Responded to and interviewed with private school as an English teacher. Signed contract as English teacher and am informed I’d be teaching PE for all of first grade - 8 classes.
Job post and contract say nothing about PE classes.
Unqualified, really unsafe, complain, fired.
I’m not incompetent. I was present.
What grounds besides incompetence? I’ve been speaking English all my life.
1 unqualified teacher for 40 kids?I told them it was not safe. I got fired.
I’d be outraged if my daughter were subject to these unsafe conditions.
What can I do?
The principal that fired me said they needed a PE teacher but the job I applied for was for English teacher.
It seems like an obvious labor bureau thing. I assume your contract says you were hired as an English teacher as well? If so, I’m guessing you could go there, file a complaint, go through mediation, and get some money out of it for the unfair dismissal. They’re probably counting on you not knowing your rights.
Did you sign anything accepting the grounds for the dismissal?
I found it pretty painful reading lesson plans for PE lessons, qualified teachers are just able to give elaborate justifications for why playing sports is useful. Most of PE isn’t really something you teach, it is something you do. No contact sports, don’t forget to warm up, skip the javelins.
I can identify with feeling insulted or overqualified, but not under qualified.
I’m just saying - it was a completely dishonest way to hire someone. If they had told me in advance I would have weighed that in the compensation package.
I love going to the gym. I am very fit. I hate deception and fraud.
I am not qualified to teach PE to 40 kids. I don’t want that responsibility.
You can also contact the education bureau. Depending on the type of school, a one to 40 teacher to student ratio might not even be allowed, nor (sometimes) is someone teaching PE that doesn’t have a license in teaching PE. I think in regular schools you can’t go over 30 kids/teacher. Experimental schools is 10.
I’ve never applied for a PE job in my life nor would I. I am not qualified. They had a balance beam setup without enough mats. 5 kids took off running upstairs and out of the basement PE room. Do I go after the 5 kids and leave the 35 kids unattended in the basement? The boss gave me no answer to that question.
I began teaching the kids capoeira which kept them all busy the entire time with no one just standing around. The boss said I couldn’t teach “Brazilian Devil Dancing” because the parents would freak out. It’s called capoeira. I’ve never heard it called Brazilian Devil Dancing.
I’d be outraged if anything like this went on at my daughter’s school
2009 D’Amico, Rob , Editor, Texas Teacher , published by Texas AFT (affiliate of American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO); “Austin classified employees gain due process rights”, April 2009, p14:
Even if the executive director rules against the employee on appeal, the employee can still grieve the termination to the superintendent followed by an appeal to the […] Board of Trustees.
If it was a contract, the rules for termination are pretty strict. They can’t fire you for just any reason in Taiwan. You should contact the labour bureau. You’ll have to go through arbitration first.
I had a teacher like that in junior high, his standard opening was "today is a special class, go play basketball ", he would then disappear into the teacher’s lounge.
very nice guy, I remember him fondly to this day.
