Recently I have been having trouble with a coworker of mine. He has only been working with me for nearly 1 year and half now, this guy is a real pain in the ass to me on a regular basis. He isn't a bad teacher but he really doesn't know his place in this world.In the way of rank in the company I am his senior by 2 1/2 years and on top of that I have been in training to become the co-head NST teacher.
Just a little info on what NST stands for “Native Speaking Teacher”, which is the foreigner who teaches English to the students.The Head-NST is usually the most senior NST but in the case of my school’s she is not only the most senior with 9 years working for the school, but she is also the only one with a masters in early childhood education and English as a Second Language, After her there is another teacher who has been working here for 6 years now, but he has no aspirations to advance his rank in the school, he enjoys coming to work spending time with the kids and then going him and being with his lovely wife and daughter. Third in the list is me with 4 years with the school, there use to be people in front of me but the 3 of them moved on to new schools or went back to their home countries.
Back to the story.
This particular teach has been harassing me from nearly the start of the year, and for what reason I have no idea. Normally I am not interested in the going-on’s of those around me, so its not like I have interfered with his personal life and he is seeking retribution for something I did. Since it is completely unprovoked attacks on me I am not really holding back on him and the things I say to him.
For instance a few weeks back he and I had an argument over how I run one of my advanced classes. Which lead him to walk into the middle of my class uninvited and walk to the back of room and just sit there. This was not only a distraction for me but it was a distraction and unwanted stress for the students as well. He didn’t introduce himself, he didn’t explain why he was there, just sat there starring. So, after 20mins of his causing an uncomfortable wave completely washing over the class making even the best students to hesitate to answer the simplest of things, I walked slowly to the back of the room still reading from the passage grabbed him by the arm, and told one of the girls in the front of the class to read from where I stopped and dragged him out of the classroom. Once I shut the door I kept my voice down and yelled at him for disrupting my class. I told him something along the lines of “If you ever disrupt my class like that again I will make sure it is the last time you do”.
This wasn’t even the first time that we had a problem like this. The first that I can remember was when we had an open house for the parents to see what would our advanced classes will be like. I think what set him off was when I told the parents that the advanced class is there to help the students whose English is at a level high enough to be taking Jr. High or Sr. High School level classes but because of their age are stuck in Elementary or Jr High. As such these classes there to help the students to progress their skills without being held back by being taught at a lower level. Every student admitted in the class has passed and entrance exam that they needed to score at least 80% on to be allowed in, and if at any time during the class I feel that they are not progressing because they are not able to keep up, or didn’t understand the material even after additional assistance I would return them to their normal English classes. Even though they are being placed back in the mainstream class it is in no way a punishment, it is to prevent the students from having to struggle in the class and to keep them moving onward and upward. I think the part that pissed him off was when I told the parents that “I” would be the one to take them out of the class if I thought it was best for them. However I am not sure on that.
Anyway the most recent fight that I have had with this guy has pissed me off so much that I am seriously thinking about trying to get him fired. One of my new responsibilities is helping to review each of the teachers performance reviews and archiving them into the computer. Several days before the most recent incident with him I had made it to his performance review and saw that he is actually ranked with the lowest of the teachers. His classes have the lowest overall test scores and his approval rating with the other teachers is low as well. So I don’t know if he is taking his frustrations out on me or if he just doesn’t like me?
Living for 2 years in Taiwan is a hard thing for a westerner. It takes a lot of resilience and inner strength to make it. I found that once I made it to the 2 year mark I was ready to fight my way out of Taiwan if I had to, but I pushed on and said if this year sucks as bad as is starting to I will leave. 2 years later I am still here and still giving it my all. Still have a quick flight suite case though. Fighting on every single day.
~Chububocat~
No comments:
Post a Comment