Our Board of Education (BOE) held individual meetings with us ALTs earlier in the week. It's f*cking hard to believe that all our feedback, our complaints, our comments were finally listened to, about halfway through my contract. Obviously I can't trust my BOE supervisor and assistant, because after all this time, it was the Deputy Superintendent who listened to the reasons why I felt "a distance between me and my colleagues". We'd wasted half a year telling these useless people, only to be ignored, and our concerns not communicated through to those who would have been able to sort us out.
The following day, my school put into action the steps that needed to be taken, as informed by the Deputy Superintendent. They were basically to translate to Ms. S the content of the morning briefing and to involve her in lesson planning, just so that she knows what is going on in the school. Next time, I know to bypass the incompetent, and head straight for those who actually know what to do.
I feel sad about it, they are nice people. The opportunity came up for them to strengthen work relationships with people from abroad, but they didn't rise to it, even though what was troubling most of us was pretty straighforward.
Anyway, a lesson lived is a lesson learnt, just like how I popped open a marble-stoppered Ramune drink for the very first time today (although it did involve some struggle followed by a 'how to do it' video on youtube).
3 comments:
WOW! WHO HAS BEEN RATTLING YOUR CAGE? NOW THE AIR HAS BEEN CLEARED, HOPEFULLY YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PROCEED WITH THE UTMOST CAUTION, BUT IN A MORE CONTENTED FRAME OF MIND.
Things that I take for granted or HK can not be expected e.g. common courtesy, and how disorganised my role is, does get me frustrated. I know it'll take time to bend these things to my will, but I can't help felling impatient!
*in HK and the UK
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