I WAS a teacher at a kindergarten (legally mind you, as my contract was signed before the law was changed, though that’s niether here nor there now) up until yesterday afternoon. Let’s start with the events on Friday afternoon so you get the full picture.
Friday afternoon: I had a student in my classroom that excuses or explains all of his behaviour with the sentence “because I am bad” (yes, I realize this is not a full sentence but he is only 5 years old). I have tried and tried to tell him he is not bad, and if he has some reason for his actions, such as “A hit me so I hit A back”, that he should have refrained from stricking A and told the teacher; in essence that this is not make him innately bad. On Friday I thought maybe I could demonstrate some sort of situation where I could say to him, you must not be bad becuase because bad people like to do this, and you do not like it. So I put him in a small cupboard in the classroom, held open with my thumb in the way, and asked him “Do you like it in there?” To which he replied “No”, then I asked him if he wanted to come out and he said yes. He got out of the closet 5 to ten senconds after I asked him to enter it (which he did quite willinly with no physical help from myself, just sos you know I didn’t shove him in there). At this time I said “Well then, you can’t be bad because bad people like to hide in cupboards, and you did not like it. So are you bad?” To which he replied no, end of lesson. During this process, which all in all took less than five minutes, my amazing and oh-so helpful chinese co-teacher did her infamous disappearring act. At this time I think, I am tired of dealing with problms in the class unaided, and perhaps I will let her deal with all of them starting Monday.
Monday morning: My foreign manager comes into the class and says “I heard you put B in a closet on Friday. That’s bad. That’s worse than what the last teacher here got fired for.” Not thinking that I was just to be accused of locking a child in a closet for no reason, with no intentions, for an extended period of time, I began to explain.
“I don’t want to know what he did” says foreign manager. Okay. I cannot explain the situation properly, so what am I supposed to do? Apparently democracy hasn’t found it’s way into the kindergarten system in Taiwan.
Later, I proceed to inform him that I have decided to just let the co-teacher deal with the student problems from now on and I will focus on what I am actually paid to do, teach. “That’s not even the point” he says, or something to that effect. I think that is the point, and explian that I am given no help in the classroom, and perhaps if she stayed and spoke to me or voiced her concerns about why I was doing what I was doing (instead of leaving the classroom to tattle to the office) or just took care of these things herself, which I beleive is a part of her job, this situation. as it had become , could have been avioded. So he says, Okay, these things will definitly be discussed. Great I think, the matter is pretty much settled. I am still rather angry with my co-teacher for being utterly useless and not only not helping me, but getting me in trouble by misrepresenting facts. That afternoon I worked in the Anchiban, explained the situation to the other foreingn and chinese teachers I worked with and the Manager of the anchiban, a very helpful and nice taiwanese lady. She asked why I didn’t just tell my foreign manager what I had told her, and I said it’s because he doesn’t want to hear it. I also told her that if things continue the way they are with my co-teacher, I would have to think about finding a new job, because she was not doing her job and was jeopardizing mine.
Tuesday Moring:
I decide to take Anchiban managers advice and tell foriegn manager what actually happened on friday, that the cupboard wasn’t being used as a form of discipline. I make the mistake of talking about my problems with other foreign teachers, and get the quite commom and good advice to just ignore my chinese teacher and get my paycheck. I say I would love to but as she allows the children to break all the classroom rules the second I leave the room, and then I have to get them all back into a clam state for class, this is difficult to ignore . The situaion seems rather bleak for me, as I had a good relationship with all of the office staff and I had a good relationship with my students before this women started (about two months ago, I think) and she comes in and pulls the plug on all my hard work. However, I think this advice may work, because there is only 2 months left of the school year anyway, and it would be stupid to leave now.
Tuesday afternoon:
Last week, my boyfriend said he wanted to get his health check done because his contract would be up for negotiation soon. We thought, as my contract would be up in June for negotiation and a HEALTH CHECK LASTS THREE MONTHS, it would be wise to get them done at the same time (also the last time he had to get a needle, he turned white and almost passed out, so going alone was not the best option). I informed my foreign manager that morning that I might be back late after lunch. He didn’t inquire why, so I didn’t tell him. At the hospital, they asked for my schools phone number, WHICH I WILLINGLY GAVE. I even spelled out my name for the women because she was having difficulty reading it. If I was planning on getting a new job and leaving my shcool in the lurch by quitting, why would I stand by while the hospital telephoned them? Why would I give them the phone number in the first place?
When I arrived back at school (much later than I thought because the hospital didn’t open after lunch until 2:00). My foreign manager met me on the steps as my boyfriend drove away and said " That’s it, it’s over." “What’s over?” I said.
“To save you from quitting, you’re fired.”
“I wasn’t quitting!” I say, thinking this is some kind of joke.
“Whatever, I’ll pack up your stuff in a box and if you can’t catch your boyfriend now, you can go over to the anchiban and use the phone to him to come pick you up.”
“Is this just because of what happened on Friday?!” I ask
“No, it’s that and your behaviour yesterday in the Anchiban and everything.”
“Excuse me?”
“Shouting at everyone and now they are all (motions as if he’s seem something frightening, aka they are afaid of you)”
" But just yesterday the chinese english teacher was telling me how much everybody liked me, and -"
“Doesn’t matter” basically, just go away, I don’t want to discuss they fact that you got fired or why or what you are supposed to do now.
“Okay” so I go to the anchiban and ask the Manager if I can use her phone. She asks why and I tell her I have been fired. What?! she is just as surprised as I am, especially when I tell her that the anchiban, and peoples feelings about me there, are part of the reason. “No, she said, nobody said anything about you. I just knew you were not happy yesterday because we talked about it.” She asks one of the anchiban teachers how my class was yesterday, and she is told that we did some review and played a game for the rest of the time, the kids had a lot of fun. “I don’t know what your foreign manager is talking about” she says “if there are problems they must all be in the kindergarten, there are no problems here.”
Hmm. So I’m guessing what really happened is foreign manager thinks I don’t know that the hospital called during my health check and he has something “on me” that makes it a good enough reason to fire me, a pre-emptive strick so I can’t quit first.
In my contract it stipulates that the if the school is unhappy with the teachers performance, he/she will be given two weeks to “shape up”. Is this just being overlooked?
Can a school legally ignore a part of the contract if they feel it is more beneficial to them?
Is it possible that in lue of this two week “work it out” period, I should be payed two weeks for being fired on the spot with less then two days discussion or notice?
I think it is unfair that this stipulation has just been ignored or disregarded in this case. Does anyone know if it really meant anything to begin with?
. I imagine your foreign manager was promoted because of one or more of these three things. That is a mistake. A good foreign manager is a good people person. I have lots of good teachers working for me. I have lots of teachers that have been working for me for a long time. Good employees and I am lucky to have them. But can they manage a school…I would have to say “No”. If I could find someone who could, then I would be outta here.
Just my kind of thing, really.
Why aren’t the kids telling their parents about this?