November 1984
11-9-84
My schedule is more leisurely than
ever before in Taipei. It feels like my Montauk JHS/Seton Hall schedule but I
still have thirteen teaching hours on the weekend. I have three hours on
Fridays and two on Wednesdays as long as Mr. Lee takes the Business English
class. I was paid 54,000NT from Fu Jen but I am not sure which period that
covers. My salary is supposed to start as of August 1st. The next
pay day is November 15th.
I stopped in to pick up my TOEFL (Test
of English as a Foreign Language) kit at the Taipei Language Center for the
November 17th test.
11-14-84
I am fed up with all the compositions I
have to mark. I could have worked on developing materials for the Writing Lab.
There is a steady stream of students coming in to review their compositions or
tagmemics structure on business letters. I get angry when students do not come
in but would I have time for them? There are too many students to see all of
them.
11-21-84
The past three days have been the most
disturbing time I have had in Taiwan. It does not matter how good a teacher you
are; there are many factors that can make a private school’s boss look poorly
at you. When you teach children where parents are allowed to sit in class, you
must deal with them; their disturbance, comments, and influence. When [my wife]
called up Guo-Ding to ask for a promised consideration for a raise, she was
told that a) I do not control my ‘wild’ class, b) I do not correct homework,
and c) I am always late, therefore I do not deserve a raise. All the
accusations are untrue or exaggerated; only happening once or twice. I should
not give anyone a reason to act negatively against me. I do not know how much
longer I will be there. The class I thought was the source of the complaint
slipped in register from fourteen to eight this weekend for unrelated reasons.
Nevertheless, the class has been disbanded so I lose four hours a week unless a
new class is given to me; something I doubt.
This is midterm exam week at Fu Jen. I
am faced with a tagmemics rebellion. The book itself is flawed. Mr. Nash and a
graduate assistant found a consistently mislabeled clause type in a sample I
typed up from the book. It reflects badly on me because, first, it is my
project and second, I could not notice it myself. I will not admit to anyone
that I do not completely understand the tone of the book myself. Mr. Nash has
doubts about the use of teaching the [sentence structure] analysis to my
students. I counter by saying it is the only criteria I know that can be used
objectively to analyze students’ writing samples; I see it, along with related
‘A-B Analysis’ [simple, compound and complex sentence structure] as a tool the
students can use to gage their progress and a process they can employ outside
of school. It is not an end in itself but a way to determine, on a
clause-level, the deficiencies of a composition compared to professionally
written samples of narrative, descriptive, expository, or technical writing. I
challenged Mr. Nash to show me another method of objectively analyzing writing
samples.
I regret that I did not prepare
midterm copies for all students in the acceptable, and I see now, more concise
university standard. I am at fault for waiting till the last minute (what else
is new?) to prepare the exam and make copies. I got in trouble with Sister
Helena for using the wrong copy machine and over-copying; never mind the bitch
in the audio-visual office that should have come to me directly to say I should
not use that machine. Perhaps I forgot,
but I should not have. I feel embarrassed about the whole thing. However, all
my tests were in on time. One test, for freshman ‘Reading Appreciation’ I
botched up because I was not in concert with the other two teachers; I had
forgotten to use the text we had agreed on. Still, it was a bullshit test
partly prepared by the two Chinese-American teachers.
11-24-84
We had a very successful midterm test
party at our condo last evening with my JJELS102 class. Twelve of sixteen
students came. We had cold chicken they brought along with cookies, then I
returned their midterms as logon tea brewed and a birthday cake was on the way.
The students left by 10pm.
Sunday there will be another party at
Tom Nash’s home. He is making a turkey for Thanksgiving and a half dozen
teachers and assistants from Fu Jen will be there.
I went for an interview in the
afternoon for a job at a children’s bushiban. I will be starting some classes
there on December 8th. Since I am not appreciated at the National
Education Center, I guess I will be on my way. The pay at the new school (350NT
hr. at 6%tax) will be the same but the hours should be better; earlier on
Saturday and no classes on Sunday; instead, I will teach late Wednesday and
Friday afternoon.
11-28-84
Sister Helena is a very stern person;
not exactly Maria from The Sound of Music [though they both come from Austria.]
It seems that her priorities are wrong; she takes the part of a handful of
prima donna students at face value and supports her teachers less. If her goal
is to put fear into the heart, then her motive is obvious. If it is to raise
the educational standard in her department, she will be unsuccessful by
condemning her teachers. I think a university teacher, once being approved and
hired should be given a free hand to attack the set goals of a class. I feel
put on the defensive resorting to patronization of my students and a spoiled
few of them gloated at my whipping. They want [good grades] but do not give. It
is no way to teach scared. I am more than willing to listen to suggestion but
not willing to be demeaned. I will take it as her poor personality and avoid
unnecessary meetings. If it happens again, such unabashed ridicule and
disrespect, I will go to the many other schools in Taipei where I may be more
appreciated. I will go with the flow. I would not give Helena an ultimatum if
she had not so unnecessarily threatened me.
Comments
Post a Comment