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My Experiences at English Time |
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To see current ET pics click here! |
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To read other teacher opinions on ET click here. |
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The first school to offer me a contract was the infamous English Time. When I arrived, it was still a school in its infancy, going through the growing pains that all new businesses go through. And it is a business - let no one tell you otherwise. The school owners are there to earn a good buck, and you, new teachers, exist to further this endeavour. You can't take the 'business' aspect out of the equation. If you are lucky, you will end up in a school that genuinely cares about its teachers. If you are unlucky, well, you can read all about the unlucky teachers on Dave's ESL cafe. |
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Let it be said and understood that the students I had at ET will always remain in my heart. They were outstanding, warm, friendly, eager to learn, and took good care of me. To the left was my first 5-7 class throwing me a birthday party. Had I known that I would still have this same class (they insisted on it) six months down the road, I never would have told them when my birthday was. But, Level 1 inevitably involves learning dates. |
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It started out as any other class. However, when I went into the Kantin at about a half an hour before class, Ali (middle, standing, on the right) was innocently purchasing about ten colas (shown on the table). When I asked him if he was particularily thirsty, he grinned knowingly, and replied that he was, indeed, thirsty. Then my other student, a bodybuilder-turned photographer showed up, and was upset that he had forgotten his camera. This gave me pause for thought; how often did a Kodak moment present itself in Level III English? The gig was up. I was onto them. They gave me a nice picture frame, a watch, and a cake. They were awesome. |
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However, the night was not over. There was still my 7-10 class to contend with. And if the one class had known about my birthday, there was a pretty good chance that the other class also knew. Sitting in the Teacher's Lounge before class, I spot, out of the coner of my eye, this here clown (to the left), carrying balloons ascending the staircase. My boss, Miss Molly, then appeared in the Teacher's Lounge and began to engage me in conversation. Not that this was out of the ordinary, but she was usually quite busy. "It's okay, Molly, I saw the damn clown" I told her. She grinned. "Oh, just act surprised!" And that I did. This class went above and beyond, and the whole school shut down and joined my birthday celebration (co-celebration, there was a student with the same birthday who also had a cake). It was a little bit too much attention, and my fellow teachers enjoyed themselves at my expense. Far too much, if you ask me! Awesome students. |
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| The students immediately to the right were a class I had at the Taksim branch of Deulcom International. Deulcom was a school I went to after my contract at ET was up, Molly left, and the whole place went to hell in a handbag. I jumped ship and went with some other teachers to another school in Kadikoy, but the school itself wsa an upstart business that did not last very long and was plagued by management issues. It was when I left that school that I realized, that despite Molly being there or not, ET was still pretty good by comparison. Deulcom was a lot different. I was the only foreign teacher, and although the other teachers were fine, I missed the comaraderie I had with the expats at ET. To the right at the bottom is a picture of an ET classroom and just a normal teaching day where someone had brought in their camera. Those guys are one of the best classes I ever had. I miss them. The bottom picture is the first group of teachers I ever worked with, Molly is in the bottom right-hand corner. |
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