Once kids get to 7th grade, the school becomes an IB school (International Baccalaureate - with an IB diploma, western universities know you've gotten a decent education and will accept you). IB is broken into 2 levels - MYP (middle years program, grades 7-10) and DP (diploma program - grades 11 and 12). I'm teaching Secondary 1, 2, and 3, which is grades 7, 8, and 9. At first I completely freaked out - 3 preps is kind of crazy. But it turns out that I'm only teaching one section of each grade - only 3 classes! So, even though the preps are kind of intense I have tons of prep time by Western standards - Wednesdays are my easiest days, and I teach 2 classes, have 1 department meeting, and in theory have 4 periods free.
Before anyone gets too excited about hearing about what my daily life is actually like, here's some more admin BS for the educators: grading is different here. And when I say different, I mean DIFFERENT. And I'd like to throw out there that I just learned about most of this today, almost 2 weeks into the school year - more on communication issues later. In any case, when it comes to grading in MYP there's a rubric. Yayyyyyyy rubrics. Student are graded according to 3 criteria: Content, Organization, Style and Language Usage. Within each criterium, students earn a grade of 1-10. No problem, I thought when I found this out, I can work that into my grading scale. And then today I found out more - Students get a grade according to the 3 criteria FOR 2 MAJOR PROJECTS PER TERM. Otherwise, they do not receive a grade!!!! All that shows up on their report card is their 3 grades for each of the 2 major projects or essays. Hmmmmmm, you may be asking yourselves, as I certainly was this afternoon. Apparently the school itself DOES have another part to it - students earn a grade 1-3 (1 is the lowest) for homework completion, attitude, participation, and effort. Not too bad, eliminates the stress of western grading, I thought to myself, but then I come to find out that there are no guidelines for how these grades are reached. It would appear that in years past, many teachers assigned students a grade in these areas simply based on whether or not the teacher liked the students.
Grading aside, how does the school work? Well, this is going to come as a shock to many of you teachers - first of all, instead of the teachers each having their own room and the students rotating, it's the other way 'round. Students, grades kindergarden through 12 are with the same group of students all day in the same classroom, for the most part, and teachers rotate through. Awesome, huh? Now, for the sake of trying to stay positive, every classroom has a projector attached to the ceiling that can be attached to any laptop brought into the room. Yayyyyy! If only the classrooms had computers... but no. Luckily I happen to have a rather swanky laptop now, thanks to Josh, and a VGA adaptor with which to use said projector, also thanks to Josh. Thank you Josh!!!!! I haven't tried out my 3 classrooms yet, but in theory the projectors will work and save me a lot of effort as I have to carry absolutely everything I'll need for a given class period with me. Aaarrrrrgh. I miss my spacious ASMS classroom with students who come to me.
Moving along swiftly - since I'm teaching at a private school and parents pay upwards of 20,000 USD for their students to attend it, textbooks are included in the tuition. So, each student has a brand new book that he or she is permitted to write in, and they take VERY good care of their books because......... drumroll please........ THEIR PARENTS GIVE A SHIT!! Yayyyy! Parents are active participants in the school, sometimes excessively but still, at least they care. It's only been a week and a half of classes and I've already gotten emails from parents thanking me for my introductory letter and encouraging me to contact them if any home assistance is needed. SWEET! I've also been pre-warned that I need to continue to be proactive in contacting parents to keep them from jumping down my throat. Might seem like a lot, but I teach 3 classes of 20 or fewer students per class. Last year I had about 120 students, this year I have 60. Nice. At least it would be, if all of them speak fluent English.
SSIS levels the English class because there are so many Asian students who are still learning English. I have the higher levels of 7th grade and 8th grade, but the lowest level of 9th grade. I haven't seen them too much yet, but in the first class I had to totally shoot them down and explain, in no uncertain terms, who was boss. Based on their facial expressions, I don't think they were expecting that from a young white teacher. Sucks for them!!!! My 7th and 8th grade classes are cool though - 7th grade is really goofy and fun, 8th grade will be as soon as they learn how to loosen up. I gave all the students an Info sheet to fill out, so I could get their parents' contact info and to learn more about the students, and my one white student, Abby, an American, wrote on there that I shouldn't worry, the rest of the class would loosen up soon. Thanks, Abby! And yes, she is my only white student.
So, to wrap up a bit. The class sizes rock. The parent support rocks. The attitude of the administration rocks (haven't talked much about that, but trust me). For the most part the students' attitude and behavior rocks. Now, for what doesn't rock.
Supplies. Or, I guess I should say, what supplies? There aren't any. I wanted construction paper for an intro project with my 7th grade. The people in the supply closet looked at me like I had 3 heads. My friend Nicole, who teaches elementary, had the exact same response. No construction paper for elementary. Whaaaaat? No markers, crayons, colored pencils; I was given 5 pens, 2 notebooks, 3 pencils, 1 mini stapler, and 1 ream of printing paper per term. Ouch. Then I tried to photocopy. There are 4 photocopiers for Secondary School - 1 in the teacher's room (broken), 1 in HR (inaccessable), 1 in the president's office (inaccessable), and 1 in "Office Express" - the desk I have to go to in order to get any office supplies or, apparently, photocopies. For ANYTHING I want photocopied (and those of you who know my teaching style know that I photocopy a LOT), I have to fill out a form, fill out a log, and leave with the ladies who don't speak English and hope that they photocopy my materials the way I want them copied by the time I need them. BOOOOOO.
Lack of communication is a huge issue too. No matter where you're currently teaching in the American public school system, I guarantee ANY communication issues you have are nothing compared to here. AND THIS YEAR IS SUPPOSEDLY MILES BETTER THAN LAST YEAR!!!! For instance, I was told that I would be a form teacher. Cool. Sounds like fun. What the hell is a form teacher? Turns out it's like homeroom, but without actually seeing the students on a regular basis. I have to take attendance, contact parents for EVERYTHING, keep track of each kid, and so on, even if I never actually see that individual child. Iiiiiinteresting. My favorite was that I wasn't made aware of the responsibilities of the form teacher until after the first week of school. Or, another current favorite, yesterday most of the new teachers had to go downtown to deal with visa stuff. I was informed last period the day before so I scrambled to get my sub plans done (more explanation of why I had to scramble in a few) and the next morning, as I'm supposed to be getting on a bus to deal with visa stuff, I STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHO'S COVERING MY FIRST PERIOD CLASS!!!! Because, to save money, the school doesn't hire subs. Other teachers just cover classes for sick teachers. Awesome. And, whoever is in charge of teacher coverage, FORGOT A BLOODY PERIOD!!!!!! The MYP coordinator, an administrator, ended up having 60 middle school students in 1 tiny classroom (1/2 to 2/3 the size of an ASMS classroom) because coverage hadn't been organized. Back to why I had to scramble to get my sub plans done - because of traffic problems in Shanghai due to trying to get everything done for the World Expo in May (which apparently only China has heard about - to them it's the Olympics all over again but the rest of the world couldn't care less) there's construction everywhere. And even before that was an issue, the traffic is so bad in Shanghai that it's almost impossible to navigate. We take a bus to school every day, because there's no other way to get there and back, and as a result everyone, teachers and students, have to arrive and leave at the same time. I get to school, hopefully, by 8.30 (first period). Last period ends at 3.10 and busses leave, with or without teachers, by 3.15. There is NO "after school" for ANYONE.
I know there's been a lot of complaining in this post, and for that I'm sorry - I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea; I'm having a GREAT time living in Shanghai. The school itself leaves something to be desired in many respects, but at the same time many things are better than what I've been working with recently. That being said, at this point, I don't think I'll renew my contract with this particular school after my 2 years are finished. But we'll see - you never know.
1 more piece of good news - my co-workers friggin' rock!!!!! Literally, in some cases. One member of the English department has a band that plays downtown weekly (and he met Blitzen Trapper!!!), one English teacher was new last year and as a result has taken me under her wing to ensure that my first year isn't as bad as hers was, and the English dept. head is new this year too - Wayne has taught at many international schools around the world as well as US public schools in MA and CT, so he's putting tons of effort into encouraging the administration to run more effectively and efficiently (yayyyy for yankee ingenuity). So, as much as the school needs to grow, I'm having a lot of fun and am learning to be much more flexible about everything. And I'm planing WAYYYYYY in advance. Damn photocopying.
