A Rant ...If You Will*

The same thing seems to be true for most teaching volunteers: one of their schools is great, while the other is...well...not.

I have, in total, 6 co-teachers. Some I work with on a regular basis, spending several hours a week co-teaching with them. Others I work with on special projects and spend no time with them in the classroom.

One in particular is making my job extremely hard. Let me give examples:
-Despite the numerous times I ask her not to speak Thai in the classroom, at least 90% of the lesson is conducted in Thai
-Grading never gets recorded, even though I take the time to help grade the homework/tests
-Either the children get no homework, or 3 homework assignments in one day
-The bulletin board for the class has never been updated, even though I have provided materials
-No review is given before a test unless I insist on it
-She frequently yells at the students
-She told me she has no time to lesson plan with me
-She never returns homework to children
-She insists on giving a spelling test every day, even though it takes up 20 minutes of class time
-She routinely leaves the classroom during class time to take care of her other responsibilities at the school
-She constantly interrupts me when I'm giving directions to the students
-She never tells me when school is canceled. I find out after I get there.
-She expects the students to take a unit test, when they haven't studied English for 3 weeks (school was canceled so that students could practice for the sports day competition)
-Today she left the class, and when I asked her to come back, she sat down at her desk instead of walking around to help students

I can't really make more than one suggestion per day because it makes her look bad. I can't say anything in front of the students because it makes her look bad. I can't take over the class because it makes her look bad. Once something gets better (like she speaks more English), I move onto something else (like consistent grading). As soon as that happens, she's back to the first problem. It's just so crazy to think that I've been there a year and a half with no positive changes. So frustrating!!!

On the other hand, my 5 other co-teachers are fantastic. They are highly motivated and are supportive of my other projects (helping me translate letters into Thai, helping me get set up when I came here, eating lunch with me every day, helping paint the world map mural, sitting in to help with English clubs, asking for my input, lesson planning with me). These teachers make my time in Thailand worthwhile.

I guess 5 out of 6 are good odds, right?

*This blog post was purely me needing to vent