More work-related stress

So I'm on the verge of getting fired at work.

"How did you get into that situation?" you ask. Well, listen closely, because there's a good lesson in this for all you foreign English teachers out there.

Four things factor into my current situation: 1.) I've made a number of teaching mistakes, 2.) I've taken too much initiative in how I teach my students without first establishing the parents' trust, 3.) I haven't done what was necessary to communicate my teaching rationale to the my boss (the school's owner), and 4.) my coordinator is more interested in protecting her job than mine.

First, the mistakes I've made. I had thought it would be faster and more efficent for students to correct their own mistakes than for them to trade papers. This was wrong. Parents have found uncorrected mistakes in my students' work and been upset by that. Another mistake I've made is attaching the wrong level of priority to certain tasks. I got in big trouble one time because I forgot to hand out a particular worksheet in a class; "no big deal," I thought at the time, "I'll just give it to them tomorrow." What I didn't know was that the parents were notified that they would get it that day, and some were upset that they didn't.

Second, I haven't "followed the directions" as well as I should have. This is partly my fault, (I have a tendency to try different things to see what produces the best results), and partly because I was never trained to follow a set of procedures nor given a set of directions to follow in class. An example of this was my idea to concentrate on developing students' writing abilities. According to this article, Korean students' composition skills lag significantly behind other students in East Asia; therefore, I gave individual attention to each student, providing input on the senteces they wrote.

The problem with this, though, was that I was focusing all my attention on one student at a time, leaving the other 7 or so with nothing to do but talk with friends or goof off. Parents didn't like that, (I can understand that), and they didn't understand why I was doing it. Moreover, the coordinators couldn't explain it because I didn't communicate the reasons to them either. Although I've changed this already, the parents' trust has already been damaged. Innovation without communication ... it's like doing shots without beer chasers.

Next, there's the poor communication issue. There are four parties involved -- the Korean speaking owner and parents, the dozen English speaking teachers, and the three bilingual coordinators that serve as the link between all of them. Although ideally they are supposed to provide two-way communication, in practice they serve as top-down conduits.

Also, they are each responsible managerially for a third of the teachers, which sometimes creates conflict for them. When I get a complaint, my coordinator gets the heat, and it's easier to pass that down to me than it is to explain my thinking to the parents (especially when I've failed to explain it to her myself). Likewise, when she informs the owner about the complaints, my coordinator's role is to effect whatever the owner says, not rationalize my actions.

This leads to the fourth reason -- like me, my coordinator is in a situation where she either "shapes up or ships out." Among the other staff, she has gained a reputation for poor management style and lack of professional responsibility, particularly for her habit of saying, "It's not my fault!" Though to a certain degree she's right (as far as my issues are concerned), the pressure she's under is forcing her to either 1.) Take responsibility for my mistakes as a training failure, or 2.) Depict me me as an arrogant, maverick teacher who rejects her direction. Unfortunately, this has forced her into a position where she has a greater interest in working against me than for me.

An example of this can be seen in the way she interrupted one of my classes the other day to yell at me for not checking workbooks and leaving a mark (the "checking classtime work" issue). Were it not for my suggestion that we move the discussion outside the classroom, she would have embarrassed me in front of my class. I came to find out later that she'd made a copy of some of the pages that could later be used as evidence that I'm not doing my job right. Nevermind the fact she'd never given me that direction before; she was ready to cover her behind and place the blame on me.

I talked with the guy who hooked me up with this job, my friend B (the one who just got married), and he gave me three recommendations: 1.) Establish a relationship with the boss, 2.) Develop a relationship with the parents, and 3.) Build up my skills as a teacher and document the process.

This makes a lot of sense. By building up a relationship with the owner (and with the parents, too) I can establish the level of trust that is entirely lacking right now. And by showing my desire to improve as a teacher, I can push the threat of termination back (hopefully permanently).

So stay tuned -- we'll see how it goes. In the meanwhile, check out this job posting from Dave's ESL Cafe. If that doesn't work, try this one.