Advice sought

deirdre11

I just started work about 7 weeks ago in an English school. I got a year's contract. I have been teaching for many years. The first class observation went well.
The atmosphere in the school has changed the last few days though, the staffroom was a little untidy. It was the subject of a serious email. The boss is a rampage about punctuality of students, they are not all in for 9am.
He came in to my class and he wants to meet me to 'implement new strategies' which is fine but to go and observe another teacher at this stage I find personally humiliating to be honest. I would be happy to be presented with a video of these teaching strategies. Could I ask for that instead? I don't know where I stand here. I think they just want me to leave and take on younger perhaps cheaper staff. (pay is low anyway, but it was nice to teach these students and just get part time work)

It has become rather a tense and unhappy place to work. I notice other staff are disgruntled too. Where do I stand here if I don't want to go into another colleagues classroom?

silent_spark

Short answer: You could be disciplined for it. Just sit in on the class.

Strumms

What is the expected course of action of you if a student turns up late ? Has that been communicated to you ?

Your boss should have made you aware of this. Also of what the reason is for sitting on the class..

antix80

I think he's saying he wants you to have some control on the class.

E.g if someone's late you could quiz them on their homework first.. If they get something wrong you tell then if they bothered to turn up on time maybe they'd know it... Or if they know the answer "isnt that great, you know everything so you stroll in late to distract everyone else"

Just observe the other teacher.

If you're not happy in the job, you'll always see reasons to hate it.

Just to add.. 7 weeks and you think he needs as excuse to fire you? He doesnt. He can just tell you you're no longer required.

In private schools, students coming in late actually really annoys the other students.. And then the school loses income.

I studied auditing and i remember the the teacher slagging off ppl for coming in late. One guy came in late and the teacher set the trap "he must have had someone in the toilets"
20 seconds later a second man walked in and the whole room was in stitches laughing.

Another time a girl was reading a magazine at the beginning of class. He took it off her, flicked through it, then loudly read the title of an article about anal sex.

Needless to say, the classes were fun and engaging and the teacher kept control of the class.

Oh.. And btw, this guy flew from London to dublin to teach these classes and the classes were packed. Other teachers were tried out and let go.
This school had one awful teacher. When we asked why he was kept, it's because he was friends with the director.

OMM 0000

I think you should open your mind to the possibility you might be able to learn something and improve.

I don't know how easy it is to get these sorts of jobs. If there's loads of them and you're unhappy, by all means leave, but you need to be sure you're being honest with yourself that there isn't any problems with how you currently teach.