He sleeps in a storm
Disorganization, discipline, and decisiveness in the overseas TEFL industry
I really dislike job interviews. Not because of anything I do. I show up on time; I wear the right clothes; I'm polite; I listen and I ask the right questions. But when it comes to the interview and meeting other people in this industry, whether fellow teachers, administrators, principals, or directors, the ‘niceties' stop at my cover-letter.
Impressive school, impressive owner
A place where educating youngsters really does matter
For this month's blog I would like to take an in-depth look at one of the most impressive schools in Thailand: Varee Chiang Mai School
Things I won't do for work
They say that everybody has a price
Although most of my TEFL experience has not been in Thailand, there is still a long list of things I won’t accept in a teaching job. Talk numbers and cross my palm with silver because these are the things I simply won’t do for work.
Teaching in Thailand for keeps
The main reasons teachers get fired
Getting fired from a job causes teachers anxiety, embarrassment, trauma and often sense of injustice.
Win-win teachers
How to become a more valued employee
Whether in the staffroom, lunchroom, shop floor, barracks, or around the water cooler next to the cubicles, the main topic of conversation has always been how incompetent the bosses and management were.
Are you a crappy teacher?
Time to take the self-evaluation test
If you have evaluated yourself honestly and you have come to a conclusion that you are in fact a crappy teacher, what can you do about it? Since most of these things actually have to do with personal motivation, probably not a lot.
What are we here to teach?
Should we see ourselves as missionaries for Western culture values?
As foreigners teaching in a foreign country, what are the expectations and where are the boundaries?
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.
My dinner with Ning
A call for traditionalists in the classroom
We were an unlikely pair. Me, a 51 year old Canadian English teacher who is jaded, cynical, and has had more negative experiences with Asian women than I care to admit; and her, a 31 year old Thai Science teacher who, in my opinion, is looking for a foreign status symbol.
Traumatised by Thailand
Postbox letter from Micky Davenport
I don't want to go through those traumatic experiences again, of being discriminated against and collaborating with agencies and somehow taking part in fooling these lovely Thai people.
