I am exhausted after such an emotionally charged week.

This is tought business.

I am so tired and I am losing my voice. I guess that I will be mute all weekend to try to save my voice.

I'll get friends to bring me to the doctor's office, so that he can check my voice.

I was so concerned today, that I advised my co-teacher to prepare lessons, just in case, I failed to deliver the merchandise.

 

Update on the manager issue. Today, she seemed sympathetic to my cause again, but each time I feel like this, I get struck and confirmed wrong later on. She even gave me a handful of candy. Why? Is it because my voice is broken? Is it because I wrote (but crossed out) something on my monthly report? I don't know, but until I see what happens with the crappy teacher, I can't feel otherwise than suspicious.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

 

 

Wow, this is a twist of faith.

 

Last Friday, I had most people supporting my firing motion. One of the main heads was showing support.

Monday, things started to disintegrate with the Chinese backing down. Then today, by some unbelievable surprise, the kindy kid

whose father had said that he did not want his kid to have anything to do with that teacher shows up! Obviously, the teacher did not

call the father. THE MANAGERS DID!!!! To me this is a blipping act of sabbotage. They are telling me, here LeTouriste, this point of criticism has to be crossed out [of your list] because the kid did come back (how much did they bargain?).

 

My feeling is that they actually want to keep her here! All their acts of support is just a facade to keep me quiet.

I am totally disgusted. My energy is drained and I am really affected by this battle which is only hurting me.

Hence, the only logical thing to do is to start looking for a new job. If they really keep the crappy teacher, fine, they will lose me.

I am not as big of a loss because I am a guy and I don't have as many bushiban classes. Hence, they have less parents to convince that the next teacher won't be that bad.

 

What a twist! In less that a week, I went from hyper to having a foot in the exit. I hate when there is women solidarity to protect a

teacher whom they all admitted is utterly boring and most have said to be unqualified.

 

 

 

 

Hey guys,

 

I failed to win enough support to remove the thorn from my foot.

People have started feeling concerned by what Main Office would say, so we have to go by the book.

Sadly, my fire letter (3rd and last step) became an oral letter (1st step) because some people failed to work by the book

on the first incident. This means that instead of informing her of the termination of her contract, she will have 2 weeks to improve, then

she could possibly face being fired in her last week before her vacation. Although, this isn't a sure thing anymore.

 

What disturbs me the most is the comments that I previously got, became unproven facts in most cases because people

realized the impact of my procedures. They rather have a crappy teacher to having a new teacher. The reason is that parents feel

uncomfortable sending their child to a school with a high turn over of teachers. They seldom complain about the teacher's crappiness, they

complain when teachers leave. This is weird.

 

I am also crushed because what I thought was support for firing the crappy teacher was just

amicable handshakes and smiles for listening to their complaints. Now, I feel that things will not swing my way.

The good point in all this is that I got to talk with so many CTs whom I never talk to. They are quite approachable.

 

This story boils down to one thing... lack of efficient communications. I wonder if these procedures will actually lead to some positive

results in the end?

 

Man, I feel drained tonight. I just want to eat chocolate until I puke. I hope this is just stress and not another illness looming over me.

 

Sad, sad little LeTouriste

Remember the teacher whom I disliked because of many reasons including her incompetence and her close friendship with a manager. Well, she is in danger of being fired because of her unprofessional attitude towards teaching. What happened for her fortunes to change? ME!

Yes, on Thursday I was asked to become the main foreign teacher for my school. I turned down the job because I did not want to deal with this teacher. Upon hearing this, a higher level teacher told me horror stories that I had never heard. SHE ACTUALLY READ THE NEWSPAPER DURING CLASS TIME IN KINDERGARTEN. I had never heard of anyone displaying such a lack of judgment. She finishes work at 12, then she only works at 16:00, doesn't she have time to read the paper then? I guess  not! Then the teacher asked me if there was something she could do to help. At this point I realized that my disliking her was not isolated to my person. It was generalized among Chinese teachers too. Thus, I talked with the previous main teacher and we agreed that she can't deal with the pressure linked to teaching young children, hence she should be fired. My job was to find all the complaints that had sparked oral and written warnings against her. Man! was I surprised to see how willing people were to help me when they deduced what I was doing. I got big smiles and handshakes. It seems as though I was liberating a big burden that was pressing down on them. Finally, someone was hearing and acting upon their complaints. There was a complete disdain for this girl AS A TEACHER in both schools. I managed to get an exhaustive list, three pages long. All these complaints span her 4 months stay here and every time she was covered by her friend. Wow!

Now, that the report has been written, things should move quickly as long as people don't back down. At least with me driving the procedures, they'll have to really squeeze me for me to drop the issue. It's time for her to go! That's what every teacher, except one, thinks.

 

Wish me luck, the issue will be debated with all the top managers Monday. It will be win or loss for me/ us then.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

The stars and the planets must have lined up in my sign because things have just been tumbling

around. Pieces have come together and events are rolling at prodigeous speed.

I am busy pasting things back together and pulling the bad parts off the picture.

 

I will keep you posted on this big event happening very soon, possibly Monday!!!!

This may be the happiest Monday so far!

 

Cheers and try to guess,

LeTouriste

Sorry, I still have not taken the time to write about Alishan almost a month ago.

 

I am lacking sleep due to my incessant desire to appear as a better teacher in both kindy and bushiban.

I am also starting my training again because I feel so fat! Ok, I am probably not hate, but that's how I feel.

 

Sunday, the bushiban manager and I attended a speech competition. This was done so that I could learn what the

judges want, so that I could better coach the students for next year's competition. Since, this event was held so far away, we got to

chat quite a bit. It was very pleasant and it ended up being a great brainstorming session for the both of us. I also understood

what was going on in the school and I told her how I felt towards the incompetent teacher.

 

What has come out to this meeting? I don't know if measures will be taken towards the teacher, but from now on the manager and I will

communicate directly and regularly about school matters.

 

My Tuesday class will indeed close and combine with another one of mine. The new Tuesday class will not be given to me immediately. The main foreigner asked to have it. At first, I thought he could not get it, but I learned that his other class would change time slot, so he could pick it up . This is surprising because he did not want to accept new classes before. His change of mind, to me, might signal that he is planning on retiring. Hence, he is trying to rack up as much money as he can. This is just my thought, I have no idea if this is the case.

 

Ok, I have work waiting for me.

 

Cheers,

LeTouriste

Hello guys,

 

I've been digging a lot lately and my classes have suffered from my lack of sleep. Fortunately, I noticed and will take immediate actions. I took an hour long nap in the afternoon and was fresh to give my afternoon kindy class. That was a great decision because otherwise the kids would have eaten me.

 

If you remember from blogs long ago, there is a student that I call my little dump kid. He is no longer dump! Yes, he snapped out of his mental fog and he can talk good English. I asked him this week: How does teacher LeTouriste go to school? He answered: He goes to school by sports car. Upon hearing this, my jaw dropped. Usually, he would blankly stare at me or would mumble some words that I would have said. Lately, he had been able to mutter half sentences. But, this week. It was the whole thing. He could answer in a whole sentence. I wanted to cry when this happened. I remember when I met him a year ago. I could see the sparkles in his eyes. Now the sparkles are in my eyes. I am so happy. This is the moment that every teacher dreams of. The moment when the kids... understand.

 

Today, he was little teacher although he had a bad cold which gave him a deep, yet faint voice. His voice was really funny. I am a bad a*s, so I made him talk just to hear him. I asked him if he was little teacher and he answered without even thinking: Yes, I am! Most students stop after Yes. But not him. He said the full sentence. This is amazing. Now, we have to work on improving his writing skills and social skills and continue our efforts on his speaking. Even though the hill is still high, I have seen hope and this will fuel me.

 

My other class is doing well. The little teachers are now capable of doing the initial 15 minutes of the day without too much involvement on my part. This also is wonderful. They are learning how to become autonomous at such a young age.

 

Now, bushiban is another story and happiness does not run more than superficially. My buddy, M, was unofficially fired. He is a Chinese teacher, so the rules for firing them are bendable. Also, another class was closed and merged. Thus now all foreigners work the guaranteed 18h. Hence, in the event that any other classes closes. The penalized teacher would be able to fish into my teaching hours because I am not guaranteed those hours! This seems unlikely in the near future, but in 4 to 6 months it will be something to talk about. Secondly, I heard that a new young class was opening at times when all foreigners are working. When I heard this I began thinking if one of my classes was not going to be sabred again. My class which matches the new opening is due to graduate in 6 or 7 months. Then they will disperse into the other curriculum. If this class is closed now, the students will just disperse into the other classes at an earlier time. This could be beneficial to the school as it needs classes of over 10 students to make money off the class. The reason that I am thinking about this scenario is that the manager has been really really kind to me lately. Is this an omen of bad tidings coming my way? I certainly hope not!

 

With regards to the b***h that I dislike at work. Well, she seems most comfortable with her good relations with the managers because she has been late 3 nights this week in bushiban and 3 times in the afternoon in kindy. Fortunately, for the school the kids did not lose teaching time, she has only lost preparation time. Sunday, I am going to a contest with the manager. I hope to read a little into their games then. I feel so left out of what is happening. I am almost developing a paranoia that a conspiracy is rising to kick me out. I really am not comfortable with this.

 

I guess that is the whole story of the moment. LeTouriste is happy for the success seen in class, yet I am terribly upset with the events happening in bushiban.

 

Good night,

LeTouriste

 

I promise the NY story will be published this weekend.

Hey guys,

 

I just finished posting my pictures from my trip to Tainan and Alishan. I went there with a friend A for the New Year's weekend. We climbed Alishan hoping to see the last sunrise of 2006. Unfortunately, there was no sun that morning . We were quite upset considering that the hotel that we had was very very low quality. There was no heating system, yet the temperature outside was 0 degrees. Furturemore, upon arriving, I noticed that the patio door had been left open in my room. Hence, it was also freezing in my room and there was not hot water, so I didn't take a shower there.

 

Given these little unfortunate details, I have not been able to cure my cold yet. In fact, my throat was "killing" me during all the weekend.

 

What happened in school this week? One of my best kids showed me the middle finger. As a foreigner I reacted strongly telling the kids never to do that. I was thinking if I had showed him to do that. But, then I cooly noticed there was a band-aid on his middle finger. That is what he was showing me... not the finger! Oups! He didn't notice my mistake.

 

I met a kindy kid at Carrefour. I didn't recognize her because she had just cut her hair. She came up to me and asked: Are you A teacher LeTouriste? I laughed a bit and acknowledged that I was. The fact that she isn't my student made it hard for me to remember her name.

 

Ok, I'm off to bed soon. My throat and ears are painful. I have never felt so sh*tty since I've moved to Taiwan a year ago.

 

LeTouriste