The Principal's Office

I spent most of today in the principal's office. Well, there, and moving in and out of a tour bus, as we visited several--but not all--of the area schools where we will be teaching. 

The day didn't start out great for me, honestly--my alarm didn't go off, so I didn't wake up until a half hour before we had to leave, when Rachel knocked on my door; after a wild scramble to get ready to go (I somehow managed to get everything done in half the time--crazy what necessity will do for you), I arrived at our first school and promptly discovered that the coffee they gave me had leaked all over my shirt. So much for a good impression, there or anywhere on our route. And, of course, this was one of our most official-picture-taking heavy days so far, so I did some experimenting with strategic arm crossing.

At each place, the routine was the same: we'd pile out of the bus and follow someone into the principal's office/conference room they had set up for us, where we would be invited to sit and drink some sort of beverage (there was a bit of range here--hot coffee, iced coffee, iced tea, water, and cold honey water were all proffered at various places). Then, after a brief introduction, usually given over a microphone by the principal and translated by the local English teacher, we would be given a tour of the premises, always interrupted by a group photo op, before being herded back to our original seats for question-and-answer time. Then it was back on the bus and off to our next stop.

The schools are all so beautiful!

This is one of the county schools--only 77 students, but 6 class preps!

There were variations, of course. Some schools showed us a video to highlight their accomplishments; several gave us food; one showcased previous classes' work in English; one had a minute-by-minute itinerary and a prepared folder of materials for us to look over, which I, beaver that I am, quite appreciated. But the overall impression I came away with is that these are all great schools; as Rachel pointed out, they have all been through a selection process probably at least as rigorous as the one we've been through in order to get ETAs. No matter where we are placed, we will be in a good situation; no matter where we are placed, we will be working with gracious people. But still, the placement is an issue.

In fact, the wonderfulness of all the schools makes placement in some ways a bigger issue--it puts all of the emphasis on location, which was already what people were most worried about. Today we saw three 'city' schools and two 'county' schools, and really, they were all great. Each had its pros and cons, sure--one was close to the MRT station, but had bigger classes, while another had a small school population, but required more class preps, for instance--but the biggest factor for everyone, from what I can tell, remains whether the school is in the city or the county. 

We saw the county today. It is absolutely gorgeous--jungle-clad hills rolling into mountains in the distance; lush banana and rice farms not far off the road--but it is also far. From our discussions with Fonda, Alex, and several of the local teachers, it can be more than an hour to get into the city, and require at least three modes of transportation; the routes they described to us for getting to our biweekly meetings in Kaohsiung all consisted of scooter, train, and MRT. And that's complicated, especially if people in the county are wanting to take Chinese classes or hang out with other ETAs. At one of the county schools, the LET told us straight out that the only things to do in the area was watch TV, surf the Internet, or hike the mountains. And you all know how well hiking and I get along...

Don't get me wrong, it's GORGEOUS, I just don't know how I'd do trudging up these slopes in 90% humidity!

On the bus ride back, I settled my mind that if I ended up in the county, at least I'd get a lot of writing done!

When we finally made it back to the city, Alex, the ETA coordinator with whom we'd emailed since June  but whom we hadn't met until today, explained the placement process to us, and our tense, carefully-worded negotiation began. 

Alex said that in previous years (before the county was incorporated into Kaohsiung, so when all ETAs were placed within the city limits), everyone met all the teachers, worked with them throughout orientation, and then at the end ranked their favorites; placements were based on ETA rankings, combined with LET preferences. This, he said, usually ended up with everyone being disappointed that they didn't get their first choice, so this year, the plan was to allow those who wanted to go to the county to pick their schools, and then have the remaining city-dwelling ETAs draw straws, and to do it all this next week, so we have time to work with our own LETs, rather than the LETs as a cumulative group.

Almost immediately, Andrew raised the question on everyone's mind: can we go back to the ranking system, but do it earlier?

The answer was yes, if we all agreed and Dr. Vocke was okay with it, but then it got complicated, as more and more people weighed in, and as we determined that, as of now, only one of us actually wants to go to the county; soon questions of what the least psychologically distressing path would be arose, and, about a half-hour of negotiation and poll-taking later, we had determined--and then reneged--and then determined--and then put off the question, until Wednesday. 

Our tentative plan is to still let county people pick, and then rank the remaining based on one day of knowing the LETs, but there are still rumblings in the group from those who would prefer a purely random selection. We must decide, somehow, by Wednesday, so that Alex and Fonda have time to talk to Dr. Vocke and the Bureau of Education, and plan for our placement.

Oh, complications.