yourself?

Then again, most people are not willing to do so as it seems around this forum.

[askiptochina]

[askiptochina]

[Lobster]

I have 24 different classes, so it's the same kind of thing. The holidays really mess up the schedule in terms of which class I'll teach. I've been trying to keep the content synched, so it's creating a bit of a problem there. But really, I don't care too much which group they send me. I track lessons closely, so once I fugure out who they are, I can go from there. I did the holiday make-up days this weekend, but because of my contract I'll end up with an extra day off this week.

The school has given me a dedicated classroom with movable desks for my own use, which is nice. Althouh the Senior 1 CT tells me about the schedule and any changes, the actual schedules are prepared by an admin dept. Schedule is good 1:30 - 4:30 every day except one day when I have an 11:00 a.m. class and then the first two p.m. classes All in all, it's pretty good and I'm happy with the school and the students. Note that the high school is only part of my work load. BTW, I wouldn't discuss any issues directly with the school admin. I make sure all communication goes through my company's boss.

RED

[askiptochina]