When your head is full of lesson plans
How to handle teacher insomnia
Have you ever experienced an inability to sleep, "sleep deprivation" or insomnia? Are you bothered by it? How do you overcome it when you will be teaching the next day for possibly 4-5 hours?
Language center rip-off
Postbox letter from Rose
I wanted a change of scenery and when I saw a job advertised in another area, I applied. I received an e mail back asking me to go and have an interview.
The enemy within
The evil side of the TEFL industry
It is a complicity of silence that sees many foreign teachers working hand-in-glove with a Thai administration that cares only about money and maintaining an educational system mired in cultural backwardness and social repression.
Agencies and monthly salaries
Postbox letter from Teacher Andries
Why is it when the school does not pay the agency on time the teacher does not get his salary as per contract?
Its that time of year again.
Postbox letter from Ian
We all seem to be scrambling for something. It all depends on if that something is actually worth having. I count myself lucky inasmuch as I work with a very good group of people, plus there's a lot of variety.
Student failings and blame
Postbox letter from Phetpeter
My stuggle is always the time I have to spend with each class and find my English only lessons are undermined by other imported teachers who will use more Thai in class then English when the previous year I taught them using English only
The good, bad and the ugly
Postbox letter from Ian
I am lucky enough to be teaching some students that are, not only bright, but show signs of free thinking and a desire to expand their boundaries. I don't and will not pass every student, and if it costs me my job, who cares?
Why?
Standing up for the teaching profession, and the complicity of silence.
“Someone wrote on your blog that you are 'dangerous'. I say you are a neurotic loose canon and a liability for a school, working with children”
House of horrors part three
An update on the perils of having your own house built in Thailand
After returning to Thailand, I found a contractor I thought was committed to building my house the way I wanted it. Finding someone to complete what had been started by another person, I knew would be difficult, but nevertheless I thought I had found the right man.
The harsh reality
Postbox letter from Ralph Sasser
When a student inevitably fails the semester final exam and/or has poor grades, the foreign teacher is instructed to dumb down the exam and let the student retake it so he/she will get a passing grade or retake it several times if necessary. If the teacher refuses to give the exam until the student passes, the foreigner teacher is deemed incompetent and terminated.
