Ugh, I’m surprised I don’t have a migraine after yesterday’s efforts.
Somehow something got miscommunicated, or just not communicated, by someone, and there’s no sense trying to play any silly little blame games, and we, the foreign teachers, wound up with timetables that were most unpleasant to look at. And so yesterday involved some discussions followed up by much breaking of our own heads against stubborn, uncooperative timetables and lists of available classrooms and…
Well, it’s sorted and we have timetables we can accept, and at 9:55 this morning I’ll be back in the classroom. Second year writing, same as what I did last academic year (sweet! half my planning is done already! All I need to do is make a few adjustments and revisions) and, from next Tuesday, two first year spoken English classes. That’s alright, spoken English is relatively easy, and I know from past experience I can work really well with Roubaozi who has the other two first year spoken classes.
But one thing is abundantly clear: We need another teacher. And we’ll be losing one at the end of this semester, so really we need another two teachers. And we might be losing another at the end of this semester, so maybe we need another three teachers. If we can’t find at least one more then next semester’s timetabling is going to make yesterday’s mess look clean and pleasant and oh so comfortable.
So consider this a job ad: If you’re interested in teaching English at a good university in Beijing, leave a comment. If you join us this semester you’ll most likely have only spoken English classes, not too strenuous, but you’ll probably get some writing next semester.
