Entries Tagged 'Gripes' ↓

After making a couple of posts about teaching, I can’t help but think back to my time teaching. I have some really fond memories of my students and even some of my co-teachers, but I can never forget the endless grind of rules and regulations. It seems like the rules and regulations were always making things more difficult for teachers.

You can read it an earlier post of mine on teaching regulations in Thailand. It’s that feeling of being a rubber band stretch to the limit. Now, that feeling is gone because I am in a fulfilling job here in the states. Unfortunately, all it takes is thinking back to get those old feelings again.

It looks like TEFLWatch is changing places now. The main page and articles will continue to be available at TEFLWatch.Org, but the TEFLWatch forum has changed to TEFLWatch.com. You can get instant communication about issues on TEFLWatch Forum and get all of your TEFL Blacklist, Rantings and Ratings on TEFLWatch.org.

This is a good change and should make things a bit more separate. It’s my understanding that will be eventually having separate ownership and separate hosting. That can only be a good thing for teachers who want to report bad schools.

I guess restructuring is a good idea after two years of growth, threats and expansion.

One of the things you must be vigilant on when you are both a parent and a TEFL teacher is unscrupulous schools. In some locations, it can be tough to find a school that you can afford to send your children to. Public schools can be out of the question for non-local kids and international schools can be prohibitively high.

In this void, there are sometimes school that spring up. When these schools are registered with the local government, they can be a Godsend for parents, but what happens when these schools exist solely to take money from parents and don’t deliver a quality education to the students? It’s a travesty.

In Thailand, foreign students are not allowed to study at public schools and they have to pay higher rates to study in private schools. Education expenses can make it difficult to teach English abroad if you have kids.

Right now there is a developing story on TEFLWatch where accusations are being thrown around about Faith Christian Academy in Thailand. There are those who are saying that the school is not legally registered and is operating illegally. I hope that this isn’t true and would hope that the school would quickly prove to everyone that they are legal. We need quality education for our kids, not carpetbaggers trying to take advantage of a tough situation.

It seems like now is the time I am getting ready to do some extra work on some school papers I am trying to put together. It sometimes seems so difficult dealing with the reams of paperwork just about every school wants to throw at teachers. I find myself buckling under the weight sometimes. I have come across one way to keep track of it.

I keep 5 stacks of papers on my desk, one stack for each day of the week and I deal with it when I can. Ok, I know that isn’t the answer you were looking for, but many of us do it.

How do you stay organized under the onslaught of massive paperwork?