Hi All,
So I am ‘teaching’ English and other subjects like Art, Science and Math at an English gakudo/after-school programme. It’s main goal is not academic, more fun and immersive; it’s basically a glorified daycare. They make goals to improve subjects and class content or style during the year to make sure the kids are happy but there’s no set targets or tests taken to determine abilities and the curriculum is very flexible. I am enjoying interacting with the kids, seeing them learn and grow. I have my own standards and goals that I hope to achieve in my class as I have a teaching qualification to teach EFL. This qualification wasn’t needed in order to be hired and they hire anyone they like who can speak fluent English, regardless of teaching background or qualifications, native or non-native. The kids are all mixed ages and abilities in the same room within the ages 6-10. Class size can go up to 40 kids a room. There are other branch schools that barely reach 20 a day. I love the kids. Some of them have behavioural problems and are powerful characters that are difficult to control. A few have special educational needs like autism or ADHD.
So, actually the main problem I have (when not falling under a tide of 30 screaming kids) is the co-working I have to do with regards to the curriculum. The schools operated are separate branches but we are expected to plan lessons together and communicated via an app. Or more accurately, each teacher has a subject and must do all lessons for that subject for the whole year. This is usually done month by month. The lesson plans are entirely designed by the individual teacher. If one teacher doesn’t pull their weight or the lesson is deemed unsatisfactory, the other teachers will complain to each other privately or the management but there is no accountability as such, they will be spoken to and continue just as they are, I haven’t noticed much improvement yet but that’s not so say there hasn’t been in the past.
As you can imagine, the quality of the lesson plans varies wildly and everyone has different ideas and feedback. I find that miscommunication and resentment has grown and grown so much that it feels like a toxic environment to work in. All communication is done via phone/app and there is one monthly zoom meeting. Each school has its own type of kids (based on area usually richer vs. poorer areas, good shogakko vs. rough shogakko), numbers and needs for their lesson, so it is impossible to please everybody. But if the material is not to their taste or not enough, they will complain about it.
When I see a lacklustre lesson plan for another teacher’s subject that I’d rather not do, I just adapt it, use my creativity, get on Google, draw up handmade worksheet and make my own stuff. I don’t like to waste time asking for advice or ideas in a group chat when I could be working on it. Granted, some love to discuss and they do so with each other, some of their ideas are really great, but they also call me or send ideas and then expect me to do the same. I share what I can so they can also use the materials but recently this has been met with more questions and criticisms: “How are you using that? It won’t work at my school, what about this…Can you change the title? Add more pictures because my kids are like this? blah blah etc” Then I am delayed replying and changing material for them. Bearing in mind, the co-worker is at another branch in another district and I have loads more stuff to do at my school without worrying about them.
Also, the way many of these co-workers speak to each other is petty and passive-aggressive while some are buddy-buddy behind the scenes and it shows. It’s split down the middle. It’s very difficult to stay neutral or sweet to everyone without agreeing to do a ton of extra work and keep out of disagreements that flare up. So now I’ve turned on the defensive as I feel it’s the only way to survive. The problem is I cannot take the criticism of my lesson plans without getting hurt and defensive. I think about what someone’s said to me for hours. I only perk up when the kids come in, but I am getting drained by interactions with my coworkers. It’s very strange to me because in my experience teaching is pretty much a solo job, back home lesson planning may be shared with the teaching assistant for differentiation, but that’s it. I’m not sure this is worth quitting for, even though hate the prospect of planning someone else’s lessons and listening to the feedback/criticism of it every month, especially when I am gracious towards their work and avoid conflict, preferring to just quietly change or adapt it.
Does anyone else work like this in ESL or in a good team environment? Or do you work mainly solo? How can I stop being so affected by people’s opinions of my work?
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Thanks so much.
4 comments
I mean… this will be blunt, but step one of wanting to work in a professional environment that has standards is to get a job that has professional requirements and standards. English businesses aren’t managed by educational professionals, rather, business people whose main goal is profit. They’re going to hire people with no qualifications or standards, so that is unfortunately the environment you’re going to get unless you graduate to an actual educational institution that requires real credentials to make it in the front door.
What you’re doing right now isn’t ESL/EFL, and won’t count toward work experience for those jobs, if that’s what your goal is you should look in to getting an advanced degree or a direct position with an actual school where you’re involved in day-time class hours. Otherwise you’re going to be stuck in a business based industry working with people with zero idea what they’re doing, not building your resume or getting legit teaching experience.
> a teaching qualification to teach EFL.
Is this a teaching certificate/license from a country like America or just like a 120-hour online cert?
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If you have the qualification then get to a real school. Private schools, international schools, etc. always are hiring if you look around long enough. Get out of those kind of shitty “schools” and get into a real one.
This is not a teacher problem – this is a **management** problem.
Teachers who do not have any qualifications should not be left entirely on their own to plan curriculum and create materials. Even teachers who have ESL qualifications require specialized training and guidance when venturing into curriculum and materials development, as there is a huge learning curve to this area of teacher specialization. Even very experienced professionals whose main job is writing materials don’t do it alone – why do you think published coursebooks have a team of writers and editors?
Instead of hiring someone who has qualifications and experience as a curriculum developer, it is common for management of these “schools” (it sounds like this is not a licensed school) punt that responsibility onto the teachers because it saves them money, and they are not willing to invest any money because they do not put any value on creating a comprehensive curriculum.
Putting this responsibility solely into the teachers’ hands also benefits management because when things go wrong, they can just blame the teachers – see how that works? They give you an impossible task that you don’t have the tools or the skills for, and then blame you when it descends into chaos and all the teachers begin to fight and argue.
You may love your job, but it does not love you. At this point I doubt very much that the management will suddenly get a change of heart and put an organized curriculum development program in place. In other words, *nothing is going to change* and over time, it is going to degenerate and become even more toxic.
Look: when managers don’t manage, the workplace quickly becomes toxic. If you want to save your mental health, I would suggest this:
1. Use this job as an income source and to get experience while taking a more comprehensive course on ESL teaching and curriculum development, such as the Cambridge DELTA.
2. Get that Delta Cert, put it on your resume, and look for a new job.
3. Do this NOW, before you become so inured to incompetency that you start to think that this is normal – *THIS IS NOT NORMAL*. Do not allow yourself to be drug down, or you are going to wind up working in this kind of shitty toxic workplace for the rest of your time as a teacher. I don’t think you want that – why would anyone want that?
Sounds like a lack of management.
We do something similar on a much smaller scale (team of four) where each person makes the lesson plans/slides for one level.
The difference is that I (as DOS) will check them over and give feedback on the overall content, then teachers will check each other’s materials for mistakes/problems before we all use them.
Just asking people to make things with no feedback and accountability/coordination is going to result in what you describe.