Frustrated Rant

I found an ad for a job that sounded really exciting quite by accident. I was browsing the Tefl.com database, looking for a job for a friend, and I found this job in Morocco just for 2 months, with the British Council! It sounded great! Short term, interesting place, good school etc, etc. So I applied. And then, three days after they said they would get back to me, I got a polite rejection letter, which included an invitation to ask what was lacking in my application and the reason for my rejection. So I did - I figured I should know for next time, right?
I got a reply today - I was rejected because I didn't have a CELTA or CELTA equivalent qualification. I thought 'Oh! is *that* all!' and quickly sent of a reply saying that I'm sorry it wasn't clear from my application, but I do have a CELTA equivalent, with the required number of teaching hours and observed prac hours and that I had previously had it approved by the British Council, so it was all ok, and if it wasn't too late, I'd love to still be considered for the job.
A few hours later, I got another reply, saying that the only equivalent that he would recognise without having to call central recruiting (or something) was the Trinity certificate. So basically, he can't be bothered doing this tiny bit of work required to check if my certificate is ok. And their advertisement of 'CELTA *or equivalent* required' should really read 'CELTA or Trinity Certificate required'. I've written a response but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to send it, just so I can re-read it and check it isn't too insulting.
Basically, I feel needlessly discriminated against. This has happened before - I have received rejection emails from BC affiliated summer schools in the UK that were actually rude - how dare I waste their time by applying when I only have a "sub-standard" qualification. Luckily, when I applied for Lines, they were nice enough to take a second look, or something, and willing to fill out the ONE form with TWO questions on it (form 4.7 of the BC handbook, I think) and approve my qualification.
Yes, that's right, MY CERTIFICATE IS *ALREADY* APPROVED BY THE BC, so it's not like I'm just trying my luck.
And, anyway, I thought getting my Masters degree in TESOL would solve this problem, and mean that my old cert TESOL didn't matter so much.
Apparently I was wrong.
Yay for bureaucracy and narrow mindedness.

And next year...

So it's the last week of Lines, and now that we have some idea of what we are doing, everything is running smoothly. Just in time for it to finish, as per usual.
And of course, that means it is also the time to start talking about next year. And that happened today. I've been offered the job of Academic Director for next year. That means designing, or at least re-designing, tinkering and improving, the whole academic program for Queenswood for next year. And then running it. Which sounds like fun, now that I have some idea of what I'm doing. And most of the people who are here now running various parts of the school (Centre Manager, Activities Organiser, etc) will be here in similar roles again next year, so we should all know what we're doing. And it's nice when people know what they are doing.
I'd better go do something I know how to do - more of my E-Comm Blog, I think.

An Electronic Communications Course

So now that it's week three, and the summer school seems to be pretty much set up, and everything is running more or less smoothly, I have a little bit of time to do things like write to this blog. I have been on Blogger daily, but working on The Official Lines E-Comm Teachers' Blog.
The first two weeks of the course was a shambles, I have to say. We had 20 teenagers in each computer room with 12 computers for 90 minutes a day (x4 classes). It was a cattle market. Every lesson was a struggle, and neither Kamil (my partner teacher) nor I, nor the students, nor the teachers who had to sit in to 'help' were having fun. It was Not Good.
So we reworked the whole program. Students have 45 minutes a day with the computers and us, and 45 minutes working on planning & correcting their work in the classroom with their own class teachers. This means that we only have a max of 10 students in each computer room at a time, which is far, FAR better. We've had to plan the 'prep' lessons for the class teachers as well of course, but it's worked out ok so far.
We've made it a quite self-directed program. The idea is that the students choose what they want to work on (apart from the blog and class computer dictionary which are compulsory) and work steadily on their own or in small groups, with the language support and corrections coming from their class teacher, and the tech support from us. The blog has a whole lot of 'how to' posts, linked from the sidebar, so they can work out how to do most things themselves. And as for what they learn, the idea is that it's computer stuff, but also communication & language things. Have a look at the side bar of the blog to see the how-to's and the list of projects we've given them to choose from. In fact, the blog has everything. It's pretty much the whole program, online. It's so cool!

ADoS, and a Masters, all in one day.

The stars must have been good for my professional life last Tuesday. First of all, my contract was officially upgraded here at my regular english language school. Since I arrived, I found myself more or less filling a bit of a gap - there was so much to be done, setting up the new campus of the school, and I found myself doing a lot of things above and beyond my lowly teacher's contract, that I was offered (after only slightly heavy hints...) an ADoS contract instead, which is rather nice. Nice because I think I would be doing the work anyway, and this way I get some recognition for it, though only a token more in salary (although I worked out that it sounds a lot better in AU$ than in pounds!).
On the same day, I realised it was probably about time for uni results to come out, so I thought to check, and they were! I'm finished for real and proper! And I got a 7 for the assessment subject! Which I am rather pleased about. And a 6 for the other subject that I did such a crap assignment for, so that's not too bad.
And now I'm off to celebrate surviving the first week here (which has frequently resembled a soap opera, it seems) with a Professional Understanding and Bonding session in the garden at the nearest pub, which is only 20 minutes walk away!

One Down

Yay! Rejoice with Me!
CRA in GE@QUTIC is finished! Yes, I did title my assignment with a cryptic combination of acronyms. I actually wrote "at" instead of @ on the paper itself though. It seemed best. And the sub-title was about a paragraph long and explained it all, so that's ok, I think.
And now there's just a whole unit using all my favourite elementary simple past activities to do. I've done most of the planning for the unit, I just need to polish it, fill in a couple of gaps, and then there's a little matter of a 2000 word theoretical rationale to go with it. Sigh. At least I have a full 3 days to do it, with no work or other commitments.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot - I had my last day at work yesterday. I'm now officially unemployed. Or maybe I should say I'm a full time student... It's precisely one calendar month from today until I expect to find myself in front of a class again - and that will be in the UK, and in a room full of computers!