Just...wow. Work shit inside.

[Ichirou]

My students were supposed to give a presentation today, which they had been preparing for for the last couple of weeks.  I had a teaching conference over two days last week and two business trips, so I wasn't able to meet with them.  I was depending on the teachers telling them the schedule and which students were supposed to give their presentations today.

One of the teachers just...didn't.  So today, none of the kids were prepared (some of them hadn't even finished the posters they were supposed to make as part of their presentations) and we had to cancel half of them and reschedule them for after school today.  What a fucking disaster.  I'm supposed to be able to depend on my co-workers for this kind of stuff...I wasn't even here last week, so I was relying on these guys to do that - just remind the kids they were supposed to be ready by today and help them finish writing all their English-version scripts and stuff.

 

[cloudwalking]

getting let down by my co-workers was a pretty common occurrence at one of my old jobs. they'd either just never show up, or i could always count on them to fuck something up, like counting the till wrong, which i would have to fix the next morning.

[Phoenix Dark]

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Some men...

Yeah, sounds like your co-workers dropped the ball; out of interest were they fellow Americans? Also, what was the project?

[Ichirou]

I just get pissed off putting myself in the students' shoes.  Just think, this project counts as much as a mid-term exam, they've been working on it for weeks, and then suddenly without warning..."Okay, you're up, go in front of the class and talk in a foreign language for seven minutes."  Especially Japanese kids, who thrive on structure much more than Western kids...they need a firm schedule, they need to be told the exact date they're supposed to do something so they can prepare and be ready.

Just ticks me off.  Now I know not to just assume "The teacher will do it 'cause it's their job" ever again.  Gotta be paranoid and check to make sure everything's done right MYSELF.

PD, the project is (and I didn't even create this particular lesson plan and am not a very big fan of it) "Show Jose Secrets of Japan!"  They're basically supposed to come up with some interesting, unique topics related to Japanese geography, history and/or culture and then do a presentation on them.  They're split up into groups, they have to write a presentation on the topic, do a poster, and then stand up in front of class and present.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Now I know not to just assume ever again.  Gotta be paranoid and check to make sure everything's done right MYSELF.

welcome to adulthood

[Ichirou]

Now I know not to just assume ever again.  Gotta be paranoid and check to make sure everything's done right MYSELF.

welcome to adulthood

Thanks, Synbios.

[Synbios459]

As the saying goes "If you want something done right you've got to do it yourself".

[bork]

Depend on them? 

A couple of weeks ago, we had the big yearly inter-city Junior High School Speech Contest.  One of my schools had NO KIDS interested, the other had so many that we had to have a mini-contest at school to pick the kids who would end up going.    I had already been coaching one third year girl who had been working on her speech since the summer break, and also helped the other third year girl; both of them came to me on their own and asked for help.  The first and second year kids never said a word to me; in fact I didn't even know who the first year kids (two boys and two girls working as pairs) WERE, since they didn't have to be part of the mini-contest.  I figured the teachers must have been helping them. 

....

So two days before the contest, all the kids get called to present their speeches to me (I was also a judge at the speech contest) and the English teachers.  The third years are prepared.  They do awesome.   The first year boys are fucking amazing (in fact, they took first place in their grade) and I can't believe how well they've done without any help.  The first year girls are prepared; they could use a little work (one of them is too stiff-- they're doing small skits and she just sort of stands there), but they're fine.  But the two second year kids? 

What a fucking DISASTER.  Memorize their speeches?  HA!  They hadn't even fucking finished writing their speeches yet!!  And all three of the teachers who handle the second year kids are sitting there wondering who is at fault.  UH, HELLO?  IT'S YOUR FAULT for not staying on top of these kids.  I don't think they even knew when the contest was!   Now, I really like the teachers I work with.  They're good people, but they fucked up here, and they knew it...but they didn't say a word.  I actually found myself a little angry at them for the first time ever.

Then they asked me to stay and work with these kids, which I did, no complaints, and even showed up the next day to coach them even though I had to work at a different school that day.  I stayed way late at work helping these kids...no one asked me to, but I did it anyway.  And the teachers never bothered to help those kids.  Not even once.  But that's how it goes.  Really, when you think about it, it's not your problem if the teachers fuck up. They are the ones who look bad, although unfortunately you may look the same by association.

[Ichirou]

As the saying goes "If you want something done right you've got to do it yourself".

So fucking true, especially when your co-workers apparently either don't have a handle on managing a classroom or (I suspect) don't really care.

lyte edge, last year my teachers were cool and I could trust them to do something as basic as to announce to the kids that the presentations would be in a week and remind them to be ready for it.

EDIT: I should clarify that I teach seven classes and the problem was with one teacher out of the four I work with, the other ones actually did announce and make sure everybody was ready.  I'm just angry because I know the kids in one of the classroom are actually very hard workers and I could see how freaked out they were because they thought they were going to fail, through no fault of their own...just because they weren't informed of the schedule.

[bork]

By the way, completely unrelated, and yet sort of related: I had a minor accident on Sunday.  I hit a guy on a bike who came out into the street while I was about to turn.  The reason there was an accident is because my foot slipped and hit the gas pedal; we had both stopped already.  The car bumped his bike and knocked it and him down, but he was fine.  We called the cops, they looked at everything, and there was no damage other than some paint on my bumper.  The guy was fine and his bike was fine.  Later on, I called him and he again assured me he was fine and wasn't even going to bother calling his insurance company.  (If there is a problem, I'm covered anyway)  So that was pretty much that.  But for some reason, I had to tell the principal at my main school about this, which I cannot figure out.  And then he proceeded to tell the vice principal, who I had issues with over the summer (it got better after), who gives me this look and snidely says "be careful."  Ugh.

[Ichirou]

Now I know not to just assume ever again.  Gotta be paranoid and check to make sure everything's done right MYSELF.

... this is rule number 1 no matter where you work.

Learn from this , it's a valuable lesson.

Sad thing is, even if I'd known he hadn't informed them, it woulda been too late to do it myself!  I had to go to two-day conference last week, plus I had to visit another school on Friday and Monday, and then the presentations were during first period today.

It's not all bad today, though.  Good news is that three of the students I taught passed their entrance exams and are going to the university of their choice to study English literature!

[bagofeyes]

you should stop caring about students and class content and stuff. its much easier.

[Ichirou]

you should stop caring about students and class content and stuff. its much easier.

I just got done with a presentation by one of the groups...another of the groups skipped out and went home. I'll have to get them tomorrow.  Next time, Gadget! Next tiiiime!

[bagofeyes]

i work at tech colleges and my students have pea-sized brains. i give them all the answers to the (extremely easy) test written out on a sheet of paper the week before it, and still some of them score less than 50%.