So, the past week or so has been particularly stressful. Due to some news that we received I had started re-considering my plan to stay here for a third year. Because I save quite a bit of money, live quite the comfortable lifestyle, and Dereek is here, I had figured three years would be good and then I'd go back to the states. After my third year Dereek would just about be finishing his engineering degree, have a few years working in an oil company lab, and hopefully could get a job in the states and come back with me. Until then I figured I'd just hang out here, finish my masters, save enough money to easily have all my loans paid off, do some international traveling every few months, spend lots of weekends on the beach, and enjoy my generally small class sizes of about 7-10 kids. Sounded like a pretty solid way to spend 3 years, but now there has been some news within the school that will almost definitely effect class sizes pretty significantly, as in there might not even be kids in every grade. I won't divulge too much information for now since the news hasn't been stated to the parents yet; somehow this seems to be constantly pushed back a week, but I am pretty annoyed about it for a few reasons.
First, it obviously is messing with my plans. I've emailed some other schools in the area, and though, after talking to other directors I am reasonably sure I'd be offered a job, they only offer two year contracts. Three years is already pushing the amount of time I can go without snow, reliable transportation, and toilet paper... I don't really want to make it four. I'm also staying largely for Dereek, and that puts him 3 hours away and neither of us have a car.. I will likely just stay here because of this and take a nice relaxing year of teaching a couple kids. Maybe make some super cool teacher materials in my spare time and see if I can start making some money off TpT or see if any research is going on in the ESL field that I could contribute to. I'm trying to think of how I could use the free time I'd have here productively for my career, either in research or profit probably.
Second, I think what is happening isn't good for the kids. I was part of a committee that helped write the school mission last year and we did it with the kids strengths and weaknesses in mind so that it was written in a way that we could mold the school to meet their needs. Too bad what will be happening won't really allow for us to fulfill our mission anymore...
Third, parents are going to be really angry about this, and with good reason. Sometimes I think there are certain parents that do more for this school then some of the school employees. Pushing back telling them news that is of great importance to them seems highly disrespectful of all the work that they have put in.
Case in point, I'm annoyed, probably staying next year, but not necessarily excited about it. Since I've been super stressed about all this and it's put a lot of strain this past two weeks on what has otherwise been a really quite wonderful relationship, Dereek and I decided to go be cute and boyfriend/girlfriendy for a day at the beach. It was needed. We really had a great weekend of just laying in the sun, swimming, drinking pina coladas, doing a bit of shopping, and going out to dinner. If I can do that with him every other weekend next year, staying might be quite enjoyable. Check out some lovely pictures of our day.
First, it obviously is messing with my plans. I've emailed some other schools in the area, and though, after talking to other directors I am reasonably sure I'd be offered a job, they only offer two year contracts. Three years is already pushing the amount of time I can go without snow, reliable transportation, and toilet paper... I don't really want to make it four. I'm also staying largely for Dereek, and that puts him 3 hours away and neither of us have a car.. I will likely just stay here because of this and take a nice relaxing year of teaching a couple kids. Maybe make some super cool teacher materials in my spare time and see if I can start making some money off TpT or see if any research is going on in the ESL field that I could contribute to. I'm trying to think of how I could use the free time I'd have here productively for my career, either in research or profit probably.
Second, I think what is happening isn't good for the kids. I was part of a committee that helped write the school mission last year and we did it with the kids strengths and weaknesses in mind so that it was written in a way that we could mold the school to meet their needs. Too bad what will be happening won't really allow for us to fulfill our mission anymore...
Third, parents are going to be really angry about this, and with good reason. Sometimes I think there are certain parents that do more for this school then some of the school employees. Pushing back telling them news that is of great importance to them seems highly disrespectful of all the work that they have put in.
Case in point, I'm annoyed, probably staying next year, but not necessarily excited about it. Since I've been super stressed about all this and it's put a lot of strain this past two weeks on what has otherwise been a really quite wonderful relationship, Dereek and I decided to go be cute and boyfriend/girlfriendy for a day at the beach. It was needed. We really had a great weekend of just laying in the sun, swimming, drinking pina coladas, doing a bit of shopping, and going out to dinner. If I can do that with him every other weekend next year, staying might be quite enjoyable. Check out some lovely pictures of our day.
Isla de Plata. Probably my favorite island.
Can't have a bad day at a beach like this.
Some people there were really talented with sand and rope.
Giant inflatable water games. Pretty sure it was 60 BsF for 30 minutes. That's less then $1.50. Whose visiting me?
Beach day pina coladas
Beautiful, but kinda crowded beach. Plenty of room in the water though.
Happy to have one not-so-stressful day
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