When I came here, I was given the impression I could a job anywhere because of my degrees and experience. I ended up taking the first place I was offered because I knew one person at the school. I'm happy with the choice, and it has been a great year teaching. I'm enjoying teaching again, something that I had been afraid was lost.
I am tempted to look into other schools for many reasons, but it comes down to my continual feeling that I was hired first for my American passport, and having a degree and experience was an irrelevant detail.
The main load of teaching is taken on by Turkish teachers - even the teaching of English. My role is quite small in the school, which has been a pleasant relief. I simply see my students two times a week and practice speaking English.
I've since added objectives, assessments, and support materials to the program - but only out of my own initiatives.
Today I had to do a performance evaluation. I was to choose "meets standard", and if I thought I exceeded the standard, I was to choose this. If I thought I exceeded standards, I was to prove it. While the questions were professional, detailed, and in English (yeah!) - they didn't seem to apply to the hired passports. For example - I don't do cross-curricular planning, because that would require translations. Or extra-curriucular activities - because they would need to be offered to the natives (that's me). Or support of school regulations - that's assuming I was told the policies and regulations . . . in English.
I don't like performance oriented evaluations. I tried a year of action plans and lots of other educational jargon in the past, and I fell apart. The evaluations are logical, but they taint my soul. It's the child in me - why can't I just enjoy being a teacher?
The Scandinavian in me ticked "meets standards" in all categories and left it that.
No comments:
Post a Comment