Teaching and working at a boarding school

My writings have become irregular and I really hope I’m not repeating myself cos I keep forgetting what I’ve already written and what not. Today’s supposed to be my day off, but I need to plan the lessons as I have absolutely no idea what I want to do in classes.

As for the teaching bit... The summer courses over here include a lot of (and when I write a lot of I mean seriously a lot of) excursions and activities, so it sometimes feels like English classes are just a secondary activity and us teachers are sometimes treated like that as well. For example, today we had a fire drill (yes, it was my day off and my only chance to sleep in since beginning of July and no, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have to participate in the fire drill) but none of the teachers was told what to do, so I asked our CD what my duties are and she told me and then this morning a AO gave me completely different instructions, so who do I listen?! Most teachers believe that we’re not informed enough, especially cos it’s our first summer here. Ah well, I guess we’ll all survive.

Yesterday I bought Dongle at the 3G shop, so now I have expensive Internet access in my room. Lucky me! And it’s not restricted. I got so frustrated with the restricted Internet at this school that I now totally understand why some girls lose it when they leave a Catholic school! Sport web-pages are restricted (it seems like a good Catholic girl is not into sports) and so is “The News of the World” (apparently it has low quality content) and that’s far from all the other restricted or simply put BLOCKED web-pages. In today’s day and age that’s an utterly and completely insane if you ask me! I understand some schools blocking Facebook as it can be dangerous since children add people they don’t know as their friends, but news and sports and even teaching resources web-pages?!

The school itself is nothing special. I have always imagined British boarding schools in almost a romantic way, but working at one has opened my eyes. The rooms have no bathrooms, so you share (I really hate the fact that I am sharing a bathroom and toilet with students!!!), a lot of rooms have no desks or chairs, so you write on your knees (which I am sure is very good for your back and general health) and students’ rooms do NOT lock (which I guess would make it easy for valuables to disappear). As for the classrooms - they are in different buildings and whereas most of them are equipped with an IWB (which have been taken off, so we cannot use them) the rest of the equipment and furnishings would make most of the teachers I know back home cry (and those wouldn’t be tears of joy). But we’ll manage! Teachers are the toughest breed I know!

Here are some photos of my room, so you get a taster (keep in mind that my room used to be an office and it is much bigger than your normal single room!).




And I still haven’t planned the lessons....