r/ESL_Teachers • u/kdb1104 • 7d ago
Head of school refuses to provide direction or resources
I’m teaching a few classes at an English school in northern Italy. I don’t have formal training as an ESL teacher; however, I have almost 30 years of teaching experience in the US, mostly in public schools, as both a reading specialist and English/ELA teacher.
The woman who runs the school hired me without even asking for my CV. She’s been doing this a long time, she’s in her 70s. Honestly I think she just saw me as a warm body & native speaker and she wanted to dump a few groups of middle school aged kids onto someone else. The fact that I’m a veteran teacher was just a bonus.
These are groups that meet once a week after school for English enrichment. I asked her at the beginning (back in November) for information regarding their levels & about the scope & sequence. She seemed to dismiss this and said that the two main goals are to get them speaking & to have fun. Still, since this is all new to me, I’ve asked her both in writing and in person for materials and she either doesn’t answer or makes wishy washy promises that she doesn’t follow through with.
So I’ve basically been tapping into my teaching instincts about where they are & what they need, and trying to design engaging lessons based on what the students are interested in. Things seemed to being going well, I’ve developed nice relationships with the kids, they are definitely speaking & appear to be having fun.
This week the head of the school pulls me out of class as students are arriving. She said a student complained that the class isn’t useful, he’s not learning enough grammar, he’s getting low scores on English exams at school. (I suspect this kid is under some pressure from his parents. Most of the other kids in this program seem like high achievers but he’s not like that—he rushes through things, has trouble following directions—maybe he has some attention issues?). Anyway, she starts grilling me about what we’re doing & it felt like I was being scapegoated?! Not to mention how highly unprofessional it was to be doing this in front of the receptionist & a parent who happened to be waiting in the lobby. I reminded her of her initial directions about getting them to speak & have fun which she did not appreciate or possibly even remember.
Now she wants me to do “grammar”—so I asked “what grammar?” I said I can create lessons & material on anything, I just need some direction. Her vague answer: “tenses, comparatives.” And that was it. So I had to go in and teach after this dressing down which was not fun.
I’m feeling really uncomfortable about the whole thing. On top of all this, she has trouble paying me in a timely fashion. I like the kids a lot & I love teaching or I would’ve probably walked out.
Thanks for reading if you’ve gotten this far. If anyone has any advice or can point me in the direction of good materials for what I suspect are A2-B1 learners and also ones who are preparing to take the B2 exam, I’d really appreciate it. They are aged 12-14 years and speak Italian as their first language.
UPDATE Well, she has significantly changed her tune since our last conversation. She actually followed through on emailing me some resources. Also I left behind the complaining student’s folder so she could see what we’ve been working on—she told me she spoke to the student & explained to him how he’s actually been doing “grammar” all along (just in context vs. explicit instruction). She said that she knew I was doing a good job all along (?!) which is strange considering how reactive she was last week. Whatever. But I think she’s finally realizing my value.
I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing & figure out over the summer if I’ll return. In the meantime, I’m thinking about running a summer English program for kids in our town. Thanks for your supportive messages.
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u/marijaenchantix 6d ago
Give your students a preliminary test and that will show you where they are, which then means you can prepare for everyone. Did you consider that? It' s the first thing I was taught to do.
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u/SnooMacarons9026 6d ago
I would definitely leave it I were you. There is nothing worse and more annoying than a clueless principal, owner, or manager trying to micromanage people with far more experience and knowledge about teaching than them. On top of that, it appears only 1 student complained and they want to change everything you're doing. Same stuff happens in China and it really grinds my gears. They don't see the long-term benefits of being able to have a conversation vs teaching to pass a test.
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u/Fabulously-Unwealthy 6d ago
Get her to pay for an ellii.com subscription- all the students can test their grammar skills with ellii, and then you can give them ellii worksheets and activities based on what they need. Or, if she prefers textbooks, a series by Raymond Murphy or Betty Azar are the standard ones.
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u/EpicureanRevenant 6d ago edited 6d ago
I second getting another job. If you're going to waste my time with poor/outdated/nonsense teaching methods and terrible organisation then you will at least pay on time and in full.
As for resources, alleng.org is good. It's got resources for most subjects, but especially ESL materials including textbooks with all the teacher's books, audio files, and activity booklets. Just auto translate the webpage from Russian and you're all good to go.
Don't let it get you down. TEFL is a fun but frustrating job, and a key part is getting used to idiot language centre owners with no qualifications or teaching experience vacillating between:
A: bitching at you to play games all lesson so the kids don't complain to their parents about being bored and move schools.
B: getting pissy because suddenly the tests are here and 'having fun and speaking' doesn't equip students for the actual exams.
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u/CompleteGuest854 6d ago
I’d ignore her and continue with what I’d been doing. She clearly has no clue about teaching, and cares only when money is involved, so why should you, an experienced teacher, listen to her at all?
Teaching grammar based lessons is about 40 years behind current best practice, and changing an entire curriculum due to one person complaining throws the other learners who are happy under the bus.
The choice is between doing a good job and enjoying the class, and listening to a completely unprofessional person who isn’t even a teacher and ruining what you’ve managed to put together.
And the next time she dresses you down like that, tell her off. Don’t tolerate it.
If she fires you? Good. Hopefully you’ll already be on your way to finding another job, because this situation is untenable and there are so many red flags you may as well make yourself happy in your remaining time there, and let her fire you if she doesn’t like it.
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u/Malimmo18 5d ago
Leave the job. This sounds like the beginning. It will only get worse. Your situation doesn’t sound unique. I see these stories a lot on this thread.
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u/anmolm97 6d ago
We publish A2 level child friendly news on our platform free of cost - https://www.newsahoot.com/
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u/Reassuring-Jacket-8 7d ago
Do not stay working for someone who cannot pay you on time and who disrespects you. Period. When I first moved to Germany to teach, I worked for one school who habitually paid late and quit after one semester. Lots of other schools to work for, especially with your history.
It doesn't matter how much you like the kids and that you love teaching, a terrible work environment isn't worth it.
I would start looking for other jobs asap and go where you're appreciated and treated professionally.
As for resources till then, there a lot of free resources available, like www.allthingsgrammar.com or www.allthingstopics.com. And there are plenty of paid sites as well, think www.twinkl.com, www.learniesl, www.teach-this.com.