Topic: "Good" Schools in LOS?

[keekwai]

I think all the posts regarding schools I've read so far  are in the negative. Does anyone have any reports of  "Good" schools and their positive experiences.

I can see where  "not" to go .. but  where are the good ones?

Don't want the name to be changed from "Tefl Watch" to "Tefl Whinge" !!   

Time for a little balance ay?

 

[hero]

I agree.  It would definitely be nice to hear about great schools, I guess happy people just don't have the motivation. 

[Mods-Rockers]

The problem with good schools is that they are good schools. The long term teacher in Thailand or anywhere else for that matter wants to teach in a good school, and when he finds it he tends to stay, when positions open up in the school he tells his close friends about it to let them share the experience. Why might this be? well this is my take and maybe some will disagree with me.
Lets make up a good school situation here: a medium size school with classesno larger than 35 and most are 25 students, the school is very selective when it comes to enrollment so most of the students are fairly hard working and intelligent. there is an honour system amonst the students so discipline is not normally an issue and on the occasions when it becomes an issue the administration  is firm and supportive of the teacher. The teraching load is 20 periods a week but always spread over 4 days making for quite busy days but lots of time off. the day off varies 4 times a year at midterm and semester end so in any two year period you will be getting at least one half semester with a monday off and another with a friday off making for longer weekends away. the contract is 12 months on 40k/month during the october break and the summer there is no requirment to work but you will be offered summer school work at 500 b/hr in school or 3000b/day if the summer school is upcountry with all expenses paid. The school provides housing, in two bedroom houses less than 5 minute walk from the campus, but you have to share the house with another teacher. you are responsible for the untilities costs of the house but there is no rent, the school provides a maid service for the house which include laundry.
The school will fund any career enhanching courses you wish to take if you are willing to extend the contract by a mutually agreed period to justify the schools expendature. the school provides one return air ticket for you once a year and offers you a its discounted rates for other travel. teacher happiness and satisfaction seem to be top requirments for the school director and administration.

So tell me would you go advertising this school here, or would you just tell select friends when positions come up? me i would keep mum and plan on extending my contract as long as I could.

P.S. if anyone does know of such a school then feel free to PM me with the details when/if a position comes up. 

[Duckbill]

Like dude, I don't need a school to do all of that, just one that honors its contract with me.

[Johnny Rotten]

This is TEFLwatch so it's focussed on BAD schools.

Post the same question concerning GOOD schools on ajarn.com's discussion board - you'll receive the response you want.

[mo danger]

On the old board too.  Remember the ratio good/bad?  Chris Rock had a routine about how Black men always take credit for things they should do as normal citizens anyway: "I Ain't never gone to jail!"  You're not spoz to go to jail, Carlos.  "I support my kids!"  It's normal to support your kids, Bubba.

"We will honour our contracts!"  Isn't that what we are spoz to do?  If you look up to an employer because he paid you on time, get real, he doesn't deserve a gold star.  It's rare when Thais and Westerners mix their minds well. 

I worked in California last year, just a job I happened upon in a K--12 district.  There isn't a school on this Asian continent that could compare in professionalism and good pay.  It wasn't Thailand where you can bring your kid to class with you, riding in the basket on your Honda Wave, not loose at all.  But the staff were intelligent people, boring but intelligent.  It was refreshing to be there.  Every S with his own laptop.  Hardly saw paper in a classroom. 

Get used to it, we're in The Third World. Of course it's all bad.

[Stefanbkk]

If you're looking for someone to say something nice about a school, then allow me to step up to the plate.  I'm currently working at Thai Christian School on Sukhumvit 71.  A quaint little school of under 2000, TCS has a lot going for it.  I worked at Bangkok Christian College for three years, so I was used to daily drama and conflict between the western teachers and the Thai staff/administration. 
Oddly, I see none of that here.  The English program is run by an American guy who is really the only person we deal with on a daily basis regarding the odd complaint or suggestion.  No drama. Full stop.  So either the school is truly drama-free, or *** (the American i mentioned earlier) is adept at keeping a buffer of sanity between us and any problems which may come up from the administration.

The salary is comprable (35-40,000) and the co-workers are a pretty fantastic lot.  Holidays are fairly typical.  But I did notice that at this school, Christmas break begins a bit earlier (at my last school, we were at school on Christmas Eve till noon) so I was able to make it back to the states in time for Christmas with the family.

This is my fourth year of teaching here in Bangkok.  In that time, I've learned a lot (through trial and error in the classroom and from other teachers).  I'm sure I could find a job which pays a bit more and is a little closer to home (I live in Silom), but I've also learned in my four years here that quality of life, and emotional well-being run high on my list of daily requirements from a job.... almost as high, if not higher, than a huge salary at a school which makes me want to put my head through my living room wall at the end of each workday.

Ok, enough of my diatribe.  Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.   

MOD EDIT: Please don't name people, even if it is a positive post. Gotta be fair. 

[NukeThemSlowly]

^I can't say I have any personal experience of it, but Thai Christian School on Sukhumvit (I'm pretty sure I'm thinking of the same one) has one of the worst reputations in Bangkok.  The owner/manager (a Thai-Chinese lady, I believe) is reputed to manipulate people by threatening to fire them on a whim, which she apparently often does.  Once again, I'm not speaking from personal experience- but this school has come up time and again on Ajarn with this kind of comment, and I knew at least one person who reported the same about the place.  For your sake, hope it's not true or I'm thinking of the wrong place, Stefanbkk.

[hero]

If this is the same Thai Christian School that was posted about before then this guy will be out of a job soon 'cos they were notorious for getting rid of nearly everyone at the end of every year

The owner/manager (a Thai-Chinese lady, I believe) is reputed to manipulate people by threatening to fire them on a whim, which she apparently often does.

Definitely remember reading about her

[Notanewbie]

"Like dude, I don't need a school to do all of that, just one that honors its contract with me."

Totally agree.

A "good" school depends on the desires and qualifications one has. I worked at a few places that were "OK" for me at the time when I first arrived but wouldn't be "OK" for me now.

A good school for a youngster wanting to play in Thailand for a year before starting his or her real life would be a different place than a "good" school for a TESOL lifer with ten year experience. Good is relative. Lets look at the unis back home, sure, everyone agrees that Harvard and Oxford are "good" schools but what about Montana State or Nottingham U.?

A good school is one that honors its contracts, one can then make an intelligent decision on what job, if any, one takes.

Cheers

[Stefanbkk]

Well, I did a bit of poking around here to check your story regarding:    "The owner/manager (a Thai-Chinese lady, I believe) is reputed to manipulate people by threatening to fire them on a whim, which she apparently often does."  Apparently, she was here for many years, and was disliked by the foreign teachers as well as the Thai teachers.  I was told that "yes, because of her, this school had a bad reputation for many years."  When I asked where she is now, I was told that she passed away a few years back and that things have improved dramatically since then. 

As for teacher retention, I found out that nearly a third of the foreign teachers in my department are on their 4th contract.  Most of the others left for various reasons that were not a result of dissatisfaction with the school.

So in closing, let me just say regarding Thai Christian School, using only the broadstrokes:

1.  Was bad.... now good
2.  Witch woman existed.... now gone.
3.  Some teachers go... many stay.

I hope I've taken at least a small step toward repairing the reputation of a school that i'm slowly falling in love with.   

[hero]

Good to hear - a reformed school as it were!

The stories about the Chinese lady kept coming up, but no evidence that they weren't old stories.  Wish I'd known that a while back 'cos I was gonna apply for a job there as it's near where I live and it looked quite a good package

[maxforster]

The first and indeed the best employer I have had was Siam Computer,good working relationship and good money too. Where I am now not so good, too many unqualified staff working for low pay too. My degree is English and its real too I am 25 years old and happytoo.Two years here in Thailand and I reckon I am good at my job unlike a lot of others I know.

[accurate reporting]

Very interesting Max that you rate Siam Computer so highly.  It could have done with your vote a few weeks back in the poll.  There are two points in your post that i just can't get my head around - the first is that you're working in a place worse that Siam with many unqualified staff.  Then you point out that you've a 'real' degree is / in  English.  Surely Max with your qualifications and experience you should be getting better jobs than Siam rather than worse? I would like more details about Siam now to support your opinion as ten years ago I worked for them.  I didn't rate them then and got out once a suitable opportunity arose.

[TEFLAsiaMan]

I think rating schools good or bad is very subjective because even looking at the voting for best and worst places to work in Thailand shows discrepancies.? You have inlingua which gets the 3rd worst ranking (1 vote behind 2nd place mention-Siam) and an honorable mention in the best.? You have BFITS which is voted worst but also receives enough votes to tie it for 3rd in the best.? It seems to me that a lot of it has to do with the size of the companies (i.e. more clients, more teachers, more votes).

Personally, I have not heard anything nice about inlingua, certainly not enough to make it the best place to work behind British Council.? The most common thing said about inlingua is that they pay extremely low wages and, like Siam, can't really guarantee salaries, wp or long term prospects.? I also have a friend that has worked for BFITS for 4 years now (he just resigned for his 4th year) and says that though they don't pay as much as he would like, they at least have long term plans for teachers that want to stay here, good resources, low teaching hours and decent administration though he says there are persistent communication problems with Thai admin but what company doesn't have that.? Usually these things have less to do with malicious actions than just common incompetence that we all encounter in every aspect of life in our adventures abroad?or should I say what we perceive as incompetence when judged by our native country standards.

With regards to the winner of the best institute/agency, who can compete with British Council?? A government sponsored institute with a massive budget and support structure no other company or school could hope to ever have.

So how do we judge the best or worst?? Obviously from our own personal experiences.? Which means that if I am a qualified individual (in this country it means just have a degree) who is willing to act with some professionalism then I will tend to have good experiences.? On the other hand, if I am a questionably qualified individual that approaches each employment opportunity with suspicion and hostility, then I will reap what I sow.?

Yes, there are questionable practices out there but much of it is us, as teachers, putting our head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge what is told to us in a contract.? We look at contracts and even if we don?t agree with what it says, we sign anyway.? If we don?t understand and feel that it is unclear, we sign anyway.? Then we lament when it doesn?t go the way we interpret it.? In addition, we wonder why the ?system? doesn?t work the way we are used to it working in our home countries.? Well, the fact is we are not in our home countries and we can?t expect the native systems to respond as we would wish.

For the institutes/agencies/schools that manipulate, lie and cheat, they will eventually get what they deserve.? In addition, as professionals we could start to organize and police ourselves as teachers which then would gain the notice and eventually the respect of the systems we work within.? Setting up an association that evaluates its members and certifies their ability to teach would be a nice start to gaining the ability to then demand the same of the industry we represent.? But without collective credibility, we will never be taken seriously.? And to say it isn?t possible in Thailand is just not so.? I am sure the same was said in Japan and South Korea which have simliar informal associations.? It may not be easy but it isn?t impossible.