Missing Classes

Yesterday I was called into a meeting. A program was visiting our school that will be donating iPads and training students and local teachers in how to use them. Sounds great, right? Well, hopefully it will be. At the moment it's just a headache. My cofellows and a few local teachers were apparently at this meeting to serve our guests fruit. And they weren't hungry. Every time I was urged to serve fruit the guests said thank you and then promptly returned the plate to the table. The entire conversation was held between one of the visitors and our principal, with two other visitors taking pictures, and a couple of other visitors sitting around.

The outcome of the meeting was a training schedule for the next three days requiring the same selection of teachers to miss our classes. I'm already missing all my classes on Wednesday and Thursday to teach a couple of classes at two local middle schools (all the foreign fellows in the region have been "asked" to participate). So altogether, I'm teaching 7 of my 16 periods this week. One class twice, five classes once, and the other two classes nonce. This creates a whole slew of issues including adjusting the semester schedule to slow down one class, speed up two classes, and find some time elsewhere in the semester to cut entirely. I hate missing class.

When I miss my classes for events like these--an all too common occurrence--it's not as if I can leave plans for a substitute teacher. The banzhuren of the class just takes over that class period. This is part of why getting through the curriculum is so hard, especially when you're only told the day before. And at the same time we're being told by the head principal of the region that he wants to make English more important and give a standardized test.