On the board at work, we have an "hour" score sheet listing the names of all the teachers and their class loads. At one time at the begining of the year, I was the teacher with the least hours. This means I was the first in line for any new class. My manager quickly found a class for me to teach that put me at the "top" of the schedule, meaning that I worked the most hours in a week without having any overtime. There was no room to add any more time to my schedule, so the next lowest person was going to have to take the next class our manager created.
We just heard what that new class will be. To fill up his schedule, the new teacher with the lowest hours will now have to travel to a near by elemetary school and teach two fifty minute kindergarten classes each week. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I didn’t get stuck with that assignment. The "Kindergarten whore" as the rest of the teachers now refer to the poor soul pimped out to other schools, has to go to a school that has no English program and attempt to get thirty kindergarten kids to sit still for fifty minutes while they teach speaking. Good luck with that.
The program will be given a "test run" this month, and then put into full effect if proven successful. There is no reason it will stop, barring some unusual circumstance, as it is a win-win for our school and the kindergarten school. Our school uses the hours they already pay the teacher in their salary to make more money on the side, and the kindergarten can boast it has an English teacher on staff to boost their attendance, thus easily covering the cost of hiring the person through our school.
The only person that loses is the poor teacher getting pimped. In contracts there are always stipulations that say that you can’t work at other schools unless it is approved by your current employer, and that anyone caught working at two schools, or teaching privately will immediately be fired. This is to prevent someone from finding a better school, doubling their hours by working between their split shift, or moving to a university position before a contract is finished.
If your school sends you to work at another place, you don’t have much of a choice. It’s going to suck, as you can’t get your own manager to listen to you, let alone someone that has no idea what is required for an English program. It’s an extremely bad position to be in, and so far I’ve avoided it through complete luck when it’s happened at my two other schools. I’m in no danger of having this happen to me, but the teacher I work with is probably going to have to put up with a lot because of this, and I sympathize.
